MAY 28-JUN 3: Historic events this week from CS&N, Bob Seger, Roky Erickson, Black Sabbath, Ray Davies and Eagles
MAY 29, 1969: CROSBY, STILLS & NASH’S DEBUT LP
After leaving their respective bands the Byrds, Buffalo Springfield and the Hollies, David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash recorded their debut album February-March ’69 and released the classic LP two months later.
The Crosby, Stills & Nash LP has sold 6.5 million worldwide and contains the hits “Marrakesh Express” and “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes”.
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MAY 30, 2017: SEGER’S GREATEST HITS CERTIFIED DIAMOND
Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band’s Greatest Hits is their biggest selling album with over 10 million sold in the US.
The solid collection of heartland rock contains five Top 5 hits: “Like a Rock” (#1), “Turn the Page” (#1), “Night Moves” (#4), “Still the Same” (#4) and “Against the Wind” (#5).
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MAY 31, 2019: ROKY ERICKSON DIES
Roky Erickson is another one of those artists who has flown under the radar while maintaining a very loyal cult following.
Classic rockers like Janis Joplin and ZZ Top consider(ed) themselves fans of Roky and his band The 13th Floor Elevators (one of the first psychedelic rock bands), and it’s even said that Janis based her singing style on Roky’s.
Roky’s sad story included paranoid schizophrenia, institutions, involuntary electroconvulsive therapy, and he later claimed an alien had inhabited his body.
No cause of death has ever been revealed. He was 71.
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JUNE 1, 1970: BLACK SABBATH’S DEBUT ALBUM
Nearly 4 months after being released in the UK, Sabbath’s eponymous debut arrived in the US.
It was critically panned upon release, with Creem magazine’s Lester Bangs describing it as “shuck”, “inane” and “cliché”.
The album has since received retrospective reviews referring to it as “so influential it remains a template for metal bands” (Q magazine, 2000).
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JUNE 2, 1996: VH1 STORYTELLERS DEBUTS WITH RAY DAVIES
VH1 Storytellers, VH1’s answer to MTV Unplugged, began in 1996 with Ray Davies of The Kinks.
The 15 song set was dominated by classic Kinks tracks including “Lola”, “Tired of Waiting for You”, “You Really Got Me” and “All Day and All of the Night”.
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JUNE 3, 1972: EAGLES RELEASE “TAKE IT EASY”
Having trouble completing Take It Easy for his debut album, Jackson Browne received assistance from Glenn Frey.
Upon hearing “standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona”, Frey completed the verse with “Such a fine sight to see. It’s a girl, my lord, in a flatbed Ford, slowin’ down to take a look at me.”
The song was the Eagles’ first single off their debut album. Jackson Browne recorded his own version the following year for his second album.
