It happened this week

This is the week that was in matters musical …

1951, Ike Turner and his Kings of Rhythm record "Rocket 88" credited by many rock historians to be the first rock ‘n’ roll record … produced by the legendary Sam Phillips at Sun Records in Memphis, it’s considered groundbreaking for its use of distorted electric guitar by Willie Kizart … unfortunately for Turner, the bandleader and piano player, he is not the star on the single … that credit goes to saxophonist Jackie Brenston who handles lead vocals …

1962, signaling a changing of the guard in pop music, Frank Sinatra records his final session for Capitol Records in Hollywood … meanwhile, across the pond, The Beatles perform on the BBC for the first time … the show is called “Teenager’s Turn” …

1966, Phil Spector produces the monumental Tina Turner track "River Deep, Mountain High" … it’s rumored that he spent more than $22,000 creating the orchestral backing track—an unprecedented sum in its day … word has it that Spector also paid Ike Turner, Tina’s spouse and personal manager, 20 grand to stay the hell out of the studio …

1968, Bill Graham opens The Fillmore East in New York City … the very first concert in “The Church of Rock and Roll” features Big Brother and the Holding Company, Tim Buckley, and Albert King …

1970, Charles Manson releases his album Lies to finance his defense against murder charges … not the best choice for an album title before taking the oath to tell the whole truth and nothing but …

1971, Radio Hanoi opens its first broadcast of American rock music with Jimi Hendrix’s version of “The Star-Spangled Banner” … the program is heard by U.S. soldiers throughout Vietnam … the tape was sent to the North Vietnamese station by anti-war activist Abbie Hoffman …

1973, targeted by the Nixon administration as a threat to lasting conflict, John Lennon, whose diabolical obsession with peace unnerved many a dedicated public servant, has his visa extension canceled by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service … it had been granted only five days before … Paul McCartney pleads guilty to charges of growing marijuana at his Scottish farm … he claims that a fan had given him the seeds and that he did not know what they would grow … his story is lame but it apparently works … he’s fined $240 …

1976, flamboyant pop star Elton John becomes flammable after being rendered in wax … his image is put on display at Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum …

1987, U2 releases the album The Joshua Tree … Bob Seger ends a tour claiming it will be his last … until he goes on another last tour, and another and another and another and another and another and another …

1988, Andy Gibb, youngest brother of The Bee Gees’ Gibb brothers, dies from myocarditis (inflammation of the heart) following a long battle with cocaine addiction that weakened his ticker …

1991, Janet Jackson reveals that she is moving from A&M Records to Virgin in a deal worth about $40 million …

1992, Prince receives a lifetime achievement award at the Soul Train Awards …

1994, in what is the musical equivalent of granting Weird Al Yankovic a license to kill, the U.S. Supreme Court rules that parodies poking fun at an original work can be considered “fair use” and do not require permission from the copyright holder …

1998, Oasis’ Liam Gallagher is charged in an Australian court after he allegedly headbutts a fan, breaking the fan’s nose … well, an ex-fan, really … Gallagher is released on $10,000 bail … in a bold move by Cathay Pacific Airways to increase passenger safety, Gallagher is also banned from flying with the airline following a flight during which he is reported to have screamed obscenities and smoked in the cabin … to honor Liam as a true purveyor of the rock-and-roll lifestyle, an unnamed manufacturer is building an amplifier that instead of going to 11, will have a power switch labeled; On/More-On … Alan Reed, an American dancer, sues Japanese pop star Seiko Matsuda for 48 million yen charging that she pressured Reed, a member of her stage show, into having sex with her …

1999, Cher’s long-time manager Bill Sammeth files suit against his former client alleging that he had a deal to receive 15% of profits from her comeback hit album Believe, its singles, and a planned world tour … along with masterminding her comeback, Sammeth claims he was a close friend of the star for 22 years before being “unceremoniously dumped” … Cher has no comments regarding the alleged dumping …

2000, Chrissie Hynde’s animal nature comes out when she is busted in New York for slashing leather goods at a Gap store … she’s part of a PETA action … in the middle of a Fargo, North Dakota, show, Korn drummer David Silveria suddenly loses use of one of his wrists … Mike Bordin of Faith No More subs for the rest of the tour while Silveria heals … KISS begins their ’Farewell Tour’ … obviously, suggestions to call the final outing ’KISS Off’ were not taken seriously …

2003, the Chinese government orders The Rolling Stones to scratch four songs from their upcoming performances in Shanghai and Beijing … the banned songs are “Brown Sugar,” “Honky Tonk Women,” “Beast of Burden,” and “Let’s Spend the Night Together” … before you judge the Chinese harshly, when you have over a billion mouths to feed and not enough food to go around, you don’t take chances encouraging new arrivals …

2004, George Michael says that Patience will be his last conventionally released record … he tells the BBC, “This album nearly killed me” and says that future releases will be offered on his website in return for donations to his favorite charities … perhaps favorite charities such as the “Let’s Buy George A Maserati Fund” and the “George Michaels Needs A Villa on the Riviera Foundation” … we kid George, it’s truly a noble gesture … Jack White of The White Stripes pleads guilty to misdemeanor assault and battery on singer Jason Stollsteimer of The Von Bondies … the charges stem from a bar fight between the two Detroit musicians that occurred at a CD release party for Blanche, another Detroit-area band … according to reports, spitting and hair-pulling was involved … (hair-pulling isn’t very manly, but it is effective) …

2005, CBGB, the New York punk club, faces closure in a dispute over unpaid rent due the charity for the homeless that owns the building … club owner Hilly Kristal says the dispute dates from 2001, when the landlord presented a $300,000 bill for unpaid rent … Coldplay heats up the Troubadour in LA playing a one-off gig at the nightclub … legendary tenor Luciano Pavarotti lends his voice to a new version of the Deep Purple classic, “Smoke on the Water” for a retrospective album covering the 40-year career of rocker Ian Gillan, a longtime and close friend of Pavarotti … according to insiders, Pavarotti will record his vocals in Italy and then have them blended with Ian’s …

2006, a British court rules that Apple Computer did not violate Apple Corps’ trademark when it launched iTunes … the case hinged on a 1991 agreement that forbade Apple Computer from distributing music on physical media … at that time the computer maker paid Apple Corps $27 million and agreed to not enter into music distribution under the Apple Computer name … the English judge finds that because iTunes is not the original source of the content it offers, the no-distribution provision doesn’t apply … The Beatles company threatens to appeal the verdict … in a convoluted deal reached the following year, Apple Computer (which has by then removed “Computer” from its name) acquires rights to all Apple logos used by both companies and will license the green apple logo of Apple Corps back to the company founded by The Beatles … no financial details are revealed in press accounts … it’s like the old saying goes: “If you can’t beat ’em, buy ’em.” … Leonard Cohen wins a $9.5 million judgment against Kelley Lynch charging that his former manager of 17 years had embezzled more than $5 million from the singer-songwriter while he was meditating on the meaning of life in a Buddhist monastery … outlook for compensation is dim however since the defendant apparently took a powder right after the suit was filed the previous August … on the plus side, Cohen will have a practical opportunity to practice the renunciation of all material attachments …

2007, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five become the first hip-hop act to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame …

2008, Neil Young plays a mammoth 24-song set at London’s Hammersmith Apollo … his first overseas gig since emergency surgery to repair a brain aneurysm in 2005, the 62-year-old artist indulged with old favorites alongside his newer material … the first of a six-night stand, the show opens with "From Hank To Hendrix" and closes with "Like A Hurricane" … meanwhile back at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Madonna and Mellencamp lead the ’08 Class …

… and that was the week that was in matters musical.

Arrivals:

March 5: blues great J.B. Lenoir (1929), R&B star Tommy “High Heel Sneakers” Tucker (1939), Electric Prune James Lowe (1945), Eddy Grant (1948), Alan Clark of Dire Straits (1952), Teena Marie (1956), Bobby DeBarge (1956), Mark Smith of The Fall (1957), Andy Gibb (1958), Craig Reid and Charlie Reid of The Proclaimers (1962), John Frusciante of The Red Hot Chili Peppers (1971)

March 6: Furry Lewis, blues singer whose signature song was “John Henry” (1893), western swing pioneer Bob Wills (1905), Bernie Wayne, pop composer who wrote “Blue Velvet” (1919), Wes Montgomery (1925), Sylvia Robinson of Mickey and Sylvia (1936), bluegrass banjo legend Doug Dillard of The Dillards (1937), Mary Wilson of the Supremes (1944), Hugh Grundy of The Zombies (1945), Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour (1947), singer Kiki Dee (1947)

March 7: Maurice Ravel, composer of “Bolero” (1875), Zola Taylor, the only female member of The Platters (1938), producer and ex-Zombie Chris White (1943), singer-songwriter Townes Van Zandt (1944), J. Geils Band vocalist Peter Wolf (1946), Procol Harum keyboardist Matthew Fisher (1946), Taylor Dayne, born Leslie Wonderman (1962)

March 8: Micky Dolenz of The Monkees (1945), Eagles bassist Randy Meisner (1946), Three Dog Night’s Michael Allsup (1947), Mel Galley of Whitesnake (1948), Little Peggy March of “I Will Follow Him” fame (1948), singer and synth pop pioneer Gary Numan (1958), Peter “Pedro” Gill of Frankie Goes to Hollywood (1960), Julian Lennon (1963), Cheryl James of Salt-N-Pepa (1964), singer-songwriter Shawn Mullins (1968), Kameelah Williams of 702 (1978)

March 9: composer Samuel Barber (1910), Motown songwriter Clarence Paul (1928), R&B stalwart Lloyd Price (1933), Red Steele, bass singer with The (Five) Willows (1934), country singer Mickey Gilley (1936), Mark Lindsay of Paul Revere & the Raiders (1942), John Cale of The Velvet Underground (1942), guitarist Robin Trower (1945), Ron Wilson of The Surfaris (1945), Jimmie Fadden of The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band (1948), R&B singer Jeffrey Osborne (1948), The Move’s Trevor Burton (1949), Robert Sledge of Ben Folds Five (1968), rapper Lil’ Bow Wow (1987)

March 10: legendary trumpeter Leon “Bix” Beiderbecke (1903), Tex-Mex legend, producer Huey “The Crazy Cajun” Meaux (1929), Dexter Tisby of The Penguins (1935), swamp rocker Johnny Allen (1938), Dean Torrence of Jan & Dean (1940), Eddie Guzman, percussionist for Rare Earth (1944), Tom Scholz of Boston (1947), Jeff Ament of Pearl Jam (1963), Neneh Cherry (1964), Edie Brickell (1966), Sims Ellison, bassist with Pariah (1967)

March 11: bandleader Lawrence Welk (1903), Mike Hugg of Manfred Mann (1940), Golden Earring’s George Kooymans (1948), singer Bobby McFerrin (1950), singer Nina Hagen (1955), Bruce Watson of Big Country (1961), Lisa Loeb (1968), Joel and Benji Madden of Good Charlotte (1979)

Departures:

March 5: Bob Timmins, an addiction specialist who worked with Kurt Cobain and Slash (2008), Vivian Stanshall of The Bonzo Dog Band (1995), blues brother John Belushi (1982), Patsy Cline (1963), Cowboy Copas (1963), Hawkshaw Hawkins (1963)

March 6: producer Mickey Most (2003), Sir Joseph Lockwood, head of Britain’s EMI records (1991)

March 7: Portland-based blues harp player and singer Paul deLay (2007), Malian blues singer and guitarist Ali Farka Toure (2006), Jesse Taylor, former guitarist with the Joe Ely Band (2006), country bandleader-songwriter Pee Wee King (2000), producer Dave Jordan (1995), Texas blues singer-guitarist George “Little Hat” Jones (1981), country singer Jack Anglin (1963)

March 8: Adam Faith, British pop singer and actor (2003), session drummer Bobby Chouinard (1997), novelty songwriter-performer and DJ, Vic Venus (1994), jazz singer and bandleader Billy Eckstine (1993), Ron “Pigpen” McKernan of the Grateful Dead (1973)

March 9: country singer Chris LeDoux (2005), George Scott, founding member of the gospel group The Blind Boys of Alabama (2005), Rust Epique, guitarist for Pre)Thing (2004), rapper Notorious B.I.G. (1997), Mercury Wilson, lead rapper-singer for The Force M.D.’s (1995), R&B songwriter and producer Robert “Bumps” Blackwell (1985), Harry Womack, bassist, member of the Valentinos, and brother of Bobby Womack (1974)

March 10: Danny Joe Brown, lead singer of Molly Hatchet (2005), Dave Blood, bassist for the Dead Milkmen (2004), jazz and R&B singer LaVern Baker (1997), Doc Green, baritone singer with The Drifters (1989), Andy Gibb (1988), bluesman Blind Joe Reynolds (1968)

March 11: Stacy Guess, trumpeter for The Squirrel Nut Zippers (1998), South African saxophonist Basil “Manenberg” Coetzee (1998), Sonny Terry (1986)