Tommy’s Coffee Break Calendar for September 22nd

"The Brown Album" is released... -- Great benefit tradition begins... -- Bangor, Maine hosts a "terrorist"...

9/22/1969 (48 years ago today) - The Band released their second album (self-titled "The Band"), also known as "The Brown Album", and it more than fulfilled the promises heard on their debut "Music From Big Pink" -- Just look at the line-up of timeless tracks on here: "Up On Cripple Creek", "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down", "Rag Mama Rag", "Across The Great Divide", "King Harvest (Has Surely Come)" -- A hands-down-can't-argue-the-fact-that-it's-a-masterpiece chunk of Americana that's since been preserved into the National Recording Registry because the album was/is "culturally, historically, and aesthetically important, and reflects life in the United States". 'Nuff said.

9/22/1985 (37 years ago today) - The first Farm Aid Benefit Concert was held before a crowd of 80,000 at the Champaign, Illinois Memorial Stadium -- Organized by Neil Young, John Mellencamp and Willie Nelson, the event was spurred on by Bob Dylan's comments at Live Aid earlier in the year that he hoped some of the money would help American farmers -- An incredible line-up of artists came out to play, including Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, Bon Jovi, Don Henley, The Charlie Daniels Band, John Fogerty, Foreigner, Lou Reed, Vince Gill, Waylon Jennings, Bonnie Raitt, Kris Kristofferson, Daryl Hall, B.B. King, Loretta Lynn and Glen Campbell -- The fight goes on even today...

9/22/2004 (13 years ago today) - Cat Stevens, now going by the name Yusuf Islam, was escorted from a diverted transatlantic flight and refused entry into America by FBI agents -- His name somehow ended up on a U.S. "watch list" after United Airlines Flight 919 had departed London -- The plane landed here in Blimpville(!) at the Bangor, Maine airport where Cat/Yusuf was detained and questioned, along with his 21 year old daughter who was traveling with him. We get it, but still, really?

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"Why must we go on hating/Why can't we live in bliss?...", xoxo!