Today in Rock and Roll History

topcat

Well-Known Member
2003 - Erik Braunn
Erik Braunn from American psychedelic rock band Iron Butterfly died of cardiac failure at the age of 52. Braunn was just 16 years old when he joined Iron Butterfly who had the 1968 US No.14 single 'In-A- Gadda-Da-Vida’.
In ninth grade, no party was complete without In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida (slurred in the garden of eden).
 

injinji

Well-Known Member
In ninth grade, no party was complete without In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida (slurred in the garden of eden).
I am a child. I was only 7 in 1968. I'm assuming 9th grade tunes were Silly Little Love Songs, Play that Funky Music and the like. Although by then I was "hard" into CS&N, cat stevens and other soft rock.
 

topcat

Well-Known Member
I am a child. I was only 7 in 1968. I'm assuming 9th grade tunes were Silly Little Love Songs, Play that Funky Music and the like. Although by then I was "hard" into CS&N, cat stevens and other soft rock.
'68-'69 had some great bands. The Beatles were still happening and The Doors, Cream, Jefferson Airplane and many more were big with me. The Stones began making their best music. Psychedelic, man! (though I was still too young for drugs) There have always been the silly love songs, some that were pretty catchy tunes. The Vietnam protests. It all made for an important chapter of my growing up at a very influential time in life, 13 to18.
 

injinji

Well-Known Member
'68-'69 had some great bands. The Beatles were still happening and The Doors, Cream, Jefferson Airplane and many more were big with me. The Stones began making their best music. Psychedelic, man! (though I was still too young for drugs) There have always been the silly love songs, some that were pretty catchy tunes. The Vietnam protests. It all made for an important chapter of my growing up at a very influential time in life, 13 to18.
Sister is 6 years older than I am, so I was exposed to lots of 60's and 70's rock.

And as far as 1968 is concerned. . . . . .

 

topcat

Well-Known Member
Sister is 6 years older than I am, so I was exposed to lots of 60's and 70's rock.

And as far as 1968 is concerned. . . . . .

I think I still have the single of Summertime Blues by Blue Cheer. (singles were still a popular choice) At the time, they were the loudest band in the business. All those speakers were impressive.
 

injinji

Well-Known Member
1990 - Brent Mydland
American keyboardist and vocalist Brent Mydland from the Grateful Dead was found dead on the floor of his home aged 38 from a drug overdose. His eleven-year tenure was longer than that of any other keyboardist in the band.

Speaking of dead Dead keyboarders. . . . . . . .

 

injinji

Well-Known Member
2013 - JJ Cale
US singer-songwriter JJ Cale died of a heart attack at the age of 74. He became famous in 1970, when Eric Clapton covered his song 'After Midnight'. In 1977 Clapton also popularised Cale's 'Cocaine'. The two worked together on an album which won a Grammy award in 2008.
 

injinji

Well-Known Member
2020 - Peter Green
English blues rock singer-songwriter and guitarist Peter Green died in his sleep age 73. As the founder of Fleetwood Mac, his songs, such as 'Albatross', 'Black Magic Woman', 'Oh Well', 'The Green Manalishi (With the Two Prong Crown)' and 'Man of the World' became world wide hits. Green left the band in 1970 as he struggled with his mental health. He was eventually diagnosed with schizophrenia and spent time in hospital in the mid-70s.
 

injinji

Well-Known Member
2001 - Leon Wilkeson
Leon Wilkeson bass player with Lynyrd Skynyrd was found dead in a hotel room in Florida aged 49. Skynyrd scored the 1974 US No. 8 single, 'Sweet Home Alabama' and the 1982 UK No.21 single 'Freebird'. Member of the Rossington-Collins Band.
 

BarnBuster

Virtually Unknown Member
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The Summer Jam at Watkins Glen was a 1973 rock festival which once received the Guinness Book of World Records entry for "Largest audience at a pop festival." An estimated 600,000 rock fans came to the Watkins Glen Grand Prix Raceway outside Watkins Glen, New York, on July 28, 1973, to see the Allman Brothers Band, Grateful Dead and The Band perform.

Similar to the 1969 Woodstock Festival, an enormous traffic jam created chaos for those who attempted to make it to the concert site. Long and narrow country roads forced fans to abandon their vehicles and walk 5–8 miles on that hot summer day. 150,000 tickets were sold for $10 each, but for all the other people it was a free concert.

The crowd was so huge that most of the audience were not able to see the stage. However the sound from the stage speakers was augmented 200 feet from the stage by four delay towers, towers with speakers wired to the stage amps but with a 0.175 second delay provided by Eventide digital delay units, so that by the time the sound from the stage speakers reached the tower area through the air, the sound from the delay towers was synchronized with the stage sound. There were six more delay towers arranged radially 200 feet further from those towers - 400 feet from the stage - and six more towers 200 feet further out. Sixteen delay towers in all, plus the main PA. They were driven by about 24,000 watts of power.

Although the concert was scheduled to start on July 28, thousands of music fans were already at the concert site on the 27th. Robbie Robertson of The Band requested to do a soundcheck, but was perplexed that so many people were sitting in front of the stage. Bill Graham allowed the soundcheck with the crowd of people in front, and The Band ran through a few numbers to the delight of the audience. The Allman Brothers Band did their soundcheck next, playing "One Way Out" and "Ramblin' Man". The Grateful Dead's legendary soundcheck turned into a two set marathon, featuring their familiar tunes such as "Sugaree", "Tennessee Jed" and "Wharf Rat". They also performed a unique jam that was eventually included on their retrospective CD box set So Many Roads (1965-1995).

On July 28, the day of the concert, 600,000 music fans had arrived in Watkins Glen. Grateful Dead performed first, playing two long sets. They opened with "Bertha" and played many hits such as "Box Of Rain", "Jack Straw", "Playing in the Band", "China Cat Sunflower" and "Eyes of the World".

The Band followed the Dead with one two-hour set. However, their set was cut in half by a drenching thunderstorm, in a scene again reminiscent of Woodstock, people were covered with mud. During the storm, keyboardist Garth Hudson performed his signature organ improvisation "The Genetic Method"; when the rain finally let up, the full Band joined Hudson on stage, and segued into their signature song "Chest Fever", in a manner similar to how the songs were presented on The Band's live album Rock of Ages.

Finally, the Allman Brothers Band performed for three hours. Their performance included songs from their soon-to-be-released album Brothers and Sisters, along with their standards "In Memory of Elizabeth Reed", "Statesboro Blues", "Les Brers in A Minor" and "Whipping Post".

Following the Allmans' second set, there was an hour encore jam featuring musicians from all three bands. The jam featured spirited renditions of "Not Fade Away", "Mountain Jam", and "Johnny B. Goode".

Although there were no reports of violence at Watkins Glen, the day was marred by the death of Willard Smith, 35, a skydiver from Syracuse, New York. Smith dived from an airplane carrying flares. One of the flares ignited his body suit, and he was engulfed in flames. Smith's body was eventually found in the woods near the concert site. There is also the unsolved disappearance of two high school teenagers (Mitchel Weiser and Bonnie Bickwit) from Brooklyn who were hitchhiking to the concert.
 

injinji

Well-Known Member
1973 - Watkins Glen Outdoor Summer Jam
The Watkins Glen outdoor summer jam was held outside of Watkins Glen, New York with The Allman Brothers Band, the Grateful Dead and The Band. Over 600,000 rock fans attended. Many historians claimed the event was the largest gathering of people in the history of the United States. 150,000 tickets were sold for $10 each, but for all the other people it was a free concert. The crowd was so huge that a large part of the audience was not able to see the stage.
the sound does get better toward the end of the soundcheck and is good for the show.

The Dead sound check was said to be much better than the actual show. So you decide for yourself.


 

BarnBuster

Virtually Unknown Member

By the beginning of 1967, The Doors were well-established members of the Los Angeles music scene. As the house band at the Whiskey a Go Go on the Sunset Strip, they had built a large local following and strong industry buzz, and out on the road, they were fast becoming known as a band that might typically receive third billing, but could blow better-known groups like The Young Rascals and The Grateful Dead off the stage. It would have been poetic if their popular breakthrough had come via their now-classic debut single, “Break On Through,” but that record failed to make the national sales charts despite the efforts of Jim Morrison and his bandmates to fuel the song’s popularity by repeatedly calling in requests for it to local L.A. radio stations. It was the follow-up release from their debut album, The Doors, which would become their first bona fide smash. “Light My Fire,” which earned the top spot in the Billboard Hot 100 on July 29, 1967, transformed The Doors from cult favorites of the rock cognoscenti into international pop stars and avatars of the '60s counterculture.

As “Light My Fire” climbed the charts in June and early July, The Doors were out on the East Coast, still plugging away as an opening act (e.g., for Simon and Garfunkel in Forest Hills, Queens) and as sometime-headliners (e.g., in a Greenwich, Connecticut, high-school auditorium). When the group topped the charts in late July, Jim Morrison celebrated by buying his now-famous skintight black-leather suit and beginning to hobnob with the likes of the iconic model/muse Nico at drug-fueled parties held by Andy Warhol.

Attempting to keep Morrison grounded were not only his fellow Doors Robby Krieger, Ray Manzarek and John Densmore as well as the professional manager they had hired in part to “babysit” him, but also his longtime girlfriend Pamela Courson, who is quoted in Jerry Hopkins and Danny Sugerman’s Doors biography No One Here Gets Out Alive (1980) as greeting the sight of Jim Morrison preening in front of a mirror at home before a show in the summer of 1967 with, “Oh Jim, are you going to wear the same leather pants again? You never change your clothes. You’re beginning to smell, did you know that?”

In the end, of course, Morrison’s heavy drinking and drug use would lead to increasingly erratic behavior over the next four years and eventually take his life in July 1971. During that period, The Doors would follow up “Light My Fire” with a string of era-defining albums and songs, including “People Are Strange,” “Love Me Two Times” and “The End” in 1967; “Hello, I Love You” and “Touch Me” in 1968; and “L.A. Woman” and “Riders on the Storm” in 1971.
 

BarnBuster

Virtually Unknown Member
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If there is one song that has been played more times by more bands in more garages than any ever written, it is probably “Louie Louie,” The Kingsmen’s classic 1966 hit. But if any other song warrants a place in the conversation, it would be “Wild Thing,” the three-chord masterpiece that became a #1 hit for The Troggs on July 30, 1966 and instantly took its rightful place in the rock-and-roll canon.

“Wild Thing” was written in 1965 by a New York songwriter named Chip Taylor (born James Voight, brother of the actor Jon Voight and uncle of actress Angelina Jolie). After an unsuccessful version of the song was recorded and released by a group called The Wild Ones, Taylor’s demo made its way to England, where Reg Presley (born Reginald Ball), lead singer of The Troggs, fell in love with it. Like Taylor himself, who never took his biggest hit very seriously, Presley initially found “Wild Thing” to be a ridiculous trifle, but that didn’t stop him from having his then-hitless band take it into the studio. In a single take of “Wild Thing,” The Troggs captured a raw and thrilling sound that not only gave them a #1 hit, but also served as a formative influence on some of the key figures in the development of punk rock, including Iggy Pop, the Ramones and the Buzzcocks, all of whom credited The Troggs as forerunners.

There were other hits for The Troggs, including “With A Girl Like You” (1966) and “Love Is All Around” (1967)—but nothing to match “Wild Thing” in terms of success or influence. In fact, the most influential recording they made after 1968 was not of a song at all, but of an intra-band argument during a troubled 1972 recording session that was bootlegged out of the studio and passed around as “The Troggs Tapes.” On it, various Troggs can be heard bickering and cursing (137 times in 10+ minutes) in accents and language that served as the direct inspiration for This Is Spinal Tap, Rob Reiner’s 1984 seminal “mockumentary.”

“Wild Thing” was memorably performed by Jimi Hendrix at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967, complete with burning guitar, and it was covered with some success by the L.A. punk band X in 1989, but it’s the Troggs’ version that has become a staple of movie and television soundtracks. With royalties earned from his band’s signature hit, Trogg frontman Reg Presley emerged as one of the world’s foremost experts on and largest sources of funding of research into the mysterious phenomenon of crop circles. He died in 2013.



 

injinji

Well-Known Member
July 30th
1954 - Hillbilly Hoedown
Slim Whitman, Billy Walker, Sugarfoot Collins, Sonny Harvelle, Tinker Fry, Curly Harris and a young Elvis Presley, all appeared at the Hillbilly Hoedown, Overton Park Shell, in Memphis Tennessee. Elvis was so nervous he stood up on the balls of his feet and shook his leg in time with the music, when he came offstage he asked why people were yelling at him. Someone told him it was because he was shaking his leg, which with the baggy pleated pants created a wild gyrating effect in time with the music.

And this whole time I thought it had happened like this.

 

injinji

Well-Known Member
1955 - Johnny Cash
Johnny Cash recorded his first version of 'Folsom Prison Blues' at the Sun Recording Studio in Memphis, Tennessee. Cash was inspired to write this song after seeing the movie Inside the Walls of Folsom Prison (1951) while serving in West Germany in the United States Air Force at Landsberg, Bavaria (itself the location of a famous prison).
 

injinji

Well-Known Member
2003 - Sam Phillips
Sam Phillips the founder of Sun Records and studio died of respiratory failure at St. Francis Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. In the 1940s, Phillips worked as a DJ for Muscle Shoals, Alabama radio station WLAY. Phillips recorded what some consider to be the first rock and roll record, ‘Rocket 88’ by Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats in 1951. He discovered Elvis Presley, worked with Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, Ike Turner, B.B. King and Jerry Lee Lewis.

If Mr. Phillips was the only man that Jerry Lee still would call sir
Then I guess Mr. Phillips did all of Y'all about as good as you deserve
He did just what he said he was gonna do and the money came in sacks
New contracts and Carl Perkins' Cadillac

 
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