This is the week that was in matters musical…
1814, after watching the British attack Fort McHenry Francis, Scott Key writes the words that will become the lyrics to “The Star Spangled Banner” … the melody comes from a popular British drinking song … the tune will be adopted as the U.S. national anthem over 100 years later on March 3, 1931, and because of its rather extreme range from lowest note to highest note and idiosyncratic lyrics, the song continues to be badly butchered by amateur and (allegedly) professional singers … repeated efforts to replace “Banner” with the more peaceful, vocal-friendly “America, The Beautiful” are rebuffed …
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 … original lyric: “tutti frutti, good booty” …
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 …
1963, after trying to cash in on the Twist craze, record companies move on to the surf music boom … which brings us to the rise in popularity of folk music among the masses … though it’s not his idea, Muddy Waters records Muddy Waters: Folk Singer for Chess Records at Tel Mar Studios in Chicago…helping Muddy connect with his folkier side are Buddy Guy on second acoustic guitar, Clifton James on drums, and Chess stalwart Willie Dixon on bass…a folk album in name only, the tunes are mostly written by Muddy and/or Willie and includes blues classics like “Good Morning Little School Girl”…
…in 1968, Chess will subject Muddy to recording a psychedelic-blues album with funk session men complete with wah-wah pedal…Electric Mud features Muddy gamely working his way through The Rolling Stones’ “Let’s Spend The Night Together”…how about that for acknowledging your roots?…next thing you know Otis Redding will be recording “Satisfaction”…
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 … Rod Stewart rasps his first single—the blues chestnut “Good Morning Little Schoolgirl” …
&hellip a different kind of rasping characterizes Dave Davies guitar as he power chords The Kinks “You Really Got Me” to #1 in the U.K. this same week …
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 … The Toys, a New York-based girl group, score a #2 pop hit with “Lover’s Concerto” … the song is based on a Bach minuet …
1966, zany situation comedy interspersed with A Hard Day’s Night-style music videos, hey hey it’s The Monkees, the half-hour show debuts on NBC-TV starring four young men—Mickey Dolenz, Mike Nesmith, Peter Tork, and Davy Jones—who answered an audition ad in Variety … the group is formed, and a surefire hit single released to promote the show … the success of the Pre-Fab Four will force a David Jones in England to change his name to David Bowie … after scoring hits in the guise of a crooner and rock ‘n’ roller, Bobby Darin reinvents himself as a folk singer with the release of “If I Were a Carpenter” … the Tim Hardin tune reinvigorates his flagging career …
1967, The Beatles begin filming Magical Mystery Tour, which they will soon experience as their first “flop” …
1968, Roy Orbison’s home in Hendersonville, Tennessee, burns down while he’s touring England … his two eldest sons die in the fire …
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’?” … building on their successful performance at the Woodstock festival, Santana release their first album … Jimi Hendrix, also fresh from Woodstock, appears on The Dick Cavett Show and performs a medley of “Machine Gun/Izabella” … here’s a classic quote from the interview, Cavett: Do you consider yourself a disciplined guy, do you get up every day and work? Hendrix: Oh, I try to get up every day …
1970, an English group called Mungo Jerry join the ranks of the U.S. one-hit-wonders with their good-timey single “In The Summertime” … the jugband-inflected ditty peaks at number 3 on the U.S. charts … followup singles stiffed in the States … quite a comedown for a group promoted as “The New Beatles” with 10 Top 40 hits in England … Jimi Hendrix is interviewed by Keith Altham for BBC Radio and Record Mirror … it will be his final interview …
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 …
1979, the first rap single “Rapper’s Delight” by The Sugarhill Gang is released … Patti Smith plays a concert before 85,000 fans at a stadium in Florence, Italy … after the show she retires from showbiz in Detroit with former MC5 guitarist Fred Smith …
1980, XTC’s new album is Black Sea containing “Majors and Generals” and “Respectable Street” …
1981, Devo’s contribution to the Heavy Metal soundtrack, an update of Lee Dorsey’s “Working In A Coal Mine” is turned into a single … San Francisco’s The Residents’ release Mark of the Mole, the first album in “The Mole Trilogy” …from the Land Down Under, Men At Work release their debut single “Who Can It Be Now?” …
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 including Michael Jackson, Cyndi Lauper, The Police, and Herbie Hancock 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 …
… brilliant but mentally troubled bassist Jaco Pastorius tries to get back into the Midnight Club in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and is severely beaten by a bouncer … Jaco dies two weeks later from his injuries … the soundtrack to La Bamba, featuring Los Lobos, begins a two-week stay at #1 on the U.S. album charts …
1988, British glam-rock star Gary Glitter makes a court appearance on charges of producing child porn and sexual assault … he is later convicted and imprisoned … Guns N’ Roses “Sweet Child O’ Mine” tops the charts in the U.S. … the signature opening riff was improvised by guitarist Slash while warming up …
1991, in a publicity stunt, Alice Cooper sells copies of his new album Hey Stoopid in New York’s Times Square for 99 cents a pop … Nirvana’s anthemic “Smells Like Teen Spirit” is released … it’s part grunge, punk, and heavy metal …
…future American Idol judge Paula Adbul racks up her sixth #1 single on the U.S. charts with “The Promise Of A New Day” …
1995, Coolio’s “Gangsta’s Paradise” tops the U.S. charts … it will later go on to win a Grammy …
1996, Wal-Mart refuses to carry Sheryl Crow’s second album because the song “Love is a Good Thing” includes the lyrics, “Watch out sister/Watch out brother/Watch our children as they kill each other/With a gun they bought at the Wal-Mart discount stores.” … rapper/film actor Tupac Shakur dies in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas …
2000, the soundtrack for Almost Famous is released …it’s notable for including four vintage Led Zeppelin tracks—a first for any soundtrack … Robert Plant and Jimmy Page agree to the tunes’ inclusion after falling in love with Cameron Crowe’s filmed semi-autobiographical remembrance of a rock journalist-groupie in the ’70s … Page/Plant withhold permission for use of “Stairway to Heaven” so the scene that is built around it is cut from the final print … years later, the cut scene is included as a special-edition DVD extra … viewers can cue up their copy of “Stairway” and watch the actors reacting to the song—for example, air drumming—as it plays in the main character’s living room …
2004, Johnny Ramone dies in his Los Angeles home after five years battling prostate cancer … Johnny 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 …
2007, Mötley Crüe files a $20 million lawsuit against drummer Tommy Lee after his announcement that he’s leaving the band … also in a litigious 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 … in his campaign to stamp out Prince-targeted piracy he has retained London-based Web Sheriff, a company that scours the web for illegal usage of copyrighted material …
2008, R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck’s Rickenbacker guitar is ripped off following a Helsinki gig … a generous reward is offered for the axe that has been a mainstay of the band’s studio and live dates since the early 1980s …
2009, fans around the world queue up at record outlets to get their hands on the newly remastered Beatles back catalog … aside from the 14 individual album reissues, shoppers spring for two different $200 box sets … EMI ships 5,000,000 discs and sees 235,000 of them sold in the first two days giving the faltering CD business a much-needed boost… Phil Collins today revealed he will never drum again because he is suffering from a painful spine injury … Collins, 58, whose hits include “In The Air Tonight”, said: “After playing drums for 50 years, I’ve had to stop” … Kanye West apologizes for interrupting Taylor Swift at the VMAs … Swift was making her acceptance speech for best female video at the MTV VMA awards in New York … the rapper rushed the stage and grabbed the mic from Swift telling the audience that Beyonce should have won for her video “Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It)”… “Taylor, I’m really happy for you, and I’m gonna let you finish, but Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time,” said West, as an embarrassed Beyonce looked on from the audience …
…and that was the week that was.
Arrivals:
September 9: Jacob Carey of The Flamingos (1926), jazz drummer Elvin Jones (1927), Otis Redding (1941), Inez Foxx (1942), Billy Preston (1946), Iron Butterfly’s Doug Ingle (1945), Dave Stewart of The Eurythmics (1952)
September 10: Waldo Semon, inventor of vinyl, later used to make LPs (1898), R&B shouter Roy Brown (1925), vibist Roy Ayers (1940), Danny Hutton of Three Dog Night (1942), Jose Feliciano (1945), Barrymore Barlow of Jethro Tull (1949), Aerosmith’s Joe Perry (1950), Don Powell of Slade (1950), Johnny “Fingers” Moyett of Boomtown Rats (1956), Siobhan Fahey of Bananarama (1957), T’Pau vocalist Carol Decker (1957), Cracker’s Dave Lowrey (1960), Bush drummer Robin Goodridge (1966), Big Daddy Kane (1968)
September 11: blues musician Barbecue Bob (1902), tenor saxman Bobby Fields (1928), Bernard Dwyer of Freddie And The Dreamers (1940), fingerstyle guitar virtuoso Leo Kottke (1945), British guitarist-singer-songwriter John Martyn, born Iain David McGeachy (1948), Mickey Hart (1950), Tommy Shaw of STYX (1953), session guitarist Hiram Bullock (1955), Jon Moss of Culture Club (1957), Style Council keyboardist Mick Talbot (1958), bassist Victor Wooten (1964), Moby born Richard Melville Hall (1965), Harry Connick, Jr. (1967), guitarist-vocalist Richard Ashcroft of The Verve (1971), Ludacris (1977), Coldplay guitarist Jonny Buckland (1977)
September 12: bluesman Gus Cannon (1883), Maurice Chevalier (1888), blues singer Alger “Texas” Alexander (1900), Mel “The Velvet Fog” Torme (1925), country vocalist George Jones (1931), Redbone guitarist Tony Bellamy (1940), Warren Corbin of The Cleftones (1943), Maria Muldaur (1943), suave soulman Barry White (1944), Foundations vocalist Colin Young (1944), Iron Butterfly singer Darryl DeLoach (1947), Gerry Beckley of America (1952), Rush drummer Neil Peart (1952), Barry Andrews of XTC (1956), Larry LaLonde of Primus (1968)
September 13: swing sax player Leon “Chu” Berry (1908), bluegrass pioneer Bill Monroe (1911), suave bluesman Charles Brown (1922), Peruvian soprano Yma Sumac (1922), Joseph “Mr. Google Eyes” August (1931), producer Gene Page (1938 or 1939 or 1940), 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), Pete Agnew, bass player for Nazareth (1946), Steve Gaines of Lynyrd Skynyrd (1949), Free’s Paul Kossoff (1950), Barry Cowsill, drummer-bassist for The Cowsills (1954), Steve Berlin of Los Lobos (1955), A-Ha vocalist Morten Harket (1959), 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 Spector AKA Vic Venus (1929), Les Braid of The Swinging Blue Jeans (1937), Lee Dorman of Iron Butterfly (1942), English soul singer Jaki Graham (1956), George Howard of Harold Melvin and the Bluenotes (1957), Mitch Dorge of Crash Test Dummies (1960)
Departures:
September 9: singer-songwriter Lucio Battisti (1998), bluegrass pioneer Bill Monroe (1996), Sandra Tilley of Martha Reeves & The Vandellas (1981), singer Helen Humes (1981)
September 10: Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown (2005), zydeco accordionist Beau Jocque (1999)
September 11: poet-punk rocker Jim Carroll (2009), Brazilian percussionist Ramiro Musotto (2009), New Orleans funk and soul keyboardist, songwriter, and singer Wilson “Willie Tee” Turbinton (2007), jazz pianist-composer Joe Zawinul (2007), Raybeez AKA Raymond Barbieri of Warzone (1997), Peter Tosh (1987)
September 12: Grand Ole Opry star Charlie Walker (2008), 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), country blues guitarist Frank Stokes (1955)
September 13: rapper Tupac Shakur (1996), conductor-arranger Leopold Stokowski (1977)
September 14: R&B vocalist Johnny Adams (1998), Cuban bandleader and “King of the Mambo” Perez Prado (1989), bluesman Walter “Furry” Lewis (1981)
September 15: Richard “Rick” Wright (2008), jazz pianist Bill Evans (1980)