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Today in Rock History – February 17

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1966, Nancy Sinatra was at number one on the singles chart with “These Boots Are Made For Walking,” her first chart topper.

1967, The Beatles started recording a new John Lennon song “Being For the Benefit of Mr. Kite” at Abbey Road studio’s, London. John’s lyrics for the song came almost entirely from an antique poster advertising a circus performance scheduled to take place in Rochdale, Lancashire, in February 1843. John had purchased the poster in Sevenoaks on January 31st while The Beatles were on location for the filming of the “Strawberry Fields Forever” promotional film.

1967, The Electric Prunes, The Left Banke, and The Beach Boys performed at Robertson Memorial Fieldhouseon the campus of Bradley University, in Peoria, Illinois.

1968, Diana Ross And The Supremes’ Greatest Hits started a three-week run at number one on the album chart.

1968, Following their first New York performance at the Anderson Theatre, Big Brother & the Holding Company are signed by Columbia Records.

1968, Canned Heat appeared at the Grande Ballroom in Detroit, Michigan.

1969, Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash recorded “Girl From The North Country” together in Nashville at CBS Studios. The track appeared on Dylan’s Nashville Skyline album.

1970, Joni Mitchell announced she was retiring from live performances during a concert at London’s Royal Albert Hall. Joni was on stage again by the end of the year.

1970, Led Zeppelin performed at Usher Hall in Edinburgh, Scotland.

1971, James Taylor made his TV debut on The Johnny Cash Show. Other guests included Neil Young, Linda Ronstadt and Tony Joe White.

1972, The (Perth) West Australian wrote about the previous night’s concert by Led Zeppelin, “Perth has probably never seen a concert quite like it. Certainly, a Festival of Perth attraction has never been so “heavy”. That Led Zeppelin rock group’s only concert at Subiaco Oval last night at the beginning of an Australian Tour was unique. The pelting rhythm and distinctive brackets of the group – consisting of electric guitarist Jimmy Page, organist John Paul Jones, drummer John Bonham and lead vocalist Robert Plant – were different from any rock group that has appeared in Perth. And the 80000 people who went enjoyed every minute of the two and a half hour performance.”

1972, At the end of a 14 date UK tour, Pink Floyd started a four night run at London’s Rainbow Theatre.

1972, Los Angeles radio station KDAY played two new Rolling Stones tracks non-stop for a day after obtaining stolen tapes from a producer’s home.

1973, War started a two-week run at number one on the album chart with The World Is A Ghetto.

1973, The Grateful Dead played at St. Paul Auditorium in St. Paul, Minnesota.

1974, KISS appeared at the Long Beach Civic Arena, Long Beach, California.

john lennon- rock n' roll 19751975, John Lennon’s Rock ‘n’ Roll album was released in the US.

1975, AC/DC released their debut album High Voltage. The album featured a cover of “Baby, Please Don’t Go” a blues song first recorded by Big Joe Williams and “She’s Got Balls” which was written about singer Bon Scott’s ex-wife Irene – the first AC/DC song for which he wrote lyrics.

1976, David Bowie performed at McNichols Sports Arena, Denver, Colorado.

1977, Pink Floyd played the first of three nights at the Sportpaleis Ahoy, in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.  The set list for each show was: Sheep / Pigs on the Wing, Part 1/ Dogs / Pigs On the Wing Part 2 / Pigs (Three Different Ones) // second set: Shine On You Crazy Diamond , Parts 1-5 / Welcome to the Machine / Have A Cigar / Wish You Were Here / Shine On You Crazy Diamond, Parts 6-9 / encore: Money.

1978, Rush appeared at the Apollo Theatre, Glasgow, Scotland.

1979, Blondie scored their first number one album when Parallel Lines started a four-week run at the top of the charts, featuring the singles “Heart Of Glass,” “Hanging On The Telephone” and “Sunday Girl.”

1979, The Clash opened the US leg of their ‘Pearl Harbour ’79’, North American tour at New York’s Palladium.

1989, R.E.M., Hoodoo Gurus, and The Go-Betweens all appeared at the Hordern Pavilion, Sydney, Australia.

2000, John Lennon’s Steinway piano, on which he composed “Imagine,” went on display at the Beatles Story Museum in Liverpool, England. The piano was set to be auctioned on the Internet later in the year and was expected to fetch more than £1 million ($1.7 million).

2005, A 1965 Fender Stratocaster guitar belonging to Jimi Hendrix sold for £100,000 ($150,000) at an auction in London. Other Hendrix items sold included a poem written two weeks after his appearance at the Monterrey Pop Festival which went for £10,000 ($15,000,) and the first Jimi Hendrix Experience’s single “Hey Joe,” signed by all the band sold for £2,000 ($3000.)

Born on February 17: Orville “Hoppy” Jones, The Ink Spots (1905); Tommy Edwards, singer (1922); Gene Pitney (1941); Karl Jenkins, Soft Machine (1944); Rickey Medlocke, Blackfoot, Lynryd Skynyrd (1950); Taylor Hawkins, Foo Fighters; Billy Joe Armstrong, Green Day (1972); Ed Sheeran, British singer, songwriter (1991)

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Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “Where Was You At” by WAR

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When they first began recording, it was Eric Burdon and WAR and War were billed as the backing band for Eric Burdon of the The Animals. The group was the brainchild of Burdon and Jerry Goldstein who was a member of The Strangeloves and co-writer of such classic singles as “I Want Candy,” “My Boyfriend’s Back” “Come On Down To My Boat,” “Sorrow” and “Hang On Sloopy.” Goldstein was Sly & The Family Stone’s manager when he saw WAR performing in a bar and signed them to his own Far Out Production company. With Burdon at the helm, WAR scored the smash hit “Spill The Wine” from their 1970 debut album “Eric Burdon Declares War.” Another combo album followed, before Burdon went on his merry way leaving WAR to establish themselves as an entity in their own rite. With Goldstein staying with the band, it wasn’t long before WAR began scoring hits on their own like “All Day Music” and “Slippin’ Into Darkness” from their 1971 debut album. WAR’s unique sound was steeped in Latin Jazz, psychedelic Rock and Funk, layering Lee Oskar’s harmonica lines over Charles Miller’s saxophone in unison on extended jams. The year 1972, saw the release of their breakthrough album, “The World Is A Ghetto,” with its title track hit and AM radio classic “The Cisco Kid.” Today’s Song Of The Day features the group’s classic lineup of Lee Oskar on harmonica, Lonnie Jordan on vocals, organ and percussion, B.B. Dickerson on bass, Papa Dee Allen on percussion, Howard Scott on guitar, Harold Brown on drums and Charles Miller on saxophone on one of the deep cuts from the “Ghetto” LP. WAR continued to score hits throughout the 1970s including “Low Rider,” “Why Can’t We Be Friends,” “Summer,” “Gypsy Man” and many others. Charles Miller was murdered in 1980 and Papa Dee Allen succumbed to a heart attack while performing on stage in 1988. The rest of the band has continued throughout the years recording under the names The Music Band and The Lowrider Band, while Burdon got back together with Lonnie Jordan for a one-off reunion, billed as Eric Burdon and WAR, at The Royal Albert Hall in 2008.

The Jukebox Series #92 – WAR: “The Cicso Kid” b/w “Beetles In The Bog”– United Artist UA-XW163-W

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The Jukebox Series #92 – WAR: “The Cicso Kid” b/w “Beetles In The Bog”– United Artist UA-XW163-W

Welcome back my friends, to the series that never ends…

When they first began recording, it was Eric Burdon and WAR and WAR was billed as the backing band for Eric Burdon of The Animals. The group was the brainchild of Burdon and Jerry Goldstein who was a member of The Strangeloves and the co-writer of a whole host of classic singles like “I Want Candy,” “My Boyfriend’s Back,” “Come On Down To My Boat,” “Sorrow” and “Hang On Sloopy.”

Goldstein was Sly & The Family Stone’s manager when he saw WAR performing in a bar and signed them to his own Far Out Production company. With Burdon at the helm, WAR scored the smash hit “Spill The Wine” from their 1970 debut album Eric Burdon Declares War. Another album followed, before Burdon went his own way leaving WAR to establish themselves as an entity in their own rite.

With Goldstein’s management of the band, it wasn’t long before WAR began scoring hits on their own like “All Day Music” and “Slippin’ Into Darkness” from their 1971 All Day Music album. WAR’s unique sound was steeped in Latin Jazz, psychedelic Rock and Funk, layering Lee Oskar’s harmonica lines over Charles Miller’s saxophone in unison on extended jams.

The year 1972, saw the release of their breakthrough chart-topping album, The World Is A Ghetto, with its title track hit (#3 R&B, #7 Pop) and AM radio classic “The Cisco Kid” which climbed to #2 Pop and #5 on the R&B charts.

The origins of the character of The Cisco Kid came from the O. Henry story The Caballero’s Way in which the character was a villain. When The Cisco Kid debuted on TV, he became a Mexican hero and the show centered on his adventures in the old west. The show ran from 1950-1956 and starred Duncan Renaldo as The Cisco Kid.

The song was written by the group’s guitarist Howard Scott who wanted to write a song about an ethnic hero. On the day he wrote it, he was visited by drummer Howard Brown.

Drummer, Howard Brown: “Howard has always been a major contributor. He was in Compton, he had this apartment. I came up there and when I got up there he was sitting on his amp. He said, ‘Harold, I got this idea. Cisco kid was a friend of mine.’ That idea came about because there were no ethnic heroes at that time. Mainly, we were seeing people like Hopalong Cassidy, Gene Autry, Roy Rogers. There wasn’t really anybody to relate to except Cisco Kid. He was like the total different kind of person.

We wanted to give kids, people, another alternative besides the ones that were right in our face, obvious heroes. And it worked out really good, because it had the right kind of hook, it was a fun song. People at that time didn’t want to be hearing about no more wars or anything, they just wanted fun music. And the tonality was brilliant.”  (Songfacts.com)

Today’s jukebox classic features the group’s classic lineup of Lee Oskar on harmonica, Lonnie Jordan on vocals, organ and percussion, B.B. Dickerson on bass, Papa Dee Allen on percussion, Howard Scott on guitar, Harold Brown on drums and Charles Miller on saxophone. The flip is a tribal funk instrumental that closes out he The World Is A Ghetto album.

WAR continued to score hits throughout the 1970s including “Low Rider,” “Why Can’t We Be Friends,” “Summer,” “Gypsy Man” and many others. Charles Miller was murdered in 1980 and Papa Dee Allen succumbed to a heart attack while performing on stage in 1988.

In the mid-1990s, Far Out Productions/Jerry Goldstein won the use of the name WAR in federal court, and original keyboardist Lonnie Jordan began touring under that name. The other 4 surviving core members toured under the name The Music Band and formed The Lowrider Band in 2007. Meanwhile Burdon got back together with Lonnie Jordan for a one-off reunion, billed as Eric Burdon and WAR, at The Royal Albert Hall in 2008.

“The Jukebox Series” focused on the 80 records that currently 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. Over the years, records have come and gone out of the ranks of the juke, but they were all at one time juke-worthy. I’ve decided to expand “The Jukebox Series” to include many of the “juke-worthy” records that are no longer currently in the mix, but at one time inhabited a coveted slot.