This month in Rock and Roll History - August

August 18, 1955: Folk singer Pete Seeger refuses to talk to the House Un-American Activities Committee. Most people felt that Seegers subpoena to testify in front of The House Un-American Activities Committee in August, 1955, was a long time coming. Seeger, 36 at the time of his appearance before the Committee, had been active in and around the folk scene as well as the American Radicalism movement for most of his adult life, devoting much of his time trying to combine the two. Dropping out of Harvard in 1938, within 2 years, he was performing with Woodie Guthrie at various labor rallies around the country. After disbanding The Almanac Singers (that he had formed with Guthrie) , Seeger formed the The Weavers, who scored a hit in 1950 with "Goodnight Irene" . However as Senator Joseph McCarthy and his House Un-American Activities witch hunts intensified, The Weavers were forced to disband. Seeger refused to name names or admits his ties to the Communist Party in front of the Committee and was convicted of contempt of Congress. His conviction was later over-turned before Seeger had to serve any time. His stance in front of Congress is one of the incidents that helped solidify the folk and protest singers movement of the 1960's.


August 15, 1965: The Beatles perform at Shea Stadium in New York. Arriving by helicopter which landed on a nearby building, they were transported to the stadium by a security truck. The crowd was already whipped into a frenzy as they sat through a half a dozen supporting acts and were on their feet, screaming, by the time Ed Sullivan introduced the band. The Beatles took the stage and launched into "Twist and Shout". Reporters wrote that Lennon practically attacked the keyboards and was shouting in what sounded like the estatic screams of someone having a religious experience. They finished the set with "I'm Down" after only playing for 30 minutes. Even though the set was perfunctory and the sound was primitive, the throng of 55,000 got their $5.00 per ticket worth. The Beatles themselves took home $160,000 from that night alone and promised to return for another engagement at Shea. A year later, they did return for another night. Most rock critics cite this event as being the first true arena rock and roll show.

August 1965: Jim Morrison and Ray Manzarek have a chance meeting on L.A.'s Venice Beach. Although they knew each other in passing from UCLA's film school, it wasn't until they happened to run into each other on the beach after Morrison's graduation that it became clear that Morrison had musical aspirations. When Manzarek asked Morrison what he had been up to since graduating, Morrison said that he had been writing LSD inspired songs. It took a little prodding from Manzarek to get Morrison to sing a few bars of "Moonlight Drive". Manzarek has been quoted as saying that when he first heard the song, he said "That's it". He concluded that if the two formed a band, they could make a million. Not only because of the music but because he felt that Morrison's chiseled chin good looks that reminded him of Michelangelo's David wouldn't hurt. With the addition of Robbie Kreiger on guitar and John Densmore on drums, The Doors were formed.

August 15, 1969: The Woodstock Festival. There is too much information on the festival to fit into a quick blurb, but it is oft considered to be the paramount moment that defined the youth culture of the Sixties. Although slightly over 450,000 attended the three-day festival, over 4 million people claim to have been there.

August 1976: Joan Armatrading releases her self-titled album. Glyn Johns, producer of such fabled bands as The Beatles, The Stones, The Who, Clapton and Led Zepplin, said that her album was the best album he had ever been associated with, people sat up and took notice. Although she had released a pair of low-key, folk type of offerings beforehand, it was this album that brought her credibility and stardom. Johns produced a great album and brought in members of The Faces and Fairport Convention to round out Armatradings delicate sound but it was the song writing that made the album. From 'Down To Zero" and "Save Me" to the solid hit "Love and Affection" with it's powerful opening line "I'm not in love … but I am open to persuasion" and solid sax solo has given this album its classic status.

August 1, 1981: MTV is launched. Although many bands had been releasing rather elaborate promotional videos since the 70's, once MTV launched, they had a home. Artists such as Madonna, Michael Jackson and Cyndi Lauper seemed to reap the true benefits at first of the early days although older artists found their careers revived from appearances of their video's on MTV. As the 80's proceeded, it became an industry standard that a band would not find a wide audience without a good video. MTV is also responsible for creating the term VJ (video-jock) and launched the careers of several Hollywood directors who got their first real production exposure behind the camera of a music video. *Next time you're playing Trivial Pursuits: The very first video played on MTV was The Buggles "Video Killed The Radio Star". *

Notable August Birthdays

8/1/53: Robert Cray
8/1/42: Jerry Garcia
8/1/51: Tommy Bolin
8/3/63: James Hettfield
8/4/1901: Louis Armstrong
8/7/58: Bruce Dickenson
8/8/32: Mel Tillis
8/12/54: Pat Metheny
8/12/49: Mark Knopfler
8/14/41: David Crosby
8/15/25: Oscar Peterson
8/20/48: Robert Plant
8/20/49: Phil Lynott
8/21/1904: Count Basie
8/21/52: Joe Strummer
8/22/58: Vernon Reid
8/22/17: John Lee Hooker
8/29/20: Charlie Parker