This is the week that was in matters musical …
1955, Elvis Presley is named Most Promising Country & Western Artist in Billboard’s annual poll of disc jockeys … sadly, the relatively unknown country artist never quite lives up to their expectations …
1960, Greg Allman turns 13 and gets a guitar for his birthday … 14-year-old brother Duane eclipses him quickly on that instrument while Greg excels at organ and vocals … they’ll play together in the Kings, the Allman Joys, and Hourglass, before they rule southern rock with the Allman Brothers Band, which they’ll form in 1969 …
1963, “Louie Louie” is released by the Kingsmen … one of the most-covered songs of all time, it is charged that the slurred lyrics are obscene … the song is banned on some radio stations, and especially in Indiana, where Governor Matthew Welch determines the ditty dirty, despite the fact that after a 31-month investigation, the FBI states that they are “unable to interpret any of the wording in the record” … apparently, once you’re done counting the cow, there’s not a whole lot of governing to be done in Indiana and luckily, Welch had enough time on his hands to protect God-fearing Hoosiers from being corrupted by lyrics that even the country’s best forensic investigators couldn’t decipher … wait a minute … decipher … cipher … Louie Louie … Louie cipher … Aha! Lucifer! … okay, maybe the governor was right after all …
1965, promoter Bill Graham rents the building destined to become the Fillmore East for a staggering $60 … his first rock show bill features The Jefferson Airplane and The Grateful Dead …
1966, a made-for-TV make-believe pop band hits #1 with their debut album, The Monkees … despite the fact that Peter Tork and Michael Nesmith were talented musicians, the band never could shake the critics who complained that they were a Beatles knockoff, dubbing them the “Pre-Fab Four,” a stigma that haunted Nesmith throughout his musical career … in retrospect, not being tapped for the Monkees was probably the best career move, albeit inadvertently, that Steven Stills ever made …
1967, the movie How I Won the War starring John Lennon opens in the U.S. … it’s the first film to feature a solo performance by a Beatle …
1969, Jim Morrison gets blotto on a plane trip from L.A. to Phoenix to see The Stones … he’s such a royal pain that he’s arrested on arrival and charged with interfering with the flight and public drunkenness, having harassed a stewardess who apparently didn’t appreciate a drunk Morrison jumping in her game … the charges are eventually dropped …
1970, Jim Morrison plays his last concert with The Doors in New Orleans … apparently the rigors of touring have drained the Lizard King …
1971, Led Zeppelin releases their unnamed fourth album, leaving fans and Zep members alike to find a name that suits them … the record is variously referred to as: The Runes Album, ZoSo, and Led Zeppelin IV, a name actually used by Jimmy Page …
1972, living up to his last name, Johnny Paycheck starts pulling down a regular salary when he officially joins the cast of the Grand Ole Opry … Johnny makes an even bigger financial splash when he advises legions of disgruntled employees everywhere to “Take This Job And Shove It” … a word of advice Johnny: out-of-work fans can’t buy albums … just something to consider if you don’t want to have to change your stage name to Johnny Unemployment … featuring fiery guitarist Jan Akkerman, the album Moving Waves by Dutch prog-rock band Focus arrives on the LP chart in the U.K. … thanks to popular song “Hocus Pocus,” Focus achieves notoriety in the U.S., and then it’s hocus pocus and Focus disappears …
1978, Donna Summer’s cover of “MacArthur Park” becomes a #1 pop hit … a decade earlier, actor Richard Harris had taken his bombastic reading of the lyrically incomprehensible Jimmy Webb tune to #2 … apparently old Professor Dumbledore couldn’t summon the magic that Summers could … don’t make us explain that Harris played Dumbledore in the Harry Potter films … what do you mean, “who’s Harry Potter?” … don’t make us come over there …
1979, Fleetwood Mac’s album Tusk hits #1 in the U.K. … on its 37-week rise to the #1 spot, Tusk was embedded so firmly on the charts, nobody could budge it … of course, in Alabama, the Tuscaloosa … but that is entirely ir-elephant to what we’re talking about …
1984, Madonna’s album Like a Virgin is released, leaving listeners wondering in what way she is … popular theories include the possibility that Madonna is encouraging people to like virgins … sort of like a “take a virgin to lunch” campaign … a bit redundant, but good-hearted nonetheless … however, some detractors claim that the material girl, who launched herself to stardom by wearing her underwear on the outside, is like a virgin in much the same way that balloons are like safety pins …
1985, the theme from the TV show Miami Vice rides the top of the Billboard Hot 100 … the soundtrack LP also goes to #1 in the album chart where it will reside for 11 weeks, beating the former TV-theme record-holder, The Music from Peter Gunn … showing that he’s a class-act through-and-through, “Peter Gunn” composer Henry Mancini calls Miami Vice theme composer Jan Hammer to congratulate him for breaking his record … no, not his record, his record …
1986, reinforcing the Miami Vice-music connection, Willie Nelson plays a corrupt cop in a guest appearance …
1987, “a day late and a dollar short” seems to typify the career of Sly Stone, who turns up an hour late for an L.A. comeback concert and is promptly arrested for failing to pay child support … what can you say? Bo Diddley’s got the “Bo Diddley beat,” Sly’s got the deadbeat … lateness aside, in his self-shortened heyday, Stone quickly fell out of favor with promoters for consistently not showing up to concerts at all …
1988, Whitney Houston’s debut album goes multiplatinum with nine million copies sold … only Boston has ever matched this performance with a debut LP …
1992, Boyz II Men’s “End of the Road” reaches the end of the #1 road when it makes its 13th and final appearance in the Billboard Hot 100 chart’s top slot … Axl Rose is convicted of property damage in the wake of a Guns N’ Roses show in Missouri … the concert was aborted as Rose threw his microphone down and walked off stage saying, “Thanks to the lameass security, I’m going home!” … the other band members followed and the house lights came on, sparking an intense riot that caused significant damage to the newly constructed arena … Rose gets two years probation and is ordered to pay $50,000 in fines to community groups …
1995, Michael Jackson’s ATV Music catalog and Sony Corp. merge to form the world’s third largest music publishing company worth an estimated $300 million … among the goodies Jackson brings to the table are a raft of classic Beatles tunes that Jackson snaked out from former friend Paul McCartney after Macca had advised the self-proclaimed king of pop to invest in publishing … here’s a little free advice: never tell people with more money than you about something valuable that you want to buy …
1998, Little Jimmy Dickens’ appearance at the Grand Ole Opry marks his 50th year as a member of the cast … Dickens is best-remembered for his 1965 hit, “May The Bird Of Paradise Fly Up Your Nose” … of course, the song fails to make the connection that once up your nose, it’s paradise lost for the navigationally impaired bird, and certainly for the owner of the nose in question … a bird flapping around in your nose has got to hurt … Rick James has a stroke when a blood vessel in his neck ruptures during a head-banging performance in Denver … maybe the bird of paradise flew up his nose, panicked, and circled down to his throat … Michael Jackson settles his suit against London’s Daily Mirror over pictures and stories run by the scandal sheet claiming that the star’s face has been disfigured by plastic surgery … a lawyer representing the Mirror says, “The photographs were taken honestly and were not tampered with, but the Mirror has since met with the plaintiff in person and acknowledges that the photographs do not accurately represent the plaintiff’s true appearance.” … judging from Michael’s latest nose-job, it appears that the ever-panicking bird of paradise has been busy this year … Ahmet Ertegun and Bobby “Blue” Bland are honored with lifetime achievement awards from The Blues Foundation … may the Blue Bland of paradise fly up your nose …
1999, following up on 22-year-old vocalist-pianist Fiona Apple’s 1996 debut, the oh-so-succinctly titled “Tidal,” Clean Slate/Epic releases Apple’s “When The Pawn Hits The Conflicts He Thinks Like A King What He Knows Throws The Blows When He Goes To The Fight And He’ll Win The Whole Thing ‘Fore He Enters The Ring There’s Nobody To Batter When Your Mind Is Your Might So When You Go Solo, You Hold Your Own Hand And Remember That Depth Is The Greatest Of Heights And If You Know Where You Stand, Then You’ll Know Where To Land And If You Fall It Won’t Matter, Cuz You’ll Know That You’re Right” … obviously the song follows the advice of the hit songwriter’s handbook, stating that in order to make a song memorable, make sure your title is in the lyrics of the chorus … perhaps Fiona missed the bit where they said it doesn’t have to be the chorus, or the entire song for that matter … proving the old adage, “all that glitters is not golden,” Gary Glitter pleads guilty in a British court to charges of taking and possessing indecent pictures of underage children … he receives a four-month jail sentence and yet “Rock and Roll Part 2” is still played at US stadiums … on a positive note, so to speak, Kid Rock and Lauren Hill take top honors at the Billboard Music Video Awards …
2003, Kid Rock announces plans for a continuing creative collaboration with Sheryl Crow … the collaboration has thus far resulted in the hit duet “Picture,” and they plan more writing and recording together in the future … looks like the Kid is growing up … perhaps a name-change to Man Rock is in order …
2004, Apple introduces a special black U2 version of the iPod with the band members’ names laser-etched on the case … the unit is launched with an ad that has the band performing its new single “Vertigo” … finally jumping on the bandwagon of mega-rockers who’ve cashed in on cross-promotion, it’s the first time in the band’s 25-year career that it’s licensed music for commercial purposes …
2005, Following an unfriendly Supreme Court decision about its file-sharing software and website, Grokster shuts down … it is reported that it will pay the music and movie industries $50 million in settlement of lawsuits … unfounded rumors abound that in order to be first in line ahead of the pirates, the major labels are considering their own file-sharing site called Huckster … Elton John and partner David Furnish set a date to wed … Mike Love of The Beach Boys files suit against his cousin Brian Wilson … Love claims that a British promotion for Wilson’s 2004 album Smile that gave away 2.6 million Beach Boys compilations discs, cut into the band’s sales … this marks the seventh time that Beach Boys have sued one another, but apparently there is no Love lost between them … in previous legal contests between Love and Wilson, both parties said in interviews that there was no malice between them; they simply couldn’t come up with an agreeable settlement by themselves … it’s like the old saying goes, “the family who cruise together, sues together” …
2006, former singer and guitarist John Hall of the band Orleans is elected to the U.S. House of Representatives representing the 19th New York congressional district … at his celebration party he elects to skip playing his signature tune “Still the One” in favor of Steven Van Zandt’s “I Am a Patriot” … it just proves what have always said: we need more rock-and-roll in the senate … okay, we haven’t always said that, but that doesn’t make it any less true … Yoko Ono observes John Lennon’s 66th birthday in Reykjavik, Iceland … she dedicates the site of a planned Imagine Peace Tower, a 100-foot beam of light that will shine around the clock …
2007, The Eagles’ first studio album in 28 years, Long Road Out of Eden, debuts at #1 with sales of 710,000 copies … this despite its only being available at Wal-Mart stores and the band’s website … Donovan announces plans to open a Transcendental Meditation college in Scotland … it will be called the Invincible Donovan University … apparently a great deal of thought went into the name … rumors say that the order of the name, “Invincible Donovan University” was originally the Invincible University of Donovan until deep meditation revealed to the former ’60s flower child that its college sweatshirts would bear the initials, IUD … so much for free love …
… and that was the week that was in matters musical.
Arrivals:
November 6: Adolphe Sax, inventor of the saxophone (1814), John Philip Sousa, inventor of the sousaphone (1854), composer-pianist Ignace Jan Paderewski (1860), musician, songwriter, lyricist Gus Kahn, born Gustav Gerson Kahn, who penned songs such as “It Had To Be You” and “Dream a Little Dream Of Me” (1886), musician-arranger Ray Conniff, who founded The Ray Conniff Singers (1927), Joseph Pope, Lead singer of The Tams (1933), Glenn Frey of The Eagles (1948), Corey Glover of Living Colour (1964)
November 7: New Orleans trumpeter Al Hirt (1922), Mary Travers of Peter, Paul and Mary (1937), soul singer Dee Clark, whose biggest single was “Raindrops” (1938), Johnny Rivers, rock-and-roll singer, songwriter, guitarist, and record producer, born John Henry Ramistella (1942), singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell, born Roberta Joan Anderson (1943), Liam O Maonlai of Hothouse Flowers (1964), Russell Barrett of Chapterhouse (1968)
November 8: Bert Burns, R&B producer of The Drifters and Van Morrison (1929), Bonnie Bramlett of Delaney and Bonnie (1944), Don Murray, drummer for The Turtles (1945), Roy Wood of The Move and ELO (1946), Minnie Riperton, singer-songwriter noted for her five-and-a-half octave vocal range (1947), blues singer-songwriter Bonnie Raitt (1949), Gerald Alston, lead singer of The Manhattans (1951), singer-songwriter Rickie Lee Jones (1954), singer, actor, and teen idol Leif Garrett, born Leif Per Nervik (1961), Stephen Patman of Chapterhouse (1968)
November 9: big band leader Tommy Dorsey (1905), bass singer Leroy Fann of Ruby & The Romantics (1936), Tom Fogerty of Creedence Clearwater Revival (1941), Phil May of The Pretty Things (1944), Alan Gratzer of REO Speedwagon (1948), Joe Bouchard of Blue Oyster Cult (1948), Tommy Caldwell, bassist for the Marshall Tucker Band (1949), Pepa of Salt-N-Pepa, born Sandra Denton (1961), Brad “Scarface” Jordan of the Geto Boys (1969), Jamaican R&B, pop, reggae singer-songwriter Diana King (1970), Susan Tedeschi, blues and roots-music singer and guitarist married to Derek Trucks (1970), Nick Lachey of 98 Degrees (1973), rock, country, and rap-rock musician Uncle Kracker, born Matthew Shafer (1974), Sisqó, lead singer of R&B group Dru Hill, born Mark Althavan Andrews (1978)
November 10: singer, songwriter, musician Dave Loggins, cousin of Kenny Loggins (1947), country singer-songwriter Donna Fargo, born Yvonne Vaughan (1947), Greg Lake of Emerson, Lake & Palmer (1948), Ronnie Hammond of The Atlanta Rhythm Section (1950), Mario Cipollina of Huey Lewis and The News (1954), Frank Maudsley of A Flock of Seagulls (1959), West Coast rapper Warren G, born Warren Griffin III (1970), Eve, rapper, singer, actress, and musician (1978)
November 11: jazz singer Ernestine Allen, with the Lucky Millinder Orchestra (1920), jazz pianist Mose Allison (1927), R&B singer LaVern Baker (1929), David Lastle, New Orleans session sax man (1934), pop singer Brian Hyland of “Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini” fame (1943), The Youngbloods’ Jesse Colin Young, born Perry Miller (1944), godfather of grunge Neil Young (1945), Chris Dreja of The Yardbirds (1945), Vince Martell of Vanilla Fudge (1945), Arthur Tavares of disco singing group Tavares (1946), Andy Partridge of XTC (1953), singer, songwriter, guitarist Marshall Crenshaw (1953), Ian Craig Marsh of Heaven 17 (1956), LeToya Luckett formerly of Destiny’s Child (1980)
November 12: Ruby Nash Curtis of Ruby & The Romantics (1939), Donald “Buck Dharma” Roeser of Blue Oyster Cult (1947), Errol Brown of Hot Chocolate (1948), Leslie McKeown of The Bay City Rollers (1955), David Ellefson of Megadeth (1964), R&B singer Tevin Campbell (1976)
Departures:
November 6: Hank Thompson, Texas honky-tonk and western swing pioneer (2007), George Osmond, patriarch of the singing Osmond Family (2007), jazz pianist Pete Jolly (2004), Don Julian, leader of The Meadowlarks (1998), novelty artist Dickie Goodman (1989), New York Dolls drummer Billy Murcia (1972)
November 7: jazz drummer Vernel Fournier (2000), Jimmy Jones, studio bassist who worked with Wilson Pickett (1995), Carter Cornelius, leader of The Cornelius Brothers with Sister Rose (1991)
November 8: trumpeter Lester Bowie (1999), Dr. Tommy Comeaux of Beausoleil, voted best Cajun guitarist (1997), Country Dick Montana of The Beat Farmers (1995), R&B pianist James Booker (1983), R&B singer Ivory Joe Hunter (1974), pioneering blues guitarist Kokomo Arnold (1968)
November 9: movie composer Stanley Myers English {Deer Hunter} (1993), Egon Wellesz, composer, teacher, musicologist, and student of Arnold Schoenberg (1974), Swedish jazz composer Jan Johansson (1968), composer Frederick Preston Search (1957), Broadway and film composer Sigmund Romberg, best known for “Lover Come Back to Me” performed by Billie Holliday (1951), ragtime pianist and composer Ole Olsen, born John Siguard Olsen, of the vaudeville act Olsen and Johnson, who hit the big time with the Broadway show and movie Hellzapoppin (1927), Mannheim composer Carl Philipp Stamitz, son of famous composer Johann Stamitz, and a “wretched scribbler, gampler, swiller, and adulterer” according to Mozart, though he never met Carl (1801)
November 10: Kanye West’s mother and manager, Donde West (2007), R&B singer Gerald Levert (2006), pop and jazz session guitarist Tommy Tedesco (1997), jazz singer, pianist, composer, and actress Carmen McRae (1994), blueswoman Ida Cox (1967)
November 11: Beau Brummels drummer John Peterson (2007), Motown Records executive Gwen Gordy Fuqua (1999), R&B singer Ronnie Dyson (1990), Don Addrisi of the Addrisi Brothers, who wrote the hit “Never My Love” for The Association (1984), Allman Brothers bassist Berry Oakley (1972)
November 12: drummer Tony Thompson of Chic (2003), jazz pianist Kenny Kirkland (1998), Rainer Ptacek, slide guitar and dobro player, cohort of Robert Plant and ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons (1997), Sean Rowley, keyboard player and vocalist for Cause and Effect (1992)