43 Years ago today…
The Beatles started recording one of my favorite songs of theirs, “Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite” at Abbey Road. The lyrics were taken almost verbatim from an 1843 circus poster. A splendid time is guaranteed for all!
39 years ago today…
James Douglas Morrison was sentenced to 6 months in prison when he was found guilty of indecent exposure, stemming from The Doors’ March 1, 1969 show in Miami. Morrison moved to Paris, where he died 8 months later before serving time.
3 years ago today…
Famed NYC club, CBGB closed its doors for business. Patti Smith was the last performer to grace the stage of the hallowed stage. The club whose full name was CBGBOMFUG, which stood for country, bluegrass, blues (and) other music for uplifting gormandizers, helped establish the careers of the Talking Heads, Television, The Ramones, Blondie and the aforementioned Patti Smith.
5 years ago today…
“Slowhand” was caught going rather quickly. It seems E.C. was racing his Porsche 911 through the streets of Merceuil, France at the rate of 134 mph. The guitarist had little time to sing the blues, as he was released promptly after paying a $515 fine (750 Euro).
31 years ago today…
Sex Pistol Sid Vicious awoke to find that his girlfriend Nancy dead in their Hotel Chelsea bathroom. Sid was arrested roughly six weeks later and charged with murder. Sid would die of a heroin overdose 73 days later in NYC.
43 Years ago today…
Jimi Hendrix, Mitch Mitchell and Noel Redding played together for the first time and The Jimi Hendrix Experience was formed.
43 years ago today…
Cream was joined on-stage by Jimi Hendrix. Hendrix had only been in London for a week, yet was already creating a storm in the local music scene. In double-time, Hendrix tore through a version of “Killing Floor”. His dazzling play and guitar wizardry caused Clapton to exit the stage and ask Hendrix’s manager (Chas Chandler), “is he always this f@$%ing good?”.
40 Years ago today…
Various media outlets on both sides of the Atlantic began publishing stories about Paul McCartney’s demise that supposedly happened on 11/9/66. He apparently hadn’t “noticed that the lights had changed” and “lost his head”. To read more about the back story and get hip to the various “clues” the Beatles dropped in song and photo sessions, click here. We are happy to report that as of September 17th, 3:42 EST, Paul is alive and well.
39 Years ago today…
Jimi Hendrix joined Eric Burdon on stage at Ronnie Scott’s in what was to be Hendrix’s last public appearance.
42 Years ago today…
The Doors started recording their second album, Strange Days.
Music Box:
Strange Days benefits immensely from the revisionist history of its new presentation, more so than any of The Doors’ other efforts. Unlike the restoration of the previously censored bits of The Doors’ self-titled debut, the adjustments that were made to Strange Days actually have improved the endeavor. Released in late 1967, just nine months after the group launched its opening salvo, the outing was a bold step forward, one that not only embraced the psychedelicized sounds of the era but also shoved them down a far darker, more demented path. In the liner notes to the recent reissue of the affair, engineer Bruce Botnick outlines how he had scored a pre-release, monaural acetate of The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, and he tells how it had liberated The Doors to experiment in the studio. There always has been a spooky deliriousness to Strange Days, but the crisp, clarity of its new mix gives the collection’s contents considerably more room to unfurl their lysergic tentacles. Most of all, the interplay among The Doors’ members is highlighted magnificently, and the worlds that are conjured oscillate, at the flip of a switch, between being strikingly beautiful (You’re Lost Little Girl) and chillingly horrific (Horse Latitudes). (more…)
44 Years ago today…
The Beatles played a sold out show at Atlanta’s Fulton County Stadium to 35,000 fans. Tickets went for $5.50
5 Years ago today — UM Skyline ’04
Man, this is a great acoustic/electric show. Great versions of, well, everything. Containing the band’s debut of Making Flippy Floppy, which they always nail, don’t they? I believe this is one of those essential shows to own by an artist. Above is the poster Jeff Wood designed for the occasion, which I’ve become very familiar with, as it hangs in our living room.
08/07/04 Skyline Stage at Navy Pier, Chicago, IL
Jake, Brendan, and Ryan were on acoustic instruments for the entire first set
Set I: Mediterranean Sundance1> In the Kitchen> Walletsworth, Nemo, The Pequod> Ahab2> The Pequod, August> Uncle Wally, Bullhead City3, 40′s Theme
Set II: Example 1> Jazz Odyssey> Plunger, Professor Wormbog, Roulette4, Uncommon, The Crooked One, Glory> All in Time
Set III: Wife Soup, Making Flippy Floppy5> White Man’s Moccassins, Anchor Drops, Miss Tinkle’s Overture> Mulche’s Odyssey> Robot World> Jimmy Stewart> No Ordinary Love, Bright Lights
Encore: Der Bluten Kat
1 only Brendan and Jake
2 first time played, original
3 with Elliott Peck on vocals
4 with Safety Dance tease
5 first time played, Talking Heads; with Hella Good (No Doubt) tease by Joel
“August”:
42 Years ago today…
The Doors hit paydirt when their Krieger penned single, “Light My Fire” went to #1 on the charts and stayed for three weeks. A little info on the song:
Once The Doors debut album was cut, Elektra’s marketing and promotion departments went into over drive, as they were pushing the pride of their label, the “new and exciting Doors”. Morrison was to be the cover boy for The Doors and he was sent directly to celebrity hair stylist, Jay Sebring (to be brutally murdered by Charles Manson’s minions 30 months later) for an Alexander The Great-inspired haircut. The Doors hit the circuit, ready to set the world on (cough, cough) fire. (more…)
Bob Dylan — From The Crash (43 Years ago today)
Something happened on July 29, 1966. The New York Times broke the news a few days later: Dylan had been in a motorcycle accident and would be canceling his concert at the Yale Bowl. If you ever wondered whether rumors spread before the Internet, the answer is yes: fans traded stories that Dylan was horribly scarred, paraplegic, insane, or even dead. These stories proved not to be true, but one thing was certain: he was gone.
Dylan spent the next nine months in seclusion in upstate New York; as he recovered, he and the Band made the much-bootlegged music that would ultimately be released as The Basement Tapes. He didn’t put out a new album until 1968, the deliberately low-key John Wesley Harding. So what actually went down that July day? It’s fuzzy, but the gist appears to be that Dylan visited the home of his manager Albert Grossman in Bearsville, New York. Dylan picked up an old Triumph 55 motorcycle and was planning to ride it to a nearby repair shop.
As he left the property, however, he took a spill. The way he told the story in 1967: “The back wheel locked up, I think. I lost control, swerving from left to right. Next thing I know I was in someplace I never heard of—Middletown, I think—with my face cut up so I got some scars and my neck busted up pretty good.” The official story at the time was that he broke some vertebrae in the neck, was knocked unconscious, and was in critical condition for a week.
Later, however, witnesses—including Albert Grossman’s wife, Sally, famous as the girl on the cover of Bringing It All Back Home—would tell the tale differently. Apparently, Dylan had poor eyesight and was notorious for his lack of skill on the bike; as he left the Grossman property, he just lost his balance and fell off his motorcycle in an undignified fashion. Although he could have been driven to a nearby hospital, he was instead taken to a doctor who was an hour away.
Rumors circulated that he was secretly in rehab for drug addiction, but the accident appears to have been genuine, if not as serious as reported. Afterwards, people spotted Dylan in a neck brace; friends reported that he took up swimming and received ultrasound treatment.
So why did Dylan check out for so long, then? By 1966, Dylan was not just hailed as the voice of a generation, he was expected to lead folk and rock fans in a new direction with every album, and very possibly, redefine contemporary society as a hippie utopia. Plus, Dylan had been going virtually nonstop for a long time: he released five records in just over two years, from 1964 to early 1966. He had a full tour of sixty concerts scheduled, plus a contract renegotiation with Columbia Records. Fans and biographers have long assumed that Dylan seized on his injuries—real, if not as serious as reported—as an opportunity to step away from his white-hot celebrity and the pressure that came along with it.
Dylan said as much himself in 2004, in Volume One of his excellent autobiography, Chronicles: “I had been in a motorcycle accident and I’d been hurt, but I recovered. Truth was that I wanted to get out of the rat race.”
36 Years ago today…
The Allman Brothers Band, The Grateful Dead and The Band held what many estimated as the largest outdoor rock show. Over 150,000 tickets were sold, but over 600,000 devotees showed. The festival actually started on the 27th, as the band’s sounchecked in front of a live audience, including the Dead’s two set marathon “soundcheck”. Here’s more info from Wiki.
12 Years ago today…
Nestled in the heart of urban Atlanta, Lakewood Ampitheatre was the site of this monster, space funk show. This was one of those shows that was truly a treat. I was at the show with some of my best college friends and then happened to run into some of my closest friends whom I hadn’t seen in ages by sheer coincidence. A great show that featured a monster “Ghost” and a killer “Y.E.M.” that swung into the Joe Walsh classic rock fave “Rocky Mountain Way”. The funk at this show was so deep that you needed galoshes.
1: Julius, Dirt, NICU, Dogs Stole Things, Ginseng Sullivan, Water in the Sky, Limb By Limb, Split Open and Melt, Billy Breathes, Possum
2: Punch You in the Eye, Ghost-> Sample in a Jar, You Enjoy Myself*-> Rocky Mountain Way^-> Chalk Dust Torture
E: Frankenstein
*With Russian folk jam, similar to the Muel Duel; fast vocal jam. ^Joe Walsh cover (first time played)
41 years ago today…
Eric Clapton announced that supergroup, Cream would split after they finished their current tour.
29 Years ago today…
Led Zeppelin played their last concert with John Bonham in West Berlin, Germany. Bonham would tragically die two and a half months later on 9/25 and Zep called it quits. The setlist for the show is as follows:
Train Kept a Rollin’, Nobody’s Fault But Mine, Black Dog, In the Evening, The Rain Song, Hot Dog, All My Love, Trampled Underfoot, Since I’ve Been Loving You, White Summer/Black Mountain Side, Kashmir, Stairway to Heaven, Rock and Roll, Whole Lotta Love
52 years ago today…
John Lennon and Paul McCartney met for the first time at The Woolton Church Parish Fete, where The Quarry Men were appearing. As The Quarry Men were setting up for their evening performance, McCartney eager to impress Lennon picked up a guitar and played ‘Twenty Flight Rock’ (Eddie Cochran) and ‘Be-Bop-A-Lula’ (Gene Vincent). Lennon was impressed, and even more so when McCartney showed Lennon and Eric Griffiths how to tune their guitars, something they’d been paying someone else to do for them.
Phish –”Ghost” (11 Years ago today)
This is just nasty. Click here to download this show from Live Phish.
47 Years ago today…
Jimi Hendrix was honorably discharged from the Army’s 101st Airborne after breaking his ankle. Contrary to popular belief at the time, it would not be the last time Hendrix would “kiss the sky”. (Sorry about the weak-ass joke.)
The Atlanta Pop Festival turns 40…
Check photog, Philip Rauls account of the storied festival.
In what is widely regarded as one of the top concerts events of all time, the Atlanta International Pop Festival of 1969 was held over the Fourth Of July weekend at the Atlanta International Raceway. The concert featured the entertainment industry’s top bands and attracted extremely large crowds from distant locations. Attendance for the Atlanta Pop, as it would be later coined, ranged from estimates of over 100,000 people to 250,000. The concert was organizied by promoter Alex Cooley and set the stage for the greater acknowledged Woodstock Festival which took place later that summer. The holiday weekend event was canvassed by a heat wave that soared to temperatures of over 100 degrees and set-up an additional story within. Yet strangely enough, only a few photographers have captured this historic milestone and put the landmark event into documentation form. With that being the case, several months back I was speaking with my friend Carter Tomassi, a well-respected photographer who has also chronicled the pop festival on his web site. Carter suggested that I post an updated story on my blog in honor of the 40th anniversary timeline. So, with his recommendation in mind, I decided to piece together a photo journal of previously unviewed festival photographs and share with fellow concert attendees and loyal PHOTOLOG blog enthusiasts. (more…)
R.I.P. — Hillel Slovak (1962-1988)
Founding member along with Anthony Kiedis of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Hillel Slovak died on this date in 1988 of a heroin overdose. He was only 26. Here’s the band with Slovak in ’85 with “Get Up and Jump”:
40 Years ago today…
Bob Dylan appeared on the first episode of ABC’s Johnny Cash Show. Here’s “Girl From North Country” from the appearance.
Click here to download outtakes from Dylan’s Nashville Skyline that feature Zimmy and Cash.
