This is the week that was in matters musical …
1955, Elvis buys his mama a pink Cadillac …
1956, in the wake of Johnny Ray’s success with “Just Walking in the Rain,” Sun Records releases a cover by The Prisonaires, a smooth-singing doo-wop group composed of Tennessee State Penitentiary inmates …
…Elvis begins recording his second album in Los Angeles … it is to include covers of Little Richard hits “Rip It Up,” “Long Tall Sally,” and “Ready Teddy” … Elvis even plays piano on some of the tracks …
1962, The Beatles hit Abbey Road recording studio for the first time, recording “Love Me Do” in about 16 takes with drummer Andy White …
1968, because of fears of street violence during the National Democratic Convention, The Rolling Stones’ “Street Fighting Man” is banned from airplay in Chicago … Ray Charles’ backup singers quit en masse over a wage dispute and band rules they consider unfair …
1978, Who drummer Keith Moon succumbs to an overdose of the drug Heminevrin prescribed to combat his alcoholism … an autopsy reveals that he’d washed down 32 of the pills with champagne … his death occurs in the same apartment in which Mama Cass of The Mamas & The Papas met her demise in 1974 … at a Teddy Pendergrass show in New York called “For Women Only,” female concertgoers receive white chocolate lollipops in the shape of a teddy bear …
1990, Tom Fogerty, an original member of Creedence Clearwater Revival and brother of John, dies of tuberculosis this week at age 48 … he had parted from the band at the height of its success in 1971, a casualty of sibling rivalry … and although he recorded a number of albums on his own, he never scored a hit after his CCR days … across the pond, The Cure launches a pirate radio station beamed at London to publicize the release of the remix album Mixed Up … but the station will soon go off the air beset by technical difficulties and use of the powerful BBC signal to cover up its broadcasts …
1991, country music star Dottie West dies from internal injuries suffered in a car accident in the parking lot of The Grand Ole Opry … the crash occurred a few days earlier when an elderly neighbor, who was giving West a ride to work, lost control of the car …
1997, Pat Smear announces he will no longer be a Foo Fighter and that Franz Stahl will take his place …
1999, Mötley Crüe bassist Nikki Sixx is arrested at a show in Raleigh, N.C., charged with felony rioting and three counts of misdemeanor inciting to riot, assault, and disorderly conduct … the charges stem from bad behavior at a Greensboro concert in 1997 … Sixx allegedly assaulted a security guard and encouraged a melee among fans …
2000, Rage Against the Machine bassist Timothy Commerford pleads guilty to charges of assault and disorderly conduct at the MTV Video Music Awards … while raging against Limp Bizkit’s acceptance of the award for Best Rock Video–which was coincidentally up against Rage’s video for “Sleep Now In The Fire”–Commerford climbed a 15-foot arch that was part of the stage set … stagehands and security swarmed the stage to extricate Tim, who would “sleep now in the slammer” … The Doobie Brothers offer 15 new tracks for free download to launch the promotion of their latest album, Sibling Rivalry …
2004, the 6th Circuit Court in Cincinnati rules that artists should pay for every sample they use … previously courts had held that as long as short samples could not be identified, licensing was unnecessary … in this new decision, the court, acknowledging other cases involving digital piracy says, If you cannot pirate the whole sound recording, can you ‘lift’ or ‘sample’ something less than the whole? Our answer to that question is in the negative.
… ironically, a two-second sample of a Funkadelic record in NWA’s “100 Miles and Runnin” is at the heart of the ruling … Funkadelic and Parliament leader and founder George Clinton had historically been supportive of sampling, having produced two albums titled Sample Some of Dis and Sample Some of Dat that permit remixers to use his music without legal considerations …
2006, in a Rolling Stone interview, Elton John reveals that he’s thinking about putting out a hip-hop album … I want to work with Eminem, Pharrell, Kanye, and Snoop. We’ll see what happens. It could be a disaster.
… Rapper Master P debuts his new musical Uncle Willy’s Family, in Meridian, Mississippi … the show is semiautobiographical, focusing on a family that has to abandon its home in the face of Hurricane Katrina … to no one’s particular surprise, it’s revealed that Whitney Houston has separated from her husband of 14 years, Bobby Brown … the marriage was punctuated by drugs and domestic disturbances … on a more positive note, Lou Reed joins Jack White and his Raconteurs at the VMA Awards show in New York, pitching in on the vocals of “White Light/White Heat” …
2007, with just 7.4 million in album sales this week, Nielsen SoundScan reports the lowest numbers in the chart service’s history … only the High School Musical 2 soundtrack manages to move more than 50,000 units … just eight years earlier 27 albums moved that many … Lucinda Williams kicks off a novel tour in which she will play five nights each in New York and L.A. … each show will be devoted to one of her five studio albums in its entirety: her 1988 self-titled disc, Sweet Old World, Car Wheels on a Gravel Road, Essence, and World Without Tears …
2008, Oasis is mid-way through its headline set at the V Festival when a man runs from backstage and knocks Noel Gallagher to the ground … security guards wrestle the attacker to the floor and drag him away with brother Liam in pursuit … after a 15-minute break, the band resumes its set to cheers from a 25,000-strong audience …
2009, the King of Pop, Michael Jackson, is entombed at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California, more than 2 months after his controversial death …
… and that was the week that was.
Arrivals:
September 1: Boxcar Willie (1931), Conway Twitty (1933), Tommy Evans of The Drifters (1934), Archie Bell of The Drells (1944), Barry Gibb (1946), Greg Errico of Sly & The Family Stone (1948), The Jam’s Bruce Foxton (1955), Gloria Estefan (1957), Joe Williams of Toto (1960), DJ Sprigg Nice of Lost Boyz (1970), J.D. Fortune, replacement singer for INXS (1973), Sean Stewart, son of Ron (1980), Fall Out Boy guitarist Joe Trohan (1984)
September 2: Hugo Montenegro (1925), Sam Gooden (1939), Bobby Purify (1939), Rosalind Ashworth of Martha and The Vandellas (1943), Joe Simon (1943), Billy Preston (1946), Richard Coughlan of Caravan (1947), Aussie rocker Ted Mulry (1947), Micahel Rother, guitarist and keyboardist for Kraftwerk, Neu! (1950), Mik Kaminski of E.L.O. (1951), Simply Red’s Fritz McIntyre (1956), Steve Porcaro of Toto (1957), Jerry Augustyniak of 10,000 Maniacs (1958), Dino Cazeres, guitarist for Fear Factory (1966), K-Ci Hailey of Jodeci (1969), Phil Lipscomb, Taproot bassist (1976)
September 3: bluesman Memphis Slim born Peter Chatman (1915), Hank Thompson (1925), Tompall Glaser (1933), Freddie King (1934), Kenny Pickett (1942), Al Jardine of The Beach Boys (1942), Walter Scott of the Whispers (1943), George Biondi of Steppenwolf (1945), Thin Lizzy’s Eric Bell (1947), Don Brewer of Grand Funk Railroad (1948), Doug Pinnik of King’s X (1950), Steve Jones of The Sex Pistols (1955), Perry Bamonte of The Cure (1960), Jonathan Segal of Camper Van Beethoven (1963), Jennifer Paige (1973), Tomo Miličević of 30 Seconds to Mars (1979), Jason McCaslin of Sum 41 (1980)
September 4: “Lightning Bug” Rhodes, guitarist for Otis Redding and B.B. King (1939), lead singer George Lanuis of The Crescendos (1939), Merald Knight of Gladys Knight & The Pips (1942), fret wizard Danny Gatton (1945), Greg Elmore of Quicksilver Messenger Service (1946), Quicksilver Messenger Service’s Gary Duncan (1946), Ronald LaPread of The Commodores (1950), Muscle Shoals session guitarist Wayne Perkins (1951), Martin Chambers of the Pretenders (1952), Blackie Lawless of W.A.S.P. (1956), George Hurley of Minutemen (1958), Kim Thayil of Soundgarden (1960), Sam Yaffa of Hanoi Rocks (1963), Igor Cavalera, Sepultura drummer (1970), Carmit Bachar of Pussycat Dolls (1974), Dan Miller of O-Town (1980), Beyoncé Knowles (1981), Flyleaf’s Lacey Sturm (1981)
September 5: Chicago blues pianist Sunnyland Slim (1907), doo-wopper Jimmy Springs of The Red Caps (1911), guitarist Willie Woods of Junior Walker & The Allstars (1936), singer-songwriter and Kingston Trio member John Stewart (1939), Al “Year of the Cat” Stewart (1945), Freddie Mercury of Queen (1946), Buddy Miles (1946), guitarist Clarence White born Cecil Ingram Connor (1946), singer-songwriter Loudon Wainright III (1946), Buddy Miles of Electric Flag and Jimi Hendrix’s Band of Gypsys (1947), David “Clem” Clempson of Humble Pie/Colosseum (1949), Juan Aldrete of Racer X (1963), Terry Ellis of En Vogue (1966), Brad Wilk of Rage Against The Machine (1968), Dweezil Zappa (1969)
September 6: bluesman Jimmy Reed (1925), David Allan Coe (1939), Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters (1943), Dave Bargeron of Blood, Sweat & Tears (1942), androgynous disco star Silvester aka Silvester James (1947), Claydes Charles Smith, lead guitarist and founder of Kool & the Gang (1948), Buster Bloodvessel of Bad Manners (1958), Judas Priest drummer Scott Travis (1961), Pal Waaktar of A-Ha (1961), William DuVall of Alice in Chains (1967), CeCe Peniston (1969), Dolores O’Riordon of The Cranberries (1971), Nina Persson of The Cardigans (1974), rapper N.O.R.E. (1976), Tony Thaxton of Motion City Soundtrack (1978), Foxy Brown (1978)
September 7: tenor sax giant Sonny Rollins (1930), bluesman Little Milton (Campbell) (1934), Buddy Holly born Charles Hardin Holley (1936), Continental Drift bassist Jim Gault (1943), Alfa Anderson of Chic (1946), disco diva Gloria Gaynor (1949), Chrissie Hynde (1951), Marc Hunter of Dragon (1953), Benmont Tench, keyboardist and founding member of Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers (1953), session guitarist Chuck Beattie (1954), Michael Feinstein (1956), R&B singer Jermaine Stewart (1957), Brad Houser of Edie Brickell & New Bohemians (1960), LeRoi Moore of Dave Matthews Band (1961), Eazy-E of N.W.A. (1963), Brent Liles of Social Distortion (1963), Chris Acland of Lush (1966), Chad Sexton of 311 (1970), Atmosphere Slug rapper (1972)
Departures:
September 1: keyboardist-producer Wycliffe Johnson (2009), Jerry Reed (2008), blues musician R.L. Burnside (2005), Aussie rocker Ted Mulry (2001), composer Vagn Holmboe (1996), gospel singer Joseph Hutchinson (1985)
September 2: New York Metropolitan Opera impressario Sir Rudolf Bing (1997), composer Otto Luening (1996), violinist Cyril Reuben (1996), Ljuba Welitsch (1996)
September 3: Free jazz alto saxophonist Noah Howard (2010), Carter Albrecht, keyboardist and guitarist Edie Brickell & The New Bohemians (2007), Major Lance (1994), Alan “Blind Owl” Wilson (1970)
September 4: Chuck Greenberg of Shadowfax (1995), country singer Dottie West (1991), jazz saxophonist Charlie Barnet (1991)
September 5: Norwegian alt-country musician Thomas Hansen (2007), swamp-boogie queen Katie Webster (1999), R&B pianist Sonny Knight (1998), conductor Georg Solti (1997), Charlie Charles, drummer for Ian Dury and the Blockheads (1990), Joe Negroni of Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers (1978)
September 6: Luciano Pavarotti (2007), co-founder of Atari Teenage Riot, Carl Crack (2001), stand-up country bassist Roy Husky Jr. (1997), Tom Fogerty of CCR (1990), Josh White (1964)
September 7: Warren Zevon (2003), Erma Franklin, sister of Aretha (2002), composer Niccolo Castiglioni (1996), Keith Moon (1978)