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Today in Rock History – May 16

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1966, The Beach Boys released the album ‘Pet Sounds.’ The album is now regarded as the masterpiece of composer-producer Brian Wilson, and is often hailed as one of the best and most influential albums in popular music.

1966, Dylan’s iconic Blonde On Blonde album was released, reaching No.9 in the US charts and No.3 in the UK. Rock’s first double album, and Dylan’s seventh studio effort, it was recorded with Al Kooper, Robbie Robertson and Nashville country music session players, and had what Dylan later called ‘that wild mercury sound’.

1967, Jeff Beck appeared at the Corn Exchange in Bristol, Manfred Mann played at the Industrial Ballroom in Norwich, and appearing on the ITV show ‘As You Like It’; Lulu, Cat Stevens, Herd, Georgie Fame and the Tremeloes.

1969, Jack Casady of Jefferson Airplane was arrested for possession of marijuana and received a two and a half year suspended sentence.

1969, Pete Townshend spent the night in jail for assaulting a man during a Who gig at The Fillmore East. What Townshend didn’t know was the man who jumped onto the stage was a plainclothes policeman trying to warn the audience that a fire had broken out. The Who guitarist was later fined $30 for the offense.

1970, Police burst into the Bloomington, Minnesota hotel room of Jefferson Airplane’s Marty Balin after neighbors complain about noise. They find Balin and friends with marijuana and teenaged girls. The singer is sentenced to a year’s hard labor and a fine, but on appeal only has to pay the fine.

Randy Bachman, second from right

1970, Randy Bachman leaves the Guess Who.

1970, Crosby Stills Nash & Young went to No.1 on the album chart with ‘Deja Vu’.

1970, Pink Floyd played at the Warehouse in New Orleans, with support from The Allman Brothers Band and Country Funk.  The band had $40,000 worth of equipment stolen from their truck overnight. Nick Mas0n  told Melody Maker in an later interview, “We sat at our hotel thinking – ‘Well that’s it. It’s all over.’  – We were pouring out our troubles to a girl who worked at the hotel and she said her father worked for the FBI. The police hadn’t helped us much, but the FBI got to work and four hours later it was found.”

1972, The Grateful Dead’s Europe ’72 tour stop is Theatre Hall in Luxembourg.

1974, Brian May collapsed in New York while Queen were on a US tour and was flown back to England suffering from hepatitis.

1974, Neil Young made an unannounced appearance at The Bottom Line in New York and played songs from his new album ‘On The Beach.’

1975, Chubby Checker hosts The Midnight Special, with appearances by Lesley Gore and Danny & the Juniors.

1976, Patti Smith made her UK debut at The Roundhouse, London.

1978, A David Bowie show at Deutschlandhalle in Berlin was halted during “Station to Station” when Bowie noticed security manhandling an audience member. Bowie ordered him in German to stop, which he did and the show resumed.

1987, U2 started a three week run at No.1 on the US singles chart ‘With Or Without You’, the group’s first US No.1. The third track from their 1987 album, The Joshua Tree, the song was the group’s most successful single at the time.

Born on this day: Liberace (1919); Robert Fripp, King Crimson (1946); Darrell Sweet, Nazareth (1947); Jonathan Richman, The Modern Lovers (1951); and Janet Jackson (1966)

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Today in Rock History – May 9

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1966, The Doors played at the Whisky A Go-Go, West Hollywood, California auditioning for the position of the venue’s house band.

1967, Sandie Shaw was at number one on the UK singles chart with “Puppet On A String.” This week’s two highest new entries were Jimi Hendrix with “The Wind Cries Mary,” and The Kinks “Waterloo Sunset.”

1968, Blue Cheer, supported by Quill, appeared at Boston Tea Party in Boston, Massachusetts.

1969, Neil Young & Crazy Horse played at The Stone Ballroom in New Haven, Connecticut.

1969, Beatles guitarist George Harrison’s experimental album Electronic Sounds was released on Zapple records.

1970, The Guess Who started a three-week run at number one on the singles chart with “American Woman.” It was the group’s sixth Top 30 hit and only chart topper. The song was born by accident when guitarist Randy Bachman was playing a heavy riff on stage after he had broken a string, the other members joined in on the jam. A fan in the audience who had recorded the gig on tape presented it to the group after the show and they developed it into a full song.

1973, Mick Jagger added $150,000 of his own money to the $350,000 by The Rolling Stones January benefit concert for victims of the Nicaraguan earthquake.

1974, Bonnie Raitt played two shows at Harvard Square Theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The opening act was Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. Rolling Stone critic John Landau saw Springsteen and wrote “I have seen rock & roll’s future and his name is Bruce Springsteen.”

1974, Bob Dylan, appeared at a Friends of Chile benefit at New York’s Felt Forum. He plays “Spanish Is the Loving Tongue” and “Blowin’ in the Wind” with Arlo Guthrie, Phil Ochs, and Pete Seeger.

1977, The Grateful Dead performed at Memorial Auditorium in Buffalo, New York.

1980, “I Don’t Like Mondays” by The Boomtown Rats won the best pop song and outstanding British lyric categories at the 25th Ivor Novello Awards.  Supertramp’s “The Logical Song” won Best Song Musically and Lyrically. Boomtown Rats lead singer Bob Geldoff was inspired to write the song after hearing about the tragic shooting spree when 16-year-old Brenda Spencer killed two people and wounded nine others when she fired from her house across the street onto the entrance of a San Diego elementary school. Spencer showed no remorse for her crime and her full explanation for her actions was “I don’t like Mondays. This livens up the day.”  Geldoff was in Altanta, Georgia and described the inspiration, “I was doing a radio interview in Atlanta and there was a telex machine beside me. I read it as it came out. Not liking Mondays as a reason for doing somebody in is a bit strange.”

1998, Jimmy Page appeared on Saturday Night Live with rapper Sean “Puffy” Combs and performed “Come With Me” from the Godzilla movie soundtrack. The song sampled the guitar riff from Led Zeppelin’s song “Kashmir.”

Born on May 9: Dave Prater, Sam & Dave (1937); Danny Rapp, Danny & the Juniors (1944) Richie Furay, Buffalo Springfield, Poco (1944); Steve  Katz, Blood Sweat & Tears (1945); Billy Joel (1949)

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Today in Rock History – February 12

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Donovan-19651965, Pye Records announced  signing of the “British Bob Dylan,” when they added Donovan to the label. The Scottish singer-songwriter produced a series of hit albums and singles between 1965 and 1970 and became a friend of leading pop musicians including Joan Baez, Brian Jones, and The Beatles. He influenced John Lennon when he taught him a finger-picking guitar style in 1968.

1965, The Who audition for BBC Radio’s Light Programme. As The Detours, they had failed a BBC audition 10 months before. This time they pass with the approval of four of the seven judges. The other three call them “ponderous and unentertaining,” “at the limit of their capablilties,” and “overall not very original and below standard.”

1967, Fifteen police officers raided Redlands the West Sussex home of Rolling Stone Keith Richards during a weekend party. The police who were armed with a warrant issued under the dangerous drugs act took away various substances for forensic tests. George and Pattie Harrison had been at the house, but it was said that the police waited for them to leave before they raided the house in order not to bust the holder of an MBE.

1967, The Who appeared at the Starlite Ballroom in London.

1968, Billed as “Tour 60 cities in 66 Days,” The Jimi Hendrix Experience appeared at the Centre Arena, Seattle, Washington.

1968, Pink Floyd spent the day at EMI Studios on Abbey Road in London at a recording session for A Saucerful of Secrets.

1969, Janis Joplin and her Kozmik Blues Band perform at the Fillmore East in New York to mixed reviews.

1970, The Grateful Dead performed a club date at Ungano’s in New York.

1970,  John Lennon performed “Instant Karma” on BBC TV’s Top Of The Pops, becoming the first Beatle to have appeared on the show since 1966. Lennon wrote, recorded, and mixed his new single, all in one day. It ranks as one of the fastest-released songs in pop music history. Lennon later stated, “I wrote it for breakfast, recorded it for lunch, and we’re putting it out for dinner.”

1970, The Guess Who performed at Independence Arena in Charlotte, North Carolina.

1971, The Allman Brothers Band at Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina

1972, Al Green went to number one on the singles chart with “Let’s Stay Together,” his only chart topper. Tina Turner took the song to number 26 in 1984.

1972, Genesis appeared at Guildhall, in Portsmouth, England.

1972, David Bowie played at the Great Hall, Imperial College in London.

1972, Pink Floyd’s UK tour stops at City Hall, in Sheffield, England. The set list: One of These Days / Careful With That Axe, Eugene / The Dark Side of the Moon / Set The Controls for the Heart of the Sun // encore: Echoes.

1974,   The fabled rock club The Bottom Line opens in New York

1975, Led Zeppelin played at Madison Square Garden, New York. Tickets were $7.50.

1977, Blondie, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers and The Ramones all appeared at the Whisky-A-Go-Go in Los Angeles, California.

pink-floyd-animals1977, Pink Floyd released their tenth studio album Animals in the US, where it reached number three in the charts. The album’s cover image, a pig floating between two chimneys on Battersea Power Station, was conceived by bassist Roger Waters and realized by long-time design and photographic collaborators Hipgnosis.

1977, Styx appeared at the Lakeland Civic Center, Lakeland, Florida.

1977, The Police recorded their first single, “Fall Out” for £150 ($255) at Pathway Studios, London, England.

1977, Elvis Presley performed at the Hollywood Sportatorium, Pembroke Pines, Florida.

1978, Rush appeared at the Birmingham Odeon, England, promoting their new single “Closer To The Heart.”

1979, Frank Zappa played at the Apollo Theatre, Manchester, England.

1980, The Eagles performed at the Mississippi Coast Coliseum, Biloxi, Mississippi.

1984, Prince & The Revolution appeared at Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto.

1997, David Bowie received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

1997, U2 held a press conference in the Lingerie Department at the Greenwich Village Kmart store in Manhattan, New York City, to announce their Pop Mart world tour. The tour was set to start in Las Vegas on April 25th.

2000, US blues singer Screamin’ Jay Hawkins died aged 70. A Golden Gloves boxing champion at 16, he was married nine times, spent two years in jail, was temporary blinded by one of his flaming props on stage in 1976. He recorded “I Put A Spell On You” in 1956, covered by The Animals, Creedence Clearwater Revival, and Nina Simone.

2003, Former Doors drummer John Densmore took out legal action against The Doors keyboard player Ray Manzarek and guitarist Robby Krieger for breach of contract, trademark infringement and unfair competition. The band had reformed with Ex- Cult singer Ian Astbury and former Police drummer Stewart Copeland. Densmore said “It shouldn’t be called The Doors if it’s someone other than Jim Morrison singing.”

2008, Ronald Isley’s appeal against a three-year jail term for tax fraud was rejected by a US court. The 65-year-old singer of the Isley Brothers argued against being imprisoned in an Indiana jail on the grounds of age and poor health. The court heard he cashed royalty checks belonging to his brother O’Kelly, who died in 1996 and spent millions of dollars made from undeclared performances on a yacht and two homes. Isley was ordered to pay more than $3.1 million (£1.62m) to the US tax service for “pathological” evasion.

Born on February 12: Gene McDaniels, singer-songwriter (1935); Ray Manzarek, The Doors (1939); Joe Schermie, bass, Three Dog Night (1945); Stanley Knight,  Black Oak Arkansas (1949); Steve Hackett, Genesis (1950); Michael McDonald, Doobie Brothers (1952); Jim Creeggan, Canadian singer-songwriter, bass, Barenaked Ladies, The Brothers Creeggan (1970)

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Song Of The Day – The Jukebox Series #63–Bachman-Turner Overdrive: “Let It Ride” b/w “Tramp” – Mercury 73457 (E7/F7)

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BTOLetItRide45BTOTramp45

Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – The Jukebox Series #63–Bachman-Turner Overdrive: “Let It Ride” b/w “Tramp” – Mercury 73457 (E7/F7)

“The Jukebox Series” focuses on the 80 records that inhabit my 1963 Seeburg LPC1 jukebox. I’ve had my jukebox (or as I like to call it “the prehistoric iPod”) for a little over twelve years and in that time I’d like to think that I’ve perfected the mix of 45s within.

There’s something to be said about what I call “big dumb rock records.”  They’re the riff-crazy tracks that make you grab for your air guitar whilst rocking your head back and forth…oh, and don’t forget the obligatory pain-ridden facial expressions a la Carlos Santana.

We’ve all been there and I still go there today from time-to-time.  Anybody who’s been to a concert with me can attest to this fact.  It ain’t pretty…but it’s the rock abandon that tracks like today’s jukebox classic, “Let It Ride” conjures that makes it all happen. Simply put, the track is the consummate air guitar song and one the band’s most riff-heavy moments.

Bachman-Turner Overdrive consisted of Randy Bachman on guitar and vocals, Robbie Bachman on drums, Tim Bachman on guitar and Fred Turner on bass and vocals.  During the 1970s, the band sold well over seven million albums while propelling hard rock nuggets like “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet,” “Takin’ Care Of Business,” “Hey You” and “Roll On Down The Highway” up the charts.

The group’s leader, Randy Bachman was a founding member of The Guess Who, who charted with such classics as “These Eyes,” “Laughing, “No Time,” “American Woman,” “Share the Land” and “Albert Flasher.” After his departure from The Guess Who, Bachman recorded a solo album called Axe and then formed the band Brave Belt with Guess Who vocalist Chad Allan. Brave Belt went on to release two albums before Allan left due to creative differences. Bachman brought Fred Turner and his two brothers Tim roulette and Robbie into the lineup forming Bachman-Turner Overdrive. When the band shopped around their debut record, they were turned away by 25 record labels before signing with Mercury Records in 1973.

Today’s jukebox classic was certainly not one of their biggest hits, but “Let It Ride” encapsulated all that was good about larger-than-life, radio-ready rock riffage of the mid-1970s. With its meat and potatoes guitar riff combined with totally relatable of-the-people, blue collar lyrics and Fred Turner’s gargled with nails vocals, the song stretched itself right down the center lane of the pop culture highway and onto the charts settling in at number 23 in 1974.

“Let It Ride” was written by Randy Bachman and Fred Turner while the band was on tour in their van. While driving, several truckers boxed the band’s van significantly slowing them down. The band followed the truckers to the next rest stop with the intent to tell them off, however upon catching a glimpse of how big they were, they decided to “Let It Ride.”

The band would have to wait for their next single, “Takin’ Care Of Business” (also from BTO II) to firmly establish themselves as top-tier hitmakers, but it was “Let It Ride” that set the groundwork for their enduring popularity.

Randy Bachman left BTO in 1977 and went on to from Ironhorse who recorded two albums that went nowhere. Bachman has since taken on reunion tours with The Guess Who and BTO.