This is the week that was in matters musical …
Not a great week to be a punk legend with both Johnny Ramone and Rob Tyner dying this week.
1814, Francis Scott Key pens the lyrics to “The Star Spangled Banner” … the song will be adopted as the U.S. national anthem over 100 years later on March 3, 1931, and continues to be among the most badly butchered vocal exercises to this day …
1955, Little Richard records “Tutti Frutti” in New Orleans at Cosmo Matassa’s J&M Studios … backing musicians include Huey Smith (“Rockin’ Pneumonia and Boogie Woogie Flu”) on piano, Lee Allen on tenor sax, and Earl Palmer on drums, all part of Fats Domino’s band …
1960, the FCC bans payola, outlawing the pervasive practice of record companies making payments to radio DJs to spin their releases … the practice resurges four decades later and New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer collects hefty fines from all the major labels for engaging in the pay-to-play game …
1964, a pair of enterprising Beatles fans pack themselves into a carton marked “Beatles Fan Mail” and arrange to have it delivered to the Baltimore Civic Center where the Fab Four are appearing … their plot is foiled when the girls are discovered by guards checking deliveries …
1965, 8-track players are introduced … notable for their low fidelity and propensity for eating their closed-loop tapes, they will give way to superior cassette-based players in the 1970s …
1967, London’s UFO Club, memorable for being the place Pink Floyd launched its career, is shuttered following the drug bust of the owner …
1969, during Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young’s set at the Big Sur Festival, a yahoo in the crowd starts heckling the band for being rich rock stars … Stills, wearing a flamboyant fur coat, leaps off the stage, chases the heckler down, and administers a pounding while from the stage Crosby pleads for “Peace and love, peace and love” … Stills gets back onstage and reflects, “Y’know, we think about what that guy was saying, and we look at these coats and these pretty guitars and fancy cars and say, ‘Wow man, what am I doin’?'” …
1977, Marc Bolan of T. Rex is killed outside London when his intoxicated wife crashes their Mini GT into a tree …
1978, The Grateful Dead do a three-night stand at the Son Et Lumiere Theater in Giza, Egypt, with the Great Pyramids as a backdrop …
1980, Joe Walsh announces he is entering the race for President of the United States against political heavyweights Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan … his campaign slogan is “Free Gas For All” and he states his purpose for running is to raise awareness of the importance of the elections … Walsh will re-enter the political fray in 1992 to run for Vice President of the United States …
1984, the burgeoning MTV network holds its first Video Music Awards ceremony at New York’s Radio City Music Hall … the show is co-hosted by Bette Midler and Dan Aykroyd and honors the top music videos of the year … the event is conceived as a hip alternative to the Grammys … winners are awarded Moon Man trophies that depict an astronaut with an American flag, one of the network’s earliest icons …
1987, former Wailer Peter Tosh is shot to death in his Jamaican home during a robbery … an article in Rolling Stone suggests the killing was actually the result of a feud…Tosh’s previous home had been burned down by an arsonist a year earlier …
1991, Guns N’ Roses release Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II … the albums are at times a departure from the raw, riff-laden rock of the band’s debut, Appetite for Destruction, with songs like the epic ballads “November Rain” and “Don’t Cry” showing the band’s softer side … the albums will both go platinum within two months, and secure GNR’s place as the biggest rock band on the planet until Nirvana’s Nevermind arrives just weeks later …
1995, Paul McCartney’s handwritten lyrics to the Beatles’ classic “Getting Better” sell for a cool quarter-million dollars at a Sotheby’s auction …
2004, Johnny Ramone dies in his Los Angeles home after five years battling prostate cancer … Ramone exits surrounded by his wife Linda Cummings and friends Eddie Vedder, singer Rob Zombie and his wife Sherrie Zombie, Lisa Marie Presley, Pete Yorn, Vincent Gallo, and Talia Shire … it’s been over 20 years since Aretha Franklin has performed on the West Coast due to her severe fear of flying … the Queen of Soul announces that she and her entourage will travel in a three-bus caravan to Las Vegas and L.A. for a handful of shows … a source close to the singer is quoted as saying, “Her albums don’t sell like they used to — she’s got to tour” …
2005, two huge benefit concerts are staged at Madison Square Garden to aid victims of Hurricane Katrina … also this week, Britney Spears gives birth to a baby boy by Cesarean section at the UCLA Medical Center in Santa Monica, CA, with backup dancer and baby’s daddy Kevin Federline by her side …
2006, the documentary Dixie Chicks: Shut Up and Sing debuts at the Toronto International Film Festival … the movie chronicles the fallout that resulted from the group’s criticism of the Bush administration … also debuting at the festival is the documentary The U.S. vs. John Lennon that examines the U.S. government’s campaign to deport John Lennon due to his vociferous opposition to the Vietnam war … also this week, Willie Nelson, his sister, and several members of his band are issued misdemeanor citations for drug possession during an early-morning traffic stop in Saint Martin Parish, LA … troopers smell a strong odor of marijuana when the driver opens the bus door … during a search of the bus approximately 1-1/2 pounds of marijuana and approximately 1/5 of a pound of magic mushrooms are found …
2007, Motley Crue files a $20 million lawsuit against drummer Tommy Lee after his announcement that he’s leaving the band … also in a litigous mood this week, Prince is reported to be preparing lawsuits against websites such as BitTorrent, YouTube, and eBay charging wholesale piracy of his songs and videos … he has retained London-based Web Sheriff, a company that trolls the web for illegal usage of copyrighted material in his campaign to stamp out Prince-targeted piracy … meanwhile back in Chicago, alt-rock station Q101 spins the hook-laden single “Great Divide” to positive response from listeners while failing to disclose it’s the work of the has-been brother act Hanson … Spike, the station’s music director notes, “There’s a stigma attached to them” … DJs credited the tune to “a mystery artist” …
Arrivals:
September 11: tenor saxman Bobby Fields (1928), Bernard Dwyer of Freddie And The Dreamers (1940), fingerstyle guitar virtuoso Leo Kottke (1945), Mickey Hart (1950), Tommy Shaw of STYX (1953), Jon Moss of Culture Club (1957), bassist Victor Wooten (1964), Moby born Richard Melville Hall (1965), Harry Connick, Jr. (1967), Ludacris (1977)
September 12: Maurice Chevalier (1888), blues singer Alger “Texas” Alexander (1900), Mel “The Velvet Fog” Torme (1925), country vocalist George Jones (1931), Warren Corbin of The Cleftones (1943), Maria Muldaur (1943), suave soulman Barry White (1944), Gerry Beckley of America (1952), Rush drummer Neil Peart (1952), Barry Andrews of XTC (1956), Larry LaLonde of Primus (1968), Liam Gallagher of Oasis (1972)
September 13: swing sax player Leon “Chu” Berry (1910), bluegrass pioneer Bill Monroe (1911), suave bluesman Charles Brown (1922), Joseph “Mr. Google Eyes” August (1931), producer Gene Page (1938), Dave Quincy of Manfred Mann’s Earth Band (1939), David Clayton-Thomas of Blood, Sweat & Tears (1941), Peter Cetera of Chicago (1944), Fred “Sonic” Smith (1949), Randy Jones of The Village People (1952), producer Don Was (1952), Dave Mustaine of Megadeth and Metallica (1961), Steve Perkins of Jane’s Addiction (1967), Fiona Apple (1977)
September 14: composer Johann Michael Haydn (1737), New Orleans pianist Archibald born Leon T. Gross (1912), “Heartbreak Hotel” co-writer and mother of Hoyt Axton, Mae Boren Axton (1914), Steve Gaines of Lynyrd Skynyrd (1949), Free’s Paul Kossoff (1950), Steve Berlin of Los Lobos (1955), Kay Gee of Naughty by Nature (1970), Everclear’s Craig Montoya (1970)
September 15: country legend Roy Acuff (1903), alto sax wizard Julian “Cannonball” Adderley (1928), New York DJ Jack Specter AKA Vic Venus (1928), Les Braid of The Swinging Blue Jeans (1941), Lee Dorman of Iron Butterfly (1942), George Howard of Harold Melvin and the Bluenotes (1957), Mitch Dorge of Crash Test Dummies (1960)
September 16: Scepter Records founder Florence Greenberg (1913), B.B. King (1925), Bernard Calvert of The Hollies (1943), Betty Kelly of Martha and The Vandellas (1944), Kenny Jones of Small Faces and The Who (1948), Wire’s Colin Newman (1954), Peter Zaremba of The Fleshtones (1956), popster Richard Marx (1963), Marc Anthony (1968)
September 17: composer Gustav Holst (1874), Hank Williams (1923), Elvis bassist Bill Black (1926), LaMonte McLemore of The 5th Dimension (1940), Steely Dan drummer Jimmy Hodder (1947), Dale Peters of the James Gang (1947), Fee Waybill of The Tubes (1950), Chrissie Hynde (1951), BeBe Winans (1962), Lord Jamar of Brand Nubian (1968), Vinnie Brown of Naughty By Nature (1970), Maile Misajon of Eden’s Crush (1976), Chuck Comeau of Simple Plan (1979)
Departures:
September 11: New Orleans funk and soul keyboardist, songwriter, and singer Wilson “Willie Tee” Turbinton (2007), Joe Zawinul (2007), Raybeez AKA Raymond Barbieri of Warzone (1997), Peter Tosh (1987)
September 12: R&B singer and James Brown bandleader Bobby Byrd (2007), Nashville session drummer Kenny Buttrey (2004), Johnny Cash (2003), Stanley Turrentine (2000), ABBA producer Stig “Stikkan” Anderson (1997), Jaco Pastorius (1987)
September 13: rapper Tupac Shakur (1996), singer Helen Humes (1981), conductor-arranger Leopold Stokowski (1977)
September 14: crooner-actor Anthony Newley (1999), R&B vocalist Johnny Adams (1998), bluesman Walter “Furry” Lewis (1981)
September 15: jazz pianist Bill Evans (1980)
September 16: the legendary Johnny Ramone (2004), Izadora Rhodes of Weather Girls (2004), CBS producer Tom Wilson (1978), Marc Bolan of T-Rex (1977), opera diva Maria Callas (1977), Leroy Griffin of The Nutmegs (1966)
September 17: L.A. guitarist Al Casey (2006), Rob Tyner of MC5 (1991), Dave Patillo of The Red Caps (1967)