1961 - Bob Dylan achieved his dream of meeting his idol Woody Guthrie. By the time Dylan visits Guthrie, Woody is in pretty bad shape, with Huntington's disease . He can barely move or speak, let alone sing. But Guthrie loves hearing his own songs, and Dylan, a "Woody Guthrie jukebox," is happy to play them. Guthrie gave Dylan a card which said: "I ain't dead yet."
Dylan pays tribute with "Song To Woody," which appears on his first album the following year.
1969 - The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour debuts on CBS. A homey variety show with Steve Martin (and Rob Reiner) on board as a writer, it lasts three seasons and with good ratings.
Guests included, Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder, Cher, Neil Diamond, Lily Tomlin, Three Dog Night, and just about every country artist (naturally) you could imagine.
Interesting fact: When this show premiered, co-sponsor McDonald's introduced their then new sandwich, the "Big Mac", to TV audiences for the first time.
1969 - Fleetwood Mac had a UK No.1 single with the instrumental 'Albatross' which was composed by guitarist Peter Green. 'Albatross' has the distinction of having inspired a Beatles song, 'Sun King' from 1969's Abbey Road.
It was a Lennon who referred to Sun King "eloquently" as, “a piece of garbage I had around,”
But as George Harrison stated in 1987: “So we said, ‘Let’s be Fleetwood Mac doing Albatross, just to get going.’ It never really sounded like Fleetwood Mac… but that was the point of origin.”
Birthdays:
1942 - Claudine Longet, born in Paris, is 82.. The French singer/actress was once married to Andy Williams.
But there's a Colorado connection. In 1976, Longet was arrested and charged with fatally shooting her boyfriend, Olympic skier Vladimir "Spider" Sabich, at his home in Aspen. Longet claimed that the pistol had accidentally misfired as Sabich was teaching her how to use it. Others pointed to jealousy in a relationship that had soured. She was convicted of negligent homicide.
She is the subject of the Rolling Stones song "Claudine"...'Claudine's back in jail again..."
James Jamerson, bassist with The Funk Brothers, was born today in 1936. Single-handedly revolutionized bass playing, using zipping passing tones, Ray Brown-like walking bass lines, double stops, and syncopation. Jamerson's playing was nothing short of revolutionary.
Some of his best basslines:
My Girl - The Temptations
You Can't Hurry Love - The Supremes
I Was Made To Love Her - Stevie Wonder
Marvin Gaye - What’s Going On
Tommy Ramone (born Thomas Erdelyi), the drummer from the Ramones, was born today in 1949.
When the Ramones first came together, Erdelyi was supposed to be the manager, but, even though he never played drums before was drafted as the band's drummer when Joey (who was playing drums) became the lead singer, after realizing that he couldn't keep up with the Ramones' increasingly fast tempos. "Tommy Ramone, who was managing us, finally had to sit down behind the drums, because nobody else wanted to," Dee Dee later recalled.
He played on and co-produced their first three albums, Ramones, Leave Home, Rocket to Russia, and the concert album It's Alive.
(Photo by Scott Gries/Getty Images...Steve Van Zandt, CBGB's owner Hilly Kristal, and musician Tommy Ramone)
R.I.P.:
Willie Dixon died on this day in 1992. Willie Dixon has been called, the “Bard of the Blues” “the poet laureate of the blues” and “the father of modern Chicago Blues.” He was indisputably the pre-eminent blues songwriter of his era, credited with writing more than 500 songs by the end of his life. Moreover, Dixon is a towering figure in the history and creation of Chicago Blues on other fronts. While on staff at Chess Records, Dixon produced, arranged, and played bass on sessions for Chuck Berry, Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Litter Walter, Sonny Boy Williamson II, and others. In no small way, he served as a crucial link between the blues and rock ‘n roll.
Essential Willie Dixon songs:
“Hoochie Coochie Man”
“Bring it on Home”
“I Can’t Quit You Baby”
“Back Door Man”
“Spoonful”
“Wang Dang Doodle”
“I Just Want to Make Love to You”
2009 - Irish Singer-songwriter John Martyn died at the age of 60. The folk, blues and funk artist was widely regarded as one of the most soulful and innovative singer-songwriters of his generation and had been cited as an influence by artists as varied as U2, Portishead and Eric Clapton, who covered "May You Never" on 'Slowhand'.
On This Day In Music History was sourced, copied, pasted, edited, and occasionally woven together with my own crude prose from This Day in Music, IMDB, Far Out Magazine, Song Facts, The Boot, All That's Interesting, The Pick, American Blues Scene, Willie-Dixon, Allmusic, and Wikipedia.
KBCO