ON THIS DAY IN R&R HISTORY! “Alive!” is the fourth straight KISS album to go gold. 1975 1940s Byrds bassist (mandolin and guitar), Chris Hillman, is born in L.A. 1942 Beach Boys drummer Dennis Wilson enters the world. Despite the group’s early “surf” image Dennis is the only member who actually rides the waves. 1944 1950s Lynyrd Skynyrd guitarist Gary Rossington has a birthday. 1951 Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash sing together (Gospel, Country and pop songs) for the only time at Sun Studios in Memphis. Somebody takes a picture but nobody thinks to record the session until later - after Johnny Cash’s wife pulls him away to do some Christmas shopping. 1956 Bassist Bob Griffin (The BoDeans) is born on this day. 1959 1960s Written by Folk great Pete Seger with words adapted from the Book of Ecclesiastes, the Byrds sit at #1 (deservedly so) with “Turn! Turn! Turn!” Now The Wonder Years have a theme song. 1965 The Kinks “Well Respected Man” enters the U.K. pop chart. It is one of the first (of many) “social commentary” songs by Ray Davies. Meanwhile, with much of the music world trying to sound like The Beatles, the Knickerbockers actually pull it off with their only major hit “Lies.” It just makes the U.S. Top 20 with a Lennon sounding vocal. 1965 An electrical short knocks out Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards during a Sacramento concert. Richards takes about ten minutes to get back up to speed. He finishes the show. 1965 A Soviet music critic dismisses The Beatles and their fans claiming the group has become the “rich idols of the Philistines.” 1968 Your tax dollars hard at work. President Richard Nixon, Vice-President Spiro Agnew and forty U.S. governors lock themselves in a room to determine the cause of the “generation gap.” The session yields little though the politicians get to listen to hours of Rock music with anti-establishment lyrics. 1969 1970s “Supersessions” goes gold. The LP features jam sessions with keyboardist Al Kooper and guitarists Mike Bloomfield and Stephen Stills. 1970 Sly & The Family Stone are at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with “Family Affair.” 1971 Rod Stewart’s A Night On The Town, with the chart topping single, Tonight’s The Night (Gonna Be Alright), lands at #2 on the U.S. album chart. 1976 1980s Following drummer John Bonham’s death, Led Zeppelin’s surviving members decide to pack it in. 1980 1990s Pay back time. Van Halen plays a free concert in Dallas. Singer Sammy Hagar lost his voice during a concert three years earlier and promised another show for fans. 1991 Pancreatic cancer takes the life of music innovator and free thinker, Frank Zappa, at age 52. 1993 Founding Gin Blossoms guitarist, Doug Hopkins, is found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in his Tempe home. He wrote the group’s first two hits, Hey Jealousy and Found Out About You. 1993 Yet another reunion of Black Sabbath’s original line-up (Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward). This one takes place in Brimingham, England. 1997 2000s Green Day bags the Big Music Artist honor at VH1s Big In 05 Awards. The Punk trio was also nominated for Big Download (which Gwen Stefani took with Hollaback Girl). Def Leppard, Fall Out Boy and Audioslave perform. 2005 Nickelback takes home three trophies at the 2006 Billboard Music Awards in Las Vegas. They earn Artist Duo/Group of the Year, Hot 100 Artist Duo/Group of the Year and Rock Album of the Year (All the Right Reasons). Three Days Grace are awarded Rock Single of the Year for Animal I Have Become. 2006 Pete Doherty gets a $1,525 fine and is banned from driving for four months. But the London judge does not give the Babyshambles frontman any jail time for his five drug convictions (for possession of heroin, crack and marijuana). 2006 Guns N Roses cancel a Milwaukee show because frontman Axl Rose has been battling strep throat and an ear infection. The doctor told me . . . that the only way not to jeopardize the balance of the tour is immediate rest, says Rose. We are sorry to miss the fans in Milwaukee. 2006 A page of Paul McCartneys working lyrics for the Beatles tune Maxwells Silver Hammer (from the Beatles’ Abbey Road album) nets $192,000 at Christie’s memorabilia auction in New York. A ‘68 Fender Stratocaster guitar once owned by Jimi Hendrix goes for $168,000. A handwritten poem by late Doors singer Jim Morrison sells for $50,400. 2006 Evanescence is the musical guest on CBS Late Show With David Letterman. 2006 Godsmack issues Good Times, Bad Times -- 10 Years Of Godsmack. The hits compilation includes their version of the title track (originally recorded by Led Zeppelin). Were not going away, we are just gonna take a break and . . . recharge our batteries, says vocalist Sully Erna. We will come back bigger and badder than ever. 2007 Starbucks and iTunes releases the John Lennon Video Collection. Twenty-one videos from Lennons Capitol/EMI era (60s - 70s). 2007 Pink Floyd’s 16-CD collection, Oh, By The Way, is an import-only release. It holds 14 studio albums packaged in miniature reproductions of the original vinyl sleeves and is limited to an initial run of 10,000 copies. 2007 Paul McCartney and Nobel Prize-winning scientist Rajendra Pachauri write a joint letter encouraging people to embrace vegetarianism for environmental reasons. We are writing this letter not because vegetarianism is . . . an emotional issue but because it is a very attractive option for reducing emissions of greenhouse gases and stabilizing the Earths climate.” 2008 The Robert De Niro film, Everybodys Fine, opens in theatres. The soundtrack includes Paul McCartney’s ballad, (I Want to) Come Home. The De Niro character inspired me, says McCartney who wrote the song after seeing an advanced screening. I can very much relate to a guy whos got older children, who happens to have lost his wife, the mother of those children, and is trying to get them all together at Christmas. I understand that. 2009 R.E.M. launch an iPhone application that automatically updates users with news and tour dates. There are also 30-second R.E.M. song clips, photos and videos. The R.E.M. & You feature allows fans to interact with one another and the band directly. 2009
Posted on: Thu, 05 Dec 2013 02:45:06 +0000