LED ZEPPELIN‘s red-hot smoking stonker single WHOLE LOTTA LOVE
(from their 1969 Led Zep II album) was voted the song with the greatest
guitar riff ever in rock history in 2014 by listeners of BBC Radio in the UK.
It topped a list of 100 classic ones.
Other riffs in the list included ‘Layla’ by Derek And The Dominoes, ‘Sweet Child
Of Mine’ by Guns N’ Roses, ‘Pretty Vacant’ by the Sex Pistols and Metallica‘s ‘Enter
Sandman’.
British ambient/techno/dance duo THE ORB (1988-present) released a single called BLUE ROOM, on 21 June 1992, today 33 years ago. Nothing abnormal with that.
But (there’s always a but) the CD duration was 39 minutes and 58 seconds, two seconds shorter than the maximum permitted for a single under UK chart rules. The single peaked at No.8 in the UK. They also issued a 7″ inch vinyl version, shortened to 3 minutes 53 seconds.
It sounds/feels like you’re in a submarine and you hear that specific underwater fuzz.
The late musical genius DAVID BOWIE (8 January 1947 – 10 January 2016)
released a single, called MEMORY OF A FREE FESTIVAL on 12 June 1970,
today 55 years ago.
The single featured Marc Bolan
on lead guitar and backing vocals.
Originally recorded as a 7-minute opus in 1969, it was reworked in 1970. His label Mercury Records, believed that the track had a better chance of success as a single
than the LP’s track ‘The Prettiest Star’, released earlier in the year. Bowie and producer Tony Visconti roughly split the track in half, re-recording it so both halves could
function as individual songs.
Biographer David Buckley described the song as “a sort of trippy retake of the Stones’ ‘Sympathy for the Devil’ but with a smiley lyric”. The track was written as a homage to
the Free Festival, organised by the Beckenham Arts Lab, which was held at Croydon
Road Recreation Ground in Beckenham (UK) on 16 August 1969.
Sounds like a hippie hymn turning, midway, into a gospel choir song.
On 11 June 1988, 37 years ago today the 70th birthday of South-African, anti-apartheid revolutionary NELSON MANDELA was celebrated by the music world with a massive event at Wembley Stadium in London. It featured an impressive cats of big stars, such as Whitney Houston, Phil Collins, Dire Straits, Stevie Wonder, Tracy Chapman, George Michael, Eric Clapton, Chrissie Hynde UB40, Eurythmics, Simple Minds and actors Richard Gere and Whoopi Goldberg.
The celebration was broadcast live on BBC 2
to 40 different countries with an estimated
audience of 1 billion.
At the time Mandela was still in prison for his anti-apartheid politics.
After 27 years he was finally a free man. He became South Africa‘s
president from 1991 to 1997. He passed away in 2013, aged 93.
THE SOUND OF MUSIC is one of the most commercially successful films of all time.
It opened on 2 March 1965 in New York. The sugary romantic family film was based
on Maria von Trapp‘s memoir The Story of the Trapp Family Singers during World War II. Maria (played by Julie Andrews) was the stepmother and matriarch of the Austrian Trapp Family Singers led by retired naval officer Captain Georg von Trapp.
Hands up if you never heard of this bittersweet classic movie.
It’s Rogers and Hammerstein soundtrack scored massively both sides of the ocean.
It got to the No. 1 spot on the UK Album Charts on 5 June 1965, today 60 years ago
and stayed there for 70 consecutives weeks. It eventually became the 2nd best ever
selling album behind The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
In the US it hit als the top seat and set a new record for remaining in the Top-10
for 109 weeks. The album would remain on the chart for a total of 238 weeks, more
than 4,5 years.
On 1 June 1973, today 52 years ago, British renowned singer-songwriter ROBERT WYATT (now aged 80) broke his spine after attempting to leave a birthday party by climbing down a drainpipe and falling three stories. It left Wyatt permanently crippled and confined to a wheelchair.
At the time Wyatt was the drummer/co-vocalist for psych-prog-rock
band Soft Machine fronted by Kevin Ayers (1944-2013).
After the freak accident Wyatt went solo. He released
9 LPs, with 1974’s Rock Bottom as his most lauded one.
Uncut Magazine
In an 2014 interview with British Uncut Magazine, he announced
his retirement from music. He cited age and greater interest in
politics as the reasons.
SHIPBUILDING
His best known song (an ironic one about the Falkland war in 1982), although he didn’t write it. Elvis Costello wrote the lyrics and Clive Langer the music. Wyatt‘s remarkable voice did the rest.
The Legend compilation by eternal reggae icon BOB MARLEY (1945-1981) had
a 12-week run at No.1 on the UK album chart from 19 May 1984 on, 41 years ago
today.
In November 1975, Chicago-born maverick PATTI SMITH (now aged 78) released her groundbreaking debut LP Horses. Rock critics around the world went wild. Everybody wanted to hear/see the newborn star.
On 16/17 May 1976, she played her first and 2nd gig in the UK, at the legendary venue
named the Roundhouse in London.
ELVIS PRESLEY was rushed to a Los Angeles hospital after
swallowing a porcelain cap from one of his front teeth, which
then lodged its-self in one of his lungs.
On 12 May 1963, today 62 years ago BOB DYLAN walked out of rehearsals for his planned performance on the legendary American TV program The Ed Sullivan Show after being told he couldn’t perform his song Talkin’ John Birch Paranoid Blues due to it mocking the US military and segregation.
CBS (his record label) officials asked Dylan to substitute it for another song, but he reportedly said: ‘No, this is what I want to do. If I can’t play my song, I’d rather not appear
on the show’.
LYRICS
This is called talkin’ John Birch Blues
And there ain’t nothing wrong with this song
Well, I was feelin’ sad and kinda blue
I didn’t know what I was gonna do
The communists was a-comin’ around
They was in the air
They was on the ground
They was all over
So I run down most hurriedly
And joined up with the John Birch Society
I got me a secret membership card
I went back home to the yard
Started looking on the sidewalk
Under the hedges
Well, I got up in the mornin’ I looked under my bed
I was lookin’ every places for them gol-darned Reds
Looked behind the sink, and under the floor
Looked in the glove compartment of my car
Couldn’t find any
Look behind the cloths, behind the chair
Lookin’ for them Reds everywhere
I looked way up my chimney hole
Even looked deep inside my toilet bowl
They got away
I heard some footsteps by the front porch door
I grabbed my shotgun from the floor
Snuck around the house with a huff and a hiss
“Saying hands up you communist”
It was the mail man, he punched me out
Well, I was sittin’ home an’ started to sweat
I figured they was in my T.V. set
I peeked behind the picture frame
Got a shock from my feet, right up in the brain
Them reds did it
Hooting in the television
Well, I quit my job, so I could work alone
Got a magnifying glass like Sherlock Holmes
Followed some clues from my detective bag
And discovered red stripes on the American flag
Betty Ross
Now Eisenhower, he’s a Russian spy
Lincoln, and Jefferson and then Roosevelt guy
To my knowledge, there’s just one man
That’s really and truly an American
That’s George Lincoln Rockwell
I know for a fact he hates Commies
‘Cause he picketed the movie Exodus
Well, I finally started thinkin’ straight
When I run outta things to investigate
I couldn’t imagine nothin’ else
So now I’m home investigatin’ myself
Hope I don’t find out too much, good God
