Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Arthur Lee & Love Feature with Vintage Photos & Videos

arthur lee, love, classic rock, psychedelic rock, rock music, photo

Love, headed by singer/guitarist Arthur Lee, was a seminal '60s L.A. band, emerging from the Sunset Strip at the same time as the Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, the Doors, and the Mamas and the Papas. The group started out playing a Byrds-influenced folk rock but later covered many styles, including bluesy R&B, pop, and hard rock.

arthur lee, love, classic rock, psychedelic rock, rock music, photo

Lee moved from his Memphis birthplace to L.A. with his family when he was five. By age 17 he was playing in local bands, including Arthur Lee and the LAGs (styled after Booker T. and the MG's). The band, which included later Love member John Echols, cut one single for Capitol, an instrumental, “The Ninth Wave.” Love was formed with unknown musicians: MacLean had been a roadie for the Byrds, and Forssi had played with the Surfaris after their hits faded. Lee originally called the group the Grass Roots, but changed it, since the name was already taken by another soon-to-be-well-known band.

arthur lee, love, classic rock, psychedelic rock, rock music, photo

arthur lee, love, classic rock, psychedelic rock, rock music, photo

Love’s first album was hailed by critics as a classic in the new folk-rock style and sold 150,000 copies. Its 1966 single “My Little Red Book” (penned by Burt Bacharach and Hal David) was a minor hit. The band’s second album, Da Capo, featured some topically druggy lyrics, jazz touches, and a few personnel changes. The album was another groundbreaker, featuring one of the first side-long cuts in rock, the 20-minute-long “Revelation.” The album also included the Top 40 hit “7 and 7 Is.” Forever Changes, however, is considered by many to be Love’s best, its answer to Sgt. Pepper, with orchestral touches, including horn and string arrangements, and a psychedelic feel that influenced many of the early-’80s neopsychedelic British bands such as the Monochrome Set, the Teardrop Explodes, and Echo and the Bunnymen.

arthur lee, love, classic rock, psychedelic rock, rock music, photo

arthur lee, love, classic rock, psychedelic rock, rock music, photo

In 1968 Lee reorganized the group (members of the first edition later claimed excessive drug use had driven the band apart; MacLean said he nearly overdosed on heroin, then joined a Christian ministry and suffered a nervous breakdown) and hired a new band of three, plus four sessionmen to help out in the studio on Four Sail and Out Here; he briefly renamed himself Arthurly. Love next toured England (the band seldom left L.A.), and Lee recorded a full LP with Jimi Hendrix. The album was buried in legal problems, though one track, “The Everlasting First,” turned up on False Start in 1970. In 1971 Lee dismissed his band.

arthur lee, love, classic rock, psychedelic rock, rock music, photo

Lee was supposed to have recorded a solo album for Columbia, but his debut wound up on A&M in 1972, the hard-rocking Vindicator, credited to Arthur Lee and Band Aid. Like later Love LPs, the record didn’t sell well. In 1973 he planned to make another solo album with Paul Rothchild’s new Buffalo Records, but the label folded before the LP was released. In 1974 Lee came back on RSO with an all-new Love, but the music disappointed many and included three remakes of old Love cuts. His next effort was a solo EP in 1977 on Da Capo Records. In 1979 he toured locally with MacLean (whose sister Maria McKee would emerge in the ’80s with the country-rock band Lone Justice) and another incarnation of Love, and in 1980 Rhino Records put out Best of Love, a compilation of ’60s tracks. In 1981 the label issued a new Arthur Lee solo LP, his first in seven years. In 1994 Lee, backed by members of the New York–area punk band Das Damen, toured clubs under the Love banner, to ecstatic reaction from audiences and critics, who urged reappraisal of his oeuvre as the missing link between the Byrds and the Doors. That comeback was cut short in 1996 when Lee - who had had several run-ins with the law over the years - was sentenced to 8 to 12 years in prison for illegal possession of a firearm after pointing a pistol at a neighbor.

arthur lee, love, classic rock, psychedelic rock, rock music, photo

Forssi died of brain cancer in early 1998. MacLean remained in the Christian ministry and returned to making music. He died of a heart attack on Christmas Day, 1999, without having completed an album. IfYouBelieveIn (1997) and Candy’s Waltz (2000) are two collections of demos and solo recordings spanning the ’60s through the ’80s.

arthur lee, love, classic rock, psychedelic rock, rock music, photo

Over the next few years Arthur continued to perform, receiving such accolades as a Living Legend Award at the 2004 NME Awards. In early 2006, Lee was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia. Despite aggressive treatment, including three bouts of chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant using stem cells from an umbilical cord -- which made him the first adult patient in Tennessee to receive this treatment -- his condition worsened, and Lee passed away on August 3, 2006, at Memphis, TN's Methodist University Hospital with his wife at his side.

arthur lee, love, classic rock, psychedelic rock, rock music, photo

Various videos of Love & Arthur Lee

Arthur Lee and love - My Little Red Book - American Bandstand 1966



Arthur Lee and Love Live at the Fillmore 1970



Arthur Lee & Love Live August 1970



Arthur Lee and Love - 7 & 7 Is - Live



Arthur Lee Interview



Arthur Lee & Love Discography

Love (1966)
Da Capo (1967)
Forever Changes (1967)
Four Sail (1969)
Out Here (1969)
Love Revisited (1970)
False Start (1970)
Reel to Real (1974)
Love Live (1982)
Studio/Live (1982)
Arthur Lee & Love - Five String Serenade (1992)
Love Story (1995)

Wiki info can be found here --> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Lee_%28musician%29


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-Stereo

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Jan 27 - Today In Rock Music History





No. 1

1962 Joey Dee: Peppermint Twist US 45
1966 Overlanders: Michelle UK 45
1973 Sweet: Blockbuster UK 45
1973 Stevie Wonder: Superstition US 45
1979 Ian Dury and the Blockheads: Hit Me with Your Rhythm Stick UK 45
1990 Kylie Minogue: Tears on My Pillow : UK 45
1990 Christians : Colour : UK LP
1997 Blur : Beetlebum : UK single

Births

1914 Elmore James (blues guitarist)
1919 David Seville (Chipmunks)
1930 Bobby 'Blue' Bland (blues performer)
1931 Rudi Mauger (Crew Cuts)
1944 Kevin Coyne (Marlene)
1945 Nick Mason (Pink Floyd)
1947 Nedra Talley (Ronettes)
1951 Brian Downey (Thin Lizzy)
1951 Seth Justman (J Geils Band)
1961 Gillian Gilbert (New Order)
1961 Martin Deguille (Sigue Sigue Sputnik)
1961 Margo Timmins (Cowboy Junkies)
1964 Migi (Curiosity Killed the Cat)
1968 Mike Patton (Faith No More)

Deaths

1972 Mahalia Jackson (gospel singer)

Various

1956 Heartbreak Hotel by Elvis Presley released in US.

1956 Bill Haley, Platters, Lavern Baker, Shirley and Lee, Drifters, Joe Turner, Bo Diddley, Roy Hamilton and others begin the biggest US package tour to date, promoted by Irvin Field.

1960 Gary Glitter (as Paul Raven) releases his first single, Alone in the Night/Too Proud.

1968 Dock of the Bay by Otis Redding hits US chart. It is his only Top 10 single in the States and goes on to reach No. 1.

1968 Bee Gees make their US stage debut, earning $50,000 for their appearance at Anaheim Convention Centre, California.

1969 Ivy's, subsequently known as Badfinger, release Maybe Tomorrow in the UK

1971 David Bowie arrives in US for his first visit. He does not play live but garners much publicity by wearing a dress in Texas.

1984 Michael Jackson injured while filming for Pepsi advert.

1990 The town of Gainsville, Florida declares today will become "Tom Petty Day"

1993 "After controversy over Ice-T's song, "Cop Killer.", Warner Brothers
Records announces that it is releasing him from his contract due to "creative differences".

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Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Marc Bolan & T.Rex Feature with Vintage Photos & Videos

Marc Bolan & T.Rex Feature with Vintage Photos & Videos

Marc Bolan, T.Rex, trex, glam, glam rock, rock music, photo

Initially a British folk-rock combo called Tyrannosaurus Rex, T. Rex was the primary force in glam rock, thanks to the creative direction of guitarist/vocalist Marc Bolan (born Marc Feld). Bolan created a deliberately trashy form of rock & roll that was proud of its own disposability. T. Rex's music borrowed the underlying sexuality of early rock & roll, adding dirty, simple grooves and fat distorted guitars, as well as an overarching folky/hippie spirituality that always came through the clearest on ballads. While most of his peers concentrated on making cohesive albums, Bolan kept the idea of a three-minute pop single alive in the early '70s. In Britain, he became a superstar, sparking a period of "T. Rextacy" among the pop audience with a series of Top Ten hits, including four number one singles. Over in America, the group only had one major hit -- the Top Ten "Bang a Gong (Get It On)" -- before disappearing from the charts in 1973. T. Rex's popularity in the U.K. didn't begin to waver until 1975, yet they retained a devoted following until Marc Bolan's death in 1977. Over the next two decades, Bolan emerged as a cult figure and the music of T. Rex has proven quite influential on hard rock, punk, new wave, and alternative rock.

Marc Bolan, T.Rex, trex, glam, glam rock, rock music, photo

Following a career as a teenage model, Marc Bolan began performing music professionally in 1965, releasing his first single, "The Wizard," on Decca Records. Bolan joined the psychedelic folk-rock combo John's Children in 1967, appearing on three unsuccessful singles before the group disbanded later that year. Following the breakup, he formed the folk duo Tyrannosaurus Rex with percussionist Steve Peregrine Took. The duo landed a record deal with a subsidiary of EMI in February 1968, recording their debut album with producer Tony Visconti. "Debora," the group's first single, peaked at number 34 in May of that year, and their debut album, My People Were Fair and Had Sky in Their Hair...But Now They're Content to Wear Stars on Their Brow, reached number 15 shortly afterward. The duo released their second album, Prophets, Seers & Sages, the Angels of the Ages, in November of 1968.

Marc Bolan, T.Rex, trex, glam, glam rock, rock music, photo

By this time, Tyrannosaurus Rex was building a sizable underground following, which helped Bolan's book of poetry, The Warlock of Love, enter the British best-seller charts. In the summer of 1969, the duo released their third album, Unicorn, as well as the single "King of the Rumbling Spires," the first Tyrannosaurus Rex song to feature an electric guitar. Following an unsuccessful American tour that fall, Took left the band and was replaced by Mickey Finn. The new duo's first single did not chart, yet their first album, 1970's A Beard of Stars, reached number 21.

Marc Bolan, T.Rex, trex, glam, glam rock, rock music, photo

Marc Bolan, T.Rex, trex, glam, glam rock, rock music, photo

The turning point in Bolan's career came in October of 1970, when he shortened the group's name to T. Rex and released "Ride a White Swan," a fuzz-drenched single driven by a rolling backbeat. "Ride a White Swan" became a major hit in the U.K., climbing all the way to number two. The band's next album, T. Rex, peaked at number 13 and stayed on the charts for six months. Encouraged by the results, Bolan expanded T. Rex to a full band, adding bassist Steve Currie and drummer Bill Legend (born Bill Fifield). The new lineup recorded "Hot Love," which spent six weeks at number one in early 1971. That summer, T. Rex released "Get It On" (retitled "Bang a Gong (Get It On)" in the U.S.), which became their second straight U.K. number one; the single would go on to be their biggest international hit, reaching number ten in the U.S. in 1972. Electric Warrior, the first album recorded by the full band, was released in the fall of 1971; it was number one for six weeks in Britain and cracked America's Top 40.

Marc Bolan, T.Rex, trex, glam, glam rock, rock music, photo

By now, "T. Rextacy" was in full swing in England, as the band had captured the imaginations of both teenagers and the media with its sequined, heavily made-up appearance; the image of Marc Bolan in a top hat, feather boa, and platform shoes, performing "Get It On" on the BBC became as famous as his music. At the beginning of 1972, T. Rex signed with EMI, setting up a distribution deal for Bolan's own T.Rex Wax Co. record label. "Telegram Sam," the group's first EMI single, became their third number one single.

Marc Bolan, T.Rex, trex, glam, glam rock, rock music, photo

"Metal Guru" also hit number one, spending four weeks at the top of the chart. The Slider, released in the summer of 1972, shot to number one upon its release, allegedly selling 100,000 copies in four days; the album was also T. Rex's most successful American release, reaching number 17. Appearing in the spring of 1973, Tanx was another Top Five hit for T. Rex; the singles "20th Century Boy" and "The Groover" soon followed it to the upper ranks of the charts. However, those singles would prove to be the band's last two Top Ten hits. In the summer of 1973, rhythm guitarist Jack Green joined the band, as did three backup vocalists, including the American soul singer Gloria Jones; Jones would soon become Bolan's girlfriend. At the beginning of 1974, drummer Bill Legend left the group and was replaced by Davy Lutton, as Jones became the group's keyboardist.

Marc Bolan, T.Rex, trex, glam, glam rock, rock music, photo

In early 1974, the single "Teenage Dream" was the first record to be released under the name Marc Bolan and T. Rex. The following album, Zinc Alloy and the Hidden Riders of Tomorrow, was the last Bolan recorded with Tony Visconti. Throughout the year, T. Rex's popularity rapidly declined -- by the time "Zip Gun Boogie" was released in November, it could only reach number 41. Finn and Green left the group at the end of the year, while keyboardist Dino Dins joined. The decline of T. Rex's popularity was confirmed when 1975's Bolan's Zip Gun failed to chart. Bolan took the rest of the year off, returning in the spring of 1976 with Futuristic Dragon, which peaked at number 50. Released in the summer of 1976, "I Love to Boogie," a disco-flavored three-chord thumper, became Bolan's last Top 20 hit.

Marc Bolan, T.Rex, trex, glam, glam rock, rock music, photo

Bolan released Dandy in the Underworld in the spring of 1977; it was a modest hit, peaking at number 26. While "The Soul of My Suit" reached number 42 on the charts, T. Rex's next two singles failed to chart. Sensing it was time for a change of direction, Bolan began expanding his horizons in August. In addition to contributing a weekly column for Record Mirror, he hosted his own variety television show, Marc. Featuring guest appearances by artists like David Bowie and Generation X, Marc helped restore Bolan's hip image. Signing with RCA Records, the guitarist formed a new band with bassist Herbie Flowers and drummer Tony Newman, yet he never was able to record with the group. While driving home from a London club with Bolan, Gloria Jones lost control of her car, smashing into a tree. Marc Bolan, riding in the passenger's seat of the car, was killed instantly.

Marc Bolan, T.Rex, trex, glam, glam rock, rock music, photo

While T. Rex's music was intended to be disposable, it has proven surprisingly influential over the years. Hard rock and heavy metal bands borrowed the group's image, as well as the pounding insistence of their guitars. Punk bands may have discarded the high heels, feather boas, and top hats, yet they adhered to the simple three-chord structures and pop aesthetics that made the band popular. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide

Marc Bolan, T.Rex, trex, glam, glam rock, rock music, photo

Various Live Videos of Marc Bolan & T.Rex

T.Rex Ride A White Swan Live Video



T-Rex - Get It On Live Video



T-Rex - Children of The Revolution Live Video



T-Rex - Jeepster Live Video




T.Rex Discography

1977 Dandy in the Underworld
1976 Futuristic Dragon
1975 Bolan's Zip Gun
1974 Zinc Alloy & The Hidden Riders Of Tomorrow
1973 Tanx
1972 The Slider
1971 Electric Warrior
1970 T. Rex
1970 A Beard Of Stars
1969 Unicorn
1968 Prophets, Seers, & Sages The Angles Of the Ages
1968 My People Were Fair and Had Sky in Their Hair, But Now They're Content to Wear Stars

Wiki info can be found here --> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_Bolan

Rock On Music Lovers!!

-Stereo

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Jan 26 - Today In Rock Music History

Happy Birthday Eddie!

Eddie Van Halen, Van Halen, classic, vintage, rock music, photo

No. 1

1961 Elvis Presley: Are You Lonesome Tonight UK 45
1963 Rooftop Singers: Walk Right In US 45
1974 Mud: Tiger Feet UK 45
1974 Ringo Starr: You're Sixteen US45
1974 Perry Como: And I Love You So UK LP
1985 Foreigner: Agent Provocateur UK LP
1991 Enigma : MCMCXC AD : UK LP
1991 Surface: The First Time US 45
1998 Usher : You Make Me Wanna : UK single

Births

1934 Huey 'Piano' Smith (Don't You Just Know It)
1948 Corky Laing (Mountain)
1951 Andy Hummell (Big Star)
1951 David Briggs (Little River Band)
1957 Edward Van Halen (Van Halen)
1958 Norman Hassan (UB40)
1963 Andrew Ridgeley (Wham)
1963 Jazzie B. (Soul II Soul)
1966 Pim Jones (Hipsway)
1972 Ya Kid K (Technotronic)

Various

1955 Bill Haley hits USA R&B chart with Dim Dim the Lights.

1956 Buddy Holly makes his first recordings for the American Decca Label in Nashville.

1957 Buddy Holly and the Crickets appear on The Ed Sullivan Show.

1961 Buddy Holly enters UK chart with What to Do.

1964 Four Seasons hit US chart with Walk Like a Man, their third No. 1

1966 Eric Burdon stands in for ailing Paul Jones at a Manfred Mann gig at Marquee.

1967 Otis Redding hits UK chart with Try a Little Tenderness

1970 John Lennon records Instant Karma with Producer Phil Spector.

1975 BBC TV Omnibus shows Cracked Actor documentary on David Bowie.

1979 Bob Dylan forms his own record label, Accomplice.

1981 Blondie go platinum with Auto America LP.

Rock On Music Lovers!!

-Stereo

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Monday, January 25, 2010

Iggy Pop Feature with Vintage Photos & Videos

iggy, iggy pop, the stooges, stooges, rock, punk, music, photo

With his outrageous, cathartic, and at times dangerous stage antics, and the relentless rock & roll that accompanied them, Iggy Pop prefigured both '70s punk and '90s grunge. With his persona as that of the eternal misfit, saboteur of all convention, Pop has parlayed twisted social commentary, an affecting if limited vocal style, and unlikely survival smarts into a long career characterized by scant commercial success, sizable critical notice, and a fanatic cult.

iggy, iggy pop, the stooges, stooges, rock, punk, music, photo

Raised in a trailer park, James Osterberg played drums as a teen in a local garage band, the Iguanas. He dropped out of the University of Michigan in 1966 and went to Chicago, where he listened to urban blues on the South Side. He returned to Detroit as Iggy Stooge and, inspired by a Doors concert, formed the Stooges. They debuted on Halloween 1967 in Ann Arbor and were appropriately frightening onstage: Iggy contorting his shirtless torso, letting out primal screams, rubbing peanut butter and raw steaks over his body, gouging his skin with broken glass, diving into the crowd, all while the Stooges played raw, basic rock. Some thought the band the embodiment and the future of rock; others were appalled that they were so unrepentantly primitive.

iggy, iggy pop, the stooges, stooges, rock, punk, music, photo

Elektra, the Doors’ label, signed them in 1968. Though a decade later their first two albums would be hailed as seminal punk, they sold only moderately upon release. The band went through various personnel changes following the 1970 album Fun House, eventually breaking up, with Iggy retiring for over a year to kick a heroin addiction. Around this time, he ran into David Bowie, who resolved to resurrect Iggy’s career. Bowie regrouped some of the Stooges and produced Raw Power, a critical success.

iggy, iggy pop, the stooges, stooges, rock, punk, music, photo

iggy, iggy pop, the stooges, stooges, rock, punk, music, photo

A dispute with Bowie’s manager Tony DeFries forced Iggy and the re-formed Stooges onto the road without a manager. Through 1973 there was a return to drug addiction and by the next year the band nearly imploded. Iggy spent 1974-75 in L.A., trying to solve assorted legal problems. He committed himself to an L.A. mental hospital and was visited by Bowie (whose “Jean Genie” on the 1973 Aladdin Sane is said to be about Iggy). In 1976 Bowie took Iggy with him on his European tour, after which they settled in Berlin for three years. Concurrently, Bowie produced Pop’s The Idiot and Lust for Life, meditations on modern malaise that benefited from Bowie’s professionalism; other albums of this period, like Metallic K.O. and Kill City, were semi-bootleg issues of older Stooges-era material.

iggy, iggy pop, the stooges, stooges, rock, punk, music, photo

In 1977 Iggy toured the U.S. with Bowie (unannounced) playing keyboards; Blondie was their opening act. Signing to Arista in the late ’70s, Iggy released New Values, an album of trenchant rock; his other Arista work, however, suggested the beginnings of self-¬parody and sold dismally. Publishing his autobiography, I Need More, and signing with Blondie guitarist Chris Stein’s Animal label in 1982, he put out another strong collection, Zombie Birdhouse. Yet only when “China Girl,” co-written by Pop and David Bowie, appeared on the latter’s 1983 Let’s Dance and became a hit for Bowie did Iggy achieve a measure of financial stability and mainstream interest.

iggy, iggy pop, the stooges, stooges, rock, punk, music, photo

iggy, iggy pop, the stooges, stooges, rock, punk, music, photo

iggy, iggy pop, the stooges, stooges, rock, punk, music, photo

With Bowie producing and ex–Sex Pistol Steve Jones on guitar, Blah Blah Blah showed Iggy attempting his most accessible music; peaking at #75, it fared nearly as well as The Idiot (#72, 1977), but alienated some of his hard-core following. Beginning in the mid-’80s, Pop began accepting character roles in movies (Sid and Nancy, The Color of Money, Cry-Baby, the kids movie Snow Day, and Dead Man); he was sought after as punk’s elder statesman, even though Iggy’s outrageousness by then was less a daily reality than a determined role. Married in 1984 and a proponent of at least his version of domestic bliss, Iggy reserved his animal spirits for recording. Instinct was Pop at his most metallic; Brick by Brick had him trying again for accessibility and duetting with Kate Pierson of the B-52’s (“Candy”). Lauded by critics, American Caesar was his return to raw form, helped out with guest vocals on two tracks by one of his chief successors, Henry Rollins. If anything, Naughty Little Doggie rocked harder, and by the mid-’90s Pop enjoyed genuine cult-legend status. He was invoked as muse/hero in Irvine Welsh’s Trainspotting and Danny Boyle’s film of that novel (which used “Lust for Life” on its soundtrack); filmmaker Todd Haynes patterned Velvet Goldmine on the Pop-Bowie relationship and Bowie; and in 1997 Joan Jett and the Blackhearts and the Red Hot Chili Peppers were featured on We Will Fall: The Iggy Pop Tribute. Pop ended the century with Avenue B, a dark, string-laden work, influenced by his fondness for Frank Sinatra. Musings on turning 50 and the fallout from his recent divorce, the album was intensely introspective. In 2003 the Stooges reunited, collaborating on Iggy’s the Skull Ring and performing live across Europe and the U.S. Channeling their momentum as a working band, Iggy and the Asheton brothers finally found their way back into the studio to record their first album since 1973’s Raw Power. The Weirdness, produced by Steve Albini, was released on March 7th, 2007.

Various Live Videos of Iggy Pop

Iggy Pop and The Stooges, Live in Cincinnati, 1970



IGGY POP_I WANNA BE YOUR DOG ON SKYDOG TV



Iggy Pop - The Passenger(Live)-1977



Iggy Pop - Sixteen



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-Stereo

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Sunday, January 24, 2010

Jan 24 - Today In Rock Music History

We Miss You Warren!

Warren Zevon-werewolves, photo


No. 1

1958 Elvis Presley: Jailhouse Rock UK 45
1963 Shadows: Dance On UK 45
1968 Georgie Fame: Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde UK 45
1976 Diana Ross: Theme From Mahogany/Do You Know Where You're Going To US45
1981 Adam and the Ants: Kings of the Wild Frontier UK LP
1987 Steve 'Silk' Hurley: Jack Your Body UK 45
1999 The Offspring : Pretty Fly (For A White Guy) : UK single

Births

1936 Doug Kershaw (country violinist)
1941 Neil Diamond (I Am I Said)
1941 Aaron Neville (Neville Brothers)
1941 Ray Stevens (The Streak)
1947 Warren Zevon (Werewolves of London)
1949 John Belushi (Blues Brothers)
1958 Jools Holland (Squeeze)

Deaths

1970 James 'Shep' Shepherd (Shep and the Limelites)

Various

1962 Beatles sign their management contract with Brian Epstein.

1968 Status Quo begin UK chart career with Pictures of Matchstick Men

1970 Creedence Clearwater Revival's Green River hits UK LP chart.

1979 Brian Wilson and Marilyn Rovell divorce.

1981 John Lennon hits UK chart at No. 3 with Woman.

1981 Styx hit USA Hot 100 at No. 31 with The Best of Times.

1981 Blondie's Rapture hits UK chart.

1987 Open Your Heart leaps to No. 4 on the USA Hot 100, giving Madonna her tenth straight Top 5 single, more than any other female singer of the rock era. (Previously the most successful had been Donna Summer.)

1992 The producer of the New Kids on the Block LP "Hangin' Tough"sues for a few million dollars for creative contributions and royalties. claiming that they only sang about 20% of the lyrics. The claim is eventually dropped.

1995 "Balance" becomes the last Van Halen album with lead singer Sammy Hagar when it is released today

Rock On Music Lovers!!

-Stereo

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Talking Heads Feature with Vintage Photos & Videos

talking heads, david byrne, classic rock, vintage, music, photo

Talking Heads was a band of smart, self-conscious white musicians intrigued by the rhythms and spirit of black music. They drew on funk, classical minimalism, and African rock to create some of the most adventurous, original, and danceable music to emerge from new wave - a movement Talking Heads outlasted and transcended in their accomplishment and influence.

talking heads, david byrne, classic rock, vintage, music, photo

David Byrne and Chris Frantz met at the Rhode Island School of Design, where they were part of a quintet called, variously, the Artistics and the Autistics. With Tina Weymouth, Frantz’s girlfriend, they shared an apartment in New York and formed Talking Heads as a trio in 1975; they played their first shows at CBGB that June. Their music was never conventional punk rock; it was more delicate and contrapuntal, and their early sets included covers of the ’60s bubblegum group the 1910 Fruitgum Company. Jerry Harrison, a Harvard alumnus who had been a Modern Lover with Jonathan Richman until 1974 and had also backed singer/songwriter Elliott Murphy, completed the band in 1977.

talking heads, david byrne, classic rock, vintage, music, photo

Talking Heads toured Europe with the Ramones before recording their first album, and once it was released they began constant touring of the U.S. and Europe. Their first album contained “Psycho Killer,” which typecast them as eccentrics, an impression confirmed by Byrne’s nervous, wild-eyed stage presence. The album reached the Top 100, and every subsequent album reached the U.S. Top 40.

talking heads, david byrne, classic rock, vintage, music, photo

With More Songs About Buildings and Food, Talking Heads began a four-year relationship with producer Brian Eno, an experimentalist who toyed with electronically altered sounds and shared their growing interest in Arabian and African music. More Songs included a cover of Al Green’s “Take Me to the River,” which was the band’s first hit (#26, 1978). Fear of Music (#21, 1979) was a denser, more ominous record, but its followup, Remain in Light (#19, 1980), was an almost complete shift in tone. It used rhythm tracks improvised by Eno and the band in the studio that were layered with vocals and solos, a mixture of African communalism and Western technology (an approach signaled by “I Zimbra,” the opening track on Fear of Music).

talking heads, david byrne, classic rock, vintage, music, photo

After Remain in Light, Talking Heads toured the world with an expanded band: keyboardist Bernie Worrell of Parliament/Funkadelic, guitarist Adrian Belew (who had played with Frank Zappa and David Bowie), bassist Busta Cherry Jones, percussionist Steven Scales, and singers Nona Hendryx (formerly of Labelle) and Dollette McDonald.

talking heads, david byrne, classic rock, vintage, music, photo

Band members then turned to solo projects. Byrne has explored electronics, performance art, and world music, and scored music for films and the stage. Harrison made The Red and the Black; and Frantz and Weymouth recorded as the Tom Tom Club, scoring a major disco hit with “Genius of Love,” which made the album go platinum. In 1982 the Heads ended their association with Eno; they released a compilation of live performances by all versions of the band and toured the U.S. and Europe as an eight-piece group.

talking heads, david byrne, classic rock, vintage, music, photo


Speaking in Tongues, the first album of new Heads songs in three years, was released in 1983. (A limited edition release of 50,000 copies featured a complex cover designed by artist Robert Rauschenberg. Subsequent copies boasted a simpler design by Byrne.) It was their highest-charting album ever (#15, 1983) and yielded their biggest hit single, “Burning Down the House” (#9, 1983), which was also featured in an eye-catching video that MTV had in heavy rotation. They toured with an expanded band including Alex Weir, a guitarist with the Brothers Johnson. The tour was documented in the acclaimed movie Stop Making Sense, directed by Jonathan Demme. The soundtrack (#41, 1984) spent nearly two years on the pop albums chart.

The Heads returned to their core lineup, and simpler song forms, on Little Creatures (#20, 1985), which included the Cajun-flavored single “Road to Nowhere” and “Stay Up Late,” a sardonic commentary on parenting (which Frantz and Weymouth, by then married, were doing). That album, like its predecessor, went platinum (the only two to do so). In 1986 Byrne directed the feature film True Stories (#17), a seemingly sincere look at small-town American eccentrics; the soundtrack album, on which Talking Heads performed straightforward versions of songs sung by various characters in the film, yielded a hit single in “Wild Wild Life” (#25, 1986).

Naked (#19, 1988), produced in Paris by Steve Lillywhite (U2, Simple Minds) and reggae/world-beat keyboardist/producer Wally Badarou, featured guest performances by assorted African and Caribbean musicians living in Paris. After producing the hit album Conscious Party for Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers, Weymouth and Frantz got Byrne, Harrison, and Lou Reed to guest on Tom Tom Club’s Boom Boom Chi Boom Boom, for a version of the Velvet Underground’s “Femme Fatale.” In 1990 Tom Tom Club and Harrison’s band Casual Gods (which included Alex Weir) toured the U.S. with the Ramones and Blondie singer Deborah Harry.

talking heads, david byrne, classic rock, vintage, music, photo

The long-rumored dissolution of Talking Heads was made official, sort of, in December 1991, when Byrne told the Los Angeles Times the band was finished. A month later Harrison, Weymouth, and Frantz issued a statement of their disappointment, adding that “Talking Heads was a great band.” The band’s final four new tracks were released as part of the Popular Favorites box-set retrospective.

In 1996 Byrne, citing “wrongful use,” filed a lawsuit against the members of his former band and Radioactive Records head and former Talking Heads manager Gary Kurfirst to halt the release of a new, Byrne-less album, No Talking Just Head, and to prevent the musicians’ use of the name “Heads” for a tour. The suit was settled out of court, and plans for both album - with a variety of guest vocalists including XTC’s Andy Partridge and former Lone Justice singer Maria McKee - and tour proceeded. All four original members did manage to reteam in 1999 for the release of a 15th-anniversary edition of Stop Making Sense (which coincided with the film’s release on DVD and a brief theatrical run). And in 2000 the Tom Tom Club was back with a new album, The Good the Bad and the Funky, which featured covers of tunes by Lee “Scratch” Perry and Donna Summer.

Various Live Videos Of The Talking Heads

Talking Heads Live at CBGBs - Warning Sign Video



Talking Heads - Psycho Killer Live Video (1975)



Talking Heads - Live at The Old Grey Whistle Test Video



Talking Heads - Life During Wartime Live Video



Talking Heads Discography

Date ALBUMS - Singles

1977 February Love Goes To A Building On Fire
1977 September TALKING HEADS: 77
1977 October Uh Oh, Love Comes To Town
1977 December Psycho Killer
1978 May Pulled Up
1978 July MORE SONGS ABOUT BUILDINGS AND FOOD
1978 October Take Me To The River
1979 August 3 FEAR OF MUSIC
1979 October Life During Wartime
1979 LIVE ON TOUR: THE WARNER BROS. MUSIC SHOW
1980 February I Zimbra
1980 June Cities
1980 Crosseyed and Painless
1980 October REMAIN IN LIGHT
1981 February Once In A Lifetime
1981 May Houses In Motion (Remix)
1982 March Life During Wartime (Live)
1982 March THE NAME OF THIS BAND IS TALKING HEADS
1983 June SPEAKING IN TONGUES
1983 July Burning Down The House
1983 October This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody)
1984 October STOP MAKING SENSE
1984 November Stop Making Sense (Girlfriend Is Better)
1985 May The Lady Don't Mind
1985 June LITTLE CREATURES
1985 June Road To Nowhere
1985 September And She Was
1985 Stay Up Late
1986 April Once In A Lifetime (Live)
1986 August Wild Wild Life
1986 September TRUE STORIES
1986 Puzzlin' Evidence
1986 November Love For Sale (Special New Version)
1987 April Radio Head
1988 March NAKED
1988 April (Nothing But) Flowers
1988 August Blind
1991 Sax and Violins (Radio Version)
1991 THE BEST OF - ONCE IN A LIFETIME
1992 October Lifetime Piling Up
1992 October 13 POPULAR FAVORITES: SAND IN THE VASELINE
1996 October 8 NO TALKING, JUST HEAD
1996 Don't Take My Kindness For Weakness
1999 September 12 X 12 ORIGINAL REMIXES
2003 November 18 ONCE IN A LIFETIME (3-CD SET)
2004 August 17 THE BEST OF TALKING HEADS
2007 January 15 COLLECTION


Wiki info can be found here --> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talking_Heads

Rock On Music Lovers!!

-Stereo

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