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January 20, 2025 • 12 mins

Join @thebuzzknight with @harryjacobs for a look at music history for the week of 1/20.

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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Buzz Night, the host of the Taking a Walk podcast,
And welcome to another edition of This Week in Music
History for the week of January twentieth, and we'll go
to the Music History Desk to Harry Jacobs, my pal
a long time from my radio days. He's a former
radio programmer, radio host, and musicologist.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
Hello, Harry at the Music History Desk us.

Speaker 3 (00:29):
I just want to let you know that I'm using
this entire experience to get my certification as a musicologist.

Speaker 4 (00:35):
How does it feel to be used in that way?
This is my thesis.

Speaker 2 (00:38):
I like that. I like it, doctor Jacobs. Yeah, there
you go.

Speaker 1 (00:42):
All right, So let's take a look at the week.
It sounds like it might be a fairly interesting week.
They all are, but this one in particular.

Speaker 4 (00:50):
This is a good one.

Speaker 3 (00:51):
This is you know, we started at the end of
the year, which is typically kind of slow. Now we're
starting to get into where things happened in history. This
is one of my favorites stories in rock. January twentieth,
nineteen eighty two. That was the day that Ozzy Osbourne
bit the head off the bat.

Speaker 4 (01:09):
Live bat in concert. And you remember where that was?

Speaker 2 (01:13):
I did not remember where it was.

Speaker 4 (01:15):
Des Moines, Iowa.

Speaker 1 (01:16):
Of all places, I'm sure Des Moines was never the
same after that.

Speaker 3 (01:22):
After the incident had to go, you know, undergo a
whole bunch of ravy shots and all that this. You know,
it's funny. I remember where I was when I you know,
when I heard this story. I you know, I grew
up in Worcester. We got information in nineteen eighty two
from from you.

Speaker 4 (01:38):
Know, a couple of places.

Speaker 3 (01:39):
We got them from, you know, the Worcester Telegram, We
got them from waaf Or, We got them.

Speaker 4 (01:44):
From our pals on a landline. Right.

Speaker 3 (01:46):
This is you know, think about if that were to
happen now, the viral video that would be out there
of Ozzie biting the head off a bat.

Speaker 2 (01:53):
Yeah, I would agree.

Speaker 1 (01:54):
I think there was a period of time I was
going regularly to a thing that Lee Abrams and company
put on, which was called the Superstars Convention, and we
were consulted by Lee and his consultants John Sinton who
you know, and Dwight Douglas and others were part of that.

(02:18):
Dave Logan was ultimately part of that whole group as well.

Speaker 2 (02:22):
And I seem to remember Ozzy had.

Speaker 1 (02:26):
Come that year to the Superstars event, and then afterwards
I think this story broke. So it was particularly interesting
because we had encountered the OZ at the event and
then suddenly this story happens. Plus there was a pretty

(02:46):
notorious record label head who we dealt with, who you
might remember, a gentleman by the name of Harvey Leeds
who represented Ozzie's label. So I think we got extra
color on the story from Harvey as well.

Speaker 3 (03:03):
Yeah, this cemented Ozzie's reputation as a wild figure.

Speaker 4 (03:07):
Ed.

Speaker 3 (03:08):
Harvey's had already been cemented at that point, and it
still is.

Speaker 2 (03:12):
It still is true of Harvey.

Speaker 3 (03:14):
Right, nineteen seventy two, January twenty fourth, This is big day.
This is when Pink Floyd started recording Dark Side of
the Moon.

Speaker 4 (03:24):
This is top I.

Speaker 3 (03:25):
Mean, certainly on my list, maybe number one or number
two of all time.

Speaker 1 (03:31):
Yeah, just thinking about, like, can you imagine if you know,
we had a behind the scenes that would have taken us,
you know, deeper inside that sort of creative process, the
whole Alan Parson's aspect of things as the engineer, right,
Alan Parsons.

Speaker 3 (03:48):
Yeah, Yeah, I'm gonna mention I got an Alan Parsons
connection to this as well. But you mentioned the you know,
the behind the scenes. There's some footage out there I
have seen and now I'm going to go down the
rabbit hole to find the making stuff. But there is
some stuff that's out there on the making of it
and one of the other things they're doing, and all

(04:10):
across all boards with music or they're putting out these
videos series on how certain things were made. So they're
going back into the studio so you actually can get
a sense of how they made it. But I've seen
some stuff on Dark Side of the Moon and that's
fascinating to me to watch that whole process.

Speaker 4 (04:25):
Those guys were just just brilliant.

Speaker 1 (04:28):
Yeah, and you think about where it is now, you know,
the relationship aspect of things where it's never going to
be the together at all, and you just think about
then and the magic that they were ultimately able to create.

Speaker 2 (04:42):
It's pretty spectacular thinking about that.

Speaker 4 (04:44):
There is this.

Speaker 3 (04:47):
Kind of you know, wives tale or folklore about Dark
Side of the Moon and Wizard of Oz.

Speaker 4 (04:54):
Did you ever ever do that, you ever watch it
see it together? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (04:59):
Well we were part of this, uh where you remember
George Taylor Morris, who.

Speaker 3 (05:08):
Would be a great guest for for what we're doing here.

Speaker 2 (05:11):
If he were still with us, you're partner in this, Yeah,
you got that right.

Speaker 1 (05:16):
Our dear late friend, George Taylor Morris, when he was
on w z l X, he somehow encountered this story.
I don't know who told him about it, but some
would say he was the guy that really fueled that thing,
you know, from a publicity aspect of things, uh, nationally,

(05:36):
because then ultimately after after George leaned into it, and
then ultimately ZLX leaned into it. You saw it start
popping up in New York at my old station, w
n w f M. I think Dave Herman latched onto
the story, and then it sort of sprouted its own,

(05:57):
uh you know, wings across the country. You know, of course,
because radio people like to steal a good bit if
they can, so they can turn it into their own thing.

Speaker 3 (06:08):
This was again of the days really before the Internet
where you know, you weren't if George Taylor Morris were
doing it in Boston and someone else where, you know,
Bob Rivers was doing it at you know, kis W
in Seattle.

Speaker 4 (06:22):
The world didn't know that, that's right. General public didn't
know that.

Speaker 2 (06:27):
What it has been refuted by the way. I'd like this.

Speaker 1 (06:31):
I think I just recently saw that David Gilmour spoke
about it and said that there was no association that
he believed with the two you know products.

Speaker 3 (06:42):
I asked Alan Parsons about it, and I'll tell you
when this was. This was either on July fourth, nineteen
ninety seven or July fourth, nineteen ninety eight, because I
had a July fourth interview with Alan Parsons and I
was filling in on the afternoon show on WCMF in
Rochester and I asked him about it, and he had

(07:03):
no idea about it. Of course, he was, you know,
in the United Kingdom. He was in, you know, somewhere
maybe outside of London. When we talked. There was again
no YouTube at that point, but he played dumb on
it too.

Speaker 4 (07:14):
But you look now you look at.

Speaker 3 (07:15):
YouTube, some of the stuff where it sinks up, it
looks like it's the soundtrack.

Speaker 4 (07:20):
I mean, it really is the score. So crazy thing.

Speaker 3 (07:24):
But nineteen seventy two January twenty fourth, Floyd started recording
that and that album was on the charts for seven
hundred and forty one weeks, which is unheard.

Speaker 1 (07:38):
Of, amazing I tell you, and I loved when I
think we talked about this when Pink Floyd showed up
and played in Columbus at Ohio Stadium for one of
the first big, big stadium shows. You know that they
would ultimately have there, you know, with acts like Pink Floyd.

(07:58):
And one of my favorite marketing ploys that we did
at QFM ninety six, the radio station that I was
working at in programming, we had a billboard and the
billboard said QFM ninety six welcomes, and then we had
the graphics say pink and then we had a picture

(08:19):
of Floyd the barber from the Andy Griffith Shows.

Speaker 4 (08:23):
Very funny, very funny.

Speaker 1 (08:25):
That was in the days when radio advertised on billboards
or radio advertised just in general.

Speaker 3 (08:31):
Radio spent money. There we go, But I digress. This
is the day. By the way, we talked about this
last week. Paul McCartney had been arrested in Tokyo. January
twenty fifth, nineteen eighty was the day that he got
out of jail. He spent nine days behind bars for weed,
and when he got out of jail and he was

(08:52):
asked about it, he said he brought the weed with
him because it was too good to leave bhy It's funny.

Speaker 4 (09:02):
Nine days in jail McCartney.

Speaker 2 (09:05):
I think back at my old station I ninety five too.

Speaker 1 (09:07):
I think we did some kind of little sign a
petitions for us to give to the embassy in Japan
to release Paul McCartney.

Speaker 2 (09:16):
We did some kind of little fan audience thing.

Speaker 4 (09:20):
That's funny.

Speaker 3 (09:21):
January twenty sixth, nineteen seventy seventh, Fleetwood Mac released Rumors.

Speaker 4 (09:26):
This was a band, you think about it, kind.

Speaker 3 (09:28):
Of the you know, now we can say hot rock,
but you know, soft rock, you know kind of band.
But they were caught up in drug use and drama
and breakups, infidelity. I mean for a group of calm,
adult contemporary kind of artists, there was a lot of drama.

Speaker 4 (09:47):
In that band.

Speaker 2 (09:48):
Oh it was a wreck at what it was.

Speaker 1 (09:50):
But what's so amazing is that they would put out that,
you know, monumental release in the midst of being a wreck.

Speaker 4 (09:57):
Do you think think about the cover?

Speaker 3 (10:00):
How funny was that for those that are listening, think
about this, or jump on the Google and look at
the cover of Rumors where Mitt Fleetwood's leg is up
and he's wearing a shirt that has two black, you know,
orbs hanging between his legs.

Speaker 4 (10:17):
Was that like a little you know, this is how
far we could push it?

Speaker 2 (10:21):
Yeah, I think so. And we were amused by it
for sure.

Speaker 4 (10:25):
Cornerstone of rock and roll history as well.

Speaker 2 (10:28):
You know, it's right, no doubt.

Speaker 3 (10:30):
Nineteen eighty four. This always amused me, and the album
got rock play. Thriller ended up in the in the
top spot Billboard two hundred best selling album of all time.
Was originally released in nineteen eighty two. Two years later
they got to the to the top of the charts again.

(10:51):
You play you mentioned you you played beat it.

Speaker 2 (10:53):
That's right deal for rock proudly. We played it proudly.

Speaker 1 (10:59):
Now, actually I think we were not proud, and we
may at times have played it and not backselled it
like DJs would.

Speaker 2 (11:08):
So we were not. We were trying to skate under
the radar in our own weird way about it, which
in retrospect was kind of dumb.

Speaker 3 (11:16):
You know, you had to in a sense, you had
to play it. It had that great you know, guitar solo
it was. It was Eddie van Halen on that. I mean,
Steve Lucather and Eddie van Halen both played on that
on that album, and I think and I think on
that track.

Speaker 2 (11:31):
So oh definitely, No, it's the whole album actually is great.

Speaker 1 (11:35):
We couldn't play anything other than that, but it was
pretty interesting for rock radio to co opt a little
bit of MJ.

Speaker 3 (11:44):
And speaking of Eddie van Halen January twenty sixth, nineteen
fifty five, Eddie's birthday rest in Pete.

Speaker 2 (11:51):
May he rest in peace, the great Eddie.

Speaker 4 (11:54):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (11:55):
Crazy, And I'll close with this a little history. January
twenty fifth, nineteen forty seven, Al Capone died in Palm Island, Florida.
He died from complications related to syphilis.

Speaker 2 (12:10):
That's the heck of a way to go.

Speaker 3 (12:11):
Yeah, ouch, And there's this week in history of rock
and gangster deaths.

Speaker 2 (12:18):
Harry, thanks for giving it to us. It was quite
a wild week. And that's another one for this week
in music history.

Speaker 1 (12:25):
I'm taking a walk podcast to check us out on
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