This is the week that was in matters musical …
1937, Merle Haggard is born in Muskogee, Oklahoma, a town that will loom large in his career when the country singer’s anti-hippie anthem “Okie From Muskogee” becomes a hit in 1970 …
1943, LSD is synthesized for the first time by Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann … more than two decades later the psychoactive substance fuels a revolution in consciousness, music, and pop culture …
1956, later to become known as Soul Brother Number One, Mr. Dynamite, and The Hardest Working Man in Show Business, James Brown charts for the first time with “Please, Please, Please” … meanwhile in Alabama, while performing before an all-white audience at the Birmingham Municipal Auditorium, Nat “King” Cole is attacked by a group of racists who knock him off his piano bench and beat him … a shaken Cole returns to the stage a few minutes later to a five-minute standing ovation … however he does not complete the set … later that night he performs for an all-black audience in the same venue …
1961, Bob Dylan makes his professional singing debut in Greenwich Village at Gerde’s Folk City opening for John Lee Hooker … he performs “House of the Rising Sun” and “Song to Woody” … Joan Baez joins him for the second number … Dylan’s previous gig had been in pop singer Bobby Vee’s backup band from which he’d been fired after a three-week tenure …
1962, Pravda, the official Russian communist newspaper, publishes an article warning teenagers about the dangers of doing The Twist … meanwhile at London’s Ealing Blues Club, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, and Brian Jones decide to form a band they’ll ultimately call The Rolling Stones … the name is inspired by a Muddy Waters song … prior to quitting their day jobs Jagger had been an ice cream peddler while Richards was a ball boy at a tennis club …
1964, The Beatles occupy a record-breaking 14 spots on the U.S. Pop Chart ranging from #1 down to #81 … “Can’t Buy Me Love” (1), “Twist and Shout” (2), “She Loves You” (4), “I Want to Hold Your Hand” (7), “Please Please Me” (9), “Do You Want to Know a Secret” (14), “I Saw Her Standing There” (38), “You Can’t Do That” (48), “All My Loving” (50), “From Me to You” (52), “Thank You Girl” (61), “There’s a Place” (74), “Roll Over Beethoven” (78), and “Love Me Do” (81) … a struggling young act called The Detours auditions for England’s Fontana Records … they go on to release some tracks with the label under the moniker The High Numbers, but it isn’t until they become known as The Who that they will make a serious impression on the rock world …
1968, Pink Floyd cofounder Syd Barrett leaves the band … Barrett’s mental instability, exacerbated by heavy drug use, has become so severe he can no longer function …
1971, the jazz-rock outfit Chicago plays Carnegie Hall in New York City … they are the first rock group to do so …
1981, Sam Goody, the nation’s leading music retailer, is convicted of selling pirated tapes through its stores …
1983, U.S. Interior Secretary James Watt bans the Beach Boys from performing at the 4th of July celebration on the Washington Mall, offering the rationale that rock ‘n’ roll bands attract the wrong element … two days later President Reagan overturns Watt’s decision and personally invites the Beach Boys to perform …
1994, In Utero, Nirvana’s third full-length and final studio album, is certified double-platinum … this same week, Kurt Cobain ends it all with a shotgun, ruining any celebration there might have been …
2000, Metallica files suit against Napster, USC, Yale, and Indiana University alleging the institutions are guilty of copyright infringement, unlawful use of a digital audio interface device, and violations of the Racketeering Influenced & Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) … the charges are dropped when the schools remove Napster from their file servers … Star magazine reports that Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’ dying wish was that his 57 children, the result of many liaisons, meet one another … the bluesman had claimed before his death that at the height of his career he had engaged in sex on average 14 times a day …
2002, Eminem agrees to pay $100,000 to John Guerra in a settlement resulting from a civil lawsuit … the suit claims that the rapper attacked Guerra, hitting him in the face and head with a handgun … the alleged attack was allegedly punishment for Guerra having allegedly kissed Eminem’s wife, Kim …
2004, Jeff Tweedy of Wilco checks himself into a Chicago rehab facility to be weaned from addictive pain meds he uses to deal with chronic migraine headaches … he emerges 26 days later proclaiming it “the most beautiful thing I’ve ever done” …
2006, rapper Proof (born Deshaun Horton) of the group D12 is shot to death after an argument at Detroit nightclub CCC escalates into violence … Proof was the best man at Eminem’s re-marriage to wife Kim Mathers in January of 2006 and often appeared onstage during Eminem concerts … club bouncer Mario Ethridge will later be found guilty of two weapons charges but is exonerated of murder when a court finds that he acted in self-defense … this same week, British anti-terrorism detectives escort a man named Harraj Mann from a plane after a taxi driver becomes suspicious when his fare starts singing along to an MP3 track by punk band, The Clash … reacting to the anarchistic lyrics of “London Calling,” the cabby alerts detectives who halt the London-bound flight at Durham Tees Valley Airport and take Mann off the plane … he is questioned and soon released … afterwards Mann said of the taxi driver, “He didn’t like Led Zeppelin or The Clash but I don’t think there was any need to tell the police” …
And that was the week that was.
Arrivals:
April 5: jazz drummer Stan Levy (1926), The Platters’ Tony Williams (1928), Leroy Griffin of The Nutmegs (1934), Fairport Convention’s Dave Swarbrick (1941), David LaFlamme of It’s a Beautiful Day (1941), Eric Burdon (1941), Allan Clarke of the Hollies (1942), Crispin St. Peters (1944), Agnetha Faltskog of ABBA (1948), Pick Withers of Dire Straits (1948), Ronnie Lane of Faces (1948), Everett Morton of The English Beat (1951), Dream Theater’s James LaBrie (1963), Michael McCready of Pearl Jam (1964)
April 6: blues harpist Walter “Shakey” Horton (1917), Burnetta “Bunny” Jones (1917), Merle Haggard (1937), Michelle Phillips of The Mamas and The Papas (1944)
April 7: Billie Holiday (1915), Percy Faith (1918), Ravi Shankar (1920), Bobby Bare (1935), Charlie Thomas of The Drifters (1937), Don Julian of The Meadowlarks (1937), Spencer Dryden of The Jefferson Airplane (1938), trumpeter Freddie Hubbard (1938), Mick Abrahams of Jethro Tull (1943), Bill Kreutzmann of The Grateful Dead (1946), Pat Bennett of The Chiffons (1947), John Oates (1949), Janis Ian (1951), tenor saxophonist Bob Berg (1951), Bruce Gary of The Knack (1952), Victoria Addams of Spice Girls (1976)
April 8: Carmen McRae (1922), Jimmy Witherspoon (1923), Belgian singer-songwriter Jacques Brel (1929), Steve Howe (1947), Izzy Stradlin of Guns n’ Roses (1962), Julian Lennon (1963), Biz Markie born Marcel Hall (1964)
April 9: Mance Lipscomb (1895), Phil Medley (1916), Carl Perkins (1932), Rockin’ Sidney (1938), Grand Funk progenitor Terry Knight (1943), Gene Parsons (1944), Chico Ryan of Sha-Na-Na (1948), producer Alex Sadkin (1949), Kevin Martin of Candlebox (1969)
April 10: Sheb Wooley (1921), R&B singer Nate Nelson (1932), Glen Campbell (1936), Bobby Hatfield of the Righteous Brothers (1940), Bunny “Wailer” Livingston of Bob Marley and the Wailers (1947), Dave Peveret of Foghat (1950), Eddie Hazel (1950), Ernest “Snuffy” Stewart (1950), Steve Gustafson of 10,000 Maniacs (1957), Brian Setzer (1959), Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds (1959), Afrika Bambaataa (1960), Kenny Lattimore (1970), Mike Mushok of Staind (1970), Mandy Moore (1984)
April 11: Richard Berry (1935), Mark Stein of Vanilla Fudge (1947), Bobby McFerrin (1950), Chris Difford of Squeeze (1954), Neville Staples (1956), Stuart Adamson of Big Country (1958), Original Gin Blossoms guitarist Douglas Hopkins (1961), Nigel Pulsford of Bush (1963), Lisa Stansfield (1966), Dylan Keefe of Marcy Playground (1970), Joss Stone (1987)
Departures:
April 5: Gene Pitney (2006), Layne Staley of Alice in Chains (2002), Colin “Cozy” Powell (1998), Kurt Cobain (1994), Nesuhi Ertegun, cofounder of Atlanta Records (1989), Danny Rapp of Danny & The Juniors (1983), soul singer Joe Hinton (1981), Bob Hite of Canned Heat (1981)
April 6: Niki Sullivan of The Crickets (2004), Red Norvo (1999), Tammy Wynette (1998), Wendy O. Williams (1998), session guitarist Edward Freche (1995), Ral Donner (1984)
April 7: Carlos Vega (1998), Harold “Sonny” Wright of The Diamonds (1996), Lee Brilleaux aka Dr. Feelgood (1994), King Records producer Henry Glover (1991), Who manager Kit Lambert (1981), rockabilly legend Charlie Shivers (1961)
April 8: DJ and “Heartbreak Hotel” writer Mae Axton (1997), Laura Nyro (1997), Billy Gayles (1993), Danny Rapp (1983)
April 9: cellist Tom Cora (1998), Buzzcocks and Joy Division producer Martin Hannett (1991), Dave Prater of Sam & Dave (1988), Brook Benton (1988), Phil Ochs (1976)
April 10: rapper Proof, born Deshaun Holton (2006), Leon Peels of The Blue Jays (1999), black radio pioneer Eddie O’Jay after whom the O’Jays were named (1998), Philly soul songwriter Linda Creed (1986), Stu Sutcliffe of the original Beatles (1962), R&B singer-songwriter Chuck Willis (1958)