Find out what the first song Zep ever played was -- Teaching Russia how to rock, kinda funny -- Well-deserved props for Buck Owens!

An Evening With Jimmy Page And Chris Cornell In Conversation - Inside
Jimmy Page, Nov. 2014. (Photo: Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
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8/12/1968 (52 years ago today) - At the time, they were trying to get away with calling themselves The Yardbirds, but they knew that had to change: This date marks the first time that Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones and John Bonham ever played together -- It was in a London studio on Gerrard Street in the city's artsy/bohemian West End, and the very first song they rehearsed together as a band was "Train Kept A-Rollin'", an old Yardbirds staple -- "Smokestack Lightning" and "Dazed And Confused" followed; the name change to Led Zeppelin takes place four weeks from now.  Rock doesn't get much more historic than this, as you're about to see and hear...

8/12/1989 (31 years ago today) - The two day Moscow Peace Festival gets underway at The Lenin Stadium in Moscow, Russia -- Western acts that were {finally} cleared to play include Bon Jovi, Motley Crue, Ozzy Osbourne, Scorpions, Cinderella and Skid Row -- Interesting factoid: these nights were also the first time that an audience was allowed to stand up and dance at a stadium show in the Soviet Union! Previously all concerts had to be seated, a stipulation that was, at times, harshly enforced back in "the day". Which begs the question, can you really dance to the Scorpions...?

8/12/1929 - Born on this day, Alvis Edgar "Buck" Owens, one of country music's most legendary singer-songwriter-guitarists, notching up 21 No. 1 hits on the Billboard country music charts with his band The Buckaroos -- When performing live however, Owens preferred a more stripped-down sound incorporating elements of rock and roll with simple story lines, catchy choruses, twangy electric guitar and Everlys-style vocal harmonies -- Yeah, Buck gained a lot of fame as co-host of the TV show "Hee Haw" (with Roy Clark), but it's his body of recorded work that was more influential (and you know 'em): "Act Naturally" (famously covered by The Beatles), "Crying Time" (a Ray Charles standard), "I've Got A Tiger By The Tail"...Certainly Dwight Yoakam and Brad Paisley owe him alotBuck passed away from a heart attack just after performing a show at his Crystal Palace Restaurant & Club in his beloved hometown of Bakersfield, California; he was 76.

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"Well, my love for you could never grow stronger/If I lived to be a hundred years old...", xoxo!

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