1967 - Arlo Guthrie releases Alice's Restaurant. A majority of the attention directed at Alice's Restaurant focuses on the epic 18-plus-minute title track, which sprawled over the entire A-side of the long-player. However, it is the other half-dozen Guthrie compositions that provide an insight into his uniformly outstanding, yet astoundingly overlooked, early sides on Warner Bros.
1968 - Led Zeppelin (recording under the name of The Yardbirds) started recording their debut album at Olympic Studios in London. The album took only about 36 hours of studio time to complete at a cost of around £1,782, 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.
The recording of "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" marks the last time all four Beatles were together in the same studio.
1973 - The body of Gram Parsons is stolen and taken to Joshua Tree National Park, where it is set on fire.
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."
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 following day, authorities find the body, and Kaufman and Martin are later arrested, fined, and given suspended sentences. Kaufman claims that Parsons had asked for the desert consecration, and that he was simply carrying out his wishes.
1975 - "Fame" gave David Bowie his first No. 1 in the U.S. 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" before Bowie finishes the lyrics. Bowie would later claim that he had "absolutely no idea" that the song would do so well as a single, saying "I wouldn't know how to pick a single if it hit me in the face."
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. That also means that the Dave Matthews Band is capable of turning out pop songs, and as the hit single "What Would You Say" and "Ants Marching" illustrate, they have a flair for catchy hooks. (Photo by Matthew Peyton/Getty Images)
The album was dedicated to Matthews' older sister Anne, who was killed by her husband in 1994.
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.
R.I.P.
2021 - Sarah Dash died unexpectedly at the age of 76. She first appeared on the music scene as a member of Patti LaBelle & The Bluebelles and later was Dash was a member of Labelle, and worked as a singer, session musician, and sideman for The Rolling Stones, and Keith Richards.
On This Day In Music History was sourced from This Day in Music, Song Facts, Allmusic, and Wikipedia.
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