This Week In Music: 4/4 - 4/10

 This Week In Music

 April 4 – April 10

Rock & Roll Goes Nationwide … The Stones Start Rolling … China Bans Dylan

This is the week that was in matters musical …

1943: LSD is synthesized for the first time by Albert Hofmann … more than two decades later the psychoactive substance fuels a revolution in consciousness, music and pop culture …

1956: "Rock 'n Roll Dance Party" debuts on the CBS Radio Network … hosted by DJ Alan Freed, it's the first regularly scheduled and nationally aired rock 'n' roll show … Little Richard’s “Long Tall Sally” enters the Billboard Top 40 chart … while performing before an all-white audience at the Birmingham, Alabama Municipal Auditorium, Nat “King” Cole is attacked by a group of racists who knock him off his piano bench and beat him … a shaken Cole returns to the stage a few minutes later to a five-minute standing ovation … however he does not complete the set … later that night he performs for an all-black audience … C.L. Fender is granted patent # 2,741,146 by the U.S. Patent Office for a “Tremolo Device For Stringed Instruments,” popularly known as the Fender Stratocaster vibrato tailpiece or whammy bar …

1958: rock ‘n’ roll may be here to stay, but America still loves its crooners … Johnny Mathis’ Greatest Hits album hits the charts this week and there it will stay for a record 490 weeks …

1962: in London’s Ealing Blues Club, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Brian Jones decide to form a band they’ll ultimately call The Rolling Stones … the name is inspired by a Muddy Waters song … prior to quitting their day jobs, Jagger had been an ice cream peddler while Richards was a ball boy at a tennis club … Pravda, the official Russian newspaper, warns youths about the dangers of twisting …

1963: Portland rock-and-roll combo The Kingsmen record “Louie Louie” in a local studio after paying a $36 fee for the Saturday morning session … Paul Revere & The Raiders recorded their version of the tune in the same studio … who recorded it first is a matter of contention …

1964: a struggling young act called The Detours auditions for England’s Fontana Records … they go on to release some tracks with the label under the moniker The High Numbers, but it isn’t until they become known as The Who that they will make a serious impression in the rock world …

1968: Pink Floyd co-founder Syd Barrett leaves the band … Barrett’s mental instability, exacerbated by heavy drug use, has become so severe he can no longer function …

1969: an estimated 650,000 people attend a free Rolling Stones concert in London’s Hyde Park … the is the Stones first concert after the death of recently departed founding member Brian Jones … it is also the first appearance of new guitarist Mick Taylor, and the live debut of progressive rockers King Crimson …

1970: Paul McCartney uses the release of his first solo album, McCartney, to announce that he’s leaving The Beatles …

1973: Journey Through The Past premieres at the U.S. Film Festival in Dallas … the film is an autobiographical documentary by Neil Young, consisting mainly of footage and images captured throughout his career … Young sketchily describes it as “a collection of thoughts. Every scene meant something to me—although with some of them I can’t say what” …

1975: Ritchie Blackmore quits Deep Purple to form Rainbow with his pal Ronnie James Dio … Tommy Bolin of James Gang steps in to attempt to fill the guitar void …

1976: Peter Frampton’s Frampton Comes Alive album goes to #1, becoming the biggest-selling live album in rock history …

1977: The Damned become the first British punk band to play at CBGB …

1980: debuting as the Twisted Kites, R.E.M. plays its first show in its Athens, Georgia, hometown … they perform at a party in a converted church that serves as the group’s rehearsal space …

1981: Sam Goody, the nation’s leading music retailer, is convicted of selling pirated tapes through its stores …

1983: U.S. Interior Secretary James Watt bans the Beach Boys from performing at the 4th of July celebration on the Washington Mall … the overly zealous conservative offers the rationale that rock ‘n’ roll bands attract the wrong element … two days later President Reagan overturns the goofball decision and personally invites the Beach Boys to perform …

1988: a rehearsal for Alice Cooper’s fake hanging goes awry when a safety rope breaks … Coop is left dangling for a few scary seconds before a roadie comes to the rescue … IRS Records is left hanging by R.E.M., who jump ship for the greener pastures of Warner Bros. Records … Stones guitarist Ron Wood and 10 other passengers are rescued off the coast of Rio Di Janiero when the engine on their boat explodes …

1994: though his body won’t be discovered until days later, Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain takes his own life at his Seattle home …

1997: A&M Records issues a press release stating that Soundgarden has chosen to “disband to pursue other interests” … the president of A&M, Al Cafaro, gives the band this send off: “Throughout the flash, hype and turmoil, as this scene conquered the musical world, Soundgarden handled themselves with intelligence, integrity and nobility. They were able to present their music and their world view with passion and honesty.” … ’nuff said … the University of Amsterdam offers a course titled Madonna 101 … about 50 students sign up for the class examining the pop star’s music and films … the for-credit course also examines Madonna's persona as a sex symbol, her religious beliefs and her impact as a media presence … the debut lecture is attended by Dutch television crews …

1998: singer George Michael is arrested in the bathroom of a Beverly Hills park … the ex-Wham! star is booked on suspicion of misdemeanor lewd conduct … at first he gives officers his real name, Yorgos Panayiotou, but later cops to being the pop star … he is released later the same day after posting $500 bail …

2000: Star magazine reports that Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’ dying wish was that his 57 children, the result of many liaisons, meet one another … the bluesman had claimed before his death that at the height of his career he had engaged in sex on average 14 times a day …

2002: Eminem agrees to pay $100,000 to John Guerra in a settlement resulting from a civil lawsuit … the suit claims that Eminem attacked Guerra, hitting him in the face and head with a handgun … the alleged attack was allegedly punishment for Guerra having allegedly kissed Eminem’s wife, Kim …

2004: Jeff Tweedy of Wilco checks himself into a Chicago rehab facility to be weaned from addictive pain meds he uses to deal with chronic migraine headaches … he emerges 26 days later proclaiming it is “the most beautiful thing I’ve ever done” …

2005: the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame debuts its largest-ever exhibition devoted to a single work … titled “The Amazing Journey,” it fills two floors of the museum and celebrates The Who’s rock opera Tommy … the exhibit includes original manuscripts and much of it is housed within a giant simulated pinball machine …

2006: Marion “Suge” Knight, the founder of Death-Row Records, files a bankruptcy petition attempting to dodge a $107 million dollar judgment against him resulting from a civil suit by Michael and Lydia Harris who co-founded the label … an L.A. court had ruled that Knight owed the couple half of Death-Row’s profits … a man is escorted off a flight out of Northern England after the taxi driver who drove him to the airport reported him to authorities … the taxi was equipped with a stereo system that allowed the passenger to plug in his iPod, and the driver became worried after the man sang along to The Clash’s “London Calling” …

2007: Johnny Cash’s former home in Tennessee burns to the ground … the late, great singer’s home just north of Nashville was his primary residence with wife June Carter Cash from 1968 until their deaths in 2003 … the home burns as renovations are in progress for the home’s new owner, Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees …

2009: in the first Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony open to the public, a lineup of acts from every corner of the biz are inducted … held in Cleveland’s Public Hall, the 24th annual ceremony recognizes ‘50’s R&B outfit Little Anthony & The Imperials, rockabilly pioneer Wanda Jackson, Elvis sidemen D.J. Fontana and Bill Black, guitar virtuoso Jeff Beck, and soul man Bobby Womack among others … a highlight of the show is a duet on “Beck’s Bolero” by Beck and Jimmy Page … R&B singer Chris Brown pleads not guilty to charges of beating his girlfriend, singer  Rihanna, in February … if convicted he could face five years in the cooler …

2010: Chinese officials refuse to grant Bob Dylan a permit to perform two planned shows in Beijing and Shanghai … the Chinese government has prohibited several Western artists from performing following a 2008 controversy caused by Bjork, who chanted “Tibet, Tibet!” during a show in Shanghai …

2012: Dr. Jim Marshall, founder of Marshall Amplifiers, dies at 88 years old … his influence on modern music is immeasurable, and luminaries from Slash to Paul McCartney pay tribute to the man known as The Father of Loud …

And that was the week that was.

Arrivals:
April 4: Cecil Gant (1913), Muddy Waters (1915), Maya Angelou (1928), Margo Sylvia (1936), Chicago soul singer Major Lance (1939), trumpeter Hugh Masekela (1939), Christopher Franke of Tangerine Dream (1942), Allman Brothers bassist Berry Oakley (1948), Pick Withers of Dire Straits (1948), Peter Haycock (1952), Humble Pie’s Jerry Shirley (1952), guitarist Gary Moore (1952), Mick Mars (1956)

April 5: Gale Storm (1922), jazz drummer Stan Levey (1926), Platters lead vocalist Tony Williams (1928), Leroy Griffin of The Nutmegs (1934), Dave Swarbrick (1941), David LaFlamme (1941), Eric Burdon (1941), Allan Clarke of The Hollies (1942), Crispian St. Peters (1944), ABBA’s Agnetha Faltskog (1948), Everett Morton  of The English Beat (1951), Stan Ridgway of Wall of Voodoo (1954), Dream Theater’s James LaBrie (1963), Mike McCready of Pearl Jam (1966)

April 6: Burnetta “Bunny” Jones (1917), Chicago harp man Walter Horton (1917), composer Andre Previn (1929), Merle Haggard (1937), guitar great Warren Haynes (1960)

April 7: Billie Holiday (1915), Percy Faith (1918), Ravi Shankar (1920), country singer Bobby Bare (1935), Don Julian (1937), Spencer Dryden of Jefferson Airplane (1938), trumpeter Freddie Hubbard (1938), Mick Abrahams of Jethro Tull (1943), The Grateful Dead’s Bill Kreutzmann (1946), Pat Bennett (1947), Florian Schneider of Kraftwerk (1947), John Oates (1949), Janis Ian (1951), sax player Bob Berg (1951), Bruce Gary of The Knack (1952)

April 8: Carmen Mcrae (1922), Jacques Brel (1929), Steve Howe (1947), Izzy Stradlin of Guns ‘n’ Roses (1962), Julian Lennon (1963), Biz Markie (1964), Slipknot bassist Paul Gray (1972), Alex Laiho of Children of Bodom (1979)

April 9: blues guitarist Mance Lipscomb (1895), “Twist and Shout” songwriter Phil Medley (1916), rockabilly legend Carl Perkins (1932), Rockin’ Sidney (1938), Terry Knight (1943), Gene Parsons (1944), Sha-Na-Na’s Chico Ryan (1948), producer Alex Sadkin (1949), Kevin Martin of Candlebox (1969)

April 10: singer-actor Sheb Wooley (1921), R&B singer Nate Nelson (1932), Glen Campbell (1936), Bobby Hatfield (1940), Bunny “Wailer” Livingston (1947), Ernest “Snuffy” Stewart (1950), Dave Peverett of Foghat (1950), Eddie Hazel (1950), Steve Gustafson of 10,000 Maniacs (1957), Brian Setzer (1959), Babyface (1959), Davy Carton (1959), Afrika Bambaataa (1960), Katrina Leskanich (1960), Warren DeMartini of RATT (1963), Primus drummer Tim “Herb” Alexander (1965), Kenny Lattimore (1970), Mike Mushok of Staind (1970), Q-Tip (1970), Dashboard Confessional’s Chris Carrabba (1975), singer Sophie Ellis-Bextor (1979), Mandy Moore (1984)

Departures:
April 4: Manowar drummer Scott Columbus (2011), cellist Arthur Russell (1992), songwriter Al Lewis (1967)

April 5: Dr. Jim Marshall, The Father of Loud (2012), KISS guitarist Mark St. John (2007), Gene Pitney (2006), Alice in Chains singer Layne Staley (2002), metal drummer Colin “Cozy” Powell (1998), Kurt Cobain (1994), guitarist Rick Harvey (1993), Nesuhi Ertegun (1989), Danny Rapp (1983), soul singer Joe Hinton (1981), Bob Hite of Canned Heat (1981)

April 6: Lawrence Brown (2008), Niki Sullivan of The Crickets (2004), Red Norvo (1999), Wendy O. Williams (1998), Tammy Wynette (1998), guitarist Edward Freche (1995), Ral Donner (1984)

April 7: drummer Carlos Vega (1998), Harold “Sonny” Wright (1996), Lee Brilleaux aka Dr. Feelgood (1994), producer Henry Glover (1991), The Who’s manager Kit Lambert (1981), Charlie Shivers (1961)

April 8: former Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren (2010), Laura Nyro (1997), drummer Billy Gayles (1993)

April 9: David “Pop” Winans (2009), Randy Cain (2009), cellist Tom Cora (1998), DJ and “Heartbreak Hotel” songwriter Mae Axton (1997), producer Martin Hannett (1991), Brook Benton (1988), Dave Prater of Sam and Dave (1988), Phil Ochs (1976)

April 10: innovative guitar maker Travis Bean (2011), rapper Proof (2006), Little Eva (2003), singer Leon Peels (1999), Eddie O’Jay (1998), soul songwriter Linda Creed (1986), original Beatle Stuart Sutcliffe (1962), Chuck Willis (1958)