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Today in Rock History – April 20

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1968, Deep Purple made their live debut at a gig in Tastrup, Denmark. Formally known as Roundabout, guitarist Ritchie Blackmore suggested a new name, Deep Purple,  after his grandmother’s favorite song. “Deep Purple” had been a hit for Peter De Rose. Blackmore’s grandmother had repeatedly asked if they would be performing the song.

1968, Apple Music ran advertisements soliciting tapes from unknown artists, offering financial grants as part of a deal to release records on the Apple label. Artists such as Badfinger, James Taylor, Mary Hopkin, Jackie Lomax, David Peel, and Elephant’s Memory were signed up.

1968, The Righteous Brothers played at the Civic Center in Charleston, West Virginia.

1969, Session drummer Benny Benjamin died. One of “The Funk Brothers,” he played on many Tamla Motown hits including songs by The Four Tops, Temptations, Marvin Gaye, The Supremes, and Stevie Wonder. The film Standing In The Shadows Of Motown, released in 2003, features his work.

1969, Jimi Hendrix appeared at McFarlin Memorial Auditorium in Dallas, Texas.

1970, The New York Times reported that Catholic and Protestant youth groups had adopted The Beatles Yellow Submarine as a religious symbol.

1970, Traffic, Mott The Hoople, If and Bronco all appeared at The Roundhouse, London, tickets, 25 shillings.

1971, Jethro Tull played at the Michigan State Fairgrounds Coliseum in Detroit, Michigan.

1972, David Bowie appeared at the Harlow Playhouse, Harlow, England.

1973, King Crimson performed at the Kinetic Playground, Chicago.

1974, Queen headlined at the Mid-South Coliseum, Memphis, Tennessee.

1975, Roxy Music played at the Festival Theatre, Adelaide, Australia.

1976, George Harrison joins Monty Python onstage to sing “The Lumberjack Song.”

1976, The Rolling Stones finally release their long-awaited album Black and Blue.

1977, Led Zeppelin performed at Riverfront Coliseum, Cincinnati, Ohio.

1979, The Allman Brothers Band appeared at the Capitol Theater, Passaic, New Jersey.

1980, 84 year old George Burns, who starred in the movie Oh God with John Denver, became the oldest person to have a hit on the Billboard Hot 100 when “I Wish I Was 18 Again” peaked at No.49. When asked if he wished he were 18 again, Burns replied “I wish I was 80 again.” Before this, his most recent charting record had been a spoken word comedy routine with his wife and partner Gracie Allen, in the summer of 1933.

1981, John Phillips of The Mamas and the Papas was jailed for five years after pleading guilty to drug possession charges. The sentence was suspended after 30 days. Phillips started touring the US lecturing against the dangers of taking drugs.

1983, The Grateful Dead played at the Civic Center in Providence, Rhode Island.

1985, The charity record “We Are The World” by USA For Africa was at number one on the UK singles chart. The US artists’ answer to Band Aid had an all-star cast including Stevie Wonder, Tina Turner, Bruce Springsteen, Diana Ross, Bob Dylan, Daryl Hall, Huey Lewis, Cyndi Lauper, Kim Carnes, Ray Charles, Billy Joel and Paul Simon, plus the composer’s of the track, Michael Jackson, and Lionel Richie.

1991, Steve Marriott leader of Small Faces and Humble Pie, died in a fire at his home in Essex. His work became a major influence for many 90’s bands. Small Faces had the 1967 UK number three and US number 16 single “Itchycoo Park,” plus the 1968 UK number one album Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake. With Humble Pie, he notched the 1969 UK number four single “Natural Born Bugie” As a child actor he played parts in Dixon of Dock Green and The Artful Dodger in Oliver.

1992, A Concert For Life took place at Wembley Stadium as a tribute to Queen singer Freddie Mercury and for AIDS awareness. Acts appearing included Elton John, Roger Daltrey, Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath, David Bowie, Mick Ronson, James Hetfield, George Michael, Seal, Paul Young, Annie Lennox, Lisa Stansfield, Robert Plant, Joe Elliott and Phil Collen, Axl Rose, and Slash.

1993, Aerosmith released Get A Grip, their 11th studio album which became their best selling album to date with sales over 20 million. The album which featured the hits “Livin’ On The Edge” and “Crazy,” also featured guests Don Henley and Lenny Kravitz.

2002, In the dispute over who owned the rights to Nirvana’s recordings former members Dave Grohl and Kirst Novoselic asked a Seattle Court to prove that Courtney Love was mentally stable. They told the court that Love was “irrational, mercurial, self-centred, unmanageable, inconsistent and unpredictable.” They also claimed a contract was invalid because Love was stoned at the time.

Born on April 20: Jimmy Winston, Small Faces (1945); Craig Frost, Grand Funk (1948); Luther Vandross (1951);  Mickey Welch, Weezer (1971)

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Today in Rock History – March 18

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who-1965-marquee-club-london1965, Excerpts from six numbers performed by The Who at The Marquee Club in February appear on a French Television programme called Seize Millions de Jeunes on ORTF TV 2. It is part of documentary about Mods shot by two French acquaintances of the band’s co-manager Chris Stamp. A scheduled appearance that day at the Civic Hall in Crawley is postponed until April 18th.

1966, that morning, The Who are filmed miming to “I Can’t Explain,” “Bald Headed Woman,” and “Substitute” at Tower Pier, London for Dick Clark’s ABC-TV U.S. program Where The Action Is. That evening they head out to Wembley’s Studio One to perform “Substitute” and “Barbara Ann” on Ready, Steady, GO!, then zip off to Basildon to play the Locarno Ballroom.

traffic-traffic1967, The UK music magazine New Musical Express announced that former Spencer Davis Group member Steve Winwood was planning to form a new group with Jim Capaldi, Chris Wood and Dave Mason. The ensemble would choose the name Traffic.

1967, Pink Floyd played at Enfield College of Technology, Enfield, England.

1967, Jimi Hendrix played at the Star Club, Hamburg, Germany.

1967, The Beatles scored their 13th chart topping single with “Penny Lane.” The title refers to the name of a street near Lennon’s house, in Liverpool. McCartney and Lennon would meet at Penny Lane junction in the Mossley Hill area to catch a bus into the center of the city.

1969, Jimi Hendrix performed at Ellis Auditorium AmphiTheater, Memphis, Tennessee.

1970, Tommy: The Movie has its world premiere at the Ziegfeld Theater in New York City. A morning press conference is attended by all the movie’s stars except Oliver Reed, Jack Nicholson, Roger Daltrey, and director Ken Russell. Daltrey and Russell are back in England working on his next film, Lisztomania. The film receives a standing ovation despite occasional sound problems. Afterwards, The Who and celebrities attend a midnight party designed by new Hollywood hotshot Allan Carr in a sealed-off section of a New York subway station located under the IND Station at 57th Street and Sixth Avenue.

1971, Led Zeppelin played at the Mayfair Ballroom in Newcastle, England during their “Back to the Clubs” tour.

1972, Yes appeared at the Sports Arena, San Diego, California.

1972, Neil Young started a three week run at number one on the singles chart with “Heart Of Gold.” It was his only Top 20 hit as a solo artist.

1972, Paul Simon scored his first solo number one album when his self-titled debut went to the top of the charts. The album featured the singles “Mother And Child Reunion,” and “Me And Julio Down By The School Yard.”

1972, T Rex played the first of two sold out nights at Wembley’s Empire Pool. Ringo Starr filmed the shows for the Born To Boogie Apple documentary.

1973, Paul McCartney and Wings played a benefit gig for the drug charity, Release at The Hard Rock Cafe in England.

1973, King Crimson played at the Rainbow Theatre, London.

1974, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band played the first of eight shows over four nights at Gertie’s in Dallas, Texas.

bowie-man-who-fell-to-earth1976, The Film The Man Who Fell To Earth featuring David Bowie premiered in London.

1976, Bob Dylan played at theLakeland Civic Center, Lakeland, Florida.

1976, The Who perform at the Salt Palace Convention Center, in Salt Lake City, Utah.

1977, The Clash released their debut single “White Riot.” It peaked at number 38 on the UK charts.

1977, The Grateful Dead played at Winterland Arena in San Francisco, California.

1977, AC/DC performed at Lanchester Polytechnic, Coventry, England.

1978, The brothers Gibb had a role in the top three songs on the singles charts, the Bee Gees’ “Night Fever” at number one; “(Love is) Thicker Than Water” by Andy Gibb (the previous week’s chart topper) was at number two, co-written by Barry Gibb, and “Emotion” by Samantha Song, written and produced by The Bee Gees, sat at the third position.

1978, Aerosmith, Santana, Heart, Dave Mason, Ted Nugent and Mahogany Rush all appeared at the California Jam II festival, Ontario, California.

1978, Rush played at the Greensboro Coliseum, Greensboro, North Carolina.

1979, Roxy Music performed at Eissporthalle, Berlin, Germany.

1981, Tom Waits appeared at the Victoria Apollo, London, England.

1984, Van Halen played at the Civic Center, Providence, Rhode Island.

1989, A radio station in California arranged to have all it’s Cat Stevens Records destroyed by having a steamroller run over them in protest of the singer’s support of Ayatollah Khomeni.

1996, The Sex Pistols announced their comeback at the 100 Club in London, 20 years after they had split.

1997, Rap artist Notorious B.I.G., aka Christopher George Latore Wallace, was cremated in New Jersey. The 24 year-old was gunned down and killed on March 9th as he left a party at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles.

2001, American singer, guitarist, and songwriter John Phillips of the Mamas and The Papas died of heart failure aged 65. His first band, The Journeymen, were a folk trio. He also co-promoted the Monterrey Pop Festival with Lou Adler. Phillips was married to Michelle Gilliam, they had one child together, Chynna Phillips, vocalist of the 1990’s pop trio Wilson Phillips.

2002, The Ramones were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame by Eddie Vedder, lead singer of Pearl Jam and close friend of the Ramones. The ceremony took place at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City.

2011, Jet Harris, bass guitarist for The Shadows, died from throat cancer at the age of 71. Jet played on the hit “Apache” and during their days as Cliff Richard’s backing band, performed on the number one hit “Living Doll.” In 1962, he left the group and had solo hits with “Besame Mucho” and “The Man With The Golden Arm.”

2013, David Bowie’s first album in a decade become the fastest-selling of the year, hitting the top spot in the UK charts in its first week of release. The Next Day was the 66-year-old’s first number one since 1993’s Black Tie White Noise and sold 94,000 copies in the first week.

Born on March 18: Charlie Pride (1938); Wilson Pickett (1941); Dennis Linde, songwriter (1943); Eric Woolfson, Scottish singer-songwriter, pianist,  producer The Alan Parsons Project (1945); B. J. Wilson, English drummer, Procol Harum (1947); John Hartman, Doobie Brothers (1950); Grant Hart, Husker Du (1961); Jeff LaBar, American guitarist, Cinderella and Naked Beggars (1963); Courtney Pine, jazz musician (1964); Jerry Cantrell, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, Alice in Chains (1966); Miki Berenyi, English singer-songwriter, guitarist, Lush (1967); Dana Elaine Owens, aka Queen Latifah (1970); Adam Levine, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, actor, Maroon 5 (1979)

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Song Of The Day – “Easy Come, Easy Go” by Cass Elliot

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CassElliotOnly in the 1960s could someone as robust as Cass Elliot become an equally big star. Sure, she had talent to burn and a set of unrivalled pipes, but in this day and age of the thinner than thin in showbiz, she just would not have stood a chance…and a shame it would have been indeed.

The former Ellen Cohen was born in Maryland and got her start as part of the folk trio, The Big Three along with Tim Rose and James Hendricks, whom she was married to for a time in an effort for him to avoid the draft. When Rose left the group in 1964, future Lovin’ Spoonful member Zal Yanovsky and Denny Doherty joined their ranks and they became The Mugwumps who cuts some sides for Warner Bros. Records the same year.

Shortly thereafter, Yanovsky joined forces with John Sebastian while Doherty joined The New Journeymen who counted John Phillips and his wife Michelle amongst their ranks. After Cass joined the fold, the group would soon become The Mamas And The Papas. Of course you can listen to their track,“Creeque Alley” to have the blanks filled in for you.

Cass was the ultimate hippy chick and center of the hip L.A. cognoscenti moving in the same circles as David Crosby, Steve Stills, and Graham Nash. In fact according to Stills, the trio first sang together while at a party at Cass’ house (although Nash and Crosby insist that the meeting took place at Joni Mitchell’s house). Nevertheless, it would only be a matter of time before Cass would record on her own, and with the help of extensive television work, she began to score hits. Her records were pure pop affairs cut at Western Recorders in LA in the late 60s and early 70s featuring a who’s who of wrecking crew favorites including on this track Hal Blaine, Joe Osborne, Larry Knechtel, Steve Barri and Carol Kaye.

This song is better known for Bobby Sherman’s version than Cass’, but I think the 1971 production values and arrangements on this version make it much better. It is originally from her album Bubble Gum, Lemonade &…Something For Mama whose cover image was framed in chewed bubble gum.

Elliot died in London in 1974 of a heart attack (and not from choking on a ham sandwich) in the same flat that Keith Moon would die, at the same age four years later.