This is the week that was in matters musical…
1956, Elvis Presley appears on The Steve Allen Show … ol’ Steverino, being sensitive to criticism that the hip-swiveling teen sensation is unduly arousing the youth of America, decrees that Elvis will not rock out but instead croon “Hound Dog” to an actual hound dog … a basset wearing dress tails … get it? …
…Johnny Cash appears for the first time on the Grand Ole Opry …
1957, setting off a chain of events that will change the face of modern music, John Lennon and Paul McCartney meet for the first time … the encounter takes place at the Woolton Parish Church Garden show at Liverpool’s St. Peter’s Church … recalling the meeting years later, McCartney says Lennon was drunk … Ray Charles’ self-titled debut album is released on Atlantic …
1960, Jim Marshall & Son Musical Instruments has its grand opening at 76 Uxbridge Road, Hanwell, a West End suburb of London … Jim would make his first Marshall JTM 45s here …
1968, following a concert in New York, the Yardbirds break up … shortly thereafter, to fulfil contractual obligations, Jimmy Page forms The New Yardbirds … after finishing up the final Yardbirds tour dates, the band changes its name to Led Zeppelin …
1976, pioneering punk outfit The Damned make their live debut at London’s 100 Club …
1980, Led Zeppelin plays the last show of its European tour at the Eissporthalle in West Berlin … the show turns out to be the band’s swan song when a couple of months later John Bonham is found dead … the band had been planning to tour North America next …
1982, Ozzy Osbourne marries his manager Sharon Arden, laying the groundwork for MTV’s future entry into the sitcom market …
1984, Epic sets a record by shipping two million copies of The Jacksons album Victory to record stores … the release is the group’s only album to feature all six Jackson brothers and is the last to feature Michael, whose solo career is burning brightly …
1990, 2 Live Crew releases the single “Banned in the U.S.A.” in response to bluenoses who have targeted the rap group’s albums … “Born in the U.S.A.” composer Bruce Springsteen gives his blessings to the parody …
1991, over 60 audience members are injured during a Guns N’ Roses show in Maryland Heights, Missouri … singer Axl Rose is charged with property damage and third-degree assault for jumping off the stage and attacking a videotaping fan, starting the fracas … a year later he surrenders to authorities …
1993, Mia Zapata, lead singer of Seattle punk band The Gits, is brutally raped and murdered … her case remains unsolved until 2 Seattle Cold Case Squad detectives find a DNA match 10 years later … Cuban-born fisherman Jesus Mazquia, a former Seattle resident living in the Florida Keys is convicted of the crime and sentenced to 37 years in prison …
1998, in a successful effort to prevent reporters from eavesdropping on their wedding ceremony, Barbra Streisand and James Brolin arrange to have the White Zombie album La Sexorcisto: Devil Music Volume One blasted from a van parked outside their Malibu villa at an earsplitting volume …
2001, New Orleans R&B singer Ernie K-Doe dies … he had scored a big hit in 1961 with the song “Mother-in-Law” … ironically, he’s laid to rest in a family plot right next to—you guessed it—his mother-in-law …
2002, six postage stamps designed by Paul McCartney go on sale in the Isle of Man … proceeds will go to the Adopt-A-Minefield charity …
2004, excerpts from a forthcoming Record Collector magazine interview with Dave Mustaine reveal his anger over a scene in the Metallica docu-drama Some Kind of Monster … the scene is a confrontation between Mustaine and his former Metallica bandmate, drummer Lars Ulrich … Mustaine maintains that the band agreed to keep the scene out of the final cut of the film, and calls its inclusion a “final betrayal” by his former band …
…in an interview with mtv.com, Slipknot singer Corey Taylor explains his penchant for incorporating big words into his lyrics … “I’m sorry, but there aren’t a lot of smart people out there … I try to throw in as many polysyllabic words as possible … it’s very cool to be able to do that and pass down the knowledge” …
2006, the world’s biggest concert operation, Live Nation, a former Clear Channel property that spun off in 2005, announces that it will buy out its largest competitor, House of Blues, for $350 million … the resulting merger will pretty much force major touring acts to deal with them … Courtney Love is charged with assault after she belts Bikini Kill singer Kathleen Hanna at a Lollapalooza show in George, Washington … the tempestuous singer is given a one-year suspended sentence and ordered to take anger-management classes … a painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat collectively owned by the members of U2 is auctioned for $10.1 million in London … the painting, titled “Untitled (Pecho/Oreja)” had hung in U2’s Dublin studio since 1989 when the band bought it … canny investment lads …
…and that was the week that was.
Arrivals:
July 1: father of gospel music Thomas Dorsey (1899), Alvino Rey (1911), Imperial Records founder Lew Chudd (1911), saxman Earle Warren (1914), Willie Dixon (1915), flutist Jean-Pierre Rampal (1922), singer Bobby Day (1930), harp man James Cotton (1935), Delaney Bramlett (1939), Andraé Crouch (1942), Deborah Harry (1945), June Monteiro of The Toys (1946), Marc Benno (1947), Fred Schneider of The B-52’s (1951), Dan Aykroyd (1952), Keith Whitley (1955), Roddy Bottum of Faith No More (1963), Missy Elliott (1971)
July 2: Marvin Rainwater (1925), R&B saxophonist Lee Allen (1926), The Temptations’ Paul Williams (1939), Roy Bittan of the E Street Band (1949), Johnny Colla of Huey Lewis and The News (1952), Pete Briquette of The Boomtown Rats (1954), Mike Anger of The Blow Monkeys (1957), Dave Parsons of Bush (1965), Monie Love (1970), Michelle Branch (1983)
July 3: Mississippi John Hurt (1893), David Lynch of The Platters (1929), session guitarist Tommy Tedesco (1930), Fontella Bass (1940), Matthew Fisher of Procol Harum (1946), Betty Buckley (1947), Paul Barrere of Little Feat (1948), Mike Corby of The Babys (1955), Laura Branigan (1957), Stephen Pearcy of Ratt (1956), Vince Clarke of Depeche Mode (1961), Kevin Hearn of Barenaked Ladies (1969), Shane Lynch of Boyzone (1976)
July 4: Louis Armstrong (1900), Champion Jack Dupree (1910), Dave Patillo of The Red Caps (1914), Bill Withers (1938), Alan “Blind Owl” Wilson of Canned Heat (1943), Jeremy Spencer of Fleetwood Mac (1948), Ralph Johnson of Earth, Wind & Fire (1951), John Waite (1955), Kirk Pengilly of INXS (1958), Matt Malley of Counting Crows (1963), Andrew Creeggan of Barenaked Ladies (1971), Stephen McNally of BBMak (1978)
July 5: R&B singer Smiley Lewis (1913), songwriter Ronnie Self who wrote “I’m Sorry,” “Sweet Nothings,” and “The Letter” (1938), Jaime “Robbie” Robertson of The Band (1944), Huey Lewis (1950)
July 6: Bill Haley (1925), Della Reese (1932), Gene Chandler of “Duke of Earl” fame (1937), country singer-songwriter Jeannie Seely (1940), soul singer Jan Bradley (1943), Rik Elswit of Dr. Hook (1945), Nanci Griffith (1953), Kenny “G” Gorelick (1956), 50 Cent (1976)
July 7: Gustav Mahler (1860), blues pianist Joe Willie “Pinetop” Perkins (1913), Tiny Grimes (1916), Doc Severinsen (1927), Mary Ford (1928), Joe Zawinul (1932), Ringo Starr (1940), David Hodo of the Village People (1947), Larry “Rhino” Reinhardt of Iron Butterfly (1948), Mark White of Spin Doctors (1962)
Departures:
July 1: Whitesnake guitarist Mel Galley (2008), jazz flutist Herbie Mann (2003), reggae singer Dennis Brown (1999), DJ Wolfman Jack (1995), Phil “Snakefinger” Lithman of The Residents (1987), Rushton Moreve of Steppenwolf (1981), Claude Thornhill (1965), Erik Satie (1925)
July 2: opera diva Beverly Sills (2007), songwriter Hy Zaret (2007), Mark Sandman of Morphine (1999), Marion Williams (1994), Justin Adams (1991), Snooky Lanson (1990), Eddie “Cleanhead” Vincent (1988), Jimmy Ricks of The Ravens (1974)
July 3: saxophonist (Boots Randolph), songwriter-producer Skip Scarborough (2003), Merle Haggard’s long-time guitarist Roy Nichols (2001), country songwriter Johnny Russell (2001), Steve Walsh (1988), Rudy Vallee (1986), R&B pianist Monk Higgins (1986), R&B balladeer Larry Darnell (1983), Mississippi Fred McDowell (1972), Jim Morrison (1971), Brian Jones (1969)
July 4: G&L Guitars co-founder George Fullerton (2009), Bill Pinkney of The Drifters (2007), Barry White (2003), R&B guitarist “Lightning Bug” Rhodes (1990), Donald McPherson of The Main Ingredient (1971)
July 5: jazz/blues singer George Melly (2007), rock critic and Mercury Records executive Paul Nelson (2006), Motown singer and former wife of Stevie Wonder, Syreeta Wright (2004), Houston blues guitar slinger Johnny “Clyde” Copeland (1997), New Orleans R&B singer Ernie K-Doe (2001)
July 6: Byrds bassist Clyde “Skip” Batten (2003), Roy Rogers (1998), jazz bassist Scott LaFaro (1961), “The Hustle” composer Van McCoy (1979), Louis Armstrong (1971)
July 7: Syd Barrett, founder of Pink Floyd, born Roger Keith Barrett (2006), folk singer Fred Neil (2001), Mia Zapata of The Gits (1993)