Tommy’s Coffee Break Calendar for November 17th

Another Beatles ban and two cool birthdays...

11/17/1963 (54 years ago today) - Over in Merry Olde England, Beatlemania is taking root: the Headmaster of a Surrey Grammer School, Mr. John Weightman, announces a proper ban on all pupils from having Beatle haircuts saying "This ridiculous style brings out the worst in boys physically. It makes them look like morons". To which we say "Yeah, yeah, yeah!"...

11/17/1938 - Born on this date, one of the undisputed great songwriters of all time, Happy Birthday to the truly legendary Gordon Lightfoot, 79 years old today. Gordon has had international success with folk, folk/rock, country music and was one of the primary architects of the influential 1960's and 1970's "folk-pop" sound. Awesome catalog, too: "If You Could Read My Mind", "Sundown", "Early Morning Rain", "Carefree Highway", "Rainy Day People", "The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald" -- Hey, it was none other than Bob Dylan himself who famously said that when he heard a Gordon Lightfoot song he "wished it would last forever". So there you go...

11/17/1946 - Born on this date, the fantastically talented (and somewhat under-appreciated) Jethro Tull guitarist Martin Barre, 71 years old today. Martin joined the band during the making of their second album "Stand Up" and his exquisite tone and blending of rock and classical styles were, in addition to Ian Anderson's vocals and flute, the most integral component of the Tull sound during their 1970's heyday -- Hard to imagine albums like "Aqualung" or "Thick As A Brick" without his rather awesomely splendid guitar work. Much admired by fellow guitar players, too...

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

"Now the thing that I call livin' is just bein' satisfied/With knowin' I got no one left to blame...", xoxo!