We typically think of the Rolling Stones relationship with the Beatles as being friendly, yet competitive.
Beatlemania bursts open
It was in 1963, the early blasts of Beatlemania beginning, that the Beatles recommended to Andrew Loog Oldham, their PR person, that he go listen to the Stones. Oldham “signed” them. I use quotes because Oldham was actually too young at the time, 19, to legally do that and needed assistance. Another story for another time.
The Beatles and the Stones loved American music. Their early covers demonstrate that. The Beatles eventually began to compose their own music and their success inspired many bands, including the Stones, to follow suit.
The Beatles followed a path of innovation. Along with George Martin, John, Paul, George and Ringo’s albums each expanded the range of rock.
Rolling Stones Sing Beatles
Rock v Pop
The Stones stuck with who brung them there: rock and roll. And they did it so well, they are still often referred to as the Greatest Rock and Roll Band.
When any artist is first testing their personal artistic chops, borrowing is often an option. We all stand on the shoulders of our fellow inspirations.
So did the Stones. They had released their first single, Chuck Berry’s “Come On” in June and mentioned to their friends the Beatles that another single had not yet happened.
Rolling Stones Sing Beatles
Invitation
Mick invited his friends to their session at the DeLane Lea Studios in London. There, Paul and John finished up “I Wanna Be Your Man” in front of the Stones. Thoroughly impressing the band.
Paul McCartney was the primary composer of “I Wanna Be Your Man,” but like many McCartney compositions, John helped out along the way. (And visa versa, of course.)
And so the Stones made quick work of recording the song. Literally. It comes in at a scant (even for those times) 1:43.
Rolling Stones Sing Beatles
UK Success
It was October 7, 1963. Decca UK released it on November 1. It peaked at #12 on the UK charts.
London released the single in the US on November 1 without any success. London used it was the B-side to the Not Fade Away single in March 1964.
Rolling Stones Sing Beatles
Beatle inclusion
The Beatles themselves, of course, used the song themselves and included it on their second UK album, With the Beatles, in November.
American fans did not hear the song until its inclusion on the first US Beatle album, Meet the Beatles! and we got to hear Ringo sing. The Beatles gave us 14 seconds more!
October 7, 1918: National Women’s Party picketed with banners in front of U.S. Capitol and Senate Office Building. Pickets arrested daily and released without charges. Throughout rest of Oct. and Nov., pickets harassed by unruly crowds and manhandled by police. (see Dec 2)
Women in service academies
October 7, 1975: President Ford approved a public law granting women entrance into Army, Navy, and Air Force academies for the first time beginning in the fall of 1976. [Women’s Memorial article] (see Oct 15)
October 7 Peace Love Art Activism
The Red Scare, McCarthyism, and the Cold War
October 7, 1949: less than five months after Great Britain, the United States, and France established the Federal Republic of Germany in West Germany, the Democratic Republic of Germany was proclaimed within the Soviet occupation zone. The West criticized the Republic as an un-autonomous Soviet creation, (see Nov 2)
Windscale nuclear reactor (UK)
October 7, 1957: a fire in the graphite-core reactor in Cumbria results in a limited release of radioactivity (INES Level 5). The sale of milk from nearby farms was banned for a month. The reactor could not be salvaged and was buried in concrete. A second reactor on the site is also shut down and the site decontaminated. Subsequently part of the site is renamed Sellafield and new nuclear reactors are built. (NYT article) (see Dec 17)
Cuban Missile Crisis
October 7, 1962: Cuban President Osvaldo Dorticós spoke at the UN General Assembly: “If … we are attacked, we will defend ourselves. I repeat, we have sufficient means with which to defend ourselves; we have indeed our inevitable weapons, the weapons, which we would have preferred not to acquire, and which we do not wish to employ.” (see Cuban Missile Crisis for expanded story)
Nuclear test ban treaty
October 7, 1963: President John F. Kennedy signed the documents of ratification for a nuclear test ban treaty with Britain and the Soviet Union. (CW, see Nov 18; NN, see January 29, 1964)
October 7 Peace Love Art Activism
October 7 Music et al
Howl
October 7, 1955: Allen Ginsberg read his poem “Howl” for the first time to an audience at the Six Gallery in San Francisco. “Howl” is considered to be one of the great works of American literature.
It came to be associated with the group of writers known as the Beat Generation, which included Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs. (see November 1, 1956)
WNEW-FM
October 7, 1967: WNEW-FM’s Pete Fornatelle interviewed Rosko regarding his Oct 2 resignation from WOR-FM. [see Oct 29]
October 7, 1975: the NY State Supreme Court voted to reverse John’s deportation order. Judge Irving Kaufman wrote “The courts will not condone selective deportation based upon secret political grounds…Lennon’s four-year battle to remain in our country is testimony to his faith in this American dream.” (see April 24, 1976)
October 7 Peace Love Art Activism
BLACK HISTORY
Freedom Day
October 7, 1963: in what would be known as “Freedom Day,” about 350 blacks line up to register to vote at the Dallas County (Alabama) Courthouse. Registrars go as slowly as possible and take a two-hour lunch break. Few manage to register, most of those are denied, but the protest is considered a huge victory by civil rights advocates. [SNCC article] (see Oct 8)
United States versus Cecil Price et al.
October 7, 1967: trial in the case of United States versus Cecil Price et al. began in the Meridian courtroom of Judge William Cox. Chief Prosecutor John Doar and other government attorneys had reason to be concerned about Cox. Cox, appointed as an effort to appease powerful Judiciary Committee Chairman (and former roommate of Cox at Ole Miss) Senator James Eastland, had been a constant source of problems for Justice Department lawyers (especially John Doar) who were seeking to enforce civil rights laws in Mississippi. In one incident, Judge Cox referred to a group of African Americans set to testify in a voting rights case as “a bunch of chimpanzees.”
A jury of seven white men and five white women, ranging in ages from 34 to 67, was selected. Defense attorneys exercised peremptory challenges against all seventeen potential black jurors. A white man, who admitted under questioning by Robert Hauberg, the U.S. Attorney for Mississippi, that he had been a member of the KKK “a couple of years ago,” was challenged for cause. Judge Cox denied the challenge. (Wikipedia entry) (see Oct 20)
Emmett Till
October 7, 2008: President Bush signed the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act of 2007 It tasked theJustice Department’s Civil Rights Division and the FBI with reviewing, investigating and assessing for prosecutive merit more than 100 unsolved civil rights era homicides. (BH, see Nov 4; ET, see Emmett Till)
October 7 Peace Love Art Activism
1964 World Series
October 7 – 15 , 1964: World Series St. Louis Cardinals against N Y Yankees, Cardinals defeated the Yankees in seven games. It was the last Yankee World Series appearance until 1976. [MLB article]
October 7 Peace Love Art ActivismOperation Enduring Freedom
War in Afghanistan
October 7, 2001: the armed forces of the US, the UK, Australia, and the Afghan United Front launched Operation Enduring Freedomin Afghanistan. (next Afghanistan-related, see Oct 22; War, see April 14, 2021)
October 7 Peace Love Art Activism
Sexual Abuse of Children
October 7, 2002: a commission appointed by Cardinal Bernard F. Law to help prevent sexual abuse by priests recommended that the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston compile a registry of accused priests and pass information about them to employers. The commission also recommended monitoring accused priests after they were removed from their jobs and reporting information about their work, living situations and any new complaints of abuse to an independent review board of lay experts. (see Nov 3)
October 7 Peace Love Art Activism
Iraq War II
October 7, 2004: a CIA report concluded that Saddam Hussein did not possess stockpiles of illicit weapons at the time of the U.S. invasion in March 2003 and had not begun any program to produce them. [CNN, 10/7/04] (see January 12, 2005)
October 6, 1927: “The Jazz Singer” – the first feature-length sound film in the US – opened in New York City. Within three years, 22,000 theater jobs for musicians who accompanied silent films were lost, while only a few hundred jobs for musicians performing on soundtracks were created by the new technology. (see Nov 21)
UAW
October 6, 1976: the UAW ended a 3-week strike against Ford Motor Co. when the company agreed to a contract that included more vacation days and better retirement and unemployment benefits. (see January 28, 1977)
Feminism
October 6, 1986: female flight attendants won an 18-year lawsuit against United Airlines, which had fired them for getting married. The lawsuit was resolved when a U.S. district court approved the reinstatement of 475 attendants and $37 million back-pay settlement for 1,725 flight attendants. (United Airlines, Inc. v. McDonald, 432 U.S. 385 (1977)) (next Feminism, see Nov 1; Labor, see February 2, 1987)
October 6 Peace Love Art Activism
Vietnam
October 6, 1955: Ngô Đình Diệm announced the referendum would be held on 23 October. The election was open to men and women aged 18 or over, and the government arranged to have a polling station set up for every 1,000 registered voters, The poll was contested by Bảo Đại, who had spent much of his time in France and advocated a monarchy, and Diệm, who ran on a republican platform. (see Oct 23)
Nuclear/Chemical News
October 6, 1961: the Soviet Union above-ground nuclear test. 4 megaton. President Kennedy, speaking on civil defense, advised American families to build bomb shelters to protect them from atomic fallout in the event of a nuclear exchange with the Soviet Union. [2009 Politico article] (see Oct 23, 1961)
Films about living in fallout shelter
October 6 Peace Love Art Activism
1965 World Series
October 6 – 14, 1965, World Series: LA Dodgers against the Minnesota Twins. LA in 7 games. [Foxsports article]
October 6 Peace Love Art Activism
LSD
October 6, 1966: a new federal law made possession of LSD illegal. (see Oct 20)
October 6 Peace Love Art Activism
Cultural Milestone
October 6, 1967: after many young people left the Haight-Ashbury at the end of a tumultuous, those remaining in the Haight wanted to commemorate the conclusion of the event.
A mock funeral entitled “The Death of the Hippie” ceremony was staged on October 6, 1967, and organizer Mary Kasper explained: We wanted to signal that this was the end of it, to stay where you are, bring the revolution to where you live and don’t come here because it’s over and done with. [2017 Retronewser article] (see Oct 17)
October 6 Peace Love Art Activism
Arab-Israeli War of 1973
October 6, 1973: the fourth and largest Arab–Israeli conflict begins, as Egyptian and Syrian forces attack Israeli forces in the Sinai Peninsula and Golan Heights on Yom Kippur. [2017 Aljazeera article]
October 6 Peace Love Art Activism
Irish Troubles
October 6, 1981: Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, James Prior, announced a number of changes in prison policy, one of which would allowed prisoners to wear their civilian clothes at all times. This was one of the five key demands that had been made at the start of the hunger strike. Prior also announced other changes: free association would be allowed in neighboring wings of each H-Block, in the exercise areas and in recreation rooms; an increase in the number of visits each prisoner would be entitled to..(see Troubles for expanded story)
October 6 Peace Love Art Activism
LGBTQ
Matthew Shepard murder
October 6, 1998: Matthew Shepard met Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson for the first time at the Fireside Lounge in Laramie, Wyoming. It was decided that McKinney and Henderson would give Shepard a ride home. McKinney and Henderson subsequently drove the car to a remote, rural area and proceeded to rob, pistol-whip, and torture Shepard, tying him to a fence and leaving him to die. According to their court testimony, McKinney and Henderson also discovered his address and intended to steal from his home. Still tied to the fence, Shepard, who was still alive but in a coma, was discovered 18 hours later by Aaron Kreifels, a cyclist who initially mistook Shepard for a scarecrow. (see Shepard for expanded story)
Melissa Ethridge, “Scarecrow”
Showers of your crimson blood
Seep into a nation calling up a flood
Of narrow minds who legislate
Thinly veiled intolerance
Bigotry and hateBut they tortured and burned you
They beat you and they tied you
They left you cold and breathing
For love they crucified youI can’t forget hard as I try
This silhouette against the skyScarecrow crying
Waiting to die wondering why
Scarecrow trying
Angels will hold carry your soul awayThis was our brother
This was our son
This shepherd young and mild
This unassuming one
We all gasp this can’t happen here
We’re all much too civilized
Where can these monsters hideBut they are knocking on our front door
They’re rocking in our cradles
They’re preaching in our churches
And eating at our tablesI search my soul
My heart and in my mind
To try and find forgiveness
This is someone child
With pain unreconciled
Filled up with father’s hate
Mother’s neglect
I can forgive But I will not forgetScarecrow crying
Waiting to die wondering why
Scarecrow trying
Rising above all in the name of love
Elton John, American Triangle
Seen him playing in his backyard
Young boy just starting out
So much history in this landscape
So much confusion, so much doubtBeen there drinking on that front porch
Angry kids, mean and dumb
Looks like a painting, that blue skyline
God hates fags where we come from’Western skies’ don’t make it right
‘Home of the brave’ don’t make no sense
I’ve seen a scarecrow wrapped in wireLeft to die on a high ridge fenceIt’s a cold, cold wind
It’s a cold, cold wind
It’s a cold wind blowing, WyomingSee two coyotes run down a deer
Hate what we don’t understand
You pioneers give us your children
But it’s your blood that stains their handsSomewhere that road forks up ahead
To ignorance and innocence
Three lives drift on different winds
Two lives ruined, one life spent
Same-sex marriage
October 6, 2014: the US Supreme Court let stand an appeals court rulings allowing same-sex marriage in five states. The development cleared the way for same-sex marriages in Indiana, Oklahoma, Utah, Virginia and Wisconsin. Gay and lesbian couples started getting married in those states within hours. (see Oct 8)
October 6 Peace Love Art Activism
BLACK HISTORY
October 6, 2009: Beth Humphrey, a white woman from Hammond, Louisiana, called Keith Bardwell, a justice of the peace in Tangipahoa Parish, to ask him to sign a license for her to marry Terence McKay, an African American man. Bardwell’s wife informed Humphrey that he would not sign a marriage license for an interracial couple. Bardwell, a justice of the peace for over 30 years, later estimated he had denied marriage licenses to four interracial couples during the previous two and a half years.
After his refusal was publicized and generated controversy, Bardwell defended his actions, insisting in interviews that he is “not a racist” and claiming he denied marriage licenses out of concern for the problems that would face an interracial couple’s children. He said he “does not believe in mixing races in that way” and believes “there is a problem with both groups [of whites and African Americans] accepting a child from such a marriage. I think those children suffer and I won’t help put them through it.”
Humphrey expressed shock at Bardwell’s views: “That was one thing that made this so unbelievable. It’s not something you expect in this day and age.” Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal called for an investigation and disciplinary action by a state commission that reviews the conduct of lawyers and judges in Louisiana. The ACLU, Center for Constitutional Rights, and local NAACP called on Bardwell to resign from his position, which he did on November 3. (see Oct 10)
SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE
October 6, 2014: the Supreme Court refused to hear the appeal of John Freshwater, an Ohio science teacher, who was fired for teaching creationism instead of evolution. Freshwater taught eighth-grade science at Mount Vernon Middle School until 2011, when the Board of Education removed him after it was revealed that he decorated his science classroom with Bible verses, attacked the theory of evolution, and gave extra credit for attending creationist films. (2010 NYT article) (see Dec 1)
Crime and Punishment
Overcrowding
October 6, 2015: according to federal law enforcement officials the Justice Department prepared to release roughly 6,000 inmates from federal prison as part of an effort to ease overcrowding and roll back the harsh penalties given to nonviolent drug dealers in the 1980s and ’90s.
The release was scheduled to occur from Oct. 30 to Nov. 2, and would be one of the largest one-time discharges of inmates from federal prisons in American history, said the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they did not want to be identified discussing matters that had not been publicly announced by the Justice Department. (see Nov 24)
DEATH PENALTY
October 6, 2015: District Judge Jeffrey Sherlock blocked Montana from using a particular drug in lethal injections, effectively halting executions in the state until an adequate substitute can be found or lawmakers change the law.
The barbiturate pentobarbital does not meet the state law’s standards for executions, Sherlock said. He stressed that his ruling was not on whether the death penalty was constitutional or whether the drug’s use constituted cruel and unusual punishment, but only whether the drug satisfied the law.
“Scrupulous adherence to statutory mandates is especially important here given the gravity of the death penalty,” Sherlock said in his order. [CBS News story] (see January 12, 2016)
October 6 Peace Love Art Activism
Sexual Abuse of Children
October 6, 2016: the Archdiocese of New York announced the establishment of an independent program that would allow victims of sexual abuse by members of the clergy to apply for compensation from the church, even for abuse claims that are decades old. [NYT article] (see March 1, 2017)
October 6 Peace Love Art Activism
Women’s Health
October 6, 2017: President Donald Trump’s administration issued a new rule that allowed all employers to opt out of including birth control in their health insurance plans for any moral or religious reason, rolling back the Obama-era requirement that guaranteed contraception coverage at no cost to 62 million women.
Requiring insurance plans to cover birth control imposes a “substantial burden” to the free exercise of religion guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution, and could promote “risky sexual behavior” among adolescents, the administration told reporters. [NYT article] (see Oct 24)
October 6 Peace Love Art Activism
Nuclear/Chemical News & ICAN
October 6, 2017: The Nobel Committee awarded the 2017 Peace Prize to The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons [ICAN]. The committee stated: “for its work to draw attention to the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons and for its ground-breaking efforts to achieve a treaty-based prohibition of such weapons” as the reason for selecting ICAN for this award. [NPR story] (Nuclear, see Oct 13; ICAN, see Nov 30)
Environmental Issues
October 6, 2021: the Biden administration announced that it would restore climate change protections to the nation’s bedrock environmental law, the National Environmental Policy Act, which former President Donald J. Trump had weakened in an effort to speed the approval of projects like mines, pipelines, dams and highways.
The proposed changes would require the federal government to evaluate the climate change impacts of major new projects as part of the permitting process. They come as Congress is weighing a plan to spend trillions of dollars on infrastructure improvements across the United States. [NYT article] (next EI, see Nov 2)
October 6 Peace Love Art Activism
Cannabis
October 6, 2022: President Biden pardoned thousands of people convicted of marijuana possession under federal law and said his administration would review whether marijuana should still be in the same legal category as drugs like heroin and LSD.
The pardons cleared everyone convicted on federal charges of simple possession since it became a crime in the 1970s. Officials said full data was not available but noted that about 6,500 people were convicted of simple possession between 1992 and 2021, not counting legal permanent residents. The pardons also affected people who were convicted under District of Columbia drug laws; officials estimated that number to be in the thousands.
The pardons would not apply to people convicted of selling or distributing marijuana. [NYT article] (next Cannabis, see Nov 8 or see CAC for larger chronology)
October 6 Peace Love Art Activism
What's so funny about peace, love, art, and activism?
