If there are any Klaatu fans out there -

one of the first female drummers

The great musican Prince always had a lot of project going on. One was that he founded and mentored female groups from time to time. One such group was Apollonia 6. He wrote a song for them that they recorded. He wasn't satisfied with how it sounded and he pulled it from an album they did. Here's there version of the song.

It's pretty dreadful.

A few years later, as the story goes, he learned of a new female group in LA called "The Bangles". They became acquainted and in time he offered up this song for them to consider. They did, changed the arrangement, and it became a big hit for them. The composing credit on the Bangles' record is that it was written by "Christopher".

I don't think the song could be identified as having been written by Prince without knowing how it came to be. It sounds so dissimilar to his other work. But he was a musical genius capable of unlimited variety and innovation, in my opinion.

Another tidbit, there were two sisters in the Bangles. Debbi Peterson was the drummer, Vicki Peterson (seen in this video at the extreme left on stage) played lead guitar. Vicki is married to John Cowsill (yes you know that name), a drummer and singer who played as such ages ago in his family band and then for decades in the reformulated Beach Boys.

Appolonia-6's version is absolutely dreadful!

Prince's genius is still underrated.

Chuck Berry wrote and peformed a number of songs that got embedded in the stong foundation that became rock and roll. One of his great songs was Sweet Little Sixteen

An innovative and talented group of teenage surfer dudes was breaking into the music scene from LA. It wrote most of its own songs alone and with a few regular collaborators. I'm not sure how it happened but the fingerprints of this Berry song were all over the lyrics and melody of this Beach Boy hit:

Chuck Berry's "people" contacted the Beach Boys and they said "Uncle" without too much delay. Whether the similarities were the indescretions of their youth or intentional didn't matter. Berry was given writing credit (which meant he was paid royalties for the sales and performances of the song).

Another Beach Boy ripoff or homage to Berry, describe it how you will, is the opening guitar riff to Fun Fun Fun. I won't paste the videos but it's almost exactly the same as Berry's Johnny B Goode.

I was fortunate to see Chuck Berry on-stage about 10-15 years ago. He was performing with Nelly!

Yes, he did Johnny B Goode and My Ding-a-Ling. :)

A band with an unusual combination of musicians, including a flutist and a cello player but no guitarist, was paying its dues playing small venues in LA. It produced a record that suddenly brought it much wider attention. It was an album I played almost incessantly during my college years. Sweetwater by Sweetwater. Get the album, you'll like it.

Here are two videos, one of them playing live on TV and another, a bit sketchy, from their performance at the original Woodstock.

Tragically, as their careers began to climb, the lead singer, Nanci Nevins, was in a terrible car crash that caused brain damage and other problems and that was the end of the band.

Paul McCartney's unique violin-shaped Hofner bass became his signature instrument and was always identified immediately as "The Beatles Instrument".

Produced by a German company, McCartney bought it when they were "in residence" in Hamburg and he was "drafted" to become the group's bass player when Stu Sutcliffe left. It had two main virtues - it was very light (compared to other bass guitars) and it was interesting looking. Unfortunately, it had two problems: First, the tone was crap. Second, it was such a poorly made instrument that when playing down at the lower end of the neck, the frets were misplaced and the instrument played out of tune. Not just on his particular guitar, it was a problem on all of them.

The solution was to play notes high on the neck (which can be an awkward limitation for some songs). He wound up getting what a Brit would call "a proper bass", a Rickenbacker, and that was used exclusively for recording. It has the desirable bass tone and proper intonation such that it didn't play out of tune.

Here's a live performance on the Sullivan show. Many people don't realize how really excellent they were playing live. They'd spent so many years doing gig after gig after gig, playing up to 8 hours a day 6 days a week in Hamburg, that they really honed their ability to play well live. This in an era when there were no monitors so sometimes, as when there was too much audience screaming, they couldn't even hear themselves playing and singing. This is part of what led to their stopping live performances,

Peter Fonda was working on developing a film that he would ultimately co-write and produce. It was pretty impactful for its time - Easy Rider.

Anyway, as part of his prep work, he wanted a strong opening song. He contacted Bob Dylan and, I believe, they met for lunch. Fonda explained the broad outlines of the film and his vision of the opening scene so that Dylan could consider what kind of song needed to be written. Again, as the story goes, Dylan took a couple of napkins and wrote these words:

The river flows, it flows to the sea
Wherever that river goes
That's where I want to be
Flow, river, flow
Let your waters wash down
Take me from this road
To some other town

He gave the napkin to Fonda and said something to the effect of "I don't want to write a song for your movie. Give this to McGuinn, he'll know what to do with it."

And so was the creation of the start to the Ballad of Easy Rider, written by Roger McGuinn of the Byrds and Dylan, though they never spoke to each other about it directly. Dylan declined getting shared composing credit for it.

Peter Asher was born into a solidly middle class family that lived in London. Both of his parents were successful professionals. He had a brother and a sister, Jane. If the name Jane Asher doesn't ring a bell, she had a 5 year relationship with Paul McCartney, a young musician on the way up that she met while still a teenager.

It what seems (to me) as an odd arrangement, Paul moved into the Asher family home in London. There, his bedroom was next to that of Peter's. Paul was away from time to time but when in town, they got to be good friends. Peter's mother was a music professor and gave piano lessons, so there was a piano for that purpose in the basement. At that piano, Paul wrote "And I Love Her", among other songs.

Anyway, Peter has aspirations for a music career and had started performing with his friend Gordon Waller. The career of Peter and Gordon was helped immeasurably by the songs written by McCartney provided to them: "World Without Love,” Nobody I Know,” “I Don’t Want To See You Again,” and “Woman”.

When the group broke up, Peter was hired by the Beatles Apple company to develop their recording business. While there, he signed the unknown James Taylor and went on to produce a number of his records (after moving to the US). He also met and became the manager/producer of Linda Ronstadt and worked with her to produce a string of very sucessful and highly regarded albums. He often sang back up parts on her recordings. There's an interesting live studio performance by Ronstadt entitled Live in Hollywood that has her singing many of her hit songs and shows Peter singing and performing as part of the band. He went on to have a very successful career in the US as a record producer and music industry executive. In his later years, he's returned to performing a bit, just for the fun of it.

Peter and Gordon reconnected to perform but sadly, Gordon died in his 60s of a heart attack. Here's a video of a live performance in 2007. Peter is the guy with shorter and reddish hair. In his youth, his hair was redder than one might imagine could have been possible.

This is one I really like:

There was a young songwriter in NY who was struggling to promote his songs and get something to "stick" with the public, to get some momentum in his career.

He needed to write a song that would attract attention. It occurred to him that if he wrote a song with a subtly controversial story in the lyrics, that maybe he could walk a tightrope that the song could be discussed about being banned but wouldn't be fully banned. That could create some buzz he was looking for.

The song is Timothy, one I've liked since I first heard it years ago and only some time later realized the story told by the lyrics. It gave me a good laugh. The topic is very eveil

This video has the lyrics. I promise you that if you follow along all the way to the end, you'll enjoy it and see the creative accomplishment by the composer, Rupert Holmes. He's had a very successful career as a songwriter, playwright, and person actively working in the entertainment biz.

He played piano on this song though he wasn't a member of the band. It was a group he was friends with. Oh, and he named one of his sons Timothy.

Harry Nilsson was a very creative but troubled soul. He was perhaps better known and respected by fellow musicians than by the public. He wrote songs like Coconut (put a lime in the coconut), Gotta Get Up, I Guess the Lord Must Be In New York CIty, WIthout Her, and others. Also had success with covers like WIthout You. But this first video is of a song he wrote when he learned his wife had decided to divorce him. He expresses his thoughts pretty clearly. This song was a favorite of his friends (among whom were the Beatles) and it's said that at his funeral, they did a ring around the rosy, danced around the casket and sung this song.

Another bit of Nilsson trivia, Mama Cass died in his flat in London.

Time for a break, maybe more later

I expect the deliberately silent majority will remain silent as is now their practice but I hope everyone will enjoy these tidbits.

All great choices, Elmer, but that "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" is spectacular. Stephen Stills, what can anyone say? Amazing. I defy anyone to just sit still there at the end. Thanks for sharing that.

Wow. As a music lover, I have enjoyed all of these stories, in both threads, even though as it is in the middle of a work day for me, I only skimmed a couple of them. Anyway, thanks.

I don't have anythig nearly that interesting to contribute, but since I have to add something, I'll pick two quick ones. First, I think most people know that many of Bruce Springsteen's songs were based upon people and places from his youth at the Jersey shore. But the NY Times ran a story last week that the real life inspiration for part of Glory Days ("I had a friend, was a big baseball player, back in high school....") just passed - his name was Joe DePugh.

And of course, you know I can't leave without mentioning Phil. Most people know his roots were as a drummer, but do you have any idea just how good he was? There are tons of clips you can find online - here's one of my faves. He and Chester Thompson would battle it out on the drums frequently - so amazing to watch. Unfortunately, they also battled it out in life, had a major falling out and to my knowlege, never really made up.

ETA: sorry, meant to post this on the part II thread.....

" that "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" is spectacular. Stephen Stills, what can anyone say? Amazing. "

I agree. Another related tidbit:

Neil Young early on had developed a reputation of being impetuous and unpredictable. He was the reason Buffalo Springfield broke up. He and Stills were like brothers, they loved each other and hated each other at the same time and sometimes couldn't get along.

CSN formed (considered another supergroup at the time, with members from different successful bands) and recorded its first album. The great Ahmet Ertegun at Atlantic was their mentor and patron saint. He talked with Stills and said that he thought CSN was missing something, perhaps another impactful guitar player. Stills allegedly responded that the only person like that he knew and trusted was Young. They spoke with him and he said he was interested only if all members accepted his joining. Stills presented that to the other two and they were skeptical, as expected.

Nash took it upon himself to schedule a meeting with Young, whose acquaintance I don't think he'd previously made. It was a breakfast meeting. Nash, rather undiplomatically said, "Why should I want you in the band?

Young responded:"Have you ever heard what happens when Stephen and I play together?" (Meaning, in Buffalo Springfield, in which songs the two innovated styles and techniques for the first time for how two lead guitars can interact and live together in one song.)

Nash said - "Yes, I get your point. I want you in"

And edit to add:

It's my understanding that Young and Stills remain best friends to this day and see one another often. They've grown to accept their differences and respect how much they have in common and how only when playing with one another does 1+1= 10

Thank you , Elmer. It's a LOT to digest on this thead. I know I really enjoyed it but still did't listen to each one. CSN ( and Y) was what I picture as the soudntrck to my high school and college years, almost equal tthe Beatles.

Honestl it's so muchto digest on here whiich is why I think you are t getting as many replies.

I' will take a deep breath and now tackle Part 2.

Thank you, salonva. This is like the person who said they "de-mugged". I'm not discarding any memories, but these are from a lifelong active interest and pursuit of one hobby (among others). The odd or unexpected things I've come across.

I hope people enjoy these. Some of the ones with less dazzle to them, like the song Timothy, are very worth listening to (and in that case, following the lyrics while doing so). Ditto for Nilsson's Your Breaking My Heart.

This is a fascinating trip down memory lane. I have nothing to add but hope there'll be more! Lettersatoz, I wonder if there is a part 2 to that amazing Phil Collins video; it ended too soon. I had no idea he was such an incredible drummer!.

I took History of Rock on Coursera. Lots of interesting tidbits and more there.

I also saw Chuck Berry at a college dance in the late ’60s. He was outside having a smoke as we left so we got to say hello.

History of Rock, Part 1

I saw him live a few times too. He was a living legend whose work cast a disproportionately large shadow on all popular music. Edit to add - a shadow in a good way. He influenced in one way or another much music that happened after his work started becoming known.

Here are a few Berry tidbits:

-He sometimes planted and watered stories about having escaped impoverished origins. In fact, he grew up in a very comfortable middle-class family and had two parents with professional careers.

-He once said in an interview that as a young musician/performer, when he realized that 90% of the US population was white, it would have been foolish for him to direct his career toward black audiences only. So he instead aimed to produce music that Caucasians would like . (In the 1950s and before, audiences for particular music styles tended to be highly racially segregated with little crossover. There were black music stations playing what at the time was R&B, blues, and other music that appealed to African Americans and these stations had few listeners of other origins.)

-The opening lines of Johnny B Goode as originally written by Berry were:

Deep down in Louisiana close to New Orleans
Way back up in the woods among the evergreens
There stood a log cabin made of earth and wood
Where lived a colored boy named Johnny B. Goode

The last line was changed to "country boy" before the final recorded version.

- By mid-career, he tired of having to hire musicians to tour with. He frequently changed his approach - when his agent booked engagements for him, the promoter was tasked with hiring local musicians for the backup band. I think the normal roles would be a drummer, a bass player, and a pianist. A stage layout diagram and specifications for the type of amplifier to be provided for Berry's use (this is not so uncommon as regards the stage and equipment requirements). That allowed him to travel alone, with just a guitar.

As for preparation, a list of songs would be provided and the musicians were expected to learn parts to play for each song in advance of the gig. This last part was unusual but, in the case of Berry's music, not unreasonable because most musicians then and now can play most of his songs without advance prep anyway. Berry would show up with a guitar, do a quick run through of a few songs at sound check, and the show would go on as scheduled.

Links to related threads:

Tidbits Part 2

Rock Music unexpected reunions/gigs - Last chance, now or never