ON THIS DAY IN MUSIC HISTORY: 3.12
1967 - The Velvet Underground & Nico the debut album by the Velvet Underground was released. One would be hard-pressed to name a rock album whose influence has been as broad and pervasive as this. Glam, punk, new wave, goth, noise, and nearly every other left-of-center rock movement owes an audible debt to this set.
While The Velvet Underground had as distinctive a sound as any band, what's most surprising about this album is its diversity. Here, the Velvets dipped their toes into dreamy pop, tough garage rock, stripped-down R&B, and understated love songs, when they weren't busy creating sounds without pop precedent. Lou Reed's lyrical exploration of drugs and kinky sex always received the most press attention, but the music Reed, John Cale, Sterling Morrison, and Maureen Tucker played was as radical as the words they accompanied. (Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for The Velvet Underground Experience)
1968 - The Rolling Stones started recording their single, "Jumpin' Jack Flash," with new producer Jimmy Miller at Olympic Studios in London. Keith Richards said that he and Jagger wrote the lyrics while staying at Richards' country house, where they were awakened one morning by the sound of gardener Jack Dyer. When Jagger asked what the noise was, Richards responded, "Oh, that's Jack — that's jumpin' Jack."
1969 - Paul McCartney married Linda Eastman at Marylebone Register Office. They then held a reception lunch at The Ritz Hotel, Paul then went to Abbey Road studios in the evening to work. In other news, George Harrison and his wife Patti were arrested on the same day and charged with possession of 120 joints of marijuana.
1970 - Neil Young released the song After The Gold Rush. When asked what the song was about he said: 'Hell, I don't know. I just wrote it. It just depends on what I was taking at the time. I guess every verse has something different I'd taken.'"
However, in his 2012 biography Young reportedly gave a different explanation of the song's origin and meaning, describing the inspiration provided by a screenplay of the same name (never produced), which apocalyptically described the last days of California in a catastrophic flood.
1971 - The Allman Brothers Band played the first of two nights at the Fillmore East, New York. Both shows were recorded and released as The Allman Brothers live double album, which became one of the best live albums ever.
1974 - During his "Lost Weekend" period, John Lennon and Nilsson get drunk and disorderly at a Smothers Brothers comedy show at the Troubadour in Los Angeles. They get thrown out, and Nilsson takes heat in the press for being a bad influence on Lennon. Said Nilsson: "It ruined my reputation for 10 years. Get one Beatle drunk and look what happens."
1991 - R.E.M. released Out of Time. Where previous R.E.M. records captured a stripped-down, live sound, Out of Time was lush with sonic detail, featuring string sections, keyboards, mandolins, and cameos from rapper KRS-One to the B-52's' Kate Pierson. The scope of R.E.M.'s ambitions is impressive, and the record sounds impeccable, with its sunny array of pop and folk songs. Highlights: The Byrds-y "Near Wild Heaven," the haunting "Country Feedback," and the masterpiece "Losing My Religion.
2001 - Judy Garland's "Over The Rainbow" was voted Song Of The Century in a poll conducted by the Recording Industry Association of America, the National Endowment for the Arts, and Scholastic Inc. The song was written for the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, won the Academy Award for Best Original Song, and became Garland's signature song.
2007 - Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, Patti Smith, R.E.M. The Ronettes and Van Halen were all inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in New York City.
2013 - Bob Dylan was voted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters, marking the first time a rock musician had been chosen for the elite honor society. ' Officials in the Academy – which recognizes music, literature and visual art – were unable to decide if Dylan belonged for his words or his music and instead inducted him as an honorary member like previous honorees Meryl Streep, Woody Allen and Martin Scorsese.
Birthdays:
Leonard Chess was born today in 1917. As the co-founder of the legendary Chess Records label, producer Leonard Chess played a pivotal role in the birth of the Chicago electric blues movement of the postwar era (and eventually rock and roll), launching the careers of legends ranging from Muddy Waters to Howlin' Wolf to Little Walter.
James Taylor is 76. When people use the term "singer/songwriter" (often modified by the word "sensitive") in praise or in criticism, they're more than likely thinking of James Taylor. In the early 1970s, when he appeared with his introspective songs, acoustic guitar, and calm, understated singing style. In 1971, Taylor was on the cover of Time magazine, heralded as the harbinger of the singer-songwriter era and five decades later he's still out there making music.
On This Day In Music History was sourced, copied, pasted, edited, and occasionally woven together with my own crude prose, from This Day in Music, Music This Day, Allmusic, James Taylor, Song Facts and Wikipedia.
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