Rock n Roll Dude

Ugg Boot



So you're a Beatles fan? Check out these old Beatles Bobblehead Figures. I have them on Ebay starting at $1.99. What a deal. Click here to go to my ebay Beatle bobblehead figure page..


These are probably the most sought after Beatle figures. They were made in 1964 by Remco. They were released the same year that the album "A Hard Days Night" was released. I will be listing them on ebay tomorrow morning. Click here to see my ebay page.

So, I've been thinking about retirement. I'm considering an IRA. If I make a contribution of $3000 a year, by the time I'm 65 my retirement account will be near $800,000. I need to start now.

This week in Music history.

1935, musical chameleon Johnny "Guitar" Watson is born in Houston, Texas ... throughout his career the monstrously talented singer, guitarist, and keyboardist constantly reinvents his persona ... in 1952 he cuts a reverb-drenched instrumental called "Space Guitar" that anticipates psychedelic guitar by 15 years ... as a West Coast bluesman he is known as a blazing, inventive soloist with a stinging tone and a penchant for double-entendre lyrics ... his "Gangster of Love" is later covered by Steve Miller ... in the 1970s Watson recasts himself as a pimped-out hipster waxing smash disco hits like "A Real Mother for Ya" ... after dropping out of sight in the late '80s, Watson makes a triumphant return with his 1994 album Bow Wow ... in 1996 he dies onstage during a Japanese tour...

1960, "Money (That's What I Want)" by Barrett Strong enters the Billboard Pop Chart and ultimately rises to #23 ... the song will be covered successfully by The Beatles, The Kingsmen, Junior Walker and the Allstars, The Flying Lizards, and, badly, in countless karaoke bars worldwide...

1961, the world of pop music takes a big hit when a small plane crashes into an Iowa cornfield killing Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J.J. "The Big Bopper" Richardson ... the three pop stars, who were in the midst of a tour dubbed the Winter Dance Party, had chartered the plane to get to their next gig in Fargo, North Dakota, as an alternative to making the long haul in their tour bus with its defective heater ... Bob Dylan cuts his first record, "San Francisco Bay Blues"...

1964, Beatlemania reaches a feverish pitch when the Fab Four deplane in New York and are greeted by thousands of screaming teenyboppers ... that same day Baskin-Robbins unveils its newest flavor-Beatle-Nut...

1967, British pop producer Joe Meek--who developed many innovative recording techniques, fatally shotguns his landlady following an argument, then turns the gun on himself with equally deadly results ... a British tabloid, News of the World, publishes a breathless account of drug use among the day's rockers under the headline, "Pop Stars and Drugs - Facts that Will Shock You" ... the article reports on LSD parties hosted by The Moody Blues and attended by Pete Townshend, Ginger Baker, and other rock luminaries ... the story quotes Mick Jagger as admitting to the use of LSD and Benzedrine and claims the Stones singer had shown the reporter a chunk of hash ... it is later revealed that the reporter based his story on overhearing Brian Jones talking about drugs in a London disco and mistaking him for Jagger ... a couple of Stones drug busts are later attributed to continued hostilities between the scandal sheet and the band...

1969, George Harrison's tonsils are removed at University College Hospital in London ... it is reported that they have been destroyed to prevent the glands from turning up in the memorabilia market ... Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker formerly of Cream, together with ex-Traffic singer-keyboardist Stevie Winwood, announce they're auditioning for a bass player to join them in a new quartet ... with Rick Grech recruited, the band becomes the short-lived supergroup, Blind Faith...

1973, keyboardist Keith Emerson's hands are injured when a piano that's been rigged with pyrotechnics explodes prematurely during an Emerson, Lake and Palmer concert in San Francisco ... 1973 Elton John's "Crocodile Rock" goes to #1 on the Billboard Pop Chart ... it's the singer's first visit to the top of the U.S. chart...

1975, Louis Jordan dies of a heart attack in Los Angeles ... the alto sax-playing singer and band leader cut a series of novelty jump blues in the 1940s including "Choo Choo Ch'Boogie" and "Is You Is Or Is You Ain't (My Baby)" ... a decade later Jordan's highly swinging syncopated style is married to hillbilly music and spawns the rock 'n' roll revolution ... Jordan still holds the record for having occupied the #1 slot on the Billboard R&B Chart for a total of 113 weeks...

1977, Fleetwood Mac's Rumours is released ... the LP races to the #1 slot on the album chart where it remains for 31 weeks ... it ultimately moves over 17 million platters ... ABC-TV's American Bandstand celebrates its 25th birthday with a TV special hosted by Dick Clark ... a strangely constituted all-star band that includes Chuck Berry, Gregg Allman, Johnny Rivers, Donald Byrd, Chuck Mangione, Seals & Crofts, Junior Walker, The Pointer Sisters, Charlie Daniels, Doc Severinsen, Les McCann, and three-quarters of Booker T and the MGs plays "Roll Over Beethoven"...

1979, Sex Pistol Sid Vicious succumbs to a heroin overdose while awaiting trial for the murder of his girlfriend ... Stephen Stills is the first rock act to record on digital gear at L.A.'s Record Plant ... the tracks are never released however and guitarist Ry Cooder's rockabilly-inflected album Bop 'Til You Drop becomes the first ones-and-zeroes pop record...

1980, commemorating the first anniversary of Sid Vicious' death, 1,000 punks stage a march in London ... the dead Sex Pistol's mother, Ann Beverly, had been slated to head the parade, but she's in hospital recovering from a drug overdose...

1981, Joni Mitchell is inducted by Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau into the Juneau Hall of Fame...

1990, Billy Idol fractures an arm and leg in a Hollywood motorcycle wreck ... the mishap dashes his plans to play a major role in Oliver Stone's film, The Doors ... MTV's Unplugged debuts ... Squeeze are the first performers...

1991, Irish singer Sinead O'Connor is nominated in four Grammy categories and announces that she won't accept any awards saying the show reflects "false and destructive, materialistic values"...

1993, Willie Nelson reaches a settlement with the IRS in which the Feds keep $3.6 million worth of previously seized assets and the singer agrees to kick in another $5.4 million ... that will settle what the government reckons is a $13.1 million tax bill...

1993, as part of a plea bargain for being busted with a concealed weapon at Kennedy Airport in New York, Harry Connick Jr. agrees to make a public service announcement at his own expense discouraging folks from packing heat in the Big Apple...

1995, The I-Threes, the late Bob Marley's backup singing group which includes his widow Rita, stage a 50th-birthday concert for the fallen reggae star at the Bob Marley Museum in Kingston, Jamaica ... son Ziggy Marley also performs...

1999, breaking with other record companies, Rykodisk endorses distribution of music via MP3s...

2000, ABBA rejects an offer of nearly $100 million to reunite for a world tour...

2003, noted child-rearing authority Ozzy Osbourne, reacting to reports that Michael Jackson was beaten as a child by his father, observes, "If he'd been my kid, I would have whacked him too. Because he's nuts."

Birthdays:

February 2: Stan Getz (1927), Skip Battin of The Byrds (1934), Clarence Quick of the Dell Vikings (1937), Graham Nash (1942), Howard Bellamy of the Bellamy Bothers (1946), Peter Lucia of Tommy James and The Shondells (1947), Alan McKay of Earth Wind & Fire (1948), Journey's Ross Valory (1949), Jeff Healy Band drummer Tom Stephen (1955), jazz bassist Alphonso Johnson (1951), Robert DeLeo of Stone Temple Pilots (1966), Ben Mize of Counting Crows (1971), Shakira (1977)

February 3: Felix Mendelssohn (1809), jazz saxophonist John Handy (1933), Johnny "Guitar" Watson (1935), David Lerchey of the Dell Vikings (1937), Angelo D'Aleo of Dion & The Belmonts (1940), Eric Haydock of the Hollies (1943), Dennis Edwards of The Temptations (1943), Johnny Cymbal (1945), Dave Davies of The Kinks (1947), pop singer Melanie (1947), Lee Renaldo (1956), Tony Butler of Big Country (1957), Lol Tolhurst of The Cure (1959)

February 4: Bernie West of the Five Keys (1930), The Animals' John Steel (1941), Florence LaRue of the Fifth Dimension (1944), Alice Cooper aka Vincent Furnier (1948), Phil Ehart of Kansas (1951), Humble Pie's Jerry Shirley (1952), Clint Black (1962), Natalie Imbruglia (1975), Rick Burch of Jimmy Eat World (1975), Cam'ron (1976)

February 5: soul singer-songwriter Barrett Strong (1941), country singer Henson Cargill (1941), Cory Wells of Three Dog Night (1942), Chuck Winfield of Blood, Sweat & Tears (1943), Al Kooper (1944), J.R. Cobb of Atlanta Rhythm Section (1944), Steve Miller Band's Dave Denny (1948), Elton John drummer Nigel Olsson (1949), Duff McKagan of Guns N' Roses/Velvet Revolver (1964), Chris Barron of Spin Doctors (1968), Bobby Brown of New Edition (1969)

February 6: sax honker Bill Doggett (1916), teen idol Fabiano Forte AKA Fabian (1943), Bob Marley (1945), Natalie Cole (1950), Axl Rose born William Bruce Rose (1962), Rick Astley (1966)

February 7: Eubie Blake (1883), blugrass singer Wilma Lee Cooper (1921), king of soul sax King Curtis born Curtis Ousley (1934), Donna Stoneman (1934), Earl King (1934), singer Sammy Johns (1946), Jimmy Greenspoon of Three Dog Night (1948), Alan Lancaster of Status Quo (1949), Brian Travers of UB40 (1959), Steve Bronski of Bronski Beat (1960), David Bryan of Bon Jovi (1962), Garth Brooks (1962)

February 8: pioneer blues-jazz guitarist Lonnie Johnson (1889), composer John Williams (1932), Tom Rush (1941), Creed Bratton II of the Grass Roots (1943), Jim Capaldi of Traffic (1944), Adolfo De La Parra of Canned Heat (1946), Vince Neil of Motley Crue (1961), Sam Llanas of The BoDeans (1961), Collective Soul's Will Turpin (1971), Darren "Phoenix" Farrell of Linkin Park (1977)

Deaths:

February 2: songwriter Hal Blair (2001), David McComb of The Triffids (1999), jazz drummer and bandleader Mel Lewis (1990), Blue Note Records founder Alfred Lion (1987), Sid Vicious (1979)

February 3: jazz trombonist James Louis "J.J." Johnson (2001), blues guitarist "Wild" Jimmy Spruill (1996), Alex Harvey (1982), producer Joe Meek (1967), Buddy Holly (1959), Ritchie Valens, (1959), "The Big Bopper" J.P. Richardson (1959)

February 4: composer Iannis Xenaxis (2001), dancer and R&B singer Gwen Guthrie (1999), mandolinist Jethro Burns of Homer and Jethro (1989), Liberace (1987), Karen Carpenter (1983), Louis Jordan (1975), saxophone inventor Adolphe Sax (1894)

February 5: Slaughter's Tim Kelly (1998)

February 6: Japanese indie scene singer Mitsumi Fukuhara (1999), Beach Boy Carl Wilson (1998), technopop artist Falco (1998), elevator-music conductor Hugo Montenegro (1981), R&B singer-songwriter Jesse Belvin (1960)

February 7: Dale Evans (2001), Dave Peverett of Foghat (2000), songwriter Bobby Troup of "(Get Your Kicks) On Route 66" fame (1999), Eddie "Guitar Slim" Jones (1959)

February 8: Del Shannon (1990)