Category Archives: Anniversary

Anniversary, Beatles, Music et al

Beatles Meet Washington

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Beatles Meet Washington

February 11, 1964
The Beatles Meet Washington
poster for Washington, DC concert. The first US Beatle concert performance.
Beatles Meet Washington

Snowstorm cancels flight

A snowstorm had cancelled their flight, so the Beatles took a train to Washington DC and made their live concert debut in the US at the Washington Coliseum. Over 350 police surrounded the stage to try and control the 8,000 plus screaming fans. One police officer who found the noise so loud stuck a bullet in each ear as ear plugs. The Beatles had to stop three times and turn Ringo’s drum kit around and re-position their microphones so that they faced a different part of the audience. The set list: ‘Roll Over Beethoven’, ‘From Me to You’, ‘I Saw Her Standing There’, ‘This Boy’, ‘All My Loving’, ‘I Wanna Be Your Man’, ‘Please Please Me’, ‘She Loves You’, ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand’, ‘Twist and Shout’, and ‘Long Tall Sally’.

Beatles Meet Washington

George Harrison remembers

George Harrison summed up his experience this way: That night, we were absolutely pelted by the fuckin’ things. They don’t have soft jelly babies there; they have hard jelly beans. To make matters worse, we were on a circular stage, so they hit us from all sides. Imagine waves of rock-hard little bullets raining down on your from the sky. It’s a bit dangerous, you know, ’cause if a jelly bean, travelling about 50 miles an hour through the air, hits you in the eye, you’re finished. You’re blind aren’t you? We’ve never liked people throwing stuff like that. We don’t mind them throwing streamers, but jelly beans are a bit dangerous, you see! Every now and again, one would hit a string on my guitar and plonk off a bad note as I was trying to play. (from The Beatles Off The Record, Keith Badman)

Beatles Meet Washington

Paul McCartney remembers

In 2010, Paul McCartney remembered, We’d seen a lot of British stars come back from America with their tails between their legs. We made a promise to ourselves to not go until we had a No. 1. We were so excited to be madly popular in America, which was to us the Holy Grail because every shred of music we ever loved came from there. It was euphoric, and now we were heading to Washington on the train, which was very glamorous. And to cap it off, there was that beautiful snow. (Washington Post article)

Beatles Meet Washington

John Lennon remembers

John Lennon’s memory of the reception following was a discomforting one: People were sort of touching us as we walked past, that kind of thing. Wherever we went we were supposed to be not normal and we were supposed to put up with all sorts of shit from lord mayors and their wives and be touched and pawed like A Hard Day’s Night only a million more times. At the American Embassy, the British Embassy in Washington, or wherever it was, some bloody animal cut Ringo’s hair, in the middle of… I walked out of that. Swearing at all of them and I just left in the middle of it. (John Lennon, 1970. Lennon Remembers by Jann S Wenner)

You can listen to the whole concert with the YouTube link below:

Today, the concert site looks a bit different than in 1964.

The Beatles Meet Washington

Reference >>> Beatles Bible site

Beatles Meet Washington

Anniversary, Beatles, John Lennon, Music of the 60s

John Lennon Instant Karma

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John Lennon Instant Karma

January 27, 1970

While only a few might say that Instant Karma is John Lennon’s greatest song, many would agree that it’s one of his best solo works.

No matter where one ranks it (if one needs to do that to begin with) most songs do not happen in one day, but with Instant Karma, one day it was. The way John describes it: “I wrote it for breakfast, recorded it for lunch and we’re putting it out for dinner.”

Only the dinner reference is hyperbole. It took ten days to release!

John Lennon Instant Karma

Third single

John Lennon Instant Karma

Instant Karma was the third Lennon single to appear before the official Beatles breakup.

John Lennon Instant Karma

Melinde Kendall

According to the Beatles Bible site, “Its title came from Melinde Kendall, the wife of Yoko Ono’s former husband Tony Cox. She had used the phrase in conversation during Lennon and Ono’s stay with them in Denmark during December 1969 and the following month.”

John Lennon Instant Karma

Inspiration

According to Lennon himself, “It just came to me. Everybody was going on about karma, especially in the Sixties. But it occurred to me that karma is instant as well as it influences your past life or your future life. There really is a reaction to what you do now. That’s what people ought to be concerned about. Also, I’m fascinated by commercials and promotion as an art form. I enjoy them. So the idea of instant karma was like the idea of instant coffee: presenting something in a new form. I just liked it.” [from David Sheff’s All We Are Saying]

Phil Spector

It was January 27, 1970. Phil Spector was visiting George Harrison in London and John called George about the project. George suggested Phil produce. They booked time at the studio that evening.  There were just four people: John on piano, George on acoustic guitar, Klaus Voormann on bass, and Alan White on drums. Very late that night, Billy Preston and some friends helped add vocal backgrounds.

Instant Karma!

The flip side was Yoko Ono’s Who Has Seen the Wind.

John Lennon Instant Karma
Anniversary, Music et al

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

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Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Happy Anniversary!
January 23, 1986
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
1986 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees

By 1986, rock and roll was in its fourth decade and when you’re 40 some things that you would have laugh at in your teens, suddenly seem appropriate. A Hall of Fame seemed appropriate.

Ahmet Ertegun, Atlantic Records’ chairman, founded The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame . He had announced the Hall’s creation in August 1985 ( NYT article).

To be eligible, the performers nominated could alive or dead, but they had to have been actively involved in music for at least 25 years.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

And so it was on this date that the first induction was held at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

First Class

smaller r and r h of f

  • John Hammond
  • Alan Freed
  • Sam Phillips
  • Elvis Presley
  • Buddy Holly
  • Chuck Berry
  • Fats Domino
  • James Brown
  • Jerry Lee Lewis
  • Jimmie Rogers
  • Jimmy Yancy
  • Ray Charles
  • Sam Cooke
  • The Everly Brothers
  • Robert Johnson
  • Little Richard

The New York Times article described the event this way: By the end of the evening, the audience of 1,000 music-industry figures was rocking and rolling – shouting, cheering, standing on tables and chairs – while several inductees, and a once-in-a-lifetime gathering of rock stars who had helped present the awards – took over the stage for a roaring but surprisingly cohesive jam session. (NYT article)

It was quite a party with lots of musical collaborations such as the following Reelin’ and Rockin’

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Not all Musicians

It is important to note that three of the inductees were not musicians as such: John Hammond was an American record producer, civil rights activist and music critic from the 1930s to the early 1980s. In his service as a talent scout, Hammond became one of the most influential figures in 20th century popular music], DJ Alan Freed, and Sam Phillips (blog piece about Memphis Recording Service)

Happy anniversary to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Post Script

The foibles of men in power, particularly white men in power, can catch up with them and that’s what happened in September 2023 when in a New York Times interview Jann Wenner explained why there were so few women and Blacks were included in his book about important rock and roll musicians.

His response was unacceptable.

Regarding women; “Just none of them were as articulate enough on this intellectual level,” and remarked that Joni Mitchell “was not a philosopher of rock ’n’ roll.”

Regarding Blacks: “Of Black artists — you know, Stevie Wonder, genius, right?” he said. “I suppose when you use a word as broad as ‘masters,’ the fault is using that word. Maybe Marvin Gaye, or Curtis Mayfield? I mean, they just didn’t articulate at that level.” [NYT article]

Not good.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame