This is the week that was in matters musical …
1957, Jackie Wilson, former Dominoes lead singer, signs a solo deal with Brunswick Records … later dubbed “Mr. Excitement,” he goes on to score 54 chart hits including the highly energized “Lonely Teardrops” and “Higher and Higher” …
1962, The Beatles hit Abbey Road recording studio for the first time, recording “Love Me Do” in about 16 takes with drummer Andy White …
1964, Rod Stewart cuts his first single—the blues chestnut “Good Morning Little Schoolgirl” …
1965, an ad in Variety announces auditions for the new TV show The Monkees … would-be Monkees who fail to make the cut include Stephen Stills, Danny Hutton later of Three Dog Night, songwriter Paul Williams, and Charles Manson …
1978, Who drummer Keith Moon succumbs to an overdose of the drug Heminevrin prescribed to combat his alcoholism … an autopsy reveals that he’d washed down 32 of the pills with champagne … his death occurs in the same apartment in which Mama Cass of The Mamas & The Papas met her demise in 1974 …
1990, Tom Fogerty, an original member of Creedence Clearwater Revival and brother of John, dies of tuberculosis this day at age 48 … he had parted from the band at the height of its success in 1971, a casualty of sibling rivalry … and although he recorded a number of albums on his own, he never scored a hit after the CCR days …
1991, country music star Dottie West dies from internal injuries suffered in a car accident in the parking lot of The Grand Ole Opry … the crash occurred a few days earlier when an elderly neighbor who was giving West a ride to work lost control of the car …
1996, Wal-Mart refuses to carry Sheryl Crow’s second album because the song “Love is a Good Thing” includes the lyrics, “Watch out sister/Watch out brother/Watch our children as they kill each other/With a gun they bought at the Wal-Mart discount stores” … rumors that Wal-Mart employees have started a band called Discounting Crows are unfounded …
1998, Bushwick Bill, formerly of the rap ensemble Geto Boys, sues the act’s label, Rap-A-Lot Records a division of Virgin, alleging that three of the company’s employees held him at gunpoint, then beat and kicked him in order to dissuade the three-foot, eight-inch rapper from breaking his recording contract … British glam-rock star Gary Glitter makes a court appearance on charges of producing child porn and sexual assault … he is later convicted and imprisoned …
1999, record mogul Sean “Puffy” Combs is ordered to attend an anger management class after being convicted of attacking the president of Interscope Records, Steve Stoute … lucky for Stoute the Puff man doesn’t shop at Wal-Mart …
2000, Rage Against the Machine bassist Timothy Commerford pleads guilty to charges of assault and disorderly conduct at the MTV Video Music Awards … while raging against Limp Bizkit’s acceptance of the award for Best Rock Video–which was coincidentally up against Rage’s video for “Sleep Now In The Fire”–Commerford climbed a 15-foot arch that was part of the stage set … stage hands and security swarmed the stage to extricate Tim, who would “sleep now in the slammer” …
2003, The Pixies announce that band members have buried the hatchet and will embark on a reunion tour in 2004 … they dust the competition, going on to huge success in the face of a lackluster touring season …
2004, a jet-lagged Elton John, set upon by Taiwanese paparazzi, has a hissy fit, calling them “rude, vile pigs!” … the 6th Circuit Court in Cincinnati rules that artists should pay for every sample they use … previously courts had held that as long as short samples could not be identified, licensing was unnecessary … in this new decision, the court, acknowledging other cases involving digital piracy says, “If you cannot pirate the whole sound recording, can you ‘lift’ or ‘sample’ something less than the whole? Our answer to that question is in the negative.” … ironically, a two-second sample of a Funkadelic record in NWA’s “100 Miles and Runnin” was at the heart of the ruling … Funkadelic and Parliament leader and founder George Clinton has historically been supportive of sampling, having produced two albums titled Sample Some of Dis and Sample Some of Dat that permitted remixers to use Clinton’s music without legal considerations …
2006, in a Rolling Stone interview, Elton John reveals that he’s thinking about putting out a hip-hop album …”I want to work with Eminem, Pharrell, Kanye, and Snoop. We’ll see what happens. It could be a disaster.” … Linda Ronstadt cancels the balance of her 2006 tour schedule after undergoing surgery for an unspecified condition … Rapper Master P debuts his new musical, Uncle Willy’s Family, in Meridian, Mississippi … the show is semiautobiographical, focusing on a family that has to abandon its home in the face of Hurricane Katrina …
2007, with just 7.4 million in album sales this week, Nielsen SoundScan reports the lowest numbers in the chart service’s history … only the High School Musical 2 soundtrack manages to move more than 50,000 units … just eight years earlier 27 albums moved that many … Willie Nelson’s Farm Aid comes to the Big Apple with an all-star roster including festival regular Neil Young, plus Dave Matthews, John Mellencamp, The Allman Brothers Band, and Counting Crows … the move to New York’s Randall’s Island is intended to educate urbanites about the benefits of organic produce and the struggle family farmers face … Pamela Anderson used-to-bes Tommy Lee and Kid Rock get into a slap session at the MTV Video Music Awards … they’re both escorted from the venue …
Arrivals:
September 4: “Lightning Bug” Rhodes, guitarist for Otis Redding and B.B. King (1939), lead singer George Lanuis of The Crescendos (1939), Merald Knight of Gladys Knight & The Pips (1942), fret wizard Danny Gatton (1945), Greg Elmore of Quicksilver Messenger Service (1946), Quicksilver Messenger Service’s Gary Duncan (1946), Ronald LaPread of The Commodores (1950), Muscle Shoals session guitarist Wayne Perkins (1951), Martin Chambers of the Pretenders (1952), Kim Thayil of Soundgarden (1960), Dan Miller of O-Town (1980), Beyoncé Knowles (1981)
September 5: Chicago blues pianist Sunnyland Slim (1907), doo-wopper Jimmy Springs of The Red Caps (1911), guitarist Willie Woods of Junior Walker & The Allstars (1936), singer-songwriter and Kingston Trio member John Stewart (1939), Al “Year of the Cat” Stewart (1945), Freddie Mercury of Queen (1946), Buddy Miles (1946), guitarist Clarence White born Cecil Ingram Connor (1946), singer-songwriter Loudon Wainright III (1947), David “Clem” Clempson of Humble Pie/Colosseum (1949), Terry Ellis of En Vogue (1966), Brad Wilk of Rage Against The Machine (1968), Dweezil Zappa (1969)
September 6: bluesman Jimmy Reed (1925), blues drummer Fred Below (1926), Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters (1943), Dave Bargeron of Blood Sweat & Tears (1942), androgynous disco star Silvester aka Silvester James (1947), Dennis “Fast Fingers” Kambury (1953), Perry Bamonte of The Cure (1960), Pal Waaktar of A-Ha (1961), CeCe Peniston (1969), Dolores O’Riordon of The Cranberries (1971), Nina Persson of The Cardigans (1974), Foxy Brown (1979)
September 7: Hank Williams (1923), tenor sax giant Sonny Rollins (1930), bluesman Little Milton (Campbell) (1934), Buddy Holly born Charles Hardin Holley (1936), Joe Negroni of Frankie Lymon & The Teenagers (1940), Continental Drift’s Jim Gault (1943), Alfa Anderson of Chic (1946), disco diva Gloria Gaynor (1949), Chrissie Hynde (1951), session guitarist Chuck Beattie (1954), Brad Houser of Edie Brickell & New Bohemians (1960), Chris Acland of Lush (1966), Chad Sexton of 311 (1970), Eazy-E of N.W.A. (1973)
September 8: composer Antonin Dvorak (1841), “The Singing Brakeman” Jimmie Rodgers (1897), Western swing pioneer Milton Brown (1903), Modern Records co-founder Jules Bihari (1913), Patsy Cline born Virginia Patterson Hensley (1932), soul sermonizer Joe Tex (1933), Dante Drowty of Dante & The Evergreens (1941), Brian Cole of The Association (1944), Cathy Jean (1945), Kelly Groucutt of E.L.O. (1945), Ron “Pigpen” McKernan of The Grateful Dead (1945), Atlanta Rhythm Section’s Dean Daughtry (1946), David Steele of Fine Young Cannibals (1960)
September 9: Jacob Carey of The Flamingos (1926), jazz drummer Elvin Jones (1927), soul singer Otis Redding (1941), Inez Foxx (1944), Billy Preston (1946), Iron Butterfly’s Doug Ingle (1947), Dave Stewart of The Eurythmics (1952)
September 10: R&B shouter Roy Brown (1925), vibist Roy Ayers (1940), Danny Hutton of Three Dog Night (1942), Jose Feliciano (1945), Barrymore Barlow of Jethro Tull (1949), Aerosmith’s Joe Perry (1950), Don Powell of Slade (1950), Johnny Fingers of Boomtown Rats (1956), Siobhan Fahey of Bananarama (1957), Cracker’s Dave Lowrey (1960), Bush drummer Robin Goodridge (1966), Big Daddy Kane (1968)
Departures:
September 4: jazz saxophonist Charlie Barnet (1991), country singer Dottie West (1991)
September 5: swamp-boogie queen Katie Webster (1999), R&B pianist Sonny Knight (1998), conductor Georg Solti (1997), Charlie Charles, drummer for Ian Dury and the Blockheads (1990), Joe Negroni of Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers (1978), blues guitarist Joe Hill Louis (1957)
September 6: co-founder of Atari Teenage Riot, Carl Crack (2001), stand-up country bassist Roy Husky Jr. (1997), Tom Fogerty of CCR (1990), Josh White (1964)
September 7: : Erma Franklin, sister of Aretha (2002), composer Niccolo Castiglioni (1996), Keith Moon (1978)
September 8: songwriter Dick Heard (1998), Beatle publicist Derek Taylor (1997), Jack Vigliatura and Bill White of For Squirrels (1996), rapper Cowboy AKA Keith Wiggins of The Furious Five (1989)
September 9: conga player Miguel “Anga” Diaz (2006), singer-songwriter Lucio Battisti (1998), bluegrass pioneer Bill Monroe (1996), Sandra Tilley of Martha Reeves & The Vandellas (1983)
September 10: Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown (2005), zydeco accordionist Beau Jocque (1999)