There have always been audiophiles that worship vinyl. It’s not every store where you can still get those records. They are around if you know where to look.
According to this story, more people are catching the vinyl bug and some mainstream retailers have started stocking vinyl once again. This is extremely interesting in an era of mp3s and ipods and where it’s just as easy to buy CDs online as go to the mall. But there’s something about vinyl records that’s more tactile. People want to hold them and touch them when buying. Moreover, they’re fragile, so shipping them can be problematic. So in a lot of ways it does make sense for vinyl records to return to brick-and-mortar locations. Now, if only companies would start carrying record players too.
It was a fortuitous typo for the Fred Meyer retail chain.
This spring, an employee intending to order a special CD-DVD edition of R.E.M.’s latest release ‘Accelerate’ inadvertently entered the ‘LP’ code instead. Soon boxes of the big, vinyl discs showed up at several stores.
Some sent them back. But a handful put them on the shelves, and 20 LPs sold the first day.
The Portland-based company, owned by The Kroger Co., realized the error might not be so bad after all. Fred Meyer is now testing vinyl sales at 60 of its stores in Oregon, California, Washington and Alaska.
Other mainstream retailers are giving vinyl a spin too. Best Buy is testing sales at some stores. And online music giant Amazon.com, which has sold vinyl for most of the 13 years it has been in business online, created a special vinyl-only section last fall.
The best-seller so far at Fred Meyer is The Beatles ‘Abbey Road’ album. But musicians from the White Stripes and the Foo Fighters to Metallica and Pink Floyd are selling well, the company says.
‘It’s not just a nostalgia thing,’ said Melinda Merrill, spokeswoman for Fred Meyer. ‘The response from customers has just been that they like it, they feel like it has a better
Source: Written By David Bodamer
http://blog.retailtrafficmag.com/
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
This Date In Music History- June 10
Birthdays:
Kim and Kelley Deal (The Breeders) were born in Dayton, Ohio in 1961. Kelley is eleven minutes older than her sister.
Blues legend Howlin' Wolf was born in West Point, Mississippi in 1910.
Shirley Owens Alston of the Shirelles ("Soldier Boy") turns 67.
Judy Garland (as Frances Gumm) was born in Grand Rapids, Minn in 1922.
History:
Ray Charles, known as "The Genius of Soul" and one of the major pioneers of the form, died in 2004 of complications resulting from liver disease. He was 73. Among Charles' biggest hits were "What'd I Say?" "I Got a Woman" and "Georgia On My Mind." During his 45 year career, Ray appeared on the US Pop charts 77 times, with 33 of those songs making the Top 40. He became the first artist to have an album on Billboard's Hot 200 for six decades in a row.
Janis Joplin debuted in concert with Big Brother & the Holding Company at the Avalon Ballroom in San Francisco in 1966.
In 1972, Elvis Presley recorded two live albums at Madison Square Garden in New York City (the evening concert is released a week later, the afternoon show is released in 1997).
Elvis Presley recorded "A Fool Such As I" and "A Big Hunk O' Love" while on leave from the U.S. Army in 1958.
The Rolling Stones recorded part of their "12x5" album in 1964 (including "It's All Over Now") at the legendary Chess Records studios in Chicago. Their heroes Chuck Berry, Muddy Waters, and Willie Dixon visit them over the next two days in the studio.
1967- In Woodstock, N.Y., Bob Dylan and the Band begin to record what will become known as The Basement Tapes.
In 1971, a crowd gets so excited during a performance by Jethro Tull in Denver, that police fired tear gas on them. Must have been the flute.
Capitol Records released the Beatles' single "A Hard Days Night" in 1964 and the album of the same name.
In 1966, the Beatles were first heard using reversed tape in the song "Rain." It was a 'B' side to the song "Paperback Writer."
At Seattle's Kingdome in 1976, Paul McCartney & Wings played for a crowd of 67,100, setting an indoor attendance record.
Days after a federal judge declared 2 Live Crew's As Nasty as They Wanna Be obscene, two members of the Crew were arrested in 1990 for performing songs from the album at a club gig.
Steve Sanders (Oak Ridge Boys) was found dead at the age of 45 in 1998. He had apparently died of a self-inflicted gun shot wound.
The Beatles' "Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band" started a 23 week run at #1 on the UK album chart in 1967.
Sammy Davis Jr. enjoyed the biggest hit of his career in 1973 when "Candy Man", taken from the musical Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, went to number one in the US.
Micki Harris of The Shirelles, died of a heart attack in 1982 after a performance in Atlanta, Georgia. She was 42.
1993- Irish singer Sinead O'Connor took out a full-page ad in the Irish Times asking the public to "stop hurting me please." She blamed her troubles on abuse she suffered as a child. O'Connor was still being criticized for ripping up a picture of the Pope during an appearance on Saturday Night Live the previous October. Shut up bald chick!
Country Joe and the Fish debut on the album chart in 1967 with 'Electric Music for the Mind and Body'.
In 1974, the Who play the first of four sellout nights at Madison Square Garden in New York. Tickets for the shows sold out in 60 hours.
Kim and Kelley Deal (The Breeders) were born in Dayton, Ohio in 1961. Kelley is eleven minutes older than her sister.
Blues legend Howlin' Wolf was born in West Point, Mississippi in 1910.
Shirley Owens Alston of the Shirelles ("Soldier Boy") turns 67.
Judy Garland (as Frances Gumm) was born in Grand Rapids, Minn in 1922.
History:
Ray Charles, known as "The Genius of Soul" and one of the major pioneers of the form, died in 2004 of complications resulting from liver disease. He was 73. Among Charles' biggest hits were "What'd I Say?" "I Got a Woman" and "Georgia On My Mind." During his 45 year career, Ray appeared on the US Pop charts 77 times, with 33 of those songs making the Top 40. He became the first artist to have an album on Billboard's Hot 200 for six decades in a row.
Janis Joplin debuted in concert with Big Brother & the Holding Company at the Avalon Ballroom in San Francisco in 1966.
In 1972, Elvis Presley recorded two live albums at Madison Square Garden in New York City (the evening concert is released a week later, the afternoon show is released in 1997).
Elvis Presley recorded "A Fool Such As I" and "A Big Hunk O' Love" while on leave from the U.S. Army in 1958.
The Rolling Stones recorded part of their "12x5" album in 1964 (including "It's All Over Now") at the legendary Chess Records studios in Chicago. Their heroes Chuck Berry, Muddy Waters, and Willie Dixon visit them over the next two days in the studio.
1967- In Woodstock, N.Y., Bob Dylan and the Band begin to record what will become known as The Basement Tapes.
In 1971, a crowd gets so excited during a performance by Jethro Tull in Denver, that police fired tear gas on them. Must have been the flute.
Capitol Records released the Beatles' single "A Hard Days Night" in 1964 and the album of the same name.
In 1966, the Beatles were first heard using reversed tape in the song "Rain." It was a 'B' side to the song "Paperback Writer."
At Seattle's Kingdome in 1976, Paul McCartney & Wings played for a crowd of 67,100, setting an indoor attendance record.
Days after a federal judge declared 2 Live Crew's As Nasty as They Wanna Be obscene, two members of the Crew were arrested in 1990 for performing songs from the album at a club gig.
Steve Sanders (Oak Ridge Boys) was found dead at the age of 45 in 1998. He had apparently died of a self-inflicted gun shot wound.
The Beatles' "Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band" started a 23 week run at #1 on the UK album chart in 1967.
Sammy Davis Jr. enjoyed the biggest hit of his career in 1973 when "Candy Man", taken from the musical Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, went to number one in the US.
Micki Harris of The Shirelles, died of a heart attack in 1982 after a performance in Atlanta, Georgia. She was 42.
1993- Irish singer Sinead O'Connor took out a full-page ad in the Irish Times asking the public to "stop hurting me please." She blamed her troubles on abuse she suffered as a child. O'Connor was still being criticized for ripping up a picture of the Pope during an appearance on Saturday Night Live the previous October. Shut up bald chick!
Country Joe and the Fish debut on the album chart in 1967 with 'Electric Music for the Mind and Body'.
In 1974, the Who play the first of four sellout nights at Madison Square Garden in New York. Tickets for the shows sold out in 60 hours.
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Rare Beach Boy Reissue
(PR) Eternal Beach Boy Dennis Wilson's much sought-after 1977 solo album, which Mojo Magazine has heralded as a "buried treasure", will return to circulation on the occasion of its 30th anniversary, and the 25th anniversary of Wilson's untimely death in 1983, at age 39. The double-CD PACIFIC OCEAN BLUE – LEGACY EDITION will arrive in stores June 17th on Caribou/Epic/Legacy, a division of SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT. A vinyl edition of the LP will also be released at the same time, on the Sundazed label.
In 1977, Dennis Wilson's Pacific Ocean Blue became the first solo LP to be released by a member of the legendary Beach Boys. Dennis, the band's surfer, drummer and free spirit, emerged from the shadow of his older brother, pop genius Brian Wilson, and shocked the industry with a sound and style unlike any other. Over thirty years later Pacific Ocean Blue remains arguably the greatest solo work by a Wilson.
"In all those years since Pacific Ocean Blue became a rare gem, I have been eager to make it more widely available," says James William Guercio, producer and owner of Caribou Records, who served then and now as executive producer. "The music that caught the ear of critics and fans in 1977 has fallen from popular consciousness in the last two decades, and it has long been due this incredible treatment. The devotion that the Legacy Recordings crew has shown to both the official album and the huge number of unreleased tracks is a testament to the strength of Dennis' musical genius."
Dozens of musicians and singers collaborated on the Pacific Ocean Blue and Bambu sessions, which took place at numerous studios around Los Angeles, Seattle, and Miami. In addition to Dennis Wilson on vocals, drums, percussion, keyboards, and harmonica, there were his wife Karen Lamm-Wilson; Carl Wilson of the Beach Boys on guitar and vocal backgrounds; latter day Beach Boys members Billy Hinsche and Bruce Johnston (vocal backgrounds) and Ricky Fataar (drums); Beach Boys engineer Earle Mankey (guitar); and many West Coast session greats. A host of background vocalists included Christine McVie of Fleeetwood Mac, Gerry Beckley and Dewey Bunnell of America, Dean Torrence of Jan & Dean, and more.
Disc one of PACIFIC OCEAN BLUE: LEGACY EDITION will comprise the original 12-song LP sequence: 1. River Song • 2. What's Wrong • 3. Moonshine • 4. Friday Night • 5. Dreamer • 6. Thoughts of You • 7. Time • 8. You and I • 9. Pacific Ocean Blue • 10. Farewell My Friend • 11. Rainbows • 12. End of the Show. The album was produced by Dennis Wilson & Gregg Jakobson (original co-producer and co-writer); with James William Guercio, executive producer.
In addition, disc one will contain four previously unreleased bonus tracks: 13. Tug Of Love • 14. Only With You • 15. Holy Man (instrumental) • 16. Mexico. These tracks were produced by Dennis Wilson, John Hanlon (credits: the Beach Boys; Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young; Jayhawks; R.E.M; Gillian Welch), and Gregg Jakobson. Of special note, "Only With You" was never known to exist – Dennis co-wrote the song with fellow Beach Boy Mike Love, for the group's 1973 Holland album, with Carl Wilson singing lead.
Disc two of PACIFIC OCEAN BLUE: LEGACY EDITION will be a godsend to Dennis Wilson and Beach Boys devotees around the world – especially those who have been aware of the Bambu album he had hoped to release as a follow-up, but never completed. The tape archive is the source for 17 bonus tracks, all previously unreleased except for one ("All Alone"), from the original Pacific Ocean Blue and Bambu sessions. Bambu has been referenced as "Bamboo" in numerous articles on Dennis and the Beach Boys, but paperwork that accompanied the sessions now reveals the artist always intended for the album to be titled Bambu.
Now titled Bambu (The Caribou Sessions), disc two comprises: 1. Under The Moonlight • 2. It's Not Too Late • 3. School Girl • 4. Love Remember Me • 5. Love Surrounds Me • 6. Wild Situation • 7. Common • 8. Are You Real • 9. He's A Bum • 10. Cocktails • 11. I Love You • 12. Constant Companion • 13. Time For Bed • 14. Album Tag Song • 15. All Alone (originally issued on the Capitol Records Soundtrack Endless Harmony) • 16. Piano Variations on Thoughts of You • Bonus Track: 17. Holy Man, with new vocal by Taylor Hawkins of Foo Fighters.
The Bambu tracks were produced by Dennis Wilson, John Hanlon and Gregg Jakobson; with James William Guercio serving as executive producer. Of special note, "Holy Man" features a newly-recorded vocal by Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins, a longtime friend of Jakobson. Hawkins, a huge Dennis Wilson and Beach Boys fan, was someone who Jakobson always had in mind to add to the project, should he ever get the chance to revisit some of the unfinished tracks he made with Dennis.
Liner notes for PACIFIC OCEAN BLUE: LEGACY EDITION have been written by several Beach Boys scholars, starting with Ben Edmonds, a MOJO contributing editor who has written a 2,500-word essay entitled "Love Remember Me: Dennis Wilson's Dreams Delivered." A second essay, "Dennis Wilson: Chronology of a Solo Artist," has been newly-penned by Jon Stebbins (author of Dennis Wilson: The Real Beach Boy, 2000) and David Beard (editor of the Beach Boys fanzine, Endless Summer Quarterly).
A final essay by David Leaf will appear as a PDF embedded on the Pacific Ocean Blue disc. Leaf is the author of the Brian Wilson biography Beach Boys and the California Myth (1978), and the follow-up, Beach Boys: Spirit of America (1985). He has annotated nearly 30 Beach Boys-related reissue projects, including the Good Vibrations: Thirty Years Of the Beach Boys (1993) and The Pet Sounds Sessions (1997) box sets, which he co-produced. Leaf is also an award-winning television producer, director and writer of more than 50 entertainment-related biographies and specials, including An-All Star Tribute To Brian Wilson (TNT, 2001); Beautiful Dreamer: Brian Wilson and the Story of SMiLE (Showtime, 2004); and The U.S. vs. John Lennon (Lionsgate/VH1, 2006).
The full-color booklet in PACIFIC OCEAN BLUE – LEGACY EDITION will feature extensive discographic information and rare photos. Among these are the images taken for the original LP package by photographer and lifelong friend Dean Torrence (of Jan & Dean), thought for decades to be lost but later uncovered in the Sony Music archives.
Source: http://www.antimusic.com
In 1977, Dennis Wilson's Pacific Ocean Blue became the first solo LP to be released by a member of the legendary Beach Boys. Dennis, the band's surfer, drummer and free spirit, emerged from the shadow of his older brother, pop genius Brian Wilson, and shocked the industry with a sound and style unlike any other. Over thirty years later Pacific Ocean Blue remains arguably the greatest solo work by a Wilson.
"In all those years since Pacific Ocean Blue became a rare gem, I have been eager to make it more widely available," says James William Guercio, producer and owner of Caribou Records, who served then and now as executive producer. "The music that caught the ear of critics and fans in 1977 has fallen from popular consciousness in the last two decades, and it has long been due this incredible treatment. The devotion that the Legacy Recordings crew has shown to both the official album and the huge number of unreleased tracks is a testament to the strength of Dennis' musical genius."
Dozens of musicians and singers collaborated on the Pacific Ocean Blue and Bambu sessions, which took place at numerous studios around Los Angeles, Seattle, and Miami. In addition to Dennis Wilson on vocals, drums, percussion, keyboards, and harmonica, there were his wife Karen Lamm-Wilson; Carl Wilson of the Beach Boys on guitar and vocal backgrounds; latter day Beach Boys members Billy Hinsche and Bruce Johnston (vocal backgrounds) and Ricky Fataar (drums); Beach Boys engineer Earle Mankey (guitar); and many West Coast session greats. A host of background vocalists included Christine McVie of Fleeetwood Mac, Gerry Beckley and Dewey Bunnell of America, Dean Torrence of Jan & Dean, and more.
Disc one of PACIFIC OCEAN BLUE: LEGACY EDITION will comprise the original 12-song LP sequence: 1. River Song • 2. What's Wrong • 3. Moonshine • 4. Friday Night • 5. Dreamer • 6. Thoughts of You • 7. Time • 8. You and I • 9. Pacific Ocean Blue • 10. Farewell My Friend • 11. Rainbows • 12. End of the Show. The album was produced by Dennis Wilson & Gregg Jakobson (original co-producer and co-writer); with James William Guercio, executive producer.
In addition, disc one will contain four previously unreleased bonus tracks: 13. Tug Of Love • 14. Only With You • 15. Holy Man (instrumental) • 16. Mexico. These tracks were produced by Dennis Wilson, John Hanlon (credits: the Beach Boys; Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young; Jayhawks; R.E.M; Gillian Welch), and Gregg Jakobson. Of special note, "Only With You" was never known to exist – Dennis co-wrote the song with fellow Beach Boy Mike Love, for the group's 1973 Holland album, with Carl Wilson singing lead.
Disc two of PACIFIC OCEAN BLUE: LEGACY EDITION will be a godsend to Dennis Wilson and Beach Boys devotees around the world – especially those who have been aware of the Bambu album he had hoped to release as a follow-up, but never completed. The tape archive is the source for 17 bonus tracks, all previously unreleased except for one ("All Alone"), from the original Pacific Ocean Blue and Bambu sessions. Bambu has been referenced as "Bamboo" in numerous articles on Dennis and the Beach Boys, but paperwork that accompanied the sessions now reveals the artist always intended for the album to be titled Bambu.
Now titled Bambu (The Caribou Sessions), disc two comprises: 1. Under The Moonlight • 2. It's Not Too Late • 3. School Girl • 4. Love Remember Me • 5. Love Surrounds Me • 6. Wild Situation • 7. Common • 8. Are You Real • 9. He's A Bum • 10. Cocktails • 11. I Love You • 12. Constant Companion • 13. Time For Bed • 14. Album Tag Song • 15. All Alone (originally issued on the Capitol Records Soundtrack Endless Harmony) • 16. Piano Variations on Thoughts of You • Bonus Track: 17. Holy Man, with new vocal by Taylor Hawkins of Foo Fighters.
The Bambu tracks were produced by Dennis Wilson, John Hanlon and Gregg Jakobson; with James William Guercio serving as executive producer. Of special note, "Holy Man" features a newly-recorded vocal by Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins, a longtime friend of Jakobson. Hawkins, a huge Dennis Wilson and Beach Boys fan, was someone who Jakobson always had in mind to add to the project, should he ever get the chance to revisit some of the unfinished tracks he made with Dennis.
Liner notes for PACIFIC OCEAN BLUE: LEGACY EDITION have been written by several Beach Boys scholars, starting with Ben Edmonds, a MOJO contributing editor who has written a 2,500-word essay entitled "Love Remember Me: Dennis Wilson's Dreams Delivered." A second essay, "Dennis Wilson: Chronology of a Solo Artist," has been newly-penned by Jon Stebbins (author of Dennis Wilson: The Real Beach Boy, 2000) and David Beard (editor of the Beach Boys fanzine, Endless Summer Quarterly).
A final essay by David Leaf will appear as a PDF embedded on the Pacific Ocean Blue disc. Leaf is the author of the Brian Wilson biography Beach Boys and the California Myth (1978), and the follow-up, Beach Boys: Spirit of America (1985). He has annotated nearly 30 Beach Boys-related reissue projects, including the Good Vibrations: Thirty Years Of the Beach Boys (1993) and The Pet Sounds Sessions (1997) box sets, which he co-produced. Leaf is also an award-winning television producer, director and writer of more than 50 entertainment-related biographies and specials, including An-All Star Tribute To Brian Wilson (TNT, 2001); Beautiful Dreamer: Brian Wilson and the Story of SMiLE (Showtime, 2004); and The U.S. vs. John Lennon (Lionsgate/VH1, 2006).
The full-color booklet in PACIFIC OCEAN BLUE – LEGACY EDITION will feature extensive discographic information and rare photos. Among these are the images taken for the original LP package by photographer and lifelong friend Dean Torrence (of Jan & Dean), thought for decades to be lost but later uncovered in the Sony Music archives.
Source: http://www.antimusic.com
Top 30 Sales for Vinyl Collective
May 2008
Posted by virgil
1 MINUS THE BEAR “They Make Beer Commercials” LP fruity pebbles vinyl
2 LAGRECIA “On Parallels” LP grey vinyl (w/ free button, digital download card)
3 LAGRECIA “On Parallels” LP black vinyl (w/ free button, digital download card)
4 MIKE PARK “For The Love Of Music” LP blue vinyl
5 LAGRECIA “On Parallels” LP limited deluxe edition (2 LPs,1 CD,pint glass,t-shirt
6 MIKE PARK “North Hangook Falling” LP clear vinyl
7 NORMA JEAN 4 x LP Vinyl Box Set colored vinyl A (400)
8 Teenage Bottlerocket “Warning Device” LP
9 SCREECHING WEASEL “Boogadaboogadaboogada” LP (red or pink vinyl)
10 Russian Circles “Station” LP gold w/ black splatter vinyl
11 MINUS THE BEAR “They Make Beer Commercials” LP rainbow transparent vinyl
12 Gaslight Anthem “Sink or Swim” LP white vinyl Import
12 THE GASLIGHT ANTHEM “Senor and the Queen” 10″ black vinyl Import
14 Vinyl Collective and Suburban Home beer cozie set
15 SPARTA “Threes” dbl LP peach w/ black splatter
15 MINUS THE BEAR “They Make Beer Commercials” LP grey/magenta vinyl
17 THE QUEERS “Love Songs for the Retarded” LP color vinyl
18 MINUS THE BEAR “They Make Beer Commercials” LP all 3 colors
18 CAPITAL “Homefront” LP blue vinyl
18 MURDER BY DEATH Bonus 7″ Set
21 Russian Circles “Station” LP black/gold aside bside
21 Paint It Black ìNew Lexiconî LP Green Vinyl
23 Russian Circles ìEnterî LP silver with black splatter vinyl
24 CAPITAL “Homefront” LP blue + gold vinyl
24 SAVES THE DAY - STAY WHAT YOU ARE LP
26 MINUS THE BEAR “Planet of Ice” dbl LP baby pink vinyl
26 OVERJOID “S/T” Cassette
26 GHOST TOWN TRIO “Have You Heard” 7″ w/ CD color vinyl
29 NEUTRAL MILK HOTEL “IN THE AEROPLANE” LP
30 MINUS THE BEAR “Planet of Ice” dbl LP coke bottle blue
30 THE REDWALLS “The Redwalls” LP yellow 180 gram vinyl
30 Paint It Black ìNew Lexiconî LP Blue Vinyl
33 KAY KAY AND HIS WEATHERED UNDERGROUND “S/t” Rainbow Milk vinyl
34 Murder By Death ìLike the Exorcist, But More Breakdancing” LP 180 gram tan vinyl
Posted by virgil
1 MINUS THE BEAR “They Make Beer Commercials” LP fruity pebbles vinyl
2 LAGRECIA “On Parallels” LP grey vinyl (w/ free button, digital download card)
3 LAGRECIA “On Parallels” LP black vinyl (w/ free button, digital download card)
4 MIKE PARK “For The Love Of Music” LP blue vinyl
5 LAGRECIA “On Parallels” LP limited deluxe edition (2 LPs,1 CD,pint glass,t-shirt
6 MIKE PARK “North Hangook Falling” LP clear vinyl
7 NORMA JEAN 4 x LP Vinyl Box Set colored vinyl A (400)
8 Teenage Bottlerocket “Warning Device” LP
9 SCREECHING WEASEL “Boogadaboogadaboogada” LP (red or pink vinyl)
10 Russian Circles “Station” LP gold w/ black splatter vinyl
11 MINUS THE BEAR “They Make Beer Commercials” LP rainbow transparent vinyl
12 Gaslight Anthem “Sink or Swim” LP white vinyl Import
12 THE GASLIGHT ANTHEM “Senor and the Queen” 10″ black vinyl Import
14 Vinyl Collective and Suburban Home beer cozie set
15 SPARTA “Threes” dbl LP peach w/ black splatter
15 MINUS THE BEAR “They Make Beer Commercials” LP grey/magenta vinyl
17 THE QUEERS “Love Songs for the Retarded” LP color vinyl
18 MINUS THE BEAR “They Make Beer Commercials” LP all 3 colors
18 CAPITAL “Homefront” LP blue vinyl
18 MURDER BY DEATH Bonus 7″ Set
21 Russian Circles “Station” LP black/gold aside bside
21 Paint It Black ìNew Lexiconî LP Green Vinyl
23 Russian Circles ìEnterî LP silver with black splatter vinyl
24 CAPITAL “Homefront” LP blue + gold vinyl
24 SAVES THE DAY - STAY WHAT YOU ARE LP
26 MINUS THE BEAR “Planet of Ice” dbl LP baby pink vinyl
26 OVERJOID “S/T” Cassette
26 GHOST TOWN TRIO “Have You Heard” 7″ w/ CD color vinyl
29 NEUTRAL MILK HOTEL “IN THE AEROPLANE” LP
30 MINUS THE BEAR “Planet of Ice” dbl LP coke bottle blue
30 THE REDWALLS “The Redwalls” LP yellow 180 gram vinyl
30 Paint It Black ìNew Lexiconî LP Blue Vinyl
33 KAY KAY AND HIS WEATHERED UNDERGROUND “S/t” Rainbow Milk vinyl
34 Murder By Death ìLike the Exorcist, But More Breakdancing” LP 180 gram tan vinyl
Music industry strikes again, as eBay promo copy discs 'still their property'
I found this to be very interesting and time will tell if this will become a trend on ebay, one of the world's largest resellers of collectible vinyl records.
Ever see one of those discs, stamped with “Promotional copy” or “Not for sale” on the label? They’ve been around since the vinyl days. Now Universal Music Group is throwing a tantrum about these things turning up on eBay.
UMG is a big company, biggest of the big four music companies. That, strangely, hasn’t prevented them from being jerks, apparently led by their lawyers into an attack on an eBay secondhand record specialist.
The BBC sets the scene:
It all began in May 2007 when Universal Music Group (UMG), the largest of the Big Four companies that dominate the music industry worldwide, sued a Los Angeles-based trader on the eBay online auction site.
The target of the legal action, Troy Augusto, runs a business called Roast Beast Music Collectables.
He makes his living by snapping up rare albums in second-hand record shops and selling them on eBay.
Universal is taking him to task for copyright infringement, saying some of the items he offered for sale online were promotional copies and not authorised for sale to the public.
But digital rights lobby group the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has taken up cudgels on Mr Augusto's behalf and is counter-suing Universal.
"UMG seems to think that the promotional use only label somehow gives it eternal ownership over the CD," says the EFF.
"While this might make sense to a goblin living in Harry Potter's world, it's not the law under the Copyright Act."
It’s not commercial law, or common law, either. Sale of goods is something quite else.
A record, by definition, is property, like a chair, for the purposes of ownership. If Mr. Augusto owns the record lawfully, and didn’t steal it, it’s property. If he bought the record in a secondhand record shop, it’s property.
More to the point, it’s his property. He owns the thing.
Even the music industry, in its endless insanity, can’t claim the right to prevent people buying and selling their own property.
Copyright may exist over any item offered for sale, in fact, it usually does. Furniture designs are copyright, too. So are electrical appliances. That in no way affects the right of people to buy and sell them.
The “promotional use only” angle is largely negated by the fact that all record companies, since time immemorial, have thrown out excess stock. I have test pressings, promo copies, old radio station playlist copies, you name it. You go into any reasonable size secondhand record shop and you’ll find quite a few.
If you throw something out, are you claiming copyright in perpetuity? Or just clearing out the stockroom?
If these things were so vital to the emotional stability of UMG, why weren’t they kept?
Why has it taken until 2007-8 for this revelation to occur?
eBay has taken a stance which seems to imply that anybody can claim copyright on anything, and eBay will take responsibility for items being sold as the service provider.
In theory, that means that if anything stolen is ever sold on eBay (as if that were possible) they are similarly liable for that.
Because that’s the implication of UMG’s claim to goods which have already been bought and sold however many times a secondhand record changes hands.
Mysterious as eBay’s position may be, they’ve been sending interesting letters to sellers. This tale from an eBay seller is roughly the tone they’re taking:
"I was clearing out some cupboards and decided to list a CD single on eBay that had been handed to me by a friend quite some time ago.
"The very next day, the listing was removed and I was astounded to get an e-mail from eBay, bristling with terms such as 'illegal, pirated, copyright law, violation, content protection' and so forth.
"I can understand it if I had been selling a crateload of bootleg live CDs, or had burnt off albums worth of official studio stuff and was trying to sell them as if they were new and originals.
"There was also a sinister hint from eBay that if I ever put on a promo single again, then I could have my account with them suspended."
The BBC couldn’t quite figure out eBay’s policy, either.
All that seems certain is that it’s not older promo records from the 60s or 70s involved, sold by people like Sotheby’s who can afford decent lawyers who can read or write, but newer ones.
The question, however, remains.
Why is there a music industry?
You could achieve roughly the same social, legal, and cultural effect with a few empty Mars Bar wrappers.
Because that’s all it is.
Empty packaging.
When a breeze blows, it rattles around, making a noise.
That's about as close to doing anything musical as it's ever been.
Source: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/255643
Ever see one of those discs, stamped with “Promotional copy” or “Not for sale” on the label? They’ve been around since the vinyl days. Now Universal Music Group is throwing a tantrum about these things turning up on eBay.
UMG is a big company, biggest of the big four music companies. That, strangely, hasn’t prevented them from being jerks, apparently led by their lawyers into an attack on an eBay secondhand record specialist.
The BBC sets the scene:
It all began in May 2007 when Universal Music Group (UMG), the largest of the Big Four companies that dominate the music industry worldwide, sued a Los Angeles-based trader on the eBay online auction site.
The target of the legal action, Troy Augusto, runs a business called Roast Beast Music Collectables.
He makes his living by snapping up rare albums in second-hand record shops and selling them on eBay.
Universal is taking him to task for copyright infringement, saying some of the items he offered for sale online were promotional copies and not authorised for sale to the public.
But digital rights lobby group the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has taken up cudgels on Mr Augusto's behalf and is counter-suing Universal.
"UMG seems to think that the promotional use only label somehow gives it eternal ownership over the CD," says the EFF.
"While this might make sense to a goblin living in Harry Potter's world, it's not the law under the Copyright Act."
It’s not commercial law, or common law, either. Sale of goods is something quite else.
A record, by definition, is property, like a chair, for the purposes of ownership. If Mr. Augusto owns the record lawfully, and didn’t steal it, it’s property. If he bought the record in a secondhand record shop, it’s property.
More to the point, it’s his property. He owns the thing.
Even the music industry, in its endless insanity, can’t claim the right to prevent people buying and selling their own property.
Copyright may exist over any item offered for sale, in fact, it usually does. Furniture designs are copyright, too. So are electrical appliances. That in no way affects the right of people to buy and sell them.
The “promotional use only” angle is largely negated by the fact that all record companies, since time immemorial, have thrown out excess stock. I have test pressings, promo copies, old radio station playlist copies, you name it. You go into any reasonable size secondhand record shop and you’ll find quite a few.
If you throw something out, are you claiming copyright in perpetuity? Or just clearing out the stockroom?
If these things were so vital to the emotional stability of UMG, why weren’t they kept?
Why has it taken until 2007-8 for this revelation to occur?
eBay has taken a stance which seems to imply that anybody can claim copyright on anything, and eBay will take responsibility for items being sold as the service provider.
In theory, that means that if anything stolen is ever sold on eBay (as if that were possible) they are similarly liable for that.
Because that’s the implication of UMG’s claim to goods which have already been bought and sold however many times a secondhand record changes hands.
Mysterious as eBay’s position may be, they’ve been sending interesting letters to sellers. This tale from an eBay seller is roughly the tone they’re taking:
"I was clearing out some cupboards and decided to list a CD single on eBay that had been handed to me by a friend quite some time ago.
"The very next day, the listing was removed and I was astounded to get an e-mail from eBay, bristling with terms such as 'illegal, pirated, copyright law, violation, content protection' and so forth.
"I can understand it if I had been selling a crateload of bootleg live CDs, or had burnt off albums worth of official studio stuff and was trying to sell them as if they were new and originals.
"There was also a sinister hint from eBay that if I ever put on a promo single again, then I could have my account with them suspended."
The BBC couldn’t quite figure out eBay’s policy, either.
All that seems certain is that it’s not older promo records from the 60s or 70s involved, sold by people like Sotheby’s who can afford decent lawyers who can read or write, but newer ones.
The question, however, remains.
Why is there a music industry?
You could achieve roughly the same social, legal, and cultural effect with a few empty Mars Bar wrappers.
Because that’s all it is.
Empty packaging.
When a breeze blows, it rattles around, making a noise.
That's about as close to doing anything musical as it's ever been.
Source: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/255643
Joe Jackson’s Vinyl Record Store
Joe Jackson returns to the airwaves this summer with a new show, entitled Joe Jackson’s Vinyl Record Store.
Joe Jackson’s Vinyl Record Store will focus on the treasure trove of music that has been lost from the vinyl era.
Joe cites 'The Rock Machine Turns You On' as an example of the first rock LP he ever bought, with which he will kick off the new series.
“It’s one of those ‘sampler albums’ that introduced millions of people to classic songs such as 'I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight', by Bob Dylan, 'Time Of The Season' by The Zombies and 'Sisters Of Mercy' by Leonard Cohen,” he says. “As a cultural artefact it also has hilarious, quasi-hippie sleeve notes and all of this has been lost in time because the LP was never issued on CD.”
The same is true, Jackson believes of the work of artists such as Miles Davis, Christy Moore and Doris Day, among many others. “Too often, they have their Greatest Hits anthologised but we don’t always get the original albums as they were released,” he says.
The series will also feature a “Lost Singles and Lost EPs Show.”
Joe, who started buying records 40 years ago, is a self- professed vinyl junkie. "Mostly because I love hi-fi sound and not compressed CD or MP3 file sound,” he says. “Even though bands like U2 are reissuing their old albums, such as Boy, on vinyl, too much magnificent music in the vinyl format has been lost along the way.
Joe Jackson’s Vinyl Record Store starts July 13th 2008 on RTE Radio One at 11:10pm
The Hot Press Newsdesk
http://www.hotpress.com/news/4590174.html
Joe Jackson’s Vinyl Record Store will focus on the treasure trove of music that has been lost from the vinyl era.
Joe cites 'The Rock Machine Turns You On' as an example of the first rock LP he ever bought, with which he will kick off the new series.
“It’s one of those ‘sampler albums’ that introduced millions of people to classic songs such as 'I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight', by Bob Dylan, 'Time Of The Season' by The Zombies and 'Sisters Of Mercy' by Leonard Cohen,” he says. “As a cultural artefact it also has hilarious, quasi-hippie sleeve notes and all of this has been lost in time because the LP was never issued on CD.”
The same is true, Jackson believes of the work of artists such as Miles Davis, Christy Moore and Doris Day, among many others. “Too often, they have their Greatest Hits anthologised but we don’t always get the original albums as they were released,” he says.
The series will also feature a “Lost Singles and Lost EPs Show.”
Joe, who started buying records 40 years ago, is a self- professed vinyl junkie. "Mostly because I love hi-fi sound and not compressed CD or MP3 file sound,” he says. “Even though bands like U2 are reissuing their old albums, such as Boy, on vinyl, too much magnificent music in the vinyl format has been lost along the way.
Joe Jackson’s Vinyl Record Store starts July 13th 2008 on RTE Radio One at 11:10pm
The Hot Press Newsdesk
http://www.hotpress.com/news/4590174.html
This Date In Music History- June 8, 2008
Birthdays:
James Darren ("Goodbye Cruel World") is 72.
Boz Scaggs ("Lido Shuffle") turns 64.
Bonnie Tyler ("It's A Heartache") is 55.
Chuck Negron of Three Dog Night ("One") turns 66.
Drummer Alex Van Halen was born in Nijmegen, Netherlands in 1950.
Black Flag guitarist and SST label boss Greg Ginn was born in 1954.
Glamour boy Nick Rhodes of Duran Duran was born in Moseley, England in 1962.
History:
One of the Beatles' earliest recordings, "My Bonnie," was re-released in England in 1963 under the name “Tony Sheridan & the Beatles.” The single reached #48 on the English chart.
The Beatles were in the studio in 1967, where Rolling Stone Brian Jones joined them to play sax on "You Know My Name (Look Up the Number)."
In 1969, Brian Jones announced that he’s quitting the Rolling Stones, saying he doesn’t agree with the group’s musical direction. Actually, Brian was kicked out because of his increasing unreliability due to drugs and his reluctance to tour.
Pete Seeger performed a historic concert at New York's Carnegie Hall in 1963, which was recorded and released as 'We Shall Overcome.' It reaches #42 and remained on the album charts for 36 weeks.
Talking Heads performed their first gig in 1975 at the New York punk club CBGB’s, where they opened for the Ramones.
A month after the release of the African-themed 'Uprising,' Bob Marley and the Wailers kicked off the Tuff Gong Uprising tour in 1980, during which they would perform for over a million people in 12 countries.
Elvis Presley's movie, "Wild In The Country" premiered in Memphis in 1961.
In 1974, ten days before his 32nd birthday, Paul McCartney’s “Band On The Run” is a #1 hit for his band Wings.
In 1998, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr appeared in public together for the first time in 30 years to attend the memorial service for Paul’s wife, Linda, who succumbed to cancer following a long battle.
Tragedy strikes Luther Vandross' band as his drummer, Yogi Horton - who also played on albums by Aretha Franklin and Diana Ross - jumped to his death from the window of a New York hotel in 1987.
The Elvis Presley film "Paradise Hawaiian Style" premiered in 1966.
Mariah Carey released her self-titled debut album in 1990.
In 2005, the Record Industry Association of America (RIAA) says AC/DC's “Back in Black” has sold more than 21 million copies in the U.S. tying it for fifth place on the all-time list with “Billy Joel’s Greatest Hits I & II” (“The Eagles Greatest Hits Volume I” is #1). The 1980 release was the group’s first with singer Brian Johnson (following the death of original vocalist Bon Scott).
The Beatles began work on “Good Day Sunshine” in 1966. The song was finished the next day.
In 1963, the Essex released "Easier Said Than Done", a song that would climb to #1 on both the US Pop and R&B charts.
"I Only Have Eyes For You" by the six man, Chicago vocal group, The Flamingos entered the Billboard chart in 1959, where it will reach #11.
James Darren ("Goodbye Cruel World") is 72.
Boz Scaggs ("Lido Shuffle") turns 64.
Bonnie Tyler ("It's A Heartache") is 55.
Chuck Negron of Three Dog Night ("One") turns 66.
Drummer Alex Van Halen was born in Nijmegen, Netherlands in 1950.
Black Flag guitarist and SST label boss Greg Ginn was born in 1954.
Glamour boy Nick Rhodes of Duran Duran was born in Moseley, England in 1962.
History:
One of the Beatles' earliest recordings, "My Bonnie," was re-released in England in 1963 under the name “Tony Sheridan & the Beatles.” The single reached #48 on the English chart.
The Beatles were in the studio in 1967, where Rolling Stone Brian Jones joined them to play sax on "You Know My Name (Look Up the Number)."
In 1969, Brian Jones announced that he’s quitting the Rolling Stones, saying he doesn’t agree with the group’s musical direction. Actually, Brian was kicked out because of his increasing unreliability due to drugs and his reluctance to tour.
Pete Seeger performed a historic concert at New York's Carnegie Hall in 1963, which was recorded and released as 'We Shall Overcome.' It reaches #42 and remained on the album charts for 36 weeks.
Talking Heads performed their first gig in 1975 at the New York punk club CBGB’s, where they opened for the Ramones.
A month after the release of the African-themed 'Uprising,' Bob Marley and the Wailers kicked off the Tuff Gong Uprising tour in 1980, during which they would perform for over a million people in 12 countries.
Elvis Presley's movie, "Wild In The Country" premiered in Memphis in 1961.
In 1974, ten days before his 32nd birthday, Paul McCartney’s “Band On The Run” is a #1 hit for his band Wings.
In 1998, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr appeared in public together for the first time in 30 years to attend the memorial service for Paul’s wife, Linda, who succumbed to cancer following a long battle.
Tragedy strikes Luther Vandross' band as his drummer, Yogi Horton - who also played on albums by Aretha Franklin and Diana Ross - jumped to his death from the window of a New York hotel in 1987.
The Elvis Presley film "Paradise Hawaiian Style" premiered in 1966.
Mariah Carey released her self-titled debut album in 1990.
In 2005, the Record Industry Association of America (RIAA) says AC/DC's “Back in Black” has sold more than 21 million copies in the U.S. tying it for fifth place on the all-time list with “Billy Joel’s Greatest Hits I & II” (“The Eagles Greatest Hits Volume I” is #1). The 1980 release was the group’s first with singer Brian Johnson (following the death of original vocalist Bon Scott).
The Beatles began work on “Good Day Sunshine” in 1966. The song was finished the next day.
In 1963, the Essex released "Easier Said Than Done", a song that would climb to #1 on both the US Pop and R&B charts.
"I Only Have Eyes For You" by the six man, Chicago vocal group, The Flamingos entered the Billboard chart in 1959, where it will reach #11.
Friday, June 6, 2008
This Date In Music History- June 6
Birthdays:
Gary "U.S." Bonds ("Quarter To Three") is 69.
Dwight Twilley, who scored two top 20 hits within nine years of each other (1975's "I'm on Fire" and 1984's "Girls"), was born in Tulsa, OK in 1951.
Four Tops lead vocalist Levi Stubbs was born Levi Stubbles in Detroit in 1936.
History:
Howlin’ Wolf recorded “Spoonful” and “Back Door Man” - two classic blues songs, both written and produced by Willie Dixon – for Chess Records in 1960.
In 1960, Bing Crosby was presented with a platinum disc to commemorate his 200 millionth record sold. The sales figures were a combined total of 2,600 recorded singles and 125 albums. Crosby's global lifetime sales on 179 labels in 28 countries totaled 400 million records.
Also in 1960- The Silver Beatles and Gerry and the Pacemakers appeared together at the Grosvenor Ballroom in Liscard, Wallasey, England. They are billed as "jive and rock specialists."
Keyboardist Billy Preston died at age 59 in Scottsdale, AZ in 2006. He contributed to the Beatles' "White Album," "Let It Be" and "Abbey Road" records and worked with the Rolling Stones and Eric Clapton, among many others. He also had a successful solo career ("Nothing From Nothing’" and "Will It Go Round In Circles"). Preston suffered from kidney failure and other problems as a result of high blood pressure.
The "Elvis On Tour" documentary film opened in 1973.
Sax great Stan Getz dies in Malibu, Calif in 1991.
David Bowie released his album "The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars" in 1972.
1971 - "The Ed Sullivan Show" aired for the last time. It was canceled after 23 years on the air. Gladys Knight and the Pips were the musical guests on show.
John Lennon & Yoko Ono jammed with Frank Zappa at the Fillmore East in New York City in 1971, recorded for subsequent release on the Plastic Ono Band album 'Sometime in New York City'.
After an unsuccessful audition for Decca Records, The Beatles performed for producer George Martin at EMI Records in London in 1962; playing their compositions "Love Me Do" and "Ask Me Why." Martin was later quoted as saying "they were pretty awful. I understand why other record companies turned them down", but signed them to a contract the following month.
The Dixie Cups became the first American group to top the Billboard chart in 1964 when "Chapel of Love" went to number one. Up until then, the year had been dominated by The Beatles and US solo performers. The song reached #22 in the UK.
In 2003, a judge in London, England ruled that rap lyrics should be treated as a foreign language after admitting that he was unsure of the meaning of 'shizzle my nizzle' and 'mish mish man'. The court battle was over a copyright issue between the Ant'ill Mob and the Heartless Crew, who had used the lyrics on a remix.
In 1968, the Rolling Stones, while recording “Sympathy For The Devil” added the line “who killed the Kennedy’s?” This was a day after Presidential candidate Senator Robert Kennedy is murdered in L.A. (less than five years after his brother President John Kennedy was shot in Dallas).
Michael Jackson announced that he was breaking all ties with the Jehovah's Witnesses in 1987. Jackson was raised as a Jehovah's Witness and in years past would don disguises and go door to door with the Watchtower message in cities where he was performing. Thank God.
2000- Alice Cooper caused a stir when a song from his album, "Brutal Planet" contained a tune called "Wicked Young Man". The track describes an adolescent with, "a pocket full of bullets and a blueprint of the school", clearly a reference to the April 29, 1999 shootings at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado.
2001-Twenty of Elton John's automobiles sold at auction for $2.75 million. Elton said he, 'doesn't have time to drive them anymore'. The most expensive was a '93 Jaguar that sold for over $330,000.
A fan was electrocuted while walking walking barefoot on a wet concrete stairway and dies at a Red Hot Chili Peppers/Snoop Dogg concert at Charlottesville, Virginia in 2003.
1982-Bob Dylan, Jackson Browne, Linda Ronstadt, Tom Petty, Stevie Wonder, Stevie Nicks, Bonnie Raitt, and Crosby, Stills & Nash play the Peace Sunday: We Have a Dream concert for nuclear disarmament at Pasadena, Calif.'s Rose Bowl.
Barry White was awarded a gold record in 1973 for "I'm Gonna Love You Just a Little More Baby". It was the first of five, US number one, million-sellers.
In 1977, students at UCLA were shocked when Stevie Wonder appeared as a guest lecturer, talking about his experiences with Motown and then performing music by way of illustration
Gary "U.S." Bonds ("Quarter To Three") is 69.
Dwight Twilley, who scored two top 20 hits within nine years of each other (1975's "I'm on Fire" and 1984's "Girls"), was born in Tulsa, OK in 1951.
Four Tops lead vocalist Levi Stubbs was born Levi Stubbles in Detroit in 1936.
History:
Howlin’ Wolf recorded “Spoonful” and “Back Door Man” - two classic blues songs, both written and produced by Willie Dixon – for Chess Records in 1960.
In 1960, Bing Crosby was presented with a platinum disc to commemorate his 200 millionth record sold. The sales figures were a combined total of 2,600 recorded singles and 125 albums. Crosby's global lifetime sales on 179 labels in 28 countries totaled 400 million records.
Also in 1960- The Silver Beatles and Gerry and the Pacemakers appeared together at the Grosvenor Ballroom in Liscard, Wallasey, England. They are billed as "jive and rock specialists."
Keyboardist Billy Preston died at age 59 in Scottsdale, AZ in 2006. He contributed to the Beatles' "White Album," "Let It Be" and "Abbey Road" records and worked with the Rolling Stones and Eric Clapton, among many others. He also had a successful solo career ("Nothing From Nothing’" and "Will It Go Round In Circles"). Preston suffered from kidney failure and other problems as a result of high blood pressure.
The "Elvis On Tour" documentary film opened in 1973.
Sax great Stan Getz dies in Malibu, Calif in 1991.
David Bowie released his album "The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars" in 1972.
1971 - "The Ed Sullivan Show" aired for the last time. It was canceled after 23 years on the air. Gladys Knight and the Pips were the musical guests on show.
John Lennon & Yoko Ono jammed with Frank Zappa at the Fillmore East in New York City in 1971, recorded for subsequent release on the Plastic Ono Band album 'Sometime in New York City'.
After an unsuccessful audition for Decca Records, The Beatles performed for producer George Martin at EMI Records in London in 1962; playing their compositions "Love Me Do" and "Ask Me Why." Martin was later quoted as saying "they were pretty awful. I understand why other record companies turned them down", but signed them to a contract the following month.
The Dixie Cups became the first American group to top the Billboard chart in 1964 when "Chapel of Love" went to number one. Up until then, the year had been dominated by The Beatles and US solo performers. The song reached #22 in the UK.
In 2003, a judge in London, England ruled that rap lyrics should be treated as a foreign language after admitting that he was unsure of the meaning of 'shizzle my nizzle' and 'mish mish man'. The court battle was over a copyright issue between the Ant'ill Mob and the Heartless Crew, who had used the lyrics on a remix.
In 1968, the Rolling Stones, while recording “Sympathy For The Devil” added the line “who killed the Kennedy’s?” This was a day after Presidential candidate Senator Robert Kennedy is murdered in L.A. (less than five years after his brother President John Kennedy was shot in Dallas).
Michael Jackson announced that he was breaking all ties with the Jehovah's Witnesses in 1987. Jackson was raised as a Jehovah's Witness and in years past would don disguises and go door to door with the Watchtower message in cities where he was performing. Thank God.
2000- Alice Cooper caused a stir when a song from his album, "Brutal Planet" contained a tune called "Wicked Young Man". The track describes an adolescent with, "a pocket full of bullets and a blueprint of the school", clearly a reference to the April 29, 1999 shootings at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado.
2001-Twenty of Elton John's automobiles sold at auction for $2.75 million. Elton said he, 'doesn't have time to drive them anymore'. The most expensive was a '93 Jaguar that sold for over $330,000.
A fan was electrocuted while walking walking barefoot on a wet concrete stairway and dies at a Red Hot Chili Peppers/Snoop Dogg concert at Charlottesville, Virginia in 2003.
1982-Bob Dylan, Jackson Browne, Linda Ronstadt, Tom Petty, Stevie Wonder, Stevie Nicks, Bonnie Raitt, and Crosby, Stills & Nash play the Peace Sunday: We Have a Dream concert for nuclear disarmament at Pasadena, Calif.'s Rose Bowl.
Barry White was awarded a gold record in 1973 for "I'm Gonna Love You Just a Little More Baby". It was the first of five, US number one, million-sellers.
In 1977, students at UCLA were shocked when Stevie Wonder appeared as a guest lecturer, talking about his experiences with Motown and then performing music by way of illustration
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Tributes to Bo Diddley
Artists from around the world have been commenting on the passing of Bo Diddley. Here are some highlights from those comments.
Mick Jagger:
"He was a wonderful, original musician who was an enormous force in music and was a big influence on The Rolling Stones. He was very generous to us in our early years and we learned a lot from him. We will never see his like again."
George Thorogood:
“I first heard Bo Diddley in 1966. I knew the Rolling Stones were big on this guy and I got a copy of Bo Diddley's 16 All-Time Greatest Hits and flipped over it, and played it constantly."
"I first met him in 1979, and as years went on we got closer and closer. It’s an honor to be associated with his great music. I just had Hand Jive’ on last night. It goes, ’A doctor, a lawyer and an indian chief/They all dig that Diddley beat.’ That says it all.”
Elvis Costello:
"Listening to Bo Diddley, you could convince yourself that the only thing you need to create great rock 'n' roll is a tremolo guitar, a killer beat and one and a half chords. Many tried and some have failed, but nobody did it like Diddley."
Robert Plant:
"Bo Diddley's voice and relentless, glorious anthems echo down through my years. Without him, the history of music would not have developed as it has. This royal shape shifter continues to influence four generations of musicians on a daily basis."
Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart:
"'Bo Diddley-beat' was "the bedrock for thousands of bands including The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Greateful Dead, and countless others."
"His slashing rhythm guitar brought the most powerful rhythms from west Africa into rock 'n roll."
"When I was 14 years old I happened to wander into a club and have the opportunity to play my first public performance with the master. It seems his drummer was late and asked if there was drummer in the house. That moment will always be with me."
"Rock the heavens, Mr Diddley, like only you can."
Bonnie Raitt:
"Bo Diddley was a monumental figure in early rock 'n' roll, a huge influence on everyone. He was a wonderful man, a true original musician and beloved the world over. He will be sorely missed."
Billy F. Gibbons of Z.Z. Top:
"It's a good day because I've walked on the planet at the same time as Bo Diddley.
"The simplistic and humorous artistry that accompanied this creation we all know as the Bo Diddley beat is a resounding testament to someone who knew how to touch us in a rock 'n' roll way. Bo Diddley was the man who constructed the sound we all grew to revolve around and a vision of simplicity delivered through effortless expression and sense of humor. Many times, Bo made a point to say, "I'll always be around" and we know he will."
Source: http://winkscollectibles.blogspot.com/2008/06/tributes-to-bo-diddley.html
This Date In Music History- June 4
Birthdays:
Frank's little girl, Nancy Sinatra was born in Jersey City, N.J. in 1940.
DeBarge singer El DeBarge was born in Grand Rapids, Mich in 1964.
Michelle Phillips of the Mamas & the Papas ("Creeque Alley") is 64.
Gordon Waller of Peter & Gordon was born in Braemar, Scotland in 1945. The duo's biggest hit was 1964's "A World Without Love," written by Paul McCartney.
History:
Ray Charles performed with his old band in Chicago in 1998 as part of his "50th year in show biz" celebrations.
Ronnie Lane, bassist and songwriter for the Faces, died in 1997 at age 51 after a long battle with multiple sclerosis.
The world collectively holds its breath as, at Graceland, Priscilla Presley announced who will appear on the Elvis stamp in 1992. Will it be the young, handsome Elvis? Or the fat, aging Elvis? Some 277,000 people wanted Elvis '77, but luckily 851,000 voted for Elvis '57.
The producers of Broadway's Beatlemania were ordered to pay $10 million to the Beatles' Apple Corps Ltd. in 1986 because the show is deemed too much like the Beatles. Now that’s a surprise!
The Rolling Stones become the first Western rock group to actually collect royalties on albums sold in Russia in 1975.
In 1972, Pink Floyd began sessions for their next album at London's Abbey Road. Tentatively titled Eclipse, the record was eventually released as Dark Side of the Moon.
The late Freddy Fender ("Wasted Days And Wasted Nights") was born in 1937.
Former Beach Boys manager Murry Wilson (father of the group's Brian, Carl and Dennis Wilson) died in 1973. His alleged physical abuse left songwriting genius Brian deaf in one ear. Murray also managed the group when it was first starting out. (Brian did not attend the funeral)
Janis Joplin joined Big Brother & the Holding Company in 1966.
The Beatles signed a recording contract with EMI Parlophone in Britain in 1962.
Freddie Scott ("Hey Girl") died from a heart attack in 2007.
Gene Vincent performed his first concert, in his home town of Norfolk, Virginia, in 1956.
The Monkees TV show won the Emmy Award for "Outstanding Comedy Series" in 1967. And I thought it was all about their music.
The Beach Boys released "Surfin' Safari" in 1962, their first single on Capitol.
On TV in 1956, you could have watched Elvis make his second appearance on the wacky, cross-dressing Milton Berle Show. Berle presented Elvis with a Billboard Triple Crown award after "Heartbreak Hotel" tops the pop, country, and R&B charts.
Glenn Wallichs set up Capitol Records in 1942 and inaugurates the era of record promotion by sending free copies of the label's records to radio stations in the hope of garnering airplay.
Bruce Springsteen released the album, "Born In The USA" in 1984, which topped the US LP chart for 7 weeks and spawned 7 Top-10 singles.
Derek Leckenby, lead guitarist for Herman's Hermits, died of cancer on June 4th at the age of 51 in 1994.
John Hartford, the songwriter who wrote Glen Campbell's hit "Gentle On My Mind" and recorded a catalog of more than 30 albums, winning Grammy awards in three different decades, died on June 4, 2001 after a long battle with non-hodgkin’s lymphoma. He was 63.
“Don’t Bring Me Down,” by the Animals, enters the Top Forty, where it will peak at #12 in 1966. It will be the last charting single by the original quintet, although Eric Burdon will pilot a new lineup of Animals through the end of the decade.
Frank's little girl, Nancy Sinatra was born in Jersey City, N.J. in 1940.
DeBarge singer El DeBarge was born in Grand Rapids, Mich in 1964.
Michelle Phillips of the Mamas & the Papas ("Creeque Alley") is 64.
Gordon Waller of Peter & Gordon was born in Braemar, Scotland in 1945. The duo's biggest hit was 1964's "A World Without Love," written by Paul McCartney.
History:
Ray Charles performed with his old band in Chicago in 1998 as part of his "50th year in show biz" celebrations.
Ronnie Lane, bassist and songwriter for the Faces, died in 1997 at age 51 after a long battle with multiple sclerosis.
The world collectively holds its breath as, at Graceland, Priscilla Presley announced who will appear on the Elvis stamp in 1992. Will it be the young, handsome Elvis? Or the fat, aging Elvis? Some 277,000 people wanted Elvis '77, but luckily 851,000 voted for Elvis '57.
The producers of Broadway's Beatlemania were ordered to pay $10 million to the Beatles' Apple Corps Ltd. in 1986 because the show is deemed too much like the Beatles. Now that’s a surprise!
The Rolling Stones become the first Western rock group to actually collect royalties on albums sold in Russia in 1975.
In 1972, Pink Floyd began sessions for their next album at London's Abbey Road. Tentatively titled Eclipse, the record was eventually released as Dark Side of the Moon.
The late Freddy Fender ("Wasted Days And Wasted Nights") was born in 1937.
Former Beach Boys manager Murry Wilson (father of the group's Brian, Carl and Dennis Wilson) died in 1973. His alleged physical abuse left songwriting genius Brian deaf in one ear. Murray also managed the group when it was first starting out. (Brian did not attend the funeral)
Janis Joplin joined Big Brother & the Holding Company in 1966.
The Beatles signed a recording contract with EMI Parlophone in Britain in 1962.
Freddie Scott ("Hey Girl") died from a heart attack in 2007.
Gene Vincent performed his first concert, in his home town of Norfolk, Virginia, in 1956.
The Monkees TV show won the Emmy Award for "Outstanding Comedy Series" in 1967. And I thought it was all about their music.
The Beach Boys released "Surfin' Safari" in 1962, their first single on Capitol.
On TV in 1956, you could have watched Elvis make his second appearance on the wacky, cross-dressing Milton Berle Show. Berle presented Elvis with a Billboard Triple Crown award after "Heartbreak Hotel" tops the pop, country, and R&B charts.
Glenn Wallichs set up Capitol Records in 1942 and inaugurates the era of record promotion by sending free copies of the label's records to radio stations in the hope of garnering airplay.
Bruce Springsteen released the album, "Born In The USA" in 1984, which topped the US LP chart for 7 weeks and spawned 7 Top-10 singles.
Derek Leckenby, lead guitarist for Herman's Hermits, died of cancer on June 4th at the age of 51 in 1994.
John Hartford, the songwriter who wrote Glen Campbell's hit "Gentle On My Mind" and recorded a catalog of more than 30 albums, winning Grammy awards in three different decades, died on June 4, 2001 after a long battle with non-hodgkin’s lymphoma. He was 63.
“Don’t Bring Me Down,” by the Animals, enters the Top Forty, where it will peak at #12 in 1966. It will be the last charting single by the original quintet, although Eric Burdon will pilot a new lineup of Animals through the end of the decade.
Your Vinyl Record Update!
CD sales are down. Digital sales are up (but not as much as CD sales are down). So what's growing in the music industry?
Vinyl.
According to Nielsen SoundScan, 858,000 vinyl LPs were purchased in 2006, 1,000,000 in 2007 and 2008 is projected to go to 1,600,000.
In addition, turntable sales, which were at 275,000 in 2006, jumped sharply to 500,000 last year.
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Top 5 eBay Vinyl Record Sales
Week Ending 05/31/2008
1) 78rpm - King Solomon Hill "Whoopee Blues" / "Down On My Bended Knee" Paramount 13116 - $4,169.99
2) LP - Various (incl Bob Dylan) "Columbia April Demonstration Record" 1962 - $4,155.00
3) LP - Jaques Dumont Bach Sonata & Partitas Belvedre - $4,049.00
4) LP - Elvis Presley "Gold Records Vol 4" Mono Sealed = $3,300.01
5) LP - Elvis Presley "Aloha From Hawii" Promo w/ Starkist Sticker - $3,000.00
Vinyl.
According to Nielsen SoundScan, 858,000 vinyl LPs were purchased in 2006, 1,000,000 in 2007 and 2008 is projected to go to 1,600,000.
In addition, turntable sales, which were at 275,000 in 2006, jumped sharply to 500,000 last year.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Top 5 eBay Vinyl Record Sales
Week Ending 05/31/2008
1) 78rpm - King Solomon Hill "Whoopee Blues" / "Down On My Bended Knee" Paramount 13116 - $4,169.99
2) LP - Various (incl Bob Dylan) "Columbia April Demonstration Record" 1962 - $4,155.00
3) LP - Jaques Dumont Bach Sonata & Partitas Belvedre - $4,049.00
4) LP - Elvis Presley "Gold Records Vol 4" Mono Sealed = $3,300.01
5) LP - Elvis Presley "Aloha From Hawii" Promo w/ Starkist Sticker - $3,000.00
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Vinyl Returns in the Age of MP3
For his 19th birthday, Simon Hamburg wanted only one present: a turntable for his dorm room at the University of Southern Mississippi. His father bought him a portable $69 model, and Hamburg's older brother chipped in LPs by Simon and Garfunkel and the Who. "Listening to 'Baba O'Riley' on vinyl is always better than listening to 'Baba O'Riley' on anything else," Hamburg says. "You can hear every instrument. It sounds stupid, but it's like you're feeling the music. You're part of it."
As CD sales continue to decline and MP3s are traded without thought, the left-for-dead LP is staging a comeback. In 2007, according to Nielsen SoundScan, nearly 1 million LPs were bought, up from 858,000 in 2006. Based on to-date sales for 2008, that figure could jump to 1.6 million by year's end. (According to the Recording Industry Association of America, CD shipments dropped 17.5 percent during the same 2006-07 period.) Sales of turntables — which tumbled from 1.8 million in 1989 to a paltry 275,000 in 2006, according to the Consumer Electronics Association — rebounded sharply last year, when nearly half a million were sold.
From Bruce Springsteen's Magic and the Raconteurs' Consolers of the Lonely to Cat Power's Jukebox and Portishead's Third, it's now possible to buy vinyl versions of many major new releases at retailers like Best Buy, Amazon and indie record stores. And artists are making their preferences for vinyl known. Before releasing Consolers, the Raconteurs announced that they "recommend hearing it on vinyl." In April, Elvis Costello and the Imposters' Momofuku arrived first on LP, though it included a coupon for a free digital download (the CD version arrived weeks later). "Is it a revolution?" says Luke Lewis, president of Costello's label, Lost Highway. "Fuck, no. But our beliefs have been validated a little bit — not to mention we're making a couple more bucks. It's hard to do that now in the record business, you know."
"Everybody feels last year was a watershed year," says Cris Ashworth, owner of United Record Pressing, the Nashville plant that's one of the country's largest and few remaining. (Around a dozen exist now, down from more than twice that in the Eighties.) When he took over the business in 1989, Ashworth made only a little over $1 million in profit and barely had 10 employees. Today, he employs over 50 100 and profits have more than quadrupled, thanks to a surge in jobs that included Costello's LP along with pressings of Nine Inch Nails' Year Zero, Ryan Adams' Easy Tiger and independent-label products. "My son was very worried for 10 years," Ashworth says. "He kind of looked at me and shook his head and said, 'Dad, you just ain't livin'.' Now he says, 'Well, maybe Dad's a little bit smarter than I thought he was.'"
Despite the uptick, vinyl remains a niche market. Most new releases, indie or major, sell between 2,000 and 10,000 copies; recent bestsellers include Radiohead's In Rainbows (13,000) and Bob Dylan's 2004 Blonde on Blonde reissue (25,000). The possibilities of future growth are limited: As Matador general manager Patrick Amory says, "There's definitely a ceiling." And thanks to higher fuel prices (oil is used to manufacture plastic vinyl, and LPs are shipped by truck) and the scarcity of pressing plants, an LP can cost as much as $4.50 per unit to manufacture, compared to roughly a dollar for a CD. "There are still reasons not to do vinyl," says Mac McCaughan of Merge Records, which has seen an increase in sales of vinyl releases by Arcade Fire and Spoon. "It's more expensive, it's more complicated, it takes longer. We try not to lose money, but we probably are."
Although technological advances (like the CD) seriously wounded the LP, new technology is now playing a part in its resurgence. Old LPs can be converted to MP3s thanks to a new breed of turntables equipped with a USB port. Numark, one of the leading manufacturers of these models, produced them for club DJs and was surprised when the model took off; the company recently shipped its millionth unit.
Also abetting vinyl's homecoming is a growing disillusionment with CD and MP3 sound. The CD has long been known for its clean but overly bright (sometimes grating) audio. "With vinyl, the range is from accurate to warmer" when it comes to reproducing the original source material, says renowned mastering engineer Bob Ludwig, who has worked with everyone from Springsteen to Nirvana. "With digital, it's totally the opposite: accurate to brighter. The brightness in the digital domain is a sound our ears don't seem to like that much, whereas people don't seem to be bothered by the slight loss of top-end you might get with vinyl." (Ludwig, like others, does separate mastering sessions for CDs and LPs.) The compressed audio heard in MP3s has only exacerbated the trend in audio degradation. "It's taking 90 percent of the music and basically throwing it out," says Ludwig. "It takes the bad part of digital and makes it even worse."
Assuming a record is pressed under optimum conditions and played on a high-end system, vinyl can restore some of those missing sonic properties. When the Doors' Ray Manzarek listened to recent high-grade reissues of the band's original studio albums, he was stunned. "On 'Light My Fire,' the guitar and organ solos are like, 'Yeah, that's it — that's the way they're supposed to sound,'" Manzarek says. "Vinyl has a warmth and crispness without the edginess of CD."
There's also something less technical lurking behind vinyl's mini-renaissance. Whether it's inspecting a needle for dust or flipping the record over at the end of a side, LPs demand attention. And for a small but growing group, those demands aren't a nuisance. "There's nothing like putting the needle into the groove of a record," says country singer Shelby Lynne. "It's about as real as you can get. You got your vinyl, your weed, your friends, and while you're rollin', they're pickin' out another record. We're all taking music for granted because it's so easy to push a button. I mean, come on — music should be fun."
Source: Rolling Stone
http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/20947918/vinyl_returns_in_the_age_of_mp3
As CD sales continue to decline and MP3s are traded without thought, the left-for-dead LP is staging a comeback. In 2007, according to Nielsen SoundScan, nearly 1 million LPs were bought, up from 858,000 in 2006. Based on to-date sales for 2008, that figure could jump to 1.6 million by year's end. (According to the Recording Industry Association of America, CD shipments dropped 17.5 percent during the same 2006-07 period.) Sales of turntables — which tumbled from 1.8 million in 1989 to a paltry 275,000 in 2006, according to the Consumer Electronics Association — rebounded sharply last year, when nearly half a million were sold.
From Bruce Springsteen's Magic and the Raconteurs' Consolers of the Lonely to Cat Power's Jukebox and Portishead's Third, it's now possible to buy vinyl versions of many major new releases at retailers like Best Buy, Amazon and indie record stores. And artists are making their preferences for vinyl known. Before releasing Consolers, the Raconteurs announced that they "recommend hearing it on vinyl." In April, Elvis Costello and the Imposters' Momofuku arrived first on LP, though it included a coupon for a free digital download (the CD version arrived weeks later). "Is it a revolution?" says Luke Lewis, president of Costello's label, Lost Highway. "Fuck, no. But our beliefs have been validated a little bit — not to mention we're making a couple more bucks. It's hard to do that now in the record business, you know."
"Everybody feels last year was a watershed year," says Cris Ashworth, owner of United Record Pressing, the Nashville plant that's one of the country's largest and few remaining. (Around a dozen exist now, down from more than twice that in the Eighties.) When he took over the business in 1989, Ashworth made only a little over $1 million in profit and barely had 10 employees. Today, he employs over 50 100 and profits have more than quadrupled, thanks to a surge in jobs that included Costello's LP along with pressings of Nine Inch Nails' Year Zero, Ryan Adams' Easy Tiger and independent-label products. "My son was very worried for 10 years," Ashworth says. "He kind of looked at me and shook his head and said, 'Dad, you just ain't livin'.' Now he says, 'Well, maybe Dad's a little bit smarter than I thought he was.'"
Despite the uptick, vinyl remains a niche market. Most new releases, indie or major, sell between 2,000 and 10,000 copies; recent bestsellers include Radiohead's In Rainbows (13,000) and Bob Dylan's 2004 Blonde on Blonde reissue (25,000). The possibilities of future growth are limited: As Matador general manager Patrick Amory says, "There's definitely a ceiling." And thanks to higher fuel prices (oil is used to manufacture plastic vinyl, and LPs are shipped by truck) and the scarcity of pressing plants, an LP can cost as much as $4.50 per unit to manufacture, compared to roughly a dollar for a CD. "There are still reasons not to do vinyl," says Mac McCaughan of Merge Records, which has seen an increase in sales of vinyl releases by Arcade Fire and Spoon. "It's more expensive, it's more complicated, it takes longer. We try not to lose money, but we probably are."
Although technological advances (like the CD) seriously wounded the LP, new technology is now playing a part in its resurgence. Old LPs can be converted to MP3s thanks to a new breed of turntables equipped with a USB port. Numark, one of the leading manufacturers of these models, produced them for club DJs and was surprised when the model took off; the company recently shipped its millionth unit.
Also abetting vinyl's homecoming is a growing disillusionment with CD and MP3 sound. The CD has long been known for its clean but overly bright (sometimes grating) audio. "With vinyl, the range is from accurate to warmer" when it comes to reproducing the original source material, says renowned mastering engineer Bob Ludwig, who has worked with everyone from Springsteen to Nirvana. "With digital, it's totally the opposite: accurate to brighter. The brightness in the digital domain is a sound our ears don't seem to like that much, whereas people don't seem to be bothered by the slight loss of top-end you might get with vinyl." (Ludwig, like others, does separate mastering sessions for CDs and LPs.) The compressed audio heard in MP3s has only exacerbated the trend in audio degradation. "It's taking 90 percent of the music and basically throwing it out," says Ludwig. "It takes the bad part of digital and makes it even worse."
Assuming a record is pressed under optimum conditions and played on a high-end system, vinyl can restore some of those missing sonic properties. When the Doors' Ray Manzarek listened to recent high-grade reissues of the band's original studio albums, he was stunned. "On 'Light My Fire,' the guitar and organ solos are like, 'Yeah, that's it — that's the way they're supposed to sound,'" Manzarek says. "Vinyl has a warmth and crispness without the edginess of CD."
There's also something less technical lurking behind vinyl's mini-renaissance. Whether it's inspecting a needle for dust or flipping the record over at the end of a side, LPs demand attention. And for a small but growing group, those demands aren't a nuisance. "There's nothing like putting the needle into the groove of a record," says country singer Shelby Lynne. "It's about as real as you can get. You got your vinyl, your weed, your friends, and while you're rollin', they're pickin' out another record. We're all taking music for granted because it's so easy to push a button. I mean, come on — music should be fun."
Source: Rolling Stone
http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/20947918/vinyl_returns_in_the_age_of_mp3
Bo Diddley: Pioneer of rock'n'roll
Tuesday, 3 June 2008
Diddley: 'I'm sick of everybody talking about Elvis. It was me and Chuck Berry that started rock'n'roll'
When The Beatles first arrived in the United States in 1964, John Lennon was asked by a reporter what he was most looking forward to seeing in America. "Bo Diddley," he replied.
Indeed, when the legendary American disc jockey Alan Freed coined the phrase "rock'n'roll", Bo Diddley was the first musician he considered to be an exponent of the style. In 1955, playing the musician's first single for Chess Records in Chicago, the eponymous "Bo Diddley", Freed declared, "Here's a man with an original sound, an original beat that's gonna rock'n'roll you right out of your seat."
In years to come, Diddley would feel his position as "The Originator", a sobriquet he wore proudly, had been usurped by Elvis Presley. "I'm sick of everybody talking about Elvis," he would complain. "It was me and Chuck Berry that started rock'n'roll." He claimed that he had also suffered financially, insisting he had never received royalties for his early hit recordings; broke in the early 1970s, he sold off his music publishing rights, when he even supplemented his income by taking a job as a deputy sheriff in New Mexico.
Yet his characteristic bomp, bomp, bomp, bomp-bomp "Bo Diddley beat" has been one of the defining mainstays of contemporary music: there are some 1,800 recordings of songs originally played by Diddley, including covers as well as lifts by such illustrious figures as The Rolling Stones (their cover of Buddy Holly's "Not Fade Away"), The Who ("Magic Bus") and U2 ("Desire").
The "Bo Diddley beat", essentially a bump-and-grind shuffle, has its origins in a West African drum rhythm, filtered through the experiences of slaves transported to the American South. Forbidden to possess traditional drums, slaves would pat out rhythms on their bodies. When children built their own single-string guitars, on which they would play such beats, the instruments were known as "diddley bows". Although there are many variants on the origin of the performing name of Otha Ellas Bates McDaniel, this is probably the most accurate.
Born in McComb, Mississippi at the end of 1928, he never knew his father, Eugene Bates, and was raised by Gussie McDaniel, a cousin of his 15-year-old mother, who legally gave him her surname. Like many southern black families, they fled the harshness of the Depression-era rural South, relocating to Chicago in 1934. When, at the age of eight, the boy was inspired to ask for violin lessons, his local church bought him an instrument and paid for his tuition. But he switched to the guitar after breaking a finger. A spell as an amateur boxer thickened his hands and fingers, until they became "meat hooks", he said.
This was reflected in his unique playing style; he approached the guitar as if it were a drum-kit, pushing the sound onwards, rapidly flicking his pick across the guitar strings. "I play drum licks on the guitar," he said; indeed his hand-built, square-shaped guitars looked like percussive instruments, and he would supplement the sound through his skill with electronic trickery. Adding a Latino feel to his music, which sounded partially like black rockabilly, with the addition of maracas constructed from lavatory ballcocks, added a further rhythm, which was supplemented by his sometimes staccato vocals; John Lee Hooker was his original vocal inspiration, although the singing cowboy Gene Autry was another. While still at high school, Ellas McDaniel started his first group, The Hipsters, a trio, renamed later the Langley Avenue Jive Cats.
But his group's line-up was finalised when he brought in his neighbour Jerome Green to play the maracas and a harmonica player, Billy Boy Arnold. Playing regularly at rough, down-at-heel venues on Chicago's South Side, the trio built a strong audience.
Cutting a demo recording of two of his own songs, "Uncle John" and "I'm a Man", in 1955, McDaniel was turned down by two local companies. But when he approached Chess Records, the label that already was releasing tunes by the likes of Chuck Berry, Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters and Etta James, Leonard and Phil Chess immediately realised this was a new sound. At their request the "Uncle John" tune was re-written and recorded on 2 March as "Bo Diddley"; Ellas McDaniel simultaneously became that character. (Such self-referencing became a theme of his career; he recorded more than 40 songs in which his name formed part of the title: "Bo's a Lumberjack", "Bo Diddley is a Gunslinger", "Bo Diddley is a Lover" and "Bo Meets the Monster", for example.)
Almost immediately, "Bo Diddley/I'm a Man" started to sell, both sides getting airplay. By the beginning of May 1955, the two separate songs were numbers one and two on the Billboard R'n'B and jukebox charts, assisted by the championing of Alan Freed, the beginning of a long run of hits such as "Diddley Daddy", "Mona", "Who Do You Love?", "You Can't Judge a Book by the Cover", "You Don't Love Me" and "Road Runner". However, only "You Pretty Thing" (1958) and "Say Man" (1959) crossed over into the US pop charts.
Meanwhile, Muddy Waters had a hit with "Mannish Boy", an adaptation of "I'm a Man". Diddley also co-wrote "Love Is Strange", a hit in 1957 for Mickey & Sylvia, and for the Everly Brothers in 1965. Bo Diddley, one of the quintessential rock'n'roll albums, was released in 1957.
Diddley's success, however, meant that he frequently fell foul of America's bitter racial divisions. When he appeared in 1955 on Ed Sullivan's celebrated television show, he was asked to sing a cover of Tennessee Ernie Ford's "Sixteen Tons" in preference to "Bo Diddley". Performing live, he instead plunged straight into his own song. Afterwards Sullivan snarled, "You're the first black boy that ever double-crossed me," and Diddley had to be pulled back from punching him. Sullivan declared he would see to it that Diddley never again worked in television: it was another 10 years before he was seen on networked American TV. Had Sullivan sensed something subversive within Diddley's work? If he had, he would have been correct. "They are often explicitly signifying records which involve putting over a joke on someone who doesn't understand the nuances of African-American thought and speech," said the US music critic Joe Levy. "It makes fun of white people without them realising it."
Four years after that Ed Sullivan Show, Diddley and his black group encountered an even more egregious example of racism. After they swam in the pool at Las Vegas's Showboat Casino, an attendant closed it to replace the water.
Overseas, however, especially in Britain, Bo Diddley was lionised. He became an icon of the burgeoning blues scene, notably influencing the Rolling Stones, who covered both "Mona" and "I'm Alright"; the Crawdaddy, the club in Richmond, Surrey, at which both the Stones and the Yardbirds had residencies, took its name from the Diddley song "Doing the Craw-Daddy", whilst the Pretty Things also were named after a Diddley song. The Animals paid tribute with their tune "The Story of Bo Diddley"; and the comedians Peter Cook and Dudley Moore even had a skit about "Bo Dudley", a tale of a Harlem blues singer.
Continuing to work within his own style, Diddley's popularity dwindled in the second half of the 1960s, as album rock took over the market. In 1967, attempting to catch this boat, he recorded the Super Blues and Super Super Blues Band LPs with Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf and Little Walter. Even though in 1972 John Lennon and Yoko Ono had produced the Elephant's Memory track "Chuck & Bo", a tribute song to Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley, the previous year Diddley had been obliged to take that deputy sheriff post in Los Lunas, New Mexico.
The 1970s were difficult years for him, yet Bo Diddley continued to tour. Whilst gigging in Australia in 1978 he was asked to support the Clash on their first American tour. Although the English punk group were surprised he at first refused to play his classic songs – his explanation was that he no longer owned the copyright on them – they were even more startled when, on the tour bus, he would place Lucille, his guitar, in his bunk and sleep sitting upright.
By 1985, however, Diddley was performing with George Thorogood at the Philadelphia Live Aid concert. Two years after that, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the same year toured with the Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood.
In 1997 he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Rhythm and Blues Foundation, being given a similar accolade at the 1999 Grammy Awards ceremony. At the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 20th induction ceremony in 2005, Bo Diddley performed his own signature tune with Eric Clapton and Robbie Robertson.
Although suffering from diabetes, Bo Diddley continued for many years to perform regularly, rising every day at 4am to write new material.
Chris Salewicz
Otha Ellas Bates McDaniel (Bo Diddley), musician and songwriter: born McComb, Mississippi 30 December 1928; four times married (five children, one stepson); died Archer, Florida 2 June 2008.
Source: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/bo-diddley-pioneer-of-rocknroll-838902.html
Diddley: 'I'm sick of everybody talking about Elvis. It was me and Chuck Berry that started rock'n'roll'
When The Beatles first arrived in the United States in 1964, John Lennon was asked by a reporter what he was most looking forward to seeing in America. "Bo Diddley," he replied.
Indeed, when the legendary American disc jockey Alan Freed coined the phrase "rock'n'roll", Bo Diddley was the first musician he considered to be an exponent of the style. In 1955, playing the musician's first single for Chess Records in Chicago, the eponymous "Bo Diddley", Freed declared, "Here's a man with an original sound, an original beat that's gonna rock'n'roll you right out of your seat."
In years to come, Diddley would feel his position as "The Originator", a sobriquet he wore proudly, had been usurped by Elvis Presley. "I'm sick of everybody talking about Elvis," he would complain. "It was me and Chuck Berry that started rock'n'roll." He claimed that he had also suffered financially, insisting he had never received royalties for his early hit recordings; broke in the early 1970s, he sold off his music publishing rights, when he even supplemented his income by taking a job as a deputy sheriff in New Mexico.
Yet his characteristic bomp, bomp, bomp, bomp-bomp "Bo Diddley beat" has been one of the defining mainstays of contemporary music: there are some 1,800 recordings of songs originally played by Diddley, including covers as well as lifts by such illustrious figures as The Rolling Stones (their cover of Buddy Holly's "Not Fade Away"), The Who ("Magic Bus") and U2 ("Desire").
The "Bo Diddley beat", essentially a bump-and-grind shuffle, has its origins in a West African drum rhythm, filtered through the experiences of slaves transported to the American South. Forbidden to possess traditional drums, slaves would pat out rhythms on their bodies. When children built their own single-string guitars, on which they would play such beats, the instruments were known as "diddley bows". Although there are many variants on the origin of the performing name of Otha Ellas Bates McDaniel, this is probably the most accurate.
Born in McComb, Mississippi at the end of 1928, he never knew his father, Eugene Bates, and was raised by Gussie McDaniel, a cousin of his 15-year-old mother, who legally gave him her surname. Like many southern black families, they fled the harshness of the Depression-era rural South, relocating to Chicago in 1934. When, at the age of eight, the boy was inspired to ask for violin lessons, his local church bought him an instrument and paid for his tuition. But he switched to the guitar after breaking a finger. A spell as an amateur boxer thickened his hands and fingers, until they became "meat hooks", he said.
This was reflected in his unique playing style; he approached the guitar as if it were a drum-kit, pushing the sound onwards, rapidly flicking his pick across the guitar strings. "I play drum licks on the guitar," he said; indeed his hand-built, square-shaped guitars looked like percussive instruments, and he would supplement the sound through his skill with electronic trickery. Adding a Latino feel to his music, which sounded partially like black rockabilly, with the addition of maracas constructed from lavatory ballcocks, added a further rhythm, which was supplemented by his sometimes staccato vocals; John Lee Hooker was his original vocal inspiration, although the singing cowboy Gene Autry was another. While still at high school, Ellas McDaniel started his first group, The Hipsters, a trio, renamed later the Langley Avenue Jive Cats.
But his group's line-up was finalised when he brought in his neighbour Jerome Green to play the maracas and a harmonica player, Billy Boy Arnold. Playing regularly at rough, down-at-heel venues on Chicago's South Side, the trio built a strong audience.
Cutting a demo recording of two of his own songs, "Uncle John" and "I'm a Man", in 1955, McDaniel was turned down by two local companies. But when he approached Chess Records, the label that already was releasing tunes by the likes of Chuck Berry, Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters and Etta James, Leonard and Phil Chess immediately realised this was a new sound. At their request the "Uncle John" tune was re-written and recorded on 2 March as "Bo Diddley"; Ellas McDaniel simultaneously became that character. (Such self-referencing became a theme of his career; he recorded more than 40 songs in which his name formed part of the title: "Bo's a Lumberjack", "Bo Diddley is a Gunslinger", "Bo Diddley is a Lover" and "Bo Meets the Monster", for example.)
Almost immediately, "Bo Diddley/I'm a Man" started to sell, both sides getting airplay. By the beginning of May 1955, the two separate songs were numbers one and two on the Billboard R'n'B and jukebox charts, assisted by the championing of Alan Freed, the beginning of a long run of hits such as "Diddley Daddy", "Mona", "Who Do You Love?", "You Can't Judge a Book by the Cover", "You Don't Love Me" and "Road Runner". However, only "You Pretty Thing" (1958) and "Say Man" (1959) crossed over into the US pop charts.
Meanwhile, Muddy Waters had a hit with "Mannish Boy", an adaptation of "I'm a Man". Diddley also co-wrote "Love Is Strange", a hit in 1957 for Mickey & Sylvia, and for the Everly Brothers in 1965. Bo Diddley, one of the quintessential rock'n'roll albums, was released in 1957.
Diddley's success, however, meant that he frequently fell foul of America's bitter racial divisions. When he appeared in 1955 on Ed Sullivan's celebrated television show, he was asked to sing a cover of Tennessee Ernie Ford's "Sixteen Tons" in preference to "Bo Diddley". Performing live, he instead plunged straight into his own song. Afterwards Sullivan snarled, "You're the first black boy that ever double-crossed me," and Diddley had to be pulled back from punching him. Sullivan declared he would see to it that Diddley never again worked in television: it was another 10 years before he was seen on networked American TV. Had Sullivan sensed something subversive within Diddley's work? If he had, he would have been correct. "They are often explicitly signifying records which involve putting over a joke on someone who doesn't understand the nuances of African-American thought and speech," said the US music critic Joe Levy. "It makes fun of white people without them realising it."
Four years after that Ed Sullivan Show, Diddley and his black group encountered an even more egregious example of racism. After they swam in the pool at Las Vegas's Showboat Casino, an attendant closed it to replace the water.
Overseas, however, especially in Britain, Bo Diddley was lionised. He became an icon of the burgeoning blues scene, notably influencing the Rolling Stones, who covered both "Mona" and "I'm Alright"; the Crawdaddy, the club in Richmond, Surrey, at which both the Stones and the Yardbirds had residencies, took its name from the Diddley song "Doing the Craw-Daddy", whilst the Pretty Things also were named after a Diddley song. The Animals paid tribute with their tune "The Story of Bo Diddley"; and the comedians Peter Cook and Dudley Moore even had a skit about "Bo Dudley", a tale of a Harlem blues singer.
Continuing to work within his own style, Diddley's popularity dwindled in the second half of the 1960s, as album rock took over the market. In 1967, attempting to catch this boat, he recorded the Super Blues and Super Super Blues Band LPs with Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf and Little Walter. Even though in 1972 John Lennon and Yoko Ono had produced the Elephant's Memory track "Chuck & Bo", a tribute song to Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley, the previous year Diddley had been obliged to take that deputy sheriff post in Los Lunas, New Mexico.
The 1970s were difficult years for him, yet Bo Diddley continued to tour. Whilst gigging in Australia in 1978 he was asked to support the Clash on their first American tour. Although the English punk group were surprised he at first refused to play his classic songs – his explanation was that he no longer owned the copyright on them – they were even more startled when, on the tour bus, he would place Lucille, his guitar, in his bunk and sleep sitting upright.
By 1985, however, Diddley was performing with George Thorogood at the Philadelphia Live Aid concert. Two years after that, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the same year toured with the Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood.
In 1997 he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Rhythm and Blues Foundation, being given a similar accolade at the 1999 Grammy Awards ceremony. At the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 20th induction ceremony in 2005, Bo Diddley performed his own signature tune with Eric Clapton and Robbie Robertson.
Although suffering from diabetes, Bo Diddley continued for many years to perform regularly, rising every day at 4am to write new material.
Chris Salewicz
Otha Ellas Bates McDaniel (Bo Diddley), musician and songwriter: born McComb, Mississippi 30 December 1928; four times married (five children, one stepson); died Archer, Florida 2 June 2008.
Source: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/bo-diddley-pioneer-of-rocknroll-838902.html
Monday, June 2, 2008
This Date In Music History- June 2
Birthdays:
Johnny Carter of the Flamingos was born in 1934.
Bangles bassist Michael Steele was born today in 1954.
Jimmy Jones ("Handy Man") turns 71.
Sammy Turner ("Lavender-Blue") is 76.
Charlie Watts of the Rolling Stones ("Tumblin' Dice") turns a young 67.
Marvin Hamlisch ("The Entertainer")is 64.
Otis Williams of the Charms ("Ivory Tower")is 72.
History:
Barry Sadler joined the U.S. Air Force (he's later a Green Beret in the U.S. Army) in 1958.
In 1988, claiming her husband was designated by the President as "the official ambassador of soul", James Brown's wife tried to get her traffic tickets dismissed under diplomatic immunity (she loses).
David Bowie released his first (self-titled) album in 1967.
In 2003, following a dispute over songwriting credits with John Lennon's widow Yoko Ono, Paul McCartney agrees to let "Lennon-McCartney" be. McCartney outraged many Beatles fans by demanding "Yesterday" and other McCartney songs be credited to "McCartney-Lennon." And Yoko Ono gets blamed for the breakup.
52 year old Rolling Stones bass guitarist Bill Wyman, married 19 year old Mandy Smith in a secret ceremony in the eastern English town of Bury St. Edmonds in 1989. Wyman's son and the bride's sister were the only guests. The couple divorced two years later after Wyman said they had spent only five days together as man and wife. Wyman agreed to an $800,000 divorce settlement.
The No. 1 single in America in 1973 was Paul McCartney & Wings with "My Love," a song he wrote for wife Linda.
The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was released in the U.S. in 1967. It was released on June first in Britain. The album took over 700 hours to record under the direction of producer George Martin. A then state-of-the-art four track recorder was used to build each song layer by layer. The cost of recording was $75,000.
The Rolling Stones played their first American show at a Lynn, Mass., high school football stadium in 1964. They also make their American TV debut on The Les Crane Show the same year. An Associated Press reporter notes, "They are dirtier and streakier and more disheveled than the Beatles and in some places, they are more popular than the Beatles."
Congratulations to Elvis Presley, who graduated from L.C. Humes High School in Memphis today in 1953.
Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham settles an argument with promoter Bill Graham at a San Francisco gig by emptying a bucket of water over him in 1973.
Ray Charles' "I Can't Stop Loving You" sat on top of the Billboard Pop chart in 1962, making believers out those who told him he would lose his fan base if he recorded Country and Western songs. The album it came from sold over a million copies, becoming the first gold record for ABC-Paramount.
Dion and The Belmonts reunited for a concert at Madison Square Garden in New York in 1972. The performance was recorded and released as a live album the following year. They had parted company a dozen years earlier after which Dion had a successful solo career, while The Belmonts managed to chart only a couple of times.
Peter and Gordon reach Number One in the U.S. with "World Without Love" in 1964, a song written by Paul McCartney, but never recorded by the Beatles.
Bobby Darin played the Copacabana in New York for the first time in 1960.
1978- On TV's Midnight Special, host Crystal Gayle welcomed Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers.
Bruce Springsteen's album, "Darkness On The Edge of Town" was released in 1978.
It's in G-minor dude. 1,683 guitarists set a world record by simultaneously playing Deep Purple's "Smoke on the Water" at a baseball park in Kansas City, KS in 2007. But this record only stands for three weeks before it's shattered by 1,800 guitarists in Leinfelden-Echterdingen, Germany. The previous mark was set in '94 when 1,323 musicians played the riff in Vancouver, BC.
2000 - The RIAA certified Garth Brooks' "Double Live" at the 13 million level. This matched the highest-certified live album record held by Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band's "Live 1975-1985."
Johnny Carter of the Flamingos was born in 1934.
Bangles bassist Michael Steele was born today in 1954.
Jimmy Jones ("Handy Man") turns 71.
Sammy Turner ("Lavender-Blue") is 76.
Charlie Watts of the Rolling Stones ("Tumblin' Dice") turns a young 67.
Marvin Hamlisch ("The Entertainer")is 64.
Otis Williams of the Charms ("Ivory Tower")is 72.
History:
Barry Sadler joined the U.S. Air Force (he's later a Green Beret in the U.S. Army) in 1958.
In 1988, claiming her husband was designated by the President as "the official ambassador of soul", James Brown's wife tried to get her traffic tickets dismissed under diplomatic immunity (she loses).
David Bowie released his first (self-titled) album in 1967.
In 2003, following a dispute over songwriting credits with John Lennon's widow Yoko Ono, Paul McCartney agrees to let "Lennon-McCartney" be. McCartney outraged many Beatles fans by demanding "Yesterday" and other McCartney songs be credited to "McCartney-Lennon." And Yoko Ono gets blamed for the breakup.
52 year old Rolling Stones bass guitarist Bill Wyman, married 19 year old Mandy Smith in a secret ceremony in the eastern English town of Bury St. Edmonds in 1989. Wyman's son and the bride's sister were the only guests. The couple divorced two years later after Wyman said they had spent only five days together as man and wife. Wyman agreed to an $800,000 divorce settlement.
The No. 1 single in America in 1973 was Paul McCartney & Wings with "My Love," a song he wrote for wife Linda.
The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was released in the U.S. in 1967. It was released on June first in Britain. The album took over 700 hours to record under the direction of producer George Martin. A then state-of-the-art four track recorder was used to build each song layer by layer. The cost of recording was $75,000.
The Rolling Stones played their first American show at a Lynn, Mass., high school football stadium in 1964. They also make their American TV debut on The Les Crane Show the same year. An Associated Press reporter notes, "They are dirtier and streakier and more disheveled than the Beatles and in some places, they are more popular than the Beatles."
Congratulations to Elvis Presley, who graduated from L.C. Humes High School in Memphis today in 1953.
Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham settles an argument with promoter Bill Graham at a San Francisco gig by emptying a bucket of water over him in 1973.
Ray Charles' "I Can't Stop Loving You" sat on top of the Billboard Pop chart in 1962, making believers out those who told him he would lose his fan base if he recorded Country and Western songs. The album it came from sold over a million copies, becoming the first gold record for ABC-Paramount.
Dion and The Belmonts reunited for a concert at Madison Square Garden in New York in 1972. The performance was recorded and released as a live album the following year. They had parted company a dozen years earlier after which Dion had a successful solo career, while The Belmonts managed to chart only a couple of times.
Peter and Gordon reach Number One in the U.S. with "World Without Love" in 1964, a song written by Paul McCartney, but never recorded by the Beatles.
Bobby Darin played the Copacabana in New York for the first time in 1960.
1978- On TV's Midnight Special, host Crystal Gayle welcomed Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers.
Bruce Springsteen's album, "Darkness On The Edge of Town" was released in 1978.
It's in G-minor dude. 1,683 guitarists set a world record by simultaneously playing Deep Purple's "Smoke on the Water" at a baseball park in Kansas City, KS in 2007. But this record only stands for three weeks before it's shattered by 1,800 guitarists in Leinfelden-Echterdingen, Germany. The previous mark was set in '94 when 1,323 musicians played the riff in Vancouver, BC.
2000 - The RIAA certified Garth Brooks' "Double Live" at the 13 million level. This matched the highest-certified live album record held by Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band's "Live 1975-1985."
Saturday, May 31, 2008
This Date In Music History- May 31
Birthdays:
Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul & Mary ("Day Is Done") is 70.
Boys will be boys. In 1973, to celebrate John Bonham's 25th birthday, Robert Plant leads an audience at the Felt Forum in Los Angeles in a rendition of "Happy Birthday." Later that night Bonham celebrates with George Harrison, who ends up throwing his birthday cake at the drummer. Bonham tosses Harrison into the hotel pool.
Take this birthday and celebrate it. Johnny Paycheck was born in Greenfield, Ohio in 1938.
History:
Elsberry Hobbs of the Drifters ("Money Honey") died in 1996.
In 1956, Buddy Holly sees the John Wayne film, "The Searchers", and the line, "That'll be the day" in it inspires him to write a song with that title.
Elvis Presley appeared on Roy Orbison's Odessa, Texas TV show in 1956.
"The Monkees" TV show started filming in 1966.
In a “purple haze” Jimi Hendrix signed up for a three year Army hitch in 1961.
The Salvation Army closes Strawberry Field in 2005, the Liverpool children's home which inspired the Beatles' song, "Strawberry Fields Forever."
In 1966, filming began for the movie, "To Sir With Love", featuring Lulu.
The Rolling Stones record "Honky Tonk Women" in 1969.
Johnnie Taylor dies in Dallas from a heart attack at age 62 in 2000. The singer known as the Philosopher of Soul replaced Sam Cooke in the Soul Stirrers and scored a hit with 1975's "Disco Lady."
At New York's International Rock Awards in 1989, Keith Richards was given the Living Legend Award. The Rolling Stones guitarist joins in the all-star jam with Eric Clapton and Tina Turner. Doctors were called in to make sure that Richards was, indeed alive.
In 1977, Emerson, Lake & Palmer kicked off an American tour accompanied by a 70-piece orchestra. It costs the band $200,000 a week to keep the circus on the road.
At the time (1976), the Guinness Book of World Records called it the loudest concert in history. The Who assaulted an audience at England's Charlton Athletic Grounds with 76,000 watts at 120 decibels. Any wonder Townshend constantly complains of hearing loss? (That record has since been surpassed)
In 1969, Rolling Stone Magazine reported that Frank Zappa had turned college lecturer. He articulates on subjects like "Pigs, Ponies and Rock & Roll" for $1,500 per engagement.
Although the Disco craze was running out of steam in 1980, a group from Minneapolis, Minnesota called Lipps, Inc., that featured Cynthia Johnson on vocals, reached the top of the US charts with a tune called "Funkytown". It was a UK #2 hit. The record would be certified platinum, but the group's only other Hot 100 entry would stall at number 64.
During their Montreal bed-in in 1969, John Lennon and Yoko Ono record "Give Peace a Chance."
Guitarist Dick Dale performs "Let's Go Trippin'" at the Rendezvous Ballroom in Balboa, Calif. In 1958, and invents surf music while he's at it.
The first jazz record, "Dark Town Strutters' Ball," was released in 1917.
Survivor released the single "Eye of the Tiger" in 1982.
In 1995, Bob Dole singled out Time Warner for "the marketing of evil" in movies and music. Dole later admitted that he had not seen or heard much of what he had been criticizing. Would have made a great president.
Supertramp played Madison Square Garden in 1979. While on stage they are awarded a platinum album for “Breakfast In America.”
Chuck Berry opens Berry Park, near St. Louis in 1961.
The Theme From M*A*S*H* (Suicide Is Painless), was at the top of the UK singles chart in 1980, 10 years after it was first recorded.
17 weeks after entering the Billboard Pop chart, Freddy Fender's "Before the Next Teardrop Falls" made it all the way to number one in 1975.
Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul & Mary ("Day Is Done") is 70.
Boys will be boys. In 1973, to celebrate John Bonham's 25th birthday, Robert Plant leads an audience at the Felt Forum in Los Angeles in a rendition of "Happy Birthday." Later that night Bonham celebrates with George Harrison, who ends up throwing his birthday cake at the drummer. Bonham tosses Harrison into the hotel pool.
Take this birthday and celebrate it. Johnny Paycheck was born in Greenfield, Ohio in 1938.
History:
Elsberry Hobbs of the Drifters ("Money Honey") died in 1996.
In 1956, Buddy Holly sees the John Wayne film, "The Searchers", and the line, "That'll be the day" in it inspires him to write a song with that title.
Elvis Presley appeared on Roy Orbison's Odessa, Texas TV show in 1956.
"The Monkees" TV show started filming in 1966.
In a “purple haze” Jimi Hendrix signed up for a three year Army hitch in 1961.
The Salvation Army closes Strawberry Field in 2005, the Liverpool children's home which inspired the Beatles' song, "Strawberry Fields Forever."
In 1966, filming began for the movie, "To Sir With Love", featuring Lulu.
The Rolling Stones record "Honky Tonk Women" in 1969.
Johnnie Taylor dies in Dallas from a heart attack at age 62 in 2000. The singer known as the Philosopher of Soul replaced Sam Cooke in the Soul Stirrers and scored a hit with 1975's "Disco Lady."
At New York's International Rock Awards in 1989, Keith Richards was given the Living Legend Award. The Rolling Stones guitarist joins in the all-star jam with Eric Clapton and Tina Turner. Doctors were called in to make sure that Richards was, indeed alive.
In 1977, Emerson, Lake & Palmer kicked off an American tour accompanied by a 70-piece orchestra. It costs the band $200,000 a week to keep the circus on the road.
At the time (1976), the Guinness Book of World Records called it the loudest concert in history. The Who assaulted an audience at England's Charlton Athletic Grounds with 76,000 watts at 120 decibels. Any wonder Townshend constantly complains of hearing loss? (That record has since been surpassed)
In 1969, Rolling Stone Magazine reported that Frank Zappa had turned college lecturer. He articulates on subjects like "Pigs, Ponies and Rock & Roll" for $1,500 per engagement.
Although the Disco craze was running out of steam in 1980, a group from Minneapolis, Minnesota called Lipps, Inc., that featured Cynthia Johnson on vocals, reached the top of the US charts with a tune called "Funkytown". It was a UK #2 hit. The record would be certified platinum, but the group's only other Hot 100 entry would stall at number 64.
During their Montreal bed-in in 1969, John Lennon and Yoko Ono record "Give Peace a Chance."
Guitarist Dick Dale performs "Let's Go Trippin'" at the Rendezvous Ballroom in Balboa, Calif. In 1958, and invents surf music while he's at it.
The first jazz record, "Dark Town Strutters' Ball," was released in 1917.
Survivor released the single "Eye of the Tiger" in 1982.
In 1995, Bob Dole singled out Time Warner for "the marketing of evil" in movies and music. Dole later admitted that he had not seen or heard much of what he had been criticizing. Would have made a great president.
Supertramp played Madison Square Garden in 1979. While on stage they are awarded a platinum album for “Breakfast In America.”
Chuck Berry opens Berry Park, near St. Louis in 1961.
The Theme From M*A*S*H* (Suicide Is Painless), was at the top of the UK singles chart in 1980, 10 years after it was first recorded.
17 weeks after entering the Billboard Pop chart, Freddy Fender's "Before the Next Teardrop Falls" made it all the way to number one in 1975.
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