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July 8, 2025 • 23 mins

Join @thebuzzknight and @theharryjacobs for a look at Music History for the week of 7-7.

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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
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.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
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.

Speaker 3 (00:37):
Is that right?

Speaker 2 (00:38):
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.

Speaker 3 (00:44):
I think I got something.

Speaker 2 (00:45):
I got something for you.

Speaker 3 (00:47):
I think you got something. What was it?

Speaker 2 (00:50):
Inspired by it? It was supposed to have some it
was supposed to promote some emotion.

Speaker 3 (00:56):
It's got that.

Speaker 2 (00:57):
Yeah, So that's that's what it was. And I couldn't
really ever do anything with it.

Speaker 1 (01:01):
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

(01:23):
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.

Speaker 2 (01:34):
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.

Speaker 1 (01:48):
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

(02:12):
for the week of July the seventh. So what do
he have got Harry over at the music history desks.

Speaker 2 (02:18):
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.

Speaker 1 (02:35):
Elvis not my favorite, but not as hokey as Elvis
would become later on in the bloated years.

Speaker 2 (02:44):
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.

Speaker 1 (02:55):
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?

Speaker 2 (03:15):
The sixty eight comeback was so amazing. I just watched
the documentary on that.

Speaker 1 (03:20):
Mister Spencer Prawford behind that absolutely incredible.

Speaker 2 (03:23):
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.

Speaker 3 (03:36):
Memphis, Tennessee.

Speaker 2 (03:38):
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.

Speaker 3 (04:00):
Of time, stands the test of time.

Speaker 1 (04:02):
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

(04:25):
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.

Speaker 3 (04:36):
And they went in a moment, Share is coming in
and I was like, what so Share comes in?

Speaker 1 (04:47):
I remember thinking does she really want to be in
this room? And she comes to the mic and balls to.

Speaker 3 (04:56):
The wall, Share let it all go. She looked beautiful.

Speaker 1 (05:00):
Oh she you know who came out there with her
look pretty beautiful as well.

Speaker 2 (05:06):
Do a loope? Who's doing? I don't, I don't know,
do a loope? My god?

Speaker 1 (05:12):
But but Share unapologetic about anything.

Speaker 2 (05:18):
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.

Speaker 1 (05:39):
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,

(06:00):
even if you kind of go, all right, do.

Speaker 2 (06:03):
You believe that song?

Speaker 1 (06:05):
That's not really like what you think of for the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Speaker 2 (06:09):
But she revealed she said they were for so long.

Speaker 1 (06:15):
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

(06:36):
there you go.

Speaker 3 (06:37):
So that's our share.

Speaker 2 (06:40):
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

(07:00):
if there's anyone that doesn't tap their toes or nod
their head a little bit.

Speaker 3 (07:04):
Or make you smile.

Speaker 2 (07:05):
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

(07:27):
band lays, you know, basically is dormant, and Jimmy Page says,
I'm gonna hang on to the I'm going to hang
on to the storefront, so to speak. It's like a
restaurant closing and the dishwasher or a cook saying, you
know what, don't take anything out of here. I'm gonna
keep it. And that's what Jimmy Page did with the Yardbirds.
And then he called his friend John Paul Jones. Those
two guys had been working in music and they were

(07:49):
session players. They were the wrecking crew of Great Britain,
right and and John Bonham comes into play and they
get Robert Plant. For a minute they were the new
Yardbirds and then they became led Zeppelin.

Speaker 1 (08:02):
Yeah, the documentary Becoming led Zeppelin is sensational and it
tells the you know, the beginnings and certainly traces the
Yardbirds story.

Speaker 3 (08:12):
So brilliantly.

Speaker 1 (08:14):
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.

Speaker 3 (08:39):
Of course that are still alive.

Speaker 2 (08:42):
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.

Speaker 1 (08:52):
That's right, right, looks great smile on his face, dignified,
agent gracefully.

Speaker 2 (08:58):
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.

Speaker 1 (09:14):
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.

Speaker 3 (09:30):
Went, we're going to do this, but this is how
we're going to do it.

Speaker 1 (09:34):
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.

Speaker 2 (09:42):
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

(10:05):
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
do a handful of shows around the world. Can you
imagine what that would have been like? Think about how
great that two show was with Jason Bonham, incredible ten shows,

(10:28):
twelve shows around the world. They would have paid him
a half a billion dollars. They would have paid him
whatever they wanted. They weren't feeling the magic, which is
listen the thought of Jimmy Page grabbing his guitar. Legal alert,
you know, legal alert.

Speaker 1 (10:45):
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

(11:06):
documentary left us wanting more.

Speaker 2 (11:09):
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.

Speaker 1 (11:30):
One of particular was Jefferson Airplane Free Show Mini Woodstock
one hundred thousand people.

Speaker 2 (11:37):
That would have been around sixty seven sixty eight before
we'd leave.

Speaker 1 (11:40):
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,

(12:06):
it had the backbone.

Speaker 2 (12:07):
At that point, I'm pretty sure our dear friend you
are mcalcin and.

Speaker 1 (12:11):
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.

Speaker 2 (12:28):
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,

(12:49):
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
Jane nineteen eighty eighty one. That's when Mickey steps in.
But it really becomes very poppy at that time. Yeah,
even though in that early period they still rocked. Yeah

(13:13):
it was it was pop.

Speaker 1 (13:14):
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

(13:38):
with the Jefferson.

Speaker 2 (13:39):
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

(14:00):
was going to include Willy Beat. Does anyone in the room,
including Willy b know how Joan of Arc was put
to death?

Speaker 1 (14:05):
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.

Speaker 2 (14:15):
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

(14:38):
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.
The next thing you know, here we.

Speaker 3 (14:49):
Are and the rest is history.

Speaker 2 (14:50):
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.

Speaker 1 (15:04):
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

(15:27):
I think Harry was swaying along to it, so that's
why he sounds like Brenda Vicarrol.

Speaker 2 (15:32):
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,

(15:55):
I'm gonna have to look at that seriously.

Speaker 1 (15:56):
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,

(16:17):
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.
And this was a great period for Dylan. This was
at his height of the being a folk master.

Speaker 2 (16:30):
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.

Speaker 3 (16:51):
Are You Okay?

Speaker 2 (16:52):
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.

Speaker 1 (17:05):
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.

Speaker 3 (17:19):
That name.

Speaker 1 (17:21):
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.

Speaker 2 (17:35):
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

(17:58):
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.

Speaker 1 (18:11):
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.

Speaker 3 (18:28):
So I think it's kind of ironic.

Speaker 2 (18:30):
He was their best player.

Speaker 1 (18:31):
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.

Speaker 2 (18:47):
You just did. Is this because you're a Cardinals fan?
Because you're not a Red.

Speaker 3 (18:52):
Sox fan of.

Speaker 1 (18:54):
Fairly interested resident of the Boston area who is a
Cardinal fan but kind of has no vested interest.

Speaker 2 (19:03):
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?

Speaker 1 (19:16):
Kind of depressed at that moment? Yeah, I would imagine
it wouldn't matter now to me.

Speaker 2 (19:19):
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

(19:42):
bringing portable televisions to grave sites.

Speaker 3 (19:46):
It's nice. Actually it was living. It's nice.

Speaker 2 (19:49):
I shed a tear when the Red Sox won. I
thought I was living my entire life without ever seeing it.

Speaker 3 (19:53):
No, it was nice. It's a nice time to be around.

Speaker 2 (19:56):
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

(20:17):
phone on and watching that flicks. This is nineteen seventy seven,
No remotes for TV, no technology, there's nothing. It was freaky.
I wasn't there, but it was a freaky occurrence. I
followed it.

Speaker 1 (20:31):
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.

Speaker 2 (20:51):
Who was the Daily News reporter, Jimmy Breslin, Jimmy.

Speaker 1 (20:57):
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

(21:17):
a parallel piece to the blackout occurred at a time,
so you know, I'm sure he put this all the
dis things together.

Speaker 2 (21:26):
This was pre chat GPT. This is a guy who's
you know, a cigarette smoking old white things are I.

Speaker 3 (21:34):
Don't mean to talk, yeah, people who smoke cigars.

Speaker 2 (21:37):
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

(21:57):
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.
City's being terrorized. My parents sent me the same thing.

(22:18):
I think that's what began my true crime addiction. Every
day there was someone else being attacked or every couple
weeks with Son of Sam.

Speaker 3 (22:26):
Yeah, it was.

Speaker 1 (22:28):
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.

Speaker 2 (22:51):
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.

Speaker 1 (23:05):
You got a parking ticket, got a parking ticket, That's
exactly right, got a parking ticket.

Speaker 2 (23:09):
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.

Speaker 1 (23:21):
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?

Speaker 2 (23:32):
I am absolutely good.

Speaker 1 (23:33):
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.

Speaker 2 (23:47):
Goodbye Bus,
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