This Week in Music History on the "takin ' a walk" podcast

Summary

Podcast Summary: "takin' a walk" – This Week in Music History

Episode Details

• Title: This Week in Music History on the "takin' a walk" podcast
• Host: Buzz Knight
• Guest: Harry Jacobs
• Release Date: January 13, 2025

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Introduction to the Music History Desk

At [02:18], Buzz Knight introduces the episode's focus on music history for the week of January 13th. He is joined by his friend Harry Jacobs, a seasoned media personality and rock aficionado. Together, they delve into significant events in music that occurred during this week across different years, blending insightful discussions with nostalgic reflections.

Johnny Cash’s "At Folsom Prison" Anniversary

Buzz kicks off the conversation by highlighting the release anniversary of Johnny Cash's iconic album "At Folsom Prison," which originally dropped in January 1968. He remarks, “Johnny Cash’s presence at a prison was a groundbreaking move back then” [03:00], emphasizing Cash's influence beyond the country genre, notably on rock musicians like Bruce Springsteen.

Harry adds depth to the discussion by recalling his conversation with Jelly Roll, another artist with a criminal past, who expressed immense respect for Cash’s authenticity. Harry mentions, “Jelly Roll leaned in terms of what a badass Johnny Cash was” [04:19], underlining the profound impact Cash had on his peers.

The Raw Image of Johnny Cash

The hosts reminisce about one of their favorite images of Johnny Cash—the infamous photograph where Cash is giving the finger to the camera. Buzz reflects, “He looks really angry and that's really describes the times, right, that we were in at that time” [05:00], tying the image to the turbulent social climate of 1968.

Pete Townsend and the Rainbow Concert Supporting Eric Clapton

Shifting to [05:26], Buzz discusses the 1973 Rainbow Concert organized by Pete Townsend to support Eric Clapton during his struggles with drug addiction. He notes, “Eric Clapton was really at the height of his drug use, was really struggling” [05:00], and explains the significance of the concert as a spontaneous "jam session" rather than a highly produced event.

Harry reminisces about the concert's reception, mentioning, “When the Rainbow concert was released, I think it was received fairly tepidly” [06:22], suggesting that the performances didn’t capture the magic expected from such legendary artists at that time.

The Rolling Stones and the Ed Sullivan Show Incident

At [08:46], Buzz brings up the Rolling Stones' appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1967, where they were asked to change the lyrics of “Let’s Spend the Night Together” to “Let's Spend Some Time Together” due to the conservative broadcasting standards. He muses, “This was the beginning, you know, of time for them, in a sense” [09:57], highlighting the early challenges the band faced in mainstream media.

Harry humorously speculates on whether Mick Jagger or Keith Richards have ever discussed this incident, replying, “I have not. But, you know, there's so many incidents with the Stones. That's why we love them” [09:37], showcasing the enduring legacy and myriad stories surrounding the band.

Paul McCartney’s 1980 Tokyo Arrest

Buzz shifts to a more recent event from January 16, 1980, when Paul McCartney was arrested in Tokyo for marijuana possession. He reflects, “Imagine that bag of weed he gets nine days in Tokyo” [10:44], drawing a parallel to today's more accepting attitudes towards marijuana.

Harry comments on the situation, stating, “It caused a lot of misery for Paul at that time and certainly cost him a few bucks along the way for that delay” [10:44], emphasizing the personal and professional repercussions McCartney faced due to the incident.

The Beatles’ Songwriting Inspiration

Buzz introduces an intriguing fact related to The Beatles, revealing that a January 17, 1967 article in the Daily Mail about potholes in Blackburn and the death of Guinness heir Terror Brown inspired lyrics for the song “A Day in the Life.” He shares, “Their songwriting genius... scanning every possible source for some inspiration” [12:02], celebrating Lennon and McCartney's knack for drawing inspiration from diverse and unexpected places.

Johnny Rotten’s Exit from the Sex Pistols

At [12:02], Buzz discusses the notorious departure of Johnny Rotten from the Sex Pistols in 1978. He recounts, “They said he wasn't weird enough” [12:14], a statement he finds amusingly paradoxical given the band’s punk ethos. Harry humorously reflects, “That's hysterical... Isn't that the definition of punk anyway? Getting kicked out of a band” [12:22], highlighting the rebellious nature synonymous with punk culture.

Historical Pop Culture Highlight: The Boston Molasses Flood

Concluding the episode, Buzz shifts to a historical event outside the music realm—the Great Molasses Flood in Boston on January 15, 1919. He narrates, “21 people actually died in that and 150 were injured” [13:06], sharing the tragic and bizarre nature of the disaster. Harry adds a local perspective, noting the enduring traffic woes in Boston, “To this day, it's still hellacious in Boston” [13:18], linking past and present challenges of the city.

Closing Remarks

The episode wraps up with Buzz summarizing the discussed events, stating, “There you go. There's the week.” [13:32], and Harry thanking Buzz for the engaging discussion. They encourage listeners to tune into future episodes for more deep dives into music history.

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Notable Quotes:

• Buzz Knight [03:00]: “Johnny Cash’s presence at a prison was a groundbreaking move back then.”
• Harry Jacobs [04:19]: “Jelly Roll leaned in terms of what a badass Johnny Cash was.”
• Buzz Knight [05:00]: “He looks really angry and that really describes the times, right, that we were in at that time.”
• Buzz Knight [12:14]: “They said he wasn't weird enough.”
• Harry Jacobs [12:22]: “That's hysterical... Isn't that the definition of punk anyway? Getting kicked out of a band.”

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Conclusion This episode of "takin' a walk" masterfully traverses key moments in music history that coincide with the week of January 13th, weaving together stories from different decades. Host Buzz Knight and guest Harry Jacobs provide insightful commentary and engaging anecdotes, enriched by notable quotes and personal reflections. Whether you're a long-time listener or new to the podcast, this episode offers a captivating exploration of music's past and its enduring legacy.

Transcript

[Buzz Knight]

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[Harry Jacobs]

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[Buzz Knight]

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[Harry Jacobs]

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[SephiRun]

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[Buzz Knight]

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[Harry Jacobs]

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[SephiRun]

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[Buzz Knight]

I want to see my wife.

[SephiRun]

He should have left Severance new season.

[Harry Jacobs]

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[Buzz Knight]

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[Harry Jacobs]

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[SephiRun]

I'm Buzz Knight, the host of the Taking a Walk podcast. The podcast where we take a look at music history, we talk to music insiders and on this episode we take a look at music history for the week of January 13th. And I'm joined at the Music History desk by my dear friend, rock fan, media personality, former programmer and radio and also just somebody who knows the biz and the music inside out. The one and only Harry Jacobs. Welcome to the Music History desk, Harry.

[Buzz Knight]

Pleasure to be here to join you. Historically, the beginning of January is when a lot of things aren't going on. But we've managed to find some things that have happened this week and I'm excited to talk to you about them. Johnny Cash would be the first one. Not necessarily a rock guy, but a lot of rock guys took influence from Johnny Cash. Bruce Springsteen will often talk about that Johnny Cash influence and, and obviously he changed and, and spent a lot of time doing country and, and western sounding music as he's, you know, grown in his career. But Johnny Cash's at Folsom Prison came out this week in 1968. Probably something that wouldn't happen today. Think about it. They, they took a room full of prisoners and let Johnny Cash, a former felon, by the way, play at the prison. That was a, a big deal at that time.

[SephiRun]

Yeah. And I got to talk to Jelly Roll way back about a lot of different things, including you know, his view of Johnny Cash. And I'll never forget it. He was like, he leaned right in in terms of what a badass Johnny Cash was. And obviously Jelly Roll has served time as well behind bars. So he had a great respect for, for Johnny's authenticity. He even recommended to me and in case you haven't seen it, the documentary, the Tricky Dick, Johnny Cash documentary. Have you ever checked that one out?

[Buzz Knight]

You told me after you did the interview with Jelly Roll, you told me about it and, and it's kind of buried on my list. I need to, I need to get in there and, and, and take a look at that.

[SephiRun]

It's really well done. So Johnny, and then of course with Johnny would ultimately end up doing with Bob Dylan was certainly incredible as well. And that TV show that Johnny had was sort of this amazing, you know, combining country and sort of rock Americana together. So an iconic period in music history when Johnny was at the Folsom prison.

[Buzz Knight]

Yeah. One of my favorite pictures of Johnny is that that picture where he's given the finger to the camera. He looks really angry and he's just, you know, to me that it, it describes the, the times, right, that we were in at that time. Think about where we were in 68. That was, that picture was taken at around that may, probably earlier, but you know, still it's an iconic photo. Johnny.

[SephiRun]

Oh, no doubt, no doubt. Yeah.

[Buzz Knight]

In, in 1973, this is the, the time that Pete Townsend organized the Rainbow Concert essentially to support Eric Clapton. Now there were A whole bunch of people that. That played, obviously Townsend, Clapton played. But Steve Wynwood and a bunch of others. We learned through the documentary, through the. Through the 12 bars. Life through 12 bars. I believe that that that was a time that Eric Clapton in 73 was really at the height of his drug use, was really struggling, had kind of disappeared at. At times. I remember seeing. There was a period of time before 461 Ocean Boulevard. I guess that was the album at that time with. With Mainline Florida on it, among other things. But. But this was an interesting time for Clapton. And to have Pete Townsend get our. Gather others to. To rally around him was important.

[SephiRun]

Yeah. And I think we knew there were problems back then. It was certainly reported, I think, in, you know, like Rolling Stone or Crawdaddy Magazine or something like that. So there was word out there that there were problems with. With Eric, but frankly, there were problems with all of the musicians at that point. It felt like so many of them sadly, you know, struggled. And then I remember when ultimately the. The Rainbow concert was released, I think it was received fairly tepidly because for acts that were so great in concert, it wasn't their, you know, most memorable performances. So that. That's how I sort of remember the way the concert, when it came out, was released and the way it was received. I could be wrong.

[Buzz Knight]

This was not a concert, if my memory serves me correctly, where, you know, each group did their own little set. This was the. This was the jam session, you know, pre. You know, what they're doing now as an example for the Rock and Roll hall of Fame.

[SephiRun]

Right.

[Buzz Knight]

Birthday concert or some sort of celebration of a band.

[SephiRun]

That's right. It was not orchestrated and staged to the degree that things are now by that guy, Joel Gallen, who does all the. Did all the stuff for, you know, the. The Rock and Roll hall of Fame. He staged things and he's brilliant at that. Yeah, that. I think that's a good point there for sure.

[Buzz Knight]

Yeah, that's an. It's an interesting thing when you think about it. I, you know, be interesting to go back now and watch it, knowing how things have evolved from a production, you know, standpoint. Yes. Listen, it's like watching a football game from 1975 versus watching one that's right now to see what technology and. And just kind of where people have gone in terms of organization of these things.

[SephiRun]

Yeah. And the eye that some director puts to it.

[Buzz Knight]

Sure. Yeah. But at any rate, that.

[SephiRun]

That.

[Buzz Knight]

That happened. Clapton was arguably a disaster. He was struggling with the situation With Patty Harrison, George Harrison's wife at the time being, you know, in love with his best friend's wife. It created all kinds of angst and added to the drug use, fueled all of that.

[SephiRun]

And as they say, the rest. The rest, history. The rest is history. Right.

[Buzz Knight]

Yeah. I'm sure we'll get to Layla and Derek and the Dominoes at some point down the road with this week as well.

[SephiRun]

No doubt.

[Buzz Knight]

In 1967, the stones appeared on Ed Sullivan, and Ed Sullivan had a request when they said we were going to play let's Spend the Night Together. Ed Sullivan had them change the lyrics to let's Spend Some Time together because in 1967 you couldn't talk about two people that weren't married, I guess, spending time under the sheets.

[SephiRun]

Yeah, I, I could only wish that we could have been a fly on the wall to Mr. Sullivan having the conversation probably with, you know, Mick and Keith or the whole band or something. I don't think he. Maybe he started going through their management, you know, mediary, but, you know, he's had to speak to the band about it in some form. I would love to see how that played out. Well, we know how it played out, you know.

[Buzz Knight]

Yeah. I was just going to ask, did you ever see anyone, any interviews with anyone in Jagger or Richards? Have they. Have you seen them talk, speak to that particular incident?

[SephiRun]

I have not. But, you know, there's so many incidents with the Stones. That's why we love them. Right.

[Buzz Knight]

This was tame compared to anything else. This was.

[SephiRun]

Right.

[Buzz Knight]

You think about it. 67. This was the beginning, you know, of time for, for them, in a sense.

[SephiRun]

Oh, yeah, for sure. But yeah, Ed. Ed Sullivan churned them all out, you.

[Buzz Knight]

Know, so let me give you. Let me give you two other things to think about. Think about where we are now with, you know, with marijuana usage in our country and dispensaries and you know, how mainstream it is. This is the time, January 16, 1980, when Paul McCartney was arrested in Tokyo and he, he. He and Wings were due to. To be there as part of their tour in, In Japan, and he was deported. They held him for nine days. Imagine that bag of weed he gets nine days in. In. In Tokyo in.

[SephiRun]

It is funny thinking about it now, but that caused a lot of misery for, for Paul at that time and certainly, I'm sure, cost him a few bucks along the way for that, for that delay. And yeah, it is kind of mind blowing thinking about how far we've come.

[Buzz Knight]

Yeah, and here's another one, 1967, another Beatles related thing. But this is one I had no clue about. 1967, January 17, the Daily Mail newspaper, they printed an article saying there were 4,000 potholes in Blackburn, Lancashire, and the death of Guinness heir Terror Brown in a car crash. And these articles inspired the lyrics for which Beatles song Buzz?

[SephiRun]

I did not. I did not know that. No, I knew that A day in the life. I'm sorry.

[Buzz Knight]

Yeah, I had. I. When I, when I saw, when I was doing research for the week, I saw that and I thought, there's one that's going, going in this group. That's a great story.

[SephiRun]

But what was so awesome on how, you know, the, the songwriting genius of, of Lennon and McCartney, you know, scanning every possible source for some inspiration and finding, finding that in the Daily Mail, I think that's, you know, just adds to the brilliance of their, their songwriting.

[Buzz Knight]

Johnny Rotten in 1978 was thrown out of the Sex Pistols, unceremoniously dismissed, leading to the band's breakup. You know why they kicked him out?

[SephiRun]

Probably something about his hairdo. No, I don't know.

[Buzz Knight]

They said he wasn't weird enough.

[SephiRun]

Oh, my God.

[Buzz Knight]

Still weird to me.

[SephiRun]

That's hysterical. Yeah, well, as I was thinking about him getting kicked out of the band, I'm thinking, well, isn't that the definition of punk anyway? Getting kicked out of a band.

[Buzz Knight]

How bad do you have to be to get kicked out of a. What kind of an ass do you have to be to get kicked out of a punk band?

[SephiRun]

Apparently, you know, bad enough.

[Buzz Knight]

And one pop culture or one historic event that happened this week to. To wrap us up. January 15, 1919, was the date of the great molasses flood in Boston. Something I don't think I was taught growing up in the suburbs of Boston, but 21 people actually died in that and 150 were injured. Pretty crazy. Pretty crazy story.

[SephiRun]

I got to think that that was not the Back Bay of Boston that occurred. That had to be somewhere in the, you know, the, the true city of Boston, you know, near the harbor or whatever, where that occurred.

[Buzz Knight]

You know, 21 people died, death by molasses, kind of slow and painful.

[SephiRun]

It's a tragedy for sure. And traffic was terrible at that moment. And to this day, it's still hellacious in Boston. That's right.

[Buzz Knight]

There you go. There's the week.

[SephiRun]

It's a wrap. Harry Jacobs, thanks for being on Taking a Walk for this week in music and pop culture and molasses history for the week of January 13th. And thanks for checking out the Taking a Walk podcast. You can listen to it on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast at. David's Bridal love is in every stitch, from the initial sketch to the final details.

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[SephiRun]

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