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Rock and Metal History, a day like today May 8

Rock Lab Radio
May 8, 2016
3 min read

1965: The filming of the promotional film for Bob Dylan’s Subterranean Homesick Blues took place at the side of the Savoy Hotel in London. Actors in the background were Allen Ginsberg and Bob Neuwirth. The original clip was actually the opening segment of D. A. Pennebaker's film, Don't Look Back, a documentary on Bob Dylan's 1965 tour of England. In the film, Dylan, who came up with the idea, holds up cue cards for the camera with selected words and phrases from the lyrics. The cue cards were written by Donovan, Allen Ginsberg, Bob Neuwirth and Dylan himself. While staring at the camera, he flipped the cards as the song played.

1965,

1970: The Beatles twelfth and final album, Let It Be was released, (it was recorded before the Abbey Road album, and was originally to be called 'Get Back'). The album came in a deluxe-boxed edition with a 'Get Back' book.

1982: Neil Bogart died of cancer at the age of 39. Bogart was the founder of Casablanca Records, with Peter Guber, home of Donna Summer, The Village People, KISS, T.Rex and Joan Jett.

1984: Roger Waters released his first solo album The Pros And Cons Of Hitch Hiking. The concept album, as originally envisioned by Waters in 1977, rotated around a man's thoughts during a midlife crisis, and featured guest musicians Eric Clapton on guitar, David Sanborn on saxophone and Michael Kamen on piano.

1993: Aerosmith entered the US album chart at No.1 with 'Get A Grip', a No.2 hit in the UK. The album went on to sell over 20 million copies worldwide as well as winning the band two Grammy awards.

1997: Aerosmith began the European portion of their Nine Lives tour in 1997. While the album sold 2 million American copies, it wasn’t one of their best. The “Falling in Love” single from the album made the top 40 on both sides of the Atlantic.

2005: Bruce Springsteen was at No.1 on the US album chart with 'Devils and Dust' his 13th No.1 studio album.

2006: The Rolling Stones called off their forthcoming European tour after guitaristKeith Richards underwent emergency brain surgery. The 62 year-old guitarist suffered "mild concussion" when he fell out of a coconut tree on holiday in Fiji.

Eric Clapton kicked off a 12 date UK tour at the SECC in Glasgow, Scotland.

2015: Metallica has their third studio album,Master Of Puppets, ranked at #130 on the Billboard Top 200 Albums Chart.

The third studio album from Bon Jovi, Slippery When Wet, has returned to the Billboard Top 200 Albums Chart, ranking at #168.

The fifth studio album from In This Moment,Black Widow, is ranked at #1 on the iTunes Top 100 Heavy Metal Albums Chart.

Born on this day

1940: Ricky Nelson, US singer, (1958 US No.1 'Poor Little Fool', 1961 UK No.2 single 'Hello Mary Lou' plus over 30 US Top 40 hit singles). Played himself on his parent's US TV The Adventures Of Ozzie and Harriet.' Nelson died on 31st December 1985.

1943: Danny Whitten, guitarist, singer, songwriter. Member ofNeil Young's Crazy Horse and writer of 'I Don't Wanna Talk About It', covered by Rod Stewart, Rita Coolidge and Everything But The Girl. The Neil Young song ‘The Needle and the Damage Done’ was written about Whitten’s heroin use (before he died of an overdose on Nov 18th 1972).

1944: Bill Legend, T Rex, (1971 UK No.1 single 'Hot Love'. Plus over 20 other UK Top 40 singles).

1947: Rick Derringer, producer, guitar, vocals, The McCoys, (1965 US No.1 & UK No.5 single 'Hang On Sloopy'), Edgar Winter Group, (1973 US No.1 & UK No.18 single 'Frankenstein').

1951: Chris Frantz, drummer, Talking Heads, (1983 US No.9 single 'Burning Down The House', 1985 UK No.6 single 'Road To Nowhere').

1951: Philip Bailey, vocals, Earth Wind and Fire, (1975 US No.1 single 'Shining Star', 1981 UK No.3 single 'Let's Groove') & solo, (1985 UK No.1 single 'Easy Lover' duet with Phil Collins).