Classic Brit bands first meeting (it's a 'Yowza!!!' moment)  -- One of rock's greatest debut LP's confounds us but good... -- The birthday of one of the sweetest voices ever heard...

Rock Stars Release Ramones Tribute Album
Cover art billboard for The Ramones Tribute album, May 2003. (Photo: David Klein/Getty Images)
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4/23/1963 (57 years ago today) - The U.K.'s Crawdaddy Club was legendary for the bands that performed there over the years -- Led Zeppelin, Elton John, Rod Stewart -- but on this particular night, The Beatles were in the audience to catch a set by The Rolling Stones! It's the first time they've ever met and both groups get along quite well: they end up planning their record releases apart from each other for maximum effect, as well as making non-credited appearances on each others songs. Pretty cool, and a teachable moment for today's greedy s**t-head infested little world...

4/23/1976 (44 years ago today) - It doesn't seem possible that this record is over 40 years old!: The Ramones release their self-titled debut album and there was nothing -- absolutely NOTHING! -- else that sounded like this at the time. The twisted-comic-book-pop of songs like "Blitzkreig Bop", "Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue", "Beat On The Brat" and "I Don't Wanna Go Down In The Basement" is off-set by the bands leather-and-jeans look and the wonderful, sheer-ridiculous volume with which they pull 'em off: simple, loud, very, very fast, with not one of the tracks lasting longer than two-and-a-half minutes! Statement made, thank you, and good night...

4/23/1936 - Born on this date, the uniquely talented Roy Orbison -- Because of his distinctive, powerful, almost-operatic voice, he was nicknamed "The Big O", along with an image that carried an air of mystery: those trademark sunglasses and his often complex compositions that were, at times, incredibly dark and moody (if you've seen David Lynch's "Blue Velvet", well, you know then) -- Along with Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis and Johnny Cash, Roy's career began in rockabilly at Memphis' Sun Studios, but his classic status was sealed with a run of {no less than} 22 Top 40 singles for the Monument record label between 1960 and '64 {that's pretty incredible} including the immortal masterpieces "Only The Lonely", "In Dreams", and "(Oh) Pretty Woman"; over 20 years later, he became one of The Traveling Wilburys! Roy's catalog is the definition of "timeless", quite awesome stuff, no question...

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"Hey, ho, let's go...", xoxo!

 

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