ON THIS DAY IN MUSIC

June 30th

1966 - The Beatles

The Beatles played the first of three concerts at the Nippon Budokan Hall, Japan. The concert was filmed with The Beatles wearing black suits. The following day's first performance was also filmed; with The Beatles wearing white suits. There was a strict police presence with 3,000 police observing each concert played in front of 10,000 fans.

1973 - George Harrison

George Harrison knocked Paul McCartney from the top of the US singles chart with 'Give Me Love, Give Me Peace On Earth'. His second US No.1, a No.8 hit in the UK was the opening track on his 1973 album Living in the Material World.

1976 - Neil Diamond

Police raided the home of Neil Diamond searching for drugs, they found less than one ounce of marijuana.

1976 - Adam Ant

Stuart Goddard, (Adam Ant), placed the following ad in the classified section of the Melody Maker, 'Beat on a bass, with the B-Sides.' Andy Warren answered the ad and the pair went on to form Adam and The Ants.

1979 - Tubeway Army

Tubeway Army started a four-week run at No.1 on the UK singles chart with 'Are 'Friends' Electric'. The song by Gary Numan was the first electronic/synthesizer-based record to become a hit in the post-punk era.

 Bought this when it came out and still like it's atmosphere . . . 

1984 - Bruce Springsteen

Bruce Springsteen's 'Dancing In The Dark' peaked at No.2 on the US chart, the first of six singles from his seventh studio album Born In The U.S.A. which all hit the US Top 10. The video was shot at the Saint Paul Civic Center in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and shows Springsteen pulling a young Courteney Cox from the audience to dance along with him on the stage.

1995 - Phyllis Hyman

American soul singer Phyllis Hyman committed suicide by overdosing on pentobarbital and secobarbital in her New York City apartment aged 45. She was found hours before she was scheduled to perform at the Apollo Theatre, in New York.

Phyllis' note read "I'm tired. I'm tired. Those of you that I love know who you are. May God bless you"

2001 - Lady Marmalade

Christina Aguilera, Lil' Kim, Mya and Pink were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with 'Lady Marmalade.' A hit for LaBelle in 1975; then it was at No 1 in 1998 for All Saints. This version was from the Baz Luhrmann film Moulin Rouge.

2001 - Al Jardine

Beach Boys member Al Jardine went to court in a bid to sue his former band mates, claiming he had been frozen out of the Beach Boys. The $4 million (£2.35 million) suit was filed against Mike Love, Brian Wilson, the Carl Wilson Trust and Brother Records Incorporated in a New York Superior Court. In 1998 a US judge temporarily barred Jardine from performing under the name Beach Boys Family And Friends after representations from Mike Love and Brother Records. Jardine lost the case in 2003. Not so much 'fun, fun. fun,' now eh? 'Not since Daddy took the T-Bird away' . . . . . . . 

2001 - Chet Atkins

American guitarist and producer Chet Atkins died in Nashville aged 77. Recorded over 100 albums during his career, produced records for Perry Como, Elvis Presley, Don Gibson, Jim Reeves and Waylon Jennings. He was a major influence on  George Harrison and Mark Knopler.

2004 - Dave Davies

Kinks founder member Dave Davies was left paralysed on the right-hand side of his body after suffering a stroke. The 57-year-old guitarist and brother of fellow Kinks star Ray Davies had been promoting his solo material when he collapsed.

2007 - R.E.M.

R.E.M. played a five-night series of shows at Dublin's Olympia Theatre. Dubbed ‘working rehearsals’ by the band, many songs from their forthcoming album ‘Accelerate’ were debuted, with many of them still as works in progress.

2014 - Ed Sheeran

Ed Sheeran's second album X became the fastest-selling UK album of the year so far after selling 182,000 copies in its first week, 14,000 more than Coldplay managed with Ghost Stories which was released in May.

Play someone's music to death and boy can we be fickle! I still like him!

BIRTHDAYS

1967 - Peter Camell

The La's in 1990 - Camell second from the left

Peter James Camell, guitarist with Liverpool group The La's, who scored the 1990 UK No.13 single 'There She Goes'. Camell was part of the band at it's most stable and played guitar on the ubiquitous hit (The La's at one time or anther having featured 26 seperate individuals! sic)  Largely thought to be originally a love song to a woman the story quickly spread it was a song about heroin. Awright La!? Except that later Lee Mayers the writer and singer admits to trying heroin in 1990. The song therefore predated his experience as it was originally released in 1988. As Rolling Stone commented 

"Whether about heroin or just unrequited love, the La's single "There She Goes" off their self-titled debut has endured as a founding piece of Britpop's foundation."

1936 - Dave Van Ronk

Born on this day, American folk singer Dave Van Ronk who was a central figure in the American folk music revival and New York City's Greenwich Village scene in the Sixties, he was nicknamed the "Mayor of MacDougal Street". Bob Dylan recorded Van Ronk's arrangement of the traditional song ‘House of the Rising Sun’ on his first album, which The Animals turned into a No.1 UK single in 1964, helping inaugurate the folk-rock movement. The biography of Van Ronk 'THe Mayor of MacDougall Street' is used largely as the direct inspiration for the film Inside Llewyn Davis 

Van Tonk died on 10 February 2002 aged 65.

GORDON LIGHTFOOT

'SUNDOWN'

Sounds like a narrow escape to me! 
We never really 'got' Lightfoot over and the vagaries of fickle taste seems to be why some guys make it and others don't. Why Dylan and not Lightfoot? Well were I less generous I might put it down to the volume of talent and that Lightfoot was always destined to be top forty rather than top ten but hey. Just my opinion. This is fine and pleasant enough but the song lyrics bely the 'easy listening' melody for me. It would seem it is along the lines of vaguely draped attack on the 'devil woman' theme. There but for Belushi? Never but NEVER inject anyone with anything is a rule I find handy

On this day in music history: June 29, 1974 - “Sundown” by Gordon Lightfoot hits #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for 1 week, also topping the Adult Contemporary chart for 2 weeks on June 8, 1974. Written by Gordon Lightfoot, it is the biggest hit for the Canadian born folk rock singer, songwriter and musician. The title track of his tenth album, the song is written about Lightfoot’s painful break up from former girlfriend Cathy Evelyn Smith, who later becomes infamous as the woman who kills comedian John Belushi in March of 1982, by injecting him with and accidentally overdosing him with a speed ball (a combination of heroin and cocaine). “Sundown” re-establishes Lightfoot in the US charts some three years after he scored his first hit with “If You Could Read My Mind”, having been sidelined in 1972 by a bout of Bell’s Palsy, partially paralyzing part of his face. Released as a single in late February of 1974, it becomes a hit on AC radio before crossing over to the pop Top 40. Entering the Hot 100 at #83 on April 13, 1974, it climbs to the top of the chart eleven weeks later. The huge success of “Sundown”, also propels the accompanying album (of the same name) to the top of the Billboard Top 200 for two weeks beginning on June 22, 1974. “Sundown” is certified Gold in the US by the RIAA.

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Because . . . . . . . 

ON THIS DAY IN MUSIC

1967 - Mick Jagger & Keith Richards busted

Rolling Stone Keith Richards was found guilty of allowing his house to be used for the illegal smoking of cannabis. He was sentenced to one year in jail and a £500 ($850) fine, (prison number 5855). Mick Jagger was also fined £100 ($170) and given three months in jail on drug charges. Jagger and Richards were both released and granted bail of £7,000 the following day.

© The estate of Richard Hamilton

This work (above) is based on a photograph, taken from a newspaper, showing Mick Jagger handcuffed to the art dealer Robert Fraser following their appearance in court on drugs charges. Both were convicted. The title plays on the term ‘Swinging London’ and the judge’s insistence on imposing a swingeing penalty. For many, this occasion typified the moral backlash against the liberalisation of the 1960s. Richard Hamilton who I have mentioned elsewhere here, incorporated images from film posters, magazines and art history in his art and was interested in architecture and design, as well as much broader political subjects

© The estate of Richard Hamilton

Richard Hamilton - Swingeing London 1967 - The Tate Gallery

1968 - Small Faces

The Small Faces started a six week run at No.1 on the UK album chart with Ogden's Nut Gone Flake. A concept album with a round cover designed to look like a tobacco tin.In my top ten albums of all time without a doubt I bought this when it came out and still love it. The Journey aspect narrated by the TV personality and another hero in Professor Stanley Unwin. "Stay cool won't you?!"

Afterglow

Colour Me Pop - Song of a Baker

1979 - Lowell George

American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer, Lowell George died of a heart attack. The Little Feat front man was found dead at the Key Bridge Marriott Hotel in Arlington, Virginia. George joined Zappa's Mothers of Invention as rhythm guitarist in 1968, played guitar on John Cale's 1973 album Paris 1919, Harry Nilsson's Son of Schmilsson album and Jackson Browne's The Pretender.

1985 - David Bowie & Mick Jagger

David Bowie and Mick Jagger recorded a version of the Martha Reeves and the Vandellas 1964 hit 'Dancing In The Street' for the forthcoming Live Aid fundraising event. The single went on to become a No.1 UK hit. The original plan was to perform a track together live, with Bowie performing at Wembley Stadium and Jagger at John F. Kennedy Stadium, until it was realised that the satellite link-up would cause a half-second delay that would make this impossible unless either Bowie or Jagger mimed their contribution, something neither artist was willing to do.

1994 - Oasis

Oasis made their debut on BBC TV's Top Of The Pops performing their new single 'Shakermaker'.

2000 - Eminem

Eminem's mother went to court claiming defamation of character in a $10 million (£5.8 million) civil suit, after taking exception to the line "My mother smokes more dope than I do" from her son's single 'My Name Is'.

2007 - Lily Allen

Lily Allen was questioned by police over an alleged assault on a photographer outside a nightclub in London. She was freed on police bail after she was quizzed about an alleged assault on a male photographer in his 40s near the Wardour Club in London's Soho in March.

BIRTHDAYS

1953 - Colin Hay

Colin Hay, Scottish Australian musician with Men At Work, (1983 UK and US No.1 single 'Down Under').

1945 - Little Eva

Little Eva, US singer. She was babysitting for Carole King and Gerry Goffin who asked her to record a song they had written. It gave her the 1962 US No.1 & UK No.2 single 'The Loco-Motion'. She died on April 10th 2003.

1943 - Roger Spear

Roger Spear, multi-instrumentalist with the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band. He wrote some of their wittiest songs such as ‘Shirt’, ‘Tubas in the Moonlight’ and ‘Trouser Press’. The Bonzos came to the public attention through a 1968 ITV comedy show, Do Not Adjust Your Set.

Roger at the back on trumpet and general lunacy . . . . 

all lone by yourself in the moonlight . . . . . 

JOSE FELICIANO

'Light My Fire'

Again an odd coincidence and parallel with the first hearing Bob Dylan by someone else (The Byrds - Mr Tambourine Man) I first heard The Doors' 'Light My Fire' by this man. My brother Steve had long come up with interesting taste in music that was a few steps ahead of me(he was four years older than me), Chet Atkins for that guitar picking' country sound, Charlie Byrd, Wes Montgomery for that jazz guitar, and singular unique characters like José and his album featuring the track was rarely off the turntable when he was around.
I preferred The Doors . . . . . . . . . and claimed them for my own

but still thank you José

On this day in music history: June 28, 1968 - “Feliciano!”, the eighth album by Jose Feliciano is released. Produced by Rick Jarrard, it is recorded at the RCA Music Center Of The World in Hollywood, CA from November 21, 1967 - January 6, 7 & 8, 1968. Born in Lares, Puerto Rico, and raised in New York’s Spanish Harlem, Jose Feliciano demonstrates musical talent early on. Blind since birth (due to glaucoma), Jose is taught how to play percussion by an uncle at three. The turning point comes when Feliciano’s father gives him a guitar at nine. Practicing for hours and hours a day, Jose teaches himself the guitar. Taking some formal classical training while attending the Light House School For The Blind, he drops out of school at seventeen to help support his family. At the height of the folk music movement, he plays coffeehouses in New York, and in other cities. While performing in Greenwich Village in 1964, Feliciano is spotted by Jack Somer, an executive at RCA Victor Records, who signs him. Jose records seven albums between 1965 and 1967, finding success in Latin American countries but not in the US. A move to Los Angeles later in 1967 changes the musician’s fortunes at home, in ways that no one will anticipate. Feliciano is paired producer Rick Jarrard, known for producing the Jefferson Airplane’s “Surrealistic Pillow” and his work with Harry Nilsson. Looking to find a balance between Jose’s musical influences, and marrying them to pop styled arrangements, they believe that he can reach a wider audience. In the studio, Jose is backed by veteran jazz musicians Ray Brown (bass), Milt Holland (drums, percussion) and Jim Horn (woodwinds). George Tipton and Perry Botkin, Jr. are brought in to write arrangements for the tracks. The album features covers of recent pop songs from everyone including The Beatles, The Mama & The Papas, and Bobby Hebb. Also covered on the album is The Doors’ “Light My Fire” (#2 Pop, #29 R&B). The L.A. rockers chart topper of the previous Summer, is transformed into a soulful and lush Latin flavored ballad. It’s initially released as the B-side of “California Dreamin’”. A DJ at KJR at Seattle, WA flips it and plays “Light My Fire” instead. It becomes a radio smash, selling over a million copies, and turning Jose Feliciano into a huge star worldwide. The album earns four Grammy nominations, winning for Best New Artist and Best Male Pop Vocal Performance in 1969. In time, “Feliciano!” becomes a landmark album, cementing the commercial viability of Latin American musicians. The album is remastered and reissued on CD in 1994, and is reissued as a 180 gram LP by Speakers Corner Records in 2003. “Feliciano!” peaks at number two on the Billboard Top 200, number three on the R&B album chart, number three on the Jazz chart, and is certified Gold in the US by the RIAA.

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