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Music et al, Music of the 60s

November 27 Music et al

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November 27 Music et al

LSD/Grateful Dead

November 27 Music et al

November 27, 1965:  Ken Kesey began his Acid Tests, a series of parties held in the San Francisco Bay Area centered entirely around the use of, experimentation with, and advocacy of LSD. It may have included the first performance by The Grateful Dead, still known as The Warlocks. This one was held in the small neighborhood of Soquel. It was a small semi-public event advertised only at the local Hip Pocket underground bookstore, (LSD & Dead, see Dec 4)

November 27 Music et al

Whipped Cream and Other Delights

November 27 Music et al
outtake

November 27, 1965  – January 7, 1966 – Herb Albert’s Whipped Cream and Other Delights the Billboard #1 album. The album cover is considered a classic pop culture icon. It featured model Dolores Erickson wearing chiffon and shaving cream. The picture was taken at a time when Erickson was three months pregnant. (see Whipped Cream for expanded story)

November 27 Music et al

Magical Mystery Tour

November 27 Music et al

November 27, 1967: Beatles released the album Magical Mystery Tour in the USA.

Douglas Wolk wrote in Rolling Stone, “If Sgt. Pepper was a blueprint for the Beatles’ new utopianism – a culture of vivid sensory experience, for which they could be the entertainers and court jesters – the Magical Mystery Tour project was an attempt to literally take that idea into the world. Paul McCartney’s concept was that the Beatles would drive around the British countryside with their friends, film the result and shape that into a movie over which they would have total creative control. But like a lot of Sixties attempts to turn utopian theory into practice, the movie fell on its nose: The Beatles simply weren’t filmmakers  (AllMusic review) (see Dec 17)

November 27 Music et al

All Things Must Pass

November 27, 1970: George Harrison’s “All Things Must Pass” released. It was his first solo work since the Beatle break-up in April. The original vinyl release featured two LPs of rock songs as well as Apple Jam, a third disc of informal jams. Often credited as rock’s first triple album, it was in fact the first by a solo artist with the multi-artist Woodstock live set having preceded it by six months.

In regards to the album’s size, Harrison stated: “I didn’t have many tunes on Beatles records, so doing an album like All Things Must Pass was like going to the bathroom and letting it out.”

The album was critically acclaimed (Rolling Stone magazine review) and, with long stays at number 1 in both the US and the UK, commercially successful. It was certified 6x platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America in 2001. (see Dec 11)

November 27 Music et al
Music et al

November 11 Music et al

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November 11 Music et al

Lonnie Donegan

Donegan’s 1957 hit, Gamblin’ Man
November 11 Music et al
Lonnie Donegan

November 11, 1956: Paul McCartney saw skiffle king Lonnie Donegan perform at Liverpool’s Empire Theatre. The concert inspired McCartney to start playing the guitar. Shortly afterwards he traded the trumpet he had received four months previously on his 14th birthday for a guitar.

In 2002, Robin Denselow wrote about Donegan in the Guardian after his death. Denselow wrote in part, that Donegan “was the first British pop superstar, and the founding father of British pop music…(see July 6, 1957)

November 11 Music et al
…seven years later…

Brian Epstein & Ed Sullivan

November 11 – 12, 1963: Beatles manager Brian Epstein traveled to New York and persuaded Ed Sullivan to book the Beatles for an unprecedented three consecutive appearances on Sullivan’s much-watched Sunday evening variety show – February 9th, 16th and 23rd, 1964. In exchange, CBS-TV got one year’s exclusive rights to the Beatles’ U.S. television appearances. [Beatles dot net article] (see Nov 15)

Sam Cooke

November 11, 1964, Sam Cooke recorded A Change Is Gonna Come.

In 2015, David Cantwell wrote a piece in The New Yorker about “The Unlikely Story of ‘A Change is Gonna Come.” In it he wrote that “Cooke’s recording remains as beloved and as timely as ever.” (see December 11, 1964)

November 11 Music et al

see Two Virgins for more

November 11, 1968: Two Virgins album released. It was composed of the experimental tapes of various sound effects made in May of 1968. The cover showed John and Yoko posing nude. The album released in a brown paper.

In 2016, Christopher Weingarten reevaluated Ono’s solo and Lennon music. He began by saying, “Yoko Ono’s five unapologetically noisy, quietly influential albums released between 1968 and 1971 (two solo, three with John Lennon) are some of the most misunderstood and maligned in rock history.” (see Nov 13)

November 11 Music et al
Birthdays, Music of the 60s, Woodstock Music and Art Fair

10 Years Bassist Leo Lyons

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10 Years Bassist Leo Lyons

10 Years Bassist Leo Lyons

Happy birthday
November 30, 1943

I am (and most of you are) certainly aware of and love Ten Years After’s “I’m Goin’ Home” performance at the Woodstock Music and Art Fair (I didn’t hear it as I had already gone home). And we know that it was Alvin Lee up front on guitar, but how many of us know and could name the other band members: Ric Lee on drums, Chick Churchill on keyboards, and Leo Lyons on bass.

I should. We should.

10 Years Bassist Leo Lyons

David William “Leo” Lyons

David William “Leo” Lyons was born in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire. grew up in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire England, a mining town where most of his male relatives worked in those mines.

An uncle and aunt had a wind up gramophone and he played all their collection.  He loved country music legend Jimmy Rogers and blues legend Leadbelly.

His first instrument was his grandfather’s old banjo. He did take guitar lessons later and played with friends with his guitar’s four bottom strings. He became a bassist.

When he was 16, the manager of a local band called the Atomites (it was the dawning of the nuclear age remember) asked Lyons to join the band. His first gig was a local dance hall and the experience hooked him.

Alvin Lee replaced the Atomite’s guitar player and later the band changed its name to the Jaybirds. In 1961 the Jaybirds went to London seeking success. They didn’t find it and most of the band members left.

Later drummer Ric Lee joined, then Chick Churchill.

From 1963 to 1966 Leo did it all. He played and managed the Jaybirds, worked as a session musician, toured as a sideman with pop acts, appeared in a play in London’s West End, and played a residency with British jazz guitarist Denny Wright.

10 Years Bassist Leo Lyons

Ten Years After

In 1967 the Jaybirds became Ten Years After and began a residency at London’s Marquee Club. Their debut album followed.

Bill Graham heard that album and invited them to play at his venues. They were also one of the first rock groups to be part of the Newport Jazz Festival.  That experience led them to play with such luminaries as Nina Simone, Roland Kirk, and Miles Davis.

10 Years Bassist Leo Lyons

Woodstock

It is likely that Ten Years After would have had its great  success even without its performance at Woodstock and its inclusion on both the album and movie, but those inclusions supercharged that likelihood.

The band broke up (temporarily) after their final recording,  Positive Vibrations, in 1974.

10 Years Bassist Leo Lyons

Post After

In 1975 Chrysalis Records hired Lyons as studio manager to re-equip and run Wessex Studios in London. He was later to go on and build two commercial studios of his own. He has produced dozens of records.

Other projects include stage musicals, cartoon soundtracks, film and music videos.

Aside from writing and producing, Leo has been guest bassist on CDs by Savoy Brown. Leslie West, Fred Koller, Danny Johnson and has toured extensively with former Buddy Guy guitarist Scott Holt.

He played with Ten Years After when that band occasionally reformed but left again in 2013 to remain full time with the band he’d helped form in  2010: Hundred Seventy Split.

Lyons now lives in Nashville, Tennessee. Lyon’s site

10 Years Bassist Leo Lyons