Tommy’s Coffee Break Calendar for May 11th

Today you got a story that, at first, you didn't believe, but guess what...plus: Zep meets The King and Happy Birthday to one of Britain's best singers! Really!

5/11/1972 (43 years ago today) - When he made this claim, a lot of us thought he was just being paranoid: In an interview on "The Dick Cavett Show", John Lennon says he is under surveillance by the F.B.I., and his home telephone lines were being tapped. Turns out to be true! Remember, Nixon and his cronies wanted The Beatle out of the country before the next election...

5/11/1974 (41 years ago today) - Another reason they've turned phones into cameras: Led Zeppelin are in the audience for an Elvis Presley concert at the Forum in L.A. Wouldn't you know it, the show gets off to a rather shaky start as it were, forcing Elvis to stop the band and (only-half-jokingly) tell them: "Wait a minute fellas, let's, uh, get it together because we've got Led Zeppelin out there, let's try to look like we know what we're doing!" After the show, all four Zep members hang out with Elvis for two hours backstage where The King asks for all the group's autographs for daughter Lisa Marie. 

5/11/1941 - Happy Birthday to one of the U.K.'s most legendary vocalists, the incredible Eric Burdon, who turns 74 today. When a lot (and we mean ALOT!) of the original British Invasion bands were busy being cute, Eric led The Animals into rather aggressive territory with a classic run of scorching and vaguely sinister singles: "It's My Life", "We Gotta Get Out Of This Place", "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood", "Sky Pilot", along with some fiercely convincing blues covers that clearly posed a threat to their contemporaries legitimacy! Ranked 57th in Rolling Stone's "The 100 Greatest Singers Of All Time"; Eric should've been rated much higher. Bruce Springsteen has often spoken reverently about what The Animals music meant to him growing up, so there you go...

Whatever you think about the Calendar, why not throw it our way -- we'd love to read what you have to say -- right here on our web site and on the WBLM Facebook and Twitter pages with the hashtag #TommysCoffeeBreak.

"There'll be women and their fortunes/Who just want to mother orphans/Are you gonna cry while I'm squeezin' them dry?...", xoxo.