joan baez

This Day in Music History — November 11

1961 : Joan Baez plays her first major headlining concert, opening at New York’s Town Hall in a sold-out, critically acclaimed show.

1965 : Journalist Al Aronowitz gets the garage band The Velvet Underground their first gig — at the Summit High School dance in Summit, NJ.

1969 : Jim Morrison of The Doors is arrested by the FBI for drunk and disorderly behavior and interfering with the flight of an aircraft in Phoenix, AZ, after a flight attendant on his trip from Los Angeles accuses him of attacking and sexually harassing her. He was flying to a Rolling Stones concert. Morrison and his flight companion, American actor Tom Baker, spend the night in local jail but are released the next day on $2,500 bail. The charges are later dropped.

1994 : Billy Vera, Micky Dolenz of The Monkees and Rick Neilsen of Cheap Trick all appear on the TV show Boy Meets World in the episode “Band on the Run.”

1994 : Christie’s auction house in New York City holds their first-ever auction of rock memorabilia, including The Beach Boys’ guitars, a stage outfit worn by Jimi Hendrix, and John Lennon’s famous Army fatigues.

This Day in Music History — November 3

1972 : Carly Simon and James Taylor get married, creating a musical power-couple not seen until Jay-Z and Beyonce tied the knot. The marriage lasts 11 years

1990 : After being featured prominently in the smash hit film Ghost, The Righteous Brothers’ version of Unchained Melody returns to the top of the UK charts after 25 years.

1991 : More than 300,000 people attend a free concert in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park in memory of rock promoter Bill Graham. Among the acts performing are the Grateful Dead; Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young; Joan Baez; Santana; and Journey (which reunited for the event).

1993 : Leon Theremin dies. Theremin (1896-1993) was a Russian inventor, most famous for the Theremin, one of the first electronic musical instruments. Popularized in the Beach Boys’ Good Vibrations, the device was used to create those futuristic sound effects in many sci-fi movies.

2004 : Eric Clapton is made a CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) by Princess Anne at Buckingham Palace.

This Day in Music History — October 16

1962 : Flea (bassist for Red Hot Chili Peppers) is born Michael Peter Balzary in Mount Waverley, Melbourne, Australia. He was nicknamed “Mike B the Flea” as a young teen.

1966 : Folk singer Joan Baez is among 124 antiwar protesters arrested for blocking entrance to an Army Induction Center in Oakland, California. She is sentenced to ten days in jail.

1972 : Creedence Clearwater Revival calls it quits, announcing in a press release: “We don’t regard this as breaking up. We look at it as an expansion of our activities.” The band never reforms, but John Fogerty emerges with a successful solo career.

2001 : Etta Jones dies of cancer in Mount Vernon, New York, the same day HighNote releases her album Etta Jones Sings Lady Day. She was 72.

2001 : Bob Dylan is turned away by security guards at his concert at the Jackson County Exposition Center in Oregon because he doesn’t have a credential. The guards were under orders from Dylan’s security director not to let anyone through without a pass. “He said no exceptions,” explained the venue manager.

This Day in Music History — October 6

1927 : The Jazz Singer , a musical starring Al Jolson and the first talking picture, is released.

1990 : Soundgarden, Iggy Pop, Ice T, The Cramps, Joan Baez and Public Enemy are among the artists to perform at Shoreline Amphitheatre in California, as part of A Gathering of Tribes, which is organised by The Cult’s Ian Astbury. This festival is the reported inspiration behind Lollapalooza, which launches a year later, in 1991.

1991 : Michael Jackson gives Elizabeth Taylor away to Larry Fortensky during her eighth wedding, held at Jackson’s 2,700-acre Neverland estate near Los Angeles.

2002 : Mick Jagger of The Rolling Stones donates 100,000 pounds to the school he once attended in Dartford, England, for musical instruments and a band director. The resultant musical center is named after the singer.

This Day in Music History — August 13

1963 : The Four Seasons sue their struggling first label, Vee Jay, for non payment of royalties and move to Mercury/Philips Records. This would be the first of a long line of incidents that would doom the label.

1967 : A planned Joan Baez concert at Washington DC’s Constitution Hall is canceled after the Daughters of the American Revolution protest her recent anti-war remarks concerning Vietnam.

1975 : Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band play the first of five sold-out shows at The Bottom Line in New York City. The shows help establish Springsteen as a great live performer and draw national attention.

1993 : Steely Dan, who broke up in 1981, re-form and begin a US tour at The Palace in Auburn Hills, Michigan. Walter Becker explains: “We spent all the money from the last tour. We made $800 each and it’s all gone now.”

2011 : At the Indiana State Fair, music fans are assembling for a performance by country band Sugarland. Although police had issued a warning to the attendees that they may have to take cover due to severe weather, the concert is going on as planned. During a gust of high wind, the rigging from the top of the stage is blown off, causing the stage to collapse on the crowd, killing five attendees and injuring dozens more. A sixth person would die several days later from injuries. Janet Jackson and Lady Antebellum, both of whom were scheduled to perform, choose to cancel their appearances.