December 8, 2025 • 33 mins
Welcome to an extraordinary edition of the Takin’ A Walk podcast from Buzz Knight music and the “Master of Music Mayhem,” Harry Jacobs. This comprehensive look at weekly music history explores one of the most emotionally complex weeks in rock and roll history, spanning December 8th through December 14th. From tragic losses to groundbreaking debuts, this week encompasses the full spectrum of music history’s most pivotal moments.
John Lennon’s Assassination: December 8, 1980 - A Day That Changed Music Forever
The episode opens with perhaps the darkest day in rock music history: December 8, 1980, when John Lennon was shot and killed outside The Dakota apartment building in New York City. Buzz Knight and Harry Jacobs provide intimate personal recollections of this Beatles tragedy that shocked the world. For listeners of this weekly music history episode note the Buzz Knight music podcast replay of "Takin A Walk" with the incredible Julian Lennon.
The Beatles Reunion: Free as a Bird and the Anthology Era
Moving from tragedy to reunion, the episode explores December 9, 1995, when the Beatles released “Free as a Bird”—the first new Beatles music in 24 years. Both hosts were working together at WZLX in Boston during this momentous release, bringing their firsthand perspective to this Beatles reunion moment. The track, built around a John Lennon demo with contributions from Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr, represented a technological and emotional achievement in music history.
Harry admits his initial underwhelm with the track, noting that while “Free as a Bird” generated enormous curiosity worldwide, it never achieved the status of Beatles classics like “Ticket to Ride,” “Help!,” or songs from Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. The honest assessment reflects how even beloved artists can struggle to recapture past magic, and both hosts acknowledge they haven’t revisited the song since its release. This candid discussion provides valuable context for understanding fan expectations versus artistic reality in music reunion projects.
The Blues Brothers Phenomenon: From Saturday Night Live to Cultural Institution
December 9, 1978 marks the Saturday Night Live debut of the Blues Brothers, a moment that transformed comedy sketch into legitimate musical force. The episode provides deep insights into how Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi created this blues and R&B supergroup, enlisting Paul Shaffer, Lou Marini, Duck Dunn, and Steve Cropper, who just passed away—the latter two being legendary members of Booker T. and the MGs and key figures in the Stax Records sound that defined Memphis soul music and produced classics like “Soul Man” and “Green Onions.”
Howard Shore, who served as Saturday Night Live’s musical director, recognized the potential in Aykroyd and Belushi’s blues performances and helped facilitate their transition from comedy bit to recording artists. The hosts discuss how this comedy-music crossover assembled world-class musicians around a satirical concept that became genuinely respected in the music community. The Blues Brothers represented a unique fusion of comedy and music that introduced younger audiences to blues legends and R&B classics.
The conversation explores Tom “Bones” Malone, a guest on Buzz’s podcast, who joined the Blues Brothers band and played trombone with Blood, Sweat & Tears before becoming part of the SNL band. The episode details the evolution of the band from initial concept to full touring and recording entity, with Buzz noting the impressive live performances featuring the Blues Brothers’ acrobatic stage show, where the larger-than-life Belushi performed cartwheels, splits, and handstands that would later inspire Chris Farley’s physical comedy style.
The Blues Brothers soundtrack, featuring “Briefcase Full of Blues” and subsequent albums, has “stood the test of time” according to both hosts. Songs like “Rubber Biscuit,” performed with Matt “Guitar” Murphy, and the memorable Aretha Franklin diner scene where Jake orders “four fried chickens and a Coke,” remain embedded in popular culture. The authentic musicianship combined with comedic brilliance created something that transcended both genres, making the Blues Brothers a permanent fixture in American music history.
Otis Redding’s Legacy and Tragic Death: December 10, 1967
The episode takes a somber turn with December 10, 1967, the day Otis Redding died in a plane crash near Madison, Wisconsin, along with members of the Bar-Kays. The timing of this tragedy magnifies its impact—Redding had recorded ”(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay” just three days earli
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Bud's Night and welcome to the Taking a Walk Podcast,
and welcome to another edition of This Week in Music History.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
This is for the week of December the eighth.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
And I'm going to go to the master of music
Mayhem that has stuck or the Maestro of music Mayhem.
Which one do you prefer?
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Master of music Mayhem, master because I'm not a maestro.
I'm a hack rhythm guitar player. But I believe I
am the master of Mayhem. I'll take that because I
like Maestro of music Mayhem. I don't really have an
issue with that, because you are. There's a maestro factor
to you. It's the tiny little bit of a maestro.
(00:45):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
I declare differently because when people listen to the Taking
a Walk podcast and it opens with what I know
affectionately is Harry's theme, I mean that's a maestro.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Hey. Yeah, well it's there, absolutely, Thanks you.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
All right, all right, well, thank you, And let's take
a look at the week of December eighth, and this
Week in Music History.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
This is you know, we start on a tough note
for you music historians. December eighth was the day that
John Lennon was shot outside the Dakota in New York City,
and this is you know, on so many levels, it's
just so awful. What I want to do is I
want to kind of take you through that day. Early
(01:33):
in the day, Mark David Chapman, who was the shooter
man that ended John Lennon's life, he approached John Lennon
and got his copy of Double Fantasy, the album that
had just been released signed that day. He was talkative
with Lenin, as talkative as he could be, but he
(01:55):
was inside and raged at Lenin for Lennon's behavior in
his opinion, including the comment about the Beatles being bigger
than Jesus from years and years before that, fifteen years
before that, when Lennon had said that, and he went
back to the Dakota at eleven o'clock at night and
(02:18):
laid in wait for John Lennon and those that were
watching Monday Night football. And even if you didn't watch
Monday Night Football, we can all see that clip of
Howard Cosell. This is something As a fourteen year old kid,
I didn't really grasp the full impact of it. I
remember staying at my grandparents' house. My folks were on
(02:38):
some trips somewhere and I was sequestered away in Shrewsbury,
mass But I remember my grandmother waking me and telling
me the story at eleven o'clock at night and just
being in shock.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
Where were you when this happened. I was in Woodbury, Connecticut,
believe it or not. I was with my wife to
be at our.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Apartment.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
Yes, we were living in sin and I think in
the background maybe the football game was on, but wasn't
paying really much attention to it. And we had a neighbor.
I won't mention his name because I don't want to
(03:27):
speak ill of someone who can't defend himself. But let's
just say he was an annoying neighbor. He actually was
a co worker at the time too, who sold time
at the radio station that I worked at. I ninety five,
So I'm giving it away, but I'm not going to
mention his name, I promise you.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
But an annoying man.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
So he comes downstairs to our apartment and knocks on
the door, and usually we were like, oh, what's he
doing here?
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Yeah? Right, And he is the.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
One that said, did you just hear what happened? John
Lennon's been shot? So he he this this guy named Neil.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
He was you said, you weren't.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
Going to give his name, and I'm not going to
give his last name, but.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
I'll call him Neil.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
But anyway, yeah, he was the one that revealed it,
and just a complete and utter shock, you know, just
the most shocking news you could possibly hear.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
The world was in shock, you know when this happened.
That the impact that Lennon had as an activist, as
an artist, as as a as a man was you know,
was second to none. And this cut short of life
(04:53):
for no reason other than a mental health issue, rights
a boil down to this was premeditated. This was you know,
probably someone who deserved the worst of the worst in
terms of punishment, but it's a mental health issue, and
you know, at its core an incredible tragedy. Who have
(05:16):
cut his life so short? I would imagine that he
would be deeply involved with what's happening in the world
at this point if he were still alive.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
Oh, no doubt he would be doing something. I don't
know what it would be, but you're right. I think
he would be involved musically, socially, you know. Somehow. I
have to tell you that last year my wife and
I were in New York City. You know, at the
(05:47):
time of this, it's you know, anniversary I don't even
know the correct word, anniversary of the tragedy. And I
had always walked by and the Dakota from another vantage
point in front, and on this trip we walked on
(06:10):
the side street of the Dakota and I had never
seen until last year that spot, which you know is
that walkway, driveway whatever.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
Entrance point.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
And it was incredibly chilling seeing it from that point.
I had, you know, obviously read the account and seen
what had happened, but very eerie seeing it, you know,
from that vantage point. But then on the other side
there walking through Central Park and Strawberry Fields, it was
(06:47):
you know, also it was sad, but it was also
celebratory as you had, you know, a little band playing
you know, Beatles songs playing on one corner, and you know,
another side, a solo artist playing music. You had this
kind of interesting morning but celebration of his life that
(07:11):
was going on. It was a beautiful day. And so
just you know, passing that perspective along because it was
a different view certainly that I had never seen before.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
You know, Yeah, it would a day that's going down
in history, one of the Satursday's of music, no question
about that. Let's continue. On nineteen ninety five, the Beatles
released Free as a Bird. You and I work together.
This is one of those things. It was a big
day eight we're both big Beatle fans. We were at
(07:46):
w ZLX in Boston and Free as a Bird was released,
the first piece of new Beatles music in twenty four years.
Thoughts from that day, Thoughts about that song, Thoughts about
I remember having some apprehension about when Free as a
Bird came out, but yet kind of listening and thinking, Okay,
(08:10):
I think this is pretty cool that this is out
so many years later.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
As we know now this would be the beginning of
other releases like that that were unearthed and put out
years after the you know, the Beatles obviously had stopped recording.
So then as I over time got to sort of
listen to Free as a Bird and evaluate.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
I think the reaction.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
It was that was pretty cool, the first, the first
release of something that that was unearthed and then put
out into the marketplace. Now subsequently years later with more
of those coming out, I think we could both give
a collective eye roll to kind of go, oh, really,
I know, you need to sell the catalog. That's why
(08:59):
this is coming out. But I don't know if you
feel the same way. So I was cool at first
with not at first with Free as a Bird. Then
I grew to think that was pretty cool. And then
now over time, I'm like, enough of this? Can we
leave the band for what we remember them for? But
how do you feel about that?
Speaker 2 (09:19):
There was a natural curiosity from all of us, obviously
around the world, not just you and I but everybody
with what it's gonna sound like? What will this be like?
You know? And it was I think even at the beginning,
I was underwhelmed with it right away. I thought, it's okay,
not Ticket to Ride, it's not help, it's not Sergeant Peppers,
(09:41):
it's not one of our favorites. And I don't know
that it's going to end up being one of our favorites.
Right well, let's stand the test of time, and I
think the truth is is not really we don't hear
Free as a Bird anywhere. Yeah, there was some I
probably haven't listened to it since that moment, you know, yeah, right,
(10:02):
there were some interesting things that happened around the Beatles
at that time. In these releases of these anthology albums.
You're familiar with the term chotkey very much. So the
chotkey is the item that we might get, we might
(10:23):
pick up somewhere. The Beatles sent a bunch of Chotkey's.
The Beatles of the Estate sent a bunch of bunch
of Chotzky's out with these anthology albums. One of the
things was pins. Do you remember the pins that they
sent out? Yes, I do. I have a bag of
them in my kitchen from nineteen ninety five, thirty years ago.
(10:46):
At this point, I've been schlepping these Chotski's around waiting
for an opportunity to talk about them. But these pins
were black and white, and these pins had the Beatles
logo in white, and then there were these sayings on them, help,
I need somebody, I'd love to turn you on from
(11:10):
a Day in the Life song lyrics, another one I've
got to admit It's getting better all the time. And
then my favorite, we all live in a yellow submarine
and they're really kind of cool. I've got ten or
fifteen of them in a ziplock bag sit in my kitchen.
(11:31):
I don't know that I'll ever do anything where it's
probably put them up somewhere, but it was kind of
cool to get a little something out of the Beatles
estate at that point in time you gained those to.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
Me, Have you checked the marketplace for those?
Speaker 2 (11:46):
You know? It's a good question, and I haven't. But
I can tell you the first thing I do, and
we're done with this week, is I'm going to eBay
to see what those things might fetch. Yeah, you should.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
I'm going to tell you a sad tale about Beatles memorabilia,
and let this be a lesson if what you see
on eBay indicates that the collection, because I think as
the full collection is where it's going to be worth something,
whether it's twenty five cents or twenty five dollars or
(12:18):
twenty five hundred dollars. My late father in law he
gave to me a Beatles ukulele, which was one of
those pieces of memorabilia. Of the many pieces of memorabilia
that over their career the Beatles would would be part of.
You know, they had the babblehead dolls and.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
The ukulele was one of those.
Speaker 3 (12:43):
Unbeknownst to my wife, she didn't realize that her father
had given me that Beatles ukulele because I think she
thought it was.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
Hers or whatever, or maybe her sister thought whatever, But
I said no, he gave it to me. It ended
up in the basement, and our basement to this day
is still horrible.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
It's a crime scene.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
And so the Beatles ukulele was in there with the
you know, the cat with puke on it, or almost
puke on it. So I started thinking, well, wait a minute,
I got to have a a little bit of respect here.
So I went to a Beatles memorabilia show. It was
(13:32):
a it was a music memorabilia show, and obviously the
part of it was the Beatles' stuff being sold or
whatever praised. I forget which hotel I went to. I
went there with my daughter actually, so I was offered
on the spot then twenty five hundred dollars for that
(13:54):
Beatles ukulele, And of course, mister big shot here goes.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
Well, well, I'm not no, I'm going to hold on.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
To that, because everybody's whole posture would be hold on
to that. That's going to be worth more. Right, So
did nothing with it, took it out of the basement
where the cat could puke on it, and actually took
some care of it, thinking there's going to be a
moment where that thing's going to be worth.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
More, maybe doubled.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
And lo and behold, a couple of years ago I
went to get it appraised, and I'm not sure it
would even have fetched seventy five dollars at that point.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
Wow, it's not interesting.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
So now they get always listening and they want to
make an offer on Harry's beetle pins, or they want
to talk about the Beatles ukulele. We're all ears, right, Harry,
we are.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
All ears, so happy to entertain any offers on any
of that. Ye, this is a big day in history.
Reagan and Gorbachev basically signed off on that nuclear deal,
the inf Nuclear Deal, and that marked the end of
the Cold War. Big and important day. December ninth, the
(15:17):
next day, this is kind of an interesting day in history,
and it relates to the Blues Brothers. This is kind
of a neat story. The Blues Brothers made their debut
on Saturday Night Live. At this point, this was, you know,
essentially something that started out as a parody, right, think
(15:37):
about what it was. It was a skit on SNL.
The reason that it went from parody to an actual
band is that at the bar they were playing at.
Howard Shore, who ended up being the musical director of SNL,
saw Akroyd and Blueshet playing out one night and old
(16:01):
this could actually be something. Belucian Akroyds surrounded themselves with
Paul Schaeffer and Lou Marini and Duc Dunn and Steve Cropper.
Dunn and Cropper were on the stacks sessions, most famously
soul Man Booker t and the MG's Green Onions. They
(16:24):
were in the middle of those, and Belucian Akroyd attracted
really world class musician musicians on this and it turned
into an album that did unbelievable numbers for something that
was in a way a parody, but it was kind
of a blues R and B supergroup at the time,
(16:44):
and that led to, you know, an album that hit
the charts and did far more than anyone anticipated it.
Briefcase full of Blues. Remember Rubber Biscuit?
Speaker 1 (16:54):
Oh yeah, yeah, and You Go Hungry by all Bow, Well, that's.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
Right, I gotta pull that. I should I should have
I should have gone down that rabbit hole Todays get
rabbit Hole.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
By the way, where was Tom bones Malone in that?
Do you know Tom Bones Malone. I had him on
the podcast. He eventually was a member of the Blues Brothers.
He was part of the Saturday Night Live band, A
great trombone player, played with Blood, Sweat and Tears. He's
played with just about everybody. But where where was he
he was he part of that early or did he
(17:29):
come on later? I think he came on later Tom, But.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
I think it's Malone. I think there were you know,
there were probably a group of guys that were added
after the fact, I think when they recorded and and
when they ended up going because they did some shows
to support to support briefcase, and and I think Bones
was one of the guys that was brought in afterwards.
(17:53):
I think I think Matt Guitar Murphy Yep. It was
part of that legendary scene in the movie. Scenes in
the movie. He was married to Aretha Franklin, who was
running that diner. Remember when Jake and Elwood went into
the diner and Jake said four whole fried chickens and
a coke. Yes. Right.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
One of my favorite games that they did, too, was
when they would do the whole acrobatics thing. When they
would they would be you know, like flipping and doing
handstands and all that.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
I love that. And it was him right, it was Blushy.
This was this was you know, pre Chris Farley. Farley
got his inspiration from watching Belusi's this guy that was
larger than life with those acrobatics, a quick kind of
a side. I'm a you know, I'm a big UFC fan.
I watched the fights all the time. There's a guy
(18:46):
who fights in the UFC by the name of Chris Barnett.
The guy's like five nine and two hundred and sixty
five files. He has to cut weight to get into
the fights at the fight limit, the heavyweight fight limit.
Barnett's the human tick. He's built like Belushi. And this
guy does cartwheels and the splits, and I'm thinking, this
is like John Belushy.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
This is unbelievable. You don't expect it to come from
a guy like that. I have a request for the
next episode that we record. Would you start the episode
by coming on doing some of those acrobatics.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
I cannot do any sort of acrobatics. As a matter
of fact, if I went down to do the splits,
we might need to call a record to get me
off the ground, so no, there'll be no acrobatics, and
I'm likely to break something that way. Dar. Anyway, the
whole Blues Brothers thing led to the movie, which was
one of the most expensive movies that was made, certainly
(19:41):
comedy at the time, because they wrecked. I mean, there's
some interesting facts about this. Forty different stunt drivers, sixty
old police cars, the Dixie Square Mall, which it was
shuttered at the time, that's the mall they drove through.
You know, it's just an incredible amount of work. And
the other issue you that came up with The Blues
(20:03):
Brothers is that the cost of that movie skyrocketed because
Belushi was using a lot at that point in time,
and he was constantly late for production, and that pushed
production back. And it's sad that that was something that
(20:23):
led to huge production costs. But imagine getting you know,
look at the credits on a movie like that. Imagine
having one hundred or two hundred pople show up to
work that day and your star is recovering from a hangover.
At any rate, amazing movie. The music, to me, the
music has stood in the test of time. I could
hear Rubber Biscuit right now in my head, and I'm
thinking that's probably where I'm gonna do this afternoon is
(20:44):
put out briefcase, pull of blues and listen to some
of those songs. But the album was great. I remember
listening to it with my dad. I loved it. The
next day, December tenth, was a sad day for music.
In nineteen sixty seven, Otis Redding was in a plane
crash with the Barquays. This happened near Madison, Wisconsin. Life
(21:06):
was cut short. From a timing perspective, understand that Doctor
the Bay had just been recorded three days before that
hadn't even come out. There were some interesting things that
happened around Doctor the Bay. His plan was to go
in and add some additional vocals. He was also going
to redo the whistling at the end, and it ended
(21:28):
up being put out as it was put out. A
couple of other things to think about here. His appearance
at the Monterey Pop Festival in sixty seven was a
career defining moment. He as a black R and B artist,
was introduced to a completely new audience, a white rock audience,
(21:51):
and it was a big moment for him. He did
a cover of Satisfaction Stone song at that event. And
another thing I found that I didn't realize is that
he was an instrumental producer in those days, and I
had no idea that he was a behind the scenes
production kind of guy. I just thought he was a
(22:12):
singer songwriter. And that's where we left it with Otis.
But interesting facts about Otis writing totally and that song
sitting on the dock of the Bay, I think, you know,
stands the test of time. I would completely agree with that.
December tenth of nineteen seventy six, McCartney and Wings ended
(22:37):
up releasing Wings Over America. This was a big deal.
I can't think of how many triple albums there were
in you know, music history, but certainly in terms of
a live album, I don't think of another triple live
album that came out. The law on that was McCartney's
(23:02):
hand was actually held or beat. We were put to
the flames, as they would say, because there was a
bootleg album allegedly released at that time and it was
called let me get this right, it was called Wings
from Wings and this was a full concert album that
was released by a bootlegger on colored vinyl. So they
(23:26):
were rushed to release Wings Over America. That's how that's
that's what the legend is about that album.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
You talk about those memorabilia. If you get a hold
of a copy of that bootleg, I bet that's worth something.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
You know, listen, I would completely agree with that. This
is how we you know, we hear stories about how
painful Springsteen is and how he was in the studio
back in those days. They collected eight thousand hours of
live recordings. McCartney mixed it himself. They took ninety hours
(24:04):
worth of music out of the eight thousand McCartney sat
in the studio, they listened to. They had five different
versions of every song and McCartney sat and listened to
every single one, picked the best one. They remixed them,
and they made the entire albums sound like it was
(24:25):
one night, but it was from called down from eight
thousand hours of recordings from that tour in nineteen seventy five.
I think is when the tour actually happened. T be
a crazy story about that. I mean, McCartney was and
is a you know, a madman, and that album I
(24:48):
love that. I mean, it has My favorite version of
Maybe I'm Amazed is the live version. But there were
a whole bunch of great songs there, and there were
a couple of Beatles songs, right, He did a couple
of Beatles songs on there. I think maybe Yesterday Day
and Bluebird were on that, but the rest of it
was was his stuff. We'll go to the next day
another Beatles story. Beatles hit number one with I Feel Fine,
(25:15):
another great, different kind of sounding fun song, and Genesis
and seventy two released Foxtrot. That was their fifth album
at the time. It'd been around for some time at
that point in seventy two, which is a million years ago.
That's crazy to think that. Well, were you a fan
of the early Genesis music, Yes, but the one that
(25:39):
comes to mind was the song Watcher of the Skies
and then I liked, I mean, this would.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
Obviously be the Peter Gabriel era with you know, carpet
Crawlers and the Lamb, but that that would be that's
compared to what you just said, that's years after they
had been around.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
You know, Lamb Lies Down on Broadways one of my
favorite songs. I mean, I really feel like, you know,
that's just a great, great song, and that band got
better over time, and that you know, without Peter Gabriel
even you know, think about you know, turn It On
Again and Mama and like where they were in the
in the late seventies early eighties. I really enjoyed a
(26:23):
lot of that music. Oh still do we love the
prog rock And I think I might have told you this.
One of the greatest shows.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
I ever saw was Genesis on the Trick of the
Tale tour at the Ohio Theater in Columbus. So this
was after Peter Gabriel had just left, and they had
the double drumming Phil Collins and the great Bill Bruford,
one of my favorite drummers of all time. And I
(26:52):
just remember that show like it was yesterday, and it
was one of the greats. Seeing them at that venue
was unbelievable. But seeing them to support Trick of the
Tale one of my favorites from them. Album wise, every
song is great.
Speaker 2 (27:08):
It was spectacular. I really have an appreciation for Genesis
as well, not the early stuff, but you know, as
time went on, you know, not from your era, from
my era era. I'm sorry. In my Teddy Kennedy imitation,
that's okay, because you're you're about to get another shot
(27:31):
across the bile you're about to take two in the
back of the head. Nineteen oh one. December twelfth, Marconi
sent the first transatlantic radio signal from Cornwall to Newfoundland
bus True or false? You worked afternoon drive for Marconi
on that radio station where he sent that first transatlantic
signal in nineteen oh one, afternoon drive under the name
(27:55):
Bob Kosak The Kossak Show. True or false? False. I
was a bordop. But anyway, that happened historic day Marconi.
Obviously we you and I wouldn't know each other without Marconi, right,
the father of radio. You got that right. On December thirteenth.
The next day, nineteen sixty six, Jimi Hendrix recorded Foxy Lady.
(28:18):
This was, you know, an aggressive sounding like most of
his music. It was a great aggressive sounding, different sounding song.
All the guitar effects and stuff. He used a couple
of interesting facts. It was done at CBS in London.
(28:38):
The version on the album was the first take the
band did, which is surprising. Also a first song he
played at the Monterey Pop Festival. He was legendary at
that event for a couple of different reasons. Number one,
he humped his amp and number two he set his
(28:58):
guitar on fire. I'm not going to judge anyone, but
I'm thinking there were some sort of substances involved at
that point with Jimmy. Well, he just like electrifying things too,
you know that was happening. Yeah, he certainly did. The
lighting of the guitar on fire. Is it's a legendary?
What kind of deal? I got a question to ask
(29:20):
you this next story. In nineteen seventy one, David Bowie
released Hunky Dory. That's an album that I'm not familiar with.
Is that an album that you're familiar with. Well, if we.
Speaker 1 (29:31):
Went through the track list, that would probably be there.
I do remember it as a title, but I can
instantly go, oh, that's on there, that one. But I
do remember Hunky Dorry because I worked with a lot
of folks at the college radio station that were major
Bowie Bowie fans. Let's take a brief pause and I'll
take a look.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
Hang on.
Speaker 1 (29:50):
Well, Hunky Dory was released in nineteen seventy one fourth
studio album, widely considered one of the finest works. I'm
embarrassed with this one, by the way, completely embarrassed. Side one,
this song, I don't know. We maybe have heard it
called changes, Owe You Pretty Things, eight line poem Life
on Mars, Kooks maybe your Favorite not Mine, and quicksand
(30:16):
then side to Fill Your Heart Andy Warhol. Don't know
any of those song for.
Speaker 4 (30:22):
Bob Dylan, what Wow Queen Bitch, and then something called
the Bewley Brothers. But change of Life on Mars we
certainly know. So hey, so much for knowing every song
on every album.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
No, we screwed the pooch on that Changes on its own.
December fourteenth, nineteen seventy nine, The Clash released London Calling
in the UK. Great album. That was a I believe
a double album too, and the hidden track on that
album became the hit training Vein, not a listed track
(31:07):
like last song, maybe side four or something like that.
They'll just try to interstrikey with us thinking we were
half asleep, because we probably were. Yeah. And and the
last story for the week, December fourteenth, nineteen seventy seven,
Saturday Night Fever premiered John Travolta and that struck. I mean,
there's so much about that. What that first of all,
(31:28):
what it did for tra Volta, what it did for
the Beg's And that movie was a legendary just walking
down the street with that leather jacket, you know, the
folded up pizza, the you know, his dancing. I mean,
there's so many. It's just a great movie.
Speaker 1 (31:43):
I mean it became a cultural time.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
Piece, really it did. And and that soundtrack movie soundtrack
double album, you know I'm going here? You know where
I'm going that?
Speaker 1 (31:56):
Yeah, like you like that, that's kind of that's kind
of your your thing, you know, to be able to
And did.
Speaker 2 (32:02):
You have white pants in that era? No, I was ten.
I mean, you can't argue that that album, that soundtrack
wasn't filled with great songs. The Beg's Alone, Staying Alive,
Night Fever, Jive Talking, you should be Dancing. More than
(32:22):
a Woman by Yvonne Ellman was on there. If I
Can't Have You, I'm sorry, more than a Woman by
the Beg's their version of it, yvon element is if
I Can't Have You was on it. A Fit the
Baekoven was there, and Disco Inferno by the Tramps.
Speaker 5 (32:35):
Come on, come on, I mean, I'm gonna I'm gonna
admit that in its moment, me and the anti disco,
anti pop mode that I was as a rock DJ.
Speaker 1 (32:53):
Kind of pushed that aside, but now especially all those
Beg songs that you just named love And that's it.
Beautifully done. Master of music, Mayhem, Maestro of music Mayhem.
Speaker 2 (33:08):
Harry Jacobs.
Speaker 1 (33:09):
Another look at this Week in music history for the
week of December the eighth. Pretty dark stuff in that week,
but also.
Speaker 2 (33:18):
Ending it on an up note.
Speaker 1 (33:20):
Thank you, Harry, and thanks to all of you for
listening to the Taking a Walk podcast. Please share this
with your friends, please,
Bud's Night and welcome to the Taking a Walk Podcast,
and welcome to another edition of This Week in Music History.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
This is for the week of December the eighth.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
And I'm going to go to the master of music
Mayhem that has stuck or the Maestro of music Mayhem.
Which one do you prefer?
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Master of music Mayhem, master because I'm not a maestro.
I'm a hack rhythm guitar player. But I believe I
am the master of Mayhem. I'll take that because I
like Maestro of music Mayhem. I don't really have an
issue with that, because you are. There's a maestro factor
to you. It's the tiny little bit of a maestro.
(00:45):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
I declare differently because when people listen to the Taking
a Walk podcast and it opens with what I know
affectionately is Harry's theme, I mean that's a maestro.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Hey. Yeah, well it's there, absolutely, Thanks you.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
All right, all right, well, thank you, And let's take
a look at the week of December eighth, and this
Week in Music History.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
This is you know, we start on a tough note
for you music historians. December eighth was the day that
John Lennon was shot outside the Dakota in New York City,
and this is you know, on so many levels, it's
just so awful. What I want to do is I
want to kind of take you through that day. Early
(01:33):
in the day, Mark David Chapman, who was the shooter
man that ended John Lennon's life, he approached John Lennon
and got his copy of Double Fantasy, the album that
had just been released signed that day. He was talkative
with Lenin, as talkative as he could be, but he
(01:55):
was inside and raged at Lenin for Lennon's behavior in
his opinion, including the comment about the Beatles being bigger
than Jesus from years and years before that, fifteen years
before that, when Lennon had said that, and he went
back to the Dakota at eleven o'clock at night and
(02:18):
laid in wait for John Lennon and those that were
watching Monday Night football. And even if you didn't watch
Monday Night Football, we can all see that clip of
Howard Cosell. This is something As a fourteen year old kid,
I didn't really grasp the full impact of it. I
remember staying at my grandparents' house. My folks were on
(02:38):
some trips somewhere and I was sequestered away in Shrewsbury,
mass But I remember my grandmother waking me and telling
me the story at eleven o'clock at night and just
being in shock.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
Where were you when this happened. I was in Woodbury, Connecticut,
believe it or not. I was with my wife to
be at our.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Apartment.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
Yes, we were living in sin and I think in
the background maybe the football game was on, but wasn't
paying really much attention to it. And we had a neighbor.
I won't mention his name because I don't want to
(03:27):
speak ill of someone who can't defend himself. But let's
just say he was an annoying neighbor. He actually was
a co worker at the time too, who sold time
at the radio station that I worked at. I ninety five,
So I'm giving it away, but I'm not going to
mention his name, I promise you.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
But an annoying man.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
So he comes downstairs to our apartment and knocks on
the door, and usually we were like, oh, what's he
doing here?
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Yeah? Right, And he is the.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
One that said, did you just hear what happened? John
Lennon's been shot? So he he this this guy named Neil.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
He was you said, you weren't.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
Going to give his name, and I'm not going to
give his last name, but.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
I'll call him Neil.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
But anyway, yeah, he was the one that revealed it,
and just a complete and utter shock, you know, just
the most shocking news you could possibly hear.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
The world was in shock, you know when this happened.
That the impact that Lennon had as an activist, as
an artist, as as a as a man was you know,
was second to none. And this cut short of life
(04:53):
for no reason other than a mental health issue, rights
a boil down to this was premeditated. This was you know,
probably someone who deserved the worst of the worst in
terms of punishment, but it's a mental health issue, and
you know, at its core an incredible tragedy. Who have
(05:16):
cut his life so short? I would imagine that he
would be deeply involved with what's happening in the world
at this point if he were still alive.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
Oh, no doubt he would be doing something. I don't
know what it would be, but you're right. I think
he would be involved musically, socially, you know. Somehow. I
have to tell you that last year my wife and
I were in New York City. You know, at the
(05:47):
time of this, it's you know, anniversary I don't even
know the correct word, anniversary of the tragedy. And I
had always walked by and the Dakota from another vantage
point in front, and on this trip we walked on
(06:10):
the side street of the Dakota and I had never
seen until last year that spot, which you know is
that walkway, driveway whatever.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
Entrance point.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
And it was incredibly chilling seeing it from that point.
I had, you know, obviously read the account and seen
what had happened, but very eerie seeing it, you know,
from that vantage point. But then on the other side
there walking through Central Park and Strawberry Fields, it was
(06:47):
you know, also it was sad, but it was also
celebratory as you had, you know, a little band playing
you know, Beatles songs playing on one corner, and you know,
another side, a solo artist playing music. You had this
kind of interesting morning but celebration of his life that
(07:11):
was going on. It was a beautiful day. And so
just you know, passing that perspective along because it was
a different view certainly that I had never seen before.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
You know, Yeah, it would a day that's going down
in history, one of the Satursday's of music, no question
about that. Let's continue. On nineteen ninety five, the Beatles
released Free as a Bird. You and I work together.
This is one of those things. It was a big
day eight we're both big Beatle fans. We were at
(07:46):
w ZLX in Boston and Free as a Bird was released,
the first piece of new Beatles music in twenty four years.
Thoughts from that day, Thoughts about that song, Thoughts about
I remember having some apprehension about when Free as a
Bird came out, but yet kind of listening and thinking, Okay,
(08:10):
I think this is pretty cool that this is out
so many years later.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
As we know now this would be the beginning of
other releases like that that were unearthed and put out
years after the you know, the Beatles obviously had stopped recording.
So then as I over time got to sort of
listen to Free as a Bird and evaluate.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
I think the reaction.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
It was that was pretty cool, the first, the first
release of something that that was unearthed and then put
out into the marketplace. Now subsequently years later with more
of those coming out, I think we could both give
a collective eye roll to kind of go, oh, really,
I know, you need to sell the catalog. That's why
(08:59):
this is coming out. But I don't know if you
feel the same way. So I was cool at first
with not at first with Free as a Bird. Then
I grew to think that was pretty cool. And then
now over time, I'm like, enough of this? Can we
leave the band for what we remember them for? But
how do you feel about that?
Speaker 2 (09:19):
There was a natural curiosity from all of us, obviously
around the world, not just you and I but everybody
with what it's gonna sound like? What will this be like?
You know? And it was I think even at the beginning,
I was underwhelmed with it right away. I thought, it's okay,
not Ticket to Ride, it's not help, it's not Sergeant Peppers,
(09:41):
it's not one of our favorites. And I don't know
that it's going to end up being one of our favorites.
Right well, let's stand the test of time, and I
think the truth is is not really we don't hear
Free as a Bird anywhere. Yeah, there was some I
probably haven't listened to it since that moment, you know, yeah, right,
(10:02):
there were some interesting things that happened around the Beatles
at that time. In these releases of these anthology albums.
You're familiar with the term chotkey very much. So the
chotkey is the item that we might get, we might
(10:23):
pick up somewhere. The Beatles sent a bunch of Chotkey's.
The Beatles of the Estate sent a bunch of bunch
of Chotzky's out with these anthology albums. One of the
things was pins. Do you remember the pins that they
sent out? Yes, I do. I have a bag of
them in my kitchen from nineteen ninety five, thirty years ago.
(10:46):
At this point, I've been schlepping these Chotski's around waiting
for an opportunity to talk about them. But these pins
were black and white, and these pins had the Beatles
logo in white, and then there were these sayings on them, help,
I need somebody, I'd love to turn you on from
(11:10):
a Day in the Life song lyrics, another one I've
got to admit It's getting better all the time. And
then my favorite, we all live in a yellow submarine
and they're really kind of cool. I've got ten or
fifteen of them in a ziplock bag sit in my kitchen.
(11:31):
I don't know that I'll ever do anything where it's
probably put them up somewhere, but it was kind of
cool to get a little something out of the Beatles
estate at that point in time you gained those to.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
Me, Have you checked the marketplace for those?
Speaker 2 (11:46):
You know? It's a good question, and I haven't. But
I can tell you the first thing I do, and
we're done with this week, is I'm going to eBay
to see what those things might fetch. Yeah, you should.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
I'm going to tell you a sad tale about Beatles memorabilia,
and let this be a lesson if what you see
on eBay indicates that the collection, because I think as
the full collection is where it's going to be worth something,
whether it's twenty five cents or twenty five dollars or
(12:18):
twenty five hundred dollars. My late father in law he
gave to me a Beatles ukulele, which was one of
those pieces of memorabilia. Of the many pieces of memorabilia
that over their career the Beatles would would be part of.
You know, they had the babblehead dolls and.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
The ukulele was one of those.
Speaker 3 (12:43):
Unbeknownst to my wife, she didn't realize that her father
had given me that Beatles ukulele because I think she
thought it was.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
Hers or whatever, or maybe her sister thought whatever, But
I said no, he gave it to me. It ended
up in the basement, and our basement to this day
is still horrible.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
It's a crime scene.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
And so the Beatles ukulele was in there with the
you know, the cat with puke on it, or almost
puke on it. So I started thinking, well, wait a minute,
I got to have a a little bit of respect here.
So I went to a Beatles memorabilia show. It was
(13:32):
a it was a music memorabilia show, and obviously the
part of it was the Beatles' stuff being sold or
whatever praised. I forget which hotel I went to. I
went there with my daughter actually, so I was offered
on the spot then twenty five hundred dollars for that
(13:54):
Beatles ukulele, And of course, mister big shot here goes.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
Well, well, I'm not no, I'm going to hold on.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
To that, because everybody's whole posture would be hold on
to that. That's going to be worth more. Right, So
did nothing with it, took it out of the basement
where the cat could puke on it, and actually took
some care of it, thinking there's going to be a
moment where that thing's going to be worth.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
More, maybe doubled.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
And lo and behold, a couple of years ago I
went to get it appraised, and I'm not sure it
would even have fetched seventy five dollars at that point.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
Wow, it's not interesting.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
So now they get always listening and they want to
make an offer on Harry's beetle pins, or they want
to talk about the Beatles ukulele. We're all ears, right, Harry,
we are.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
All ears, so happy to entertain any offers on any
of that. Ye, this is a big day in history.
Reagan and Gorbachev basically signed off on that nuclear deal,
the inf Nuclear Deal, and that marked the end of
the Cold War. Big and important day. December ninth, the
(15:17):
next day, this is kind of an interesting day in history,
and it relates to the Blues Brothers. This is kind
of a neat story. The Blues Brothers made their debut
on Saturday Night Live. At this point, this was, you know,
essentially something that started out as a parody, right, think
(15:37):
about what it was. It was a skit on SNL.
The reason that it went from parody to an actual
band is that at the bar they were playing at.
Howard Shore, who ended up being the musical director of SNL,
saw Akroyd and Blueshet playing out one night and old
(16:01):
this could actually be something. Belucian Akroyds surrounded themselves with
Paul Schaeffer and Lou Marini and Duc Dunn and Steve Cropper.
Dunn and Cropper were on the stacks sessions, most famously
soul Man Booker t and the MG's Green Onions. They
(16:24):
were in the middle of those, and Belucian Akroyd attracted
really world class musician musicians on this and it turned
into an album that did unbelievable numbers for something that
was in a way a parody, but it was kind
of a blues R and B supergroup at the time,
(16:44):
and that led to, you know, an album that hit
the charts and did far more than anyone anticipated it.
Briefcase full of Blues. Remember Rubber Biscuit?
Speaker 1 (16:54):
Oh yeah, yeah, and You Go Hungry by all Bow, Well, that's.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
Right, I gotta pull that. I should I should have
I should have gone down that rabbit hole Todays get
rabbit Hole.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
By the way, where was Tom bones Malone in that?
Do you know Tom Bones Malone. I had him on
the podcast. He eventually was a member of the Blues Brothers.
He was part of the Saturday Night Live band, A
great trombone player, played with Blood, Sweat and Tears. He's
played with just about everybody. But where where was he
he was he part of that early or did he
(17:29):
come on later? I think he came on later Tom, But.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
I think it's Malone. I think there were you know,
there were probably a group of guys that were added
after the fact, I think when they recorded and and
when they ended up going because they did some shows
to support to support briefcase, and and I think Bones
was one of the guys that was brought in afterwards.
(17:53):
I think I think Matt Guitar Murphy Yep. It was
part of that legendary scene in the movie. Scenes in
the movie. He was married to Aretha Franklin, who was
running that diner. Remember when Jake and Elwood went into
the diner and Jake said four whole fried chickens and
a coke. Yes. Right.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
One of my favorite games that they did, too, was
when they would do the whole acrobatics thing. When they
would they would be you know, like flipping and doing
handstands and all that.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
I love that. And it was him right, it was Blushy.
This was this was you know, pre Chris Farley. Farley
got his inspiration from watching Belusi's this guy that was
larger than life with those acrobatics, a quick kind of
a side. I'm a you know, I'm a big UFC fan.
I watched the fights all the time. There's a guy
(18:46):
who fights in the UFC by the name of Chris Barnett.
The guy's like five nine and two hundred and sixty
five files. He has to cut weight to get into
the fights at the fight limit, the heavyweight fight limit.
Barnett's the human tick. He's built like Belushi. And this
guy does cartwheels and the splits, and I'm thinking, this
is like John Belushy.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
This is unbelievable. You don't expect it to come from
a guy like that. I have a request for the
next episode that we record. Would you start the episode
by coming on doing some of those acrobatics.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
I cannot do any sort of acrobatics. As a matter
of fact, if I went down to do the splits,
we might need to call a record to get me
off the ground, so no, there'll be no acrobatics, and
I'm likely to break something that way. Dar. Anyway, the
whole Blues Brothers thing led to the movie, which was
one of the most expensive movies that was made, certainly
(19:41):
comedy at the time, because they wrecked. I mean, there's
some interesting facts about this. Forty different stunt drivers, sixty
old police cars, the Dixie Square Mall, which it was
shuttered at the time, that's the mall they drove through.
You know, it's just an incredible amount of work. And
the other issue you that came up with The Blues
(20:03):
Brothers is that the cost of that movie skyrocketed because
Belushi was using a lot at that point in time,
and he was constantly late for production, and that pushed
production back. And it's sad that that was something that
(20:23):
led to huge production costs. But imagine getting you know,
look at the credits on a movie like that. Imagine
having one hundred or two hundred pople show up to
work that day and your star is recovering from a hangover.
At any rate, amazing movie. The music, to me, the
music has stood in the test of time. I could
hear Rubber Biscuit right now in my head, and I'm
thinking that's probably where I'm gonna do this afternoon is
(20:44):
put out briefcase, pull of blues and listen to some
of those songs. But the album was great. I remember
listening to it with my dad. I loved it. The
next day, December tenth, was a sad day for music.
In nineteen sixty seven, Otis Redding was in a plane
crash with the Barquays. This happened near Madison, Wisconsin. Life
(21:06):
was cut short. From a timing perspective, understand that Doctor
the Bay had just been recorded three days before that
hadn't even come out. There were some interesting things that
happened around Doctor the Bay. His plan was to go
in and add some additional vocals. He was also going
to redo the whistling at the end, and it ended
(21:28):
up being put out as it was put out. A
couple of other things to think about here. His appearance
at the Monterey Pop Festival in sixty seven was a
career defining moment. He as a black R and B artist,
was introduced to a completely new audience, a white rock audience,
(21:51):
and it was a big moment for him. He did
a cover of Satisfaction Stone song at that event. And
another thing I found that I didn't realize is that
he was an instrumental producer in those days, and I
had no idea that he was a behind the scenes
production kind of guy. I just thought he was a
(22:12):
singer songwriter. And that's where we left it with Otis.
But interesting facts about Otis writing totally and that song
sitting on the dock of the Bay, I think, you know,
stands the test of time. I would completely agree with that.
December tenth of nineteen seventy six, McCartney and Wings ended
(22:37):
up releasing Wings Over America. This was a big deal.
I can't think of how many triple albums there were
in you know, music history, but certainly in terms of
a live album, I don't think of another triple live
album that came out. The law on that was McCartney's
(23:02):
hand was actually held or beat. We were put to
the flames, as they would say, because there was a
bootleg album allegedly released at that time and it was
called let me get this right, it was called Wings
from Wings and this was a full concert album that
was released by a bootlegger on colored vinyl. So they
(23:26):
were rushed to release Wings Over America. That's how that's
that's what the legend is about that album.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
You talk about those memorabilia. If you get a hold
of a copy of that bootleg, I bet that's worth something.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
You know, listen, I would completely agree with that. This
is how we you know, we hear stories about how
painful Springsteen is and how he was in the studio
back in those days. They collected eight thousand hours of
live recordings. McCartney mixed it himself. They took ninety hours
(24:04):
worth of music out of the eight thousand McCartney sat
in the studio, they listened to. They had five different
versions of every song and McCartney sat and listened to
every single one, picked the best one. They remixed them,
and they made the entire albums sound like it was
(24:25):
one night, but it was from called down from eight
thousand hours of recordings from that tour in nineteen seventy five.
I think is when the tour actually happened. T be
a crazy story about that. I mean, McCartney was and
is a you know, a madman, and that album I
(24:48):
love that. I mean, it has My favorite version of
Maybe I'm Amazed is the live version. But there were
a whole bunch of great songs there, and there were
a couple of Beatles songs, right, He did a couple
of Beatles songs on there. I think maybe Yesterday Day
and Bluebird were on that, but the rest of it
was was his stuff. We'll go to the next day
another Beatles story. Beatles hit number one with I Feel Fine,
(25:15):
another great, different kind of sounding fun song, and Genesis
and seventy two released Foxtrot. That was their fifth album
at the time. It'd been around for some time at
that point in seventy two, which is a million years ago.
That's crazy to think that. Well, were you a fan
of the early Genesis music, Yes, but the one that
(25:39):
comes to mind was the song Watcher of the Skies
and then I liked, I mean, this would.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
Obviously be the Peter Gabriel era with you know, carpet
Crawlers and the Lamb, but that that would be that's
compared to what you just said, that's years after they
had been around.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
You know, Lamb Lies Down on Broadways one of my
favorite songs. I mean, I really feel like, you know,
that's just a great, great song, and that band got
better over time, and that you know, without Peter Gabriel
even you know, think about you know, turn It On
Again and Mama and like where they were in the
in the late seventies early eighties. I really enjoyed a
(26:23):
lot of that music. Oh still do we love the
prog rock And I think I might have told you this.
One of the greatest shows.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
I ever saw was Genesis on the Trick of the
Tale tour at the Ohio Theater in Columbus. So this
was after Peter Gabriel had just left, and they had
the double drumming Phil Collins and the great Bill Bruford,
one of my favorite drummers of all time. And I
(26:52):
just remember that show like it was yesterday, and it
was one of the greats. Seeing them at that venue
was unbelievable. But seeing them to support Trick of the
Tale one of my favorites from them. Album wise, every
song is great.
Speaker 2 (27:08):
It was spectacular. I really have an appreciation for Genesis
as well, not the early stuff, but you know, as
time went on, you know, not from your era, from
my era era. I'm sorry. In my Teddy Kennedy imitation,
that's okay, because you're you're about to get another shot
(27:31):
across the bile you're about to take two in the
back of the head. Nineteen oh one. December twelfth, Marconi
sent the first transatlantic radio signal from Cornwall to Newfoundland
bus True or false? You worked afternoon drive for Marconi
on that radio station where he sent that first transatlantic
signal in nineteen oh one, afternoon drive under the name
(27:55):
Bob Kosak The Kossak Show. True or false? False. I
was a bordop. But anyway, that happened historic day Marconi.
Obviously we you and I wouldn't know each other without Marconi, right,
the father of radio. You got that right. On December thirteenth.
The next day, nineteen sixty six, Jimi Hendrix recorded Foxy Lady.
(28:18):
This was, you know, an aggressive sounding like most of
his music. It was a great aggressive sounding, different sounding song.
All the guitar effects and stuff. He used a couple
of interesting facts. It was done at CBS in London.
(28:38):
The version on the album was the first take the
band did, which is surprising. Also a first song he
played at the Monterey Pop Festival. He was legendary at
that event for a couple of different reasons. Number one,
he humped his amp and number two he set his
(28:58):
guitar on fire. I'm not going to judge anyone, but
I'm thinking there were some sort of substances involved at
that point with Jimmy. Well, he just like electrifying things too,
you know that was happening. Yeah, he certainly did. The
lighting of the guitar on fire. Is it's a legendary?
What kind of deal? I got a question to ask
(29:20):
you this next story. In nineteen seventy one, David Bowie
released Hunky Dory. That's an album that I'm not familiar with.
Is that an album that you're familiar with. Well, if we.
Speaker 1 (29:31):
Went through the track list, that would probably be there.
I do remember it as a title, but I can
instantly go, oh, that's on there, that one. But I
do remember Hunky Dorry because I worked with a lot
of folks at the college radio station that were major
Bowie Bowie fans. Let's take a brief pause and I'll
take a look.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
Hang on.
Speaker 1 (29:50):
Well, Hunky Dory was released in nineteen seventy one fourth
studio album, widely considered one of the finest works. I'm
embarrassed with this one, by the way, completely embarrassed. Side one,
this song, I don't know. We maybe have heard it
called changes, Owe You Pretty Things, eight line poem Life
on Mars, Kooks maybe your Favorite not Mine, and quicksand
(30:16):
then side to Fill Your Heart Andy Warhol. Don't know
any of those song for.
Speaker 4 (30:22):
Bob Dylan, what Wow Queen Bitch, and then something called
the Bewley Brothers. But change of Life on Mars we
certainly know. So hey, so much for knowing every song
on every album.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
No, we screwed the pooch on that Changes on its own.
December fourteenth, nineteen seventy nine, The Clash released London Calling
in the UK. Great album. That was a I believe
a double album too, and the hidden track on that
album became the hit training Vein, not a listed track
(31:07):
like last song, maybe side four or something like that.
They'll just try to interstrikey with us thinking we were
half asleep, because we probably were. Yeah. And and the
last story for the week, December fourteenth, nineteen seventy seven,
Saturday Night Fever premiered John Travolta and that struck. I mean,
there's so much about that. What that first of all,
(31:28):
what it did for tra Volta, what it did for
the Beg's And that movie was a legendary just walking
down the street with that leather jacket, you know, the
folded up pizza, the you know, his dancing. I mean,
there's so many. It's just a great movie.
Speaker 1 (31:43):
I mean it became a cultural time.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
Piece, really it did. And and that soundtrack movie soundtrack
double album, you know I'm going here? You know where
I'm going that?
Speaker 1 (31:56):
Yeah, like you like that, that's kind of that's kind
of your your thing, you know, to be able to
And did.
Speaker 2 (32:02):
You have white pants in that era? No, I was ten.
I mean, you can't argue that that album, that soundtrack
wasn't filled with great songs. The Beg's Alone, Staying Alive,
Night Fever, Jive Talking, you should be Dancing. More than
(32:22):
a Woman by Yvonne Ellman was on there. If I
Can't Have You, I'm sorry, more than a Woman by
the Beg's their version of it, yvon element is if
I Can't Have You was on it. A Fit the
Baekoven was there, and Disco Inferno by the Tramps.
Speaker 5 (32:35):
Come on, come on, I mean, I'm gonna I'm gonna
admit that in its moment, me and the anti disco,
anti pop mode that I was as a rock DJ.
Speaker 1 (32:53):
Kind of pushed that aside, but now especially all those
Beg songs that you just named love And that's it.
Beautifully done. Master of music, Mayhem, Maestro of music Mayhem.
Speaker 2 (33:08):
Harry Jacobs.
Speaker 1 (33:09):
Another look at this Week in music history for the
week of December the eighth. Pretty dark stuff in that week,
but also.
Speaker 2 (33:18):
Ending it on an up note.
Speaker 1 (33:20):
Thank you, Harry, and thanks to all of you for
listening to the Taking a Walk podcast. Please share this
with your friends, please,
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