Today In Music, January 25th

From the Rockmine Almanac for today (Friday 25th January):

Birth

1949. Punk poet John Cooper Clark born in Salford, Manchester.

On The Road

1961. Bob Dylan travels to Greystone Hospital in New York to see his idol, Woody Guthrie. In the next few days (probably the 27th) he visits Woody’s home in Howard’s Beach. Despite Guthrie’s wife, Marjorie, not being at home he blags his way in and spends some time teaching young Arlo Guthrie some harmonica.

In Court

1971. George Harrison‘s solicitor, Mr. Martin Polden, appears on his behalf at Wells Street Magistrates Court to plead guilty to a charge of “driving without reasonable consideration”. The guitarist is charged with driving his Mercedes into the legs of a policeman who had signalled him to stop in West London on September 3rd 1969. Magistrate Iain Mclean, presiding, postpones sentence until February 23rd to allow George time to find his driving licence which has been lost.

In Hospital

1971. “god” (with a lower case “g” for humility) is born at French Hospital in San Francisco. Parents Grace Slick and Paul Kantner may not have intended things that way but after a painful labour with only one valium that’s the name Grace tells the nurse anxious to fill up the new baby certificate that the hospital gives every mum post delivery. After Grace tells the nurse, the nurse calls the “San Francisco Chronicle” to expose the blasphemy. When the time comes to register the birth, the baby girl is given her intended name of China. Even with China, Grace couldn’t win. The press pointed out that Michelle Phillips had previously called her daughter, “Chynna”. Years later, in her autobiography, “Somebody To Love?”, Grace says if she’d known about Chynna, she’d probably have called China, “Xlopdy”.

In The Press

2001. The issue of “Nature” magazine published today describes the discovery of a “bizarre predatory dinosaur” found recently on Madagascar by Professor Scott Sampson of Utah University and his team of palaeontologists. The creature, which lived between 65 and 70 million years ago stood about 3 feet high and weighed about 80 lbs. It has been named Masiakasaurus knopfleri. Masiaka means vicious in Malagasy; saurus, of course, is Greek for lizard and knopfleri is in honour of Mark Knopfler whose music the team were listening to when they found the fossils. The exact dates of the discovery and subsequent naming are unknown. On hearing of the honour yesterday, Knopfler is quoted as saying, “I’m really delighted. It’s a very special honour. The fact that it’s a dinosaur is certainly apt.” and “I’m happy to report that I’m not in the least bit vicious”.

Death

1986. Albert Grossman who managed Bob Dylan and Janis Joplin dies from a heart attack during a flight to London.

Daily Babble

Finally got something on eBay for the first time in more than 6 months! The tankard I discovered hidden in the dining room a few days ago has been polished up and is online.

 

In case you didn’t see that days blog, it was presented by Island Studios in London to engineer Brian Humphries when he left to work for Pink Floyd at their Britannia Row Studios.

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