Posts Tagged ‘Rock History’
“It’s no wonder that truth is stranger than fiction. Fiction has to make sense….”*
What people really think…
Many, many more at Honest Slogans.
* Mark Twain
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As we appreciate the eternal relevance of “caveat emptor,” we might recall that it was on this date in 1961 that Brian Epstein, a lapsed actor who’d studied at RADA with Albert Finney, Peter O’Toole, and Susannah York, but returned to Liverpool to run his family’s record store, visited the Cavern Club… where he first heard The Beatles. Smitten, he signed the group to a management contract, shepherded the group through a series of unsuccessful record company pitches before convincing George Martin of EMI to sign them, and oversaw their meteoric rise until his death in 1967. As Paul McCartney observed, “If anyone was the Fifth Beatle, it was Brian.”
Brian and the boys
Wearing it in on the sleeve…
Ярослав Свиридов (yasviridov on LiveJournal) has gathered an extraordinary collection of, well… noteworthy album covers.
Browse dozens more here and here.
[TotH to reader MK and to Slipped Disc]
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As we true our turntables on this, Independence Day, we might recall that it was on this date in 1976– as we in the U.S. were beginning our Bi-Centennial Day celebrations– that the Clash gave their first public performance: they opened for the Sex Pistols at The Black Swan in Sheffield, England. As U2 guitarist The Edge later wrote, “This wasn’t just entertainment. It was a life-and-death thing….It was the call to wake up, get wise, get angry, get political and get noisy about it.”
The Clash, 1976
Life at the top…
Britney Spears: Fish and chips, McDonald’s cheeseburgers without the buns, 100 prunes and figs, a framed photo of Princess Diana.
Photographer Henry Hargreaves explains:
A rider is a contractual proviso that outlines a series of stipulations or requests between at least two parties. While they can be attached to leases and other legal documents, they’re most famously used by musicians or bands to outline how they need their equipment to be set up and arranged, how they like their dressing room organized, and what types of food and beverages they require. Anyone who’s seen Spinal Tap knows these requests can be extremely outrageous and unreasonable. (And, in the case of Iggy Pop’s, unexpectedly hilarious.)
I was inspired to create this series after reviewing a few riders from some of the biggest acts in the world, all of which were ridiculous. But what I found most interesting about them is that they offered a glimpse into their larger-than-life personalities.
I initially thought I would try and shoot all of the items listed on the catering riders but quickly realized that this would become an exercise in wasting money. So I decided to focus on the quirkiest requests and shoot them in a Flemish Baroque still-life style because I felt that there was a direct connection between the themes in these types of paintings and the riders: the idea of time passing and the ultimate mortality of a musician’s career as the limelight inevitably fades—they only have a short time in which they are able to make these demands and have them fulfilled.
Al Green: Twenty-four long-stem (dethorned) red roses.
Nine Inch Nails: Two boxes of corn starch.
Rihanna: Hard-boiled eggs, turkey bacon, turkey sausage, at any time throughout the day. Please be prepared!
See more of “Henry Hargreaves’s photos of what musicians like to eat and drink backstage.”
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As we order every meal as though it’s our last, we might recall that it was on this date in 1965, in the wee hours, in a motel room in Clearwater, Florida, that Keith Richards awoke, grabbed his guitar, turned on a small portable tape recorded, laid down the signature riff of ”(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction”… then dropped back into the arms of Morpheus.
“When I woke up in the morning, the tape had run out,” Richards recalled many years later. “I put it back on, and there’s this, maybe, 30 seconds of ‘Satisfaction,’ in a very drowsy sort of rendition. And then suddenly—the guitar goes ‘CLANG,” and then there’s like 45 minutes of snoring.”
Play on…
A selection of entries from Music History in GIFs…
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As we tap our toes, we might recall that it was on this date in 1946– on his 11th birthday– that Elvis Presley received his first guitar. Elvis had coveted a bicycle or a rifle, but his protective mother (“She never let me out of her sight,” Elvis later said) took him to the Tupelo Hardware Store and convinced him to accept a $7.75 Kay guitar instead. The rest is, as they say, history.
Wearing your allegiance…
Now, winnowed down from over 1,000 entries, “Design The Worst Band Shirt Ever – The 31 Finalists.”
29 other stinkers at Low Times.
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As we wave our lit cel phones above our heads, we might send tuneful birthday greetings to Robert John “Bob” Gaudio; he was born on this date in 1942. Gaudio first tasted fame when, at age 15, he wrote “Short Shorts” for his band The Royal Teens (which also featured Al Kooper); the single hit #3 on the U.S. pop charts. But the Royal Teens drifted apart, and Gaudio joined Frankie Valli and the Four Lovers… which, in 1960, became The Four Seasons. Gaudio was the the group’s primary songwriter, their keyboardist, and back-up vocalist; he wrote the group’s first hit “Sherry,” and scores of others, including including “Big Girls Don’t Cry,” “Walk Like a Man,” “Dawn (Go Away),” “Ronnie,” “Rag Doll,” “Save It for Me,” “Big Man in Town,” “Bye Bye Baby,” “Girl Come Running,” “Beggin’,” and “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You.”
Gaudio also wrote for other groups (e.g., The Tremeloes and The Walker Brothers) and produced many other acts (notably, Nancy Sinatra, Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, Barry Manilow, Eric Carmen, Peabo Bryson, Neil Diamond, and Roberta Flack); and he has written musicals (Peggy Sue Got Married and the autobiographical Jersey Boys). Gaudio has won Grammys, Tonys, and been inducted in the Songwriters Hall of Fame… and throughout his post-Four Seasons success, Gaudio has honored the handshake deal that he made in 1960 with Frankie Valli (who went on to a successful solo career), under which they split their earnings with each other.
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