1967 - The Jimi Hendrix Experience released their second studio album Axis: Bold as Love. Hendrix stretched further musically than the first album, but even more so as a songwriter. He was still quite capable of coming up with spacy rockers But the beautiful, wistful ballad "Little Wing," and the title track set closer show remarkable growth and depth as a tunesmith, harnessing Curtis Mayfield soul guitar to Dylanesque lyrical imagery and Fuzz Face hyperactivity to produce yet another side to his grand psychedelic musical vision.(Photo by DANIEL LEAL/AFP via Getty Images)
1971 - John Lennon releases "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" in the US. Though now a Christmas standard, Lennon originally penned this as a protest song about the Vietnam War. The call to action is the refrain "war is over, if you want it."
1983 - Neil Young was sued by Geffen Records because his new music for the label was "not commercial in nature and musically uncharacteristic of his previous albums."
His first full album on Geffen was the Kraftwerk inspired Trans. Young followed that up with the rockabilly album, Everybody's Rockin'.
Neil counter sued and after after a messy war of words, the suit eventually settled, with Geffen apologizing to Young. He would go on to release the country LP Old Ways, along with Landing On Water and Life before returning to his spiritual home at Reprise records.
1997 - Using a technique called circular breathing, Kenny G sets the Guinness World Record for longest note held on a wind instrument when he keeps it going for 45 minutes and 47 seconds. In 2017, the Nigerian player Femi Kuti breaks the record, going 51:35.
Birthdays:
John Densmore, drummer from The Doors, is 79. Densmore allowed 'Riders on the Storm' to be used to sell Pirelli Tyres, in the UK only and later stated that he "heard Jim's voice" in his ears and ended up donating the money earned to charity. In 2002, Densmore vetoed an offer by Cadillac for $15 million for 'Break on Through (To the Other Side)' because of Morrison's vehement opposition to licensing the Doors' music for commercial use.
Jaco Pastorius was born on this day in 1951. With a brilliantly fleet technique and fertile melodic imagination, Pastorius made his fretless electric bass leap out from the depths of the rhythm section into the front line with fluid machine-gun-like passages that demanded attention. Played on Weather Report's classic, Birdland.
Singer/actress Bette Midler is 78. Bette Midler's music catalog spans hits as eclectic as her bubbly, multi-tracked 1972 cover of the Andrews Sisters' "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" and the soaring 1988 ballad "Wind Beneath My Wings." Starred in the film 'The Rose' based on the life of Janis Joplin.
Tyler Joseph of Twenty One Pilots is 35.
On This Day In Music History was sourced from This Day in Music, Song Facts, Far Out Magazine, Ultimate Classic Rock, and Wikipedia.
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