January 26, 1977 - PETER GREEN, Fleetwood Mac's first lead guitar player and founding member, songwriter and vocalist was committed to a mental hospital in England today. He threatened his accountant Clifford Adams with an air rifle when he was trying to deliver a £30,000 ($51,000) royalty cheque to him….or fired a pistol at him, depending on which story you believe. Founder of the band Fleetwood Mac, and Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998 for his work with the group, Green's compositions have been covered by artists such as Santana, Aerosmith, Midge Ure, Tom Petty, and Judas Priest. B. B. King says, "He has the sweetest tone I ever heard; he was the only one who gave me the cold sweats." Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page have both lauded his guitar playing, which was marked with idiomatic string bending and vibrato and a rare economy of style. Green was ranked 38th in Rolling Stone's list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time". Known as "The Green God", Green left the band in May of 1970. Easily the best version of Fleetwood Mac was this first formation. In May 2009 he was the subject for the BBC Four documentary "Peter Green: Man of the World", produced by Henry Hadaway. Green and his new band have been touring Ireland, Germany and England. They went on to play several dates in Australia during March 2010, including the Byron Bay Bluesfest.
1963 - THE ROOFTOP SINGERS started a two week run on top of US singles chart with Walk Right In, today, and it wasn't long before the whole world was buying the song. Rooftop Singers were an American progressive folk-singing trio in the early 1960s, the group consisting of Erik Darling and Bill Svanoe (vocals, guitar) with former jazz singer Lynne Taylor on vocals. Darling put the group together in June 1962 specifically to record an updated and uptempo version of a 1929 Gus Cannon folk blues song, Walk Right In. The trio recorded the song for Vanguard Records, with updated lyrics and an arrangement featuring paired 12-string acoustic guitars. The record became a worldwide hit, the most successful in Vanguard's history.
1966 - ERIC BURDEN from The Animals was supposed to have sung lead vocals for Manfred Mann at a London concert, tonight, 45 years ago. Not sure if that happened, but I know that in the same year Manfred Mann had a moderate hit with the Bob Dylan song, Just Like A Woman. Lead singer at that time was Mike D'Arbo. Seems like everyone was doing Dylan songs in the sixties.
1970 - OURIMBAH ROCK FESTIVAL was Australia's first rock festival, attended by 11,000 people over the weekend, and featured the cream of established Australian so-called underground rock talent at that time. The following acts appeared: Billy Thorpe & The Aztecs, Tamam Shud, Jeff St John & Copperwine, Tully, Wendy Saddington, Doug Parkinson In Focus, Leo De Castro & Friends, Max Merritt & The Meteors, Levi Smiths Clefs, Stevie Wright, The Nutwood Rug Band. And from the same year there's this original song from Doug Parkinson In Focus, featuring guitar playing extraordinaire from Billy Green, now working in New York City as a sax player, under the name of Wil Greenstreet. Following that is one the world's best-ever female vocalists, and the song she is singing an absolute golden jewel; she's a beautiful soul, is the legendary Wendy Saddington, unswayed, with an indomitable, spirit.
1970 - JOHN LENNON wrote and recorded and, supposedly, mixed his song, Instant Karma, all in one day - today, 42 years ago. With a blindfolded Yoko Ono knitting in the background, this is the great Plastic Ono Band with John's song, the title of which is ancient, but now become mainstream language.
1975 - THE BBC showed a documentary on David Bowie called Cracked Actor, which aired tonight. This is David Bowie at a period in his life which was dangerous, to say the least…emaciated, quite possibly coked off his head, a great doco on this great chameleon. This is one portion of the film.
1977 - PATTI SMITH fell off the stage and was rushed to the hospital for 22 stitches to her head tonight. She also broke her neck in the accident. Following the accident she understandably retired from stage performing. Although Smith's success has been limited in commercial terms (she has never had an RIAA certified record and has had just one Top 20 single), she is often regarded as one of the most influential artists in rock history. Check out these two songs on the Old Grey Whistle Test in London a year before the accident.
1988 - THE ANDREW LLOYD WEBBER musical Phantom of the Opera opened at Broadway's Majestic Theater. I have seen this three times now, once in New York City when it first started there, and twice in London's West End. I was also lucky enough to visit the film set, from which this excerpt is taken. Love it. This is the overture.
1995 - JONI MITCHELL made a rare concert appearance at the Gene Autry Western Heritage Museum theater in Los Angeles, tonight. She was promoting material from Turbulent Indigo, her newest album. According to Rolling Stones magazine, Joni is the greatest female guitar player of all time, and here she is, live, on David Letterman singing Sex Kills.
1997 - ZZ TOP, James Brown and the Blues Brothers performed at the Super Bowl XXXI halftime show this afternoon, but we couldn't find the video, so how about this one, ZZ Top singing Well Dressed Man, live from Texas, around the same time.
2003 - JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE went to #1 on the UK album chart, today, with his debut solo album Justified, which went on to spend over a year on the UK chart, and stayed for a similar duration on charts around the world.
1963 - THE ROOFTOP SINGERS started a two week run on top of US singles chart with Walk Right In, today, and it wasn't long before the whole world was buying the song. Rooftop Singers were an American progressive folk-singing trio in the early 1960s, the group consisting of Erik Darling and Bill Svanoe (vocals, guitar) with former jazz singer Lynne Taylor on vocals. Darling put the group together in June 1962 specifically to record an updated and uptempo version of a 1929 Gus Cannon folk blues song, Walk Right In. The trio recorded the song for Vanguard Records, with updated lyrics and an arrangement featuring paired 12-string acoustic guitars. The record became a worldwide hit, the most successful in Vanguard's history.
1966 - ERIC BURDEN from The Animals was supposed to have sung lead vocals for Manfred Mann at a London concert, tonight, 45 years ago. Not sure if that happened, but I know that in the same year Manfred Mann had a moderate hit with the Bob Dylan song, Just Like A Woman. Lead singer at that time was Mike D'Arbo. Seems like everyone was doing Dylan songs in the sixties.
1970 - OURIMBAH ROCK FESTIVAL was Australia's first rock festival, attended by 11,000 people over the weekend, and featured the cream of established Australian so-called underground rock talent at that time. The following acts appeared: Billy Thorpe & The Aztecs, Tamam Shud, Jeff St John & Copperwine, Tully, Wendy Saddington, Doug Parkinson In Focus, Leo De Castro & Friends, Max Merritt & The Meteors, Levi Smiths Clefs, Stevie Wright, The Nutwood Rug Band. And from the same year there's this original song from Doug Parkinson In Focus, featuring guitar playing extraordinaire from Billy Green, now working in New York City as a sax player, under the name of Wil Greenstreet. Following that is one the world's best-ever female vocalists, and the song she is singing an absolute golden jewel; she's a beautiful soul, is the legendary Wendy Saddington, unswayed, with an indomitable, spirit.
1970 - JOHN LENNON wrote and recorded and, supposedly, mixed his song, Instant Karma, all in one day - today, 42 years ago. With a blindfolded Yoko Ono knitting in the background, this is the great Plastic Ono Band with John's song, the title of which is ancient, but now become mainstream language.
1975 - THE BBC showed a documentary on David Bowie called Cracked Actor, which aired tonight. This is David Bowie at a period in his life which was dangerous, to say the least…emaciated, quite possibly coked off his head, a great doco on this great chameleon. This is one portion of the film.
1977 - PATTI SMITH fell off the stage and was rushed to the hospital for 22 stitches to her head tonight. She also broke her neck in the accident. Following the accident she understandably retired from stage performing. Although Smith's success has been limited in commercial terms (she has never had an RIAA certified record and has had just one Top 20 single), she is often regarded as one of the most influential artists in rock history. Check out these two songs on the Old Grey Whistle Test in London a year before the accident.
1988 - THE ANDREW LLOYD WEBBER musical Phantom of the Opera opened at Broadway's Majestic Theater. I have seen this three times now, once in New York City when it first started there, and twice in London's West End. I was also lucky enough to visit the film set, from which this excerpt is taken. Love it. This is the overture.
1995 - JONI MITCHELL made a rare concert appearance at the Gene Autry Western Heritage Museum theater in Los Angeles, tonight. She was promoting material from Turbulent Indigo, her newest album. According to Rolling Stones magazine, Joni is the greatest female guitar player of all time, and here she is, live, on David Letterman singing Sex Kills.
1997 - ZZ TOP, James Brown and the Blues Brothers performed at the Super Bowl XXXI halftime show this afternoon, but we couldn't find the video, so how about this one, ZZ Top singing Well Dressed Man, live from Texas, around the same time.
2003 - JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE went to #1 on the UK album chart, today, with his debut solo album Justified, which went on to spend over a year on the UK chart, and stayed for a similar duration on charts around the world.
