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It happened this week…

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This is the week that was in matters musical…

1954, the first pocket-sized transistor radio, the Regency TR-1, is mass-marketed…

1960, Patsy Cline waxes the classic country weeper “I Fall to Pieces”…”Stay” by Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs holds down the #1 slot on the Billboard Pop Chart…the song is notable for being the shortest single in the rock era running a mere one minute and 37 seconds…a number of covers later reach the chart including Jackson Browne’s 1978 rendition…

1968, the queens of Detroit, The Supremes, perform at the Royal Variety Show in London while Queen Elizabeth looks on…the elegant beaded gowns they wear that night will become a star attraction in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 30 years later…

1972, Danny Whitten, guitarist in Crazy Horse, Neil Young’s backup band, dies of a heroin overdose…the talented axeman and songwriter provided a perfect foil for Young, trading licks with him on the extended guitar jams on Young’s long-form rockers “Down by the River” and “Cowgirl in the Sand”…Whitten’s OD will loom large in Young’s dark album Tonight’s The Night as well as in his song “Needle and the Damage Done”…

1974, John Lennon scores his only solo U.S. #1 single with “What Ever Gets You Through the Night”…

1976, Jerry Lee Lewis is busted for drunk driving after plunging his Rolls Royce into a ditch at 9 AM…

1979, Chuck Berry is released from the slammer following a stay on tax evasion charges…

1980, Don Henley of The Eagles is arrested after paramedics are called to treat a nude 16-year-old girl suffering from the effects of illicit drugs at his Los Angeles home…he is charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor and possession of an array of drugs…

1987, adopting the guise of a country-rock band called The Dalton Brothers, U2 opens for themselves at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum…U2 developed the collective alter ego during the third leg of the Joshua Tree tour…the Daltons consist of Betty Dalton (Adam Clayton), Luke Dalton (Edge), Alton Dalton (Bono), and Duke Dalton (Larry Mullen, Jr.)…they also open for U2 at the Hoosier Dome in Indiana and the Hampton Coliseum in Virginia…they wear wigs, sunglasses, and country-and-western-style clothing, play just a few songs, and go unrecognized by the majority of fans attending…

1988, Stan Love, brother of the Beach Boys’ Mike Love and former manager of the band, is sentenced to five years probation after being convicted of embezzling more than $300,000 from the singing surfers…

1989, during Queen’s performance of their hit “Fat Bottomed Girls” at a Madison Square Garden show, the band is accompanied by semi-nude women riding bicycles…

1990, in the wake of revelations that they had lip-synced their way to fame, the faux pop duo Milli Vanilli is ordered to return their Grammy award…”singer” Fabrice Morvan unrepentantly claims, “We can sing as good as any other pop star in the Top Ten.”…

1993, Nirvana tapes an MTV Unplugged session in one take…the show is aired with warts and all one month later…

1994, David Crosby gets a glistening, fresh liver…

1995, The Ghost of Tom Joad, Bruce Springsteen’s 13th album, is released…the title refers to a character in John Steinbeck’s novel The Grapes of Wrath, about the 1930s Dust Bowl emigration…

1997, rapper Coolio and his appropriately named backup band 40 Thevz are arrested in Boblingen, Germany, on charges of assaulting a boutique clerk and ripping off $2,000 worth of apparel…

1998, discount chain Kmart launches it MusicFavorites.com website offering 100,000 songs for download…despite its early entry into the electronic commerce arena, the site soon is eclipsed by competitors…ska saxman Roland Alphonso of the pioneering Skatalites collapses in mid-performance during a show at the Key Club in West Hollywood and later dies…Motley Crue fans have cause for celebration when the S’Crue, a store stuffed with Crue-related merch, opens on LA’s trendy Melrose Boulevard…

1999, Doug Sahm-who led the The Sir Douglas Quintet in the 1960s and was fluent in many music forms including Texas blues, Tex-Mex, rock, Cajun, and Western Swing-dies in Taos, NM, at 58…late in his career the singer and guitarist was a member of the critically acclaimed Tex-Mex supergroup The Texas Tornados…pop singer Jewel pulls the plug on her planned Anchorage, AK, New Year’s Eve show citing concerns over possible Y2K problems…word has it, however, that the cancellation is due to weak ticket sales…only 1,000 of the 8,000 available seats have been sold…country star Patty Loveless rides a train across Appalachia distributing 15 tons of Christmas gifts to poor families in Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia…

2003, Phil Spector is charged with the murder of Hollywood starlet Lana Clarkson…

2004, The New York Post reports former Van Halen vocalist David Lee Roth is training to become an EMT…the story recounts how Roth, while riding with an ambulance crew, saved the life of a Bronx heart-attack victim using a defibrillator…his tutor Linda Reissman says, “You would never know you were dealing with a rock ‘n’ roll guy. His commitment really is touching. He wants to help people.”…The United States Postal Service settles with the group Postal Service following more than a year of legal wrangling over the band’s name…in a creative compromise the duo, comprised of Death Cab for Cutie singer Ben Gibbard and electronic musician Jimmy Tamborello, agree to let the Postal Service use their music to promote the use of snail mail and refer to the USPS deal in Postal Service CDs…the musicians also promise to perform at the Postmaster General’s National Executive Conference in Washington…

2005, Gary Glitter is detained at Ho Chi Minh City Airport for questioning by Vietnamese police about alleged child sex offenses…an immigration official recognizes Glitter’s name-a.k.a. Paul Francis Gadd-from a newspaper article and calls the cops…the police are investigating reports he performed “obscene acts with a minor,” specifically two girls under the age of 18…under Vietnamese law the charge of obscene acts with a minor is worth one to five years jail time…the glam rock star has been living in Vietnam since March 2005 after being expelled from Cambodia…he left the UK after being jailed for possessing child pornography in 1999…

And that was the week that was.

Arrivals:
November 16: W.C. Handy (1873), Atlantic Records veteran Jesse Stone (1901), Toni Brown of Joy of Cooking (1928), folksinger Bob Gibson (1931), long-time Howlin’ Wolf guitarist Hubert Sumlin (1931), Nashville producer Felton Jarvis (1934), Garnett Mimms (1937), John Ryanes of The Monotones (1940), George “Smitty” Smith of The Manhattans (1943), Winfred “Blue” Lovett of The Manhattans (1943), Will Ackerman (1949), Patti Santos of It’s a Beautiful Day (1949), Mani of The Stone Roses (1962), Diana Krall (1964), Bryan Abrams of Color Me Badd (1969), Trevor Penick of O-Town (1979)

November 17: Gordon Lightfoot (1938), Bob Gaudio of The Four Seasons (1942), Gene Clark of The Byrds (1944), Martin Barre of Jethro Tull (1946), Jim Babjak of The Smithereens (1957), Harry Rushakoff of Concrete Blonde (1959), RuPaul (1960), Jeff Buckley (1966), Ben Wilson of Blues Traveler (1967), Ronnie DeVoe of Bell Biv DeVoe (1967), Isaac Hanson of Hanson (1980)

November 18: Sir William Gilbert of the Gilbert and Sullivan writing team (1836), Eugene Ormandy (1899), Imogene Coca (1908), Hank Ballard (1927), Bob Sanderson of The Royaltones (1935), Herman Rarebell of The Scorpions (1949), Graham Parker (1950), John McFee of The Doobie Brothers (1953), John Parr (1954), Michael Ramos of The BoDeans (1958), Kim Wilde (1960), Kirk Hammett (1962), Duncan Sheik (1969), Fabolous (1979)

November 19: Tommy Dorsey (1905), J.D. Sumner (1914), Ray Collins of The Mothers of Invention (1937), Pete Moore of The Miracles (1939), Graham Parker (1950), Matt Sorum of Guns N’ Roses (1960), Travis McNabb of Better Than Ezra (1969), Tamika Scott of Xscape (1977)

November 20: Dick Smothers (1939), Tony Butala of The Lettermen (1940), Norman Greenbaum (1942), Duane Allman (1946), Joe Walsh (1947), George Grantham of Poco (1947), Jim Brown of UB40 (1957), Todd Nance of Widespread Panic (1962), Mike “D” Diamond of The Beastie Boys (1965), Sen Dog of Cypress Hill (1965), songwriter Kevin Gilbert (1966), Q-Tip of A Tribe Called Quest (1970)

November 21: Coleman Hawkins (1904), R&B producer-manager Buck Ram (1907), blues and jazz pianist Lloyd Glenn (1909), vocalist-saxophonist “Big” John Greer (1923), Malcolm John Rebennack AKA Dr. John (1941), Lonnie Jordan of War (1948), Steve Ferguson of NRBQ (1949), Livingston Taylor (1950), Peter Koppes of The Church (1955), Stacy Guess of Squirrel Nut Zippers (1964), Bjork (1965), Blur’s Alex James (1968), Pretty Lou of Lost Boyz (1974), Kelsi Osborn of SHeDAISY (1984)

November 22: Hoagy Carmichael (1899), Benjamin Britten (1913), Foghat’s Rod Price (1940), Terry Stafford (1941), Steve Wahrer of The Trashmen (1941), Jamie Troy of The Classics (1942), Steve Caldwell of The Orlons (1942), Floyd Sneed of Three Dog Night (1943), Aston “Family Man” Barrett (1946), E Street Band’s Little Steven Van Zandt (1950), Tina Weymouth of Talking Heads (1950), Craig Hundley (1953), Jason Ringenberg of Jason & the Scorchers (1958), Rasa Don of Arrested Development (1968)

Departures:
November 16: British pop pianist Russ Conway (2000), Kid Rock sideman Joe C. AKA Joseph Calleja (2000), Gospel Music Hall of Fame member J.D. Sumner (1998), Dino Valenti of Quicksilver Messenger Service (1994), Francis Donia of Tavares (1984), raw-voiced soulman O.V. Wright (1980), music journalist Mike Leadbitter (1974)

November 17: Terry Stafford (1996), blues scholar/producer/label owner Pete Welding (1995), co-founder of RPM Records Jules Bihari (1984), John Glascock of Jethro Tull (1979)

November 18: Doug Sahm (1999), Alan Hull of Lindisfarne (1995), Cab Calloway (1994), prolific session drummer Freddie Waites (1989), Tom Evans of Badfinger (1983), Doug Roberts, drummer for Jimmy Gilmer and the Fireballs (1981), jazz singer Teddi King (1977), Danny Whitten of Crazy Horse (1972), Memphis bluesman “Little” Junior Parker (1971)

November 19: producer Terry Melcher (2004), songwriter Bobby Russell (1992), songwriter Carolyn Leigh (1983), Claude Feaster of The Chords (1975)

November 20: album cover artist Gene Greif (2004), Roland Alphonso of the Skatalites (1998), rock critic and blues producer Robert Palmer (1997), Chess and Vee-Jay Records session drummer Earl Phillips (1990)

November 21: Alvin Cash (1999), Matthew Ashman of Adam & the Ants and Bow Wow Wow (1995), Led Zeppelin manager Peter Grant (1995)

November 22: jazz impresario Norman Ganz (2001), Michael Hutchence of INXS (1997), Epick Soundtracks of The Swell Maps (1997), June Abbit of The 5 Royals (1995), Janet Ertel Bleyer of The Chordettes (1988)

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It happened this week…

0
0

This is the week that was in matters musical …

1962, “Your Heart Belongs to Me” by the Supremes debuts on the Hot 100 chart … it is the first of their eventual 47 hits …

1964, The Rolling Stones know they have arrived when they get the chance to hang out with two of their idols, Muddy Waters and Willie Dixon, while recording at Chicago’s Chess studios … the band’s name resulted from a tune by Muddy …

1965, The Jefferson Airplane, finally cleared for take-off, plays their first live show at the Matrix Club in San Francisco … the band will ink a deal with RCA before the year’s end, one of the first rock bands in the Bay Area scene to do so …

1967, Fleetwood Mac plays their first gig at the Windsor Jazz and Blues Festival (Peter Green – still the greatest British guitarist – & Mick Fleetwood pictured) a month before John McVie joins the band and despite the fact that the band’s name is derived from Mick Fleetwood’s and McVie’s last names … while performing at the Sunbury Jazz and Blues Festival in England, Jerry Lee Lewis whips the crowd into a frenzy that begins to turn violent … three rockers leave with bleeding mouths, a stage assistant loses four teeth, and thanks to a six-inch, scaffold coupling pin thrown by one of Jerry Lee’s fans through the bass drum of Andrew Steele, his band The Herd doesn’t get heard, as they do not perform (acts that had the nerve to precede Lewis are showered with pennies) … fearing a full-scale riot, officials ask Lewis to leave the stage … ” I don’t care about you all dancing on the stage,” Lewis tells his fans during the near-riot, “but some of these people do.” … a steward is knocked out when a pint beer mug thrown by an unhappy fan hits him full in the face … “The Killer” leaves the stage, and surprisingly out of character, without gunplay … on an interesting side note, The Herd’s lead guitarist is none other than a young Peter Frampton, who later splits from The Herd after a long string of no hits to form Humble Pie with Steve Marriott … recording sessions resume for the classic Love album Forever Changes … sessions that began in June were marked with bickering and personnel changes that resulted in the producer bringing in members of L.A.’s famed session stars “The Wrecking Crew” to record backing tracks for three tunes …

1969, the Woodstock Music and Art Festival is held on Max Yasgur’s farm in Bethel, New York … nearly half a million gather to celebrate “3 Days of Peace and Music” (and mud, lots of mud) and enjoy performances by a “Who’s Who” of rock and roll, including Jimi Hendrix, The Who, Janis Joplin, the Grateful Dead, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Ten Years After, and Jefferson Airplane …

1970, Jim Morrison’s trial for allegedly exposing himself during a 1969 concert begins in Miami … Morrison will be found guilty on one count of profanity and one count of indecent exposure … even though the proceedings drain the Lizard King, he will appeal the convictions …

1972, Wings gets clipped when Paul and Linda McCartney are busted for pot possession following a Wings show in Gothenburg, Sweden … the couple is fined and released …

1978, Muddy Waters plays for President Jimmy Carter at the White House … hopefully the roadies didn’t have to work for Billy Beer …

1985, ebony and ivory separate in acrimony when Michael Jackson, after seeking sage investment council from his friend Paul McCartney, purchases the ATV music catalog that includes 251 Lennon/McCartney songs at auction for $47.5 million … McCartney and Yoko Ono attempt to purchase the songs only to be outbid by Jackson … McCartney and Jackson’s friendship ends promptly as a result … and yes, we know that song was with Stevie Wonder and Macca, but it still works for the situation … Duran Duran singer Simon Le Bon nearly durown durowns when his yacht capsizes during a race off the coast of England …

1990, in a tragic freak accident, part of a lighting rig falls on Curtis Mayfield during a performance in Brooklyn, New York … the incident leaves Mayfield paralyzed from the neck down …

1999, The Backstreet Boys break box office records by selling all 765,000 tickets for their North American tour in just one day, taking in a cool $30 million, most of it within just a single hour … perhaps The Beachfront Boys would be a more appropriate name …

2001, Dave Matthews and wife Ashley welcome their twin daughters Stella Busina and Grace Anne into the world …

2002, in an interview with Spin magazine, Motorhead leader Lemmy says he is thinking of having his notorious facial warts removed … Lemmy adds, “Yeah, I could sell them on the internet” … thankfully he later clarifies he’s not serious about the latter statement

2003, during a radio show in Springfield, Illinois, Ted Nugent says that the people of Illinois are “spineless, apathetic, embarrassing wimps” for their lack of involvement in their state government … Nugent’s comments come from his displeasure over the state’s gun laws … or was it his ticket sales? … despite his comments, Nugent will play the Illinois State Fair later in the day … fortunately for the Motor City Madman, the audience is apparently a bunch of embarrassing wimps who are too spineless and apathetic to demand refunds …

2004, even though it pheels like the phirst time to their phans, phree-wheeling jam band Phish perphorms its phinal 2-day concert in Coventry, VT, phor a phabulous phinish to a 21-year career …

2005, a civil court judge rules that the landmark punk club CBGB’s can’t be evicted from its Bowery location … in her ruling, Judge Joan Kenney praises the club’s impact on the neighborhood, which she said was plagued by “destitution, degradation and substance abuse” when the club opened in 1973 … “CBGB has proven itself worthy of being recognized as a landmark-a rare achievement for any commercial tenant in the ever diverse and competitive real estate market of New York City.” … despite the ruling, in what can only be described as a Bowery bummer, the birthplace of punk will lose its lease a year later and consider moving to Las Vegas, much to the dismay of New York punkers and politicians alike … Eminem cancels a European tour and checks into rehab…a representative says the sojourn is for a “dependency on sleep medication” … in what could be medically termed an Eminenema, the 11-date tour cancellation cleans out the rapper to the tune of $18 million in ticket sales … a reworked version of the musical Lennon opens on Broadway following a debut in San Francisco that met with hostile reviews … the storyline is revamped into a more linear flow when critics and audiences alike are mystified by the original libretto … while on the spiritual path to remove the “five fetters” of the material plane, singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen, rethinks the whole “non-attachment to material things” bit and files a suit against his former business manager, charging that Kelley Lynch ripped him off for $5 million from 1994 through 1999 while Cohen was meditating on the meaning of life in a Buddhist center … hey, removing four out of five fetters ain’t bad … besides, it’s much easier to reform when you’re rich …

2006, My Chemical Toilet (Romance) turns to a brief tryst with traditional medicine as singer Gerard Way and drummer Bob Bryar injure themselves while shooting a video and are obliged to cancel a San Diego festival date … pop singer and TV talk show host Mike Douglas dies at age 81 … for one week in 1972, John Lennon and Yoko Ono co-hosted his afternoon talk show … Douglas hit the Top 40 in 1966 with the song “The Men In My Little Girl’s Life” …

And that was the week that was.

Arrivals:

August 9: barrelhouse pianist Robert Shaw (1908), Odell Thompson (1911), Harry Mills of The Mills Brothers (1913), Bill Henderson of The Spinners (1939), jazz drummer Jack DeJohnette (1942), Rinus Gerritsen of Golden Earring (1946), Barbara Mason (1947), Cars bassist Benjamin Orr (1955), Kurtis Blow (1959), Aimee Mann (1960), Whitney Houston (1963)

August 10: Leo Fender (1909), country singer-sausage king Jimmy Dean (1928), bluegrass ace Jimmy Martin (1929), country-pop entertainer Larry Finnegan (1938), Righteous Brother Bobby Hatfield (1940), Ronnie Spector (1947), Ian Anderson (1947), Patti Austin (1948), INXS drummer John Farriss (1961), Neneh Cherry (1964), Todd Nichols of Toad The Wet Sprocket (1967), Michael Bivins of New Edition (1968), Ghost By Night bassist Ara Ajizian (1974), Aaron Kamin of The Calling (1977)

August 11: Mike Hugg of Manfred Mann (1942), David Box – Buddy Holly sound-alike, ironically died in a plane crash (1943), Jim Kale of Guess Who (1943), Eric Carmen (1949), Joe Jackson (1955), Bragi Olaffson of The Sugarcubes (1962), Charlie Sexton (1968), Chris “Mack Daddy” Kelly (1968), Ali of A Tribe Called Quest (1970), J-Boog of B2K (1985)

August 12: Percy Mayfield (1920), singer-songwriter Joe Jones (1926), Porter Wagoner (1927), Buck Owens (1929), Jennifer Warren (1941), Mark Knopfler (1949), Kid Creole (1950), Pat Metheny (1954), Suzanne Vega (1959), Roy Hay of Culture Club (1961)

August 13: jazz pianist George Shearing (1919), “Baby Boy” Robert Warren (1919), Don Ho (1930), Dave “Baby” Cortez (1938), Son Seals (1942), Dan Fogelberg (1951), Wings guitarist Jimmy McCulloch (1953), Feargal Sharkey of The Undertones (1958)

August 14: swing and jazz violinist Stuff Smith (1909), R&B singer Jackie Brenston (1927), songwriter Carol Joyner Gourley (1938), Dash Crofts of Seals and Crofts (1940), David Crosby (1941), Tim Bogart of Vanilla Fudge (1944), inventor of the slap bass, Larry Graham (1946), Slim Dunlap of The Replacements (1951), Sharon Bryant of Atlantic Star (1956), Kevin Cadogan of Third Eye Blind (1970)

August 15: blues harp player Buster Brown, born Waymon Glasco (1911), Oscar Peterson (1925), bluegrass-country singer Rose Maddox (1925), Bill Pinkney of The Drifters (1925), R&B singer Bobby Byrd (1934), singer Bobby Helms (1936), Peter York of the Spencer Davis Group (1942), songwriter Jimmy Webb (1946), Tom Johnston of The Doobie Brothers (1948), Tommy Aldridge of Black Oak Arkansas (1950), MCA of The Beastie Boys (1967)

Departures:

August 9: composer David Raskin (2004), Drowning Pool’s Dave Williams (2002), producer, Bob Herbert (1999), Jerry Garcia (1995), reggae singer Wilfred “Jackie” Edwards (1992), Brandon Mitchell, rapper with Wreckx-N-Effects (1990), Lillian Roxon, one of rock’s first music critics (1973), Joe Gilbert of Joe and Eddie (1966), Eddie Brown of Joe and Eddie (1966)

August 10: Widespread Panic guitarist Mikey Houser (2002), Ball Baker of The Five Satins (1994), New Orleans saxman Clarence Ford (1994), Ed Roberts of Ruby And The Romantics (1993), jazz singer Ernestine Allen (1992), swing bandleader Freddie Slack (1965), blues diva Lucille Bogan of “Shave ‘em Dry” infamy (1948)

August 11: Mike Douglas (2006), conductor Rafael Kubelick (1996), Mel Taylor, drummer of The Ventures (1996), bandleader-pianist Sonny Thompson (1989), Percy Mayfield – one day short of his 64th birthday (1984)

August 12: Luther Allison (1997), John Cage (1992), Japanese singer Kyu Sakamoto (1985), Norman Petty, producer of Buddy Holly (1984)

August 13: John Loder, founder of the punk label Southern Records (2005), composer David Tudor (1996), blues drummer Fred Below (1988), soul singer Joe Tex, born Joseph Arrington Jr. (1982), King Curtis (1971), R&B star Joe Hinton (1968)

August 14: Johnny Duncan (2006), Esther Wong, owner of the L.A. punk venue Madame Wong’s (2005), Tony Williams, lead vocalist of The Platters (1992), Hawkwind vocalist Robert Calvert (1989), guitarist Roy Buchanan (1988)

August 15: William Herbert “Lum” York, bass player for Hank Williams (2004), singer-songwriter Joe Seneca (1996), Jamaican singer-songwriter Jackie Edwards (1996), Thomas Wayne (1971), Stick Mcghee, born Granville McGhee, most associated with his song, “Drinkin’ Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee” (1961), influential bluesman Big Bill Broonzy (1958)

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It happened this week…

0
0

This is the week that was in matters musical …

1937, Bunny Berrigan and his orchestra record the jazz standard “I Can’t Get Started”… the chord changes from this oft-covered tune become a staple for bebop musicians a decade later …

1957, John Lennon and his band The Quarrymen play their debut date at Liverpool’s Cavern Club, a venue devoted to jazz and skiffle … after the band performs “Come Go With Me,” “Hound Dog,” and “Blue Suede Shoes,” irate club owner Alan Sytner sends a note up to the stage reading, “Cut out the bloody rock!” … Paul McCartney, who might have offered a softer side to John’s rockers, did not make the gig … he was at scout camp …

1962, “Your Heart Belongs to Me” by the Supremes debuts on the Hot 100 chart … it is the first of their eventual 47 hits …

1964, The Rolling Stones know they have arrived when they get the chance to hang out with two of their idols, Muddy Waters and Willie Dixon, while recording at Chicago’s Chess Studios … the band’s name resulted from a tune by Muddy …

1965, The Jefferson Airplane, finally cleared for take-off, plays their first live show at the Matrix Club in San Francisco … the band will ink a deal with RCA before the year’s end, one of the first rock bands in the Bay Area scene to do so … this same week, Herman’s Hermits command the top of the pop chart with their “I’m Henry the VIII, I Am” … the novelty tune is a British music hall favorite written in 1911 … no one could remember anything other than the chorus (Herman calls it a verse on the recording), so they just keep repeating it …

1967, Fleetwood Mac plays their first gig at the Windsor Jazz and Blues Festival a month before John McVie joins the band, this despite the fact the band’s name is derived from Mick Fleetwood’s and McVie’s last names … while performing at the Sunbury Jazz and Blues Festival in England, Jerry Lee Lewis whips the crowd into a frenzy that begins to turn violent … three rockers leave with bleeding mouths, a stage assistant loses four teeth, and, thanks to a six-inch scaffold coupling pin being thrown through the bass drum of Andrew Steele, his band The Herd doesn’t get heard … fearing a full-scale riot, officials ask Lewis to leave the stage … “I don’t care about you all dancing on the stage,” Lewis tells his fans, “but some of these people do.” … interestingly, The Herd’s lead guitarist is none other than a young Peter Frampton, who later splits from the band after a long hitless spell to form Humble Pie with Steve Marriott … meanwhile in L.A., recording sessions resume for the classic Love album Forever Changes … sessions that began in June were marked with bickering and personnel changes that resulted in the producer bringing in L.A.’s famed session stars “The Wrecking Crew” to record backing tracks for three tunes …

1970, Jim Morrison’s trial for allegedly exposing himself during a 1969 concert begins in Miami … Morrison will be found guilty on one count of profanity and one count of indecent exposure … even though the proceedings drain the Lizard King, he will appeal the convictions …

1972, Wings gets clipped when Paul and Linda McCartney are busted for pot possession following a show in Gothenburg, Sweden … the couple is fined and released …

1978, Muddy Waters plays for President Jimmy Carter at the White House …

1985, ebony and ivory separate in acrimony when Michael Jackson, after seeking sage investment council from his friend Paul McCartney, purchases the ATV music catalog that includes 251 Lennon/McCartney songs at auction for $47.5 million … McCartney and Yoko Ono attempt to purchase the songs only to be outbid by Jackson … McCartney and Jackson’s friendship ends promptly as a result … and yes, we know that song was done by Stevie Wonder and Macca, but it still works for the situation … Duran Duran singer Simon Le Bon nearly durown durowns when his yacht capsizes during a race off the coast of England …

2000, the Jimi Hendrix estate successfully evicts the holder of the web domain jimihendrix.com …

2001, Dave Matthews and wife Ashley welcome their twin daughters Stella Busina and Grace Anne into the world …

2002, in an interview with Spin magazine, Motorhead leader Lemmy says he is thinking of having his notorious facial warts removed … Lemmy adds, “Yeah, I could sell them on the internet” … thankfully he later clarifies he’s not serious about the latter statement …

2003, during a radio interview, Ted Nugent says that the people of Illinois are “spineless, apathetic, embarrassing wimps” for their lack of involvement in their state government … Nugent’s comments result from his displeasure over the state’s gun laws … despite his scorn, Nugent will play the Illinois State Fair later in the day … fortunately for the Motor City Madman, the audience is apparently a bunch of embarrassing wimps who are too spineless and apathetic to demand refunds …

2005, a civil court judge rules that the landmark punk club CBGB’s can’t be evicted from its Bowery location … in her ruling, Judge Joan Kenney praises the club’s impact on the neighborhood, which she said was plagued by “destitution, degradation and substance abuse” when the club opened in 1973 … “CBGB has proven itself worthy of being recognized as a landmark—a rare achievement for any commercial tenant in the ever-diverse and competitive real estate market of New York City.” … despite the ruling, in what can only be described as a Bowery bummer, the birthplace of punk will lose its lease a year later and consider moving to Las Vegas, much to the dismay of New York punkers and politicians alike … Eminem cancels a European tour and checks into rehab…a representative says the sojourn is for a “dependency on sleep medication” … in what could be medically termed an Eminenema, the 11-date tour cancellation cleans out the rapper to the tune of $18 million in ticket sales … while on the spiritual path to remove the “five fetters” of the material plane, singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen, rethinks the whole “non-attachment to material things” bit and files a suit against his former business manager, charging that Kelley Lynch ripped him off for $5 million from 1994 through 1999 while Cohen was meditating on the meaning of life in a Buddhist center … hey, removing four out of five fetters ain’t bad … besides, it’s much easier to reform when you’re rich … tragically this week, Marc Cohn, the singer-songwriter who struck gold in 1991 with his hit “Walking in Memphis” is shot in the head during a carjacking in Denver…amazingly he survives the injury and makes a full recovery …

2006, My Chemical Toilet turns to a brief tryst with traditional medicine as singer Gerard Way and drummer Bob Bryar injure themselves while shooting a video and are obliged to cancel a San Diego festival date … pop singer and TV talk show host Mike Douglas dies at age 81 … for one week in 1972, John Lennon and Yoko Ono co-hosted his afternoon talk show … Douglas hit the Top 40 in 1966 with the song “The Men In My Little Girl’s Life” …

And that was the week that was.

Arrivals:

August 7: Benny Carter (1907), swing bandleader Freddie Slack (1910), pianist Mose Vinson (1917), lyricist Felice Bryant (1925), The Platters’ Herb Reed (1931), multi-instrumentalist jazz titan Rahsaan Roland Kirk (1936), Magic Slim, born Morris Holt (1937), pop vocalist Ron Holden (1939), B.J. Thomas (1942), Rodney Crowell (1950), bassist-songwriter Andy Fraser of Free (1952), Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden – not the Bruce Dickinson (1958), Toxic (19??), Jacqui O’Sullivan of Bananarama (1960), Ian Dench of EMF (1964), Kristen Hersh of Throwing Muses (1964)

August 8: bandleader Lucky Millender (1900), Webb Pierce (1921), Jimmy Witherspoon (1923), blues singer Al King (1923), Sonny Til of The Orioles (1925), Mel Tillis (1932), pedal steel player extraordinaire Pete Drake (1932), Joe Tex (1933), Connie Stevens (1938), Philip E. Balsley of the Statler Brothers (1939), John “Jay” David of Dr. Hook (1942), The Grateful Dead’s Ron “Pig Pen” McKernan (1946), Airrion Love of The Stylistics (1949), Ali Score of Flock of Seagulls (1956), Dennis Drew of 10,000 Maniacs (1957), Chris Foreman of Madness (1958), Ricki Rockett of Poison (1959), U2’s The Edge a.k.a. David Evans (1961), Kool Moe Dee (1962), JC Chasez of *NSYNC (1976), Drew Lachey of 98 Degrees (1976)

August 9: barrelhouse pianist Robert Shaw (1908), Odell Thompson (1911), Harry Mills of The Mills Brothers (1913), Bill Henderson of The Spinners (1939), jazz drummer Jack DeJohnette (1942), Rinus Gerritsen of Golden Earring (1946), Barbara Mason (1947), Cars bassist Benjamin Orr (1955), Kurtis Blow (1959), Aimee Mann (1960), Whitney Houston (1963)

August 10: Leo Fender (1909), country singer-sausage king Jimmy Dean (1928), bluegrass ace Jimmy Martin (1929), country-pop entertainer Larry Finnegan (1938), Righteous Brother Bobby Hatfield (1940), Ronnie Spector (1947), Ian Anderson (1947), Patti Austin (1948), INXS drummer John Farriss (1961), Neneh Cherry (1964), Todd Nichols of Toad The Wet Sprocket (1967), Michael Bivins of New Edition (1968), Ghost By Night bassist Ara Ajizian (1974), Aaron Kamin of The Calling (1977)

August 11: Mike Hugg of Manfred Mann (1942), David Box – a Buddy Holly soundalike who ironically died in a plane crash (1943), Jim Kale of Guess Who (1943), Eric Carmen (1949), Joe Jackson (1955), Bragi Olaffson of The Sugarcubes (1962), Charlie Sexton (1968), Chris “Mack Daddy” Kelly (1968), Ali of A Tribe Called Quest (1970), J-Boog of B2K (1985)

August 12: Percy Mayfield (1920), singer-songwriter Joe Jones (1926), Porter Wagoner (1927), Buck Owens (1929), Jennifer Warren (1941), Mark Knopfler (1949), Kid Creole (1950), Pat Metheny (1954), Suzanne Vega (1959), Roy Hay of Culture Club (1961)

August 13: jazz pianist George Shearing (1919), “Baby Boy” Robert Warren (1919), Don Ho (1930), Dave “Baby” Cortez (1938), Son Seals (1942), Dan Fogelberg (1951), Wings guitarist Jimmy McCulloch (1953), Feargal Sharkey of The Undertones (1958)

Departures:

August 7: country guitarist William “Billy” Byrd (2001), harmonica virtuoso Larry Adler (2001), record store mogul Sam Goody (1991), R&B chantreuse Esther Phillips (1984), Homer a.k.a. Henry Haynes of Homer & Jethro (1971)

August 8: pianist Irving Sidney “Duke” Jordan (2006), Julian “Cannonball” Adderley (1975)

August 9: composer David Raskin (2004), Drowning Pool’s Dave Williams (2002), producer Bob Herbert (1999), Jerry Garcia (1995), reggae singer Wilfred “Jackie” Edwards (1992), Brandon Mitchell, rapper with Wreckx-N-Effects (1990), Lillian Roxon, one of rock’s first music critics (1973), Joe Gilbert of Joe and Eddie (1966)

August 10: Widespread Panic guitarist Mikey Houser (2002), Ball Baker of The Five Satins (1994), New Orleans saxman Clarence Ford (1994), Ed Roberts of Ruby And The Romantics (1993), jazz singer Ernestine Allen (1992), swing bandleader Freddie Slack (1965), blues diva Lucille Bogan of “Shave ‘em Dry” infamy (1948)

August 11: singer-talkshow host Mike Douglas (2006), conductor Rafael Kubelick (1996), Mel Taylor, drummer of The Ventures (1996), bandleader-pianist Sonny Thompson (1989), Percy Mayfield – one day short of his 64th birthday (1984)

August 12: singer-talkshow host Merv Griffin (2007), Luther Allison (1997), John Cage (1992), Japanese singer Kyu Sakamoto (1985), Norman Petty, producer of Buddy Holly (1984)

August 13: John Loder, founder of the punk label Southern Records (2005), composer David Tudor (1996), blues drummer Fred Below (1988), soul singer Joe Tex, born Joseph Arrington Jr. (1982), King Curtis (1971), R&B star Joe Hinton (1968)

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It happened this week…

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This is the week that was in matters musical …

1877, Ernst Siemens patents the first loudspeaker …

1952, the first British pop chart is published in the New Musical Express … the top six songs are all U.S. acts and are led by Al Martino’s “Here in My Heart” …

1953, the first pocket-sized transistor radio, the Regency TR-1, is mass-marketed …

1957, Patsy Cline is named Most Promising Country & Western Artist in this year’s disc jockey poll by Billboard magazine …

1960, The Shirelles release “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow” with songwriter Carole King on drums … “Stay” by Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs holds down the #1 slot on the Billboard Pop Chart … the song is notable for being the shortest single in the rock era, running a mere one minute and 37 seconds … a number of covers later reach the chart including Jackson Browne’s 1978 rendition …

1961, “Crazy” hits the country charts for Patsy Cline …

1965, San Francisco’s first-wave psychedelic dance band Jefferson Airplane signs a contract with RCA Records for a then-unprecedented $25,000 … they would later come to regret not signing with a more “hip” label …

1968, the queens of Detroit, The Supremes, perform at the Royal Variety Show in London while Queen Elizabeth looks on … the elegant beaded gowns they wear that night will become a star attraction in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 30 years later …

1969, Janis Joplin is arrested in her dressing room at a concert in Tampa, Florida, for cussing at The Man … earlier, in the auditorium, a cop is screaming through a bullhorn at her fans to sit down and she tells him, “Don’t @#&* with these people. Hey, mister, what are you so uptight about? Did you buy a five-dollar ticket?” … she is similarly disrespectful addressing police backstage when they insist that SHE tell the audience to sit down … she gets out on a $50 bond and the charges of “vulgar and indecent language” are eventually dropped …

1972, Danny Whitten, guitarist in Crazy Horse, Neil Young’s backup band, dies of a heroin overdose … the talented axeman and songwriter provided a perfect foil for Young, trading licks with him on the extended guitar jams on Young’s long-form rockers “Down by the River” and “Cowgirl in the Sand” … Whitten’s OD will loom large in Young’s dark album Tonight’s The Night as well as in his song “Needle and the Damage Done” …

1973, Jerry Lee Lewis, Jr., son of the Killer, meets his demise on a rural highway near Hernando, Mississippi … at 19, he’s developed some chops on the drums and has just played on TV’s Midnight Special with his dad’s band … it’s the second time Lewis has lost a son, 11 years earlier his only other son drowned in the family swimming pool …

1973, while Deep Purple’s Richie Blackmore plays a concert in San Francisco, someone impersonating the smokin’ guitar man smashes up a borrowed Porsche in Iowa City … John Lennon’s “Whatever Gets You Through the Night” lodges in the #1 pop chart slot … Elton John contributes piano, organ, and backing vocals to the single …

1978, Queen plays Madison Square Garden … during their hit number “Fat Bottomed Girls,” they are accompanied by semi-nude women riding bicycles …

1979, Chuck Berry is released from the slammer following a stay on tax evasion charges …

1981, The Police top the charts in the U.K. with “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic” …

1987, adopting the guise of a country-rock band called The Dalton Brothers, U2 opens for themselves at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum … the band developed the collective alter ego during the third leg of the Joshua Tree tour … the Daltons consist of Betty Dalton (Adam Clayton), Luke Dalton (Edge), Alton Dalton (Bono), and Duke Dalton (Larry Mullen, Jr.) … they also open for U2 at the Hoosier Dome in Indiana and the Hampton Coliseum in Virginia wearing wigs, sunglasses, and country-and-western-style clothing …they play just a few songs and go unrecognized by the majority of fans attending …

1988, Stan Love, former Beach Boys manager and brother of lead singer Mike Love, gets five years probation for embezzling $300,000 from the group …

1990, in the wake of revelations that they had lip-synced their way to fame, the faux pop duo Milli Vanilli is ordered to return their Grammy award … “singer” Fabrice Morvan unrepentantly claims, “We can sing as good as any other pop star in the Top Ten.” …

1993, Nirvana videotapes an MTV Unplugged … it’s shot live in one take, mistakes included, and airs one month later …

1995, even though there are some empty seats at the Bee Gees’ show at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, they still manage to rake in an impressive $1.7 million in gross box office receipts … ticket prices range between $50 and $300 …

1998, discount chain Kmart launches its MusicFavorites.com website offering 100,000 songs for download … despite its early entry into the electronic commerce arena, the site soon is eclipsed by competitors …

2000, Michael Abram, the man who a year earlier broke into George Harrison’s home and stabbed Harrison before being subdued by the ex-Beatle and his wife, is found guilty by reason of insanity and ordered confined to a mental hospital for an indefinite stay …

2003, Ol’ Dirty Bastard AKA Russsell Jones of Wu-Tang Clan dies of a deadly mix of painkillers and cocaine …the New York Post reports that former Van Halen vocalist David Lee Roth is training to become an emergency medical technician … the story recounts how Roth, while riding with an ambulance crew, saved the life of a Bronx heart-attack victim using a defibrillator … according to his tutor Linda Reissman, “You would never know you were dealing with a rock ‘n’ roll guy. His commitment is really touching. He wants to help people.” … The United States Postal Service settles with the group Postal Service following more than a year of legal maneuvering over the band’s name … in a creative compromise the duo comprised of Death Cab for Cutie singer Ben Gibbard and electronic musician Jimmy Tamborello agree to let the Postal Service use their music to promote the use of snail mail and to refer to the USPS deal in Postal Service CDs … the musicians also agree to perform at the postmaster general’s National Executive Conference in Washington …

2005, A CBS special, I Walk the Line – A Night with Johnny Cash, is aired … the show features artists such as Kris Kistofferson, U2, Sheryl Crow, and Foo Fighters performing songs from the Man in Black’s repertoire …

2006, Peter Gabriel is named The Man of Peace for 2006 by a foundation headed by former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev … former winners include Bob Geldof and Cat Stevens …

2007, in a Rolling Stone interview, much-arrested Babyshambles frontman Pete Doherty explains his penchant for illicit substances …”I can honestly say that the reason I do drugs is not because of my childhood or because I have self-esteem issues or resentments. It’s purely because I enjoy it.” … MTV Arabia begins broadcasting across the Middle East with a mix of regional and Western artists as well as cleaned-up versions of shows such as Punk’d and Pimp My Ride … The Red Hot Chili Peppers file suit against Showtime claiming that the cable network’s use of the name Californication—also the title of the band’s 1999 album—was a misuse of the band’s intellectual property …

… and that was the week that was in matters musical.

Arrivals:

November 13: John Novarese, owner of Hi Records (1923), R&B singer Justine “Baby” Washington (1940), Annette Kleinbard of The Teddy Bears (1941), R&B singer and producer Timmy Thomas (1944), Bill Gibson of Huey Lewis and the News (1951), Walter Kibby of Fishbone (1964)

November 14: composer Aaron Copland (1900), Sir Joseph Lockwood of EMI Records (1904), featured singer with Gene Krupa Band Johnny Desmond (1921), composer Joonas Kokkonen (1921), Chicago harp man Carey Bell (1936), Cornell Gunter of The Coasters (1938), Freddie Garrity of Freddie and the Dreamers (1940), accordionist-zydeco performer Buckwheat Zydeco (1947), James Young of Styx (1948), singer and guitarist Stephen Bishop (1951), Frankie Banali of Quiet Riot (1953), Alec John Such of Bon Jovi (1956), rapper Joe “Run” Simmons of Run-D.M.C. (1964), Brian Yale of matchbox twenty (1968), Travis Barker of blink-182 (1975), R&B singer Adina Howard (1975)

November 15: elevator-music maestro Mantovani (1905), Ike Turner’s pianist Clayton Love (1927), R&B singer Clyde McPhatter (1932), pop singer Petula Clark (1932), Little Willie John born William J. Woods (1937), Frida of ABBA (1945), bassist Steve Fossen of Heart (1949), Michael Cooper of Con Funk Shun (1952), Alexander O’Neal (1953), Tony Thompson of Chic (1954), Tonight Show bandleader Kevin Eubanks (1957), Joe Leeway of Thompson Twins (1957), Ol’ Dirty Bastard AKA Russell Jones of Wu-Tang Clan (1968)

November 16: “Father of the Blues” W.C. Handy (1873), Atlantic Records veteran Jesse Stone (1901), Toni Brown of Joy of Cooking (1928), folksinger Bob Gibson (1931), long-time Howlin’ Wolf guitarist Hubert Sumlin (1931), Nashville producer Felton Jarvis (1934), R&B-soul singer Garnett Mimms (1937), John Ryanes of The Monotones (1940), George “Smitty” Smith of The Manhattans (1943), Winfred “Blue” Lovett of The Manhattans (1943), acoustic guitarist-composer Will Ackerman (1949), Patti Santos of It’s a Beautiful Day (1949), Mani of The Stone Roses (1962), Diana Krall (1964), Bryan Abrams of Color Me Badd (1969), Trevor Penick of O-Town (1979)

November 17: folksinger Gordon Lightfoot (1938), Bob Gaudio of The Four Seasons (1942), Gene Clark of The Byrds (1944), Martin Barre of Jethro Tull (1946), Jim Babjak of The Smithereens (1957), Harry Rushakoff of Concrete Blonde (1959), drag performer-singer RuPaul (1960), singer-songwriter-guitarist Jeff Buckley (1966), Ben Wilson of Blues Traveler (1967), Ronnie DeVoe of Bell Biv DeVoe (1967), Isaac Hanson of Hanson (1980)

November 18: Sir William Gilbert of the Gilbert and Sullivan writing team (1836), conductor Eugene Ormandy (1899), comedic actress-singer Imogene Coca (1908), R&B singer Hank Ballard (1927), Bob Sanderson of The Royaltones (1935), Herman Rarebell of The Scorpions (1949), rock singer-songwriter-guitarist Graham Parker (1950), John McFee of The Doobie Brothers (1953), singer-two-hit wonder John Parr (1954), Michael Ramos of The BoDeans (1958), British pop singer Kim Wilde (1960), Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett (1962), singer-songwriter Duncan Sheik (1969), rapper Fabolous (1979)

November 19: bandleader Tommy Dorsey (1905), gospel singer J.D. Sumner (1914), singer Ray Collins of The Mothers of Invention (1937), Pete Moore of The Miracles (1939), Matt Sorum of Guns N’ Roses (1960), Travis McNabb of Better Than Ezra (1969), Tamika Scott of Xscape (1975)

Departures:

November 13: rapper Ol’ Dirty Bastard (2004), Donald Mills of The Mills Brothers (1999), R.J. Vealey of the Atlanta Rhythm Section (1999), jazz and R&B pianist Bill Doggett (1996), Ronnie Bond of The Troggs (1992), Jerry Lee Lewis Jr. (1973)

November 14: John Cascella, keyboardist with John Mellencamp (1992), singer Dallas Taylor (1986), dub pioneer Keith Hudson (1984)

November 15: composer-arranger Saul Chaplin (1997), disco producer Jacques Morali (1991)

November 16: British pop pianist Russ Conway (2000), Kid Rock sideman Joe C. AKA Joseph Calleja (2000), Gospel Music Hall of Fame member J.D. Sumner (1998), Dino Valenti of Quicksilver Messenger Service (1994), Francis Donia of Tavares (1984), raw-voiced soulman O.V. Wright (1980), music journalist Mike Leadbitter (1974)

November 17: singer Ruth Brown (2006), Stax soul singer Arthur Conley (2003), singer-songwriter Terry Stafford (1996), blues scholar, producer, and label owner Pete Welding (1995), co-founder of RPM Records Jules Bihari (1984), bassist John Glascock of Jethro Tull (1979)

November 18: jazz pianist Cy Coleman (2004), Tex-Mex influential Doug Sahm (1999), Alan Hull of Lindisfarne (1995), bandleader Cab Calloway (1994), prolific session drummer Freddie Waites (1989), Tom Evans of Badfinger (1983), Doug Roberts, drummer for Jimmy Gilmer and the Fireballs (1981), jazz singer Teddi King (1977), Danny Whitten of Crazy Horse (1972), Memphis bluesman “Little” Junior Parker (1971)

November 19: producer Terry Melcher (2004), songwriter Bobby Russell (1992), songwriter Carolyn Leigh (1983), Claude Feaster of The Chords (1975)

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It happened this week…

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This is the week that was in matters musical …

1906, the first extended radio broadcast of the human voice also features the first radio music program … carried out by Canadian engineer Reginald Fessenden who had worked for Thomas Edison … a woman sings, Fessenden himself plays “O, Holy Night” on the violin, then he plays a phonograph recording of Handel’s “Largo” …

1918, German composer Franz Gruber pens the music for “Silent Night”… the words have been written by Josef Mohr … it is performed for the first time the next day—Christmas day—at Oberndorff, Austria, in the Church of St. Nikolaus …

1942, Bing Crosby’s “White Christmas” tops the Billboard pop chart … the song is re-released during ensuing holiday seasons and nails the top spot again in 1945 and 1947 and ultimately becomes one of the biggest singles ever …

1957, Elvis gets his draft notice …

1959, Chuck Berry is arrested for transporting a minor across state lines for an immoral purpose … he has invited a young Native American woman he met in El Paso to come work as a hat check girl in his Club Bandstand in Missouri … the young woman is fired two weeks later and hustles a few days at a local hotel before calling police for help getting back home … the call leads to Berry’s trial and a guilty verdict that is overturned because the judge made racist remarks …

1961, EMI passes on The Beatles … the British label has second thoughts later on and signs the lads from Liverpool …

1962, British band The Tornadoes score a #1 Billboard hit with their instrumental "Telstar," named for the first communications satellite … they’ll go down in pop history as the first Brits to have a #1 hit in the U.S. …

1964, on a flight to Houston, Beach Boy Brian Wilson suffers a major mental breakdown … he retires from touring to devote his time to writing hit tunes and producing Beach Boys albums …

1965, Rubber Soul goes gold after just two weeks on sale …

1967, the man who fueled countless acid trips—LSD chemist Augustus Owsley Stanley III—is busted in Orinda, California, where the LSD is put in tablet form … police seize several hundred thousand doses … Owsley, as he is known, is later found guilty of possessing the illegal substance and is sentenced to three years in prison …

1969, The Supremes log their final appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show … the trio sings “Someday We’ll Be Together” as their TV swan song … Elton John and Bernie Taupin join up to form one of the most successful songwriting teams of the 20th-century …

1970, Joni Mitchell strikes gold for the first time with her album Ladies of the Canyon

1973, just two weeks before his band’s release of What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits, Tom Johnson of the Doobie Brothers goes down for reefer possession …

1974, out to spread some holiday cheer, James Taylor, Carly Simon, Linda Ronstadt, and Joni Mitchell take to the streets of Los Angeles singing Christmas carols …

1978, The Who’s drummer slot, recently and tragically vacated by Keith Moon, is amply filled by Kenny Jones … Rod Stewart releases “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy?”… apparently someone does because the song will hit No. 1 …

1991, Greg Allman unveils his acting chops as a drug lord in the movie Rush

1996, 70-year-old crooner Tony Bennett has just arrived at the White House for a holiday dinner with the Clintons when he suffers an erupted hernia … he’s rushed to a hospital where he undergoes emergency surgery … Bennett cancels his sold-out show in Philadelphia the next night, but is back on the road after a few weeks of recovery …

1997, feminists including Gloria Steinem and Eleanor Smeal protest in front of the Time Warner building in New York over the Prodigy song “Smack My Bitch Up.” …

1999, Goo Goo Dolls nearly bite the big one when the military transport they’re flying in skids off a runway in Sicily damaging its landing gear and wing, obliging the Goo Goos to beat a hasty retreat via an emergency chute …

2000, the British music journal Melody Maker prints its final issue after continuous publication since 1926 …

2005, U2 wraps up a 118-date world tour with a show in Portland, Oregon … hailed by fans as among the band’s best tours, the shows brought in $260 million … Evanescence singer Amy Lee files suit against her ex-manager Dennis Rider charging that he sexually assaulted and swindled her … her suit also claims conflict of interest arising out of Rider’s representation of her former bandmate and paramour Ben Moody … Microsoft and MTV announce they are joining forces to launch Urge, a new online music store intended to compete with Apple’s iTunes … the service will not be compatible with iPods … MTV will bail on the partnership within two years …

2006, The Complete Motown Singles – Vol. 6: 1966 is released … included are two tracks cut by The Mynah Birds, an unsung R&B outfit with the unlikely combination of Rick James on vocals and future Buffalo Springfield members Neil Young and Bruce Palmer providing backing … the tunes were originally shelved following James’ bust for going AWOL from the navy … David Gilmour releases a three-song EP as a tribute to recently deceased former Pink Floyd bandmate Syd Barrett … two interpretations of Barrett’s "Arnold Layne" are included …

2007, the music press reports that in commemoration of the 25th anniversary of Michael Jackson’s Thriller, a re-release will be issued on February 12, 2008 … the two-disc-set will include demos, live footage, and videos as well as covers by Kanye West and Will.i.am … Willie Nelson appears in an anti-dogfighting TV spot … the ad runs just as Atlanta Falcons football star Michael Vick is about to be sentenced on dogfighting-related charges … Willie also appears this same month on the cover of High Times magazine fondling a hank of his favorite herb … this just eight months after Willie was busted for pot possession in Louisiana …

… and that was the week that was in matters musical.

Arrivals:

December 18: bandleader Fletcher Henderson (1897), blues guitarist Pee Wee Crayton (1914), Jimi Hendrix manager Chas Chandler (1938), Keith Richards (1943), Elliot Easton of The Cars (1953), DMX (1970), DJ Lethal of Limp Bizkit (1972), Christina Aguilera (1980)

December 19: Edith Piaf (1915), alto sax man and singer Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson (1917), New Orleans piano pioneer Professor Longhair aka Henry Roeland (Roy) Byrd (1918), activist-folky Phil Ochs (1940), Earth, Wind & Fire’s Maurice White (1941), blues rock guitarist Alvin Lee (1944), The Lovin’ Spoonful’s Zal Yanofsky (1944), John McEuen of The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band (1945), Doug Johnson of Loverboy (1957), Australian bassist Tracy Pew (1957), Kajagoogoo’s Limahl (1958), Charles “Mercury” Nelson of Force M.D.s (1964), Kevin Shepard of Zoo Story (1968)

December 20: New Orleans pianist Cousin Joe (1907), blues guitarist Auburn “Pat” Hare (1930), Blood, Sweat and Tears’ Bobby Colomby (1944), Peter Criss of Kiss (1947), Easybeats singer Stevie Wright (1948), folk-punk singer-songwriter Billy Bragg (1957), Chris Robinson of the Black Crowes (1966), JoJo (1990)

December 21: seminal bluesman Peetie Wheatstraw born William Bunch (1902), Frank Zappa (1940), English guitarist Albert Lee (1943), Beach Boy Carl Wilson (1946), The Rumour’s Martin Belmont (1948), cleanup woman Betty Wright (1953), Gabriel Glaser of Luscious Jackson (1965), Brett Scallions of Fuel (1971)

December 22: Giacomo Puccini (1858), Austin bluesman T.D. Bell AKA Little T-Bone (1922), Alvin “Shine” Robinson (1937), Luther Campbell of 2 Live Crew (1941), The Animals’ Barry Jenkins (1944), Maurice and Robin Gibb (1949), Cheap Trick’s Rick Neilsen (1954), jazz fusion bassist John Patitucci (1959)

December 23: hillbilly singer Harold Dorman (1926), Esther Phillips (1935), folksinger-songwriter Eugene Record of The Chi-Lites (1940), Jefferson Airplane’s Jorma Kaukonen (1940), Tim Hardin (1941), Harry Shearer AKA Derek Smalls of Spinal Tap (1943), Spooky Tooth’s Luther Grosvenor (1949), King Crimson guitarist Adrian Belew (1949), Bruce Hornsby (1955), Iron Maiden’s Dave Murray (1958), Will Sin of The Shamen (1960), Slash (1965), Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam (1966)

December 24: New Orleans R&B titan Dave Bartholomew (1920), pop/R&B singer Lee Dorsey (1924), MGM Records president Mike Curb (1944), Lemmy AKA Ian Kilminster of Motörhead (1945), Jan Akkerman of Focus (1946), Human League’s Ian Burden (1955), Mary Ramsey of 10,000 Maniacs (1963), Ricky Martin (1971)

Departures:

December 18: English singer-songwriter Clifford T. Ward (2001), folk and pop singer Kirsty MacColl (2000), reggae singer and Bob Marley mentor Joe Higgs (1999), funk guitarist Jimmy “Chank” Nolen (1983), Les Kummel (1978), The Manhattans’ George “Smitty” Smith (1970), Blind Lemon Jefferson (1929), master luthier Antonio Stradivari (1737)

December 19: Roebuck “Pops” Staples (2000), jazz bassist and photographer Milt Hinton (2000), 10,000 Maniacs guitarist Robert Buck (2000), Sony founder Masaru Ibuka (1997), Muddy Waters sideman Jimmy Rogers (1997), The Byrds’ Michael Clarke (1993)

December 20: Denny Payton, sax and harmonica player with The Dave Clark Five (2006), bluesman Son Seals (2004), Spanish singer Carlos Cano (2000), country singer-songwriter Hank Snow (1999), drummer Nicky Hammerhead (1992), singer-actor and ’50s teen idol Bobby Darin (1973)

December 21: Scottish singer Karl Denver of The Happy Mondays (1998), trumpeter Johnny Coles (1997), bassist Charlie Tumahai of Be-Bop Deluxe (1995), bluesman Albert King (1992), Paul Jeffries of Cockney Rebel (1988), original No Doubt vocalist John Spence (1987), ’30s blues singer-pianist Peetie Wheatstraw (1921)

December 22: country singer Dave Dudley (2003), Lawrence Berk, founder of Berklee College of Music (1995), Dennis Boon of The Minutemen (1985), classic blues diva Ma Rainey born Gertrude Melissa Nix Pridgett (1939)

December 23: composer and classical guitarist John Duarte (2004), Jackie Landry of The Chantels (1997), singer Carl Hogan of the Valentines (1997), British jazz musician and club owner Ronnie Scott (1996), studio guitarist Dan Hamilton (1994), songwriter Jimmy Silva (1994), Eddie Hazel of Parliament-Funkadelic (1992)

December 24: Nick Massi of The Four Seasons (2000), Zeke Carey of The Flamingos (1999), Buddy Ace AKA The Root Doctor (1994), recording artist-songwriter Jimmy Silva (1994), Bobby LaKind of The Doobie Brothers (1992), ’50s R&B singer Johnny Ace (1954)

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It happened this week…

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0

This is the week that was in matters musical …

1927, bluesman Texas Alexander records "Range In My Kitchen Blues" for Paramount Records in New York City …

1937, George Beauchamp is granted patent #2,089,171 by the U.S. Patent Office for an "Electrical Stringed Musical Instrument" … the original "frying pan" electric guitar … George was a Hawaiian musician living in Los Angeles … Bunny Berrigan and his orchestra record the jazz standard, "I Can’t Get Started" … the chord changes from this oft-covered tune become a staple for bebop musicians a decade later …

1949, Louis Jordan and His Tympani Five record "Saturday Night Fish Fry," an influential proto-rock song …

1957, John Lennon and his band The Quarry Men play their debut date at Liverpool’s Cavern Club, a venue devoted to jazz and skiffle … after the band performs "Come Go With Me," “Hound Dog," and "Blue Suede Shoes," irate club owner Alan Sytner sends a note up to the stage reading, "Cut out the bloody rock!" … so it was back to standard skiffle fare such as "Rock Island Line" and "Midnight Special" … in 1997, the five original Quarry Men (besides Lennon) will reunite for some gigs: Len Garry, formerly on tea-chest bass, will have moved to guitar and lead vocals; Rod Davis, originally on banjo, will have moved to guitar; drummer Colin Hanton; washboard player Pete Shotton, who retired in 2000, and guitarist Eric Griffiths, who will die in 2005 …

1960, 25,000 copies of the death-rock single "Tell Laura I Love Her" by Ray Peterson are destroyed by Decca Records after a critic deems the song "too tasteless and vulgar for English sensibility" … it is interesting to speculate what that critic may have made of Ozzy Osbourne or the Sex Pistols a little later on …

1962, “Your Heart Belongs to Me” by the Supremes debuts on the Hot 100 chart … it’s the first of their eventual 47 hits …

1964, Rod Stewart makes his television debut singing with the Hootchie Coochie Men on the British show The Beat Room … The Rolling Stones know they have arrived when they get the chance to hang out with two of their idols, Muddy Waters and Willie Dixon, while recording at Chicago’s Chess studios … the band’s name resulted from a tune by Muddy …

1965, singer-organist Mike Smith of The Dave Clark Five suffers two fractured ribs when he’s pulled off the stage by an enthusiastic fan …

1967, Beatle George Harrison hangs out at a love-in in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park … he’s less than enchanted recalling "It was full of hideous, spotty little teenagers. It turned me off to the whole thing" … Fleetwood Mac plays their first gig at the National Jazz and Blues Festival in Windsor, England a month before John McVie joins the band and despite the fact that the band’s name is derived from Mick Fleetwood’s and McVie’s last names … recording sessions resume for the classic Love album Forever Changes … sessions that began in June were marked with bickering and personnel changes that resulted in the producer bringing in session musicians from L.A.’s "The Wrecking Crew" to record backing tracks for three tunes … properly chastened, the band members went back to work …

Arthur Lee & Love – “Alone Again Or”

1968, performing at England’s National Jazz and Blues Festival, Jerry Lee Lewis whips the crowd into a frenzy that begins to turn violent … three rockers leave with bleeding mouths, a stage assistant loses four teeth, and thanks to a six-inch scaffold coupling pin being thrown through the bass drum of Andrew Steele, his band The Herd, doesn’t get heard … fearing a full-scale riot, officials ask Lewis to leave the stage … “I don’t care about you all dancing on the stage,’’ Lewis tells his fans, “but some of these people do.” … interestingly, The Herd’s lead guitarist is none other than a young Peter Frampton, who later splits from the band after a long hitless spell to form Humble Pie with Steve Marriott … this same week, the record industry marks its first billion-dollar year several years ahead of expectations …

Humble Pie – “I Don’t Need No Doctor” (1971)

1969, photographer Ian Macmillan gets on a stepladder in the middle of London’s Abbey Road to snap The Beatles as they stride across the zebra crossing … several crossings and six pictures later, the session is over … Paul picks the best one, which ends up as the cover for Abbey Road … because The Fabs (as George called them) are so famous, no other graphics are used …

1970, Janis Joplin springs for a headstone to mark Bessie Smith’s grave … the blues singer was one of her idols … four days later she makes her last concert performance at Harvard Stadium … Jim Morrison’s trial for allegedly exposing himself during a 1969 concert begins in Miami…Morrison will be found guilty on one count each of profanity and indecent exposure but will appeal the convictions …

1973, Stevie Wonder is seriously injured in North Carolina when the auto in which he’s riding is hit by logs rolling off a truck … he emerges from a coma after four days sans his sense of smell …

1974, in Beverly Hills, J. Geils Band lead singer Peter Wolf marries actress Faye Dunaway … their union will end in 1979 …

1975, Hank Williams Jr. tumbles 500 feet down a Montana mountain … after two year’s worth of surgeries he will resume his career … The Bee Gees begin a two-week stint at #1 in the U.S. singles charts with "Jive Talkin’" …

1978, Muddy Waters plays for President Jimmy Carter at the White House …

Muddy Waters – “Mannish Boy” (1978)

1979, The Knack starts a five-week hold on the top spot of the U.S. album charts with Get The Knack … this triggers an anti-Knack backlash that will hasten the group’s demise …

1980, The Plasmatics show that was to feature an exploding car at the London’s Hammersmith Odeon is canceled after fire inspectors watch a demonstration and find that safety techniques are inadequate …

1981, The Pretenders second album, cleverly titled Pretenders II is released containing the single "Message of Love" … Minneapolis’ The Replacements unleash their initial waxing "I’m In Trouble" … prior to that, the band, then called The Impediments, showed up drunk at their first gig a halfway house for alcoholics … facing a citywide ban, they had to come up with a replacement name … so …

1985, introduced to the benefits of owning publishing rights by friend Paul McCartney, Michael Jackson purchases the ATV music catalog that includes 251 Lennon/McCartney songs at auction for $47.5 million … McCartney and Yoko Ono had attempted to purchase the songs only to be outbid by Jackson … McCartney and Jackson’s friendship ends promptly as a result … Duran Duran singer Simon Le Bon nearly drowns after his yacht capsizes during a race off the coast of England …

1986, Queen (the Freddie Mercury version) give their last live performance at the Knebworth Festival …

Queen – “One Vision”

1988, Guns N’ Roses Appetite For Destruction reaches #1 in the U.S. after spending 57 weeks on the album chart …

1991, a group called On A Friday plays at the Jericho Tavern in Oxford, England … they will soon change their name to Radiohead …

1992, citing a sore throat, Axl Rose of Guns N’ Roses cuts short the band’s set in Montreal … many of the 55,000 fans in attendance riot … this is a fitting end to a concert in which Metallica also cuts their set short after singer James Hetfield suffers third-degree burns from a pyro effect …

1994, the Woodstock ’94 festival in Saugerties, New York, includes performances from the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Green Day, Aerosmith, and Nine Inch Nails … the crowd of 30,000 endured the same rainy and resulting mud as the original event …

1996, former Mötley Crüe singer Vince Neil runs into trouble at an Indiana club date … after starting the show four hours late, Neil pulls the plug after just three songs saying he is feeling ill and suggests that the audience of "rednecks" doesn’t appreciate his talent … a riot by 500 surly ticket holders is narrowly averted by the prompt arrival of the cops … after touring as part of the sixth annual Lollapalooza festival, The Ramones soldier on to Los Angeles to perform their 2,263rd and final show …

1999, Kiss unveil their own star on the Hollywood Boulevard Walk of Fame …

2001, harmonica virtuoso Larry Adler dies at the age of 87 … self-taught, Adler turned pro at age 14 and went on to perform compositions expressly written for the mouth organ by composers Vaughan Williams and Darius Milhaud … Adler’s classical repertoire included adaptations of violin concertos by Bach and Vivaldi as well as works by Bartok, Debussy, Mozart, Ravel, and Stravinksy … one of his last recordings was in 1994 on his 80th birthday when he performed "Rhapsody in Blue" for The Glory of Gershwin album produced by George Martin …

2002, in an interview with Spin magazine, Motorhead leader Lemmy says he is thinking of having his notorious facial warts removed … the bassist adds, “Yeah, I could sell them on the internet” … thankfully, he later clarifies he’s not serious about the latter statement …

2005, Leonard Cohen files a suit against his former business manager charging that Kelley Lynch ripped him off for $5 million from 1994 through 1999 while Cohen was chilling in a Buddhist center … FCC chairman Kevin Martin announces that his agency is investigating payola by record labels in the wake of Sony BMG Music Entertainment’s settlement of $10 million with New York over charges that the company plied key radio stations with lavish gifts and money to get its releases played … the list of artists who benefitted from Sony’s generosity include Jennifer Lopez, Jessica Simpson, Avril Lavigne, Maroon 5, Franz Ferdinand, Good Charlotte, Gretchen Wilson, Audioslave, and Celine Dion …

2008, the format of Rolling Stone magazine is downsized from large-format pages to a traditional magazine size to spur lagging sales … singer-songwriter Jackson Browne, who has a long history of supporting liberal causes, files suit against presidential candidate John McCain and the Ohio Republican Party for using his 1977 hit "Running on Empty" without permission … The Allman Brothers sue Universal Music Group for more than $10 million charging that they are owed royalties on downloads and CD sales of material they cut on the Capricorn label between 1969 and 1980 … The Police cap their 150-show world tour with a two-hour tour de force at Madison Square Garden … the first Police tour in 20 years, it started shakily and gained momentum as it went along … reflecting on the early shows, drummer Stewart Copeland is brutally frank, "At the beginning, we were crap. Each one of us had our own opinion of what was wrong … which could be summed up as ‘the other two guys’" …

… and that was the week that was in matters musical.

Arrivals:

August 6: Delta bluesman Willie Brown (1900), The Ravens’ Jimmy Ricks (1924), jazz bassist Charlie Haden (1937), Isaac Hayes (1938), Judy Craig of The Chiffons (1946), guitarist Allan Holdsworth (1948), Pat McDonald of Timbuk 3 (1951), Randy DeBarge (1958), singer-songwriter Elliot Smith (1969), Geri Halliwell a.k.a. Ginger Spice of the Spice Girls (1972)

August 7: multi-instrumentalist jazz bandleader Benny Carter (1907), swing bandleader Freddie Slack (1910), pianist Mose Vinson (1917), lyricist Felice Bryant (1925), The Platters’ Herb Reed (1931), multi-instrumentalist jazz titan Rahsaan Roland Kirk (1936), Magic Slim – born Morris Holt (1937), pop vocalist Ron Holden (1939), B.J. Thomas (1942), Alfa Anderson of Chic (1946), Rodney Crowell (1950), Toxic (19??), bassist-songwriter Andy Fraser of Free (1952), Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden – not the Bruce Dickinson (1958), Jacqui O’Sullivan of Bananarama (1960), Ian Dench of EMF (1964), Kristen Hersh of Throwing Muses (1964)

August 8: bandleader Lucky Millender (1900), honky tonk vocalist Webb Pierce (1921), blues and jazz singer Jimmy Witherspoon (1923), blues singer Al King (1923), Sonny Til of The Orioles (1925), Mel Tillis (1932), pedal steel player extraordinaire Pete Drake (1932), Joe Tex (1933), pop singer Connie Stevens (1938), Philip E. Balsley of the Statler Brothers (1939), John “Jay” David of Dr. Hook (1942), English guitar virtuoso John Renbourn (1944), The Grateful Dead’s Ron “Pig Pen” McKernan (1946), Airrion Love of The Stylistics (1949), Stax-Volt drummer Willie Hall (1950), Madness guitarist Chris Foreman (1955), Ali Score of Flock of Seagulls (1956), Dennis Drew of 10,000 Maniacs (1957), Ricki Rockett of Poison (1959), U2’s The Edge a.k.a. David Evans (1961), Kool Moe Dee (1962), Aaron Abeyta of NOFX (1965), Creed singer Scott Stapp (1973), JC Chasez of *NSYNC (1976), Drew Lachey of 98 Degrees (1976)

August 9: barrelhouse pianist Robert Shaw (1908), string band musician Odell Thompson (1911), Harry Mills of The Mills Brothers (1913), Bill Henderson of The Spinners (1939), jazz drummer Jack DeJohnette (1942), Rinus Gerritsen of Golden Earring (1946), Barbara Mason (1947), Cars bassist Benjamin Orr (1955), rapper Kurtis Blow (1959), Aimee Mann (1960), Whitney Houston (1963), Arion Salazar of Third Eye Blind (1970)

August 10: Leo Fender (1909), country singer-sausage king Jimmy Dean (1928), bluegrass ace Jimmy Martin (1929), country-pop entertainer Larry Finnegan (1938), Righteous Brother Bobby Hatfield (1940), Ronnie Spector of The Ronettes (1947), Ian Anderson (1947), Patti Austin (1948), INXS drummer John Farriss (1961), singer Neneh Cherry (1964), Todd Nichols of Toad The Wet Sprocket (1967), Michael Bivins of New Edition (1968), Aaron Kamin of The Calling (1977)

August 11: Mike Hugg of Manfred Mann (1942), David Box – a Buddy Holly soundalike who ironically died in a plane crash (1943), Jim Kale of Guess Who (1943), Eric Carmen (1949), Joe Jackson (1955), Bragi Olaffson of The Sugarcubes (1962), guitarist Charlie Sexton (1968), Chris “Mack Daddy” Kelly of Kriss Kross (1968), Ali of A Tribe Called Quest (1970), J-Boog of B2K (1985)

August 12: R&B singer-songwriter Percy Mayfield (1920), singer-songwriter Joe Jones (1926), Porter Wagoner (1927), Buck Owens, creator of "The Bakersfield Sound" (1929), pop songstress Jennifer Warren (1941), Mark Knopfler (1949), August Darnell of Kid Creole and the Coconuts (1950), jazz guitarist Pat Metheny (1954), Suzanne Vega (1959), Roy Hay of Culture Club (1961)

Departures:

August 6: Italian opera legend Luciano Pavarotti (2007), jazz bassist Keter Betts (2005), legendary Cuban singer Ibrahim Ferrer (2005), Rick James (2004), guitarist Tommy Mottola (2004), the U.K.’s answer to Louis Armstrong, Nat Gonella (1998), new wave singer Klaus Nomi (1983), blueswoman Memphis Minnie (1973), trumpeter Bix Beiderbecke (1931)

August 7: country guitarist William “Billy” Byrd (2001), harmonica virtuoso Larry Adler (2001), record store mogul Sam Goody (1991), R&B chanteuse Esther Phillips (1984), Homer a.k.a. Henry Haynes of Homer & Jethro (1971)

August 8: pianist Irving Sidney “Duke” Jordan (2006), alto sax man Julian “Cannonball” Adderley (1975)

August 9: composer David Raskin (2004), Drowning Pool’s Dave Williams (2002), producer Bob Herbert (1999), Jerry Garcia (1995), New Orleans session sax man Clarence Ford (1994), reggae singer Wilfred “Jackie” Edwards (1992), Brandon Mitchell, rapper with Wreckx-N-Effects (1990), trumpet player Bill Chase (1974), Lillian Roxon, one of rock’s first music critics (1973), Joe Gilbert of Joe and Eddie (1966)

August 10: singer-songwriter-soul man Isaac Hayes (2008), Widespread Panic guitarist Mikey Houser (2002), Bill Baker of The Five Satins (1994), New Orleans sax man Clarence Ford (1994), Ed Roberts of Ruby And The Romantics (1993), jazz singer Ernestine Allen (1992), swing bandleader Freddie Slack (1965), blues diva Lucille Bogan of “Shave ‘em Dry” infamy (1948)

August 11: pedal steel player Don Helms (2008), singer-talk show host Mike Douglas (2006), conductor Rafael Kubelick (1996), The Ventures drummer Mel Taylor, drummer of The Ventures (1996), bandleader-pianist Sonny Thompson (1989), Percy Mayfield – one day short of his 64th birthday (1984)

August 12: singer-talk show host Merv Griffin (2007), Luther Allison (1997), John Cage (1992), Japanese singer Kyu Sakamoto (1985), Buddy Holly producer Norman Petty (1984)

Read the rest of this crap at Toxic Web →

It happened this week…

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This is the week that was in matters musical…

1927, bluesman Texas Alexander records “Range In My Kitchen Blues” for Paramount Records in New York City …

1937, George Beauchamp is granted patent #2,089,171 by the U.S. Patent Office for an “Electrical Stringed Musical Instrument” … the original “frying pan” electric guitar … George was a Hawaiian musician living in Los Angeles … Bunny Berrigan and his orchestra record the jazz standard, “I Can’t Get Started” … the chord changes from this oft-covered tune become a staple for bebop musicians a decade later …

1949, Louis Jordan and His Tympani Five record “Saturday Night Fish Fry,” an influential proto-rock song …

1957, John Lennon and his band The Quarry Men play their debut date at Liverpool’s Cavern Club, a venue devoted to jazz and skiffle … after the band performs “Come Go With Me,” “Hound Dog,” and “Blue Suede Shoes,” irate club owner Alan Sytner sends a note up to the stage reading, “Cut out the bloody rock!” … so it was back to standard skiffle fare such as “Rock Island Line” and “Midnight Special” … in 1997, the five original Quarry Men (besides Lennon) will reunite for some gigs: Len Garry, formerly on tea-chest bass, will have moved to guitar and lead vocals; Rod Davis, originally on banjo, will have moved to guitar; drummer Colin Hanton; washboard player Pete Shotton, who retired in 2000; and guitarist Eric Griffiths, who will die in 2005 …

1960, 25,000 copies of the death-rock single “Tell Laura I Love Her” by Ray Peterson are destroyed by Decca Records after a critic deems the song “too tasteless and vulgar for English sensibility” … it is interesting to speculate what that critic may have made of Ozzy Osbourne or the Sex Pistols a little later on …

1962, “Your Heart Belongs to Me” by the Supremes debuts on the Hot 100 chart … it’s the first of their eventual 47 hits …

1964, Rod Stewart makes his television debut singing with the Hootchie Coochie Men on the British show The Beat Room

… The Rolling Stones know they have arrived when they get the chance to hang out with two of their idols, Muddy Waters and Willie Dixon, while recording at Chicago’s Chess studios … the band’s name resulted from a tune by Muddy …

1965, singer-organist Mike Smith of The Dave Clark Five suffers two fractured ribs when he’s pulled off the stage by an enthusiastic fan …

1967, Beatle George Harrison hangs out at a love-in in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park … he’s less than enchanted recalling “It was full of hideous, spotty little teenagers. It turned me off to the whole thing” … recording sessions resume for the classic Love album Forever Changes … sessions that began in June were marked with bickering and personnel changes that resulted in the producer bringing in session musicians from L.A.’s “The Wrecking Crew” to record backing tracks for three tunes … properly chastened, the band members went back to work …

1968, performing at England’s National Jazz and Blues Festival, Jerry Lee Lewis whips the crowd into a frenzy that begins to turn violent … three rockers leave with bleeding mouths, a stage assistant loses four teeth, and thanks to a six-inch scaffold coupling pin being thrown through the bass drum of Andrew Steele, his band The Herd, doesn’t get heard … fearing a full-scale riot, officials ask Lewis to leave the stage … “I don’t care about you all dancing on the stage,” Lewis tells his fans, “but some of these people do.” … interestingly, The Herd’s lead guitarist is none other than a young Peter Frampton, who later splits from the band after a long hitless spell to form Humble Pie with Steve Marriott … this same week, the record industry marks its first billion-dollar year several years ahead of expectations …

The Herd – “From the Underworld”

1969, photographer Ian Macmillan gets on a stepladder in the middle of London’s Abbey Road to snap The Beatles as they stride across the zebra crossing … several crossings and six pictures later, the session is over … Paul picks the best one, which ends up as the cover for Abbey Road … because The Fabs (as George called them) are so famous, no other graphics are used …

1970, Janis Joplin springs for a headstone to mark Bessie Smith’s grave … the blues singer was one of her idols … four days later she makes her last concert performance at Harvard Stadium …

Bessie Smith – “St. Louis Blues”

1973, Stevie Wonder is seriously injured in North Carolina when the auto in which he’s riding is hit by logs rolling off a truck … he emerges from a coma after four days sans his sense of smell …

1974, in Beverly Hills, J. Geils Band lead singer Peter Wolf marries actress Faye Dunaway … their union will end in 1979 …

1975, Hank Williams Jr. tumbles 500 feet down a Montana mountain … after two year’s worth of surgeries he will resume his career …

1978, Muddy Waters plays for President Jimmy Carter at the White House …

1979, The Knack starts a five-week hold on the top spot of the U.S. album charts with Get The Knack … this triggers an anti-Knack backlash that will hasten the group’s demise …

1980, The Plasmatics show that was to feature an exploding car at the London’s Hammersmith Odeon is canceled after fire inspectors watch a demonstration and find that safety techniques are inadequate …

1985, introduced to the benefits of owning publishing rights by friend Paul McCartney, Michael Jackson purchases the ATV music catalog that includes 251 Lennon/McCartney songs at auction for $47.5 million … McCartney and Yoko Ono had attempted to purchase the songs only to be outbid by Jackson … McCartney and Jackson’s friendship ends promptly as a result … Duran Duran singer Simon Le Bon nearly drowns after his yacht capsizes during a race off the coast of England …

1986, David Crosby is released from prison after doing time on drug and weapon charges …

1991, a group called On A Friday plays at the Jericho Tavern in Oxford, England … they will soon change their name to Radiohead …

1992, citing a sore throat, Axl Rose of Guns N’ Roses cuts short the band’s set in Montreal … many of the 55,000 fans in attendance riot … this is a fitting end to a concert in which Metallica also cuts their set short after singer James Hetfield suffers third-degree burns from a pyro effect …

1994, the Woodstock ’94 festival in Saugerties, New York, includes performances from the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Green Day, Aerosmith, and Nine Inch Nails … the crowd of 30,000 endures the same rain and resulting mud as the original event …

1996, former Mötley Crüe singer Vince Neil runs into trouble at an Indiana club date … after starting the show four hours late, Neil pulls the plug after just three songs saying he is feeling ill and suggests that the audience of “rednecks” doesn’t appreciate his talent … a riot by 500 surly ticket holders is narrowly averted by the prompt arrival of the cops … after touring as part of the sixth annual Lollapalooza festival, The Ramones soldier on to Los Angeles to perform their 2,263rd and final show …

2000, the Jimi Hendrix estate successfully evicts the holder of the web domain jimihendrix.com …

2003, during a radio interview, Ted Nugent says that the people of Illinois are “spineless, apathetic, embarrassing wimps” for their lack of involvement in their state government … Nugent’s comments result from his displeasure over the state’s gun laws … despite his scorn, Nugent will play the Illinois State Fair later in the day … fortunately for the Motor City Madman, the audience is apparently a bunch of embarrassing wimps who are too spineless and apathetic to demand refunds …

2005, Leonard Cohen files a suit against his former business manager charging that Kelley Lynch ripped him off for $5 million from 1994 through 1999 while Cohen was chilling in a Buddhist center … FCC chairman Kevin Martin announces that his agency is investigating payola by record labels in the wake of Sony BMG Music Entertainment’s settlement of $10 million with New York over charges that the company plied key radio stations with lavish gifts and money to get its releases played … the list of artists who benefitted from Sony’s generosity include Jennifer Lopez, Jessica Simpson, Avril Lavigne, Maroon 5, Franz Ferdinand, Good Charlotte, Gretchen Wilson, Audioslave, and Celine Dion …

2008, the format of Rolling Stone magazine is downsized from large-format pages to a traditional magazine size to spur lagging sales … singer-songwriter Jackson Browne, who has a long history of supporting liberal causes, files suit against presidential candidate John McCain and the Ohio Republican Party for using his 1977 hit “Running on Empty” without permission … The Allman Brothers sue Universal Music Group for more than $10 million charging that they are owed royalties on downloads and CD sales of material they cut on the Capricorn label between 1969 and 1980 … The Police cap their 150-show world tour with a two-hour tour de force at Madison Square Garden … the first Police tour in 20 years, it started shakily and gained momentum as it went along … reflecting on the early shows, drummer Stewart Copeland is brutally frank, “At the beginning, we were crap. Each one of us had our own opinion of what was wrong … which could be summed up as ‘the other two guys'” …

2009, Eddie Van Halen is reported to be mending from surgery intended to deal with severe pain in his left hand … it is estimated that healing will be a four to six-month process …

…and that was the week that was.

Arrivals:

August 5: jazz singer Jeri Southern (1926), Vern Gosdin (1934), R&B vocalist Damita Jo (1940), guitarist Lenny Breau (1941), percussionist Airto Moreira (1941), sax player Rick Huxley of The Dave Clark Five (1942), country star Sammi Smith (1943), Rick Derringer of The McCoys (1947), Gregory Leskew of Guess Who (1947), Eddie Ojeda of Twisted Sister (1954), Pat Smear of Foo Fighters (1959), Pete Burns of Dead Or Alive (1959), Adam Yauch of The Beastie Boys (1964)

August 6: Delta bluesman Willie Brown (1900), The Ravens’ Jimmy Ricks (1924), jazz bassist Charlie Haden (1937), Isaac Hayes (1938), Judy Craig of The Chiffons (1946), guitarist Allan Holdsworth (1948), Pat McDonald of Timbuk 3 (1951), Randy DeBarge (1958), singer-songwriter Elliot Smith (1969), Geri Halliwell a.k.a. Ginger Spice of the Spice Girls (1972)

August 7: multi-instrumentalist jazz bandleader Benny Carter (1907), swing bandleader Freddie Slack (1910), pianist Mose Vinson (1917), lyricist Felice Bryant (1925), The Platters’ Herb Reed (1931), multi-instrumentalist jazz titan Rahsaan Roland Kirk (1936), Magic Slim—born Morris Holt (1937), pop vocalist Ron Holden (1939), B.J. Thomas (1942), Alfa Anderson of Chic (1946), Rodney Crowell (1950), bassist-songwriter Andy Fraser of Free (1952), Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden—not THE Bruce Dickinson (1958), Jacqui O’Sullivan of Bananarama (1960), Ian Dench of EMF (1964), Kristin Hersh of Throwing Muses (1964), Toxic (19??)

August 8: bandleader Lucky Millender (1900), honky-tonk vocalist Webb Pierce (1921), blues and jazz singer Jimmy Witherspoon (1923), blues singer Al King (1923), Sonny Til of The Orioles (1925), Mel Tillis (1932), pedal steel player extraordinaire Pete Drake (1932), Joe Tex (1933), pop singer Connie Stevens (1938), Philip E. Balsley of the Statler Brothers (1939), John “Jay” David of Dr. Hook (1942), English guitar virtuoso John Renbourn (1944), The Grateful Dead’s Ron “Pig Pen” McKernan (1946), Airrion Love of The Stylistics (1949), Stax-Volt drummer Willie Hall (1950), Madness guitarist Chris Foreman (1955), Ali Score of Flock of Seagulls (1956), Dennis Drew of 10,000 Maniacs (1957), Ricki Rockett of Poison (1959), U2’s The Edge a.k.a. David Evans (1961), Kool Moe Dee (1962), Aaron Abeyta of NOFX (1965), Creed singer Scott Stapp (1973), JC Chasez of *NSYNC (1976), Drew Lachey of 98 Degrees (1976)

August 9: barrelhouse pianist Robert Shaw (1908), string band musician Odell Thompson (1911), Harry Mills of The Mills Brothers (1913), Bill Henderson of The Spinners (1939), jazz drummer Jack DeJohnette (1942), Rinus Gerritsen of Golden Earring (1946), Barbara Mason (1947), Cars bassist Benjamin Orr (1955), rapper Kurtis Blow (1959), Aimee Mann (1960), Whitney Houston (1963), Arion Salazar of Third Eye Blind (1970)

August 10: Leo Fender (1909), country singer-sausage king Jimmy Dean (1928), bluegrass ace Jimmy Martin (1929), country-pop entertainer Larry Finnegan (1938), Righteous Brother Bobby Hatfield (1940), Ronnie Spector of The Ronettes (1947), Ian Anderson (1947), Patti Austin (1948), INXS drummer Jon Farriss (1961), singer Neneh Cherry (1964), Todd Nichols of Toad The Wet Sprocket (1967), Michael Bivins of New Edition (1968), Aaron Kamin of The Calling (1977)

August 11: Mike Hugg of Manfred Mann (1942), David Box—a Buddy Holly soundalike who ironically also died in a plane crash (1943), Jim Kale of Guess Who (1943), Eric Carmen (1949), Joe Jackson (1955), Bragi Olafsson of The Sugarcubes (1962), guitarist Charlie Sexton (1968), Chris “Mack Daddy” Kelly of Kriss Kross (1968), Ali of A Tribe Called Quest (1970), J-Boog of B2K (1985)

Departures:

August 5: bassist Randy Hobbs of The McCoys and Johnny Winter (1993), drummer Jeff Porcaro of Toto (1992), N’awlins bluesman Isidore “Tuts” Washington (1984), avant-garde bassist George Scott (1980), The Who’s first manager Pete Meadon (1978), country guitarist Luther Perkins (1968), one-man blues band Joe Hill Louis (1957)

August 6: Italian opera legend Luciano Pavarotti (2007), jazz bassist Keter Betts (2005), legendary Cuban singer Ibrahim Ferrer (2005), Rick James (2004), guitarist Tommy Mottola (2004), the U.K.’s answer to Louis Armstrong, Nat Gonella (1998), new wave singer Klaus Nomi (1983), blueswoman Memphis Minnie (1973), trumpeter Bix Beiderbecke (1931)

August 7: country guitarist William “Billy” Byrd (2001), harmonica virtuoso Larry Adler (2001), record store mogul Sam Goody (1991), R&B chanteuse Esther Phillips (1984), Homer a.k.a. Henry Haynes of Homer & Jethro (1971)

August 8: pianist Irving Sidney “Duke” Jordan (2006), alto sax man Julian “Cannonball” Adderley (1975)

August 9: composer David Raskin (2004), Drowning Pool’s Dave Williams (2002), producer Bob Herbert (1999), Jerry Garcia (1995), New Orleans session sax man Clarence Ford (1994), reggae singer Wilfred “Jackie” Edwards (1992), Brandon Mitchell, rapper with Wreckx-N-Effects (1990), trumpet player Bill Chase (1974), Lillian Roxon, one of rock’s first music critics (1973), Joe Gilbert of Joe and Eddie (1966)

August 10: singer-songwriter-soul man Isaac Hayes (2008), Widespread Panic guitarist Mikey Houser (2002), Bill Baker of The Five Satins (1994), New Orleans sax man Clarence Ford (1994), Ed Roberts of Ruby And The Romantics (1993), jazz singer Ernestine Allen (1992), swing bandleader Freddie Slack (1965), blues diva Lucille Bogan of “Shave ‘em Dry” infamy (1948)

August 11: pedal steel player Don Helms (2008), singer-talk show host Mike Douglas (2006), conductor Rafael Kubelick (1996), The Ventures drummer Mel Taylor (1996), bandleader-pianist Sonny Thompson (1989), Percy Mayfield—one day short of his 64th birthday (1984)

Read the rest of this crap at Toxic Web →

It happened this week…

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0

This is the week that was in matters musical …

1927, bluesman Texas Alexander records “Range In My Kitchen Blues” for Paramount Records in New York City …

1939, pioneering electric guitarist Charlie Christian sits in with Benny Goodman’s group at a club in Beverly Hills … Goodman isn’t interested in hearing an electric guitar, but Charlies’ manager John Hammond sneaks him onstage while Goodman is on a break … he proceeds to wow audiences and musicians alike with his seemingly endless single-string virtuosity …

1962, “Your Heart Belongs to Me” by the Supremes debuts on the Hot 100 chart … it is the first of their eventual 47 hits … Ringo Starr replaces Pete Best as The Beatles’ drummer … rumor has it Lennon and McCartney are frustrated by Best’s good looks, which attract the most groupies … fact is, Best isn’t cutting it as a drummer whereas Ringo is the missing piece of the puzzle …

1965, The Jefferson Airplane play their first live show at the Matrix Club in San Francisco … the band will ink a deal with RCA before the year’s end, one of the first rock bands on the Bay Area scene to do so …

1966, John Lennon generates more controversy after his recent Jesus comments by publicly expressing his admiration for American draft dodgers while the band is in Toronto …

1967, recording sessions resume for the classic Love album Forever Changes … sessions that began in June were marked with bickering and personnel changes that resulted in the producer bringing in members of L.A.’s famed session stars “The Wrecking Crew” to record backing tracks for three tunes prompting group members to get their recording chops together … Fleetwood Mac plays their first gig at the Windsor Jazz and Blues Festival a month before bassist John McVie joins the band even though the band’s name is derived from drummer Mick Fleetwood’s and McVie’s last names … the rhythm section these two form will be the only constant throughout the entire history of the band …

1968, The Jimi Hendrix Experience performs their instrumental version of the “Star Spangled Banner” for the first time in concert … a full month before Jose Feliciano sings his controversial version at Game 5 of the World Series in Detroit … a year later Hendrix will perform it at Woodstock, this time it is filmed and thereby influences countless other desecrations of our sacred national anthem …

1969, the Woodstock Music and Art Festival is held on Max Yasgur’s farm in Bethel, New York … anywhere from 300,000 to nearly half a million (depending on whose estimate you believe) will gather to celebrate what is billed as “3 Days of Peace and Music” and enjoy performances by a who’s who of rock, including Jimi Hendrix, The Who, Janis Joplin, the Grateful Dead, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Ten Years After, Joe Cocker, Santana, Sly & The Family Stone, and Jefferson Airplane …

1970, Jim Morrison’s trial for allegedly exposing himself during a 1969 concert begins in Miami … Morrison will be found guilty on one count of profanity and one count of indecent exposure but will appeal the convictions …

1977, The Police play their first gig as a threesome after guitar man Henri Padovani leaves the band … Peter Frampton comes alive in three sold-out shows at Madison Square Garden …

1985, Duran Duran singer Simon Le Bon nearly drowns after his yacht capsizes during a race off the coast of England …

1988, Michelle Shocked’s album Short Sharp Shocked is released with an authentic cover shot of the artist being carted off by a pair of L.A. cops … her label, Cooking Vinyl, overprints sunglasses on a policeman’s face and obscures a badge number to protect the innocent …

1990, in a tragic freak accident, part of a lighting rig falls on Curtis Mayfield during a performance in Brooklyn, New York … the incident leaves Mayfield paralyzed from the neck down …

1995, Courtney Love blows her cork when the audience at a Hole concert doesn’t get ecstatic over her performance on the last night of the Lollapalooza tour in Mountain View, California … security guards carry her off the stage when she begins to physically fight with audience members …

1998, Pete Townshend plays to an SRO crowd at Chicago’s House of Blues and raises $300,000 for Maryille Academy, a home for abused and neglected children …

1999, The Backstreet Boys break box office records by selling all 765,000 tickets for their North American tour in just one day, taking in a cool $30 million, most of it within just a single hour …

2003, during a radio interview, Ted Nugent says that the people of Illinois are “spineless, apathetic, embarrassing wimps” for their lack of involvement in their state government … Nugent’s comments result from his displeasure over the state’s gun laws … despite his scorn, Nugent will play the Illinois State Fair later in the day … fortunately for the Motor City Madman, the audience is apparently a bunch of embarrassing wimps who are too spineless and apathetic to demand refunds …

2005, a reworked version of the musical Lennon opens on Broadway following a debut in San Francisco that met with hostile reviews … the storyline of the rejiggered show has been revamped into a more linear flow when critics and audiences alike were mystified by the original libretto … Eminem cancels a European tour and checks into rehab … a representative says the sojourn is for a “dependancy on sleep medication” … the 11-date tour cancellation costs the rapper about $18 million in ticket sales … Madonna breaks her collarbone, hand, and three ribs when she’s tossed from a horse in England … the ride was in celebration of her 47th birthday …

2006, My Chemical Romance Toilet is obliged to cancel a San Diego festival date when singer Gerard Way and drummer Bob Bryar injure themselves while shooting a video …

2008, the format of Rolling Stone magazine is being downsized from large-format pages to traditional magazine size to spur lagging sales … The Allman Brothers sue Universal Music Group for more than $10 million charging that they are owed royalties on downloads and CD sales of material they cut on the Capricorn label between 1969 and 1980 …

2009, Eddie Van Halen is reported to be mending from surgery intended to deal with severe pain in his left hand … it is estimated that healing will be a four- to six-month process …

2010, after a ten-year absence, the first Lilith Fair completes its tour in Dallas … performers in this celebration of women in music included The Bangles, Brandi Carlisle, Colbie Caillat, Emmylou Harris, Erykah Badu, The Go-Go’s, Indigo Girls, Kelly Clarkson, Loretta Lynn, Martina McBride, Norah Jones, Rihanna, Sheryl Crow, Sugarland, Suzanne Vega, and of course, the originator of Lilith Fair, Sarah McLachlan who told Chris Harris of Rolling Stone magazine it was wonderful to see established and new artists alike have the opportunity to play in front of much larger or more diverse audiences than usual

… and that was the week that was in matters musical.

Arrivals:

August 11: Mike Hugg of Manfred Mann (1942), David Box—a Buddy Holly soundalike who ironically also died in a plane crash (1943), Jim Kale of Guess Who (1943), Eric Carmen (1949), Joe Jackson (1955), Bragi Olafsson of The Sugarcubes (1962), guitarist Charlie Sexton (1968), Ali of A Tribe Called Quest (1970), Chris “Mack Daddy” Kelly of Kriss Kross (1978), J-Boog of B2K (1985)

August 12: R&B singer-songwriter Percy Mayfield (1920), singer-songwriter Joe Jones (1926), Porter Wagoner (1927), Buck Owens, creator of “The Bakersfield Sound” (1929), pop songstress Jennifer Warren (1941), Mark Knopfler (1949), August Darnell of Kid Creole and the Coconuts (1950), jazz guitarist Pat Metheny (1954), Suzanne Vega (1959), Roy Hay of Culture Club (1961)

August 13: jazz pianist George Shearing (1919), “Baby Boy” Robert Warren (1919), Don Ho (1930), Dave “Baby” Cortez (1938), Son Seals (1942), Dan Fogelberg (1951), Wings guitarist Jimmy McCulloch (1953), Feargal Sharkey of The Undertones (1958)

August 14: swing and jazz violinist Stuff Smith (1909), R&B singer Jackie Brenston (1927), songwriter Carol Joyner Gourley (1938), Dash Crofts of Seals and Crofts (1940), David Crosby (1941), Tim Bogart of Vanilla Fudge (1944), inventor of the slap bass, Larry Graham (1946), Slim Dunlap of The Replacements (1951), Sharon Bryant of Atlantic Star (1956), Kevin Cadogan of Third Eye Blind (1970)

August 15: blues harp player Buster Brown, born Waymon Glasco (1911), Oscar Peterson (1925), bluegrass-country singer Rose Maddox (1925), Bill Pinkney of The Drifters (1925), R&B singer Bobby Byrd (1934), singer Bobby Helms (1936), Peter York of the Spencer Davis Group (1942), songwriter Jimmy Webb (1946), Tom Johnston of The Doobie Brothers (1948), Tommy Aldridge of Black Oak Arkansas (1950), MCA of The Beastie Boys (1967)

August 16: baritone jazz crooner Al Hibbler (1915), jazz pianist and composer Bill Evans (1929), English country and pop singer Karl Denver (1931), chanteuse Eydie Gormé (1931), lead singer of The Dubs, Richard Blandon (1934), New Orleans R&B singer Bobby Mitchell (1935), R&B singer-songwriter Barbara George (1942), songwriter and touring musician Kin Vassy (1943), Barry Hay of Golden Earring (1948), J.T. Taylor of Kool & The Gang (1953), Tim Farriss of INXS (1957), Madonna (born Louise Ciccone) (1958), Chris Pederson of Camper Van Beethoven (1960), Emily Erwin of Dixie Chicks (1972), singer-songwriter-pianist Vanessa Carlton (1980)

August 17: ’50s pop singer Georgia Gibbs (1919), Sam Butera, tenor sax player with Louis Prima (1927), Mark Dinning of “Teen Angel” fame (1933), bluesman Luther Allison (1939), Sib Hashian of Boston (1949), guitar virtuoso Eric Johnson (1954), XTC’s Colin Moulding (1955), Gilby Clark of Guns N’ Roses (1962), singer-songwriter Maria McKee (1964), Steve Gorman of Black Crowes (1965), Jill Cunniff of Luscious Jackson (1966), Donnie Wahlberg of New Kids on the Block (1969), Posdnuos of De La Soul (1969)

Departures:

August 11: pedal steel player Don Helms (2008), singer-talk show host Mike Douglas (2006), conductor Rafael Kubelick (1996), The Ventures drummer Mel Taylor (1996), bandleader-pianist Sonny Thompson (1989), Percy Mayfield—one day short of his 64th birthday (1984)

August 12: free jazz drummer Rashied Ali (2009), singer-talk show host Merv Griffin (2007), Luther Allison (1997), John Cage (1992), Japanese singer Kyu Sakamoto (1985), Buddy Holly producer Norman Petty (1984)

August 13: Little Feat drummer Richie Hayward (2010), guitar legend Les Paul (2009), John Loder, founder of the punk label Southern Records (2005), composer David Tudor (1996), blues drummer Fred Below (1988), soul singer Joe Tex, born Joseph Arrington Jr. (1982), soulful sax man King Curtis (1971), R&B star Joe Hinton (1968)

August 14: Johnny Duncan (2006), Esther Wong, owner of the L.A. punk venue Madame Wong’s (2005), Tony Williams, lead vocalist of The Platters (1992), Hawkwind vocalist Robert Calvert (1989), guitarist Roy Buchanan (1988)

August 15: record producer-pianist Jim Dickinson (2009), William Herbert “Lum” York, bass player for Hank Williams (2004), singer-songwriter Joe Seneca (1996), Jamaican singer-songwriter Jackie Edwards (1996), Thomas Wayne (1971), Stick Mcghee, born Granville McGhee, most associated with his song, “Drinkin’ Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee” (1961), influential bluesman Big Bill Broonzy (1958)

August 16: jazz drummer Max Roach (2007), percussionist Ray Romero (2006), country fiddler Vassar Clements (2005), Bobby DeBarge, member of R&B groups Switch and DeBarge (1995), Christian rock songwriter Mark Heard (1992), Stacy Sutherland, guitarist for The 13th Floor Elevators (1978), The King, Elvis Presley (1977), legendary bluesman Robert Johnson (1938)

August 17: Skatalite trumpeter, Dizzy Moore (2008), Bernard Odum, bassist with James Brown (2004), guitar-maker to the stars, Tony Zemaitis (2002), Chicago soul singer Johnny Sayles (1993), Phil Seymour, drummer and singer with The Dwight Twilley Band (1993), singer-actress Pearl Bailey (1990), soul singer Lorraine Ellison (1985), Paul Williams, singer and guitarist for The Temptations (1973)

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It happened this week…

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This is the week that was in matters musical…

1928, a candle starts a fire at a Gypsy caravan in France … the left hand of 18-year-old guitarist Django Reinhardt is badly burned, rendering two fingers useless … with his right leg also injured, Django is bedridden for 18 months and uses that time as therapy to rebuild his guitar chops so that by the mid-1930s he is a master of swing guitar and ultimately one of the best guitarists of any genre …

1936, country singer Hank Snow records for the first time … the songs are “Lonesome Blue Yodel” and “Prisoned Cowboy”…

1956, Elvis makes his second appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show… meanwhile, R&B singer Clarence Henry’s “Ain’t Got No Home” is released on the Argo label … because he sings like a frog on the record, for the rest of his career he will be known as Clarence “Frogman” Henry …

1960, Ben E. King, former lead singer for The Drifters, records his first solo numbers, “Spanish Harlem” and “Stand by Me”… the songs will climb to number 10 and number 4 respectively on the pop chart, and “Stand by Me” will prove to have long legs …

1964, “Oh, Pretty Woman” by Roy Orbison turns gold … it’s his ninth and last Top Ten single … this same week, The Supremes release “Come See About Me”…

1965, The Who release “My Generation” as a single …

1970, Jim Morrison gets six months in the slammer for exposing his privates in Miami … in other news, Michelle Phillips of the Mamas and the Papas marries actor Dennis Hopper … they divorce eight days later, proving wrong those who said the marriage wouldn’t last a week …

1972, Philly soul singer Billy Paul gets on the soul charts with “Me and Mrs. Jones” … the song will hold the top position for three weeks and will become a soul classic …

1975, Queen releases “Bohemian Rhapsody” as a single … with three and-a-half minutes being the standard limit to the length of a single, the band and producer Roy Thomas Baker have to convince EMI executives to release the six-minute recording without any edits … the single tops the U.K. chart for nine weeks and goes to number two in the U.S. … it will go to #1 again in the U.K. in 1991 after lead singer Freddie Mercury’s AIDS-related death … meanwhile, justifying his title of The Boss, Bruce Springsteen makes both the cover of Time and Newsweek

1983, Pink Floyd’s Dark Side Of The Moon becomes the longest-listed album ever on the Billboardchart–491 continuous weeks …

1986, The Beastie Boys release their album License To Ill, which will become the first rap album to reach number one on the album chart …

1988, Nirvana lead singer Kurt Cobain smashes his guitar onstage for the first time at the Evergreen State Dorm Room Party in Olympia, Washington …

1991, three members of Pink Floyd are injured in a Mexican auto race when their car plunges down a 230-foot embankment near San Luis Potosi … guitarist Steve O’Rourke suffers a broken leg, David Gilmour receives blows to the head, and drummer Nick Mason, though injured, continues the race …

1995, business manager Yolanda Saldivar is sentenced to life for the murder of Tejano singing star Selena … she murdered the singer upon being confronted about embezzled funds … that same week, Gloria Estefan performs for Pope John II as part of the celebration of the pontiff’s 50 years in the priesthood … she is the sole pop act invited to the event …

1998, Stray Cats leader Brian Setzer sues former bandmate Ken Kinneally who played with the guitarist in the pre-Stray Cats group, The Bloodless Pharoahs … Setzer charges that Kinneally licensed 1978 studio tracks without his consent that turned up on the Collectibles Records LP Brian Setzer & the Bloodless Pharoahs … other courtroom news this week, three former members of the S.F. punk outfit the Dead Kennedys sue former leader Jello Biafra charging he diverted money due to the plaintiffs for his own use …

1999, Pete Townshend, Roger Daltrey, and John Entwistle, the surviving members of The Who, reunite for the first time in two years for a concert in Las Vegas at the MGM Grand … simultaneously, Tina Turner announces plans for her final stadium concert tour …

2002, hip-hop giant Jam Master Jay of Run-DMC is shot dead in his Jamaica, Queens, recording studio … police pursue many leads and theories as to motive: unpaid drug bills, rival rappers, armed robbery, insurance scams, a rivalry with Murder, Inc. over 50 Cent, and more … the crime remains unsolved to this day …

2006, Kurt Cobain passes Elvis on the Forbes magazine list of “Top-Earning Dead Celebrities” … it’s estimated that the Nirvana frontman raked in $50 million over the past year … a substantial part of that sum results from licensing Nirvana songs for movies and TV … in other news, the absinthe flows like wine as Marilyn Manson opens his new Hollywood art gallery Celebritarian Corporation Gallery of Fine Art … on display is a painting of Adolf Hitler with breasts and a flaccid male member …

2007, Cass County Sheriff Paul D. Laney snares 36 Ozzy Osbourne fans wanted for various infractions in a sting … the Ozzheads were offered free tickets to Osbourne’s show in Fargo, ND, only to be popped when they showed up at the venue … Ozzy is not amused saying, “Sheriff Laney should be apologizing to me for using my name in connection with these arrests. It’s insulting to me and to my audience, and it shows how lazy this particular sheriff is when it comes to doing his job.” …

2008, producer Phil Spector’s retrial on charges of murdering actress Lana Clarkson convenes … his first trial ended with a hung jury …

2009, Rosanne Cash releases her new album The List, revealing that the collection of cover songs is based on a list of 100 classic American songs created by her father, Johnny Cash, aboard his tour bus in 1972 … Rosanne recalls the moment her father handed her the list saying, “This is your education.” … meanwhile, Classic Rock Awards Honor Anvil frontman Steve “Lips” Kudlow for the warts-and-all documentary Anvil! The Story of Anvil… accepting the DVD/film of the year award Steve says “I’m a guy who’s worked my whole life for this, and it’s the most rewarding moment I’ve ever had.” …

…and that was the week that was.

Arrivals:

October 27: Nashville pianist Floyd Cramer (1933), session guitarist Kermit Chandler (1945)

October 28: good ‘ol boy Charlie Daniels (1936), singer-songwriter Ted Hawkins (1936), blues-rock saxist-organist Graham Bond (1937), Hank Marvin of The Shadows (1941), singer Wayne Fontana (1945), Rickie Reynolds of Black Oak Arkansas (1948), Telma Hopkins of Tony Orlando & Dawn (1948), Stephen Morris of New Order (1957), William Reid of The Jesus & Mary Chain (1958), Ben Harper (1969), American Idol runner-up Justin Guarini (1978)

October 29: composer Vivian Ellis (1904), jazz arranger-composer Neal Hefti (1922), The Big Bopper J.P. Richardson (1930), Denny Laine of the Moody Blues and Wings (1944), Mickey Gallagher of Frampton’s Camel (1945), Peter Green, founder of Fleetwood Mac (1946), Roger O’Donnell of The Cure (1955), Kevin DuBrow of Quiet Riot (1955), Randy Jackson of the Jackson 5 (1961), Einar Orn Benediktsson of The Sugarcubes (1962), Peter Timmins of the Cowboy Junkies (1965), Douglas “SA” Vincent Martinez of 311 (1969), Toby Smith of Jamiroquai (1970)

October 30: trumpeter Clifford Brown (1930), rockabilly star Ray Smith (1934), Grace Slick born Grace Wing (1939), Otis Williams of the Temptations (1941), Timothy Schmit of Poco and The Eagles (1947), Jim Messina (1947), David Green of Air Supply (1949), Gavin Rossdale of Bush (1967)

October 31: Dale Evans (1912), Bernard Edwards of Chic (1952), South African rocker Johnny Clegg (1953), U2 drummer Larry Mullen Jr. (1961), Adam Horovitz a.k.a. King Ad Rock of the Beastie Boys (1966), Vanilla Ice born Robert Van Winkle (1967), Linn Berggren of Ace Of Base (1970)

November 1: blues songstress Sippie Wallace (1898), Peacock Records founder Don Robey (1903), Barry “Ballad of Green Berets” Sadler (1940), Rick Grech, bass player for Blind Faith and Traffic (1946), Dan Peek of America (1950), Ronald Bell of Kool and the Gang (1951), Lyle Lovett (1957), Anthony Kiedis of Red Hot Chili Peppers (1962), Def Leppard drummer Rick Allen (1963), Willie D of The Geto Boys (1966), LaTavia Roberson of Destiny’s Child (1981)

November 2: trumpet legend Bunny Berigan (1908), Keith Emerson (1944), J.D. Souther (1945), Dave Pegg of Jethro Tull (1947), Maxine Nightingale (1952), Carter Beauford of the Dave Matthews Band (1957), Matt Sorum of Cult, Guns N’ Roses, and Velvet Revolver (1960), k.d. lang born Katherine Dawn Lang (1961), Bobby Dall of Poison (1963), Reginald Arvizu of Korn (1969), John Hampson of Nine Days (1971), Nelly (1978)

Departures:

October 27:producer Tom Dowd (2002), rockabilly artist Donnie Owens (1994), T-Rex founding member Steve Peregrine-Took (1980)

October 28: country star Porter Wagoner (2007), R&B keyboard man Jon Thomas who sang “It’s Hurtin’ Me” (1995), R&B singer Billy Wright (1991), jazz arranger Oliver Nelson (1975), R&B reedman Earl Bostic (1965)

October 29: saxophonist Henry Berthold “Spike” Robinson (2001), jazz bandleader Woody Herman (1987), King Harvest drummer Wells Kelly (1984), guitar master Duane Allman (1971)

October 30: crooner Robert Goulet (2007), Ramones co-manager Linda Stein (2007), Jam Master Jay of Run-DMC (2002), TV host and musician Steve Allen (2000), hard swingin’ sax man Chu Berry (1941)

October 31: John Holohan, drummer for Bayside (2005), record exec Lester Sill (1994), A Chorus Line producer Joseph Papp (1991), guitarist Malcolm Hale of Spanky and Our Gang (1968)

November 1: Grand Funk Railroad manager Terry Knight (2004), classic blues singer and pianist Sippie Wallace (1986), pioneer Delta blues singer Tommy Johnson (1956)

November 2: Sammy Kaye Band singer Wandra Merrell (1994), Mississippi John Hurt (1966)

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It happened this week

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This is the week that was in matters musical…

1954, the first pocket-sized transistor radio, the Regency TR-1, is mass-marketed…

1960, Patsy Cline waxes the classic country weeper “I Fall to Pieces”…”Stay” by Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs holds down the #1 slot on the Billboard Pop Chart…the song is notable for being the shortest single in the rock era running a mere one minute and 37 seconds…a number of covers later reach the chart including Jackson Browne’s 1978 rendition…

1968, the queens of Detroit, The Supremes, perform at the Royal Variety Show in London while Queen Elizabeth looks on…the elegant beaded gowns they wear that night will become a star attraction in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 30 years later…

1972, Danny Whitten, guitarist in Crazy Horse, Neil Young’s backup band, dies of a heroin overdose…the talented axeman and songwriter provided a perfect foil for Young, trading licks with him on the extended guitar jams on Young’s long-form rockers “Down by the River” and “Cowgirl in the Sand”…Whitten’s OD will loom large in Young’s dark album Tonight’s The Night as well as in his song “Needle and the Damage Done”…

1974, John Lennon scores his only solo U.S. #1 single with “What Ever Gets You Through the Night”…

1976, Jerry Lee Lewis is busted for drunk driving after plunging his Rolls Royce into a ditch at 9 AM…

1979, Chuck Berry is released from the slammer following a stay on tax evasion charges…

1980, Don Henley of The Eagles is arrested after paramedics are called to treat a nude 16-year-old girl suffering from the effects of illicit drugs at his Los Angeles home…he is charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor and possession of an array of drugs…

1987, adopting the guise of a country-rock band called The Dalton Brothers, U2 opens for themselves at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum…U2 developed the collective alter ego during the third leg of the Joshua Tree tour…the Daltons consist of Betty Dalton (Adam Clayton), Luke Dalton (Edge), Alton Dalton (Bono), and Duke Dalton (Larry Mullen, Jr.)…they also open for U2 at the Hoosier Dome in Indiana and the Hampton Coliseum in Virginia…they wear wigs, sunglasses, and country-and-western-style clothing, play just a few songs, and go unrecognized by the majority of fans attending…

1988, Stan Love, brother of the Beach Boys’ Mike Love and former manager of the band, is sentenced to five years probation after being convicted of embezzling more than $300,000 from the singing surfers…

1989, during Queen’s performance of their hit “Fat Bottomed Girls” at a Madison Square Garden show, the band is accompanied by semi-nude women riding bicycles…

1990, in the wake of revelations that they had lip-synced their way to fame, the faux pop duo Milli Vanilli is ordered to return their Grammy award…”singer” Fabrice Morvan unrepentantly claims, “We can sing as good as any other pop star in the Top Ten.”…

1993, Nirvana tapes an MTV Unplugged session in one take…the show is aired with warts and all one month later…

1994, David Crosby gets a glistening, fresh liver…

1995, The Ghost of Tom Joad, Bruce Springsteen’s 13th album, is released…the title refers to a character in John Steinbeck’s novel The Grapes of Wrath, about the 1930s Dust Bowl emigration…

1997, rapper Coolio and his appropriately named backup band 40 Thevz are arrested in Boblingen, Germany, on charges of assaulting a boutique clerk and ripping off $2,000 worth of apparel…

1998, discount chain Kmart launches it MusicFavorites.com website offering 100,000 songs for download…despite its early entry into the electronic commerce arena, the site soon is eclipsed by competitors…ska saxman Roland Alphonso of the pioneering Skatalites collapses in mid-performance during a show at the Key Club in West Hollywood and later dies…Motley Crue fans have cause for celebration when the S’Crue, a store stuffed with Crue-related merch, opens on LA’s trendy Melrose Boulevard…

1999, Doug Sahm-who led the The Sir Douglas Quintet in the 1960s and was fluent in many music forms including Texas blues, Tex-Mex, rock, Cajun, and Western Swing-dies in Taos, NM, at 58…late in his career the singer and guitarist was a member of the critically acclaimed Tex-Mex supergroup The Texas Tornados…pop singer Jewel pulls the plug on her planned Anchorage, AK, New Year’s Eve show citing concerns over possible Y2K problems…word has it, however, that the cancellation is due to weak ticket sales…only 1,000 of the 8,000 available seats have been sold…country star Patty Loveless rides a train across Appalachia distributing 15 tons of Christmas gifts to poor families in Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia…

2003, Phil Spector is charged with the murder of Hollywood starlet Lana Clarkson…

2004, The New York Post reports former Van Halen vocalist David Lee Roth is training to become an EMT…the story recounts how Roth, while riding with an ambulance crew, saved the life of a Bronx heart-attack victim using a defibrillator…his tutor Linda Reissman says, “You would never know you were dealing with a rock ‘n’ roll guy. His commitment really is touching. He wants to help people.”…The United States Postal Service settles with the group Postal Service following more than a year of legal wrangling over the band’s name…in a creative compromise the duo, comprised of Death Cab for Cutie singer Ben Gibbard and electronic musician Jimmy Tamborello, agree to let the Postal Service use their music to promote the use of snail mail and refer to the USPS deal in Postal Service CDs…the musicians also promise to perform at the Postmaster General’s National Executive Conference in Washington…

2005, Gary Glitter is detained at Ho Chi Minh City Airport for questioning by Vietnamese police about alleged child sex offenses…an immigration official recognizes Glitter’s name-a.k.a. Paul Francis Gadd-from a newspaper article and calls the cops…the police are investigating reports he performed “obscene acts with a minor,” specifically two girls under the age of 18…under Vietnamese law the charge of obscene acts with a minor is worth one to five years jail time…the glam rock star has been living in Vietnam since March 2005 after being expelled from Cambodia…he left the UK after being jailed for possessing child pornography in 1999…

And that was the week that was.

Arrivals:
November 16: W.C. Handy (1873), Atlantic Records veteran Jesse Stone (1901), Toni Brown of Joy of Cooking (1928), folksinger Bob Gibson (1931), long-time Howlin’ Wolf guitarist Hubert Sumlin (1931), Nashville producer Felton Jarvis (1934), Garnett Mimms (1937), John Ryanes of The Monotones (1940), George “Smitty” Smith of The Manhattans (1943), Winfred “Blue” Lovett of The Manhattans (1943), Will Ackerman (1949), Patti Santos of It’s a Beautiful Day (1949), Mani of The Stone Roses (1962), Diana Krall (1964), Bryan Abrams of Color Me Badd (1969), Trevor Penick of O-Town (1979)

November 17: Gordon Lightfoot (1938), Bob Gaudio of The Four Seasons (1942), Gene Clark of The Byrds (1944), Martin Barre of Jethro Tull (1946), Jim Babjak of The Smithereens (1957), Harry Rushakoff of Concrete Blonde (1959), RuPaul (1960), Jeff Buckley (1966), Ben Wilson of Blues Traveler (1967), Ronnie DeVoe of Bell Biv DeVoe (1967), Isaac Hanson of Hanson (1980)

November 18: Sir William Gilbert of the Gilbert and Sullivan writing team (1836), Eugene Ormandy (1899), Imogene Coca (1908), Hank Ballard (1927), Bob Sanderson of The Royaltones (1935), Herman Rarebell of The Scorpions (1949), Graham Parker (1950), John McFee of The Doobie Brothers (1953), John Parr (1954), Michael Ramos of The BoDeans (1958), Kim Wilde (1960), Kirk Hammett (1962), Duncan Sheik (1969), Fabolous (1979)

November 19: Tommy Dorsey (1905), J.D. Sumner (1914), Ray Collins of The Mothers of Invention (1937), Pete Moore of The Miracles (1939), Graham Parker (1950), Matt Sorum of Guns N’ Roses (1960), Travis McNabb of Better Than Ezra (1969), Tamika Scott of Xscape (1977)

November 20: Dick Smothers (1939), Tony Butala of The Lettermen (1940), Norman Greenbaum (1942), Duane Allman (1946), Joe Walsh (1947), George Grantham of Poco (1947), Jim Brown of UB40 (1957), Todd Nance of Widespread Panic (1962), Mike “D” Diamond of The Beastie Boys (1965), Sen Dog of Cypress Hill (1965), songwriter Kevin Gilbert (1966), Q-Tip of A Tribe Called Quest (1970)

November 21: Coleman Hawkins (1904), R&B producer-manager Buck Ram (1907), blues and jazz pianist Lloyd Glenn (1909), vocalist-saxophonist “Big” John Greer (1923), Malcolm John Rebennack AKA Dr. John (1941), Lonnie Jordan of War (1948), Steve Ferguson of NRBQ (1949), Livingston Taylor (1950), Peter Koppes of The Church (1955), Stacy Guess of Squirrel Nut Zippers (1964), Bjork (1965), Blur’s Alex James (1968), Pretty Lou of Lost Boyz (1974), Kelsi Osborn of SHeDAISY (1984)

November 22: Hoagy Carmichael (1899), Benjamin Britten (1913), Foghat’s Rod Price (1940), Terry Stafford (1941), Steve Wahrer of The Trashmen (1941), Jamie Troy of The Classics (1942), Steve Caldwell of The Orlons (1942), Floyd Sneed of Three Dog Night (1943), Aston “Family Man” Barrett (1946), E Street Band’s Little Steven Van Zandt (1950), Tina Weymouth of Talking Heads (1950), Craig Hundley (1953), Jason Ringenberg of Jason & the Scorchers (1958), Rasa Don of Arrested Development (1968)

Departures:
November 16: British pop pianist Russ Conway (2000), Kid Rock sideman Joe C. AKA Joseph Calleja (2000), Gospel Music Hall of Fame member J.D. Sumner (1998), Dino Valenti of Quicksilver Messenger Service (1994), Francis Donia of Tavares (1984), raw-voiced soulman O.V. Wright (1980), music journalist Mike Leadbitter (1974)

November 17: Terry Stafford (1996), blues scholar/producer/label owner Pete Welding (1995), co-founder of RPM Records Jules Bihari (1984), John Glascock of Jethro Tull (1979)

November 18: Doug Sahm (1999), Alan Hull of Lindisfarne (1995), Cab Calloway (1994), prolific session drummer Freddie Waites (1989), Tom Evans of Badfinger (1983), Doug Roberts, drummer for Jimmy Gilmer and the Fireballs (1981), jazz singer Teddi King (1977), Danny Whitten of Crazy Horse (1972), Memphis bluesman “Little” Junior Parker (1971)

November 19: producer Terry Melcher (2004), songwriter Bobby Russell (1992), songwriter Carolyn Leigh (1983), Claude Feaster of The Chords (1975)

November 20: album cover artist Gene Greif (2004), Roland Alphonso of the Skatalites (1998), rock critic and blues producer Robert Palmer (1997), Chess and Vee-Jay Records session drummer Earl Phillips (1990)

November 21: Alvin Cash (1999), Matthew Ashman of Adam & the Ants and Bow Wow Wow (1995), Led Zeppelin manager Peter Grant (1995)

November 22: jazz impresario Norman Ganz (2001), Michael Hutchence of INXS (1997), Epick Soundtracks of The Swell Maps (1997), June Abbit of The 5 Royals (1995), Janet Ertel Bleyer of The Chordettes (1988)

It happened this week

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This is the week that was in matters musical …

1962, “Your Heart Belongs to Me” by the Supremes debuts on the Hot 100 chart … it is the first of their eventual 47 hits …

1964, The Rolling Stones know they have arrived when they get the chance to hang out with two of their idols, Muddy Waters and Willie Dixon, while recording at Chicago’s Chess studios … the band’s name resulted from a tune by Muddy …

1965, The Jefferson Airplane, finally cleared for take-off, plays their first live show at the Matrix Club in San Francisco … the band will ink a deal with RCA before the year’s end, one of the first rock bands in the Bay Area scene to do so …

1967, Fleetwood Mac plays their first gig at the Windsor Jazz and Blues Festival (Peter Green – still the greatest British guitarist – & Mick Fleetwood pictured) a month before John McVie joins the band and despite the fact that the band’s name is derived from Mick Fleetwood’s and McVie’s last names … while performing at the Sunbury Jazz and Blues Festival in England, Jerry Lee Lewis whips the crowd into a frenzy that begins to turn violent … three rockers leave with bleeding mouths, a stage assistant loses four teeth, and thanks to a six-inch, scaffold coupling pin thrown by one of Jerry Lee’s fans through the bass drum of Andrew Steele, his band The Herd doesn’t get heard, as they do not perform (acts that had the nerve to precede Lewis are showered with pennies) … fearing a full-scale riot, officials ask Lewis to leave the stage … ” I don’t care about you all dancing on the stage,” Lewis tells his fans during the near-riot, “but some of these people do.” … a steward is knocked out when a pint beer mug thrown by an unhappy fan hits him full in the face … “The Killer” leaves the stage, and surprisingly out of character, without gunplay … on an interesting side note, The Herd’s lead guitarist is none other than a young Peter Frampton, who later splits from The Herd after a long string of no hits to form Humble Pie with Steve Marriott … recording sessions resume for the classic Love album Forever Changes … sessions that began in June were marked with bickering and personnel changes that resulted in the producer bringing in members of L.A.’s famed session stars “The Wrecking Crew” to record backing tracks for three tunes …

1969, the Woodstock Music and Art Festival is held on Max Yasgur’s farm in Bethel, New York … nearly half a million gather to celebrate “3 Days of Peace and Music” (and mud, lots of mud) and enjoy performances by a “Who’s Who” of rock and roll, including Jimi Hendrix, The Who, Janis Joplin, the Grateful Dead, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Ten Years After, and Jefferson Airplane …

1970, Jim Morrison’s trial for allegedly exposing himself during a 1969 concert begins in Miami … Morrison will be found guilty on one count of profanity and one count of indecent exposure … even though the proceedings drain the Lizard King, he will appeal the convictions …

1972, Wings gets clipped when Paul and Linda McCartney are busted for pot possession following a Wings show in Gothenburg, Sweden … the couple is fined and released …

1978, Muddy Waters plays for President Jimmy Carter at the White House … hopefully the roadies didn’t have to work for Billy Beer …

1985, ebony and ivory separate in acrimony when Michael Jackson, after seeking sage investment council from his friend Paul McCartney, purchases the ATV music catalog that includes 251 Lennon/McCartney songs at auction for $47.5 million … McCartney and Yoko Ono attempt to purchase the songs only to be outbid by Jackson … McCartney and Jackson’s friendship ends promptly as a result … and yes, we know that song was with Stevie Wonder and Macca, but it still works for the situation … Duran Duran singer Simon Le Bon nearly durown durowns when his yacht capsizes during a race off the coast of England …

1990, in a tragic freak accident, part of a lighting rig falls on Curtis Mayfield during a performance in Brooklyn, New York … the incident leaves Mayfield paralyzed from the neck down …

1999, The Backstreet Boys break box office records by selling all 765,000 tickets for their North American tour in just one day, taking in a cool $30 million, most of it within just a single hour … perhaps The Beachfront Boys would be a more appropriate name …

2001, Dave Matthews and wife Ashley welcome their twin daughters Stella Busina and Grace Anne into the world …

2002, in an interview with Spin magazine, Motorhead leader Lemmy says he is thinking of having his notorious facial warts removed … Lemmy adds, “Yeah, I could sell them on the internet” … thankfully he later clarifies he’s not serious about the latter statement

2003, during a radio show in Springfield, Illinois, Ted Nugent says that the people of Illinois are “spineless, apathetic, embarrassing wimps” for their lack of involvement in their state government … Nugent’s comments come from his displeasure over the state’s gun laws … or was it his ticket sales? … despite his comments, Nugent will play the Illinois State Fair later in the day … fortunately for the Motor City Madman, the audience is apparently a bunch of embarrassing wimps who are too spineless and apathetic to demand refunds …

2004, even though it pheels like the phirst time to their phans, phree-wheeling jam band Phish perphorms its phinal 2-day concert in Coventry, VT, phor a phabulous phinish to a 21-year career …

2005, a civil court judge rules that the landmark punk club CBGB’s can’t be evicted from its Bowery location … in her ruling, Judge Joan Kenney praises the club’s impact on the neighborhood, which she said was plagued by “destitution, degradation and substance abuse” when the club opened in 1973 … “CBGB has proven itself worthy of being recognized as a landmark-a rare achievement for any commercial tenant in the ever diverse and competitive real estate market of New York City.” … despite the ruling, in what can only be described as a Bowery bummer, the birthplace of punk will lose its lease a year later and consider moving to Las Vegas, much to the dismay of New York punkers and politicians alike … Eminem cancels a European tour and checks into rehab…a representative says the sojourn is for a “dependency on sleep medication” … in what could be medically termed an Eminenema, the 11-date tour cancellation cleans out the rapper to the tune of $18 million in ticket sales … a reworked version of the musical Lennon opens on Broadway following a debut in San Francisco that met with hostile reviews … the storyline is revamped into a more linear flow when critics and audiences alike are mystified by the original libretto … while on the spiritual path to remove the “five fetters” of the material plane, singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen, rethinks the whole “non-attachment to material things” bit and files a suit against his former business manager, charging that Kelley Lynch ripped him off for $5 million from 1994 through 1999 while Cohen was meditating on the meaning of life in a Buddhist center … hey, removing four out of five fetters ain’t bad … besides, it’s much easier to reform when you’re rich …

2006, My Chemical Toilet (Romance) turns to a brief tryst with traditional medicine as singer Gerard Way and drummer Bob Bryar injure themselves while shooting a video and are obliged to cancel a San Diego festival date … pop singer and TV talk show host Mike Douglas dies at age 81 … for one week in 1972, John Lennon and Yoko Ono co-hosted his afternoon talk show … Douglas hit the Top 40 in 1966 with the song “The Men In My Little Girl’s Life” …

And that was the week that was.

Arrivals:

August 9: barrelhouse pianist Robert Shaw (1908), Odell Thompson (1911), Harry Mills of The Mills Brothers (1913), Bill Henderson of The Spinners (1939), jazz drummer Jack DeJohnette (1942), Rinus Gerritsen of Golden Earring (1946), Barbara Mason (1947), Cars bassist Benjamin Orr (1955), Kurtis Blow (1959), Aimee Mann (1960), Whitney Houston (1963)

August 10: Leo Fender (1909), country singer-sausage king Jimmy Dean (1928), bluegrass ace Jimmy Martin (1929), country-pop entertainer Larry Finnegan (1938), Righteous Brother Bobby Hatfield (1940), Ronnie Spector (1947), Ian Anderson (1947), Patti Austin (1948), INXS drummer John Farriss (1961), Neneh Cherry (1964), Todd Nichols of Toad The Wet Sprocket (1967), Michael Bivins of New Edition (1968), Ghost By Night bassist Ara Ajizian (1974), Aaron Kamin of The Calling (1977)

August 11: Mike Hugg of Manfred Mann (1942), David Box – Buddy Holly sound-alike, ironically died in a plane crash (1943), Jim Kale of Guess Who (1943), Eric Carmen (1949), Joe Jackson (1955), Bragi Olaffson of The Sugarcubes (1962), Charlie Sexton (1968), Chris “Mack Daddy” Kelly (1968), Ali of A Tribe Called Quest (1970), J-Boog of B2K (1985)

August 12: Percy Mayfield (1920), singer-songwriter Joe Jones (1926), Porter Wagoner (1927), Buck Owens (1929), Jennifer Warren (1941), Mark Knopfler (1949), Kid Creole (1950), Pat Metheny (1954), Suzanne Vega (1959), Roy Hay of Culture Club (1961)

August 13: jazz pianist George Shearing (1919), “Baby Boy” Robert Warren (1919), Don Ho (1930), Dave “Baby” Cortez (1938), Son Seals (1942), Dan Fogelberg (1951), Wings guitarist Jimmy McCulloch (1953), Feargal Sharkey of The Undertones (1958)

August 14: swing and jazz violinist Stuff Smith (1909), R&B singer Jackie Brenston (1927), songwriter Carol Joyner Gourley (1938), Dash Crofts of Seals and Crofts (1940), David Crosby (1941), Tim Bogart of Vanilla Fudge (1944), inventor of the slap bass, Larry Graham (1946), Slim Dunlap of The Replacements (1951), Sharon Bryant of Atlantic Star (1956), Kevin Cadogan of Third Eye Blind (1970)

August 15: blues harp player Buster Brown, born Waymon Glasco (1911), Oscar Peterson (1925), bluegrass-country singer Rose Maddox (1925), Bill Pinkney of The Drifters (1925), R&B singer Bobby Byrd (1934), singer Bobby Helms (1936), Peter York of the Spencer Davis Group (1942), songwriter Jimmy Webb (1946), Tom Johnston of The Doobie Brothers (1948), Tommy Aldridge of Black Oak Arkansas (1950), MCA of The Beastie Boys (1967)

Departures:

August 9: composer David Raskin (2004), Drowning Pool’s Dave Williams (2002), producer, Bob Herbert (1999), Jerry Garcia (1995), reggae singer Wilfred “Jackie” Edwards (1992), Brandon Mitchell, rapper with Wreckx-N-Effects (1990), Lillian Roxon, one of rock’s first music critics (1973), Joe Gilbert of Joe and Eddie (1966), Eddie Brown of Joe and Eddie (1966)

August 10: Widespread Panic guitarist Mikey Houser (2002), Ball Baker of The Five Satins (1994), New Orleans saxman Clarence Ford (1994), Ed Roberts of Ruby And The Romantics (1993), jazz singer Ernestine Allen (1992), swing bandleader Freddie Slack (1965), blues diva Lucille Bogan of “Shave ’em Dry” infamy (1948)

August 11: Mike Douglas (2006), conductor Rafael Kubelick (1996), Mel Taylor, drummer of The Ventures (1996), bandleader-pianist Sonny Thompson (1989), Percy Mayfield – one day short of his 64th birthday (1984)

August 12: Luther Allison (1997), John Cage (1992), Japanese singer Kyu Sakamoto (1985), Norman Petty, producer of Buddy Holly (1984)

August 13: John Loder, founder of the punk label Southern Records (2005), composer David Tudor (1996), blues drummer Fred Below (1988), soul singer Joe Tex, born Joseph Arrington Jr. (1982), King Curtis (1971), R&B star Joe Hinton (1968)

August 14: Johnny Duncan (2006), Esther Wong, owner of the L.A. punk venue Madame Wong’s (2005), Tony Williams, lead vocalist of The Platters (1992), Hawkwind vocalist Robert Calvert (1989), guitarist Roy Buchanan (1988)

August 15: William Herbert “Lum” York, bass player for Hank Williams (2004), singer-songwriter Joe Seneca (1996), Jamaican singer-songwriter Jackie Edwards (1996), Thomas Wayne (1971), Stick Mcghee, born Granville McGhee, most associated with his song, “Drinkin’ Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee” (1961), influential bluesman Big Bill Broonzy (1958)

It happened this week

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0

This is the week that was in matters musical …

1937, Bunny Berrigan and his orchestra record the jazz standard “I Can’t Get Started”… the chord changes from this oft-covered tune become a staple for bebop musicians a decade later …

1957, John Lennon and his band The Quarrymen play their debut date at Liverpool’s Cavern Club, a venue devoted to jazz and skiffle … after the band performs “Come Go With Me,” “Hound Dog,” and “Blue Suede Shoes,” irate club owner Alan Sytner sends a note up to the stage reading, “Cut out the bloody rock!” … Paul McCartney, who might have offered a softer side to John’s rockers, did not make the gig … he was at scout camp …

1962, “Your Heart Belongs to Me” by the Supremes debuts on the Hot 100 chart … it is the first of their eventual 47 hits …

1964, The Rolling Stones know they have arrived when they get the chance to hang out with two of their idols, Muddy Waters and Willie Dixon, while recording at Chicago’s Chess Studios … the band’s name resulted from a tune by Muddy …

1965, The Jefferson Airplane, finally cleared for take-off, plays their first live show at the Matrix Club in San Francisco … the band will ink a deal with RCA before the year’s end, one of the first rock bands in the Bay Area scene to do so … this same week, Herman’s Hermits command the top of the pop chart with their “I’m Henry the VIII, I Am” … the novelty tune is a British music hall favorite written in 1911 … no one could remember anything other than the chorus (Herman calls it a verse on the recording), so they just keep repeating it …

1967, Fleetwood Mac plays their first gig at the Windsor Jazz and Blues Festival a month before John McVie joins the band, this despite the fact the band’s name is derived from Mick Fleetwood’s and McVie’s last names … while performing at the Sunbury Jazz and Blues Festival in England, Jerry Lee Lewis whips the crowd into a frenzy that begins to turn violent … three rockers leave with bleeding mouths, a stage assistant loses four teeth, and, thanks to a six-inch scaffold coupling pin being thrown through the bass drum of Andrew Steele, his band The Herd doesn’t get heard … fearing a full-scale riot, officials ask Lewis to leave the stage … “I don’t care about you all dancing on the stage,” Lewis tells his fans, “but some of these people do.” … interestingly, The Herd’s lead guitarist is none other than a young Peter Frampton, who later splits from the band after a long hitless spell to form Humble Pie with Steve Marriott … meanwhile in L.A., recording sessions resume for the classic Love album Forever Changes … sessions that began in June were marked with bickering and personnel changes that resulted in the producer bringing in L.A.’s famed session stars “The Wrecking Crew” to record backing tracks for three tunes …

1970, Jim Morrison’s trial for allegedly exposing himself during a 1969 concert begins in Miami … Morrison will be found guilty on one count of profanity and one count of indecent exposure … even though the proceedings drain the Lizard King, he will appeal the convictions …

1972, Wings gets clipped when Paul and Linda McCartney are busted for pot possession following a show in Gothenburg, Sweden … the couple is fined and released …

1978, Muddy Waters plays for President Jimmy Carter at the White House …

1985, ebony and ivory separate in acrimony when Michael Jackson, after seeking sage investment council from his friend Paul McCartney, purchases the ATV music catalog that includes 251 Lennon/McCartney songs at auction for $47.5 million … McCartney and Yoko Ono attempt to purchase the songs only to be outbid by Jackson … McCartney and Jackson’s friendship ends promptly as a result … and yes, we know that song was done by Stevie Wonder and Macca, but it still works for the situation … Duran Duran singer Simon Le Bon nearly durown durowns when his yacht capsizes during a race off the coast of England …

2000, the Jimi Hendrix estate successfully evicts the holder of the web domain jimihendrix.com …

2001, Dave Matthews and wife Ashley welcome their twin daughters Stella Busina and Grace Anne into the world …

2002, in an interview with Spin magazine, Motorhead leader Lemmy says he is thinking of having his notorious facial warts removed … Lemmy adds, “Yeah, I could sell them on the internet” … thankfully he later clarifies he’s not serious about the latter statement …

2003, during a radio interview, Ted Nugent says that the people of Illinois are “spineless, apathetic, embarrassing wimps” for their lack of involvement in their state government … Nugent’s comments result from his displeasure over the state’s gun laws … despite his scorn, Nugent will play the Illinois State Fair later in the day … fortunately for the Motor City Madman, the audience is apparently a bunch of embarrassing wimps who are too spineless and apathetic to demand refunds …

2005, a civil court judge rules that the landmark punk club CBGB’s can’t be evicted from its Bowery location … in her ruling, Judge Joan Kenney praises the club’s impact on the neighborhood, which she said was plagued by “destitution, degradation and substance abuse” when the club opened in 1973 … “CBGB has proven itself worthy of being recognized as a landmark—a rare achievement for any commercial tenant in the ever-diverse and competitive real estate market of New York City.” … despite the ruling, in what can only be described as a Bowery bummer, the birthplace of punk will lose its lease a year later and consider moving to Las Vegas, much to the dismay of New York punkers and politicians alike … Eminem cancels a European tour and checks into rehab…a representative says the sojourn is for a “dependency on sleep medication” … in what could be medically termed an Eminenema, the 11-date tour cancellation cleans out the rapper to the tune of $18 million in ticket sales … while on the spiritual path to remove the “five fetters” of the material plane, singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen, rethinks the whole “non-attachment to material things” bit and files a suit against his former business manager, charging that Kelley Lynch ripped him off for $5 million from 1994 through 1999 while Cohen was meditating on the meaning of life in a Buddhist center … hey, removing four out of five fetters ain’t bad … besides, it’s much easier to reform when you’re rich … tragically this week, Marc Cohn, the singer-songwriter who struck gold in 1991 with his hit “Walking in Memphis” is shot in the head during a carjacking in Denver…amazingly he survives the injury and makes a full recovery …

2006, My Chemical Toilet turns to a brief tryst with traditional medicine as singer Gerard Way and drummer Bob Bryar injure themselves while shooting a video and are obliged to cancel a San Diego festival date … pop singer and TV talk show host Mike Douglas dies at age 81 … for one week in 1972, John Lennon and Yoko Ono co-hosted his afternoon talk show … Douglas hit the Top 40 in 1966 with the song “The Men In My Little Girl’s Life” …

And that was the week that was.

Arrivals:

August 7: Benny Carter (1907), swing bandleader Freddie Slack (1910), pianist Mose Vinson (1917), lyricist Felice Bryant (1925), The Platters’ Herb Reed (1931), multi-instrumentalist jazz titan Rahsaan Roland Kirk (1936), Magic Slim, born Morris Holt (1937), pop vocalist Ron Holden (1939), B.J. Thomas (1942), Rodney Crowell (1950), bassist-songwriter Andy Fraser of Free (1952), Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden – not the Bruce Dickinson (1958), Toxic (19??), Jacqui O’Sullivan of Bananarama (1960), Ian Dench of EMF (1964), Kristen Hersh of Throwing Muses (1964)

August 8: bandleader Lucky Millender (1900), Webb Pierce (1921), Jimmy Witherspoon (1923), blues singer Al King (1923), Sonny Til of The Orioles (1925), Mel Tillis (1932), pedal steel player extraordinaire Pete Drake (1932), Joe Tex (1933), Connie Stevens (1938), Philip E. Balsley of the Statler Brothers (1939), John “Jay” David of Dr. Hook (1942), The Grateful Dead’s Ron “Pig Pen” McKernan (1946), Airrion Love of The Stylistics (1949), Ali Score of Flock of Seagulls (1956), Dennis Drew of 10,000 Maniacs (1957), Chris Foreman of Madness (1958), Ricki Rockett of Poison (1959), U2’s The Edge a.k.a. David Evans (1961), Kool Moe Dee (1962), JC Chasez of *NSYNC (1976), Drew Lachey of 98 Degrees (1976)

August 9: barrelhouse pianist Robert Shaw (1908), Odell Thompson (1911), Harry Mills of The Mills Brothers (1913), Bill Henderson of The Spinners (1939), jazz drummer Jack DeJohnette (1942), Rinus Gerritsen of Golden Earring (1946), Barbara Mason (1947), Cars bassist Benjamin Orr (1955), Kurtis Blow (1959), Aimee Mann (1960), Whitney Houston (1963)

August 10: Leo Fender (1909), country singer-sausage king Jimmy Dean (1928), bluegrass ace Jimmy Martin (1929), country-pop entertainer Larry Finnegan (1938), Righteous Brother Bobby Hatfield (1940), Ronnie Spector (1947), Ian Anderson (1947), Patti Austin (1948), INXS drummer John Farriss (1961), Neneh Cherry (1964), Todd Nichols of Toad The Wet Sprocket (1967), Michael Bivins of New Edition (1968), Ghost By Night bassist Ara Ajizian (1974), Aaron Kamin of The Calling (1977)

August 11: Mike Hugg of Manfred Mann (1942), David Box – a Buddy Holly soundalike who ironically died in a plane crash (1943), Jim Kale of Guess Who (1943), Eric Carmen (1949), Joe Jackson (1955), Bragi Olaffson of The Sugarcubes (1962), Charlie Sexton (1968), Chris “Mack Daddy” Kelly (1968), Ali of A Tribe Called Quest (1970), J-Boog of B2K (1985)

August 12: Percy Mayfield (1920), singer-songwriter Joe Jones (1926), Porter Wagoner (1927), Buck Owens (1929), Jennifer Warren (1941), Mark Knopfler (1949), Kid Creole (1950), Pat Metheny (1954), Suzanne Vega (1959), Roy Hay of Culture Club (1961)

August 13: jazz pianist George Shearing (1919), “Baby Boy” Robert Warren (1919), Don Ho (1930), Dave “Baby” Cortez (1938), Son Seals (1942), Dan Fogelberg (1951), Wings guitarist Jimmy McCulloch (1953), Feargal Sharkey of The Undertones (1958)

Departures:

August 7: country guitarist William “Billy” Byrd (2001), harmonica virtuoso Larry Adler (2001), record store mogul Sam Goody (1991), R&B chantreuse Esther Phillips (1984), Homer a.k.a. Henry Haynes of Homer & Jethro (1971)

August 8: pianist Irving Sidney “Duke” Jordan (2006), Julian “Cannonball” Adderley (1975)

August 9: composer David Raskin (2004), Drowning Pool’s Dave Williams (2002), producer Bob Herbert (1999), Jerry Garcia (1995), reggae singer Wilfred “Jackie” Edwards (1992), Brandon Mitchell, rapper with Wreckx-N-Effects (1990), Lillian Roxon, one of rock’s first music critics (1973), Joe Gilbert of Joe and Eddie (1966)

August 10: Widespread Panic guitarist Mikey Houser (2002), Ball Baker of The Five Satins (1994), New Orleans saxman Clarence Ford (1994), Ed Roberts of Ruby And The Romantics (1993), jazz singer Ernestine Allen (1992), swing bandleader Freddie Slack (1965), blues diva Lucille Bogan of “Shave ’em Dry” infamy (1948)

August 11: singer-talkshow host Mike Douglas (2006), conductor Rafael Kubelick (1996), Mel Taylor, drummer of The Ventures (1996), bandleader-pianist Sonny Thompson (1989), Percy Mayfield – one day short of his 64th birthday (1984)

August 12: singer-talkshow host Merv Griffin (2007), Luther Allison (1997), John Cage (1992), Japanese singer Kyu Sakamoto (1985), Norman Petty, producer of Buddy Holly (1984)

August 13: John Loder, founder of the punk label Southern Records (2005), composer David Tudor (1996), blues drummer Fred Below (1988), soul singer Joe Tex, born Joseph Arrington Jr. (1982), King Curtis (1971), R&B star Joe Hinton (1968)

It happened this week

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0

This is the week that was in matters musical …

1877, Ernst Siemens patents the first loudspeaker …

1952, the first British pop chart is published in the New Musical Express … the top six songs are all U.S. acts and are led by Al Martino’s “Here in My Heart” …

1953, the first pocket-sized transistor radio, the Regency TR-1, is mass-marketed …

1957, Patsy Cline is named Most Promising Country & Western Artist in this year’s disc jockey poll by Billboard magazine …

1960, The Shirelles release “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow” with songwriter Carole King on drums … “Stay” by Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs holds down the #1 slot on the Billboard Pop Chart … the song is notable for being the shortest single in the rock era, running a mere one minute and 37 seconds … a number of covers later reach the chart including Jackson Browne’s 1978 rendition …

1961, “Crazy” hits the country charts for Patsy Cline …

1965, San Francisco’s first-wave psychedelic dance band Jefferson Airplane signs a contract with RCA Records for a then-unprecedented $25,000 … they would later come to regret not signing with a more “hip” label …

1968, the queens of Detroit, The Supremes, perform at the Royal Variety Show in London while Queen Elizabeth looks on … the elegant beaded gowns they wear that night will become a star attraction in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 30 years later …

1969, Janis Joplin is arrested in her dressing room at a concert in Tampa, Florida, for cussing at The Man … earlier, in the auditorium, a cop is screaming through a bullhorn at her fans to sit down and she tells him, “Don’t @#&* with these people. Hey, mister, what are you so uptight about? Did you buy a five-dollar ticket?” … she is similarly disrespectful addressing police backstage when they insist that SHE tell the audience to sit down … she gets out on a $50 bond and the charges of “vulgar and indecent language” are eventually dropped …

1972, Danny Whitten, guitarist in Crazy Horse, Neil Young’s backup band, dies of a heroin overdose … the talented axeman and songwriter provided a perfect foil for Young, trading licks with him on the extended guitar jams on Young’s long-form rockers “Down by the River” and “Cowgirl in the Sand” … Whitten’s OD will loom large in Young’s dark album Tonight’s The Night as well as in his song “Needle and the Damage Done” …

1973, Jerry Lee Lewis, Jr., son of the Killer, meets his demise on a rural highway near Hernando, Mississippi … at 19, he’s developed some chops on the drums and has just played on TV’s Midnight Special with his dad’s band … it’s the second time Lewis has lost a son, 11 years earlier his only other son drowned in the family swimming pool …

1973, while Deep Purple’s Richie Blackmore plays a concert in San Francisco, someone impersonating the smokin’ guitar man smashes up a borrowed Porsche in Iowa City … John Lennon’s “Whatever Gets You Through the Night” lodges in the #1 pop chart slot … Elton John contributes piano, organ, and backing vocals to the single …

1978, Queen plays Madison Square Garden … during their hit number “Fat Bottomed Girls,” they are accompanied by semi-nude women riding bicycles …

1979, Chuck Berry is released from the slammer following a stay on tax evasion charges …

1981, The Police top the charts in the U.K. with “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic” …

1987, adopting the guise of a country-rock band called The Dalton Brothers, U2 opens for themselves at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum … the band developed the collective alter ego during the third leg of the Joshua Tree tour … the Daltons consist of Betty Dalton (Adam Clayton), Luke Dalton (Edge), Alton Dalton (Bono), and Duke Dalton (Larry Mullen, Jr.) … they also open for U2 at the Hoosier Dome in Indiana and the Hampton Coliseum in Virginia wearing wigs, sunglasses, and country-and-western-style clothing …they play just a few songs and go unrecognized by the majority of fans attending …

1988, Stan Love, former Beach Boys manager and brother of lead singer Mike Love, gets five years probation for embezzling $300,000 from the group …

1990, in the wake of revelations that they had lip-synced their way to fame, the faux pop duo Milli Vanilli is ordered to return their Grammy award … “singer” Fabrice Morvan unrepentantly claims, “We can sing as good as any other pop star in the Top Ten.” …

1993, Nirvana videotapes an MTV Unplugged … it’s shot live in one take, mistakes included, and airs one month later …

1995, even though there are some empty seats at the Bee Gees’ show at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, they still manage to rake in an impressive $1.7 million in gross box office receipts … ticket prices range between $50 and $300 …

1998, discount chain Kmart launches its MusicFavorites.com website offering 100,000 songs for download … despite its early entry into the electronic commerce arena, the site soon is eclipsed by competitors …

2000, Michael Abram, the man who a year earlier broke into George Harrison’s home and stabbed Harrison before being subdued by the ex-Beatle and his wife, is found guilty by reason of insanity and ordered confined to a mental hospital for an indefinite stay …

2003, Ol’ Dirty Bastard AKA Russsell Jones of Wu-Tang Clan dies of a deadly mix of painkillers and cocaine …the New York Post reports that former Van Halen vocalist David Lee Roth is training to become an emergency medical technician … the story recounts how Roth, while riding with an ambulance crew, saved the life of a Bronx heart-attack victim using a defibrillator … according to his tutor Linda Reissman, “You would never know you were dealing with a rock ‘n’ roll guy. His commitment is really touching. He wants to help people.” … The United States Postal Service settles with the group Postal Service following more than a year of legal maneuvering over the band’s name … in a creative compromise the duo comprised of Death Cab for Cutie singer Ben Gibbard and electronic musician Jimmy Tamborello agree to let the Postal Service use their music to promote the use of snail mail and to refer to the USPS deal in Postal Service CDs … the musicians also agree to perform at the postmaster general’s National Executive Conference in Washington …

2005, A CBS special, I Walk the Line – A Night with Johnny Cash, is aired … the show features artists such as Kris Kistofferson, U2, Sheryl Crow, and Foo Fighters performing songs from the Man in Black’s repertoire …

2006, Peter Gabriel is named The Man of Peace for 2006 by a foundation headed by former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev … former winners include Bob Geldof and Cat Stevens …

2007, in a Rolling Stone interview, much-arrested Babyshambles frontman Pete Doherty explains his penchant for illicit substances …”I can honestly say that the reason I do drugs is not because of my childhood or because I have self-esteem issues or resentments. It’s purely because I enjoy it.” … MTV Arabia begins broadcasting across the Middle East with a mix of regional and Western artists as well as cleaned-up versions of shows such as Punk’d and Pimp My Ride … The Red Hot Chili Peppers file suit against Showtime claiming that the cable network’s use of the name Californication—also the title of the band’s 1999 album—was a misuse of the band’s intellectual property …

… and that was the week that was in matters musical.

Arrivals:

November 13: John Novarese, owner of Hi Records (1923), R&B singer Justine “Baby” Washington (1940), Annette Kleinbard of The Teddy Bears (1941), R&B singer and producer Timmy Thomas (1944), Bill Gibson of Huey Lewis and the News (1951), Walter Kibby of Fishbone (1964)

November 14: composer Aaron Copland (1900), Sir Joseph Lockwood of EMI Records (1904), featured singer with Gene Krupa Band Johnny Desmond (1921), composer Joonas Kokkonen (1921), Chicago harp man Carey Bell (1936), Cornell Gunter of The Coasters (1938), Freddie Garrity of Freddie and the Dreamers (1940), accordionist-zydeco performer Buckwheat Zydeco (1947), James Young of Styx (1948), singer and guitarist Stephen Bishop (1951), Frankie Banali of Quiet Riot (1953), Alec John Such of Bon Jovi (1956), rapper Joe “Run” Simmons of Run-D.M.C. (1964), Brian Yale of matchbox twenty (1968), Travis Barker of blink-182 (1975), R&B singer Adina Howard (1975)

November 15: elevator-music maestro Mantovani (1905), Ike Turner’s pianist Clayton Love (1927), R&B singer Clyde McPhatter (1932), pop singer Petula Clark (1932), Little Willie John born William J. Woods (1937), Frida of ABBA (1945), bassist Steve Fossen of Heart (1949), Michael Cooper of Con Funk Shun (1952), Alexander O’Neal (1953), Tony Thompson of Chic (1954), Tonight Show bandleader Kevin Eubanks (1957), Joe Leeway of Thompson Twins (1957), Ol’ Dirty Bastard AKA Russell Jones of Wu-Tang Clan (1968)

November 16: “Father of the Blues” W.C. Handy (1873), Atlantic Records veteran Jesse Stone (1901), Toni Brown of Joy of Cooking (1928), folksinger Bob Gibson (1931), long-time Howlin’ Wolf guitarist Hubert Sumlin (1931), Nashville producer Felton Jarvis (1934), R&B-soul singer Garnett Mimms (1937), John Ryanes of The Monotones (1940), George “Smitty” Smith of The Manhattans (1943), Winfred “Blue” Lovett of The Manhattans (1943), acoustic guitarist-composer Will Ackerman (1949), Patti Santos of It’s a Beautiful Day (1949), Mani of The Stone Roses (1962), Diana Krall (1964), Bryan Abrams of Color Me Badd (1969), Trevor Penick of O-Town (1979)

November 17: folksinger Gordon Lightfoot (1938), Bob Gaudio of The Four Seasons (1942), Gene Clark of The Byrds (1944), Martin Barre of Jethro Tull (1946), Jim Babjak of The Smithereens (1957), Harry Rushakoff of Concrete Blonde (1959), drag performer-singer RuPaul (1960), singer-songwriter-guitarist Jeff Buckley (1966), Ben Wilson of Blues Traveler (1967), Ronnie DeVoe of Bell Biv DeVoe (1967), Isaac Hanson of Hanson (1980)

November 18: Sir William Gilbert of the Gilbert and Sullivan writing team (1836), conductor Eugene Ormandy (1899), comedic actress-singer Imogene Coca (1908), R&B singer Hank Ballard (1927), Bob Sanderson of The Royaltones (1935), Herman Rarebell of The Scorpions (1949), rock singer-songwriter-guitarist Graham Parker (1950), John McFee of The Doobie Brothers (1953), singer-two-hit wonder John Parr (1954), Michael Ramos of The BoDeans (1958), British pop singer Kim Wilde (1960), Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett (1962), singer-songwriter Duncan Sheik (1969), rapper Fabolous (1979)

November 19: bandleader Tommy Dorsey (1905), gospel singer J.D. Sumner (1914), singer Ray Collins of The Mothers of Invention (1937), Pete Moore of The Miracles (1939), Matt Sorum of Guns N’ Roses (1960), Travis McNabb of Better Than Ezra (1969), Tamika Scott of Xscape (1975)

Departures:

November 13: rapper Ol’ Dirty Bastard (2004), Donald Mills of The Mills Brothers (1999), R.J. Vealey of the Atlanta Rhythm Section (1999), jazz and R&B pianist Bill Doggett (1996), Ronnie Bond of The Troggs (1992), Jerry Lee Lewis Jr. (1973)

November 14: John Cascella, keyboardist with John Mellencamp (1992), singer Dallas Taylor (1986), dub pioneer Keith Hudson (1984)

November 15: composer-arranger Saul Chaplin (1997), disco producer Jacques Morali (1991)

November 16: British pop pianist Russ Conway (2000), Kid Rock sideman Joe C. AKA Joseph Calleja (2000), Gospel Music Hall of Fame member J.D. Sumner (1998), Dino Valenti of Quicksilver Messenger Service (1994), Francis Donia of Tavares (1984), raw-voiced soulman O.V. Wright (1980), music journalist Mike Leadbitter (1974)

November 17: singer Ruth Brown (2006), Stax soul singer Arthur Conley (2003), singer-songwriter Terry Stafford (1996), blues scholar, producer, and label owner Pete Welding (1995), co-founder of RPM Records Jules Bihari (1984), bassist John Glascock of Jethro Tull (1979)

November 18: jazz pianist Cy Coleman (2004), Tex-Mex influential Doug Sahm (1999), Alan Hull of Lindisfarne (1995), bandleader Cab Calloway (1994), prolific session drummer Freddie Waites (1989), Tom Evans of Badfinger (1983), Doug Roberts, drummer for Jimmy Gilmer and the Fireballs (1981), jazz singer Teddi King (1977), Danny Whitten of Crazy Horse (1972), Memphis bluesman “Little” Junior Parker (1971)

November 19: producer Terry Melcher (2004), songwriter Bobby Russell (1992), songwriter Carolyn Leigh (1983), Claude Feaster of The Chords (1975)

It happened this week

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This is the week that was in matters musical …

1906, the first extended radio broadcast of the human voice also features the first radio music program … carried out by Canadian engineer Reginald Fessenden who had worked for Thomas Edison … a woman sings, Fessenden himself plays “O, Holy Night” on the violin, then he plays a phonograph recording of Handel’s “Largo” …

1918, German composer Franz Gruber pens the music for “Silent Night”… the words have been written by Josef Mohr … it is performed for the first time the next day—Christmas day—at Oberndorff, Austria, in the Church of St. Nikolaus …

1942, Bing Crosby’s “White Christmas” tops the Billboard pop chart … the song is re-released during ensuing holiday seasons and nails the top spot again in 1945 and 1947 and ultimately becomes one of the biggest singles ever …

1957, Elvis gets his draft notice …

1959, Chuck Berry is arrested for transporting a minor across state lines for an immoral purpose … he has invited a young Native American woman he met in El Paso to come work as a hat check girl in his Club Bandstand in Missouri … the young woman is fired two weeks later and hustles a few days at a local hotel before calling police for help getting back home … the call leads to Berry’s trial and a guilty verdict that is overturned because the judge made racist remarks …

1961, EMI passes on The Beatles … the British label has second thoughts later on and signs the lads from Liverpool …

1962, British band The Tornadoes score a #1 Billboard hit with their instrumental "Telstar," named for the first communications satellite … they’ll go down in pop history as the first Brits to have a #1 hit in the U.S. …

1964, on a flight to Houston, Beach Boy Brian Wilson suffers a major mental breakdown … he retires from touring to devote his time to writing hit tunes and producing Beach Boys albums …

1965, Rubber Soul goes gold after just two weeks on sale …

1967, the man who fueled countless acid trips—LSD chemist Augustus Owsley Stanley III—is busted in Orinda, California, where the LSD is put in tablet form … police seize several hundred thousand doses … Owsley, as he is known, is later found guilty of possessing the illegal substance and is sentenced to three years in prison …

1969, The Supremes log their final appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show … the trio sings “Someday We’ll Be Together” as their TV swan song … Elton John and Bernie Taupin join up to form one of the most successful songwriting teams of the 20th-century …

1970, Joni Mitchell strikes gold for the first time with her album Ladies of the Canyon

1973, just two weeks before his band’s release of What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits, Tom Johnson of the Doobie Brothers goes down for reefer possession …

1974, out to spread some holiday cheer, James Taylor, Carly Simon, Linda Ronstadt, and Joni Mitchell take to the streets of Los Angeles singing Christmas carols …

1978, The Who’s drummer slot, recently and tragically vacated by Keith Moon, is amply filled by Kenny Jones … Rod Stewart releases “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy?”… apparently someone does because the song will hit No. 1 …

1991, Greg Allman unveils his acting chops as a drug lord in the movie Rush

1996, 70-year-old crooner Tony Bennett has just arrived at the White House for a holiday dinner with the Clintons when he suffers an erupted hernia … he’s rushed to a hospital where he undergoes emergency surgery … Bennett cancels his sold-out show in Philadelphia the next night, but is back on the road after a few weeks of recovery …

1997, feminists including Gloria Steinem and Eleanor Smeal protest in front of the Time Warner building in New York over the Prodigy song “Smack My Bitch Up.” …

1999, Goo Goo Dolls nearly bite the big one when the military transport they’re flying in skids off a runway in Sicily damaging its landing gear and wing, obliging the Goo Goos to beat a hasty retreat via an emergency chute …

2000, the British music journal Melody Maker prints its final issue after continuous publication since 1926 …

2005, U2 wraps up a 118-date world tour with a show in Portland, Oregon … hailed by fans as among the band’s best tours, the shows brought in $260 million … Evanescence singer Amy Lee files suit against her ex-manager Dennis Rider charging that he sexually assaulted and swindled her … her suit also claims conflict of interest arising out of Rider’s representation of her former bandmate and paramour Ben Moody … Microsoft and MTV announce they are joining forces to launch Urge, a new online music store intended to compete with Apple’s iTunes … the service will not be compatible with iPods … MTV will bail on the partnership within two years …

2006, The Complete Motown Singles – Vol. 6: 1966 is released … included are two tracks cut by The Mynah Birds, an unsung R&B outfit with the unlikely combination of Rick James on vocals and future Buffalo Springfield members Neil Young and Bruce Palmer providing backing … the tunes were originally shelved following James’ bust for going AWOL from the navy … David Gilmour releases a three-song EP as a tribute to recently deceased former Pink Floyd bandmate Syd Barrett … two interpretations of Barrett’s "Arnold Layne" are included …

2007, the music press reports that in commemoration of the 25th anniversary of Michael Jackson’s Thriller, a re-release will be issued on February 12, 2008 … the two-disc-set will include demos, live footage, and videos as well as covers by Kanye West and Will.i.am … Willie Nelson appears in an anti-dogfighting TV spot … the ad runs just as Atlanta Falcons football star Michael Vick is about to be sentenced on dogfighting-related charges … Willie also appears this same month on the cover of High Times magazine fondling a hank of his favorite herb … this just eight months after Willie was busted for pot possession in Louisiana …

… and that was the week that was in matters musical.

Arrivals:

December 18: bandleader Fletcher Henderson (1897), blues guitarist Pee Wee Crayton (1914), Jimi Hendrix manager Chas Chandler (1938), Keith Richards (1943), Elliot Easton of The Cars (1953), DMX (1970), DJ Lethal of Limp Bizkit (1972), Christina Aguilera (1980)

December 19: Edith Piaf (1915), alto sax man and singer Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson (1917), New Orleans piano pioneer Professor Longhair aka Henry Roeland (Roy) Byrd (1918), activist-folky Phil Ochs (1940), Earth, Wind & Fire’s Maurice White (1941), blues rock guitarist Alvin Lee (1944), The Lovin’ Spoonful’s Zal Yanofsky (1944), John McEuen of The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band (1945), Doug Johnson of Loverboy (1957), Australian bassist Tracy Pew (1957), Kajagoogoo’s Limahl (1958), Charles “Mercury” Nelson of Force M.D.s (1964), Kevin Shepard of Zoo Story (1968)

December 20: New Orleans pianist Cousin Joe (1907), blues guitarist Auburn “Pat” Hare (1930), Blood, Sweat and Tears’ Bobby Colomby (1944), Peter Criss of Kiss (1947), Easybeats singer Stevie Wright (1948), folk-punk singer-songwriter Billy Bragg (1957), Chris Robinson of the Black Crowes (1966), JoJo (1990)

December 21: seminal bluesman Peetie Wheatstraw born William Bunch (1902), Frank Zappa (1940), English guitarist Albert Lee (1943), Beach Boy Carl Wilson (1946), The Rumour’s Martin Belmont (1948), cleanup woman Betty Wright (1953), Gabriel Glaser of Luscious Jackson (1965), Brett Scallions of Fuel (1971)

December 22: Giacomo Puccini (1858), Austin bluesman T.D. Bell AKA Little T-Bone (1922), Alvin “Shine” Robinson (1937), Luther Campbell of 2 Live Crew (1941), The Animals’ Barry Jenkins (1944), Maurice and Robin Gibb (1949), Cheap Trick’s Rick Neilsen (1954), jazz fusion bassist John Patitucci (1959)

December 23: hillbilly singer Harold Dorman (1926), Esther Phillips (1935), folksinger-songwriter Eugene Record of The Chi-Lites (1940), Jefferson Airplane’s Jorma Kaukonen (1940), Tim Hardin (1941), Harry Shearer AKA Derek Smalls of Spinal Tap (1943), Spooky Tooth’s Luther Grosvenor (1949), King Crimson guitarist Adrian Belew (1949), Bruce Hornsby (1955), Iron Maiden’s Dave Murray (1958), Will Sin of The Shamen (1960), Slash (1965), Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam (1966)

December 24: New Orleans R&B titan Dave Bartholomew (1920), pop/R&B singer Lee Dorsey (1924), MGM Records president Mike Curb (1944), Lemmy AKA Ian Kilminster of Motörhead (1945), Jan Akkerman of Focus (1946), Human League’s Ian Burden (1955), Mary Ramsey of 10,000 Maniacs (1963), Ricky Martin (1971)

Departures:

December 18: English singer-songwriter Clifford T. Ward (2001), folk and pop singer Kirsty MacColl (2000), reggae singer and Bob Marley mentor Joe Higgs (1999), funk guitarist Jimmy “Chank” Nolen (1983), Les Kummel (1978), The Manhattans’ George “Smitty” Smith (1970), Blind Lemon Jefferson (1929), master lutheir Antonio Stradivari (1737)

December 19: Roebuck “Pops” Staples (2000), jazz bassist and photographer Milt Hinton (2000), 10,000 Maniacs guitarist Robert Buck (2000), Sony founder Masaru Ibuka (1997), Muddy Waters sideman Jimmy Rogers (1997), The Byrds’ Michael Clarke (1993)

December 20: Denny Payton, sax and harmonica player with The Dave Clark Five (2006), bluesman Son Seals (2004), Spanish singer Carlos Cano (2000), country singer-songwriter Hank Snow (1999), drummer Nicky Hammerhead (1992), singer-actor and ’50s teen idol Bobby Darin (1973)

December 21: Scottish singer Karl Denver of The Happy Mondays (1998), trumpeter Johnny Coles (1997), bassist Charlie Tumahai of Be-Bop Deluxe (1995), bluesman Albert King (1992), Paul Jeffries of Cockney Rebel (1988), original No Doubt vocalist John Spence (1987), ’30s blues singer-pianist Peetie Wheatstraw (1921)

December 22: country singer Dave Dudley (2003), Lawrence Berk, founder of Berklee College of Music (1995), Dennis Boon of The Minutemen (1985), classic blues diva Ma Rainey born Gertrude Melissa Nix Pridgett (1939)

December 23: composer and classical guitarist John Duarte (2004), Jackie Landry of The Chantels (1997), singer Carl Hogan of the Valentines (1997), British jazz musician and club owner Ronnie Scott (1996), studio guitarist Dan Hamilton (1994), songwriter Jimmy Silva (1994), Eddie Hazel of Parliament-Funkadelic (1992)

December 24: Nick Massi of The Four Seasons (2000), Zeke Carey of The Flamingos (1999), Buddy Ace AKA The Root Doctor (1994), recording artist-songwriter Jimmy Silva (1994), Bobby LaKind of The Doobie Brothers (1992), ’50s R&B singer Johnny Ace (1954)

It happened this week

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This is the week that was in matters musical …

1927, bluesman Texas Alexander records "Range In My Kitchen Blues" for Paramount Records in New York City …

1937, George Beauchamp is granted patent #2,089,171 by the U.S. Patent Office for an "Electrical Stringed Musical Instrument" … the original "frying pan" electric guitar … George was a Hawaiian musician living in Los Angeles … Bunny Berrigan and his orchestra record the jazz standard, "I Can’t Get Started" … the chord changes from this oft-covered tune become a staple for bebop musicians a decade later …

1949, Louis Jordan and His Tympani Five record "Saturday Night Fish Fry," an influential proto-rock song …

1957, John Lennon and his band The Quarry Men play their debut date at Liverpool’s Cavern Club, a venue devoted to jazz and skiffle … after the band performs "Come Go With Me," “Hound Dog," and "Blue Suede Shoes," irate club owner Alan Sytner sends a note up to the stage reading, "Cut out the bloody rock!" … so it was back to standard skiffle fare such as "Rock Island Line" and "Midnight Special" … in 1997, the five original Quarry Men (besides Lennon) will reunite for some gigs: Len Garry, formerly on tea-chest bass, will have moved to guitar and lead vocals; Rod Davis, originally on banjo, will have moved to guitar; drummer Colin Hanton; washboard player Pete Shotton, who retired in 2000, and guitarist Eric Griffiths, who will die in 2005 …

1960, 25,000 copies of the death-rock single "Tell Laura I Love Her" by Ray Peterson are destroyed by Decca Records after a critic deems the song "too tasteless and vulgar for English sensibility" … it is interesting to speculate what that critic may have made of Ozzy Osbourne or the Sex Pistols a little later on …

1962, “Your Heart Belongs to Me” by the Supremes debuts on the Hot 100 chart … it’s the first of their eventual 47 hits …

1964, Rod Stewart makes his television debut singing with the Hootchie Coochie Men on the British show The Beat Room … The Rolling Stones know they have arrived when they get the chance to hang out with two of their idols, Muddy Waters and Willie Dixon, while recording at Chicago’s Chess studios … the band’s name resulted from a tune by Muddy …

1965, singer-organist Mike Smith of The Dave Clark Five suffers two fractured ribs when he’s pulled off the stage by an enthusiastic fan …

1967, Beatle George Harrison hangs out at a love-in in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park … he’s less than enchanted recalling "It was full of hideous, spotty little teenagers. It turned me off to the whole thing" … Fleetwood Mac plays their first gig at the National Jazz and Blues Festival in Windsor, England a month before John McVie joins the band and despite the fact that the band’s name is derived from Mick Fleetwood’s and McVie’s last names … recording sessions resume for the classic Love album Forever Changes … sessions that began in June were marked with bickering and personnel changes that resulted in the producer bringing in session musicians from L.A.’s "The Wrecking Crew" to record backing tracks for three tunes … properly chastened, the band members went back to work …

1968, performing at England’s National Jazz and Blues Festival, Jerry Lee Lewis whips the crowd into a frenzy that begins to turn violent … three rockers leave with bleeding mouths, a stage assistant loses four teeth, and thanks to a six-inch scaffold coupling pin being thrown through the bass drum of Andrew Steele, his band The Herd, doesn’t get heard … fearing a full-scale riot, officials ask Lewis to leave the stage … “I don’t care about you all dancing on the stage,’’ Lewis tells his fans, “but some of these people do.” … interestingly, The Herd’s lead guitarist is none other than a young Peter Frampton, who later splits from the band after a long hitless spell to form Humble Pie with Steve Marriott … this same week, the record industry marks its first billion-dollar year several years ahead of expectations …

1969, photographer Ian Macmillan gets on a stepladder in the middle of London’s Abbey Road to snap The Beatles as they stride across the zebra crossing … several crossings and six pictures later, the session is over … Paul picks the best one, which ends up as the cover for Abbey Road … because The Fabs (as George called them) are so famous, no other graphics are used …

1970, Janis Joplin springs for a headstone to mark Bessie Smith’s grave … the blues singer was one of her idols … four days later she makes her last concert performance at Harvard Stadium … Jim Morrison’s trial for allegedly exposing himself during a 1969 concert begins in Miami…Morrison will be found guilty on one count each of profanity and indecent exposure but will appeal the convictions …

1973, Stevie Wonder is seriously injured in North Carolina when the auto in which he’s riding is hit by logs rolling off a truck … he emerges from a coma after four days sans his sense of smell …

1974, in Beverly Hills, J. Geils Band lead singer Peter Wolf marries actress Faye Dunaway … their union will end in 1979 …

1975, Hank Williams Jr. tumbles 500 feet down a Montana mountain … after two year’s worth of surgeries he will resume his career … The Bee Gees begin a two-week stint at #1 in the U.S. singles charts with "Jive Talkin’" …

1978, Muddy Waters plays for President Jimmy Carter at the White House …

1979, The Knack starts a five-week hold on the top spot of the U.S. album charts with Get The Knack … this triggers an anti-Knack backlash that will hasten the group’s demise …

1980, The Plasmatics show that was to feature an exploding car at the London’s Hammersmith Odeon is canceled after fire inspectors watch a demonstration and find that safety techniques are inadequate …

1981, The Pretenders second album, cleverly titled Pretenders II is released containing the single "Message of Love" … Minneapolis’ The Replacements unleash their initial waxing "I’m In Trouble" … prior to that, the band, then called The Impediments, showed up drunk at their first gig a halfway house for alcoholics … facing a citywide ban, they had to come up with a replacement name … so …

1985, introduced to the benefits of owning publishing rights by friend Paul McCartney, Michael Jackson purchases the ATV music catalog that includes 251 Lennon/McCartney songs at auction for $47.5 million … McCartney and Yoko Ono had attempted to purchase the songs only to be outbid by Jackson … McCartney and Jackson’s friendship ends promptly as a result … Duran Duran singer Simon Le Bon nearly drowns after his yacht capsizes during a race off the coast of England …

1986, Queen (the Freddie Mercury version) give their last live performance at the Knebworth Festival …

1988, Guns N’ Roses Appetite For Destruction reaches #1 in the U.S. after spending 57 weeks on the album chart …

1991, a group called On A Friday plays at the Jericho Tavern in Oxford, England … they will soon change their name to Radiohead …

1992, citing a sore throat, Axl Rose of Guns N’ Roses cuts short the band’s set in Montreal … many of the 55,000 fans in attendance riot … this is a fitting end to a concert in which Metallica also cuts their set short after singer James Hetfield suffers third-degree burns from a pyro effect …

1994, the Woodstock ’94 festival in Saugerties, New York, includes performances from the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Green Day, Aerosmith, and Nine Inch Nails … the crowd of 30,000 endured the same rainy and resulting mud as the original event …

1996, former Mötley Crüe singer Vince Neil runs into trouble at an Indiana club date … after starting the show four hours late, Neil pulls the plug after just three songs saying he is feeling ill and suggests that the audience of "rednecks" doesn’t appreciate his talent … a riot by 500 surly ticket holders is narrowly averted by the prompt arrival of the cops … after touring as part of the sixth annual Lollapalooza festival, The Ramones soldier on to Los Angeles to perform their 2,263rd and final show …

1999, Kiss unveil their own star on the Hollywood Boulevard Walk of Fame …

2001, harmonica virtuoso Larry Adler dies at the age of 87 … self-taught, Adler turned pro at age 14 and went on to perform compositions expressly written for the mouth organ by composers Vaughan Williams and Darius Milhaud … Adler’s classical repertoire included adaptations of violin concertos by Bach and Vivaldi as well as works by Bartok, Debussy, Mozart, Ravel, and Stravinksy … one of his last recordings was in 1994 on his 80th birthday when he performed "Rhapsody in Blue" for The Glory of Gershwin album produced by George Martin …

2002, in an interview with Spin magazine, Motorhead leader Lemmy says he is thinking of having his notorious facial warts removed … the bassist adds, “Yeah, I could sell them on the internet” … thankfully, he later clarifies he’s not serious about the latter statement …

2005, Leonard Cohen files a suit against his former business manager charging that Kelley Lynch ripped him off for $5 million from 1994 through 1999 while Cohen was chilling in a Buddhist center … FCC chairman Kevin Martin announces that his agency is investigating payola by record labels in the wake of Sony BMG Music Entertainment’s settlement of $10 million with New York over charges that the company plied key radio stations with lavish gifts and money to get its releases played … the list of artists who benefitted from Sony’s generosity include Jennifer Lopez, Jessica Simpson, Avril Lavigne, Maroon 5, Franz Ferdinand, Good Charlotte, Gretchen Wilson, Audioslave, and Celine Dion …

2008, the format of Rolling Stone magazine is downsized from large-format pages to a traditional magazine size to spur lagging sales … singer-songwriter Jackson Browne, who has a long history of supporting liberal causes, files suit against presidential candidate John McCain and the Ohio Republican Party for using his 1977 hit "Running on Empty" without permission … The Allman Brothers sue Universal Music Group for more than $10 million charging that they are owed royalties on downloads and CD sales of material they cut on the Capricorn label between 1969 and 1980 … The Police cap their 150-show world tour with a two-hour tour de force at Madison Square Garden … the first Police tour in 20 years, it started shakily and gained momentum as it went along … reflecting on the early shows, drummer Stewart Copeland is brutally frank, "At the beginning, we were crap. Each one of us had our own opinion of what was wrong … which could be summed up as ‘the other two guys’" …

… and that was the week that was in matters musical.

Arrivals:

August 6: Delta bluesman Willie Brown (1900), The Ravens’ Jimmy Ricks (1924), jazz bassist Charlie Haden (1937), Isaac Hayes (1938), Judy Craig of The Chiffons (1946), guitarist Allan Holdsworth (1948), Pat McDonald of Timbuk 3 (1951), Randy DeBarge (1958), singer-songwriter Elliot Smith (1969), Geri Halliwell a.k.a. Ginger Spice of the Spice Girls (1972)

August 7: multi-instrumentalist jazz bandleader Benny Carter (1907), swing bandleader Freddie Slack (1910), pianist Mose Vinson (1917), lyricist Felice Bryant (1925), The Platters’ Herb Reed (1931), multi-instrumentalist jazz titan Rahsaan Roland Kirk (1936), Magic Slim – born Morris Holt (1937), pop vocalist Ron Holden (1939), B.J. Thomas (1942), Alfa Anderson of Chic (1946), Rodney Crowell (1950), Toxic (19??), bassist-songwriter Andy Fraser of Free (1952), Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden – not the Bruce Dickinson (1958), Jacqui O’Sullivan of Bananarama (1960), Ian Dench of EMF (1964), Kristen Hersh of Throwing Muses (1964)

August 8: bandleader Lucky Millender (1900), honky tonk vocalist Webb Pierce (1921), blues and jazz singer Jimmy Witherspoon (1923), blues singer Al King (1923), Sonny Til of The Orioles (1925), Mel Tillis (1932), pedal steel player extraordinaire Pete Drake (1932), Joe Tex (1933), pop singer Connie Stevens (1938), Philip E. Balsley of the Statler Brothers (1939), John “Jay” David of Dr. Hook (1942), English guitar virtuoso John Renbourn (1944), The Grateful Dead’s Ron “Pig Pen” McKernan (1946), Airrion Love of The Stylistics (1949), Stax-Volt drummer Willie Hall (1950), Madness guitarist Chris Foreman (1955), Ali Score of Flock of Seagulls (1956), Dennis Drew of 10,000 Maniacs (1957), Ricki Rockett of Poison (1959), U2’s The Edge a.k.a. David Evans (1961), Kool Moe Dee (1962), Aaron Abeyta of NOFX (1965), Creed singer Scott Stapp (1973), JC Chasez of *NSYNC (1976), Drew Lachey of 98 Degrees (1976)

August 9: barrelhouse pianist Robert Shaw (1908), string band musician Odell Thompson (1911), Harry Mills of The Mills Brothers (1913), Bill Henderson of The Spinners (1939), jazz drummer Jack DeJohnette (1942), Rinus Gerritsen of Golden Earring (1946), Barbara Mason (1947), Cars bassist Benjamin Orr (1955), rapper Kurtis Blow (1959), Aimee Mann (1960), Whitney Houston (1963), Arion Salazar of Third Eye Blind (1970)

August 10: Leo Fender (1909), country singer-sausage king Jimmy Dean (1928), bluegrass ace Jimmy Martin (1929), country-pop entertainer Larry Finnegan (1938), Righteous Brother Bobby Hatfield (1940), Ronnie Spector of The Ronettes (1947), Ian Anderson (1947), Patti Austin (1948), INXS drummer John Farriss (1961), singer Neneh Cherry (1964), Todd Nichols of Toad The Wet Sprocket (1967), Michael Bivins of New Edition (1968), Aaron Kamin of The Calling (1977)

August 11: Mike Hugg of Manfred Mann (1942), David Box – a Buddy Holly soundalike who ironically died in a plane crash (1943), Jim Kale of Guess Who (1943), Eric Carmen (1949), Joe Jackson (1955), Bragi Olaffson of The Sugarcubes (1962), guitarist Charlie Sexton (1968), Chris “Mack Daddy” Kelly of Kriss Kross (1968), Ali of A Tribe Called Quest (1970), J-Boog of B2K (1985)

August 12: R&B singer-songwriter Percy Mayfield (1920), singer-songwriter Joe Jones (1926), Porter Wagoner (1927), Buck Owens, creator of "The Bakersfield Sound" (1929), pop songstress Jennifer Warren (1941), Mark Knopfler (1949), August Darnell of Kid Creole and the Coconuts (1950), jazz guitarist Pat Metheny (1954), Suzanne Vega (1959), Roy Hay of Culture Club (1961)

Departures:

August 6: Italian opera legend Luciano Pavarotti (2007), jazz bassist Keter Betts (2005), legendary Cuban singer Ibrahim Ferrer (2005), Rick James (2004), guitarist Tommy Mottola (2004), the U.K.’s answer to Louis Armstrong, Nat Gonella (1998), new wave singer Klaus Nomi (1983), blueswoman Memphis Minnie (1973), trumpeter Bix Beiderbecke (1931)

August 7: country guitarist William “Billy” Byrd (2001), harmonica virtuoso Larry Adler (2001), record store mogul Sam Goody (1991), R&B chanteuse Esther Phillips (1984), Homer a.k.a. Henry Haynes of Homer & Jethro (1971)

August 8: pianist Irving Sidney “Duke” Jordan (2006), alto sax man Julian “Cannonball” Adderley (1975)

August 9: composer David Raskin (2004), Drowning Pool’s Dave Williams (2002), producer Bob Herbert (1999), Jerry Garcia (1995), New Orleans session sax man Clarence Ford (1994), reggae singer Wilfred “Jackie” Edwards (1992), Brandon Mitchell, rapper with Wreckx-N-Effects (1990), trumpet player Bill Chase (1974), Lillian Roxon, one of rock’s first music critics (1973), Joe Gilbert of Joe and Eddie (1966)

August 10: singer-songwriter-soul man Isaac Hayes (2008), Widespread Panic guitarist Mikey Houser (2002), Bill Baker of The Five Satins (1994), New Orleans sax man Clarence Ford (1994), Ed Roberts of Ruby And The Romantics (1993), jazz singer Ernestine Allen (1992), swing bandleader Freddie Slack (1965), blues diva Lucille Bogan of “Shave ’em Dry” infamy (1948)

August 11: pedal steel player Don Helms (2008), singer-talk show host Mike Douglas (2006), conductor Rafael Kubelick (1996), The Ventures drummer Mel Taylor, drummer of The Ventures (1996), bandleader-pianist Sonny Thompson (1989), Percy Mayfield – one day short of his 64th birthday (1984)

August 12: singer-talk show host Merv Griffin (2007), Luther Allison (1997), John Cage (1992), Japanese singer Kyu Sakamoto (1985), Buddy Holly producer Norman Petty (1984)


It happened this week

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This is the week that was in matters musical…

1927, bluesman Texas Alexander records “Range In My Kitchen Blues” for Paramount Records in New York City …

1937, George Beauchamp is granted patent #2,089,171 by the U.S. Patent Office for an “Electrical Stringed Musical Instrument” … the original “frying pan” electric guitar … George was a Hawaiian musician living in Los Angeles … Bunny Berrigan and his orchestra record the jazz standard, “I Can’t Get Started” … the chord changes from this oft-covered tune become a staple for bebop musicians a decade later …

1949, Louis Jordan and His Tympani Five record “Saturday Night Fish Fry,” an influential proto-rock song …

1957, John Lennon and his band The Quarry Men play their debut date at Liverpool’s Cavern Club, a venue devoted to jazz and skiffle … after the band performs “Come Go With Me,” “Hound Dog,” and “Blue Suede Shoes,” irate club owner Alan Sytner sends a note up to the stage reading, “Cut out the bloody rock!” … so it was back to standard skiffle fare such as “Rock Island Line” and “Midnight Special” … in 1997, the five original Quarry Men (besides Lennon) will reunite for some gigs: Len Garry, formerly on tea-chest bass, will have moved to guitar and lead vocals; Rod Davis, originally on banjo, will have moved to guitar; drummer Colin Hanton; washboard player Pete Shotton, who retired in 2000; and guitarist Eric Griffiths, who will die in 2005 …

1960, 25,000 copies of the death-rock single “Tell Laura I Love Her” by Ray Peterson are destroyed by Decca Records after a critic deems the song “too tasteless and vulgar for English sensibility” … it is interesting to speculate what that critic may have made of Ozzy Osbourne or the Sex Pistols a little later on …

1962, “Your Heart Belongs to Me” by the Supremes debuts on the Hot 100 chart … it’s the first of their eventual 47 hits …

1964, Rod Stewart makes his television debut singing with the Hootchie Coochie Men on the British show The Beat Room

… The Rolling Stones know they have arrived when they get the chance to hang out with two of their idols, Muddy Waters and Willie Dixon, while recording at Chicago’s Chess studios … the band’s name resulted from a tune by Muddy …

1965, singer-organist Mike Smith of The Dave Clark Five suffers two fractured ribs when he’s pulled off the stage by an enthusiastic fan …

1967, Beatle George Harrison hangs out at a love-in in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park … he’s less than enchanted recalling “It was full of hideous, spotty little teenagers. It turned me off to the whole thing” … recording sessions resume for the classic Love album Forever Changes … sessions that began in June were marked with bickering and personnel changes that resulted in the producer bringing in session musicians from L.A.’s “The Wrecking Crew” to record backing tracks for three tunes … properly chastened, the band members went back to work …

1968, performing at England’s National Jazz and Blues Festival, Jerry Lee Lewis whips the crowd into a frenzy that begins to turn violent … three rockers leave with bleeding mouths, a stage assistant loses four teeth, and thanks to a six-inch scaffold coupling pin being thrown through the bass drum of Andrew Steele, his band The Herd, doesn’t get heard … fearing a full-scale riot, officials ask Lewis to leave the stage … “I don’t care about you all dancing on the stage,” Lewis tells his fans, “but some of these people do.” … interestingly, The Herd’s lead guitarist is none other than a young Peter Frampton, who later splits from the band after a long hitless spell to form Humble Pie with Steve Marriott … this same week, the record industry marks its first billion-dollar year several years ahead of expectations …

1969, photographer Ian Macmillan gets on a stepladder in the middle of London’s Abbey Road to snap The Beatles as they stride across the zebra crossing … several crossings and six pictures later, the session is over … Paul picks the best one, which ends up as the cover for Abbey Road … because The Fabs (as George called them) are so famous, no other graphics are used …

1970, Janis Joplin springs for a headstone to mark Bessie Smith’s grave … the blues singer was one of her idols … four days later she makes her last concert performance at Harvard Stadium …

1973, Stevie Wonder is seriously injured in North Carolina when the auto in which he’s riding is hit by logs rolling off a truck … he emerges from a coma after four days sans his sense of smell …

1974, in Beverly Hills, J. Geils Band lead singer Peter Wolf marries actress Faye Dunaway … their union will end in 1979 …

1975, Hank Williams Jr. tumbles 500 feet down a Montana mountain … after two year’s worth of surgeries he will resume his career …

1978, Muddy Waters plays for President Jimmy Carter at the White House …

1979, The Knack starts a five-week hold on the top spot of the U.S. album charts with Get The Knack … this triggers an anti-Knack backlash that will hasten the group’s demise …

1980, The Plasmatics show that was to feature an exploding car at the London’s Hammersmith Odeon is canceled after fire inspectors watch a demonstration and find that safety techniques are inadequate …

1985, introduced to the benefits of owning publishing rights by friend Paul McCartney, Michael Jackson purchases the ATV music catalog that includes 251 Lennon/McCartney songs at auction for $47.5 million … McCartney and Yoko Ono had attempted to purchase the songs only to be outbid by Jackson … McCartney and Jackson’s friendship ends promptly as a result … Duran Duran singer Simon Le Bon nearly drowns after his yacht capsizes during a race off the coast of England …

1986, David Crosby is released from prison after doing time on drug and weapon charges …

1991, a group called On A Friday plays at the Jericho Tavern in Oxford, England … they will soon change their name to Radiohead …

1992, citing a sore throat, Axl Rose of Guns N’ Roses cuts short the band’s set in Montreal … many of the 55,000 fans in attendance riot … this is a fitting end to a concert in which Metallica also cuts their set short after singer James Hetfield suffers third-degree burns from a pyro effect …

1994, the Woodstock ’94 festival in Saugerties, New York, includes performances from the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Green Day, Aerosmith, and Nine Inch Nails … the crowd of 30,000 endures the same rain and resulting mud as the original event …

1996, former Mötley Crüe singer Vince Neil runs into trouble at an Indiana club date … after starting the show four hours late, Neil pulls the plug after just three songs saying he is feeling ill and suggests that the audience of “rednecks” doesn’t appreciate his talent … a riot by 500 surly ticket holders is narrowly averted by the prompt arrival of the cops … after touring as part of the sixth annual Lollapalooza festival, The Ramones soldier on to Los Angeles to perform their 2,263rd and final show …

2000, the Jimi Hendrix estate successfully evicts the holder of the web domain jimihendrix.com …

2003, during a radio interview, Ted Nugent says that the people of Illinois are “spineless, apathetic, embarrassing wimps” for their lack of involvement in their state government … Nugent’s comments result from his displeasure over the state’s gun laws … despite his scorn, Nugent will play the Illinois State Fair later in the day … fortunately for the Motor City Madman, the audience is apparently a bunch of embarrassing wimps who are too spineless and apathetic to demand refunds …

2005, Leonard Cohen files a suit against his former business manager charging that Kelley Lynch ripped him off for $5 million from 1994 through 1999 while Cohen was chilling in a Buddhist center … FCC chairman Kevin Martin announces that his agency is investigating payola by record labels in the wake of Sony BMG Music Entertainment’s settlement of $10 million with New York over charges that the company plied key radio stations with lavish gifts and money to get its releases played … the list of artists who benefitted from Sony’s generosity include Jennifer Lopez, Jessica Simpson, Avril Lavigne, Maroon 5, Franz Ferdinand, Good Charlotte, Gretchen Wilson, Audioslave, and Celine Dion …

2008, the format of Rolling Stone magazine is downsized from large-format pages to a traditional magazine size to spur lagging sales … singer-songwriter Jackson Browne, who has a long history of supporting liberal causes, files suit against presidential candidate John McCain and the Ohio Republican Party for using his 1977 hit “Running on Empty” without permission … The Allman Brothers sue Universal Music Group for more than $10 million charging that they are owed royalties on downloads and CD sales of material they cut on the Capricorn label between 1969 and 1980 … The Police cap their 150-show world tour with a two-hour tour de force at Madison Square Garden … the first Police tour in 20 years, it started shakily and gained momentum as it went along … reflecting on the early shows, drummer Stewart Copeland is brutally frank, “At the beginning, we were crap. Each one of us had our own opinion of what was wrong … which could be summed up as ‘the other two guys'” …

2009, Eddie Van Halen is reported to be mending from surgery intended to deal with severe pain in his left hand … it is estimated that healing will be a four to six-month process …

…and that was the week that was.

Arrivals:

August 5: jazz singer Jeri Southern (1926), Vern Gosdin (1934), R&B vocalist Damita Jo (1940), guitarist Lenny Breau (1941), percussionist Airto Moreira (1941), sax player Rick Huxley of The Dave Clark Five (1942), country star Sammi Smith (1943), Rick Derringer of The McCoys (1947), Gregory Leskew of Guess Who (1947), Eddie Ojeda of Twisted Sister (1954), Pat Smear of Foo Fighters (1959), Pete Burns of Dead Or Alive (1959), Adam Yauch of The Beastie Boys (1964)

August 6: Delta bluesman Willie Brown (1900), The Ravens’ Jimmy Ricks (1924), jazz bassist Charlie Haden (1937), Isaac Hayes (1938), Judy Craig of The Chiffons (1946), guitarist Allan Holdsworth (1948), Pat McDonald of Timbuk 3 (1951), Randy DeBarge (1958), singer-songwriter Elliot Smith (1969), Geri Halliwell a.k.a. Ginger Spice of the Spice Girls (1972)

August 7: multi-instrumentalist jazz bandleader Benny Carter (1907), swing bandleader Freddie Slack (1910), pianist Mose Vinson (1917), lyricist Felice Bryant (1925), The Platters’ Herb Reed (1931), multi-instrumentalist jazz titan Rahsaan Roland Kirk (1936), Magic Slim—born Morris Holt (1937), pop vocalist Ron Holden (1939), B.J. Thomas (1942), Alfa Anderson of Chic (1946), Rodney Crowell (1950), bassist-songwriter Andy Fraser of Free (1952), Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden—not THE Bruce Dickinson(1958), Jacqui O’Sullivan of Bananarama (1960), Ian Dench of EMF (1964), Kristin Hersh of Throwing Muses (1964), Toxic (19??)

August 8: bandleader Lucky Millender (1900), honky-tonk vocalist Webb Pierce (1921), blues and jazz singer Jimmy Witherspoon (1923), blues singer Al King (1923), Sonny Til of The Orioles (1925), Mel Tillis (1932), pedal steel player extraordinaire Pete Drake (1932), Joe Tex (1933), pop singer Connie Stevens (1938), Philip E. Balsley of the Statler Brothers (1939), John “Jay” David of Dr. Hook (1942), English guitar virtuoso John Renbourn (1944), The Grateful Dead’s Ron “Pig Pen” McKernan (1946), Airrion Love of The Stylistics (1949), Stax-Volt drummer Willie Hall (1950), Madness guitarist Chris Foreman (1955), Ali Score of Flock of Seagulls (1956), Dennis Drew of 10,000 Maniacs (1957), Ricki Rockett of Poison (1959), U2’s The Edge a.k.a. David Evans (1961), Kool Moe Dee (1962), Aaron Abeyta of NOFX (1965), Creed singer Scott Stapp (1973), JC Chasez of *NSYNC (1976), Drew Lachey of 98 Degrees (1976)

August 9: barrelhouse pianist Robert Shaw (1908), string band musician Odell Thompson (1911), Harry Mills of The Mills Brothers (1913), Bill Henderson of The Spinners (1939), jazz drummer Jack DeJohnette (1942), Rinus Gerritsen of Golden Earring (1946), Barbara Mason (1947), Cars bassist Benjamin Orr (1955), rapper Kurtis Blow (1959), Aimee Mann (1960), Whitney Houston (1963), Arion Salazar of Third Eye Blind (1970)

August 10: Leo Fender (1909), country singer-sausage king Jimmy Dean (1928), bluegrass ace Jimmy Martin (1929), country-pop entertainer Larry Finnegan (1938), Righteous Brother Bobby Hatfield (1940), Ronnie Spector of The Ronettes (1947), Ian Anderson (1947), Patti Austin (1948), INXS drummer Jon Farriss (1961), singer Neneh Cherry (1964), Todd Nichols of Toad The Wet Sprocket (1967), Michael Bivins of New Edition (1968), Aaron Kamin of The Calling (1977)

August 11: Mike Hugg of Manfred Mann (1942), David Box—a Buddy Holly soundalike who ironically also died in a plane crash (1943), Jim Kale of Guess Who (1943), Eric Carmen (1949), Joe Jackson (1955), Bragi Olafsson of The Sugarcubes (1962), guitarist Charlie Sexton (1968), Chris “Mack Daddy” Kelly of Kriss Kross (1968), Ali of A Tribe Called Quest (1970), J-Boog of B2K (1985)

Departures:

August 5: bassist Randy Hobbs of The McCoys and Johnny Winter (1993), drummer Jeff Porcaro of Toto (1992), N’awlins bluesman Isidore “Tuts” Washington (1984), avant-garde bassist George Scott (1980), The Who’s first manager Pete Meadon (1978), country guitarist Luther Perkins (1968), one-man blues band Joe Hill Louis (1957)

August 6: Italian opera legend Luciano Pavarotti (2007), jazz bassist Keter Betts (2005), legendary Cuban singer Ibrahim Ferrer (2005), Rick James (2004), guitarist Tommy Mottola (2004), the U.K.’s answer to Louis Armstrong, Nat Gonella (1998), new wave singer Klaus Nomi (1983), blueswoman Memphis Minnie (1973), trumpeter Bix Beiderbecke (1931)

August 7: country guitarist William “Billy” Byrd (2001), harmonica virtuoso Larry Adler (2001), record store mogul Sam Goody (1991), R&B chanteuse Esther Phillips (1984), Homer a.k.a. Henry Haynes of Homer & Jethro (1971)

August 8: pianist Irving Sidney “Duke” Jordan (2006), alto sax man Julian “Cannonball” Adderley (1975)

August 9: composer David Raskin (2004), Drowning Pool’s Dave Williams (2002), producer Bob Herbert (1999), Jerry Garcia (1995), New Orleans session sax man Clarence Ford (1994), reggae singer Wilfred “Jackie” Edwards (1992), Brandon Mitchell, rapper with Wreckx-N-Effects (1990), trumpet player Bill Chase (1974), Lillian Roxon, one of rock’s first music critics (1973), Joe Gilbert of Joe and Eddie (1966)

August 10: singer-songwriter-soul man Isaac Hayes (2008), Widespread Panic guitarist Mikey Houser (2002), Bill Baker of The Five Satins (1994), New Orleans sax man Clarence Ford (1994), Ed Roberts of Ruby And The Romantics (1993), jazz singer Ernestine Allen (1992), swing bandleader Freddie Slack (1965), blues diva Lucille Bogan of “Shave ’em Dry” infamy (1948)

August 11: pedal steel player Don Helms (2008), singer-talk show host Mike Douglas (2006), conductor Rafael Kubelick (1996), The Ventures drummer Mel Taylor (1996), bandleader-pianist Sonny Thompson (1989), Percy Mayfield—one day short of his 64th birthday (1984)

It happened this week

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This is the week that was in matters musical …

1927, bluesman Texas Alexander records “Range In My Kitchen Blues” for Paramount Records in New York City …

1939, pioneering electric guitarist Charlie Christian sits in with Benny Goodman’s group at a club in Beverly Hills … Goodman isn’t interested in hearing an electric guitar, but Charlies’ manager John Hammond sneaks him onstage while Goodman is on a break … he proceeds to wow audiences and musicians alike with his seemingly endless single-string virtuosity …

1962, “Your Heart Belongs to Me” by the Supremes debuts on the Hot 100 chart … it is the first of their eventual 47 hits … Ringo Starr replaces Pete Best as The Beatles’ drummer … rumor has it Lennon and McCartney are frustrated by Best’s good looks, which attract the most groupies … fact is, Best isn’t cutting it as a drummer whereas Ringo is the missing piece of the puzzle …

1965, The Jefferson Airplane play their first live show at the Matrix Club in San Francisco … the band will ink a deal with RCA before the year’s end, one of the first rock bands on the Bay Area scene to do so …

1966, John Lennon generates more controversy after his recent Jesus comments by publicly expressing his admiration for American draft dodgers while the band is in Toronto …

1967, recording sessions resume for the classic Love album Forever Changes … sessions that began in June were marked with bickering and personnel changes that resulted in the producer bringing in members of L.A.’s famed session stars “The Wrecking Crew” to record backing tracks for three tunes prompting group members to get their recording chops together … Fleetwood Mac plays their first gig at the Windsor Jazz and Blues Festival a month before bassist John McVie joins the band even though the band’s name is derived from drummer Mick Fleetwood’s and McVie’s last names … the rhythm section these two form will be the only constant throughout the entire history of the band …

1968, The Jimi Hendrix Experience performs their instrumental version of the “Star Spangled Banner” for the first time in concert … a full month before Jose Feliciano sings his controversial version at Game 5 of the World Series in Detroit … a year later Hendrix will perform it at Woodstock, this time it is filmed and thereby influences countless other desecrations of our sacred national anthem …

1969, the Woodstock Music and Art Festival is held on Max Yasgur’s farm in Bethel, New York … anywhere from 300,000 to nearly half a million (depending on whose estimate you believe) will gather to celebrate what is billed as “3 Days of Peace and Music” and enjoy performances by a who’s who of rock, including Jimi Hendrix, The Who, Janis Joplin, the Grateful Dead, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Ten Years After, Joe Cocker, Santana, Sly & The Family Stone, and Jefferson Airplane …

1970, Jim Morrison’s trial for allegedly exposing himself during a 1969 concert begins in Miami … Morrison will be found guilty on one count of profanity and one count of indecent exposure but will appeal the convictions …

1977, The Police play their first gig as a threesome after guitar man Henri Padovani leaves the band … Peter Frampton comes alive in three sold-out shows at Madison Square Garden …

1985, Duran Duran singer Simon Le Bon nearly drowns after his yacht capsizes during a race off the coast of England …

1988, Michelle Shocked’s album Short Sharp Shocked is released with an authentic cover shot of the artist being carted off by a pair of L.A. cops … her label, Cooking Vinyl, overprints sunglasses on a policeman’s face and obscures a badge number to protect the innocent …

1990, in a tragic freak accident, part of a lighting rig falls on Curtis Mayfield during a performance in Brooklyn, New York … the incident leaves Mayfield paralyzed from the neck down …

1995, Courtney Love blows her cork when the audience at a Hole concert doesn’t get ecstatic over her performance on the last night of the Lollapalooza tour in Mountain View, California … security guards carry her off the stage when she begins to physically fight with audience members …

1998, Pete Townshend plays to an SRO crowd at Chicago’s House of Blues and raises $300,000 for Maryille Academy, a home for abused and neglected children …

1999, The Backstreet Boys break box office records by selling all 765,000 tickets for their North American tour in just one day, taking in a cool $30 million, most of it within just a single hour …

2003, during a radio interview, Ted Nugent says that the people of Illinois are “spineless, apathetic, embarrassing wimps” for their lack of involvement in their state government … Nugent’s comments result from his displeasure over the state’s gun laws … despite his scorn, Nugent will play the Illinois State Fair later in the day … fortunately for the Motor City Madman, the audience is apparently a bunch of embarrassing wimps who are too spineless and apathetic to demand refunds …

2005, a reworked version of the musical Lennon opens on Broadway following a debut in San Francisco that met with hostile reviews … the storyline of the rejiggered show has been revamped into a more linear flow when critics and audiences alike were mystified by the original libretto … Eminem cancels a European tour and checks into rehab … a representative says the sojourn is for a “dependancy on sleep medication” … the 11-date tour cancellation costs the rapper about $18 million in ticket sales … Madonna breaks her collarbone, hand, and three ribs when she’s tossed from a horse in England … the ride was in celebration of her 47th birthday …

2006, My Chemical Romance Toilet is obliged to cancel a San Diego festival date when singer Gerard Way and drummer Bob Bryar injure themselves while shooting a video …

2008, the format of Rolling Stone magazine is being downsized from large-format pages to traditional magazine size to spur lagging sales … The Allman Brothers sue Universal Music Group for more than $10 million charging that they are owed royalties on downloads and CD sales of material they cut on the Capricorn label between 1969 and 1980 …

2009, Eddie Van Halen is reported to be mending from surgery intended to deal with severe pain in his left hand … it is estimated that healing will be a four- to six-month process …

2010, after a ten-year absence, the first Lilith Fair completes its tour in Dallas … performers in this celebration of women in music included The Bangles, Brandi Carlisle, Colbie Caillat, Emmylou Harris, Erykah Badu, The Go-Go’s, Indigo Girls, Kelly Clarkson, Loretta Lynn, Martina McBride, Norah Jones, Rihanna, Sheryl Crow, Sugarland, Suzanne Vega, and of course, the originator of Lilith Fair, Sarah McLachlan who told Chris Harris of Rolling Stone magazine it was wonderful to see established and new artists alike have the opportunity to play in front of much larger or more diverse audiences than usual

… and that was the week that was in matters musical.

Arrivals:

August 11: Mike Hugg of Manfred Mann (1942), David Box—a Buddy Holly soundalike who ironically also died in a plane crash (1943), Jim Kale of Guess Who (1943), Eric Carmen (1949), Joe Jackson (1955), Bragi Olafsson of The Sugarcubes (1962), guitarist Charlie Sexton (1968), Ali of A Tribe Called Quest (1970), Chris “Mack Daddy” Kelly of Kriss Kross (1978), J-Boog of B2K (1985)

August 12: R&B singer-songwriter Percy Mayfield (1920), singer-songwriter Joe Jones (1926), Porter Wagoner (1927), Buck Owens, creator of “The Bakersfield Sound” (1929), pop songstress Jennifer Warren (1941), Mark Knopfler (1949), August Darnell of Kid Creole and the Coconuts (1950), jazz guitarist Pat Metheny (1954), Suzanne Vega (1959), Roy Hay of Culture Club (1961)

August 13: jazz pianist George Shearing (1919), “Baby Boy” Robert Warren (1919), Don Ho (1930), Dave “Baby” Cortez (1938), Son Seals (1942), Dan Fogelberg (1951), Wings guitarist Jimmy McCulloch (1953), Feargal Sharkey of The Undertones (1958)

August 14: swing and jazz violinist Stuff Smith (1909), R&B singer Jackie Brenston (1927), songwriter Carol Joyner Gourley (1938), Dash Crofts of Seals and Crofts (1940), David Crosby (1941), Tim Bogart of Vanilla Fudge (1944), inventor of the slap bass, Larry Graham (1946), Slim Dunlap of The Replacements (1951), Sharon Bryant of Atlantic Star (1956), Kevin Cadogan of Third Eye Blind (1970)

August 15: blues harp player Buster Brown, born Waymon Glasco (1911), Oscar Peterson (1925), bluegrass-country singer Rose Maddox (1925), Bill Pinkney of The Drifters (1925), R&B singer Bobby Byrd (1934), singer Bobby Helms (1936), Peter York of the Spencer Davis Group (1942), songwriter Jimmy Webb (1946), Tom Johnston of The Doobie Brothers (1948), Tommy Aldridge of Black Oak Arkansas (1950), MCA of The Beastie Boys (1967)

August 16: baritone jazz crooner Al Hibbler (1915), jazz pianist and composer Bill Evans (1929), English country and pop singer Karl Denver (1931), chanteuse Eydie Gormé (1931), lead singer of The Dubs, Richard Blandon (1934), New Orleans R&B singer Bobby Mitchell (1935), R&B singer-songwriter Barbara George (1942), songwriter and touring musician Kin Vassy (1943), Barry Hay of Golden Earring (1948), J.T. Taylor of Kool & The Gang (1953), Tim Farriss of INXS (1957), Madonna (born Louise Ciccone) (1958), Chris Pederson of Camper Van Beethoven (1960), Emily Erwin of Dixie Chicks (1972), singer-songwriter-pianist Vanessa Carlton (1980)

August 17: ’50s pop singer Georgia Gibbs (1919), Sam Butera, tenor sax player with Louis Prima (1927), Mark Dinning of “Teen Angel” fame (1933), bluesman Luther Allison (1939), Sib Hashian of Boston (1949), guitar virtuoso Eric Johnson (1954), XTC’s Colin Moulding (1955), Gilby Clark of Guns N’ Roses (1962), singer-songwriter Maria McKee (1964), Steve Gorman of Black Crowes (1965), Jill Cunniff of Luscious Jackson (1966), Donnie Wahlberg of New Kids on the Block (1969), Posdnuos of De La Soul (1969)

Departures:

August 11: pedal steel player Don Helms (2008), singer-talk show host Mike Douglas (2006), conductor Rafael Kubelick (1996), The Ventures drummer Mel Taylor (1996), bandleader-pianist Sonny Thompson (1989), Percy Mayfield—one day short of his 64th birthday (1984)

August 12: free jazz drummer Rashied Ali (2009), singer-talk show host Merv Griffin (2007), Luther Allison (1997), John Cage (1992), Japanese singer Kyu Sakamoto (1985), Buddy Holly producer Norman Petty (1984)

August 13: Little Feat drummer Richie Hayward (2010), guitar legend Les Paul (2009), John Loder, founder of the punk label Southern Records (2005), composer David Tudor (1996), blues drummer Fred Below (1988), soul singer Joe Tex, born Joseph Arrington Jr. (1982), soulful sax man King Curtis (1971), R&B star Joe Hinton (1968)

August 14: Johnny Duncan (2006), Esther Wong, owner of the L.A. punk venue Madame Wong’s (2005), Tony Williams, lead vocalist of The Platters (1992), Hawkwind vocalist Robert Calvert (1989), guitarist Roy Buchanan (1988)

August 15: record producer-pianist Jim Dickinson (2009), William Herbert “Lum” York, bass player for Hank Williams (2004), singer-songwriter Joe Seneca (1996), Jamaican singer-songwriter Jackie Edwards (1996), Thomas Wayne (1971), Stick Mcghee, born Granville McGhee, most associated with his song, “Drinkin’ Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee” (1961), influential bluesman Big Bill Broonzy (1958)

August 16: jazz drummer Max Roach (2007), percussionist Ray Romero (2006), country fiddler Vassar Clements (2005), Bobby DeBarge, member of R&B groups Switch and DeBarge (1995), Christian rock songwriter Mark Heard (1992), Stacy Sutherland, guitarist for The 13th Floor Elevators (1978), The King, Elvis Presley (1977), legendary bluesman Robert Johnson (1938)

August 17: Skatalite trumpeter, Dizzy Moore (2008), Bernard Odum, bassist with James Brown (2004), guitar-maker to the stars, Tony Zemaitis (2002), Chicago soul singer Johnny Sayles (1993), Phil Seymour, drummer and singer with The Dwight Twilley Band (1993), singer-actress Pearl Bailey (1990), soul singer Lorraine Ellison (1985), Paul Williams, singer and guitarist for The Temptations (1973)

It happened this week

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This is the week that was in matters musical…

1928, a candle starts a fire at a Gypsy caravan in France … the left hand of 18-year-old guitarist Django Reinhardt is badly burned, rendering two fingers useless … with his right leg also injured, Django is bedridden for 18 months and uses that time as therapy to rebuild his guitar chops so that by the mid-1930s he is a master of swing guitar and ultimately one of the best guitarists of any genre …

1936, country singer Hank Snow records for the first time … the songs are “Lonesome Blue Yodel” and “Prisoned Cowboy”…

1956, Elvis makes his second appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show… meanwhile, R&B singer Clarence Henry’s “Ain’t Got No Home” is released on the Argo label … because he sings like a frog on the record, for the rest of his career he will be known as Clarence “Frogman” Henry …

1960, Ben E. King, former lead singer for The Drifters, records his first solo numbers, “Spanish Harlem” and “Stand by Me”… the songs will climb to number 10 and number 4 respectively on the pop chart, and “Stand by Me” will prove to have long legs …

1964, “Oh, Pretty Woman” by Roy Orbison turns gold … it’s his ninth and last Top Ten single … this same week, The Supremes release “Come See About Me”…

1965, The Who release “My Generation” as a single …

1970, Jim Morrison gets six months in the slammer for exposing his privates in Miami … in other news, Michelle Phillips of the Mamas and the Papas marries actor Dennis Hopper … they divorce eight days later, proving wrong those who said the marriage wouldn’t last a week …

1972, Philly soul singer Billy Paul gets on the soul charts with “Me and Mrs. Jones” … the song will hold the top position for three weeks and will become a soul classic …

1975, Queen releases “Bohemian Rhapsody” as a single … with three and-a-half minutes being the standard limit to the length of a single, the band and producer Roy Thomas Baker have to convince EMI executives to release the six-minute recording without any edits … the single tops the U.K. chart for nine weeks and goes to number two in the U.S. … it will go to #1 again in the U.K. in 1991 after lead singer Freddie Mercury’s AIDS-related death … meanwhile, justifying his title of The Boss, Bruce Springsteen makes both the cover of Time and Newsweek

1983, Pink Floyd’s Dark Side Of The Moon becomes the longest-listed album ever on the Billboardchart–491 continuous weeks …

1986, The Beastie Boys release their album License To Ill, which will become the first rap album to reach number one on the album chart …

1988, Nirvana lead singer Kurt Cobain smashes his guitar onstage for the first time at the Evergreen State Dorm Room Party in Olympia, Washington …

1991, three members of Pink Floyd are injured in a Mexican auto race when their car plunges down a 230-foot embankment near San Luis Potosi … guitarist Steve O’Rourke suffers a broken leg, David Gilmour receives blows to the head, and drummer Nick Mason, though injured, continues the race …

1995, business manager Yolanda Saldivar is sentenced to life for the murder of Tejano singing star Selena … she murdered the singer upon being confronted about embezzled funds … that same week, Gloria Estefan performs for Pope John II as part of the celebration of the pontiff’s 50 years in the priesthood … she is the sole pop act invited to the event …

1998, Stray Cats leader Brian Setzer sues former bandmate Ken Kinneally who played with the guitarist in the pre-Stray Cats group, The Bloodless Pharoahs … Setzer charges that Kinneally licensed 1978 studio tracks without his consent that turned up on the Collectibles Records LP Brian Setzer & the Bloodless Pharoahs … other courtroom news this week, three former members of the S.F. punk outfit the Dead Kennedys sue former leader Jello Biafra charging he diverted money due to the plaintiffs for his own use …

1999, Pete Townshend, Roger Daltrey, and John Entwistle, the surviving members of The Who, reunite for the first time in two years for a concert in Las Vegas at the MGM Grand … simultaneously, Tina Turner announces plans for her final stadium concert tour …

2002, hip-hop giant Jam Master Jay of Run-DMC is shot dead in his Jamaica, Queens, recording studio … police pursue many leads and theories as to motive: unpaid drug bills, rival rappers, armed robbery, insurance scams, a rivalry with Murder, Inc. over 50 Cent, and more … the crime remains unsolved to this day …

2006, Kurt Cobain passes Elvis on the Forbes magazine list of “Top-Earning Dead Celebrities” … it’s estimated that the Nirvana frontman raked in $50 million over the past year … a substantial part of that sum results from licensing Nirvana songs for movies and TV … in other news, the absinthe flows like wine as Marilyn Manson opens his new Hollywood art gallery Celebritarian Corporation Gallery of Fine Art … on display is a painting of Adolf Hitler with breasts and a flaccid male member …

2007, Cass County Sheriff Paul D. Laney snares 36 Ozzy Osbourne fans wanted for various infractions in a sting … the Ozzheads were offered free tickets to Osbourne’s show in Fargo, ND, only to be popped when they showed up at the venue … Ozzy is not amused saying, “Sheriff Laney should be apologizing to me for using my name in connection with these arrests. It’s insulting to me and to my audience, and it shows how lazy this particular sheriff is when it comes to doing his job.” …

2008, producer Phil Spector’s retrial on charges of murdering actress Lana Clarkson convenes … his first trial ended with a hung jury …

2009, Rosanne Cash releases her new album The List, revealing that the collection of cover songs is based on a list of 100 classic American songs created by her father, Johnny Cash, aboard his tour bus in 1972 … Rosanne recalls the moment her father handed her the list saying, “This is your education.” … meanwhile, Classic Rock Awards Honor Anvil frontman Steve “Lips” Kudlow for the warts-and-all documentary Anvil! The Story of Anvil… accepting the DVD/film of the year award Steve says “I’m a guy who’s worked my whole life for this, and it’s the most rewarding moment I’ve ever had.” …

…and that was the week that was.

Arrivals:

October 27: Nashville pianist Floyd Cramer (1933), session guitarist Kermit Chandler (1945)

October 28: good ‘ol boy Charlie Daniels (1936), singer-songwriter Ted Hawkins (1936), blues-rock saxist-organist Graham Bond (1937), Hank Marvin of The Shadows (1941), singer Wayne Fontana (1945), Rickie Reynolds of Black Oak Arkansas (1948), Telma Hopkins of Tony Orlando & Dawn (1948), Stephen Morris of New Order (1957), William Reid of The Jesus & Mary Chain (1958), Ben Harper (1969), American Idol runner-up Justin Guarini (1978)

October 29: composer Vivian Ellis (1904), jazz arranger-composer Neal Hefti (1922), The Big Bopper J.P. Richardson (1930), Denny Laine of the Moody Blues and Wings (1944), Mickey Gallagher of Frampton’s Camel (1945), Peter Green, founder of Fleetwood Mac (1946), Roger O’Donnell of The Cure (1955), Kevin DuBrow of Quiet Riot (1955), Randy Jackson of the Jackson 5 (1961), Einar Orn Benediktsson of The Sugarcubes (1962), Peter Timmins of the Cowboy Junkies (1965), Douglas “SA” Vincent Martinez of 311 (1969), Toby Smith of Jamiroquai (1970)

October 30: trumpeter Clifford Brown (1930), rockabilly star Ray Smith (1934), Grace Slick born Grace Wing (1939), Otis Williams of the Temptations (1941), Timothy Schmit of Poco and The Eagles (1947), Jim Messina (1947), David Green of Air Supply (1949), Gavin Rossdale of Bush (1967)

October 31: Dale Evans (1912), Bernard Edwards of Chic (1952), South African rocker Johnny Clegg (1953), U2 drummer Larry Mullen Jr. (1961), Adam Horovitz a.k.a. King Ad Rock of the Beastie Boys (1966), Vanilla Ice born Robert Van Winkle (1967), Linn Berggren of Ace Of Base (1970)

November 1: blues songstress Sippie Wallace (1898), Peacock Records founder Don Robey (1903), Barry “Ballad of Green Berets” Sadler (1940), Rick Grech, bass player for Blind Faith and Traffic (1946), Dan Peek of America (1950), Ronald Bell of Kool and the Gang (1951), Lyle Lovett (1957), Anthony Kiedis of Red Hot Chili Peppers (1962), Def Leppard drummer Rick Allen (1963), Willie D of The Geto Boys (1966), LaTavia Roberson of Destiny’s Child (1981)

November 2: trumpet legend Bunny Berigan (1908), Keith Emerson (1944), J.D. Souther (1945), Dave Pegg of Jethro Tull (1947), Maxine Nightingale (1952), Carter Beauford of the Dave Matthews Band (1957), Matt Sorum of Cult, Guns N’ Roses, and Velvet Revolver (1960), k.d. lang born Katherine Dawn Lang (1961), Bobby Dall of Poison (1963), Reginald Arvizu of Korn (1969), John Hampson of Nine Days (1971), Nelly (1978)

Departures:

October 27:producer Tom Dowd (2002), rockabilly artist Donnie Owens (1994), T-Rex founding member Steve Peregrine-Took (1980)

October 28: country star Porter Wagoner (2007), R&B keyboard man Jon Thomas who sang “It’s Hurtin’ Me” (1995), R&B singer Billy Wright (1991), jazz arranger Oliver Nelson (1975), R&B reedman Earl Bostic (1965)

October 29: saxophonist Henry Berthold “Spike” Robinson (2001), jazz bandleader Woody Herman (1987), King Harvest drummer Wells Kelly (1984), guitar master Duane Allman (1971)

October 30: crooner Robert Goulet (2007), Ramones co-manager Linda Stein (2007), Jam Master Jay of Run-DMC (2002), TV host and musician Steve Allen (2000), hard swingin’ sax man Chu Berry (1941)

October 31: John Holohan, drummer for Bayside (2005), record exec Lester Sill (1994), A Chorus Line producer Joseph Papp (1991), guitarist Malcolm Hale of Spanky and Our Gang (1968)

November 1: Grand Funk Railroad manager Terry Knight (2004), classic blues singer and pianist Sippie Wallace (1986), pioneer Delta blues singer Tommy Johnson (1956)

November 2: Sammy Kaye Band singer Wandra Merrell (1994), Mississippi John Hurt (1966)

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