1967 - "You can get anything you want..." Arlo Guthrie releases Alice's Restaurant. Although arguably not 100 percent factual, "Alice's Restaurant Massacree" -- which takes up the entire A side and was recorded in front of a live audience -- is rooted in a series of real incidents. This decidedly anti-establishment saga of garbage dumps closed on Thanksgiving, good ol' Officer Obie, as well as Guthrie's experiences with the draft succeeds not only because of the unusual and outlandish situations that the hero finds himself in; it is also his underdog point of view and sardonic delivery that maximize the effect in the retelling.
1968 - Led Zeppelin (recording under the name of The Yardbirds) started recording their debut album at Olympic Studios in London, England. The album took only about 36 hours of studio time to complete at a cost of around $2,000, with most of the tracks being recorded live in the studio with very few overdubs.
1969 - During a meeting in London between John Lennon, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, Lennon announced he was leaving The Beatles. Although the previous week John Lennon had decided to leave The Beatles, Manager Allen Klein persuaded him to keep quiet in public. Nonetheless, on 20 September 1969 Lennon chose to tell the rest of the group.
Klein was in the process of renegotiating a new contract for the group with EMI/Capitol, and persuaded Lennon that it was in everyone’s interests to deny that the dream was over, at least for a while longer. The new contract was signed by The Beatles on this day, just before Lennon revealed his plans to leave.
1973 - Neil Young & Santa Monica Flyers (pretty much Crazy Horse) played the opening night of the then brand new Roxy Club on Sunset Blvd. in Los Angeles. The evening was captured on the archive release, Neil Young, Tonight's the Night, Live At The Roxy. The record is primarily the songs that would make up Tonight's The Night studio album 2 years before it's release.
1973 - The body of The Byrds guitarist Gram Parsons is stolen and taken to Joshua Tree National Park, where it is set on fire.
Parsons died the previous day after a visit to Joshua Tree when he took an overdose of alcohol and morphine. His body is at Los Angeles International Airport, scheduled to be flown to his family in New Orleans, but his friends Phil Kaufman and Michael Martin have other ideas: Showing up at the airport in Kaufman's hearse (his everyday vehicle), they claim the body, signing the release forms as "Jeremy Nobody."
They head to Joshua Tree, about 200 miles away, stopping at a bar along the way where they drink a toast to Parsons. Arriving at the Cap Rock landmark in the park, they unload Parsons' casket, douse it with gas and set it on fire. Cap Rock has special significance, as it's where Parsons enjoyed an evening with Keith Richards doing peyote.
The incident becomes legend and provides Parsons with a far more elegant coda than his hotel room overdose.
1975 - 'Fame' gave David Bowie his first No.1 in the US. The song was co-written with John Lennon. Lennon's voice is heard towards the ending of the song repeating the words: "Fame, Fame, Fame" from a fast track, through a regular track, to a slow track, before Bowie finished the lyrics. Bowie's guitarist Carlos Alomar came up with the guitar riff. It was based on a song called "Foot Stompin'" by The Flares.
Bowie gave his thoughts on the subject in a 2003 interview with Performing Songwriter magazine: "Fame itself, of course, doesn't really afford you anything more than a good seat in a restaurant." "Fame can take interesting men and thrust mediocrity upon them." (Photo by RALPH GATTI/AFP via Getty Images)
1979 - The Clash bass player Paul Simonon, frustrated because the crowd at The Palladium in New York City isn't standing, smashes his instrument on stage. The photo is later used as the cover of their London Calling album.
1994 - The Dave Matthews Band released Under the Table and Dreaming. It's a set of eclectic pop/rock that is accentuated by bursts of instrumental virtuosity instead of being ruled by it. The album was dedicated to Matthews' older sister Anne, who was killed by her husband.
2010 - Leonard Skinner, the namesake of the band Lynyrd Skynyrd, dies of Alzheimer's disease at age 77. As a gym teacher at Robert E. Lee High School in Jacksonville, Florida, he sent Ronnie Van Zant to the principal's office because his hair was too long.
Birthdays:
Robert Wiggins better known by his stage name Keef Cowboy of Grandmaster Flash And The Furious Five was born today in 1960. He passed away in 1989.
Ben Shepherd of Soundgarden is 54.
Phillip Phillips winner of American Idol season 11 is 32.
On This Day In Music History was sourced from The Beatles Bible, Allmusic, This Day in Music, Song Facts and Wikipedia.