1969 - T. Rex kicked off their tour of the U.K. at the Free Trade Hall in Manchester. Their opening act on this night was David Bowie performing a one-man mime act. Bowie was an experienced mime at the time. At Bolan's insistence, Bowie performed his one-man mime routine depicting China's invasion of Tibet. Concert goers were apparently not fans of the act, and Bowie was often met with boos and heckles. But Bowie would be fine, as Space Oddity was released that summer and the rest was history.
1971 - David Crosby releases his solo debut, If I Could Only Remember My Name. Everyone from the members of the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane to Crosby's mates in CSNY, Neil Young and Graham Nash, dropped by the studio to make significant contributions to the proceedings. With his ringing, velvety voice -- the epitome of hippie crooning -- and inspired songwriting, he turns If I Could Only Remember My Name into a one-shot wonder of dreamy but ominous California ambience.
1974 - Elton John released "Candle In The Wind". Bernie Taupin, who wrote the lyrics, said the song is about "the idea of fame or youth or somebody being cut short in the prime of their life. ... how we glamorize death, how we immortalize people." The title was inspired after hearing the phrase "candle in the wind" used in tribute to Janis Joplin. While it name checks Norma Jean/Marilyn Monroe, he said it could have easily been about James Dean, Montgomery Clift, or Jim Morrison.
1977 - The Eagles released 'Hotel California' the title track from the album of the same name. On 60 Minutes, Don Henley said, " It's a song about the dark underbelly of the American Dream, and about excess in America which was something we knew about."
He offered yet another interpretation in the 2013 History of the Eagles documentary: "It's a song about a journey from innocence to experience." Its long guitar coda is often cited as one of the best of all time.
1993 - Radiohead released their debut Pablo Honey. A promising collection that blends U2's anthemic rock with long, atmospheric instrumental passages and that is alternately gentle and bracingly noisy. The album is named after a Jerky Boys prank call skit in which the prank caller says, "Pablo, honey? Please come to Florida!" which is sampled on the song "How Do You?" Features the self-loathing breakthrough single "Creep". (Photo credit should read KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI/AFP via Getty Images)
Birthdays:
Bradley Nowell of Sublime was born today in 1968. Sublime rose to fame in the mid-'90s on the back of the California punk explosion engendered by Green Day and the Offspring, though Sublime boosted their punk influences with heavy elements of reggae and ska. The band released only two albums during its first seven years, and finally found mainstream success with a self-titled release in 1996. It proved to be Sublime's last proper album, however, as lead singer Brad Nowell died in May 1996, just two months before the record's release.
R.I.P.:
1987 - Andy Warhol died at age 58. Andy Warhol is of course primarily known as a major visual artist, and a significant filmmaker. He was not a musician, and probably knew little about the technological processes by which music is recorded. Nonetheless, he made notable contributions to rock history as a producer and manager of the Velvet Underground. He painted the album cover of The Velvet Underground's debut album and designed the cover of The Rolling Stones' Sticky Fingers.
2022 - Mark Lanegan died age 57. Lanegan was a co-founder of Screaming Trees and was also a member of Queens of the Stone Age and The Gutter Twins. He was known for his baritone voice, which has been described as being "as scratchy as a three-day beard yet as supple and pliable as moccasin leather" and has been compared to Leonard Cohen and Tom Waits. He could take his darkly poetic sensibility to whatever style his muse pointed him.
On This Day In Music History was sourced, copied, pasted, edited, and occasionally woven together by my own crude prose, from This Day in Music, Music This Day, Allmusic, Song Facts and Wikipedia.
KBCO