Happy Monday, August 24, 2020; I hope it's all going your way. James Michael Keats here with you, and it's my pleasure to be with you every Monday through Friday from Noon to 3pm, mid-days here on KCast Radio, and I'm bringing you the most excellent Classic ROCK To The Bone and also a number of stories I bet you'll find interesting. Stick around! Show notes below!
More than 1500 music fans gathered in Leipzig, Germany this past Saturday, August 22, for a performance by singer-songwriter Tim Bendzko; and while attendees/volunteers were generally allowed to behave as they normally would at a pre-COVID-concert, they were given a pre-entry COVID test and also set up with a face mask to wear during the event.
Researches from the University of Halle organized three scenarios: (1) a "traditional" live event, (2) a crowded show but with increased hygiene restrictions, and (3) a show with social distancing and smaller crowd guidelines set in place. The researchers hope that by analyzing the data they collect from Saturday's concert and these three scenarios will inform their development of a public health profile which can be implemented in the future at live music performances to minimize the risk of COVID-19 transmission as the music industry attempts to return to full operation.
I get it, so long as we're not ready to conduct a complete shut down across the whole freggin world for three weeks to kill this bug for good, we have to do stuff like this... I can't help but be bothered by the lab-rat-esque feel of researchers studying how COVID-19 spreads among humans at an event organized to that end; it's as if, in this case anyway, there's the incentive to come see the show, and that is somehow supposed to outweigh the potentially life threatening situation some number of the volunteers will face as a result of taking part in this little experiment. Crazy. Freggin. Times.
1pC - 2pC: On August 24th a number of years ago, some pretty important stuff happened which shaped Rock history. Check it out!
1966, The Doors started recording their first album at Sunset Sound Recording Studios on West Sunset Blvd. in Los Angeles, California.
1967, Bruce Springsteen, a then 17 year old singer and guitarist, joined a group called "Earth."
1975, Queen started recording "Bohemian Rhapsody" at Rockfield Studios in Monmouth, Wales. The song took three weeks to record and required the band members to sing their vocal parts essentially continually for between 10 and 12 hours a day which resulted in 180 separate overdubs!
1989, The Who Performed "Tommy" at the Universal Amphitheater in Los Angeles, California with special guests Steve Winwood, Elton John, Phil Collins, Patti LaBelle, and Billy Idol.
1991, Lenny Kravitz was at No.2 in the US singles chart with "It Ain't Over Till It's Over," held off the No.1 position by Bryan Adams' "(Everything I Do) I Do It for You."
2pC - 3pC: Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run" is one of the most important albums in Rock history, and when I learned the story behind the album's cover photo, I couldn't resist sharing...
The photograph used for the album was taken by one Eric Meola, a photographer (obviously) who became a fan and friend of Springsteen by chance in 1974 as they shared an awning at the Plaza Hotel in New York in order to escape a rainstorm on the day of a Springsteen concert in Central Park.
Meola was paid a fee of $1,500 to shoot some candidates for the upcoming Springsteen album where he and Clarence Clemons would appear on the cover, and after being cancelled on several times, Meola finally contacted Mike Appel, Springsteen's manager, and insisted that Springsteen and Clemons show up at Meola's studio to knock out the shoot.
Over 600 images were taken, but there was on that really popped. Springsteen wrote in Clemons' eulogy, "It's a picture of Scooter and the Big Man, people who we were sometimes; as you can see in this particular photo, Clarence is admiring his muscles and I'm pretending to be nonchalant while leaning upon him. I leaned on Clarence a lot; I made a career out of it in some ways."
In an instant in the lens of Meola's camera and a snap of his shutter, this super important and influential Rock album had its cover; it went down this way because of a conversation Springsteen and Meola had by happenstance, and that's really what attracted me to the story and compelled me to share it with you! The apparently random events that led to a friendship, which paved the way for a professional collaboration, which eventuated with an image we've all seen 100s of times, because it's one of the best albums ever made! Super cool.
I have been James Michael Keats, and it is always my delight and pleasure playing for you the most excellent Classic ROCK To The Bone here at KCast Radio every Monday through Friday, mid-days from Noon to 3pm. Feel free to register here at KCastRadio.com and comment! I'd love to hear what you dig and what you don't; we're trying our damndest to make KCast Radio your Classic ROCK station. Let us know what we can do!
- JMK signing out
#KCastRadio #ClassicROCK #ToTheBone #JamesMichaelKeats #TimBendzko #BruceSpringsteen #ClarenceClemons #EricMeola
Comments