In the “almost too good to be true so it probably isn’t” category comes the story of Aerosmith who, on the eve of a big tour, played a club gig just to get the bugs out of their set. Having played the gig, they decided to change the running order of the show, moving the set closing tune up to the second number. So they light out on the road, and play thier big opening concert. As soon as the second number is played, Joe Perry hollers “Good night XXXXXX, you’ve been great” and leaves the stage.
Bob Holness did not play the saxophone solo on Baker Street.
For the benefit of non-Brits, Bob Holness was the host of a long-running TV quiz show Blockbusters and was also the second actor to play James Bond (pre-Connery).
An old, forgotten one: Klaatu was actually the Beatles recording under a fake name (though this was more an ill-advised publicity stunt that a true urban legend).
Jimi Hendrix never told Dick Cavett that Phil Keaggy was the best guitar player in the world. (I’ve heard Keaggy’s name replaced by a number of others, but he’s the most common fill-in-the-blank.)
There’s also a story that Hendrix, after hearing Chicago in 1968, said “Your guitar player [Terry Kath] is better than me.” The only source for this seems to be another member of Chicago, so personally I’m skeptical.
There was an exchange between Cavett and Hendrix in which Cavett told Hendrix that he was considered to be the best guitarist in the world. This made Hendrix very uneasy and ultimately said he might be the greatest guitarist in this chair.
Phil Collins inviting the guy to the concert and then singing “In the Air Tonight” to him and the guy breaking down. Never happened.
While “Tears in Heaven” was written by Clapton in honor of his dead son. . .his dead son’s GHOST never showed up in any movie. Do I even NEED to find a link to that one?
I always heard that the little “pitter patter” part at the beginning of “Ramble On” was Bonham playing on his drumm stool, but I don’t know whether that’s true or not.
I don’t know if this falls under the heading of “urban legend”, but I was recently surprised to read that legendary songwriter Doc (“Hushabye” amongst others) Pomus is the brother of legendary divorce attorney Raul Lionel Felder.
Well, back in in 1983, Page and Clapton DID share the stage–along with Jeff Beck. They were part of the group that toured to support Ronnie Lane’s MS Charity, A.R.M.S.
On the night I saw the concert, Jimmy was the 3rd-best guitarist on stage.
It’s funny how these things change over the years and get updated for later generations. The version I had always heard involved Rod Stewart.
Actually, yeah. Unlike 90% of the ULs in this thread, I’ve never heard this one. What movie was the “ghost” supposedly in?
If you’re talking about the supposed ghost in “Three Men and a Baby”, that movie came out in 1987 and the Clapton song came out in, what, 1991? If that’s not what you’re referring to, I’m now curious.
No. It wasn’t Axel Rose. It was Donny Wahlberg from the New Kids on the Block and it was so much semen it clogged the machine.
Each generation has its own version.
This one I heard straight from the source so it might be true (or slightly exagerated). Graham Chapman was doing a lecture tour of college campuses in the late 80s and I was able to go see him. He was great friends with Keith Moon and they were both big alcoholics. He tells the story about one time they were getting drunk in someones penthouse when they ran out of booze. Without a word Moon went out on the balcony. A short time later he comes back in the front door with an arm full of booze. He climbed out onto the ledge, made his way around the building to the penthouse on the opposite side, broke in and stole all the booze.
After Cream broke up, I heard several versions of how drummer Ginger Baker was so burned out from speed that he: had to tape the sticks to his hands, was in an institution and could no longer speak, had not slept for a year, and was dead. None of it true.
Sam of Sam and Dave now claims he fired Jimi Hendrix. Jimi had just left the Isley Brothers, and S&D needed a guitarist. On his first night onstage, Hendrix broke into a psychedelic solo. Sam told him to knock it off. On the next number, he did it again, and Sam told him, “Unplug, get off the stage, and don’t come back.”
I’ve always wondered about the semen ULs. I mean, how do these make it around…don’t these people realize just how much a gallon of semen is? I mean, a full milk jug…we’re talking approximately 950 cumshots. Umm…yeah. (and yes, I converted the average volume of ejaculate to gallons)