1963 - Leonard Chess, co-founder of Chess records (they would release albums from Muddy Waters to Chuck Berry) , tells Billboard magazine, "As it stands today, there's virtually no difference between rock and roll, pop and rhythm and blues. The music has completely overlapped."
1973 - Bruce Springsteen released his debut album Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ. In his original Rolling Stone review, Lester Bangs wrote this: 'He’s been influenced a lot by the Band, his arrangements tend to take on a Van Morrison tinge every now and then, and he sort of catarrh-mumbles his ditties in a disgruntled mushmouth sorta like Robbie Robertson on Quaaludes with Dylan barfing down the back of his neck...Bruce Springsteen is a bold new talent with more than a mouthful to say, and one look at the pic on the back will tell you he’s got the glam to go places in this Gollywoodlawn world to boot'. Watch for him; he’s not the new John Prine.
I think there is a compliment in there somewhere.
1978 - The Sex Pistols made their U.S. debut at the Great Southeast Music Hall in Atlanta. 500 leather-clad, Mohawked fans lined up to see the band play their first U.S. concert. The 45minute set, which began with “God Save the Queen,” ended with “Anarchy in the U.K.” Drummer Paul Cook said someone in the audience threw a pig's ear ate him onstage. After the show, bassist Sid Vicious made a stop at Piedmont Hospital after slitting his wrist with a letter opener at a fan’s apartment. The band broke up nine days later.
1979 -Prince made his live debut at the Capri Theatre, Minneapolis. Warner Bros. executives attended the show but decided that Prince and the band needed more time to develop his music.
2019 - The Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne marries Katy Weaver in his hometown of Oklahoma City. The wedding itself takes place inside a plastic bubble like the one Coyne uses to surf crowds. (Photo by Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images)
Birthdays:
1923 - Record producer Sam Phillips, founder of Sun Records (which launched careers for Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash), is born in Florence, Alabama.
Grady Thomas of Funkadelic is 80.
Chris Stein of Blondie is 71.
Grant Young of Soul Asylum is 57.
Kate Schellenbach of Luscious Jackson is 55.
Marilyn Manson, born Brian Hugh Warner, is 52.
Troy Van Leeuwen of Queens of the Stone Age and A Perfect Circle is 51.
On This Day In Music History is sourced from This Day in Music, Paul Shaffer's Day in Rock, Song Facts, New York Times, Atlanta Journal Register, and Wikipedia.