June - July  2006

McCartney Makes Lifetime Pledge to Lennon Career-Threatening Accident Befalls Stevie Wonder Phil Collins Follows Joey Ramone's Footsteps

1957 - Paul McCartney met John Lennon for the first time when Lennon's band, The Quarry Men was playing at a church function.  Lennon later said he was impressed with McCartney's ability to tune a guitar.  Paul allegedly promised to be in charge of John's guitar tuning chores forever, as long as Lennon "kept away from gold-digging, ugly, untalented Jap skanks."

1958 - In a vain attempt to bolster Jerry Lee Lewis' plummeting reputation, producer Sam Phillips forces The Killer to sign a letter of apology which he then posts as a full-page ad in Billboard.  Lewis had divorced his wife in order to marry his 14-year-old second cousin Myra.  Although this type of behavior wasn't such a big deal in the 50's southern US (nor is it today, I hear), it's actually the British press that torpedoes Lewis' career from which he will never completely recover.

1963 - 13-year-old Stevie Wonder's "Fingertips Pt. 2" becomes the first of  his 61 records to chart…Stevie's subsequent tour had to be cut short when he scorched his OWN fingertips trying to read a hot waffle iron, making it impossible for him to play his harmonica.  Alvin, from the popular children's group The Chipmunks, was considered as a replacement but was busy with his own recording commitments, plus he couldn't dance.

1964 - The Rolling Stones give their first American concert in Lynn, MA.  No one complained about the ticket prices, and Keith looked almost human.  Brian Jones looked even better.

1965 - The Dave Clark V followed the Beatles onto the silver screen with a movie called Catch Us If You Can.  Later in '65 I would have to make the choice of either seeing The DC V live or going to a folk-rock concert by a new San Francisco group, The Jefferson Airplane.  I figured that "Any Way You Want It" was a much better song than anything off of the JA's new RCA LP, so I made the right choice and never regretted it.  THE FIVE ROCK!!!

1966 - The Beatles 45 "Rain" employs a reversed-tape effect for the first time in one of their songs.  John Lennon fesses up to accidentally discovering this cool technique when he was stoned out of his mind fooling around in the studio…Also in '66 European radio stations broadcast that The Who's Roger Daltrey is dead, when actually it was Pete Townshend that was only injured in a car accident.  Later this year, Frank Sinatra's "Strangers in the Night" displaced "Paperback Writer" ("Rain's" A-side) at the top of the Billboard 100, emoting cries of pleasure from homosexual men everywhere.

1967 - After eight shows into a 29 date tour with The Monkees, The Jimi Hendrix Experience is dropped as a support act.  Jimi was told that his music was not suitable for a young audience.  I think we remember how that all worked itself out.

1968 - The album In-a-Gadda-da-Vida from The Iron Butterfly is released.  The title track clocks in at 17 minutes and features one of the longest drum solos on record.  Me and the boys saw this inept, pile-of-crap band open for The Who in Sacramento the same year.  Their stage version of the song was closer to 30 minutes.  We waited in the lobby while it was being played.  The only worse live act (with a big hit record) that I ever recall seeing was The Seeds.  That should give you some idea of how bad these geezers were.  This is also the year that The Yardbirds split up.  Jimmy Page wanted to keep the act going , renaming it The New Yardbirds.  Keith Moon was to have said "it'll probably go over like a lead zeppelin", thus inspiring the final name change.

1969 - Blind Faith debuts at a free concert in London's Hyde Park.  The group, whose self-titled album pretty much sucked, would disband the following October, following a US tour that Steve Winwood described as "vulgar, crude, disgusting [and] lacking in integrity".  Funny…I don't remember my band The JSDB opening for Blind Faith…but then again, that was the 60's and Winwood's assessment DOES sound like us……. 1969 was also the year that junkie and founder of the Rolling Stones Brian Jones announces that he's leaving the band because he doesn't agree with their musical direction, which unfortunately for Jones necessitates actually being conscious while performing.  He is replaced by hot blues guitarist Mick Taylor, who will stay with the band until 1975 when he is replaced by Ronnie Wood.  Within three weeks of Jones' exit from the band, he is found dead on the bottom of his pool (well…he WAS a "stone" after all…oh, ease up!).  The official cause was recorded as "death by misadventure".

1971 - Jim Morrison, lead singer of The Doors, is already 6 days cold when news of his death was made public.  He died of heart failure and acute respiratory distress on July 3rd and was buried in a Paris cemetery on the 9th.  I visited his grave several years ago, and his gravestone has more graffiti on it than an overpass in South Central LA.  That's just wrong.

1974 - Joey Ramone slides out from behind the drums and steps up to the mic to assume vocal duties for The Ramones.  Several years later, annoying pudge Phil Collins instigates the same position change in Genesis, with less than stellar results.

1976 - Elton John and Kiki Dee's "Don't Go Breakin' My Heart" is released.  That means that I have actively hated Fat Reg for THREE DECADES now.  The CIA should use this record to torture enemies of the state.  Good god, do I hate shit like this.

1986 - From the "What'd I Do, Lawd, What'd I Do?" department:  Lead singer for Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes, Teddy Pendergrass, who was already PARALYZED from a 1982 auto crash was CRITICALLY INJURED when the specially-equipped van he was driving slammed into a utility pole in Philadelphia.

1989 - CDs started outselling vinyl records for the first time, and we're still paying WAY TOO FUCKING MUCH for CDs 17 years later!!

1992 - After over a million votes on the Elvis postage stamp are received, Pricilla Presley announces that the '50's era King illustration prevailed over the image of a locomotive-sized Elvis in his "Vegas Years".  Previously, US Postal authorities had nixed the possibility of issuing a stamp with The King keeled over on his toilet, pants around his ankles, a half-digested double-decker deep-fried banana and peanut butter sandwich sticking out of his rectum.  (Hey, I'd have voted for that one!)  Also in the news this year, John Phillips of the Mamas & The Papas received a liver transplant that wound up keeping him alive for another nine years.  I heard that when they were done wringing out his OLD liver there was like 2 liters of Crown Royal in the trough.

2000 - Sinead O'Connor outs herself in an article appearing in Curve magazine…She cuts her tour short a few weeks later in order to be available as a stand-in for Uncle Fester in the "Addams Family Values" film.

2002 - John Entwistle dies in Las Vegas one day before The Who begin a tour of the U.S.  The official cause of death is "moderated usage of cocaine superimposed upon ischemic heart disease caused by naturally occurring arteriosclerosis".  In other words, he was TOO FUCKIN' OLD TO BE DOING BLOW!   He is remembered as one of rock's most influential bassists and certainly one of its loudest, and hands down The Big Dog's favorite.  Between John and Keith Moon, heaven's band has got one hell of a rhythm section.

So that's June/July in Rock Music History All the best from The Big Dog…

Questions, comments, suggestions, complaints?.... CLICK HERE to contact the 4th Dog In

4th Dog In Archives:

may - Keith Moon and John Entwistle quit The Who......

april - Beatles Have 14 records on the charts....

mar 9 & 16 - Eric "Clapton Is God" Myth debunked...

mar 2 - Elvis' farts stall his career...

feb 16 - First Flying V Destroyed...

feb 9 - U2 Loves JSDB's Latest...

feb 2 - Vicious OD's...