Tommy’s Coffee Break Calendar for August 26th
The Beatles give up drugs! -- A country-crossover classic that generated an insane amount of controversy! -- Just maybe, this was the best line-up ever for The Isle Of Wight Festival...
8/26/1967 (52 years ago today) - File under "They're just messing with us, right?": The Beatles and Maharishi Mahesh Yogi hold a press conference at University College (the most bland and drab name ever conceived for a place of, ahem, higher education) in Bangor, North Wales, where the (once) Fab Four announce they have become disciples of the guru, that they've given up "mind-altering substances", and have become members of the Maharishi's Spiritual Regeneration Movement which obligated them to donate one week's earnings each month the the organization. Think or say what you will, the fact is their next release is "The White Album"...
8/25/1967 (52 years ago today) - For months, all everybody wanted to know was what did Billie Joe and his girlfriend throw off the Tallahatchie Bridge? Southern Goth didn't get much better (or smokier...or sexier...) than with the classic "Ode To Billie Joe", written and performed by Bobbie Gentry -- It begins a four-week run at No. 1, earns eight Grammy noms (winning three), and ends up with the Number Three spot on Billboard's year-end most-played list, surpassed only by The Box Tops' "The Letter" and Lulu's "To Sir, With Love" (Hmmm, is it just me or was this a great year for AM Top 40 singles?) -- Bobbie Gentry was one of the first country (and female) artists to actually write and produce her own material, but she decided to pretty much discard her new-found status as a "star", and simply continued to churn out some of country's best albums in an era when nobody took the C&W scene seriously. A mistake -- Bobbie's albums are four-star-fantastic and well worth searching out. Yes, we love her. Quite seriously, too..
8/26/1970 (49 years ago today) - It would turn out to be Jimi's last ever appearance in the U.K.: It may only be the third Isle Of Wight Festival weekend, but the array of artists participating kinda define "mind-boggling" -- Over the next three days, how about Joan Baez, Joni Mitchell, Donovan, Jethro Tull, Miles Davis, Cactus, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Family, Spirit, Sly & The Family Stone, Free, The Moody Blues, Procol Harum, The Doors, Chicago, The Who and Jimi Hendrix! Another wish for a trip in the "Time Tunnel"...
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"Pass the biscuits, please...", xoxo!