The backing musicians for Donovan’s single “Hurdy Gurdy Man” were Jimmy Page, John Bonham and John Paul Jones (three-fourths of the future Led Zeppelin).
Jefferson Airplane singer Grace Slick (nee Grace Wing) is distantly related to 19th century U.S. president Martin Van Buren.
The Buffalo Springfield song “Rock & Roll Woman” was written about Grace Slick.
The Crosby, Stills & Nash song “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes” was written about Judy Collins.
The CSN song “Our House” was written (by Nash) about his life with Joni Mitchell.
Joni Mitchell’s song “A Free Man In Paris” was written about then-artist rep (future record mogul) David Geffen.
That one’s a common rumor, but not true. John Paul Jones is the only Zepster on that song. The drummer was Clem Cattini, and the lead guitar was by Alan Parker (not Allan Holdsworth, as is also sometimes reported).
labtrash I am going to need a cite for this one. The vocal sounds different, but I believe that is due to both how it was produced and the fact that Tyler hadn’t found his own distinctive style at that point.
A quick Google search didn’t find anything to back up your statement - I am very open to it being true, but would need to see it…
And I always thought it was the chord progression in the song: B-A-D-G-E. But since I’m not a musician, I couldn’t tell by listening.
I read an interview with Robert Plant in a Guitar magazine sometime around 1988. In addition to bad-mouthing Jimmy Page for his choice of at-that-time-recent collaborators, he also said, “I would rather cut Mitch Easter’s lawn than play in a band like Journey.” (Maybe not trivia, but something I’ve always thought was a pretty cool quote.)
Not widely known, but Jeff Beck’s father was actually a experienced jazz pianist. His finger’s were quite long, though, and when he played it looked like a daddy-long-legs scurrying across the keys, thus garnering him the nickname “Big Spider.”
The New Wave group the Flying Lizard’s single “Money” was produced for the least amount of money for any single on record. The number I’ve seen was a couple of dollars for the tape. It was recorded on a cassette tape while the “group” – a musician and a woman who sang – banged on an out-of-tune piano and made the top 25.
“East-West” by the Butterfield Blues Band was the first album to have on it the dreaded phrase “This record is designed to be played loud!”
TNaIS, would you by chance happen to know who Joni Mitchell was referring to (the holy man, on the FM radio) in the song Rainy Night House? I’ve heard people say it was about Leonard Cohen, but I could swear I heard her deny that in an interview about 10 years ago.
Joni Mitchell trivia: After releasing This Flight Tonight from the album Blue, she suffered through one of the earlier cases of stalking. A guy whose sister died in a plane crash camped outside her house and tried breaking into her home. When he was arrested, he told the authorities he believed Joni Mitchell was channeling the voice of his dead siister.
I went to Biola University in southern CA. One of the art professors is Gene Berryhill, who is married to Bob Berryhill. When Bob was sixteen he was in a band with an actual record contract. They needed a B-side for their single, so the drummer offered up the beat he’d been fooling with, and in about 10 minutes they had their song worked out. The producer added a crazy laugh at the front, and the B-side went to #2 on Billboard. They were the Safaris and it was “Wipeout”.
(One of my favorites: ) The small-time but greatly respected and inventive band Daniel Amos put out an album called “Doppleganger” in the mid 80s. The first song was pretty weird sounding, as the intrumental track was the last track from the last album, reversed, with entirely new melody and lyrics sung over it.
I am not a fisherman but according to Led Zeppelin road manager Richard Cole, quoted in Hammer of the Gods (Stephen Davis, Pan books, 2005 reprint), the fish was a red snapper. In other publications it is described as a swordfish, or simply a fish.
Cole insists that John Bonham was the only Led Zeppelin member present at the incident (as an onlooker) and the episode was filmed by Mark Stein of Vanilla Fudge. Cole and a 17 year old groupie were the active participants.
