Yearly Archive: 2015

The late Dennis Wilson (drummer with The Beach Boys – ‘Do You Wanna Dance’) was born in 1944

Gary Rossington (guitarist … and the last original member still playing with Lynyrd Skynyrd – ‘Free Bird’) is 64

Southside Johnny (born John Lyon – ‘I Don’t Want To Go Home’) is 67

Chris Hillman (bass guitar with The Byrds – ‘Mr. Tambourine Man’) is 71
Rock Factoid: Hillman has had success with several groups in his long career: The Flying Burrito Brothers (‘Christine’s Tune’), Manassas (‘It Doesn’t Matter’) and The Desert Rose Band (‘Love Reunited’).

Bob Mosley (bass guitar with Moby Grape – ‘Mr. Blues’) is 73

Freddy ‘Boom Boom’ Cannon (born Frederick Picariello – ‘Transistor Sister’) is 75

The “Million Dollar Quartet” (Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis and Johnny Cash) recorded an impromptu session at Sun Records in Memphis—1956
Rock Factoid: The recording was not released until 1981.
Rock Factoid #2: How much Johnny Cash contributed to the event has always been in dispute. His voice does not seem to appear on any of the published tracks, but Cash maintained he was very involved.
“I was the first to arrive and the last to leave, contrary to what has been written. I was farthest away from the mic and I was singing a lot higher than I usually did in order to stay in key with Elvis, but I guarantee you, I’m there.” … Johnny Cash

The Beatles released ‘Beatles For Sale’ in England—1964
Rock Factoid: In the U.S., songs from ‘Beatles For Sale’ were released on two separate Capitol albums; ‘Beatles ’65’, released on December 1964, and ‘Beatles VI’, released in June 1965.

The Rolling Stones released the ‘December’s Children (And Everybody’s)’ album in the U.S.—1965

The Byrds recorded ‘This Wheel’s On Fire’, ‘Child Of The Universe’ and ‘Candy’—1968

President Richard Nixon, Vice-President Spiro T. Agnew and several U.S. governors viewed “simulated acid trip” films and listened to rock music in order to comprehend the generation gap—1969
Idle Thought: They could have made it easier on themselves and simply watched Dragnet because nobody painted a more one-sided (and negative) view of the sixties generation than Jack Webb.

The Rolling Stones recorded ‘Brown Sugar’ and ‘Wild Horses’ at legendary Muscle Shoals Sound Studios at 3614 Jackson Avenue in Sheffield, Alabama—1969
Rock Factoid: The list of songs made at Muscle Shoals includes: Night Moves’, ‘‘Katmandu’ and ‘Old Time Rock And Roll’ (Bob Seger), ‘Kodachrome’ and ‘Loves Me Like A Rock’ (Paul Simon), ‘I’ll Take You There’ (Staple Singers), ‘Sailing’ (Rod Stewart), ‘Gotta Serve Somebody’ (Bob Dylan), ‘Sweet Soul Music’ (Arthur Conley), ‘When A Man Loves A Woman’ (Percy Sledge), ‘I Never Loved A Man (The Way I Love You)’ (Aretha Franklin), ‘Patches’ (Clarence Carter), ‘Mustang Sally’ (Wilson Pickett), and I could type all day and not even come close to naming them all.

A fire at a Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention concert at the Montreux Casino in Montreux, Switzerland was later immortalized in Deep Purple’s ‘Smoke On The Water’—1971
Rock Factoid: Midway through the Mothers’ concert, Don Preston was playing his synthesizer solo on ‘King Kong’ when the casino suddenly caught fire when somebody in the audience fired a flare gun into the rattan covered ceiling (as mentioned in the “some stupid with a flare gun” line). The resulting fire destroyed the entire casino complex, along with all the Mothers’ equipment.
Rock Factoid #2: The “smoke on the water” that became the title of the song (credited to bass guitarist Roger Glover) referred to the smoke from the fire spreading over Lake Geneva from the burning casino as the members of Deep Purple watched the fire from their hotel across the lake.
Rock Factoid #3: The “funky Claude” running in and out referred to Claude Nobs, the director of the Montreux Jazz Festival, who helped some of the audience escape the fire.

Patsy Collins, the bodyguard for Deep Purple, fell six floors down an elevator shaft in the hotel where the group was staying in Jakarta, Indonesia. Collins was still conscious and demanded a taxi take him to a hospital but he died en route—1975

Guitarist Tommy Bolin (he replaced Richie Blackmore in Deep Purple died (heroin overdose)—1976

Workers at EMI Records’ plant in England went on strike, refusing to have anything to do with packing and shipping the Sex Pistols’ ‘Anarchy In The U.K.’ single—1976

They weren’t always superstars. U2, misnamed as “The U2’s” in promotional material, appeared at The Hope and Anchor in Islington, London. A significant number of media and record company people were in attendance but only nine paying customers showed up. After Edge broke a guitar string, the band left the stage and did not return—1979

Jimmy Page, Robert Plant and John Paul Jones announced their decision not to continue as Led Zeppelin in the wake of the death of drummer John Bonham—1980

Roy Orbison’s last concert was held at the Front Row Theatre in Highland Heights, Ohio—1988
Rock Factoid: Orbison died of a heart attack two days later.

Frank Zappa (founder/songwriter/producer/guitarist with The Mothers of Invention – ‘Plastic People’) died (prostate cancer)—1993
Rock Factoid: In May 1982, Zappa released ‘Ship Arriving Too Late to Save a Drowning Witch’, which featured his biggest selling single ever, the Grammy Award-nominated song ‘Valley Girl’ (topping out at #32 on the Billboard charts). Zappa was irritated by the novelty song’s success and never played it live.
Rock Factoid #2: The album ‘Jazz From Hell’, released in 1986, earned Zappa his first Grammy Award in 1987 for Best Rock Instrumental Performance. Except for one live guitar solo (‘St. Etienne’), the album exclusively featured compositions brought to life by the Synclavier. Although an instrumental album, containing no lyrics whatsoever, Meyer Music Markets sold the album with a “explicit lyrics” sticker – a warning label introduced by the Recording Industry Association of America in an agreement with the PMRC.

The Beatles released ‘Free As A Bird’ in the UK. It marked the first time a single containing new material had been released under The Beatles’ name since ‘The Long And Winding Road’ in 1970—1995
Rock Factoid: The song was originally composed and recorded in 1977 as a home demo by John Lennon. The surviving Beatles, working with producer Jeff Lynne – after George Martin, their former producer, turned down an invitation to produce due to hearing problems – contributed additional instrumentation, vocals, and arrangements.

Bernie Dwyer (drummer with Freddie & The Dreamers – ‘I’m Telling You Now’) died (cancer)—2002

Liam Clancy (The Clancy Brothers – ‘The Wild Rover’ and ‘And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda’ as a solo artist) died (pulmonary fibrosis)—2009

James Freud (bass guitar with The Models – ‘Out Of Mind, Out Of Sight’) died (suicide)—2010

Hubert Sumlin (blues guitarist with The Howlin’ Wolf Band – ‘Back Door Man’) died (heart failure)—2011

Compiled by Ray Lemire ©2015 RayLemire.com. All Rights Reserved.