1955 - Let's go back 56 years to Johnny Cash's first single, Cry Cry Cry, which was released today. Sadly, though, there's no performance video of the song, so we're going to one of his first ever TV appearances, same day, June 21, same year, 1955, and this little gem which clearly demonstrates the start of that unique Cash sound.
1966 - This was a year of many musical events, some of them on this very day, including the fact that The Rolling Stones sued 14 American hotels over a booking ban in New York, the band claiming that the ban was violating civil rights laws. Yeah, right, I wonder why they were banned - it was 66, remember. Also on the same day, Welsh belter Tom Jones needed 14 stitches in his forehead after his Jaguar was involved in a car crash in Marble Arch, London. And a few miles down the road from the accident, same day and year, working at Abbey Road studios in London, The Beatles recorded from start to finish, a new John Lennon song She Said She Said. Rocklore reckons the song was based on a bizarre conversation that Lennon had with Peter Fonda, star and director of Easyrider, while John and George Harrison were tripping on LSD. It's also the day Zeppelin's Jimmy Page made his live debut with The Yardbirds at the Marquee Club, London. No footage of that, but howzabout this, in France, with Page on bass. Following that, same year, the great Jeff Beck and Page, both in The Yardbirds - this video is an excerpt from the swinging London art movie of the day, Blowup...and that's David Hemmings at the start, walking into the gig.
1975 - This is the day when guitarist extraordinaire, Ritchie Blackmore quit Deep Purple to form Rainbow. Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow was the resulting debut album, released one month later. It was recorded and released while lead guitarist Ritchie Blackmore was still a member of Deep Purple. Lead vocalist, the late Ronnie James Dio, called this his favourite Rainbow album. And from that LP here is Man On The Silver Mountain - RJD, RIP.
1975 - And on the other side of the world, the sweet James Taylor released one of the great songs, How Sweet It Is. Never mind the sweetness, how about this funky version from a live concert in 1979 at Blossom Music Center, Akron, Ohio.
1979 - Four years to the day after Mick Taylor left the Rolling Stones - that's today, June 21 - he released his debut solo album. Ten years later, 1989, and here's Taylor playing in a tiny little club in Cambridge, England, and man, can this man play guitar, check it out.
1981 - Let's just run through events for June 21, from '81 to'91, like in 1981 when Donald Fagan and Walter Becker announced the break-up of Steely Dan. And four years later movie director and former Happy Days actor, Ron Howard directed his first music video for Gravity by Michael Sembello. Same year, and it was the first day of Glastonbury Festival with Aswad, The Boomtown Rats, Clannad, The Colour Field, Ian Dury, King, The Pogues, Midnight Oil, Thompson Twins, Misty In Roots and Maria Muldaur. A three day ticket cost just GBP£16. Skip forward to 1989 and New Kids on the Block released Hangin' Tough...Lotsa hangin, but as tough as marsh mellow. And a year later, in 1990, the originator, Little Richard, received a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame. And here is the self-proclaimed king of rock'n'roll in the same year as he got the stars on Hollywood Boulevard...live in Germany, and aint he just grand?
1966 - This was a year of many musical events, some of them on this very day, including the fact that The Rolling Stones sued 14 American hotels over a booking ban in New York, the band claiming that the ban was violating civil rights laws. Yeah, right, I wonder why they were banned - it was 66, remember. Also on the same day, Welsh belter Tom Jones needed 14 stitches in his forehead after his Jaguar was involved in a car crash in Marble Arch, London. And a few miles down the road from the accident, same day and year, working at Abbey Road studios in London, The Beatles recorded from start to finish, a new John Lennon song She Said She Said. Rocklore reckons the song was based on a bizarre conversation that Lennon had with Peter Fonda, star and director of Easyrider, while John and George Harrison were tripping on LSD. It's also the day Zeppelin's Jimmy Page made his live debut with The Yardbirds at the Marquee Club, London. No footage of that, but howzabout this, in France, with Page on bass. Following that, same year, the great Jeff Beck and Page, both in The Yardbirds - this video is an excerpt from the swinging London art movie of the day, Blowup...and that's David Hemmings at the start, walking into the gig.
1975 - This is the day when guitarist extraordinaire, Ritchie Blackmore quit Deep Purple to form Rainbow. Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow was the resulting debut album, released one month later. It was recorded and released while lead guitarist Ritchie Blackmore was still a member of Deep Purple. Lead vocalist, the late Ronnie James Dio, called this his favourite Rainbow album. And from that LP here is Man On The Silver Mountain - RJD, RIP.
1975 - And on the other side of the world, the sweet James Taylor released one of the great songs, How Sweet It Is. Never mind the sweetness, how about this funky version from a live concert in 1979 at Blossom Music Center, Akron, Ohio.
1979 - Four years to the day after Mick Taylor left the Rolling Stones - that's today, June 21 - he released his debut solo album. Ten years later, 1989, and here's Taylor playing in a tiny little club in Cambridge, England, and man, can this man play guitar, check it out.
1981 - Let's just run through events for June 21, from '81 to'91, like in 1981 when Donald Fagan and Walter Becker announced the break-up of Steely Dan. And four years later movie director and former Happy Days actor, Ron Howard directed his first music video for Gravity by Michael Sembello. Same year, and it was the first day of Glastonbury Festival with Aswad, The Boomtown Rats, Clannad, The Colour Field, Ian Dury, King, The Pogues, Midnight Oil, Thompson Twins, Misty In Roots and Maria Muldaur. A three day ticket cost just GBP£16. Skip forward to 1989 and New Kids on the Block released Hangin' Tough...Lotsa hangin, but as tough as marsh mellow. And a year later, in 1990, the originator, Little Richard, received a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame. And here is the self-proclaimed king of rock'n'roll in the same year as he got the stars on Hollywood Boulevard...live in Germany, and aint he just grand?
