This is the week that was in matters musical…
1958, while crossing the Atlantic on his way to a couple of years of Army service in Germany, Elvis is asked to put together a talent show and ends up playing piano in the impromptu band he organizes …
1959, The Isley Brothers’ classic "Shout" is released … the song is later covered by The Beatles in a TV special, and again in 1978 by Otis Day and the Knights in the movie Animal House …
Otis my man…
1962, Bob Dylan makes his first appearance at Carnegie Hall … The Springfields are the first British vocal act to score a U.S. Top 20 hit with the single “Silver Threads and Golden Needles” … their lead singer is Mary O’Brien, who will later sustain a major solo career using the stage name Dusty Springfield …
1966, The Yardbirds, with lead guitarists Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page, embark upon a British tour with The Rolling Stones and Tina Turner …
1967, London’s UFO Club, memorable for being the place Pink Floyd launched its career, is shuttered following the drug bust of its owner …
1969, in the midst of rock’s golden era, The Archies’ bubblegum ditty “Sugar Sugar” hits #1 and stays there for four weeks … proving once again that you can’t go broke underestimating the public’s taste …
1970, 27-year-old Jimi Hendrix dies in a basement bedroom at the Samarkand Hotel in Notting Hill Gate, London … the room is rented to Monika Danneman who later claims that she and Jimi were to be married … he had taken about nine hits of quinalbarbitone and is already quite dead when the medics arrive, despite Danneman’s later claims that he had been alive at that time … the coroner’s report cites “inhalation of vomit due to barbiturate intoxication” as the cause of death … in 1993 the investigation into Hendrix’s death is reopened by Scotland Yard in order to clear up discrepancies about how and when the ambulance was called … Danneman is vilified in books and other media, and in 1996, commits suicide after losing a libel case brought by Kathy Etchingham, who originally reopened the Hendrix case …
… Black Sabbath releases its second album Paranoid featuring "War Pigs" and "Iron Man," songs that would become heavy metal classics …
1973, Gram Parsons of the Byrds dies after a fatal combination of alcohol and morphine in Joshua Tree, California … his coffin is stolen from the airport by his manager, Phil Kaufman, and a former Byrds roadie before it can be sent to New Orleans for a family burial … according to Kaufman, he and Parsons had made a pact months earlier that when one of them died “the survivor would take the other guy’s body out to Joshua Tree, have a few drinks, and burn it” … giving new meaning to the phrase, "smoked a gram," the two make their way into the desert night after toasting their departed friend at a local bar, pour five gallons of gasoline onto the body, and light it … the fire is spotted quickly, before the cremation is complete … days later, Kaufman will be found and charged with stealing a coffin and sentenced to pay $750 for the casket …
1980, a newly formed Geffen Records signs John Lennon … David Bowie makes his Broadway debut playing the title character in The Elephant Man …
1983, the members of KISS appear on MTV sans their trademark makeup … the band had already lost original members Ace Frehley and Peter Criss, and are trying to reinvent themselves … the ploy seems to work, as their next release Lick it Up became their first platinum album in four years …
1984, Mötley Crüe makes its concert debut at the Monsters of Rock festival in England …
1998, hard rock act White Zombie will no longer feast on the brains of the living … the group disbands shortly after the release of singer Rob Zombie’s solo album, Hellbilly Deluxe …
2004, Cat Stevens is kicked out of the United States after a jet bound for Washington from London is diverted to unload him … the former pop singer now known as Yusuf Islam, born Stephen Georgiou, enjoyed a string of hits in the 1960s and 70s, including "Wild World" and "Morning Has Broken" … he released two songs, including a rerecording of "Peace Train," to express his opposition to the U.S.-led war in Iraq … officials say he was refused entry under the Immigration and Naturalization Act “based on national security grounds” …
2005, soul singer D’Angelo is seriously injured when his Hummer hits a fence in Virginia and flips … INXS announces they have hired a former Canadian Elvis impersonator, J.D Fortune, to replace former frontman Michael Hutchence, who committed suicide in 1997 … the band eventually splits with Fortune, who literally blows it thanks to his predilection for white powder … apparently Fortune favors the strung (out) …
2006, three bad boys of rock, Pete Doherty of Babyshambles, Justin Hawkins of The Darkness, and Tom Chaplin of Keane, all residents at London’s Priory rehab treatment center, are reported to be jamming together … this despite Hawkins having referred earlier to Doherty as being “a talentless waste of skin” … apparently their shared rehab dilemma has healed old wounds … meanwhile the British tabloids have dubbed the trio "The Arctic Junkies” … perhaps if Ben and Jerry’s got onto the act, we’d have a new flavor called Junky Monkey …
2007, it’s reported that director Martin Scorsese is working on a documentary about George Harrison and will have the cooperation of Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, and the late Beatle’s widow, Olivia …
2008, in a real turnabout, Metallica fans ask the veteran heavy metalists to turn it down … in recording the band’s latest album, Death Magnetic, the sound was cranked and compressed so severely that the CD is riddled with distortion … 11,000 fans sign an online petition asking the band to remix and reissue the album … it is soon discovered that the same tracks appearing in the game Guitar Hero aren’t compressed to a flat waveform and sound much better … Chicago Cubs Hall of Famer Ernie Banks implores Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder to write a song in support of the team’s World Series aspirations … Vedder’s "All The Way" is the result, but the Cubbies still fail to make the Series …
… and that was the week that was in matters musical.
Arrivals
September 17: composer Gustav Holst (1874), country music icon, Hank Williams (1923), Bill Black, Elvis’s standup bass player (1926), LaMonte McLemore of The 5th Dimension (1940), Steely Dan drummer Jimmy Hodder (1947), James Gang bassist Dale Peters (1947), Fee Waybill, lead singer of The Tubes (1950), Chrissie Hynde of The Pretenders (1951), R&B and gospel singer 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)
September 18: jazz vocalist of "Mr Wonderful" fame, Teddi King (1929), pop singer Jimmie Rodgers (1933), teen idol Frankie Avalon (1939), Kerry Livgren of Kansas (1949), Dee Dee Ramone, born Douglas Colvin (1952), Joanne Catherall of Human League (1962), Ian Spice of Breathe (1966), Ricky Bell of Bell Biv Devoe (1967)
September 19: R&B singer-songwriter Brook Benton (1931), Beatles manager Brian Epstein (1934), Nick Massi, bassist and bass singer of The Four Seasons (1935), Bill Medley of The Righteous Brothers (1940), singer-songwriter-pianist Paul Williams (1940), Mama Cass Elliot of The Mamas & The Papas, born Ellen Naomi Cohen (1941), singer-actress Freda Payne (1942), bluegrass guitarist David Bromberg (1945), Lol Creme of 10cc (1947), U2 producer Daniel Lanois (1951), Nile Rodgers of Chic (1952), country artist Trisha Yearwood (1962), James Tapp AKA rapper Soulja Slim (1977)
September 20: singer and New Orleans-style pianist Eddie Bo (1930), funk and jazz guitarist Eric Gale (1939), John Panozzo, drummer for Styx (1948), Alannah Currie of The Thompson Twins (1959), Cowboy of The Furious Five, born Robert Keith Wiggins (1960), Nuno Bettencourt of Extreme (1966), Matthew and Gunnar Nelson, twin sons of Ricky Nelson (1967), Ben Shepherd of Soundgarden (1968), Rick Woolstenhulme of Lifehouse (1979)
September 21: jazz drummer Chico Hamilton, born Forestorn Hamilton (1921), singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen (1934), pop singer Dickey Lee, born Dickey Lee Lipscomb (1969), Don Felder of The Eagles (1947), lead singer-guitarist of Oasis, Liam Gallagher (1972)
September 22: Mike Patto, leader and vocalist for ’70s Brit rock band Patto (1942)
September 23: R&B and jazz bandleader Tiny Bradshaw (1905), Marion Kelsker, assistant to Sun Records’ Sam Phillips who urged him to record Elvis (1917), blues guitarist-harpist Joe Hill Louis (1921), jazz saxophonist and composer John Coltrane (1926), jazz bassist Jimmy Woode (1928), Wally Whyton, leader of the British skiffle band The Vipers (1929), blues guitarist Fenton Robinson (1935), blues, rock, and jazz guitarist Roy Buchanan (1939), singer-songwriter Charlie Fox (1939), British one-man blues band Duster Bennett (1943), songwriter-producer-session pianist Don Grolnick (1947), Jerry Corbetta of Sugarloaf (1947), Average White Band drummer Robbie McIntosh (1950), John Baker Saunders, bassist for Seattle band Mad Season (1954)
Departures
September 17: rock guitarist Al Casey, who worked with Lee Hazelwood, The Beach Boys, and others (2006), Rob Tyner of MC5 (1991), Dave Patillo of doo-wop group The Red Caps (1967)
September 18: singer-songwriter Charlie Fox of "Mockingbird" fame (1998), blues and jazz singer Jimmy Witherspoon (1997), R&B jump blues singer Roy Milton (1983), Jimi Hendrix (1970), country blues harmonica player Will Shade (1966)
September 19: saxophonist Danny Flores of "Tequila" fame (2006), Motown writer-producer Willie Hutch (2005), crossover country singer Skeeter Davis, born Mary Frances Penick (2004) Australian folkie Slim Dusty (2003), contemporary Christian singer Rich Mullins (1997), Motown arranger and session keyboardist Earl Van Dyke (1992), Gram Parsons of The Byrds, born Cecil Ingram Connor (1973)
September 20: Texas swing singer-yodeler Don Walser (2006) Broadway composer Jule Styne (1994), singer-songwriter Steve Goodman (1984), singer-songwriter Jim Croce (1973), Maury Muehleisen, guitarist with Jim Croce (1973), Country Music Hall of Famer Red Foley (1968)
September 21: former Fender CEO William "Bill" Schultz (2006), Bad Company bassist Raymond "Boz" Burrell (2006)
September 22: big band singer Connie Haines (2008)
September 23: blues harmonica player-vocalist-songwriter Gary Primich (2007), Etta Baker, Piedmont blues guitarist prominent in the folk revival of the 1960s (2006), Mississippi blues singer-guitarist Houston Stackhouse (1980), Average White Band drummer Robbie McIntosh (1974)