Rock and Metal History, a day like today April 7

Spencer Dryden

1938 - Spencer Dryden, drummer of Jefferson Airplane, was born in New York City; died of cancer in Petaluma, California January 11, 2005.

Bill Kreutzmann

1946 - Bill Kreutzmann, drummer of Grateful Dead, was born in Palo Alto, California.

1952 - Bruce Gary, drummer of the Knack ("My Sharona"), was born in Burbank, California; died August 22, 2006 of non-Hodgkin lymphoma in Tarzana, California.

1956 - CBS Radio Network premiered the first scheduled national radio program of exclusively rock & roll music, Alan Freed's "Rock 'n" Roll Dance Party".  The writing was on the wall that rock & roll wasn't going away.

1962 - Mick Jagger and Keith Richards met Brian Jones for the first time at the Ealing Jazz Club in England.  At the time, Jones was called Elmo Lewis and played guitar that night as a guest of Alexis Korner, who had put together a Rhythm and Blues Night at the Club.  The Ealing, which received a Blue plaque as an historic place, is credited with being "the birthplace of British rhythm and blues".  It is now a nightclub called The Red Room.

1967 - Pink Floyd appeared at the Floral Hall in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

1972 - Grateful Dead was at the Wembley Empire Pool in London, England. 

1975 - Ritchie Blackmore left Deep Purple to form the group Rainbow.  Tommy Bolin replaced Blackmore in Deep Purple.

1978 - The Police released 'Roxanne' as the first single from their debut album Outlandos d'Amour. The song was written from the point of view of a man who falls in love with a prostitute. The title came from the name of the character in the play Cyrano de Bergerac, which Sting saw on an old poster which was hanging in a hotel foyer in Paris, France where the group had been staying.

2000 - Heinz Burt, bass player and vocalist with the Tornadoes, died of a stroke in Eastleigh, Hampshire, England at the age of 57.  The group scored a #1 song with one of the top instrumentals of all-time, "Telstar".  Burt also had a solo hit with a tribute to Eddie Cochran, "Just Like Eddie", that featured Deep Purple guitarist Ritchie Blackmore.

2008 - Bob Dylan received a Pulitzer Prize for his impact on music and culture.