1965 - The filming of the promotional film for Bob Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues" took place alongside the Savoy Hotel in London. In the film, Dylan flips through cue cards with selected words and phrases from the lyrics. Actors in the background were Allen Ginsberg and Bob Neuwirth. The film became one of the first modern promotional films and was a forerunner of the music video. Its cue-card concept has since been imitated or referenced by many artists, including INXS, the Flaming Lips, and Belle & Sebastian.
1970 - The Beatles twelfth and final album, Let It Be was released, (it was recorded before the Abbey Road album, and was originally to be called 'Get Back').
The album itself got a bad rap from critics when it first hit shelves less than a month after Paul McCartney announced the band's split. Rolling Stone compared the project to "costume jewelry," lobbing criticism at the Beatles' quasi-collaborator Phil Spector for his overcooked, "absurdly inappropriate" production. Music magazine NME went even further, calling it a "a cheapskate epitaph, a cardboard tombstone, a sad and tatty end" to a group that changed pop music.
But hey, a sub-standard Beatles record is better than almost any other group's best work. McCartney in particular offers several gems: the gospelish "Let It Be," which has some of his best lyrics and "Get Back," one of his hardest rockers. The folky "Two of Us," with John and Paul harmonizing together, was also a highlight. There are some good moments of straight hard rock in "I've Got a Feeling" and "Dig a Pony." As flawed and bumpy as it is, it's an album well worth having, as when the Beatles were in top form here, they were as good as ever.
1977 - The Grateful Dead play a show at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. While nearly every Grateful Dead freak has an opinion on the matter, the show at Cornell University’s Barton Hall has achieved the unofficial status as their best show ever, with a 25-minute “Scarlet Begonias” into “Fire in the Mountain” as it's joyous centerpiece.
While still containing the core band that regularly went on extended free improv tangents a half-decade earlier, the return of second drummer Mickey Hart set the course for the arena thunder that would follow and Jerry Garcia’s voice still retained much of its youthful sweetness.
Cornell serves as an artistic achievement in its own right, an assertion that an unofficial live recording (which would start making the rounds after the concert) could be just as enduring as a studio album, and just as important to the band’s popular success.
In 2011 it's entered into the Library of Congress National Recording Registry, and in 2017 is officially released as Cornell 5/8/77.
1990 - A jury orders Frito-Lay to pay the famously anti-advertising Tom Waits $2.6 million for imitating his voice in a Doritos radio commercial that transforms his song "Step Right Up" into an ad for their SalsaRio flavor chips. In 1992, the verdict is upheld on appeal.
2022 - Bono and the Edge from U2 played a short set in a Kyiv bomb shelter that was once a subway station, showing support for Ukraine. In a tweet post from U2‘s official account, the duo said that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had invited them to perform there. The duo performed 'With or Without You,' 'Desire,' 'Angel of Harlem,' 'Vertigo' and a rendition of Ben E. King’s 'Stand By Me.' (Photo by SERGEI SUPINSKY/AFP via Getty Images)
Birthdays:
Influential bluesman Robert Johnson was born on this day in 1911. The legend of his life -- which even folks who don't know anything about the blues can cite chapter and verse -- goes something like this: Robert Johnson was a young Black man living on a plantation in rural Mississippi. Branded with a burning desire to become a great blues musician, he was instructed to take his guitar to a crossroads near Dockery's plantation at midnight. There he was met by the Devil, who took the guitar from Johnson, tuned it, and handed it back to him. In less than a year's time, in exchange for his everlasting soul, Robert Johnson became the king of the Delta blues singers, able to play, sing, and create the greatest blues anyone had ever heard.
Of course, his legend is immensely fortified by the fact that Johnson also left behind a small legacy of recordings that are considered the emotional apex of the music itself. These recordings have not only entered the realm of blues standards ("Love in Vain," "Crossroads," "Sweet Home Chicago," "Stop Breaking Down"), but were adapted by rock & roll artists as diverse as the Rolling Stones, Steve Miller, Led Zeppelin, and Eric Clapton. As a singer, composer, and guitarist of considerable skills, Johnson produced some of the genre's best music and the ultimate blues legend.
.
Danny Whitten, guitarist for Neil Young and Crazy Horse, was born today in 1943. Although he died early in his music career with Crazy Horse, Danny Whitten was the group's original leader and main focus.
Neil Young came across Crazy Horse when they were known as The Rockets. Young was looking for a raw and rocking band for a set of new tunes he'd penned for his second solo album, so he invited the trio of Whitten, Billy Talbot (bass), and Ralph Molina (drums) to play on it. They accepted, which brought the end of the Rockets and the birth of Neil Young & Crazy Horse. Young thought of the group as his "Rolling Stones," while the other group he was in at the same time, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, as his "Beatles"
During his time with Crazy Horse, Whitten sank further and further into heroin addiction -- leading to his dismissal. He would die of an overdose in November of 1972.
Rod Stewart, Rita Coolidge, Everything but the Girl, and Nils Lofgren have covered his "I Don't Want to Talk About It" over the years.
The Neil Young song ‘The Needle and the Damage Done’ was written about Whitten’s heroin use (before he died ). Whitten's death would later serve as the basis for one of Young's darkest albums, "Tonight's the Night".
Philip Bailey of Earth, Wind & Fire is 73. Bailey was born and raised in Denver. He attended Denver's East High School. He later attended the Metropolitan State University of Denver and the University of Colorado thereafter.
Renowned most for his falsetto, Philip Bailey appeared in the early 1970s as the four-octave counterpart to Maurice White in Earth, Wind & Fire. From the mid-'70s through the early '80s, Bailey co-wrote and was showcased on some of their signature songs, including the Top 40 pop hit "Devotion" and the number one pop and R&B single "Shining Star".
His solo album, Chinese Wall, was produced by Phil Collins. It would become his most successful with help from the Collins duet "Easy Lover," a crossover smash.
In 2000, Earth, Wind & Fire was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame.
Talking Heads drummer Chris Frantz is 73. As one of the Talking Heads' founding members, drummer Chris Frantz provided the backbeat for all of the group's subsequent recordings (and performances).
When the group took a brief break during the early '80s, Frantz and wife (and Talking Heads bassist), Tina Weymouth decided to launch a side project, the Tom Tom Club. The group enjoyed a major hit with the track "Genius of Love" off their self-titled 1981 debut.
Van Halen drummer Alex Van Halen is 71. Best known as the drummer and co-founder of Van Halen. Alex has become an ordained minister and presided at the wedding of his brother Eddie Van Halen in 2009.
.
On This Day In Music History was sourced, curated, copied, pasted, edited, and occasionally woven together with my own crude prose from This Day in Music, Pitchfork, Allmusic, USA Today, Song Facts and Wikipedia.
KBCO
#bobdylan #beatles #gratefuldead #U2 #crazyhorse #robertjohnson