Tommy’s Coffee Break Calendar for February 24th

Jimi's nearing the end... -- Iconic music label pioneer passes... -- Cruel behind-the-music Ramones story...

2/24/1969 (48 years ago today) - It's the first of two sold-out concerts for The Jimi Hendrix Experience as they finally get to headline The Royal Albert Hall in London. Unfortunately, tensions between Jimi, bassist Noel Redding and drummer Mitch Mitchell have begun to take a toll on the group's performances. The set was to be filmed for a potential movie release [without Jimi's permission!] and the audiences' calling out requests for recent hit "All Along The Watchtower" are getting on everybody's nerves. Jimi had grown as an artist at a most remarkable pace in the last two years, and this "old stuff" just wasn't cutting it for him anymore. Dissatisfaction has set in; the beginning of the end starts here...

2/24/2004 (13 years ago today) - Remembering those who also served: She was the "ax" in Stax (the "st" belonged to her brother, country fiddler Jim Stewart), let's give it up for Estelle Axton, whose influence on soul music cannot be overstated as she was a founding member-and-co-creator of Memphis, Tennessee's incomparable Stax Records. Estelle passed away on this date in a Memphis hospital, aged 85. Along the way, her label released a miraculous bounty of pure/timeless American classics -- "Green Onions" - Booker T. & the MGs, "Walking The Dog" - Rufus Thomas, "Hold On! I'm Comin'" - Sam & Dave, "(Sittin' On) The Dock Of The Bay" - Otis Redding, "I'll Take You There" - The Staple Singers, Isaac Hayes' "Theme From 'Shaft'"...and on and on and on... No wonder Stax was known as "Soulsville U.S.A.".

2/24/2010 (7 years ago today) - The personal assistant to former Ramones manager Linda Stein was convicted in a New York court of bludgeoning her boss to death in a Manhattan apartment back on October 30, 2007. Prosecutors said 28-year-old Natavia Lowery stole over $30,000  from Stein before clubbing her to death with a piece of exercise equipment. It took less than one day for jurors to find her guilty of second-degree murder.

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"Lean on me when times are bad...", xoxo!