Tommy’s Coffee Break Calendar for March 19th

Dylan debuts! -- Stones cause financial ruin for...the fashion industry? -- Remembering why Free was a (truly underrated) great band...

3/19/1962 (58 years ago today) - Bob Dylan's self-titled debut was released on this date, but ended up selling so poorly that the album came to be known around Columbia Records as "Hammond's Folly" -- John Hammond was responsible for signing Dylan to the label and he helped produce Bob's earliest work, but the record-buying public wasn't buying -- The LP was praised by the New York City weekly newspaper Village Voice as "an explosive country blues debut" even though there were only two original Zimmy compositions on here ("Talkin' New York" and "Song To Woody"); the remainder were covers of old folk standards like "Man Of Constant Sorrow" and "The House Of The Rising Sun" before The Animals turned it into a world-wide smash...

3/19/1965 (55 years ago today) - British fashion trend magazine "The Tailor And Cutter" published an article asking The Rolling Stones to...turn down the volume? Be more aware of teen fan safety at their shows? No, no, no, they asked the band to start wearing ties! The fashion of the day simply did not include wearing ties with shirts and, kinda weird but nonetheless true, many U.K. tie-makers were actually facing financial disaster -- Of the appeal, Mick Jagger astutely pointed out that wearing a tie was "something to which a fan can hang onto when you're trying to get in and out of a theatre." Here's a reminder of just how red-hot The Stones were at the time:

3/19/1976 (44 years ago today) - He was the founding member, chief songwriter and (essentially) the musical director for Free -- Guitarist Paul Kossoff died from heart failure while on a flight from L.A. to New York; he was only 25 years old, but had a sad history of drug abuse -- Before "All Right Now" put 'em on the map, Paul had started a band with drummer Simon Kirke called Black Cat Bones which morphed into Free with the acquisition of lead vocalist Paul Rodgers -- After Free broke up, Paul formed the overlooked outfit Back Street Crawler, well worth digging into whatever you use online to find stuff ("Stone Cold Sober"' is definitely a four-star gem) -- Free's catalog deserves a re-listen as well; we suggest checking out the "Fire And Water" and "Highway" LP's, both from 1970. We also sorta miss bands that were as straightforward as this:

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"Every single day/I got a heartache comin' my way...", xoxo!