Tommy’s Coffee Break Calendar for December 15th

You say it's your birthday....

12/15/1919 - Born on this day, Max Yasgur, owner of the dairy farm in Bethel, New York, where the classic Woodstock Music and Art Fair was held August 15--18, 1969. After passing away from a heart attack at age 53 on February 8th, 1973, Rolling Stone magazine published a full-page obituary for Max, making him one of the very few non-musicians to have received such an honor. 

12/15/1922 - Born on this day, Albert James "Alan" Freed, also known as "Moondog", a true American radio pioneer and one of the very few (and very first) disc-jockeys who promoted the mix of blues, country-and-western and rhythm-and-blues on the radio; he may very well have been the first announcer to ever coin the term for his selections to play, "rock and roll". Even though Alan's career was destroyed by the payola scandal that hit the broadcasting industry in the late 1950's (he sadly and unfortunately drank himself to death), history has proven him to be a vital connection/conduit in the history of rock...

12/15/1942 - Happy Birthday to Dave Clark, 74 years old today. Ridiculously underrated talent: he was not only the leader of The Dave Clark Five (one of the British Invasion's most successful, hard-rockin' live outfits), he was the bands main songwriter, manager, arranger and record producer; ahead of the game and smart enough to know to keep production and song writing royalties in house, so as not to have to share the wealth with anyone outside of the band itself -- no one else was doing that back in the day! Did you know: he was a close friend of Freddie Mercury and took over the bedside vigil of Freddie when he passed away in November, 1991; Dave was the one who informed Mercury's parents about his death. By the way, here's proof The DC5 could really rock out:

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"But you know/It's by your side I will stay...", xoxo!