1967 - Pink Floyd released their debut album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn. The title of Pink Floyd's debut album is taken from a chapter in Syd Barrett's favorite children's book, The Wind in the Willows, which refers to the nature god Pan, who plays his pan pipes at dawn. The lyrical imagery of is indeed full of colorful, childlike, distinctly British whimsy, albeit filtered through the perceptive lens of LSD. Barrett's catchy, melodic acid pop songs are balanced with longer, more experimental pieces showcasing the group's instrumental freak-outs, often using themes of space travel as metaphors for hallucinogenic experiences. Ranks it as one of the best psychedelic albums of all time. (Photo credit should read RICHARD A. BROOKS/AFP via Getty Images)
1972 - The movie Super Fly is released, along with a soundtrack by Curtis Mayfield that becomes a soul music landmark, taking on the drug culture portrayed in the film with vivid lyrics. While Mayfield's soundtrack is filled with incisive social commentary, it's also funky as hell. A melange of deep, dark grooves, trademarked wah-wah guitar, and stinging brass, Super Fly ignited an entire genre of music, the blaxploitation soundtrack, and influenced everyone from soul singers to television-music composers for decades to come.
1975 - Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant and his wife were both badly injured when the rental car he was driving spun off the road and crashed on the Greek island of Rhodes. Plant smashed both his ankle and his elbow, and it took nearly two years for Plant to fully recover from his injuries. In the studio, it forced him to sing most of his vocals for the album Presence, in a wheel chair.
2007 - Singer/songwriter Lee Hazlewood died at age 78. Hazlewood wrote and produced many of Nancy Sinatra's most famous hits, including "These Boots Were Made For Walkin'."
Birthdays:
Louis Armstrong was born today in 1901. A jazz pioneer, Louis Armstrong was the first important soloist to emerge in jazz, and he became the most influential musician in the music's history. But Armstrong also became an enduring figure in popular music due to his distinctively phrased baritone singing and engaging personality. His resurgence in the '60s with hit recordings like 1965's Grammy-winning "Hello Dolly" and 1968's classic "What a Wonderful World" solidified his legacy as a musical and cultural icon.
Wrecking Crew keyboard player and bassist Larry Knechtel was born today in 1940. The Wrecking Crew was a loose collective of e "go to" session musicians Los Angeles.
Paul Reynolds of A Flock of Seagulls is 59.
John Paul White, best known as one-half of The Civil Wars, is 48.
On this Day In Music History was sourced from Allmusic, This Day in Music, Song Facts and Wikipedia.
kbco.com/listen