11/07/2025
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ON THIS DAY IN MUSIC HISTORY: 7.11
1951 - On WJW in Cleveland, Alan Freed broadcast his first "Moondog House Rock and Roll Party," marking the first radio show with the phrase "Rock and Roll" and giving Freed a claim on the origin of the term. More importantly, Freed plays R&B music, which introducing the sound to a new (and mostly white) audience.
1969 - The Rolling Stones release "H***y Tonk Women."
Keith Richards : "'H***y Tonk Women' started in Brazil. Mick and I, Marianne Faithfull and Anita Pallenberg who was pregnant with my son at the time. Which didn't stop us going off to the Mato Grasso and living on this ranch. It started out a real country honk put on, a hokey thing. And then couple of months later we were writing songs and recording. And somehow by some metamorphosis it suddenly went into this little swampy, black thing, a Blues thing. Really, I can't give you a credible reason of how it turned around from that to that.
They made it into a rocker for release as a single and released the country version, "Country Honk," a few months later on Let It Bleed.
1971 - The Bruce Springsteen Band opened for Humble Pie at the Sunshine In, Asbury Park in New Jersey. After the show an impressed Peter Frampton from Humble Pie, tells Springsteen and the band he'd like to have them open for them on a national basis. Frampton also said he would be happy to get the band an audition with his record label, A & M Records. For no logical reason Springsteen’s manager Tinker West declined both offers on the spot.
1972 - Curtis Mayfield releases the soundtrack to Superfly. The choice of Curtis Mayfield to score the blaxploitation film Super Fly was an inspired one. No other artist in popular music knew so well, and expressed through his music so naturally, the shades of gray inherent in contemporary inner-city life.
Mayfield wisely avoids celebrating the wheeling-and-dealing themes present in the movie, or exploiting them, instead using each song to focus on a different aspect of what he saw as a plague on America's streets. He also steers away from explicit moralizing; through his songs, Mayfield simply tells it like it is (for the characters in the film as in real life), with any lessons learned the result of his vibrant storytelling and knack of getting inside the heads of the characters.
"Freddie's Dead," one of the album's signature pieces, tells the story of one of the film's main casualties, a good-hearted yet weak-willed man caught up in the life of a pusher and "Pusherman" masterfully uses the metaphor of drug dealer as businessman, with the drug game, by extension, just another way to make a living in a tough situation. Ironically, the sound of Super Fly positively overwhelmed its lyrical finesse. A melange of deep, dark grooves, trademarked wah-wah guitar, and stinging brass, Super Fly ignited an entire genre of music, the blaxploitation soundtrack, and influenced everyone from soul singers to television-music composers for decades to come.
1975 - Fleetwood Mac released their 10th studio album, Fleetwood Mac. Still, there's no denying that 1975's Fleetwood Mac represents not just the rebirth of the band, but in effect a second debut for the group -- the introduction of a band that would dominate the sound of American and British mainstream pop for the next seven years. In fact, in retrospect, it's rather stunning how thoroughly Buckingham and Nicks, who had previously recorded as a duo and were romantically entangled in the past, overtook the British blues band. As soon as the Californian duo came onboard, Fleetwood Mac turned into a West Coast pop/rock band, transforming the very identity of the band and pushing the band's other songwriter, keyboardist Christine McVie, to a kindred soft rock sound.
It could have all been too mellow if it weren't for the nervy, restless spirit of Buckingham, whose insistent opener, "Monday Morning," sets the tone for the rest of the album, as well the next few years of the group's career. Then there's the wily spirits of Nicks and McVie, whose singles "Rhiannon," "Say You Love Me," and "Over My Head" deservedly made this into a blockbuster. It was diverse without being forced, percolating with innovative ideas, all filtered through an accessible yet sophisticated sensibility. While Rumours had more hits and Tusk was an inspired work of mad genius, Fleetwood Mac wrote the blueprint for Californian soft rock of the late '70s and was the standard the rest were judged by. (Photo credit should read TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP via Getty Images)
1979 - The space station Skylab crashed to Earth after six years in space. Leading up to the event, Electric Light Orchestra took out ads in trade magazines dedicating their new single, "Don't Bring Me Down", to Skylab.
1992 - A range of eight neckties designed by Jerry Garcia of The Grateful Dead went on sale in the United States. President Bill Clinton bought a set. The collection grossed millions in the U.S. by the end of the year.
Garcia, who studied painting at the San Francisco Art Institute, has been dabbling in art for quite some time, often working on drawings and paintings when he isn't making music. Neckties provide a unique canvas for his work, which isn't Dead-issue tie dye, but abstract designs.
That Garcia has never been spotted wearing a necktie doesn't seem to matter - this is premium silk crepe neckwear, selling for $28.50.
1994 - The Rolling Stones released Voodoo Lounge. The Stones strip their sound back to its spare, hard-rocking basics. The Stones act in kind, turning out a set of songs that are pretty traditionalist. Still, this approach works because they are turning out songs that may not be classics but are first-rate examples of the value of craft.
1995 - 311 released their self-titled third album. It is the seamless way the songs on the eponymously titled 311 combine the band's influences into a potent blend of rap, funk, and rock that renders this album a cut above those of their competitors. These riff-heavy and radio-ready songs are underscored by a tight drum sound (often with a piccolo snare), the scratching of turntables, and the crunch of heavy guitars: a formidable backdrop for this surprisingly melodic effort. The rhythms of reggae and ska percolate through this mix, and the harmonies of Nick Hexum and S.A. Martinez lend the band an edge not found in the majority of bands that feature rapping over rock beats.
2019 - Toymakers Mattel announced a new collectable David Bowie doll inspired by his signature Ziggy Stardust fashion. Dubbed Barbie as Bowie, the doll is dressed as the late singer's glam-rock alter ego, complete with a pair of red platform boots and topped with his fiery-red mullet.
Birthdays:
Jeff Hanna, from American country rock band, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, is 78. The rise of country-rock in the late 1960s introduced a down-home sound to a younger and hipper audience, and few if any groups hewed closer to country traditions -- and enjoyed a longer career -- than the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. They first emerged as part of the jug band revival that spawned acts like the Lovin' Spoonful and the Jim Kweskin Jug Band, adding a dash of vaudeville humor (as evidence by their 1967 album Ricochet), but they matured into a sound informed by classic string bands and bluegrass when they scored their breakthrough hit with 1970's "Mr. Bojangles" (from the album Uncle Charlie & His Dog Teddy). They celebrated the pioneers of country music with 1972's Will the Circle Be Unbroken, an ambitious triple album with guest appearances from Mother Maybelle Carter, Roy Acuff, Merle Travis, Earl Scruggs, and many more that won them praise as one of the most authentic country-rock acts. The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band are in the Colorado Music Hall Of Fame.
Peter Murphy, singer of Bauhaus, is 68. Bauhaus are the founding fathers of goth rock, creating a minimalistic, overbearingly gloomy style of post-punk rock driven by jagged guitar chords and cold, distant synthesizers. Throughout their brief career, the band explored all the variations on their bleak musical ideas, adding elements of glam rock, experimental electronic rock, funk, and heavy metal.
Suzanne Vega is 66 today. Her incisive songwriting and cooly expressive vocals have helped her establish a loyal following. Her hushed, restrained folk-pop and highly literate lyrics (inspired chiefly by Leonard Cohen, as well as Lou Reed and Bob Dylan) laid the initial musical groundwork for what later became the trademark sound of Lilith Fair, a tour on which she was a regular. Moreover, her left-field hit singles "Luka" and "Tom's Diner" helped convince record companies that folk-styled singer/songwriters were not a thing of the past, paving the way for breakthroughs by Tracy Chapman, Michelle Shocked, Shawn Colvin, Edie Brickell, the Indigo Girls, and a host of others.
R.I.P.:
1996 - Jonathan Melvoin keyboard player with the Smashing Pumpkins died from a drug overdose in New York City aged 34. Smashing Pumpkins drummer Jimmy Chamberlin who was with Melvoin tried but failed to revive him after Chamberlin was allegedly advised by 911 operators to put Melvoin's head in the shower. Sarah McLachlan's hit single 'Angel', was inspired by his death. He was the brother of Susannah and Wendy Melvoin of Prince and the Revolution. Melvoin had also been a member of The Dickies.
2014 - Ramones drummer Tommy Ramone died of bile duct cancer at the age of 65. He was active in the band for the first four years of the band's existence (1974 to 1978), and was the last surviving original member of the Ramones. He played on and co-produced their first three albums, Ramones, Leave Home, Rocket to Russia, and the live album It's Alive. He was originally the band's manager, then took over drumming when Joey Ramone didn't want to drum and sing.
On This Day In Music History was sourced, curated, copied, pasted, edited, and occasionally woven together with my own crude prose, from This Day in Music, Allmusic, Music This Day, Song Facts and Wikipedia.
