Keefer

Keefer

Listen to Keefer weekday afternoons from 3pm-8pmFull Bio

 

ON THIS DAY IN MUSIC HISTORY: 10.5

1965 - Johnny Cash was arrested crossing the Mexican border into El Paso, Texas, after customs officials found hundreds of pills in his guitar case. He received a suspended jail sentence and a $1,000 fine.

1970 - Led Zeppelin releases Led Zeppelin III. On their first two albums, Led Zeppelin unleashed a relentless barrage of heavy blues and rockabilly riffs, but Led Zeppelin III provided the band with the necessary room to grow musically. While there are still a handful of metallic rockers, III is built on a folky, acoustic foundation that gives the music extra depth. the heart of the album lies on the second side, when the band delve deeply into English folk. "Gallows Pole" updates a traditional tune with a menacing flair, and "Bron-Y-Aur Stomp" is an infectious acoustic romp, while "That's the Way" and "Tangerine" are shimmering songs with graceful country flourishes.

1973 - Elton John released Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. Under the working titles of Vodka and Tonics and Silent Movies, Talking Pictures, Bernie Taupin wrote the lyrics to the album in two and a half weeks, with John composing most of the music in three days while staying at the Pink Flamingo Hotel in Kingston, Jamaica.

It was a statement of purpose spilling over two LPs, which was all the better to showcase every element of John's spangled personality. Opening with the 11-minute melodramatic exercise "Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding" -- as prog as Elton ever got -- Goodbye Yellow Brick Road immediately embraces excess but also tunefulness, as John immediately switches over to "Candle in the Wind" and "Bennie & the Jets," two songs that form the core of his canon. This touched on everything John did before, and suggested ways he'd move in the near-future, and that sprawl is always messy but usually delightful, a testament to Elton's '70s power as a star and a musician. (Photo by RALPH GATTI/AFP via Getty Images)

1975 - Original Wailers members Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, and Bunny Wailer play together for the last time at the Wonder Dream Concert, which is a benefit organized by Stevie Wonder, in Kingston, Jamaica.

1978 - Dolly Parton becomes the first country singer to pose for Playboy...but with no nudity.

Parton does the shoot for a different kind of exposure, as she looks to break through to a wider audience. The gambit works: Two years later, she stars in the movie 9 To 5 and scores a #1 Hot 100 hit with the title song. In 1983, she returns to the top with "Islands in the Stream," a duet with another crossover country star, Kenny Rogers.

As for why she didn't get naked, Parton says, "I'm not that brave, nor do I look that good."

Birthdays:

Steve Miller is 80. Steve Miller's career has encompassed two distinct stages: one of the top San Francisco blues-rockers during the late '60s, and one of the top-selling pop/rock acts of the mid- to late '70s. His first recordings established his early style as a blues-rocker influenced but not overpowered by psychedelia. Then, in 1973, Miller's reinvention as a blues-influenced pop/rocker who wrote compact, melodic, catchy song

Russell Mael of Sparks is 75. Sparks is one of pop's best-loved and most influential cult bands. The combination of Russell's formidable vocal range, Ron's impressive keyboard skills, and their vividly witty songwriting defined their music as it changed over the years -- which it did often. First appearing in the early 1970s, Sparks' theatricality fit in with the glam rock scene, then just a year later, they were at the forefront of the power pop movement and by the end of the decade, they were electronic pop pioneers.

Bob Geldof is 72. Singer, songwriter, actor and political activist. Was with the Boomtown Rats, best known for 'I Don't Like Mondays'. Geldof was the driving force behind the Band Aid - Live Aid relief project after seeing a BBC news report on the famine in Ethiopia. He called Midge Ure from Ultravox, and together they co-wrote the song, Do They Know It's Christmas?

R.I.P.

2011 - Scottish Folk-Guitar master Bert Jansch dies at age 67. He was a big influence on Led Zeppelin and Neil Young. Young went as far as to tell Guitar Player magazine that Jansch did for the acoustic guitar what Jimi Hendrix did for the electric.

Jansch's ‘Blackwaterside’ had a huge influence on Zep's ‘Black Mountain Side’. His "Needle Of Death," originally released on his self-titled album in 1965, was the inspiration for Young's own song "The Needle And The Damage Done,"

1992 - Singer Eddie Kendricks of The Temptations died at age 52 from lung cancer. Noted for his distinctive falsetto singing style, Kendricks co-founded The Temptations and was one of the Motown group's lead singers from 1960 until 1971. His was the lead voice on the Temptations' hits, "The Way You Do The Things You Do," "Get Ready" and "Just My Imagination." As a solo artist, Kendricks recorded several hits of his own during the 1970s, including the U.S. No. 1 single "Keep On Truckin."

On This Day In Music History was sourced from This Day in Music, Song Facts, Far Out Magazine, Allmusic, NPR, and Wikipedia.

KBCO

kbco.com/listen


Sponsored Content

Sponsored Content