Tommy’s Coffee Break Calendar for July 29th

Just call today's calendar "The Bummer Edition", or "Here's why they say 'S--t happens'." What can you do?...

7/29/1966 (49 years ago today) - When anything is taken out of context, get ready to run and hide: England's "Datebook" magazine publishes journalist Maureen Cleave's interview with her friend John Lennon. Unfortunately, there's one little sentence that's about to set-off a firestorm of negative publicity for The Fab Four -- John's offhand remark that "We're bigger than Jesus now". Fact or no, here in America the anti-rock Christian brigade gets ahold of it, and it's KA-BOOM and KA-BLOOEY!!! Outrage is an understatement: there are Beatle bonfires for destroying the band's records, and death threats become commonplace. They're less cute than they were a few months ago...

7/29/1966 (49 years ago today) - Bob Dylan was riding his Triumph 55 motorcycle to a garage near his home in Woodstock, New York; the bike needs some repair work and that certainly turns out to be the case when the wheels lock and Bob loses control -- he's thrown over the handlebars and suffers a broken neck vertabra. His recuperation leads to a prolonged period of reclusive "activity" during which all kinds of rumours swirl about what really happened and what will he do next and when....it's a pretty exhausting time to be Bob Dylan.

7/23/1988 (27 years ago today) - You might not know him by name, but you know him when you hear him play: Record producer and pedal-steel guitar wiz Pete Drake dies from lung disease. In addition to working with Elvis Presley, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, Pete played on some of the most iconic songs of the era: "Rose Garden" by Lynn Anderson; "Behind Closed Doors", Charlie Rich; "Lay Lady Lay", Bob Dylan; "Stand By Your Man", Tammy Wynette. After 40 years of smoking cigarettes, Pete passed away this date in 1988 -- he was only 55 years old. If you want to see where Peter Frampton got the idea for the talking-guitar bit in "Do You Feel Like We Do", then you oughtta check this out:

Let us know your thoughts and comments about the Calendar right here on our web site or on the WBLM Facebook and Twitter pages with the hashtag #TommysCoffeeBreak. We don't mind!

"Why wait any longer for the one you love?/When he's standing in front of you...", xoxo!