The Stones get down -- A festival burns down! -- We remember a great talent on his birthday...

9/02/1964 (56 years ago today) - At London's Regent Studios, The Rolling Stones record their now legendary version of the Willie Dixon classic "Little Red Rooster" featuring Brian Jones in top form on the slide guitar -- Frankly, we can't imagine either The Beatles or The Who pulling this one off, it's just the kind of sound that only the Stones do oh so well...

9/02/1972 (48 years ago today) - Promoters expect 50,000 -- instead, over 200,000 fans show up for The Erie Canal Soda Pop Festival held over three days on Bull Island, near Griffin, Indiana -- It was a bad scene that slowly got worse as many bands pulled out instead of performing and in no time at all, the festival drifted steadily into anarchy -- It didn't matter who was onstage, apparently, as sets by The Eagles, Foghat, Cheech & Chong, Canned Heat, Rory Gallagher, Black Oak Arkansas and a few others did nothing to appease the crowd. Three concert goers drowned in a nearby river -- By the festivals end, it was total madness and what crowd remained actually torched and burned down the stage!

9/02/1946 - Born on this date, Beatles and Stones keyboardist and solo artist Billy Preston, who hit No. 1 twice on the U.S. singles chart with "Will It Go 'Round In Circles" and "Nothing From Nothing" -- Even more impressive? The list of musicians who called upon Billy to help out: oh, only the likes of Little Richard, Sam Cooke, Ray Charles, George Harrison (post-Beatles break-up), Eric Clapton, Mahalia Jackson, J.J. Cale, Neil Diamond, Norah Jones and Steve Winwood --  Billy died June 6, 2006, after being in a coma from complications from hypertension and kidney disease. At the end of shows, he would remind his audience from the stage that "If you can't be with the one you love, love the one you're with"; Stephen Stills got Billy's permission to use that line for a song Stephen was working on...

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"Let the bad guy win every once in awhile...", xoxo!

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