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Thursday, March 22, 2012

Dear Reader,
Friday March 23, and we go from the Pope to pop, to classical, to new wave and back again.
* Pope John Paul II had a dabble in pop music 13 years ago today when he released his debut album.
* Psychedelic Furs show us their pretty pink wares in 1980.
* Elvis at #1 with an old German folk song as he records a new hit with an old Italian folk song in 1960.
* Adam and the Ants show a new style of rock'n'roll new music, 31 years ago.
* It's 1963 and the Beach Boys look very...er...dapper performing this hit.
* We go way back to two John Lennon events; his marriage to Yoko Ono, shown here by Australian TV pop show host, Dick Williams, and the release of Lennon's book, In His Own Write.
* Former Creedence Clearwater Revival singer, John Fogerty shows us his solo style in 1985, on this day.
* We go classical once again with a debut of one of Haydn's pieces.
* And classical again, this time with the debut of Handel's Messiah in 1743.

* Scroll down to the bottom of the page for headlines from world's top publications: New York Times, Guardian, The Age, Rolling Stone, Spin, & many more. click on the glowing blue headlines for your daily dose.





Sunday, July 17, 2011

July 18, 2011

1953 - Early in the afternoon of July 18, almost  60 years ago, music history changed when an 18-year-old Elvis Presley walked into Memphis Recording Services - later to be known as Sun Records, managed by the legendary Sam Phillips. Rocklore is never reliable as time goes by, people making money from the core of the music, changing changing history as it suits, but this is as close to reality as my research tells me it was. Presley wanted to hear how he sounded on tape, and it was his first recording. He paid $4 for the privilege. Rumour has it that Elvis wanted to record the song for his mother, a belated birthday present. However, after making the record, on his way home, he took it to the home of Edwin Leek, Jr., a classmate at Humes High School, and played it for he and his grandmother because it was Leek who reportedly urged Elvis to go to Memphis Recording Services and record his voice. Elvis subsequently left the demo at Leek's home and never asked for it back. The demo surfaced in 1988, and was not released until after that time. Almost a year after Elvis recorded the song, Phillips called him and asked him to come to the studio and try recording for him. Presley was accompanied by Bill Black on bass, and Scotty Moore on guitar, and the result of these first recordings was in July 1954, with the first commercial record release, That's All Right and Blue Moon Of Kentucky. This then, is the first ever recording from Elvis Presley.


1960 - Hank Ballard was at the very forefront of rock'n'roll music, and a contemporary of James Brown at the commercial crossroads of rhythm and blues, soul and rock'n'roll. Ballard wrote many, many early hits, including Let's Go, Let's Go, Let's Go, along with Finger Poppin' Time and Work With Me Annie, recording asnd performing them with his band, The Midnighters. But it was this day in 1960 that Ballard wrote The Twist, a song that would spearhead a whole new dance craze and create a momentary music genre…and, when a million-selling cover version was released by Chubby Checker two years later, Ballard's bank account increased - substantially. Unfortunately no videos anywhere of Hank ballad - except this special appearance as a contestant in a 1961 episode of American TV show, Who Am I, where one of the panelists was a very, very young Johnny Carson.


1966 - This is the day that lead singer for The Bobby Fuller Four was found dead in his car in Los Angeles aged just 22. Fuller died mysteriously from gasoline asphyxiation, while parked outside his apartment, and although police labelled it a suicide at the time the possibility of foul play has always been mentioned. Bobby Fuller is musically famous for having the worldwide hit, I Fought The Law, a song written by Sonny Curtis, a member of the post-Buddy Holly Crickets. The song was most famously covered by Brit post-punk band, The Clash, one of the great rock'n'roll bands of all time. The song has become one of the most covered songs of all time, with notable recorded or live versions from acts such as The Dead Kennedys, Bryan Adams, John Cougar Mellencamp, Johnny Cash, Bruce Springsteen, Roy Orbison, Tom Petty, Ramones, Stiff Little Fingers, Hank Williams Jr, Waylon Jennings, Green Day, Grateful Dead, Stray Cats, The Brian Jonestown Massacre, Status Quo, and Chumbawamba. The Bobby Fuller Four version of this song is ranked #175 on Rolling Stone's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.


1968 - At the end of recording Helter Skelter, which was recorded by The Beatles, today, in 1968, John Lennon can be heard yelling, "I've got blisters on my fingers." One take of Helter Skelter lasted 27' 11'', the longest Beatle recording ever, and certainly one of the heaviest - if not their heaviest. This may come as some surprise to those who did not follow the band I once shared with Bon Scott, Wyn Milson,Ted Holoway, John Cooksey, Doug Lavery and Paddy Beach, but The Valentines used to open our stage act with this song, Bon and myself standing on top of our Lobby Loyd-built orange, Strauss speakers, smoke bombs and firecrackers exploding as Wyn faithfully played the heavy guitar riff - a far-cry from the bubble-gum band which we have been tagged. This then dear reader, is Helter Skelter. One of the first heavy metal songs. I love this song. Stay with the clip.


1970 - It was pink and blue and primrose, too, 41 years ago today when Pink Floyd and Deep Purple played a free concert at London's Hyde Park, with the great Syd Barret on hand for the Floyd. Following is a selection of slides taken of Pink Floyd playing at the Hyde Park Free Concert. These are possibly the only pictures of the event available that shows the choir and brass section preparing for Atom Heart Mother. The music, short as it is may be, is from the BBC Radio In Concert show of the event, and pure gold.


1974 - Today, 37 years ago, the U.S. Justice Department ordered John Lennon out of the country by September 10. The Immigration and Naturalization Service denied him an extension of his non-immigrant visa because of his guilty plea in England to a 1968 marijuana possession charge. Lennon beat the feds, and later appeared on the TV show de rigger, The Dick Cavette Show. Prior to the interview, Lennon performs his great song, Women Is The Nigger Of The World.


1988 - A California appeals court upheld a lower courts' decision, today, to dismiss a case against Ozzy Osbourne and CBS Records pertaining to a suicide death that happened four years previously. In 1984 a teenager allegedly killed himself after listening to Ozzy's Suicide Solution. It wasn't the first time rock music was used as an excuse for murder and suicide, and it won't be the last. And this, dear reader, is Ozzy's Suicide Solution.