Tommy’s Coffee Break Calendar for March 9th

"Stairway" debuts... -- REO sings for cat food... -- Hendrix-sound-alike celebrates a birthday (and he's coming to Portland at the end of this month!)

3/9/1971 (47 years ago today) - No need to feel intimidated, but we are sayin' that when The Who played this venue the result was maybe the greatest live rock album ever recorded!: Tonight it's Led Zeppelin's turn to hit the stage at Leeds University in England -- The band's thanking fans by playing smaller venues with their "Back To The Clubs" tour and in this evening's set you'll hear "Black Dog", "Going To California" and (most notably) "Stairway To Heaven" performed live for the very first time!!! Can you imagine...?...

3/9/1985 (33 years ago today) - Maybe you should start re-thinking its 'Wedding Song' implications: REO Speedwagon kick off three weeks at No. 1 on the singles chart with "Can't Fight This Feeling" -- A little sad: when they performed it at the 1985 Live Aid concert, they were introduced on stage by...Chevy Chase. Talk about "eh". It was their second U.S. chart-topper ("Keep on Loving You" was first) and we're sensing a trend -- Only two years ago "Feeling" was used in the U.K. and America to peddle Sheba cat food (slow dance anyone?); meanwhile, "Keep On Loving You" has since been the commercial soundtrack to sell Domino's Pizza, so it turns out there was a trend after all...

3/9/1945 - Make a note, Blimpsters: he's appearing at Aura here in Portland on Saturday, March 31st: Happy Birthday to guitarist extraordinaire Robin Trower, 73 years old today -- From Procol Harum to bona-fide guitar-god status in the Seventies with his very-much-like-Jimi solo albums, to latter day stints with Bryan Ferry and Jack Bruce, we're rather especially fond of Mr. Trower, a genuinely fantastic talent, yet he's somehow quite humble about it at the same time. Highly suggested listening includes Procol's 1971 heavyweight cult fave "Broken Barricades" (ooh, kids, the licks on there are somethin' else!) and, of course, his 1974 solo masterwork "Bridge Of Sighs", which we hope you already know about 'cuz you should...

Share your tunings with the Calendar here on our web site and and the WBLM Facebook and Twitter pages with the hashtag #TommysCoffeeBreak.

"It's in my mind/It's in my soul/It's telling me the things I can't be told...", xoxo!