On April 15th, 1972, Roy Wood, Jeff Lynne and Bev Bevan -- then better known as The Move -- unveiled their classic rock side project. Electric Light Orchestra made its first public appearance that day at the Fox and Hounds, a pub in Croyden, South London. The first song Jeff Lynne wrote that he thought could be a hit. It was called Do Ya. The Move's original recording peaked at number-93 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1972. Five years later, ELO's reached number-24. After The Move morphed into ELO, Lynne began performing the song live with that band. Five years later, he re-recorded it and it made the Top 25. Lynne talks about the song -- although it wasn't actually quite as big a hit as he thinks it was the first time around.
“It was the first song I ever wrote that I thought could be a hit. It was so insistent, I said, ‘Wow! That sounds like a hit!’ And it got into the Top 40 in America, which is funny enough. It was the first hit I’d ever had anywhere. You know, it was just going to number-40 or something, but it did sort of make an impact on a lot of people, because a lot of people still ask me about that song.”
Ritchie Blackmore, the guitarist known for his many years in both Deep Purple and Rainbow, turns 75 today (April 14th) The song by Deep Purple: "Perfect Strangers" was recorded after Ritchie rejoined the band. Bassist Roger Glover says he's really proud to have been involved in a song he feels is "completely original." He says the roots of "Perfect Strangers" date back to long before it became the title track to the band's 1984 album, which reunited the group's best-known lineup, including guitarist Ritchie Blackmore.
“'Perfect Strangers' was a riff we had for a long time. It's Ritchie's riff. It's one of those riffs that we loved playing, but we didn't know where it was going to go. We couldn't write a song over it until the reunion, when we started jamming. Ritchie came up with a few chords, and Ritchie's got this knack of doing things that you don't quite expect. Well, 'Perfect Strangers' is one of those things. It's an arrangement that is completely original. It doesn't sound like any other song. It's unique, and to have been part of a unique song like that makes me feel really proud."
50 years ago yesterday, April 9th, 1970, and today, April 10th, 1970, it was a battle of press releases between The Beatles and Paul McCartney over the status of the group, which was rumored to be breaking up.
On April 9th, the release from their company, Apple Corps, said they weren't splitting up. While admitting that no further recordings were scheduled, publicist Mavis Smith noted that a new LP would soon be released and that she "hoped The Beatles would get together for another recording session after the summer." That night, Paul performed his new song, "Maybe I'm Amazed," on British television.
Citing "business and music differences, but most of all because I have a better time with my family," he announced the break, though he was unsure whether it would be temporary or permanent. He concluded, "I don't foresee a time when the Lennon and McCartney partnership will be active again in songwriting."
Legal wranglings continued for four years until December 29th, 1974, when John Lennon, while on vacation at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, signed the papers formally terminating the band.
There were numerous reasons for the split, chief among them:
On April 17th, a week after Paul's announcement, he released McCartney.
Allen Klein was named the band's manager, and on May 8th they released their final studio album, Let It Be.
Paul McCartney on The Beatles break up.
"We'd been having a lot of troubles and the group had been breaking up, but I made a last ditch attempt to try and save things and said to John at a meeting we were having, I said, 'I think we should just go back to being a little touring band. We should just get back on the road and we should just do some little gigs and just get out there and rock. And John just looked at me and said, 'Well,' he said, 'I think you're stupid.' He said, 'I wasn't gonna tell you this, but I'm leaving the band. And that was it."
John Lennon on the end of The Beatles.
“It takes a lot to live with four people over and over for years and years, which is what we did. And we’d call each other every name under the sun. We got to blows. We’d been through the mill together for more than 10 years, you know. We’ve been through our therapy together many times, you know.”
Paul McCartney on the tension caused by John and Yoko.
“When John hooked up with Yoko so sort of intensely, it was kind of obvious that there could be no looking back after that. I always felt that he had to clear the decks of us in order to give her enough attention.”
Paul McCartney on conflict regarding Allen Klein managing The Beatles.
“I’d put forward Lee Eastman, Linda’s dad, as a possible sort of lawyer. But they said, ‘No. It would just be too bias for you and against us,’ which I could see. And in The Beatles, if anyone doesn’t agree with the plan, it was always vetoed – very democratic that way. So the three-to-one thing was very awkward. And we were supposed to be doing something on Abbey Road I think and we all showed up at the studio ready to record and Allen Klein showed up and they said, ‘You’ve got to sign a contract.’ I said, ‘We could easily do this on Monday. Let’s do our session now. You’re not gonna push me into this,’ you know. They said, ‘Oh, you’re stalling.’ They said, ‘He wants 20-percent.’ I said, ‘Tell him he can have 15-percent. We’re a big act.’ I remember the exact words, ‘We’re a big act.’ But for some strange reason, I think they were so intoxicated with him, that they said, ‘No, he’s got to have 20-percent.’ I said, ‘Right, that’s it. Well I’m not signing now. So there was a big argument and they all went, leaving me at the studio.”
George Harrison on the end of The Beatles.
“The thing that it started out being [was] it gave us a vehicle to be able to do so much, and we were younger and we grew right through that. But it got to a point where it was stifling us. There was too much restriction. It had to self-destruct.”
Ringo Starr on the end of The Beatles.
“We weren’t sitting the studio saying, ‘Okay, this is it. Last record. Last track. Last take.”
The news that The Beatles had broken up appeared in newspapers on April 10th, 1970, although the press release announcing it was actually serviced the day before. Ironically, "Let It Be" hit number-one on the Billboard Hot 100 where it stayed for 2 weeks. Paul McCartney explains that he wrote "Let It Be" at about the time The Beatles had begun the contentious recording sessions for the album of the same title. And he tells us that it was literally inspired by seeing his late mother, Mary Patricia Mullen McCartney, in a dream.
“We were all getting a little crazy, and I’d gone to bed one night well crazy and had a dream. And she’d been in the dream, which is always lovely, you know, when people who’ve been long gone come in dreams, ‘cause you actually meet them again, even if it’s just within the confines of your own head. And she said, ‘You’ll be alright.’ She was very sort of calming and I woke up thinking, ‘I feel better about things.’ As I usually did, I started writing a song. And because she was my mother and her name was Mary, I said, ‘Mother Mary comes to me.’”
Steve Miller wrote "Rock'n Me" in 20 minutes! He was motivated by the fact that he needed a rock'n number for his 1975 set at the Knebworth Festival in England. It became a number 1 hit from his 1976 album Fly Like an Eagle. Here is how it came about. He was asked if he'd perform at the 1975 Knebworth Festival before headliners Pink Floyd, Steve Miller initially declined. He had no band together at the time and didn't think he could assemble one on short notice. But after the promoters offered to double his already lucrative paycheck, he called ex-CCR drummer Doug Clifford, guitarist Les Dudek and bassist Lonnie Turner. He explains how that gig led him to write "Rock'n Me."
“I said, ‘How’d you guys like to have an all-expense paid vacation to London next week?” They said, ‘What is it?’ And I told them and they said, ‘Yeah.’ And they came over and rehearsed in my house — ran through the numbers we were gonna do, a lot of which were Jimmy Reed numbers and knocked everybody out. And I wrote ‘Rock’n Me’ because I was sitting there going, ‘It’s going to be 150,000 people. Pink Floyd will come on when it’s dark and the lights turn on. They’ll put me on while the sun’s going down and everybody’s cold. And the P.A. will be bad, so I’m going to have to rock everybody out. I wrote ‘Rock’n Me’ for that in about 20 minutes.”
Rob Thomas sang and wrote the Santana song "Smooth" It was number 1 for 12 weeks! In 1999 from the album Supernatural; it helped turn Santana's career around. But Rob Thomas says the song has had its ups and downs as far as he's concerned. (As far as I'm concerned carlos guitar MAKES that song. Rob not totally taken with the song, here's what he had to say:
"It's taken on a bunch of different lives over the last 20 years. It was a great summer jam and then it became something that we all got a little sick of for a while and then it came back around for a minute and then everybody was like, 'Oh, I kind of remember that. I like that.' There were moments in it where I didn't know if I should say, 'You're welcome' or 'I'm sorry.' But it is definitely one of the songs from 20 years ago that I've written that I'm fine if I never hear it again, but I love to play it. I don't think it's my best song I've ever written. Obviously, it's not the best song he's ever done. It shows the power of being in a moment."
On this date (April 7th,) in 1975, guitarist Ritchie Blackmore left Deep Purple to start Rainbow. The Deep Purple song "Highway Star" was written in the bus on the way to a gig and played for the first time that night. It ended up on machine Head in 1972. To date, Deep Purple have opened one studio album and three live albums with "Highway Star." The band's late keyboardist Jon Lord once explained how it was written on the way to a gig in Portsmouth, England.
“We needed a fast number to open the set, we’d got tired of the one that we were using – we always used to start with ‘Speed King.’ We just sat in the back of the bus and Ritchie came up with [sings opening riff] and Ian scribbled some words on the back of an envelope or something and we went on stage and did it that night. It was called something like ‘Frankie and Billy Make a Tank’ – whatever stream of consciousness words Ian Gillan came up with that night. It later became ‘Highway Star.’ Lester Bangs, one of the great rock writers, called it, ‘The classic girl/car hard rock song.’”
David Lee Roth went back in time for his hit song: "California Girls" It came out late 1984 (single), early 1985 (EP) Crazy From the Heat. Of course it was a Beach Boys song. The DLR version peaked at number-three on the Billboard Hot 100 and hit number-three on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. David Lee Roth launched his solo career while still a member of Van Halen with this. He tells what attracted him to that song.
Jenny Boyd takes us along on a wild ride in her new memoir Jennifer Juniper: A Journey Beyond the Music.
The onetime London model and former wife of Mick Fleetwood tells us, "It's a journey through an extraordinary time in history, where I was in these pivotal places at the pivotal times and was very much in the center of it all."
Jenny Boyd says her memoir re-traces of her always interesting life.
"All the innocence of the '60s and the decadence of the '70s, being with Fleetwood Mac and all the things that happened there, which was kind of crazy. And then coming through the other side, and finding myself."
Boyd was as close to the center of British rock as anyone. A top London model whose sister Patti was married to George Harrison and then left him for Eric Clapton, Jenny was the inspiration for Donovan's classic song "Jennifer Juniper." She's fallen out of touch with Donovan in recent years, and isn't even sure if he's aware she named her book after his song.
Jenny separated from the rock world when her marriage to Mick Fleetwood broke down. Now remarried, she has earned a doctorate and counsels on addiction issues. Her background has given her a unique perspective on why so many talented people abuse drugs and alcohol.
Jenny Boyd on why talented people are often drawn to addictive substances.
"My sense is that a lot of artists, real geniuses, they have a very fine membrane between the conscious and the unconscious. Where some people can probably survive it, I think for them, because they're so finely tuned as artists, they lose it. I think geniuses, a sort of, there is a bit of genius in madness that takes place, isn't there. Some some kind of fine line."
Cars drummer David Robinson was born on April 2nd, 1953. The original band that became the Cars was Cap'n Swing, The song "Bye Bye Love" was the only song that made it from that band to the Cars It was never a single, it has nevertheless received regular rock radio airplay since it was released. Guitarist Elliot Easton explains:
"I think it was the only song on the first Cars album that survived from the previous band that Ric and Ben and myself were in called Cap'n Swing that not many people at all, you really got to be a Cars fan to know about this. But one of the tunes we did was 'Bye Bye Love' in a very different arrangement. That's the only song that survived from that era that actually made it through The Cars and made it onto the record."
