Tag Archives: music calendar

August 1 in music history

August 1, 2014 Egil


August 1: The late Jerry Garcia was born in 1942 (read more) There’s no way to measure his greatness or magnitude as a person or as a player. I don’t think eulogizing will do him justice. He was that great – much more than a superb musician with an uncanny ear and dexterity. He is the very spirit personified of whatever is Muddy River Country at its core and screams up into the spheres. He really had no equal. To me he wasn’t only a musician and friend, he was more like a big brother who taught and showed me more than he’ll ever know. There are a lot of spaces and advances between the Carter Family, Buddy Holly and, say, Ornette Coleman, a lot of universes, but he filled them all without being a member of any school. His playing was moody, awesome, sophisticated, hypnotic and subtle. There’s no way to convey the loss. It just digs down really deep. ~Bob Dylan (Jerry Garcia’s Obituary – 10 August 1995)
August 1: Bob Dylan & George Harrison: New York City, New York, 1971 (Videos) – post update (read more) This was Dylan’s first live performance in two years. Harrison had to twist his arm to get him to take part in the benefit concert, and we can be very glad he did: it’s a stunning performance (both shows), modest, confident, richly textured, with Dylan feeling and communicating genuine love for the music he’s playing (in the case of” Blowin’ in the Wind” this was his first public performance of the song in seven years). Most of all, Dylan’s voice on this midsummer afternoon and evening has a rare, penetrating beauty that is immediately noticeable to almost anyone who hears it. This is, in a very real sense, the Dylan a large part of his audience dreams of hearing; this is the voice to fit the stereotyped or mythic image of Bob Dylan, guitar strumming poet laureate of the 1960s. ~Paul Williams (Bob Dylan Performing Artist I: The Early Years 1960-1973)
Ramblin’ Jack Elliott (born Elliot Charles Adnopoz, August 1, 1931) is an American folk singer and performer. – Allmusic (Craig Harris): Ramblin’ Jack Elliott is one of folk music’s most enduring characters. Since he first came on the scene in the late ’50s, Elliott influenced everyone from Bob Dylan and Pete Seeger to the Rolling Stones and the Grateful Dead. The son of a New York doctor and a onetime traveling companion of Woody Guthrie, Elliott used his self-made cowboy image to bring his love of folk music to one generation after another. Despite the countless miles that Elliott traveled, his nickname is derived from his unique verbiage: an innocent question often led to a mosaic of stories before he got to the answer. According to folk songstress Odetta, it was her mother who gave Elliott the name when she remarked, “Oh, that Jack Elliott, he sure can ramble.”
Robert Cray (born August 1, 1953, Columbus, Georgia, United States) is an American blues guitarist and singer. A five-time Grammy Award winner, he has led his own band, as well as an acclaimed solo career.
“I’m a Boy” (Recorded 31 July – 1 August 1966 – IBC Studios in London, UK) is a 1966 rock song written by Pete Townshend for his band The Who. The song, like other early recordings by the band, such as “I Can’t Explain”, “The Kids Are Alright” and “Happy Jack”, centers around the early power pop genre. The song was originally intended to be a part of a rock opera called ‘Quads’ which was to be set in the future where parents can choose the sex of their children. The idea was later scrapped, but this song survived and was later released as a single.
Spotify Playlist – August 1

July 31 in music history

July 31, 2014 Egil


July 31: The late Ahmet Ertegun founder and president of Atlantic Records was born in 1923 (read more) “Few people have had a bigger impact on the record industry than Ahmet, and no one loved American music more than he did.” – David Geffen Ahmet Ertegün (July 31, 1923 – December 14, 2006) was a Turkish American musician and businessman, best known as the founder (with Herb Abramson) and president of Atlantic Records, and for discovering or championing artists like Eric Clapton, Phil Collins, Genesis, the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young, Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, Dusty Springfield, Yes, and more.
July 31: Bob Dylan: 5th recording session for Desire 1975 (read more) Studio E Columbia Recording Studios New York City, New York 31 July 1975 5th Desire session, produced by Don DeVito The following night [31 July 1975], Dylan held another session, this time recording three songs. From this session, Dylan recorded the master take for “Isis” as well as master takes for “Abandoned Love” and “Sara.” Dylan’s wife Sara, the subject of the song that bore her name, also accompanied him to this session.
“Baby, Stop Crying” is a song written by Bob Dylan, released on July 31, 1978 as a single and on his album Street Legal. It was performed live only during his big-band world-wide tour of 1978. The song charted at #13 in the UK and was a top-ten song in much of Europe, although it failed to chart in the United States.
James Travis “Jim” Reeves (August 20, 1923 – July 31, 1964) was an American country and popular music singer-songwriter. With records charting from the 1950s to the 1980s, he became well known as a practitioner of the Nashville sound (a mixture of older country-style music with elements of popular music). Known as “Gentleman Jim”, his songs continued to chart for years after his death. Reeves died in the crash of a private airplane. He is a member of both the Country Music and Texas Country Music Halls of Fame.
Time (The Revelator) (released July 31, 2001) is the third full length album by Gillian Welch. All songs were written by Welch together with David Rawlings and were recorded in Nashville, Tennessee. “I Want To Sing That Rock and Roll” was recorded live at the Ryman Auditorium as part of the sessions for the concert film, Down from the Mountain, all the rest of the tracks were recorded at RCA Studio B, Nashville, Tennessee.
Spotify Playlist – July 31

July 30 in music history

July 30, 2014 Egil


July 30: Bob Dylan: 4th recording session for Desire in 1975 (read more) The result is a sound and a set of songs unlike anything Dylan or anyone else has ever done before…. The lyrics of “Sara” and “Abandoned Love” (and, for that matter, of “Isis” and “Hurricane”) could not be more perfect, but overall the triumph of Desire is musical ~Paul Williams (Bob Dylan: Performing Artist, Vol 2: The Middle Years 1974-1986) – Recorded in the summer lull before the first Rolling Thunder tour and released soon after it, the stand-out tracks are ‘Isis’, ‘Romance in Durango’ and ‘Black Diamond Bay’, but ‘Hurricane’, ‘One More Cup of Coffee’ and ‘Oh Sister’ are breathing down their necks. ~Michael Gray (The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia)
Samuel Cornelius Phillips (January 5, 1923 – July 30, 2003), better known as Sam Phillips, was an American businessman, record executive, record producer and DJ who played an important role in the emergence of rock and roll as the major form of popular music in the 1950s. He was a producer, label owner, and talent scout throughout the 1940s and 1950s. He most notably founded Sun Studios and Sun Records in Memphis, Tennessee. Through Sun, Phillips discovered such recording talent as Howlin’ Wolf, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis and Johnny Cash.
George “Buddy” Guy (born July 30, 1936) is an American blues guitarist and singer. Critically acclaimed, he is a pioneer of the Chicago blues sound and has served as an influence to some of the most notable musicians of his generation, including Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan. In the 1960s Guy was a member of Muddy Waters’ band and as a house guitarist at Chess Records. He can be heard on Howlin’ Wolf’s ‘Killing Floor’ and Koko Taylor’s ‘Wang Dang Doodle’ as well as on his own Chess sides and the fine series of records he made with harmonica player Junior Wells.Ranked 30th in Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the “100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time”, Guy is known for his showmanship on stage: playing his guitar with drumsticks or strolling into the audience while playing solos. His song “Stone Crazy” was ranked 78th in list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time also of Rolling Stone.
July 30: Bob Dylan: 5th recording session for Highway 61 Revisited 1965 (read more) “I never wanted to write topical songs,…. Have you heard my last two records, Bringing It All Back Home and Highway 61? It’s all there. That’s the real Dylan.” ~Bob Dylan (to Frances Taylor – Aug 1965) – “Dylan had not only changed his sound, but his persona, trading the folk troubadour for a streetwise, cynical hipster. Throughout the album, he embraces druggy, surreal imagery, which can either have a sense of menace or beauty, and the music reflects that, jumping between soothing melodies to hard, bluesy rock. And that is the most revolutionary thing about Highway 61 Revisited — it proved that rock & roll needn’t be collegiate and tame in order to be literate, poetic, and complex.” ~Stephen Thomas Erlewine (allmusic.com)
The Rising is the 12th studio album by American recording artist Bruce Springsteen, released in 2002 (July 30) on Columbia Records. In addition to being Springsteen’s first studio album in seven years, it was also his first with the E Street Band in 18 years. It is centered around Springsteen’s reflections on the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Catherine “Kate” Bush (born 30 July 1958) is an English singer-songwriter, musician and record producer. Her eclectic musical style and idiosyncratic vocal style have made her one of the United Kingdom’s most successful solo female performers of the past 30 years.
Spotify Playlist – July 30

July 29 in music history

July 29, 2014 Egil


July 29: Bob Dylan: The third recording session for Highway 61 Revisited in 1965 (read more) “I never wanted to write topical songs,…. Have you heard my last two records, Bringing It All Back Home and Highway 61? It’s all there. That’s the real Dylan.” ~Bob Dylan (to Frances Taylor – Aug 1965)
On July 29, 1966, Bob Dylan crashed his 500cc Triumph Tiger 100 motorcycle on a road near his home in Woodstock, New York, and was thrown to the ground. Though the extent of his injuries was never fully disclosed, Dylan said that he broke several vertebrae in his neck. Mystery still surrounds the circumstances of the accident since no ambulance was called to the scene and Dylan was not hospitalized. Dylan’s biographers have written that the crash offered Dylan the much-needed chance to escape from the pressures that had built up around him. Dylan confirmed this interpretation of the crash when he stated in his autobiography, “I had been in a motorcycle accident and I’d been hurt, but I recovered. Truth was that I wanted to get out of the rat race.” In the wake of his accident, Dylan withdrew from the public and, apart from a few select appearances, did not tour again for almost eight years.
Ina Anita Carter (March 31, 1933 – July 29, 1999), the youngest daughter of Ezra and Mother Maybelle Carter, was a versatile American singer who experimented with several different types of music and played upright bass with her sisters Helen Carter and June Carter Cash as The Carter Sisters. The trio joined the Grand Ole Opry radio show in 1950 (Anita was 17 years old at the time), opened shows for Elvis Presley, and joined The Johnny Cash Show in 1971. As a solo artist, and with her family, Carter recorded for a number of labels including RCA Victor, Cadence, Columbia, Audiograph, United Artists, Liberty and Capitol.
Vivienne Patricia “Patti” Scialfa, born July 29, 1953, is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. She is married to Bruce Springsteen and they have three children.
Geddy Lee Weinrib, OC (born Gary Lee Weinrib; July 29, 1953), better known as Geddy Lee, is a Canadian musician, best known as the lead vocalist, bassist, and keyboardist for the Canadian rock group Rush. Lee joined what would become Rush in September 1968, at the request of his childhood friend Alex Lifeson, replacing original bassist and frontman Jeff Jones.
Spotify Playlist – July 29

July 27 in music history

July 27, 2014 Hallgeir


Bobbie Gentry is 70 Happy Birthday (read more) Roberta Lee Streeter (born July 27, 1944), professionally known as Bobbie Gentry, is an American former singer-songwriter notable as one of the first female country artists to compose and produce her own material. Her songs typically drew on her Mississippi roots to compose vignettes of the Southern United States.
July 27: Bob Dylan: North Country Blues, Newport, Rhode Island 1963 (read more) On July 26, 1965, Johnny Cash performed at Newport with this great band: Johnny Cash (v, acg) Luther Perkins (eg) Marshall Grant (b) WS Holland (d)
Leon Russell Wilkeson (2 April 1952 – 27 July 2001) Bassist of Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd from 1972 until his death in 2001 With its outlaw/party-hearty image, tough southern rock, and solid touring, Skynyrd quickly became one of the top bands of the 1970s, scoring such hit albums as 1974’s Second Helping, 1975’s Nuthin’ Fancy, 1976’s Gimme Back My Bullets and One More from the Road, plus 1977’s Street Survivors—and such hit singles as “Free Bird” and “Sweet Home Alabama.” It was also during this classic era that Wilkeson picked up the gimmick of wearing colorful hats onstage, garnering the nickname “Mad Hatter.”
Conway Savage (born 27 July 1960) is an Australian rock musician best known as pianist/organist/backing vocalist for Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds.Savage joined the group in 1990 for their The Good Son tour of that year, and has since appeared on albums such as Henry’s Dream, Let Love In, Murder Ballads, The Boatman’s Call, No More Shall We Part and Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus. One of his more noticeable performances is on the song “The Willow Garden”, a b-side of “Where the Wild Roses Grow”, where in a rare occasion for the Bad Seeds, Conway does lead vocals.
New York Dolls is the debut studio album by the New York Dolls, released on July 27, 1973, by Mercury Records. The band formed in 1971 and developed a following while playing regularly in lower Manhattan. However, they were unappealing to record companies because of their onstage cross-dressing and vulgarity, while most record producers were reluctant to work with them. For shock value, the band was photographed in exaggerated drag on the album cover.
Spotify Playlist – July 27

Focusing on Bob Dylan & related music