Today in rock history: on this date in 1979, Little Feat’s original singer, guitarist and songwriter Lowell George died of a heart attack at age 34. Before fronting the California rock band that dabbled with so many different styles and genres, George was a member of Frank Zappa’s Mothers of Invention. Additionally, he was a sought after session musician who appeared on recordings by John Cale, Harry Nilsson and Jackson Browne.
Today in rock history: on this date in 1984, Bruce Springsteen kicked off his marathon Born In The USA tour with a three-show run at the Civic Center in St. Paul, Minnesota. It was during this show that Springsteen filmed his live music video for the first single he’d release from his the multi-platinum album the tour was promoting, “Dancing In The Dark." The video included a bit where Bruce would reach down into the crowd to pull a female fan up on stage to dance with him. The “fan” in the video happened to be a young, budding actress named Courtney Cox who’d later become a prime time television star as one of the lead actresses on the hit show “Friends”. Bruce’s tour would last until October 1985 and would include over 150 concerts.
Today in rock history: on this date in 1985, Mick Jagger and David Bowie began recording a duet of the Martha and the Vandellas soul classic, “Dancing In The Streets." The recording was put together to coincide with the upcoming massive musical charity event that was due to take place later that summer, Live Aid. The recording took 13 hours and the single was released soon after the completion of the session. The record was a big hit all over the world (it reached no.1 in England) and the popular music video that was filmed for it was a mainstay on MTV during the summer of ’85.Today in rock history: on this date in 1968, the very first free music festival took place at London, England’s Hyde Park. On the bill was Jethro Tull, Tyrannosaurus Rex (before they’d shortened their name to T. Rex) and Pink Floyd. The free show was scheduled to coincide with Floyd’s second album, A Saucerful Of Secrets which was released on the very same day.
This article appears in Jun 29 – Jul 7, 2017.