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November 08, 2007

Louie Louie Lambasted … Allman Brothers Bereaved … Axl Rose Rebuked …

This is the week that was in matters musical …

1877, Ernst Siemens patents the first loudspeaker …

1952, the first British pop chart is published in the New Musical Express … the top six songs are all U.S. acts and are led by Al Martino’s “Here in My Heart” …

1958, singers Lou Rawls and Sam Cooke are injured in an Arkansas auto wreck that kills their chauffeur …

1960, Greg Allman turns 13 and gets a guitar for his birthday … 14 year-old brother Duane eclipses him quickly on that instrument while Greg excels at organ and vocals … they’ll play together in the Kings, the Allman Joys, and Hourglass before they rule the southern rock universe with the Allman Brothers Band, the outfit they’ll form in 1969 … The Shirelles release “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow” with songwriter Carole King on drums …

1963, “Louie Louie” is released by the Kingsmen … one of the most covered songs of all time, it is charged that the slurred lyrics are obscene … the song is banned on some radio stations, especially in Indiana where Governor Matthew Welch determines the ditty is definitely dirty … even the FBI gets caught up in the controversy though the Bureau ultimately wraps up its 31-month investigation inconclusively stating that they are “unable to interpret any of the wording in the record” … in 2003, 754 guitarists play a 10-minute rendition of the song at Tacoma, Washington’s Cheney Stadium … the event is thought to be the world’s largest jam session …

1965, promoter Bill Graham rents the building destined to become Fillmore East for a lordly $60 … his first rock show bill features The Jefferson Airplane and The Grateful Dead …

1967, the movie How I Won the War starring John Lennon opens in the U.S. … it is the first film to feature a solo performance by a Beatle … Rolling Stone magazine hits the newsstands for the first time …

1969, Jim Morrison gets blotto on a plane trip from L.A. to Phoenix to see the Stones … the Doors singer is such a royal pain that he’s arrested on arrival and charged with interfering with the flight and public drunkenness, having harassed a stewardess … the charges are eventually dropped … the Supremes’ “Someday We’ll Be Together” charts as the group’s 12th and final #1 hit … the song, originally intended as a Junior Walker single, was cut by Diana Ross singing over backing tracks by Maxine and Julia Waters … unhappy with the lead singer’s performance, producer-songwriter Johnny Bristol harmonizes with Ross and shouts ad libs that are accidentally recorded … his contributions remain audible in the released 45 …

1972, in Macon, Georgia, Allman Brothers bassman Berry Oakley crashes into the side of a city bus only three blocks from where bandmate Duane Allman met his demise in a motorcycle wreck the previous year … Oakley refuses treatment at the scene and goes home only to die of a brain hemorrhage later that night … Johnny Paycheck starts pulling down a regular salary when he officially joins the cast of the Grand Ole Opry …

1974, while Deep Purple’s Richie Blackmore plays a concert in San Francisco, someone impersonating the smokin’ guitar man smashes up a borrowed Porsche in Iowa City … John Lennon’s “Whatever Gets You Through the Night” lodges in the #1 pop chart slot … Elton John contributes piano, organ, and backing vocals to the single …

1978, Donna Summer’s cover of “MacArthur Park” becomes the #1 Pop Hit … a decade earlier actor Richard Harris had taken his bombastic reading of the Jimmy Webb tune notable for its incomprehensible lyrics to #2 …

1981, the U.S. pop chart experiences an Aussie invasion this week when Olivia Newton-John, Little River Band, Air Supply, and Rick Springfield all register hit singles …

1983, brilliant but erratic New Orleans R&B pianist James Booker, who scored a national hit with his instrumental “Gonzo,” dies in Charity Hospital, the place he was born in 1939 … at 18 he saw piano maestro Arthur Rubinstein in concert in New Orleans … afterwards, Booker was introduced to the concert pianist and played several tunes for him … Rubinstein was astonished, saying “I could never play that … never at that tempo” … Booker’s life was distinguished with stage and studio work accompanying many Crescent City greats and troubled by bouts of mental illness and drug addiction …

1984, Madonna’s album Like a Virgin comes out, leaving listeners wondering in what way she is …

1985, the theme from the TV show “Miami Vice” rides the top of the Billboard Hot 100 … the soundtrack LP also goes to #1 in the album chart where it will reside for 11 weeks beating the former TV-theme record-holder, The Music from Peter Gunn …

1987, Sly Stone turns up an hour late for an L.A. comeback concert and is promptly arrested for failing to pay child support …

1988, Whitney Houston’s debut album goes multiplatinum with nine million copies sold … only Boston has ever matched this performance with a debut LP …

1992, Axl Rose is convicted of property damage in the wake of a Guns N’ Roses show in Missouri … he gets two years’ probation and is ordered to pay $50,000 in fines to community groups …

1995, Michael Jackson’s ATV Music catalog and Sony Corp. merge to form the world’s third biggest music publishing company worth an estimated $300 million … among the goodies Jackson brings to the table is a raft of classic Beatles tunes …

1998, Rick James suffers a stroke while headbanging during a Denver performance … the doctor blames it on a blood clot in his neck caused by rock ‘n’ roll whiplash …

1999, as a follow-up to her tersely-titled debut album, Tidal, Fiona Apple releases her sophomore effort, When The Pawn Hits The Conflicts He Thinks Like A King What He Knows Throws The Blows When He Goes To The Fight And He’ll Win The Whole Thing ‘Fore He Enters The Ring There’s Nobody To Batter When Your Mind Is Your Might So When You Go Solo, You Hold Your Own Hand And Remember That Depth Is The Greatest Of Heights And If You Know Where You Stand, Then You’ll Know Where To Land And If You Fall It Won’t Matter, Cuz You’ll Know That You’re Right … yeah, right … whatever …

2004, Apple introduces a special black U2 version of the iPod with the band members’ names laser-etched on the case … the unit is launched with an ad that has U2 performing its new single “Vertigo” … this is the first time in the band’s 25-year career that it has licensed music for commercial purposes … Bill Wyman, the 68-year-old former Rolling Stones bassman, announces he will retire from touring with the Rhythm Kings, his current band … Jamaican reggae star Sizzla is denied a British visa based on complaints by gay-rights groups that the lyrics in his songs “incite racist and homophobic violence” …

2005, keyboard legend Billy Preston is hospitalized in Arizona for pericarditis, an inflammation of the heart sac …

2006, Yoko Ono observes John Lennon’s 66th birthday in Reykjavik, Iceland, where she dedicates the site of a planned Imagine Peace Tower, a beam of light 100 feet high that will shine around the clock … the website Wolfgang’s Vault makes available via streaming audio more than 300 vintage concerts featuring acts such as Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Bob Marley, and Led Zep … they are part of a huge archive of soundboard recordings made by the late rock promoter Bill Graham … however, some of the featured acts are considering legal action claiming that the site doesn’t have the rights to the shows … commenting on the situation, Doors drummer John Densmore maintains that it was never Graham’s intent to release the recordings saying, “He would have known we’d all jump on him: ‘Bill, you’re not our record label. Come on!’” … the following January Carlos Santana, the Doors, the Grateful Dead, and Led Zeppelin file suit to stop the site from streaming the tapes and pay damages for copyright infringement … former Procol Harum organist Matthew Fisher appears in a British court to pursue a claim against former bandmate Gary Brooker claiming that his distinctive organ work played an important role in the success of the smash hit “A Whiter Shade of Pale” and that he is due a payday … there is no word as to whether J.S. Bach, whose melody was appropriated for the song, will also be getting in line for payment … a month later the judge awards Fisher a 40% share in the copyright and says he’s entitled to royalties going back to 2005 when he filed suit … Bach gets nada …

And that was the week that was.

Arrivals:

November 8: jazz and pop singer Patti Page (1927), R&B producer-label owner Bert Berns (1929), Gerald Alston of The Manhattans (1942), Bonnie Bramlett of Delaney and Bonnie (1944), Don Murray (1945), Roy Wood of ELO (1946), soul singer Minnie Riperton (1948), blueswoman Bonnie Raitt (1949), singer-songwriter Rickie Lee Jones (1954), pop singer-actor Leif Garrett (1961), Stephen Patman of Chapterhouse (1968)

November 9: bandleader Tommy Dorsey (1905), Dave Guard of The Kingston Trio (1934), bass singer Leroy Fann of Ruby & The Romantics (1936), Tom Fogerty of CCR (1941), Phil May of The Pretty Things (1944), Alan Gratzer of REO Speedwagon (1948), Joe Bouchard of Blue Oyster Cult (1948), Tommy Caldwell of The Marshall Tucker Band (1949), Pepa of Salt-N-Pepa born Sandra Denton (1961), Brad “Scarface” Jordan of the Geto Boys (1969), Diana King (1970), blues guitar slinger-singer Susan Tedeschi (1970), Nick Lachey of 98 Degrees (1973), Sisqo (1977)

November 10: Screaming Lord Sutch born David Sutch (1940), Dave Loggins (1947), Donna Fargo (1947), Greg Lake (1948), Ronnie Hammond of The Atlanta Rhythm Section (1950), Mario Cipollina of Huey Lewis and The News (1954), Frank Maudsley of A Flock of Seagulls (1959), Warren G (1970), Eve (1978)

November 11: blues and jazz piano man Mose Allison (1927), R&B pioneer LaVern Baker (1929), New Orleans session sax man David Lastie (1934), The Youngbloods’ Jesse Colin Young born Perry Young (1944), Chris Dreja of The Yardbirds (1945), Vince Martell of Vanilla Fudge (1945), Andy Partridge of XTC (1953), Marshall Crenshaw (1953), Ian Craig Marsh of Heaven 17 (1956), LeToya Luckett formerly of Destiny’s Child (1980)

November 12: bluesman Bukka White born Booker T. Washington White (1906), Jo Stafford of the Pied Pipers (1920), Ruby Nash Curtis of Ruby & The Romantics (1939), pop singer Brian Hyland (1943), John Maus of The Walker Brothers (1943), Booker T. Jones of Booker T and The MGs (1944), Neil Young (1945), Arthur Tavares (1946), Donald “Buck Dharma” Roeser of Blue Oyster Cult (1947), Errol Brown of Hot Chocolate (1948), Leslie McKeown of The Bay City Rollers (1955), David Ellefson of Megadeth (1964), Tevin Campbell (1976)

November 13: John Novarese owner of Hi Records (1923), R&B singer Justine “Baby” Washington (1940), Annette Kleinbard of The Teddy Bears (1941), Timmy Thomas (1944), Bill Gibson of Huey Lewis and the News (1951), Walter Kibby of Fishbone (1964)

November 14: Aaron Copland (1900), Sir Joseph Lockwood of EMI Records (1904), Johnny Desmond (1921), composer Joonas Kokkonen (1921), Chicago harp man Carey Bell (1936), Cornell Gunter of The Coasters (1938), Freddie Garrity of Freddie and the Dreamers (1940), Buckwheat Zydeco (1947), James Young of Styx (1948), singer and guitarist Stephen Bishop (1951), Frankie Banali of Quiet Riot (1953), Alec John Such of Bon Jovi (1956), rapper Joe “Run” Simmons of Run-D.M.C. (1964), Brian Yale of matchbox twenty (1968), Travis Barker of blink-182 (1975), R&B singer Adina Howard (1975)

Departures:

November 8: trumpeter Lester Bowie (1999), Motown Records executive Gwen Gordy Fuqua (1999), bluesman and instrument builder Lonnie Pitchford (1998), Tommy Comeaux (1997), Country Dick Montana of The Beat Farmers (1995), brilliant New Orleans R&B pianist James Booker (1983), R&B singer-songwriter Ivory Joe Hunter (1974), pioneering blues guitarist Kokomo Arnold (1968)

November 9: jazz reedman Buddy Arnold (2003)

November 10: R&B singer Gerald Levert (2006), jazz pianist Kenny Kirkland (1998), session guitarist Tommy Tedesco (1997), singer Carmen McRae (1994)

November 11: Patrick “Paddy” Clancy of The Clancy Brothers (1998), Ronnie Dyson (1990), Berry Oakley (1972)

November 12: Chic drummer Tony Thompson (2003), blues fingerpicker and former Robert Plant cohort Rainer Ptacek (1997), jazz pianist Kenny Kirkland (1997), Sean Rowley (1992)

November 13: rapper Ol’ Dirty Bastard (2004), Donald Mills of The Mills Brothers (1999), R.J. Vealey of the Atlanta Rhythm Section (1999), jazz and R&B pianist Bill Doggett (1996), Ronnie Bond of The Troggs (1992), Jerry Lee Lewis Jr. (1973)

November 14: John Cascella, keyboardist with John Mellencamp (1992), singer Dallas Taylor (1986), dub pioneer Keith Hudson (1984)