1971 - Frank Zappa was forced to cancel a concert at London's Royal Albert Hall after venue officials deemed Zappa's classical opus "200 Motels" to be obscene and refused to allow its performance. The subject matter was about life on the road and the the phenomenon of groupies.
The concert hall spokesman commented at the time, saying: "The program content was not agreeable to us."
1973 - Max Yasgur died of a heart attack aged 53. He was the owner of the dairy farm in Bethel, New York at which the Woodstock Music and Art Fair was held between August 15 and August 18, 1969. Many of Yasgur's neighbors turned against him after the festival, and he was no longer welcome at the town general store, but he never regretted his decision to allow the concert on his farm.
1973
The Jamaican cult classic film The Harder They Come is released in the US. Jimmy Cliff is cast as an aspiring reggae singer who turns to a life of crime after getting mixed up with a corrupt record producer. The film finds an appreciative audience when it runs on the midnight circuit.
The real star of the film, the soundtrack. It brought reggae off the island and into the rest of the world. It featured songgs from Cliff, plus Desmond Dekker, Toots and the Maytals, and The Slickers.
It would also pave the way for Bob Marley, whose breakthrough album with The Wailers, Catch A Fire, would nearly coincide with the movie's US debut. (Photo by Suhaimi Abdullah/Getty Images)
1977 - Television release their debut album, Marquee Moon. It doesn't chart in the US but is later hailed by many critics as landmark, with a guitar sound that influences a number of New Wave and rock acts. Founding member Tom Verlaine passed on January 28th, 2023.
1981 - R.E.M. made their first ever-recording sessions at Bombay Studios Smyrna, Georgia. Tracks included 'Gardening At Night', 'Radio Free Europe' and '(Don't Go Back To) Rockville.' Producer/engineer Joe Perry: "They wanted to record eight songs, complete with overdubs, vocals, mixing and cassette (copies), which was really ambitious. I was probably charging them $12 or $15 an hour, and they were all business. They were very serious."
Birthdays:
Tom Rush was born on this day in 1941. A mainstay of the '60s urban folk revival, his song "No Regrets" would become a folk standard recorded by Harry Belafonte, Waylon Jennings, Emmylou Harris, and the Walker Brothers, among others. It also appeared on the Wonder Boys soundtrack.
1943 - Creed Bratton, from Grass Roots, who had the 1968 US No.5 single 'Midnight Confessions', plus 13 other US Top 40 singles is 80. He is more recently known for playing a fictional version of himself on The Office on NBC
On this Day In Music History was sourced from This Day in Music, Allmusic, Independent UK, Song Facts and Wikipedia.