1959 - It's more than half a century to the day since Chuck Berry's Memphis Tennessee was released, and it was one of the songs that set the teenage lyrical tone, the beat, and that chunka chunka guitar chord sound for a million rock'n'roll bands to follow, and a million guitar players who would follow his style and sound. Not the most technically brilliant guitarist, it was never about the proficiency, but the efficiency of the style, the showmanship, the originality. Most music acts have done versions of Chuck Berry songs for the past half century. His obsessive wordplay nailed teenage life to the floor. As the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson said, "he wrote all of the great songs and came up with all the rock & roll beats." Chuck Berry was rock'n'roll's heartbeat and original mindset. His live shows, like Dylan's and the Stones' live shows, could be the best you've ever seen, could be the worst you've ever seen, but that is precisely the point. It was real, warts and all, no pretensions...just like this rather dodgy 48-year-old performance...but you still get the message.
1963 - There was a short period of time when surf music was all the rage. I remember when I started in bands, around this time, 1963, and young dance crowds would get up and dance to instrumental music, and go sit down and have a rest from stomping or go outside for a quick nip when the singer appeared, such was the popularity of surf music. In Australia, it was accompanied by a dance they named The Stomp. On Friday nights all around the coastal surf clubs teenagers would flock in their droves to hear the instrumental surf bands of the day at their local surf club stomp. This then was the day, in 1963, when The Surfaris' released their world wide hit, Wipe Out. This is probably the most famous surf song of all time, internationally, although Australian music lovers would also be familiar with Bombora by the Atlantics. First up in four surf songs, see how many wipeouts you can see in this amazing footage. After that, and while we're in surf mode, let's check out a rarely seen video of that steaming Aussie surf song, Bombora. There's no question which song is the better of the two...what do you think? While we're on a surfing binge, thanks to the movie Pulp Fiction, this third video is probably the best known of all surf songs, Misirlou by Dick Dale and the Deltones, from the same year, 1963. OK, then, let's go all the way and have a fourth surf song, this one from 1966, the Ventures and an absolute killer version, live, of The Cruel Sea.
1963 - This is the day a true, bona fide genius named Stevie Wonder released his debut song, Fingertips - Pt 2, a ground-breaking record. Why was it ground-breaking? Firstly, because Little Stevie Wonder was just 13 years old. Man...could he sing, play harmonica and just rock out at 13, or what? I remember watching this when I was just a little older than he was at the time and I was blown away with overwhelming inspiration.
1967 - The much-publicised drug possession trial of Rolling Stone members Mick Jagger and Keith Richards opened today in London, 44 years ago. In this strange, extremely rare two-part interview with 24-year-old Jagger, one can see that the economics graduate handle himself well with much older members of the establishment, on an intellectual level that would have surprised them all.It also demonstrates how very much times have changed in society, music, media, in almost five decades.
1968 - This is the day classical guitar player, Mason Williams released his instrumental song, Classical Gas, which became a huge hit all over the world. This is the original version of the song, and if you're old enough, you'll remember it, if not, hope you like it, anyway.
1969 - As the swinging sixties wound down and the seventies loomed, this was the day supergroup Blind Faith released their first and only LP, to world acclaim. Following is a trailer for the DVD release of Blind Faith's famous London Hyde Park 1969 live concert. Fusing the psychedelic blues of Eric Clapton as he was in Cream, with the soulful vocals and keyboards of Steve Traffic's Steve Winwood, along with Family's Rick Grech on bass and the phenomenal Ginger Baker on drums, Blind Faith was rock's first super group. Formed in January of 1969 the band took the world by storm during that counter culture revolutionary year. Their self-titled debut was their only album ever released. It was a summertime chart smash hitting number one across Europe, America, Asia, Australia. Blind Faith's debut gig was in front of a cool 100,000 people on a warm day in London's Hyde Park on June 7th, 1969. The free concert was filmed but it had never been seen in its entirety until the release of this DVD 37 years later. The set may have lasted just over 45 minutes long, but fans were treated to a selection of music that would become timeless, including Presence of the Lord, Cant Find My Way Home and The Rolling Stones classic Under My Thumb. This is a unique opportunity to see the world's first super group perform for the very first time. Following is a trailer for the DVD, then one of their songs from the concert...you'll have to watch it to see which one.
1963 - There was a short period of time when surf music was all the rage. I remember when I started in bands, around this time, 1963, and young dance crowds would get up and dance to instrumental music, and go sit down and have a rest from stomping or go outside for a quick nip when the singer appeared, such was the popularity of surf music. In Australia, it was accompanied by a dance they named The Stomp. On Friday nights all around the coastal surf clubs teenagers would flock in their droves to hear the instrumental surf bands of the day at their local surf club stomp. This then was the day, in 1963, when The Surfaris' released their world wide hit, Wipe Out. This is probably the most famous surf song of all time, internationally, although Australian music lovers would also be familiar with Bombora by the Atlantics. First up in four surf songs, see how many wipeouts you can see in this amazing footage. After that, and while we're in surf mode, let's check out a rarely seen video of that steaming Aussie surf song, Bombora. There's no question which song is the better of the two...what do you think? While we're on a surfing binge, thanks to the movie Pulp Fiction, this third video is probably the best known of all surf songs, Misirlou by Dick Dale and the Deltones, from the same year, 1963. OK, then, let's go all the way and have a fourth surf song, this one from 1966, the Ventures and an absolute killer version, live, of The Cruel Sea.
1963 - This is the day a true, bona fide genius named Stevie Wonder released his debut song, Fingertips - Pt 2, a ground-breaking record. Why was it ground-breaking? Firstly, because Little Stevie Wonder was just 13 years old. Man...could he sing, play harmonica and just rock out at 13, or what? I remember watching this when I was just a little older than he was at the time and I was blown away with overwhelming inspiration.
1967 - The much-publicised drug possession trial of Rolling Stone members Mick Jagger and Keith Richards opened today in London, 44 years ago. In this strange, extremely rare two-part interview with 24-year-old Jagger, one can see that the economics graduate handle himself well with much older members of the establishment, on an intellectual level that would have surprised them all.It also demonstrates how very much times have changed in society, music, media, in almost five decades.
1968 - This is the day classical guitar player, Mason Williams released his instrumental song, Classical Gas, which became a huge hit all over the world. This is the original version of the song, and if you're old enough, you'll remember it, if not, hope you like it, anyway.
1969 - As the swinging sixties wound down and the seventies loomed, this was the day supergroup Blind Faith released their first and only LP, to world acclaim. Following is a trailer for the DVD release of Blind Faith's famous London Hyde Park 1969 live concert. Fusing the psychedelic blues of Eric Clapton as he was in Cream, with the soulful vocals and keyboards of Steve Traffic's Steve Winwood, along with Family's Rick Grech on bass and the phenomenal Ginger Baker on drums, Blind Faith was rock's first super group. Formed in January of 1969 the band took the world by storm during that counter culture revolutionary year. Their self-titled debut was their only album ever released. It was a summertime chart smash hitting number one across Europe, America, Asia, Australia. Blind Faith's debut gig was in front of a cool 100,000 people on a warm day in London's Hyde Park on June 7th, 1969. The free concert was filmed but it had never been seen in its entirety until the release of this DVD 37 years later. The set may have lasted just over 45 minutes long, but fans were treated to a selection of music that would become timeless, including Presence of the Lord, Cant Find My Way Home and The Rolling Stones classic Under My Thumb. This is a unique opportunity to see the world's first super group perform for the very first time. Following is a trailer for the DVD, then one of their songs from the concert...you'll have to watch it to see which one.
