Tommy’s Coffee Break Calendar for May 12th

Today you got Dylan walking out of a national TV appearance, a Pink Floyd concert experiment, and a birthday for a multi-talented Brit-wiz who played here in Portland last year...

5/12/1963 (52 years ago today) - Bob Dylan heads for the exit doors during an Ed Sullivan Show rehearsal at the CBS television studio after being told he could not perform "Talking John Birch Paranoid Blues". Seems Bob's mocking of the U.S. military and segregation policies were not what Ed Sullivan's producers had in mind for the family entertainment hour. When CBS suits and ties asked him to substitute another song, Dylan told them: "No, this is what I do. If I can't play my song, I'd rather not appear on the show." Go Bob!!!

5/12/1967 (48 years ago today) - Pink Floyd perform in London at a concert they titled "Games For May: Space-Age Relaxation For The Climate Of Spring". It's held at the historic Queen Elizabeth Hall, officially making it the first venue to feature loudspeakers placed at the back of the auditorium to give a "quadrophonic-sound-in-the-round" effect, pretty snazzy stuff designed by the Big Bang Theory types at EMI. Here's what they didn't see coming: all the equipment was stolen after the show! Seven-and-a-half years pass before the stuff is recovered...

5/12/1948 - Happy Birthday Steve Winwood, 67 years old today; plays keyboards, guitars, drums, bass, mandolin, violin, and all kinds of strings; joined the Spencer Davis Group as lead vocalist at age 14; while he was still in school, did gigs as guitarist and Hammond B-3 organist - part of a touring rhythm section that backed up Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, B.B. King, Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley on their U.K. tours; album sessions include work with Jimi Hendrix, Lou Reed, Robert Palmer, George Harrison, Marianne Faithfull, David Gilmour, Billy Joel, Miranda Lambert, and The London Symphony Orchestra. Throw in a solo career that includes Grammy Awards, No. 1 albums and singles, plus world tours with Rod Stewart and Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers we simply have to say, quite frankly and without a doubt, Steve Winwood kicks ass!

What do you think about the Calendar? Let us know right here on our web site and on the WBLM Facebook and Twitter pages with the hashtag #TommysCoffeeBreak.

"I investigated all the people that I knowed/Ninety-eight percent of them gotta go...", xoxo.