This is the week that was in matters musical …
1899, bluesman Sleepy John Estes is born John Adam Estes in Ripley, Tennessee … only a basic guitarist, he is noted for his "crying" blues vocals … some claim his nickname stemmed from low blood pressure or a narcoleptic condition, while others maintain it grew out of Estes’ tendency to withdraw into drowsiness and become remote when things got tough or boring … his signature tunes "Drop Down Mama," "Milk Cow Blues," and "Someday Baby" have become blues standards …
1956, Elvis Presley makes his national television debut on The Dorsey Brothers Stage Show singing "Heartbreak Hotel" …
1966, while the rest of The Beach Boys are touring the Far East, Brian Wilson is at Western Recorders and then Gold Star Studios in Los Angeles laying tracks for the Pet Sounds album … legendary session musicians dubbed The Wrecking Crew provide the backing tracks … Wilson does most of the vocals, saving a few for his brother Carl and his cousin Mike Love to record in February and March … in England, the Pink Floyd Sound make their debut at the Spontaneous Underground in London … the Sunday afternoon event also features Donovan, Mose Allison, and The Graham Bond Organisation with bassist Jack Bruce and drummer Ginger Baker …
1967, The Jimi Hendrix Experience and The Who perform at London’s Saville Theatre … Cream appear live on BBC-1 TV miming to their current single "I Feel Free" while wearing prison outfits … meanwhile back in the States, White Panther leader and MC5 manager John Sinclair is busted in the Motor City for holding two joints … later he’s convicted and sentenced to nine-and-half years in prison …
1968, according to Melody Maker, David Gilmour is now an official member of Pink Floyd which has now lost "Sound" as part of its name … Gilmour is hired at a weekly salary of £7 to pick up the slack in guitar duties from Syd Barrett who has become unstable in concert such as playing the same chord all evening … the five-man Floyd is short-lived as Barrett leaves Floyd on March 2 …
1970, Dr. Robert Moog introduces the Mini Moog … thereby starting a trend toward synthesizers that will culminate in the "Great Synthesizer Scare" of the 1980s … guitar dealers, already experiencing slumping guitar sales, become concerned that musicians are going to forsake guitars and perform all their music on synths …
1971, China, the daughter of Jefferson Airplane bandmates Grace Slick and Paul Kantner, is born at French Hospital in San Francisco … a joke Slick makes at a nurse’s expense spawns a decades-long urban myth that the baby was dubbed God … the little girl appears on the cover of the 1972 Slick/Kantner album Sunfighter, which includes a song about her, creatively titled "China" …
1977, The Clash "sell out" by inking a record deal with CBS Records in England … Patti Smith falls 15 feet off a stage in Tampa, Florida … she breaks the seventh vertebrae in her neck … the accident happened during the band’s seventh song "Ain’t It Strange" …
1978, Randy Newman joins the One Hit Wonders club with his #2 pop hit "Short People" … Randy is better known as a songwriter, supplying tunes for Ray Charles, Linda Ronstadt, Three Dog Night, and Barbra Streisand … the spectacled songster receives lots of heat from defenders-of-short-people who don’t get Randy’s wry sense of humor … he continues recording albums and writing Hollywood film scores following in the footsteps of his uncles Lionel, Emil, and Alfred Newman … apparently there are some limits to selling out in the punk world … Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren nixes a deal from an ad agency that would feature Johnny Rotten and Sid Vicious in a print ad for shampoo … the ad copy might have read "keeps your hair spiky, filthy, and disheveled all night long no matter how much you’re spit upon" …
1980, Saturday Night Live comedian John Belushi busts out his rawest Blues Brothers chops in a post-birthday jam with The Dead Boys at The Whisky A Go Go in Los Angeles …
1981, The Stray Cats release their new single "Rock This Town" … Duran Duran’s debut single is "Planet Earth" …
1984, hey Moe, let’s all do the "Curly Shuffle" … the sure-fire novelty hit reaches #15 and lands Jump ’n The Saddle Band squarely in the One Hit Wonders clubhouse … the record company doesn’t like the band’s follow-up recording, a remake of Benny Bell’s novelty hit "Shaving Cream" … a staff writer reports the band was last seen playing a 4th of July celebration at a park in Libertyville, Illinois … no confirmation that Tom Morello of Rage In The Machine was visiting home and attended …
1998, The Dixie Chicks release their breakthrough album Wide Open Spaces, eventually selling 12 million copies worldwide …
1999, a benefit concert is held in East Rutherford, New Jersey, for Mumia Abu-Jamal, a convicted cop killer … Jamal’s insistence on his innocence, as well as questions of fairness at his trial, have garnered him the support of numerous actors and musicians since 1982 when he was convicted of killing police officer Daniel Faulkner and sentenced to death … Rage Against the Machine, the Beastie Boys, Chumbawamba, Public Enemy’s Chuck D, and Bad Religion perform … 16,000 attend … no confirmation that Jump ’n The Saddle Band was in the audience …
2007, Jimi Hendrix fans react with indignation to the launch of a canned beverage dubbed Liquid Experience bearing the likeness of the guitar master … this isn’t the first time his image has been used to peddle non-music products … it’s turned up on baby clothes, an air freshener, lava lamp, and even a Christmas ornament … Red Hot Chili Peppers’ bassist Flea is especially contemptuous: "To see his image and the beautiful feelings it has created during my lifetime cheapened by base advertising … is very disappointing to me" … Reuters reports that the Church of England has begun staging "U2-charist" communion services in which traditional hymns are replaced with songs from the Irish supergroup … a live band will play U2 songs such as "Mysterious Ways" and "Beautiful Day" while lyrics are displayed on a giant screen so the congregation can sing along … seating is also rearranged to accommodate dancing and handwaving … there’s no word on whether Bic-flicking will be part of the ceremony … church members wonder what might be next … a "Who-charist" featuring the music of Pete Townshend? …
And that was the week that was.
Arrivals:
January 24: Gene Mumford, lead singer of Billy Ward & The Dominos (1925), Doug Kershaw (1936), Ray Stevens (1939), Aaron Neville (1941), Neil Diamond (1941), Warren Zevon (1947), Jools Holland (1958)
January 25: blues guitarist Dan Sane (1904), Scottish folk revivalist Ewan McColl (1915), ABBA manager Stig Andersson (1931), Bill Justis Band guitarist Sidney Manker (1932), Chita Rivera (1933), Etta James (1938), Malcolm Green of Split Enz (1953), Richard Finch of KC & the Sunshine Band (1954), Terry Chimes of The Clash (1955), Andy Cox of Fine Young Cannibals and English Beat (1956), Roxy Music’s Gary Tibbs (1958), Iggy Pop bassist Craig Pike (1963), Alicia Keys (1981)
January 26: Stephane Grappelli (1908), Eartha Kitt (1928 – some sources cite her birthday as January 17), record executive Nat Tarnopol (1931), Huey “Piano” Smith (1934), The Teddy Bears’ Marshall Lieb (1939), Derek Holt of the Climax Blues Band (1949), David Briggs of Little River Band (1951), Andy Hummell of Big Star (1951), Lucinda Williams (1953), Edward Van Halen (1957), Norman Hassan of UB40 (1958), Wham’s Andrew Ridgley (1963), Soul II Soul’s Jazzie B. (1963), gospel star Kirk Franklin (1970)
January 27: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756), Jerome Kern (1885), blues legend Elmore James (1918), Ross Bagdasarian, Sr., better known as David Seville, creator of The Chipmunks (1919), Nick Mason of Pink Floyd (1945), Seth Justman of The J. Geils Band (1951), Brian Downey of Thin Lizzy (1951), Cowboy Junkies’ Margo Timmins (1961), New Order’s Gillian Gilbert (1961), Faith No More’s Mike Patton (1968)
January 28: Arthur Rubenstein (1887), songwriter Irving Gordon (1915), British jazzman and club owner Ronnie Scott (1927), Mr. Acker Bilk (1929), bluesman David “Junior” Kimbrough (1930), dub producer King Tubby (1941), Brian Keenan of the Chambers Brothers (1944), Dick Taylor of The Pretty Things (1944), Nedra Talley of The Ronettes (1946), Rick Allen of The Box Tops (1946), Mountain’s Corky Laing (1948), The Alarm’s Dave Sharp (1959), Sarah McLachlan (1968), rapper Rakim (1968), Cypress Hill’s Muggs (1968), Joey Fatone of *NSYNC (1977), Nick Carter of Backstreet Boys (1980)
January 29: Huddie Ledbetter AKA Lead Belly (1889), Chicago bluesman Eddie Taylor (1923), masterful Motown bassist James Jamerson (1936), jazz pianist Bobby Scott (1937), Peter Cowap of Herman’s Hermits (1944), David Byron of Uriah Heep (1947), Tommy Ramone of the Ramones (1949), Louie Perez of Los Lobos (1953), rapper Mitch McDowell of General Kane (1954), Eddie Jackson of Queensryche (1961)
January 30: R&B singer Ruth Brown (1928), Mississippi bluesman Big Jack Johnson (1940), Joe Terry of Danny & the Juniors (1941), Marty Balin of The Jefferson Airplane (1942), Sandy Yaguda of Jay & the Americans (1943), Steve Marriott of Small Faces and Humble Pie (1947), William King of the Commodores (1949), Mary Ross of Quarterflash (1951), Steve Bartek of Oingo Boingo (1952), Shalamar’s Jody Watley (1959), Jonny Lang (1981)
Departures:
January 24: James “Shep” Sheppard of Shep & the Limelites (1997), The Association founder Brian Cole (1995), producer and half of C&C Music Factory David Cole (1994), film composer Ken Darby (1992), Bill Horton of The Silhouettes (1955)
January 25: singer Ray Peterson (2005), choral conductor Robert Shaw (1999), New Orleans guitarist and singer Alvin “Shine” Robinson (1989), Lamar Williams of The Allman Brothers (1983), R&B singer Chris Kenner (1976)
January 26: blues drummer S. P. Leary (1998), jukebox mogul David Rockola (1993), disco warbler Karen Young (1991), New Orleans singer Donnie Elbert (1989)
January 27: Tin Pan Alley composer Gerald Marks (1997), vocalist Candy Givens of Zephyr (1984), gospel singer Mahalia Jackson (1972)
January 28: Traffic drummer Jim Capaldi (2005), recording pioneer John Mosley (1996), D.O.A. drummer Ken Jensen (1995), Uriah Heep’s David Byron (1985), “British Elvis” Billy Fury (1983)
January 29: founder of the Quarrymen Eric Griffiths (2005), David Lerchey of The Del-Vikings (2005), seminal blues bassist and songwriter Willie Dixon (1992), Herman “Sunny” Chaney of The Jaguars (1989), Sir Edward Lewis (1980), one-man-band Jesse “Lone Cat” Fuller (1976)
January 30: songwriter Julius Dixon (2004), jazz producer Bob Thiele (1996), bluesman Sam “Lightnin'” Hopkins (1982), influential New Orleans pianist Professor Longhair born Henry Roeland Byrd (1980), rockabilly singer Warren Smith (1980), songster Mance Lipscomb (1976)