Today in Rock and Roll History

injinji

Well-Known Member
1972 - Creedence Clearwater Revival
Creedence Clearwater Revival split up following the failure of their most recent album, 'Mardi Gras'. After limited success as a solo act and some legal hassles with Fantasy Records, John Fogarty would have two big hits in 1985, 'Center Field' and 'Rock and Roll Girls'. John's brother Tom Fogarty died in September, 1990 and the surviving members have been touring as Creedence Clearwater Revisited.
 

injinji

Well-Known Member
2015 - Patti Smith
Patti Smith was said to be moved to tears after a fan returned a bag of stolen goods to the singer, 36 years after they went missing. They included a shirt worn for a 1978 Rolling Stone cover shot and a bandana given to her by her late brother. The items went missing in June 1979 when a truck, which was carrying $40,000 in amplifiers, guitars and other musical equipment, was stolen from outside a hotel after Smith and her band played a show at the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago.
 

injinji

Well-Known Member
October 17th
1964 - Manfred Mann
Manfred Mann started a two week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with 'Do Wah Diddy Diddy', possibly the first No.1 with a Nonsense Song Title. Also a No.1 in the UK, the song was first released by the US group The Exciters.
 

injinji

Well-Known Member
October 19th
1968 - Cream
On their farewell tour Cream appeared at The Forum in Los Angeles, California, where live recordings were made which were included on the 'Goodbye Cream' album which was released the following year.
 

injinji

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2014 - Raphael Ravenscroft
Raphael Ravenscroft who played the sax riff on the Gerry Rafferty hit 'Baker Street' died aged 60 of a suspected heart attack. He was only paid £27.50 for the 'Baker Street' session, and it has been reported that the cheque bounced and that it was kept on the wall of Ravenscroft's solicitors; by contrast the song is said to have earned Rafferty £80,000 a year in royalties.
 

injinji

Well-Known Member
2020 - Spencer Davis
Spencer Davis, one of the key figures of the 60s beat scene, died at the age of 81. The Welsh guitarist was the driving force behind The Spencer Davis Group, who scored transatlantic hits with 'Keep On Running' and 'Somebody Help Me'. The band, which also featured a teenage Stevie Winwood, toured with The Who and The Rolling Stones in the 60s.
 

injinji

Well-Known Member
October 20th
1977 - Ronnie Van Zant
Ronnie Van Zant, Steve Gaines and Cassie Gaines from Lynyrd Skynyrd were all killed along with manager Dean Kilpatrick when their rented plane ran out of fuel and crashed into a densely wooded thicket in the middle of a swamp in Gillsburg, Mississippi. The crash seriously injured the rest of the band and crew who were due to play at Louisiana University that evening.
 

injinji

Well-Known Member
1983 - Merle Travis
American country and western singer, songwriter, Merle Travis died of a heart attack aged 65. Acknowledged as one of the most influential American guitarist's of the twentieth century. Wrote 'Sixteen Tons' 1955 US No.1 for Ernie Ford. He appeared in the 1953 movie From Here to Eternity singing ‘Reenlistment Blues’.
 

BarnBuster

Virtually Unknown Member

I really liked Seger et al. Saw them in concert several times late 70's early 80's.

October 22, 1976 Bob Seger releases Night Moves, his first studio album to make an impact outside of Michigan.

In 1976, Bob Seger was already a local legend. The Detroit rocker had been plugging away on the regional rock circuit since the mid-1960s, performing with a variety of bands over the years. Big enough to land opening slots of major arena acts coming through Michigan and good enough to often blow those bands off the stage, Seger found his first taste of national success with the release of Live Bullet in April 1975. Capturing Seger and the Silver Bullet Band at the peak of their powers at the Motor City's legendary Cobo Hall, the album would produce a series of enduring rock radio hits, including a hard-rocking cover of Ike and Tina Turner's "Nutbush City Limits."

"When we finally hit at Cobo Hall, we were snappin’ tight. We were ready to be heard as a live band. I had no idea if Live Bullet would be successful. I’d heard my stuff so much I had no objectivity," Seger told Rock Cellar earlier this year. "Of course, the Frampton Comes Alive! thing had come very close to that and had done huge numbers as had KISS Alive! So I was hoping it would be successful. Live Bullet went platinum in six months. Night Moves came out about six months after that and they both went platinum on the same day. And suddenly we were off and runnin'."

Night Moves was propelled out of the gate by its nostalgic title track, which would go on to peak at #4 on the Hot 100. The song was inspired by the movie American Graffiti, which Seger saw on the big screen in 1973: "I came out of the theater thinking, ‘Hey, I've got a story to tell, too! Nobody has ever told about how it was to grow up in my neck of the woods,'" the singer said to Mix magazine in 2007.

The album's second single, the melancholy "Mainstreet," would also climb into the Top 40, reaching #24. Third single "Rock and Roll Never Forgets" just missed the upper realms of the charts, topping out at #41.

"A song like 'Rock ‘N Roll Never Forgets”' is just slammin’. When we play that song live people go nuts," Seger said. "At that point in my life I was 31 years old, and as you know the first 10 or 11 years in my career I was makin’ six, eight grand a year (laughs) and just doin’ it because I loved the music. So I’m writing for Night Moves and I just felt grateful. Here I am and I’m starting to make it. You know, rock and roll never forgets. You build up goodwill over ten years and you set the stage. 'Rock ‘N Roll Never Forgets' is a grateful song."

The breakout success of Night Moves cleared the way for Seger to make music on his own terms moving forward, a luxury that was not overlooked by the rock icon.

“What it gave me was the ability to look at my record company and my manager and say, ‘Okay, we’ve reached this level. Now leave me alone for six months because I have to write good songs.’ Not songs that I wrote on a bus or in a station wagon," Seger revealed. 'I need to take my time and develop my craft.'”

After releasing two albums in 1976, Seger did indeed take his time working on his next full-length album, which wouldn't arrive until May 1978: Stranger in Town, packed with classic tracks including "Old Time Rock and Roll," "Hollywood Nights" and "Still the Same."
 

PadawanWarrior

Well-Known Member
October 20th
1977 - Ronnie Van Zant
Ronnie Van Zant, Steve Gaines and Cassie Gaines from Lynyrd Skynyrd were all killed along with manager Dean Kilpatrick when their rented plane ran out of fuel and crashed into a densely wooded thicket in the middle of a swamp in Gillsburg, Mississippi. The crash seriously injured the rest of the band and crew who were due to play at Louisiana University that evening.
Ronnie Van Zant wasn't wearing a seatbelt, and the rumor is if he had it on he would have lived. Love those guys.

 

injinji

Well-Known Member

I really liked Seger et al. Saw them in concert several times late 70's early 80's.

October 22, 1976 Bob Seger releases Night Moves, his first studio album to make an impact outside of Michigan.

In 1976, Bob Seger was already a local legend. The Detroit rocker had been plugging away on the regional rock circuit since the mid-1960s, performing with a variety of bands over the years. Big enough to land opening slots of major arena acts coming through Michigan and good enough to often blow those bands off the stage, Seger found his first taste of national success with the release of Live Bullet in April 1975. Capturing Seger and the Silver Bullet Band at the peak of their powers at the Motor City's legendary Cobo Hall, the album would produce a series of enduring rock radio hits, including a hard-rocking cover of Ike and Tina Turner's "Nutbush City Limits."

"When we finally hit at Cobo Hall, we were snappin’ tight. We were ready to be heard as a live band. I had no idea if Live Bullet would be successful. I’d heard my stuff so much I had no objectivity," Seger told Rock Cellar earlier this year. "Of course, the Frampton Comes Alive! thing had come very close to that and had done huge numbers as had KISS Alive! So I was hoping it would be successful. Live Bullet went platinum in six months. Night Moves came out about six months after that and they both went platinum on the same day. And suddenly we were off and runnin'."

Night Moves was propelled out of the gate by its nostalgic title track, which would go on to peak at #4 on the Hot 100. The song was inspired by the movie American Graffiti, which Seger saw on the big screen in 1973: "I came out of the theater thinking, ‘Hey, I've got a story to tell, too! Nobody has ever told about how it was to grow up in my neck of the woods,'" the singer said to Mix magazine in 2007.

The album's second single, the melancholy "Mainstreet," would also climb into the Top 40, reaching #24. Third single "Rock and Roll Never Forgets" just missed the upper realms of the charts, topping out at #41.

"A song like 'Rock ‘N Roll Never Forgets”' is just slammin’. When we play that song live people go nuts," Seger said. "At that point in my life I was 31 years old, and as you know the first 10 or 11 years in my career I was makin’ six, eight grand a year (laughs) and just doin’ it because I loved the music. So I’m writing for Night Moves and I just felt grateful. Here I am and I’m starting to make it. You know, rock and roll never forgets. You build up goodwill over ten years and you set the stage. 'Rock ‘N Roll Never Forgets' is a grateful song."

The breakout success of Night Moves cleared the way for Seger to make music on his own terms moving forward, a luxury that was not overlooked by the rock icon.

“What it gave me was the ability to look at my record company and my manager and say, ‘Okay, we’ve reached this level. Now leave me alone for six months because I have to write good songs.’ Not songs that I wrote on a bus or in a station wagon," Seger revealed. 'I need to take my time and develop my craft.'”

After releasing two albums in 1976, Seger did indeed take his time working on his next full-length album, which wouldn't arrive until May 1978: Stranger in Town, packed with classic tracks including "Old Time Rock and Roll," "Hollywood Nights" and "Still the Same."
Best name in rock and roll, Alto Reed.

 

injinji

Well-Known Member
October 22nd
1969 - Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin II was released on Atlantic Records in the UK. The Jimmy Page produced album which was recorded over six months between four European and three American tours, peaked at No.1 in both the UK and US, going on to sell over 12 million copies in the US alone, (and spending 138 weeks on the UK chart). The album is now recognised by writers and music critics as one of the greatest and most influential rock albums ever recorded.

 

injinji

Well-Known Member
October 23rd
2020 - Jerry Jeff Walker
American country music singer and songwriter Jerry Jeff Walker died of throat cancer age 78. He wrote 'Mr Bojangles' a hit for The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band in 1970. Since then Walker's song has been recorded by many popular artists, including Garth Brooks, Chet Atkins, Jim Croce, Jamie Cullum, John Denver, Neil Diamond, Bob Dylan, Billy Joel, Elton John, Don McLean and Dolly Parton.
 

injinji

Well-Known Member
October 24th
1962 - James Brown
US Soul singer James Brown recorded his legendary 'Live At The Apollo' album. The album was listed at No.24 in Rolling Stone magazine's 2003 list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.
 

injinji

Well-Known Member
2017 - Fats Domino
American pianist and singer-songwriter Fats Domino died aged 89 at his home in Harvey, Louisiana after a long-term illness. Domino attracted national attention with his first recording, ‘The Fat Man’, made in late 1949 for Imperial Records, an early rock-and-roll record. ‘The Fat Man’ sold one million copies by 1953 and it is widely considered the first rock-and-roll record to achieve this feat. Domino had 35 records in the US Billboard Top 40. Domino’s 1956 version of ‘Blueberry Hill’ was selected for the Library of Congress’s National Recording Registry of historic sound recordings worthy of preservation.
 

injinji

Well-Known Member
October 25th
1966 - Jeff Healey
Aged 7 months old, Jeff Healey had his right eye surgical removed (and subsequently his left eye, 4 months later), and replaced with artificial ones, necessitated by a form of cancer of the eyes called retinoblastoma. Three years later Healey was given his first guitar by his father. At the age of 13, the Canadian guitarist formed his first band, Blue Direction.
 

injinji

Well-Known Member
1970 - President Nixon
Speaking at a US radio conference, President Nixon asked programmers to ban all songs containing drug references.
 

injinji

Well-Known Member
1992 - Roger Miller
Roger Miller died of died of lung and throat cancer in hospital in Los Angeles. Scored the 1965 UK No.1 & US No.4 single 'King Of The Road’. Miller won eleven Grammy Awards as a songwriter and seven Tony awards for writing the music and lyrics for 'Big River'. The Proclaimers had the 1990 UK No.9 hit with their version of 'King Of The Road.'
 
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