This Week in Music History 7-7

Wow, this is incredible. This is the Taking a Walk podcast. We're actually in person to Harry Jacobs, the King of the Music History Desk, playing us on. We're in the hills of Connecticut in person, which is even more special. And my god, I feel like I'm in a coffee house.

This is this song that I wrote. I don't write any music at all, but I wrote a song twenty five years ago and was noodling around with it and never knew what to do with it.

Is that right?

Because I don't sing. And when you were looking to put some music at the beginning of Taking a Walk, I said, I got something.

I think I got something.

I got something for you.

I think you got something. What was it?

Inspired by it? It was supposed to have some it was supposed to promote some emotion.

It's got that.

Yeah, So that's that's what it was. And I couldn't really ever do anything with it.

So and I picture as we're looking at Taking a Walk, music History on foot photo logo and the birds flying sign and the birds are flying. One day we'll ask everybody do you know where that is? But I'm not going to tell anybody right now. I'm gonna just have you ask me, ask me what that taking a walk picture is from that day? You were to be happy to tell you privately if you reach out to me, so I can't.

Ask you here who were you taking a walk with? I'm how to have you guests, but not right now. But take one guess. I think that's our friend Willy B. I think that's somewhere in parts unknown in Connecticut, n That's a good guess.

That's incorrect, incorrect, but anyway, thank you for this opportunity to be with you in person, and thanks our friends Willie and Lynn Hoffmann as well for allowing us to be in the wonderful hills of Connecticut. A beautiful day. And it's a version of this Week in Music History for the week of July the seventh. So what do he have got Harry over at the music history desks.

It's not the typical week that with a lot of content that we normally have, you know, with led Zeppelin and a lot of classic rock. It's an interesting week, almost leaning pop Elvis in nineteen fifty four, on July seventh, they released Teddy Bear, one of my favorites, hoky kind of the hokey.

Elvis not my favorite, but not as hokey as Elvis would become later on in the bloated years.

Pork Chops. What is now the Western Hotel, the Las Vegas Hilton, the Westgate Yeah, now the Westgate, Yeah, but which I love staying at the Westgate.

A cool place, nice people there, very close to the Convention Center, which is why I really like it. But Elvis in the Teddy Bear era, Okay, Elvis in terms of the meaning of music history and all of that, Oh my god, are you kidding?

The sixty eight comeback was so amazing. I just watched the documentary on that.

Mister Spencer Prawford behind that absolutely incredible.

Teddy Bear was played for the first time on July seventh, nineteen fifty four, on a radio station called w HBQ ware for all the cash and prizes on today's episode Buzz.

Memphis, Tennessee.

Get that man his doctor, shoul shoes and suave the ourn Thank you nineteen sixty five Sonny and Share It performed I Got You Babe on Shindig and this was the beginning of that chart topper. That's a song that's one of those that stands. It's like these boots by Nancy Sinatra older song, but it stands the test.

Of time, stands the test of time.

Yes, for me, A great thrill going to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony in Cleveburg, Ohio, and I had never done that before. I was in the press room watching as you would have inductees or people who were presenters walked in there, and I remember the first one publicist comes out, or the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame person comes out.

And they went in a moment, Share is coming in and I was like, what so Share comes in?

I remember thinking does she really want to be in this room? And she comes to the mic and balls to.

The wall, Share let it all go. She looked beautiful.

Oh she you know who came out there with her look pretty beautiful as well.

Do a loope? Who's doing? I don't, I don't know, do a loope? My god?

But but Share unapologetic about anything.

You gotta you gotta think she's out of her element in that room. This is a room with Peter Frampton, with Roger Daltrey, with Rock Royalty. You know, it's a it's a you know, it's it's one thing to to really think about including other genres. Share is a whole other world. It's apples and cinder blocks in a way.

Look, that's a whole criticism people make of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Still they always will. But I thought when Cher kind of said you have had number one songs for I think she said for six decades. That's a pretty remarkable thing to be able to say, even if you kind of go, all right, do.

You believe that song?

That's not really like what you think of for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

But she revealed she said they were for so long.

I was like, I don't give a blaye about this at all, and I guess her dear friend David Geffen said you need to do this, and I pulled the strings because Scher's whole point was you should have done this years ago, and Geffen said, just do this and there you go.

So that's our share.

This program has a connection to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame taking a Walk. Certain episodes are curated, Yes huge, Yes. July seventh, nineteen sixty seven. The anthemic all you Need Is Love was recorded by the Beatles. That's a song I would defy you to walk into a room and hit play on your phone and see if there's anyone that doesn't tap their toes or nod their head a little bit.

Or make you smile.

Sure, exactly, Sure, just one of those feel good songs. Yeah. In sixty eight, the Yardbirds played their final gig and then everything would change. Jeff Beck splits, Eric Clapton splits everyone else. Who's what's the other name, what's the guy's name, Keith Relph, Keith Ralph, and they I don't know, and I'm a music nut splits out of that band. The band lays, you know, basically is dormant, and Jimmy Page says, I'm gonna hang on to the I'm going to hang

Yeah, the documentary Becoming led Zeppelin is sensational and it tells the you know, the beginnings and certainly traces the Yardbirds story.

So brilliantly.

Got this episode with the Professor of Rock where we talk about the becoming led Zeppelin. That is a nice discussion and with him. Loved talking to him about it. What impressed me so much about the documentary was the aging graceful nature of all the members of led Zeppelin.

Of course that are still alive.

Jimmy Page agent gracefully. He's got a real look about him. He listened, he went through a tough time. There was a time it was anything but regal.

That's right, right, looks great smile on his face, dignified, agent gracefully.

Same with Robert Plant, same with John Paul Jones. They've aged gracefully. You made an observation when we talked about it after you saw the movie, you said, would have been great if they were all in the same room at the same time.

Yeah, even in some reveal that could have happened. Maybe, I don't know. It sounds kitchy, but maybe at the end or something. But I'm sure the artists themselves or current managers.

Went, we're going to do this, but this is how we're going to do it.

And I respect that because they yielded a great product in the documentary, and if that's the way it's going to come out, then make it happen that way.

But excuse me, you guys spent nineteen sixty eight to nineteen eighty together making some of the most legendary music of all time, with all due respect getting them together. You know the story of the two right. Our friend Rich Kreswick, who ran arenas all over the world, was with a handful of people around that two show in twenty twelve. I believe led Zeppelin was offered essentially everything that they wanted, anything they could possibly want monetarily to

This is the equivalent of a watermak mark that I'm putting over this episode for you playing that. Okay, See one thing to close on about the documentary that I loved in particular about it. You know what they did that is the key to everything, including this podcast. The documentary left us wanting more.

It sure did. And speaking of more, let's go to nineteen seventy six for the Jefferson Starship. They played in Central Park, fifty thousand people. You spent a lot of time. Your brother would take you from Stanford, Connecticut. We're not far from there. We're in parts unknown Connecticut right now, but from Stanford to the city, and you saw some concerts in Central Park.

One of particular was Jefferson Airplane Free Show Mini Woodstock one hundred thousand people.

That would have been around sixty seven sixty eight before we'd leave.

It was sixty seven and so big airplane fan had seen the airplane at the Fillmore East and disappointed when the airplane ceased at that point. But when the Starship, early on for me, came on, it was still viable and really liked it because it had Grace Paul Cantner, it had the backbone.

At that point, I'm pretty sure our dear friend you are mcalcin and.

Had he had gone on all the other stuff hot Tuna. But that version of the Starship I liked that, you know, first version Papa John Creech, and I didn't like as much the pop that was.

Miracles and Ride the Tiger. How about Rye the Tiger? Right, we played that on rock radio. Oh yeah, and then the Starship. You know, this is a band, you know, like Aerosmith and like a handful of others that have had multiple lives right over their period of time. But they went from that to we Built this City, right, think about that in nineteen eighty six ish, not their great pop song, but not their finest moment as a band. And Mickey Thomas I believe may have been around there

But if you think about that and you go, okay, what does a band do to find new audiences? They have to find greater audiences via becoming pop slash popular. So I kind of get that. I don't take that completely away. It just wasn't my favorite period of that music because I was based on the more psychedelic side with the Jefferson.

Airplane White Rabbit. You know, think about how powerful that opening lick is a lease in that song. I mean, it's just great. Another hallucinating as we speak. There you go. One quick note history note, Joan of Arc on this day in fourteen fifty six burned at the stake. How'd you know? I was going to even ask I was going to say this anyone in the room, and I was going to include Willy Beat. Does anyone in the room, including Willy b know how Joan of Arc was put to death?

You would think by me saying that so quickly that we actually recorded this episode twice. We're three or four episodes versions of it two or three times before.

Anyway, Joan of Arc was given a retrial on this date, twenty five years after her execution. This is forward thinking that in those days to give someone a retril. This is not Karen Reid, this is you know, and my understanding is Johnny Cochran represented her anyway, they burn her at the stake, and then like three hundred years and some change later, a whole bunch of us were in England and we decided to split. We'd come over to Boston. We got a tea party and the shit hits the fan.

Are and the rest is history.

Thank you very much. This is I'm embarrassed about this, but on this date in nineteen ninety six, the Spice Girls released want to Be. That was that whole if you want to Be? I love her song. I loved that song. I don't know what it was.

Well, and I'm gonna tell a little inside story. The reason Harry has that deep, husky voice just like the late Brenda v Carro is because last night, well we were all together in the hills of Connecticut. Unfortunately, that Spice Girls song got blasted here on the speakers, and I think Harry was swaying along to it, so that's why he sounds like Brenda Vicarrol.

It was an experience that those around me will not soon forget. A fat mob scarred, a fat, middle age, squishy in the middle, balding guy singing wanna be By the Spice Girls Offbeat. July ninth, nineteen sixty two, Dylan recorded Blown in the Wind at what was Columbia Studios in New York. You're a New York guy, where's Columbia Studios? Look, I'm gonna have to look at that seriously.

And one time when I'm in New York in the future, when i have an idol walk somewhere, which I love doing in New York, I'm going to find where it is. It's going to be probably, you know, a Cumby's or something Comby. When you say combies, you're saying Cumberland Farm, Cumberland Farms. It'll be a Comby's and that'll be like, that's where Dylan recorded that. So I'm gonna report back on this. I let you know what's on that land right now. I know me too, be nice to know.

He's still my man. Nineteen seventy seven, Donna Summer released I Feel Love, lots of synthesizer, lots of cool like cool rhythm. That's one of those songs. If you and you know me, I'm a I'm a little soft spot in my heart for pop and for Donna Summer. That's a very rhythmic, very cool song.

Are You Okay?

Which I can't? Sorry, which I can't. It may be a bacid reflux, but that may that. That's an incredibly rhythmic kind of song.

I believe we've discussed this previously, a great respect for the Donna Summer legacy. I believe, if I'm not mistaken, Giorgio Murraudo was involved with that production somehow.

That name.

We could look that up at a later date. And you had her daughter on taking a Walk Brooklyn Sedano. Yeah, interesting because she was talking about her mom and the documentary Delightful, the Delightful Young Lady.

So many songs, so many songs from Donna Sumer on Cassiblanca Records. Yeah, on July eleventh. This is an interesting one. Nineteen fourteen, Babe Ruth becomes a Boston Red Sox pitcher, and six years later the Red Sox for a thousand dollars sold them to the Yankees thousand dollars and a three hundred thousand dollars loan that was connected to real estate, some hidden weird deal, but for four hundred Grand the Red Sox trade away maybe the greatest pitcher and a hitter.

Of all time, and fast forward to now, Yeah, they're still doing dopey shit. This Rafael Devers thing has people upside down. They moved them to San Francisco and basically they didn't get enough in return.

So I think it's kind of ironic.

He was their best player.

I think Rafael, if I'm not mistaken, started with the Red Sox at like seventeen years old or something like that, So I think it's kind of ironic to this day. They're still flubbing it when you say they're doing goofy shit or they're flubbing it as.

You just did. Is this because you're a Cardinals fan? Because you're not a Red.

Sox fan of.

Fairly interested resident of the Boston area who is a Cardinal fan but kind of has no vested interest.

Right, How did you feel after the Red Sox handed the Yankees the largest defeat and playoff baseball history and then they went on to play the Cardinals and humiliate the Cardinals?

Kind of depressed at that moment? Yeah, I would imagine it wouldn't matter now to me.

So anyway, the Red Sox sell Babe for what amounts to four hundred grand four boxes a ZD, as Tony Soprano would say. And then it took us eighty six years. People not far from where we're sitting right now. When the Red Sox were in the World Series, especially that last game, when they wrapped it up, grown men were bringing portable televisions to grave sites.

It's nice. Actually it was living. It's nice.

I shed a tear when the Red Sox won. I thought I was living my entire life without ever seeing it.

No, it was nice. It's a nice time to be around.

I want to wrap it up with something that happened on July thirteenth in nineteen seventy seven in New York City. This is a big deal. The city essentially collapsed that night because all the power in the city went out. Imagine being in that city at that time. We have no technology. It's not like you can put a cell phone on and watching that flicks. This is nineteen seventy seven, No remotes for TV, no technology, there's nothing. It was freaky.

I think I was in Ohio then and then coinciding with that was the Son of Sam situation, which everybody was following. They were mesmerized by Son of Sam. I remember always being able to look at the Daily News or the New York Post, and in fact, I remember one time the dude.

Who was the Daily News reporter, Jimmy Breslin, Jimmy.

Breslin, I ran into what I ran into book by a phone booth and I look in there, I'm like, there's the legendary Jimmy Breslin, the guy who was like following the Son of Sam thing. And I'm sure by the way too, knowing the way Jimmy Breslin wrote, he wrote, I'm sure something we could look it up. That was a parallel piece to the blackout occurred at a time, so you know, I'm sure he put this all the dis things together.

This was pre chat GPT. This is a guy who's you know, a cigarette smoking old white things are I.

Don't mean to talk, yeah, people who smoke cigars.

Thank you, Brenda Vacaro. The tampax tampon ladies. So I sound like, but this was a huge deal with Breslin, and then we can wrap this up. David Brooker which the serial killer is terrorizing the city, taking brunette women out along with whoever they're with on the streets in New York. And and at that time he's being talked to by in his opinion, the black lab who is Sam, in his own backyard. And this is happening at the same time that the lights go out in the city.

Yeah, it was.

It was quite a moment, and it was It's interesting thinking about how it would have been reported in today's world. I think if it was reported in today's world, and I don't want to really go down this hole, I think the blackout, specifically, not the Sam part, would be reported in conspiracy theory.

Right, Yeah, you know it would. Yeah, absolutely, it did happen. By the way, you remember how Burkowitz was caught, right, What caught him, What nailed him? He was getting people in parked cars on the street.

You got a parking ticket, got a parking ticket, That's exactly right, got a parking ticket.

That's how they tracked them down again pre technology. But there's the week, there's the week in music and pop, and just a couple of history stories.

I am exhausted from it, possibly exhausted from last night as well, but really exhausted from this episode. I'm kidding. I loved every second of it. Harry, would you play us out please?

I am absolutely good.

Have you ever been played on and played off for a first time? It is always a first time. So thanks for listening to the Taking a Walk podcast. Thank you Harry Jacobs for this episode of This Week in Music History.

Goodbye Bus,