1938 Willie Chambers (Chambers Brothers) 1943 George Benson (soul/jazz singer) 1944 Lou Reed (Louis Firbank) 1949 Rory Gallagher (Taste) 1950 Karen Carpenter (Carpenters) 1955 Jay Osmond (Osmonds) 1956 Mark Evans (AC/DC) 1962 Jon Bon Jovi (Bon Jovi)
Number 1 In The Charts On March 2
1957 Tab Hunter: Young Love US 45 1961 Everly Brothers: Walk Right Back UK 45 1963 Four Seasons: Walk Like a Man US 45 1967 Engelbert Humperdinck: Release Me UK 45 1968 Paul Mauriat: Blooming Hits US LP 1974 Slade: Old New Borrowed Blue UK LP 1974 Terry Jacks: Seasons in the Sun US 45 1985 Phil Collins: No Jacket Required UK LP 1985 Wham: Make it Big US LP 1991 Oleta Adams : Circle of One : UK LP 1996 Oasis : (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? : UK LP 1998 Madonna : Frozen : UK single
Various Music Events On March 2
1957 Patsy Cline hits American country chart for first time with Walkin’ After Midnight.
1958 Buddy Holly and the Crickets play their first-ever UK date, at Trocadero’s, Elephant and Castle.
1964 Beatles begin work on their first movie Hard Day’s Night in London, with director Richard Lester.
1969 Side 1 of Lennon LP Life with the Lions is recorded at Lady Mitchell Hall, Cambridge.
1974 Television play their first show, at Townhouse Theatre, New York.
1979 Havana Jam the first jointly sponsored US-Cuban Music Festival begins for three days. Fans see Billy Joel, Stephen Stills, Kris Kristofferson, Rita Coolidge and Tom Scott.
1982 David Bowie;s Baal appears on BBC TV.
1983 Compact disc launched.
1985 Bryan Adams’s Reckless hits UK LP chart.
Have a groovy day!
- Retro Rebirth
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Jenny said, when she was just five years old There was nothin’ happening at all Every time she puts on the radio There was nothin’ goin’ down at all, not at all Then, one fine mornin’, she puts on a New York station You know, she couldn’t believe what she heard at all She started shakin’ to that fine, fine music You know, her life was saved by rock’n'roll
Despite all the imputations You know, you could just go out And dance to a rock’n'roll station And it was all right, hey baby, You know, it was all right
Jenny said, when she was just about five years old `You know, my parents are gonna be the death of us all Two TV sets and two Cadillac cars Well, you know, ain’t gonna help me at all`
Then, one fine morning, she turns on a New York station She doesn’t believe what she hears at all Ooh, she started dancin’ to that fine, fine music You know, her life was saved by rock’n'roll Yeah, rock’n'roll
Despite all the computations You could just dance to that rock’n'roll station And baby, it was all right, yeah Hey, it was all right Hey, here she comes now
Jenny said, when she was just about five years old ‘Hey, you know, there’s nothin’ happening at all, not at all Every time I put on the radio You know, there’s nothin’ goin’ down at all, not at all But, one fine morning, she hears a New York station She couldn’t believe what she heard at all, hey, not at all She started dancing to that fine, fine music You know, her life was saved by rock’n'roll Yes, rock’n'roll
Despite all the computations You know, you could just dance to the rock’n'roll station
All right All right, all right, and it was all right Oh, listen to me now, it was all right Come on now, believe me, it was all right it was all right hey, it’s all right now,…….
Have a groovy day!
- Retro Rebirth
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The Velvet Underground never sold many records, but, as many have said, it seems like every one of the group’s fans went out and started a band. While The Velvet Underground’s songs were constructed on the same three chords and 4/4 beat employed by most late-’60s rockers, the Velvets were unique in their intentional crudity, in their sense of beauty in ugliness, and in their lyrics. In the age of flower power they spoke in no uncertain terms of social alienation, sexual deviancy, drug addiction, violence, and hopelessness. Both in their sound and in their words, the songs evoked the exhilaration and destructiveness of modern urban life. The group’s music and stance were of seminal importance to David Bowie, the New York Dolls, Patti Smith, Mott the Hoople, Roxy Music, the Sex Pistols, R.E.M., Sonic Youth, the Jesus and Mary Chain, Luna, and countless others of the protopunk, punk, and postpunk movements.
In 1964 John Cale met Lou Reed in New York City. Both had been classically trained — Cale as a violist and theorist, and Reed as a pianist. By the time of their first meeting Cale was engaging in avant-garde experimentation with La Monte Young and Reed was writing poems about down-and-out streetlife. Cale, Reed, Sterling Morrison, and Angus MacLise (the percussionist in Young’s ensemble) formed a group that played under various names — the Warlocks, the Primitives, the Falling Spikes — in galleries and at poetry readings around lower Manhattan. As the Primitives, they recorded a series of singles on Pickwick Records, for which Reed had once worked as house songwriter. In 1965 the quartet became known as the Velvet Underground. MacLise, who frowned upon the idea of playing for money, quit prior to the rechristened combo’s first paying performance. (A poet and virtuoso percussionist who spent years living in Asia, he died of malnutrition in Nepal in 1979. Archival CDs of his raga-influenced solo work appeared in 1999 and 2000.) Maureen Tucker was enlisted to take his place on a per-diem basis, which became permanent when she constructed her own drum kit out of tambourines and garbage-can lids.
On November 11, 1965, the group played its first gig as the Velvet Underground, opening for the Myddle Class at a high school dance in Summit, New Jersey. Within a few months, Reed, Morrison, Cale, and Tucker had taken up residency at the Cafe Bizarre in Greenwich Village, where they met pop artist Andy Warhol. When they were fired by the Bizarre’s management for performing “Black Angel’s Death Song” immediately after being told not to, Warhol invited them to perform at showings of his film series, Cinematique Uptight. He soon employed them as the aural component of his traveling mixed-media show, the Exploding Plastic Inevitable. For the latter, he augmented the lineup with singer/actress Nico, to whom he gave equal billing on the Velvets’ first album. She sang only three songs on the record, which was recorded in 1966. Two singles — “I’ll Be Your Mirror” b/w “All Tomorrow’s Parties” and “Sunday Morning” b/w “Femme Fatale” — were released. The LP, which included Reed’s “Heroin” and “Venus in Furs” (a song about sado-masochism), appeared nearly a year after its completion. It sported a Warhol cover with a peelable illustration of a banana.
The group had a falling-out with Warhol when it performed in Boston without Nico and the rest of the Inevitable troupe, who arrived late. The Velvets then took on Steve Sesnick as their manager. Without Warhol’s name and knack for generating publicity, they faded from public attention. Their following was reduced further with the uncompromisingly noisy White Light/White Heat, which they recorded in a single day following a tour of mostly empty theaters. Cale, frequently in a power struggle with Reed, eventually quit. The remaining members enlisted Doug Yule, who had played with a Boston folk-rock Velvets, the Glass Menagerie. The third album, recorded in L.A., was much softer than either of its predecessors. It cost the group all but the most loyal of their following. MGM dropped the band and it was some months before Atlantic became interested.
Upon their return to New York to record in the summer of 1970, the Velvets played a month-long engagement at Max’s Kansas City (with Doug’s younger brother Billy Yule deputizing for Tucker, who was pregnant). These were the group’s first appearances in New York since 1967, and they rekindled some interest. But soon after Loaded was finished, Reed, at odds with Sesnick, left the group and moved to England, where he lived for two years before reemerging as a solo performer. Although he denounced Loaded, claiming it was remixed after his departure (a charge Yule and Morrison denied), the album introduced “Sweet Jane” and “Rock and Roll.”
With Doug Yule now on guitar and new bassist Walter Powers, the Velvet Underground toured the East Coast before Morrison dropped out in 1971 to teach English at the University of Texas in Austin. Tucker left following a tour of the U.K. She moved to Phoenix, Arizona, then to southern Georgia, where she raised a family and in 1980 began recording solo efforts. Yule retained the Velvet Underground name until 1973. Minus any of the principal Velvets, he recorded Squeeze, which was released only in Britain.
With the success of Reed’s solo career and, to lesser extents, Cale’s and Nico’s, the Velvet Underground generated more interest in the ’70s than it had during its existence. Two live albums were released: 1972′s Live at Max’s Kansas City, recorded the night of Reed’s last appearance with the group, and 1974′s The Velvet Underground, recorded in 1969 in Texas and California.
In 1989 Cale and Reed performed a song cycle written in memory of Andy Warhol, who died in 1988; the work was released on the 1990 album Songs for Drella. In June of that year, the best-known lineup of the Velvet Underground (minus Nico, who died in 1988 of head injuries sustained in a cycling accident) reunited onstage at a Warhol tribute in a small town near Paris. Their 10-minute version of the song “Heroin” led to another reunion three years later. With their longstanding differences seemingly resolved (particularly the battling egos of Reed and Cale), the players began rehearsals for several European shows slated for the summer of 1993. Highlights of the tour were documented on a video and album, Live MCMXCIII. That fall, however, the band fell apart once more, reportedly due to a spat between Cale and Reed over who would produce the group’s upcoming MTV Unplugged appearance and album. The members again went their separate ways. All save Reed performed in late 1994, improvising music for the screenings of two silent Warhol films at the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh. Reed, Cale, and Tucker resumed their solo careers. Morrison, who occasionally performed with Tucker, died of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 1995. The following year, the classic lineup was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The five-CD Peel Slowly and See contains the Reed-era albums plus numerous bonus tracks.
from The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll (Simon & Schuster, 2001)
Have a groovy day
Peace and Love, Retro Rebirth
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