Stoned K-9...Adieu Jerry...Beatles Panned
This is the week that was in matters musical...
1877, Thomas Edison
invents the phonograph...
1952, Willie Mae "Big Mama" Thornton records
the original version of "Hound Dog"...Elvis covers it three years
later...this has proven to be a disastrous week for the Hank Williams
family...in 1952, Williams Sr. is fired by the Grand Ole Opry due to
drinking and drugging...this same week in 1975, Hank Jr. is
critically injured in a 300-foot fall while hiking in Montana...
1963,
The Rolling Stones play Britain's Richmond Jazz & Blues Festival...
they're eighth on a bill headlined by cornball clarinetist Acker Bilk
...a year to the week later, the Stones play to a crowd of 7,000
screaming fans on the Isle of Man...the noise is too much for the
island's only police dog which begins snarling at the teenyboppers
and has to be taken off duty for several days...
1954, Johnny Cash
gets married in Texas and moves to Memphis where a vacuum salesman
job awaits...
1964, Mick Jagger is fined £32 for driving without
insurance...this same week in 1991, Eric Clapton loses his license
and is fined £200 after he's clocked doing 103 MPH in his Ferrari...
1964, the Beatles' movie "A Hard Day's Night" is released and Time
magazine pans it with the headline "Beatles Blow It" cautioning
readers to "avoid this film at all costs"...
1965, Mike Smith of The
Dave Clark Five breaks two ribs when rabid Chicago fans pull him off
a stage...
1967, Fleetwood Mac makes its performance debut...this same
week in 1970, Christine McVie joins the band two months after
announcing that she's quitting music...
1969, Diana Ross invites 350
show-biz types to the Daisy Club in Beverly Hills to showcase her
proteges, The Jackson 5...
1970, Janis Joplin plays her last gig...
it's at Harvard University...
1972, the mayor of San Antonio declares
August 11th "Cheech and Chong Day"...
1979, during a Marshall Tucker
Band show in Long Beach, California, a fan rips off a car and slams
through two banks of steel doors and a concrete wall at the venue...
1980, Todd Rundgren, his girlfriend, and three guests are bound and
gagged while three masked marauders empty the house of valuables...
it's reported that one of the thieves hummed Rundgren's "I Saw The
Light" during the ripoff...
1984, jazz guitarist Lenny Breau is found
dead in a swimming pool...it is later determined that he was
strangled...the case remains unsolved...
1985, Duran Duran's Simon
LeBon nearly drowns when his yacht "Drum" capsizes during a race...
also in '85, in a canny business move, Michael Jackson shells out
$47.5 million for the ATV music catalog which includes 251
Lennon/McCartney tunes...
1990, R&B singer/composer Curtis Mayfield
is permanently paralyzed when lighting gear falls on him at a
Brooklyn show...this also is a significant week in the life of R&B
singer/composer Percy Mayfield (no relation) a frequent collaborator
with Ray Charles who wrote the classic "Please Send Me Someone to
Love"...Percy was born August 12, 1920, and died a day short of his
birthday in 1984...
20,000 fans gather in San Francisco's Golden Gate
Park in 1995 to commemorate the death of Jerry Garcia four days
earlier...
1996, Billy Idol is hospitalized following an overdose of
the sex drug GBH...also in '96, Def Leppard drummer Rick Allen is
busted for wife beating and is ordered to clean graffiti, attend AA
meetings, and record a domestic violence spot for MTV...
and that was the week that was.
Birthdays
August 7: Benny Carter (1907), pianist Mose Vinson (1917), lyricist
Felice Bryant (1925), multi-instrumentalist jazz titan Rahsaan Roland
Kirk (1936), Magic Slim born Morris Holt (1937), B.J. Thomas (1942),
Rodney Crowell (1950), Free's Andy Fraser (1952), Bruce Dickinson of
Iron Maiden (1958), U2's The Edge aka David Evans (1961)
August 8: Web Pierce (1921), Jimmy Witherspoon (1923), blues singer
Al King (1923), Mel Tillis (1932), Joe Tex (1933), Philip E. Balsley
of the Statler Brothers (1939), John "Jay" David of Dr. Hook (1942),
Ali Score of Flock of Seagulls (1956), Ricki Rockett of Poison
(1959), U2's The Edge AKA David Evans (1961)
August 9: Barrelhouse pianist Robert Shaw (1908), Odell Thompson
(1911), Harry Mills of the Mills Brothers (1913), Bill Henderson of
The Spinners (1939), Rinus Gerritsen of Golden Earring (1946), Cars
bassist Benjamin Orr (1955), rap pioneer Kurtis Blow (1959), Whitney
Houston (1963)
August 10: Leo Fender (1909), country crooner/sausage mogul Jimmy
Dean (1928), bluegrass ace Jimmy Martin (1929), Righteous Brother
Bobby Hatfield (1940), Ronnie Spector and Ian Anderson (1947),
Patti Austin (1948), INXS drummer John Farriss (1961), Neneh Cherry
(1964)
August 11: R&B shouter Buster Brown (1914), Mike Hugg of Manfred Mann
(1942), Eric Carmen of The Raspberries (1949), Joe Jackson (1955),
Charlie Sexton (1968)
August 12: Percy Mayfield (1920), Joe Jones (1926), Porter Wagoner
(1927), Buck Owens (1929), Mark Knopfler (1949), Pat Metheny (1954),
Culture Club's Roy Hay (1961)
August 13: jazz pianist George Shearing and bluesman "Baby Boy"
Robert Warren (1919), Dave "Baby" Cortez (1938), Son Seals (1942),
Dan Fogelberg (1951), Feargal Sharkey of The Undertones (1958)
August 14: Dash Crofts of Seals and Crofts (1940), David Crosby
(1941)
Departures
August 7th: R&B chanteuse Esther Phillips (1984), Homer aka Henry
Haynes of Homer & Jethro (1971), Bix Beiderbecke (1931)
August 8th: Julian "Cannonball" Adderley (1975)
August 9th: Jerry Garcia (1995), reggae singer Wilfred "Jackie"
Edwards (1992), rock journalist Lillian Roxon (1973)
August 10: Edward Roberts of Ruby & The Romantics (1993), blues diva
Lucille Bogan (1948)
August 11: Ventures drummer Mel Taylor (1996), Percy Mayfield (1984)
August 12: blues guitarist Luther Allison (1997), John Cage (1992)
August 13: blues drummer Fred Below (1988), soul singer Joe Tex
(1982), soul sax master King Curtis (1971), R&B star Joe Hinton
(1968)
