1955 - Elvis Presley signed a management contract with Colonel Tom Parker. Parker had previously managed the 'Great Parker Pony Circus' with one of the acts being a troupe of dancing chickens.
1968 - Life magazine described Jimi Hendrix as "the most spectacular guitarist in the world."
"But the guitar, after all, is an instrument of magic. It's ultimate purpose is to convey emotion. It's ultimate masters are those who use it to tell stories of the soul. There are times when Hendrix's guitar seems only to be saying that it's been played by the most spectacular electric guitarist in the world. For a start, that's quite enough".
1969 - John Lennon and Yoko Ono get caught "standing in the dock at Southampton, trying to get to Holland or France" as passport problems stall their wedding. They get married five days later in Gibraltar, and use their adventure in the lyrics to "The Ballad Of John And Yoko."
1975 - "Black Water," the Doobie Brothers ode to the Mississippi River, hits #1 in America. The Brothers didn't think it had hit potential, so it wasn't released as a single until waves of radio stations started playing it.
1982 - The Songwriters Hall Of Fame, formed in 1969, finally lets Bob Dylan in.
1982 - Richard and Linda Thompson release Shoot Out the Lights. Although the songs were written a couple of years while they were supposedly getting along fine, many critics have read the album as a chronicle of the couple's divorce. While tales of busted relationships and domestic discord were always prominent in their songbook, here there's a subtle, unmistakable undertow of anger and dread in this music that cuts straight down to the bone. It's an album that ended their career together, but it found them rallying their strengths to the bitter end. It's a fantastic album.
1988 - Talking Heads release their eighth and last proper album, Naked. Alternately serious and playful, it once again allows frontman David Byrne to worry about the government, the environment, and the plight of the working man as it frees up the rest of the band to trade instruments and work with guest musicians (Johnny mar and Kirsty MaColl).
1999 - Bruce Springsteen was inducted into the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame by U2's Bono.
"Yeah, man. Bruce is a very unusual rock star, isn't he, really? I mean, he hasn't done the things most rock stars do. He got rich and famous, but he never embarrassed himself with all that success, did he? No drug busts, no blood changes in Switzerland - even more remarkable, no golfing. No bad hair period, even in the '80s".
Birthdays:
Lightnin’ Hopkins was born today in 1912. A Texas country bluesman of the highest caliber whose career began in the 1920s and stretched all the way into the 1980s. Hopkins' nimble dexterity made intricate boogie riffs seem easy, and his fascinating penchant for improvising lyrics to fit whatever situation might arise made him a beloved blues troubadour.
Phil Lesh, bassist for Grateful Dead, is 84. Famed for his three-decade stint as the bassist with the Grateful Dead. Rooted in jazz and classical performance, he initially explored the violin and trumpet and, while attending Mills College, studied avant-garde composition and electronic music under the tutelage of Luciano Berio. In 1965, Lesh joined his friend Jerry Garcia's band the Warlocks, soon rechristened the Grateful Dead. (Photo by Cory Schwartz/Getty Images)
Sylvester Stewart, better known by his stage name Sly Stone, was born - is 81. His alchemical fusion of soul, rock, gospel, and psychedelia rejected stylistic boundaries as much as his explosive backing band the Family Stone ignored racial and gender restrictions, creating a series of euphoric yet politically charged records that proved a massive influence on artists of all musical and cultural backgrounds.
Ry Cooder is 77. Whether serving as a session musician, solo artist, or soundtrack composer, Ry Cooder's chameleon-like guitar virtuosity, songwriting, and choice of cover material encompass an incredibly eclectic range of North American musical styles from rock & roll, blues, reggae, Tex-Mex, Hawaiian, Dixieland jazz, country, folk, R&B, gospel, and vaudeville.
He taught Keith Richards to play slide, and the open G tuning favored by John Lee Hooker. Richards once said, "I took Ry Cooder for everything I could get". The money lick in "Honky Tonk Women" is pure Cooder-by-way-of-(John Lee) Hooker.
On This Day In Music History was sourced, copied, pasted, edited, and ocasionally woven together with my own crude prose, from This Day in Music, Music this Day, Life, Allmusic, Song Facts, Washington Post, and Wikipedia.
KBCO