Tommy’s Coffee Break Calendar for March 7th
The Beatles and a comb... -- One of Bowie's best... -- A birthday for a bona-fide American songwriting legend that's been covered by too many to list...
3/7/1967 (50 years ago today) - Working on their next album (the as-yet-to-be-titled "Sgt. Pepper's..."), The Beatles are concentrating on overdubs for "Lovely Rita", including the harmony vocal parts, some miscellaneous sound effects, and for extra percussion, they record the sound of a piece of toilet paper being blown through a haircomb! High tech!
3/7/1975 (42 years ago today) - David Bowie released his ninth studio album, the "plastic soul" masterpiece "Young Americans", featuring an absolutely stellar line-up of musicians that helped him with his vision of "squashed ethnic music in the age of Muzak rock" -- There was soon-to-be-a-major-player-in-his-own-right, the legendary Luther Vandross as the main backing vocalist for almost all the tracks; John Lennon gets co-writing credits for and sings on "Fame"; jazz-rock saxophone ace David Sanborn cuts loose throughout; and most of the drumming was laid down by Andy Newmark, fresh from a stint with none other than Sly & the Family Stone. Producer Tony Visconti noted that "85% of the album was done live in the studio"! A remarkable LP unlike any other in the Bowie catalog. Get yours today!
3/7/1944 - Born on this day, singer-songwriter Townes Van Zandt -- His music has been covered by so many artists, it borders on mind-boggling: Bob Dylan, Lyle Lovett, Steve Earle, The Cowboy Junkies, Alison Krauss, Gillian Welch, Emmylou Harris, Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, just a partial list of musicians who admired and recorded Townes' songs; "Pancho And Lefty" and "If I Needed You" are his most well known tunes, and the albums "For The Sake Of The Song" (1968) and "High, Low And In Between" (1971) could {potentially} leave you breathless. Never fully appreciated when he was around, Townes spent most of his life touring dive bars and living in cheap motels or backwoods cabins; in the 1970's, he settled down (somewhat) in a simple shack without electricity or a phone. He was just 52 when he passed away on January 1, 1997, after years of substance abuse. Look him up, he was as real as real gets.
Share your what if's with the Calendar here on our web site and on the WBLM Facebook and Twitter pages with the hashtag #TommysCoffeeBreak.
"And now you wear your skin like iron/And your breath as hard as kerosene...", xoxo!