This Week in History - June 29-July 5
By: David Ball
Posted: July 4, 2009
After years of chronic hard drinking and drugging, Lowell George, the incredibly gifted guitarist, songwriter, and founding member of Little Feat, died of a heart attack on June 29, 1979. He was 34. Born in Hollywood, George started playing guitar and harmonica through his formative years, eventually joining established pop band The Standells (of "Dirty Water" fame) for a brief stint in the late 1960s. After they disbanded in 1968, George hooked up with Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention long enough to contribute guitar and vocals to the classic LP Weasels Ripped My Flesh. However, George was fired in 1969 because Zappa had a strict anti-booze and drugs policy. But Zappa was still impressed by his outgoing sideman’s talents and encouraged him to form his own band, and that’s just what he did. Combining funk, jazz, and blues with rock, Little Feat (named in homage to George’s "small fat feet") went on to become one of America’s most beloved bands of the 1970s and 80s. George’s innovative slide-guitar work and soulful vocals anchored many of Little Feat’s best-known albums, especially their groundbreaking Dixie Chicken (and its hit title track) and Waiting for Columbus (one of the great live recordings). But George did have one serious bomb: he produced the universally despised Grateful Dead album, Shakedown Street.
This week in music-related celebrity marriages:
Greg Allman married Cher on June 30, 1974, only four days after she divorced Sonny Bono. It was an odd pairing given Allman’s notorious drug problems and Cher’s relatively squeaky clean image. Even odder is Two The Hard Way, the forgettable 1977 studio album the couple produced; it stinks almost as bad as Shakedown Street. The couple divorced not long after the album was released.
At ear-bleeding levels, White Zombie's "Thunder Kiss '65" was played repeatedly for four straight hours in an attempt to scare off paparazzi swarming the July 1, 1998 wedding of Barbra Streisand and James Brolin. It worked . . . and it was easily the best tune of the night.
Famous rock stars dying at the tender age of 27 was already a tragic trend when Doors wild man Jim Morrison died soaking in a bathtub in Paris on July 3, 1971. But there’s little argument that his fellow self-destructive 27 year-old peers, Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix, foresaw their end coming. Ah well, what’s done is done. James Douglas Morrison remains one of rock’s most revered lead singers and lyricists and has few equals as a front man. The Doors never released a stinker during their leader’s six-year tenure and many – but not all – of their best-loved tunes were written or co-written by Morrison; his most powerful testimonial is the menacing psychedelic epic, "The End".
But admit it folks, Morrison’s cryptic lyrics play better to impressionable teenage boys and drugged out hippies who worship ‘cool sounding’ nonsense than they do to mature adults, except the one adult named Ray Manzarek. Hey Ray, explain this "The Soft Parade" line: "When all else fails, we can whip the horse’s eyes, and make them sleep and cry." The most unfortunate byproduct of Morrison’s death is that it turned the Doors keyboardist into an obnoxious and tireless "Morrison is a god" crusader, one with an unparalleled man-crush who’s been living vicariously though his hero for nearly 40 years.
Hey Hamiltonians, you think you live in a tough blood and guts steel town and deserve an NHL franchise? Then explain the incident on July 5th, 1998, one where Yanni sold-out your beloved Copps Coliseum?
Next week: Louis Armstrong and Bill Haley
Video: "Dixie Chicken" by Little Feat
