I picked this one up on a recent Cruise!
On This Date, June 24th, in 1967: Procol Harum’s “A Whiter Shade of Pale” entered the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart where it would later peak at Number 5 (In the UK it hit #1 on June 8th). Lyrically inspired a party the band members attended where everyone was tripping on LSD (I’m pretty sure The Beatles were at that party) the song was written by the band around a melody composed by the group’s organist, Matthew Fisher, who was inspired by the chord progression of Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Orchestral Suite in D,” composed between 1725 and 1739. As of 2009, “A Whiter Shade Of Pale” is the most played song in the last 75 years in public places in the UK. What a great song.
“Not Necessarily Stoned, but…Beautiful…”
On This Date, July 8th, in 1967: The Monkees kicked off their U.S. tour in Jacksonville, Florida with the Jimi Hendrix Experience as their support act. Hendrix would be dropped from the bill after eight concerts. I think we can guess why. This story reminds me also of a concert-going memory my older sister shared with me, of seeing The Who open for Herman’s Hermits. The Sixties, what a crazy time!
I Sat Next to the Guy on the Left. And yes, he still has all his hair.
When I was in college, and for a few years after I graduated, I had an amazingly progressive, eccentric and entertaining boyfriend named Mark. I met Mark when we were both DJs at the campus radio station (KUCI FM in Irvine), and we had a pretty wild ride together. I was the same elitist hipster doofus about music back then that I am today. I thought I knew absolutely everything about every band or album that was worth listening to, and if I didn’t dig it, it didn’t need to be dug. But Mark had been raised by acid-dropping hippy parents, and he was actually able to turn me on to music I was completely unfamiliar with at the time, such as the first two Alice Cooper albums, The Fugs and a power trio that were often lauded as the supposed originators of the Heavy Metal Sound, Blue Cheer.
Continue reading My Dinner With Blue Cheer
