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 …
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 …
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 – see yesterday’s post … 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 will 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 …
1977, Marc Bolan of T. Rex is killed outside of London when his intoxicated wife crashes their mini-GT into a tree …
1980, a newly formed Geffen Records signs John Lennon … Joe Walsh announces he is entering the race for President of the United States against political heavyweights Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan … his campaign slogan is “Free Gas For All” and he states his purpose for running is to raise awareness of the importance of the elections … Walsh will re-enter the political fray in 1992 to run for Vice President of the United States …
1983, the members of KISS appear on MTV, only this time, their traditional “Kabuki makeup from hell” is off … after losing original members Ace Frehley and Peter Criss, the band are trying to reinvent themselves by exposing their bare faces in public … the ploy seems to work, as their next release Lick it Up becomes 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 … together for the first time in 24 years, the members of ’70s British rock band Mott The Hoople get back together to perform at the Virgin Megastore in London …
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) … Garbage announces on the band’s website that it’s on an indefinite hiatus … the posting reads, “We have made a decision to take some time off. We are not breaking up.” …
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 ice cream flavor called, “Junky Monkey” … the documentary Dixie Chicks: Shut Up and Sing debuts at the Toronto International Film Festival … the movie chronicles the fallout that resulted from the group’s criticism of the Bush administration … also debuting at the festival is the documentary The U.S. vs. John Lennon that examines the U.S. government’s campaign to deport John Lennon due to his anti-Viet Nam war stance …
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 … Chicago alt-rock station Q101 spins the hook-laden single “Great Divide” to positive response from listeners while failing to disclose it’s the work of the has-been brother act Hanson … Spike, the station’s music director, notes, “There’s a stigma attached to them” … DJs credited the tune to “a mystery artist” …
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 … after patching up some personal differences, the original stoner act, Cheech and Chong, hits the road with a series of shows that include classic bits from the duo’s records and movies as well as new material … commenting on the reunion that took 27 years, Tommy Chong says, “We went from Nixon to Bush. That’s about all that’s changed.” … acknowledging that the pair are still “herbalists,” Chong notes they no longer need to carry a stash with them … “if you need weed you can get weed faster than a pizza almost anywhere” …
…and that was the week that was.
Arrivals:
September 16: Scepter Records founder Florence Greenberg (1913), organist-composer Korla Pandit, “The Godfather of Exotica” (1921), B.B. King (1925), Bernard Calvert of The Hollies (1943), Betty Kelly of Martha and The Vandellas (1944), Kenny Jones of Small Faces and The Who (1948), David Bellamy of The Bellamy Brothers (1950), Wire’s Colin Newman (1954), Peter Zaremba of The Fleshtones (1956), pop singer-songwriter Richard Marx (1963), salsa singer-songwriter Marc Anthony (1968)
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)
Departures:
September 16: Motown songwriter Norman Whitfield (2008), the legendary Johnny Ramone (2004), Izadora Rhodes of Weather Girls (2004), CBS producer Tom Wilson (1978), Marc Bolan of T-Rex (1977), opera diva Maria Callas (1977), Leroy Griffin of The Nutmegs (1966)
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)