← Takin' A Walk - Music History with Buzz Knight
Takin' A Walk - Music History with Buzz Knight
This Week in Music History on the "takin ' a walk " podcast 5-12
00:19:58
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Host 1
You're listening to an iHeart podcast.
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Host 1
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Host 1
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Buzz Knight
I'm Buzz Knight, the host of the Taking a Walk podcast, Music History on Foot. And we take a look now at the Week in music from May 12th and we go over to the music history desk. I'm going to call him right now since I often call him different names. Now he's going to be called the Maestro of all Things, music. Harry Jacobs. What do you think about that, Harry?
- [03:03]
Host 1
I like that. But when I heard you say, I'm going to call him a name, I always call him names. I started to get nervous about, you know, your propensity to bully me periodically with some of these names, you know, comparing me to a hot dog vendor with my music facts and things like, things such as these. But yes, I will take that and I will accept that and I will just say, say you may want to rework the setup on that. You know, I don't call him names. I give him different titles.
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Buzz Knight
Titles. I bestow different titles on him.
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Host 1
A much kinder way to say that. And I'm sensitive. I need a safe space. I thought this was nice. This is a safe space. Yeah, exactly. All right, let's start at May 12th. This is the week of May 12th through the 18th. May 12th, Bob Dylan walked off the Ed Sullivan show after CBS censors refused to let him perform the song. Talking John Birch paranoid blues. I didn't know anything about John Birch and I didn't know about this. This, you know, highlighted his defiance on, on the tension over free expression and Birch. I did some research this morning, John. Do you know, by the way, anything about John Birch at all?
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Buzz Knight
I want to hear what you have to say and see what I can offer to counter it or acknowledge it.
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Host 1
Well, let's just say this. He was a Republican. He was an intelligence on military. This was, I think, pre CIA. So he was a military intelligence officer and was anti the counterculture. Right. He was a white shirt, red tie, wearing, conservative. That, that the kids, you know, in the 60s were rebelling against that type of person.
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Buzz Knight
And I remember my older brothers talking about, quote unquote, the Birchers. But I did not know that moment on the Ed Sullivan show with Bob happened. So that is, is a new one. I know he always liked to, you know, poke in the face of what was going on. And that was part of him building his incredible legacy, but didn't know that story.
- [05:08]
Host 1
Yeah. You know, and this is interesting because the, you know, the Ed Sullivan show, they made the Stones, you know, censor, you know, let's spend the night together. It was, let's spend some time together. And I'm looking for the, for the date on that. But that, you know, that was around the same time that was, you know, 63 for Dylan and 67 is when it looked like it. It happened for the Stone. So CBS sensors definitely had their way with, with the rock music.
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Buzz Knight
Ed Sullivan being a little cranky. Pants himself too. The sensors, you know, rang true back then for sure.
- [05:46]
Host 1
Yeah, they did May 12th in 1948, Steve Winwood was born. And Steve Wynwood, you know, had a, an amazing career as a very young man. Think about it when they recorded, when Spencer Davis recorded Give Me Some Love and He was like 16 years old at that point. So he's had an amazing career. Traffic and Spencer Davis and the solo career, Blind Faith, I loved his solo career. Like Roll with it, you know, was what a great song that was. So I'm a Steve Wynwood fan.
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Buzz Knight
Oh yeah. And from that other era there, the, you know, the solo career back in the high life again is one of the great, great songs. Boy, you want to go down a bunch of nice rabbit holes with a playlist, you can do that with, with Stevie. Blind Faith, Traffic, you know, Walking in the Wind by Traffic. How about that one? And John Barley Corn Must Die. Oh, my God.
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Host 1
And I saw, it's funny, I saw not long ago a video of him sitting in his, you know, study, hearing him play that song on his own. And his study with a beautiful Martin acoustic guitar was really a treat.
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Buzz Knight
I don't know what he's. What he's really up to these days in terms of, you know, going out on any small date tours or anything or, or recording any new music. I do know, like a lot of the musicians over, you know, the recent years, among other places. One of the places that he has relocated to is outskirts of Nashville.
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Host 1
He is playing this summer. He is do some dates this summer. Matter of fact, he's gonna in the fall. He's gonna be not far away from you. He's playing in Beverly. Yeah. So he's got July 13th through, you know, the end of September. There are a handful of dates, a few on the East Coast. He's gonna be in Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania. Morristown, New Jersey. Atlantic City, Verona, New York. At the Turning Stone Casino, Red Bank, New Jersey, Port Chester, New York, Beverly, Mass. Right. Which is just kind of a funny. Everything you got around where you are. Beverly is an interesting spot. But. But he's going to be out maybe, you know, listen to throw the idea out there. Maybe he's a taking a walk guest. Maybe, you know, you end up backstage and get to take a walk with him. Backstage.
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Buzz Knight
Oh, be magical to talk to.
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Host 1
Yeah.
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Buzz Knight
What an icon.
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Host 1
1932, the body of Charles Lindbergh Jr. Was found. He was the son of the famous aviator and he was found in New Jersey weeks after his abduction.
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Buzz Knight
Boy, that's to be I mean you think about the true crime stories that was, you know, that, that was one back, back in the day for sure.
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Host 1
I, I hadn't thought about it when we were doing the research. That's one of the things that came up was this was the Earl, you know, really one of the earliest, you know, true crime media kind of stories. It was a big deal in this country when that happened.
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Buzz Knight
Interesting.
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Host 1
1967, Radio London debuted Sgt. Peppers in its entirety. This is an interesting concept to play an album in its entirety. You want to speak to this because this is something you, as a radio programmer, this was something that you did fairly often in your career.
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Buzz Knight
Yeah, this was a thing that you did then when a major release came out, you would, you know, as a, as a programmer you would, or the programmers we work for, you'd feature songs from, you know, from that new release and then frequently would be, and you know what, we're going to roll the entire album tonight. And then that got heavily discouraged at a point. I don't think there was a legality discouraging, you know, comment there, but it was discouraged because it was thought when we did that that we took away severely from the artists sales of that release. Isn't that funny thinking about that now?
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Host 1
It really is. And it, it's when you think about it, you know, you, you were on the radio at that time. But for, you know, I was a kid in the 70s and matter of fact, I'll give you a story. I was on AAF when I was a kid. I was 14 years old and one of the things I had to do, I had to work midnight to 9am Sunday morning, Saturday night to Sunday morning. And what AAF did on Saturday nights was they did something called the Saturday Night Six Pack. And they would play six albums start to finish. And I remember setting my cassette recorder up some nights to tape it if I didn't have the money to buy an album and they were running, you know, whatever it was, it you know, AC DC's back in black all the way through Saturday night at midnight I would set my cassette player up and that's how I listened to Back in Black was I taped it from the radio. Right. And this.
- [11:03]
Buzz Knight
So you did contribute then to the taking away sales from the artist by doing that. So you just brought some truth to it.
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Host 1
ACDC got some ticket money out of me and they did end up getting some albums. And I know I pay for my streaming, so whatever apply tunes is paying, they're getting from me. I think.
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Buzz Knight
Yeah, everything's Even now, you know, when.
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Host 1
I worked for you, we would do that. If something important came out, that, that would, that was a neat little. Neat little thing.
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Buzz Knight
Yep.
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Host 1
We talked in, in one of our recent episodes about the Kent State shooting and you shared the story that you had hitchhiked home from Dayton to. Back home to Connecticut and, and spent a night at Kent State. The. This is the day, May 14, that Crosby, stills and Nash actually got Ohio out. They rushed to record it. So it's kind of funny that we talked about the incident happening now in the next week or two weeks later. We're saying the record actually came out. Neil Young wrote it and they recorded it. It was quick. May 4, 1970 is the date of the shooting. And here we are talking about this on May 14th.
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Buzz Knight
Yeah, it is cool how, how things, you know, cycle through. I love it.
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Host 1
Yeah. And in this day and age, think about that. That would have happened, you know, immediately.
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Buzz Knight
That's right.
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Host 1
Right next. Next day, two days later.
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Buzz Knight
Yep.
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Host 1
On, on this date in 1998, the Seinfeld finale aired on NBC. Drew 76 million viewers. This was as, as they say, a show about nothing.
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Buzz Knight
Yeah, it was a terrible finale. But, you know, I don't know, I run across once in a while someone who goes, I never really listened, watched that show or got it, but it's, it was a part of.
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Host 1
How do you not get it?
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Buzz Knight
I don't know really. I can't really answer that. But I will say I'm privileged to, to say there was a few moments early on in Jerry Seinfeld's career as he was still a great, you know, he was a great stand up then had appeared on the Tonight show frequently. But when I worked in Connecticut and did mornings there, did afternoons, eventually there, he came up a few times to spend some time on the show. And then one other time when I was doing afternoons in Ohio, he came up as well. And I'll never forget it. I mean, it was one of these things. Legacy was weird about that. There were many people who would say, oh, when Jerry comes on the radio, he's, he's. They thought he was terrible, but I completely disagree with that. Very businesslike. I mean, it wasn't really a chit, chatty relationship when the mic was off by any stretch. But I thought he brought it every time and was, was brilliant. And I, at the outset of COVID I found some of those air check tapes and actually digitized the Seinfeld interviews.
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Host 1
Oh, it'd be great to, It'd be great to hear those When I started watching the last season of Larry David and there was the issue in Georgia giving the, the bottle of water, sure. I, that the guy that I was watching it with, my buddy, I said, this is how it's going to end. They're going to end up in court. This is going to be the end of Seinfeld done the right way. Yeah, he said, that's interesting. And as the, as the, as it went on, I kept saying, remember what I said, Remember what I said. And they, they did the Larry David thing the same way they did Seinfeld, which was interesting, right?
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Buzz Knight
Yeah, it was.
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Host 1
And even he made the comment, this is how we should have ended the show. May 15, 1975, first episode of Saturday Night Live aired. And, and this was kind of an interesting ordeal leading up to it. There was a lot of controversy with the, we're talking about censors with the Ed Sullivan thing. You know, 10, 12 years later, still going on, you know, at the NBC level this time, they were, they were against what Lorne Michaels was trying to do. And he was also very secretive about what the show was going to be about. That the concept of a sketch show in a different way than like, you know, the Smothers Brothers or the Carol Burnett Show. This was going to be a little bit more irreverent. This was going to be a little bit more different. And he was very secretive and they were on him about this, that it looked like. Did you see the, the movie about.
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Buzz Knight
I did. And then they got, the censors got burned a few times by him.
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Host 1
They sure did. So on May 15, 2019, Tom Petty's two daughters ended up suing his wife because of the trust, you know, money. If things aren't set up properly, even if they are, you know, there can be disputes. And this is one of them. The three Tom Petty's, the three women in his life ended up in a five million dollar lawsuit. And, and that got ugly for a minute.
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Buzz Knight
And this is why they say, among other reasons, that so many of the artists are, are, you know, selling the catalogs as a way to get well ahead of this whole estate and the management of it and who gets what. So that was told to me by a few people close to the legal side of those things, that it's really, it's done for a lot of reasons. But one of it is so that doesn't become this legal entanglement that occurs.
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Host 1
You brought that up. And I think that, I think I heard either Neil Young or Bob Dylan talking about that. Neil Young basically saying, you know, who. Who gives a. It's my money. I want it now. Right. You know, like, kind of like that's one aspect of it. And the other is to make sure people aren't fighting about it.
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Buzz Knight
Yeah.
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Host 1
When it's over. But the nice thing about this suit is that it ended in the. This little organization called the Tom Petty Legacy Company. And all three women came out afterwards and said that they were embarrassed. They acknowledged how hurtful it was to have the lawsuit going on, and they now work basically in concert, if you'll excuse the pun on everything that happens, with Tom's, you know, music and his legacy now together. So kind of a nice deal. The lawsuit was settled, and now everyone's working together. Get along.
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Buzz Knight
Yep.
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Host 1
We want to.
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Buzz Knight
I want to stop this real quick.
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Ryan Seacrest
Sure.
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Host 1
That's really funny. That's really funny. Can I talk about this? Can I please talk about this? If you're listening to the show, if you're listening podcast, you obviously are the reason Buzz says, can I stop this? And he holds his phone up. We're doing this over zoom. We're 2300 miles away from each other. And his phone says Peter Wolf is calling him the Woof of Goofa, the. The lead singer of the Jay Giles Band, who's been more elusive than the Pope, trying to get an interview with him. And now he's calling you. During this week in music history.
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Buzz Knight
I love him to death.
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Host 1
We, you know, we talked about Pet Sounds recently in the. In the various, you know, releases of that. But on May 16, 1966, they released PET Sounds, and this was a disappointment. You know, we talked about all the great tracks on it, you know, last week or the week before, and. And this really changed and raised the bar with how the competitors in that day for the Beach Boys, the Stones and. And the Beatles in particular, with production value, with things. Right.
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Buzz Knight
Masterful production value.
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Host 1
Absolutely. Got to believe Phil Spector was in there looking at that, going, how. How do I compete with this?
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Buzz Knight
That's right. Yeah.
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Host 1
1987, with or without you. YouTube's first number one song. The US. US charts. What an album. The Joshua Tree album was.
- [19:02]
Buzz Knight
I'd say every song great.
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Host 1
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Was trip through your wires on that.
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Buzz Knight
Yeah, I believe so. Yeah.
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Host 1
Just a great album. They did that concert on the roof in la, that video they released. Yeah. It still gives me chills to watch that. The tip of the hat to the Beatles.
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Buzz Knight
Oh, yeah.
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Host 1
You know, the rooftop concert and people in the streets and buildings. I mean, that's A good one to go and go down the YouTube rabbit hole for, for, for videos of that, of that concert. But that was, that was pretty amazing. But at any rate, with or without you, hit number one. May 16th of 1987. May 17th, 1975, Elton John released Captain Fantastic and the Brown dirt cowboy number one at the. On the Billboard top 200, which was a rare feature at the time, as I understand it. And it was an autobiographical by a biographical album that, that really solidified a lot for Elton. And there were two releases of that. Do you, do you know that. Are you aware of that?
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Buzz Knight
No.
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Host 1
There was the, the release in 75 and then a later release that included Lucy in the sky with Diamonds and Philadelphia Freedom, two other tracks as well. But. But the first release of that album did not have Philadelphia Freedom or Lucy in the Sky.
- [20:20]
Buzz Knight
I didn't know that.
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Host 1
Which is interesting.
- [20:22]
Buzz Knight
We have to salute Elton right now for putting out brand new music with Brandy Carlisle, which I think is pretty cool. And it seemed like. It seemed like all that came together very quickly and, and, and it, it sounds beautiful and I just love seeing those two collaborate.
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Host 1
Did you see any of the video where they. I forget who it was, who's producing it, but who kind of described to Elton the music that he heard with the song. And then Elton just started to play and it was literally immediately like, yes, that's it. That's exactly it.
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Buzz Knight
Oh, that's great.
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Host 1
Talking to him. And Elton just spits it out.
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Buzz Knight
I love it.
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Host 1
Last item for the week in. This is a kind of a guilty pleasure of mine and I'll probably catch some grief about this. 2012. Donna Summer died on May 17th and I'm a closet Donna Summer and disco fan. Does that make me a bad person?
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Buzz Knight
I don't think it does. I would, I would watch it just a little bit to see that this does not go out of control. But. But I. I think so far, just calling it a guilty pleasure. I think that's okay.
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Host 1
Not gonna prescribe the disco antibiotics yet. Quite.
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Buzz Knight
Not yet, but keep it up and you never know.
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Host 1
A lot. A lot of great songs from Donna Summer and she.
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Buzz Knight
What's your favorite one?
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Host 1
You know, I. I loved like, you know, Dim all the lights and MacArthur pie. You're. Now you're embarrassing me. You're laughing at me. This is over. That's this week for whatever the days are, I don't know, through the 80s. 18th of May. I'm done. I might be handing in my notice virtually.
- [22:03]
Buzz Knight
Harry Jacobs, thank you so much for this week. In music history this week in Donna's summer history for the week of May 12th. And this is the Taking a Walk podcast. Thanks for checking us out. We are part of the iHeart podcast network. I quit and I will survive.
- [22:26]
Host 1
That was Gloria Gaynor. Oh, sorry. See you next week.
- [22:34]
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- [22:54]
Buzz Knight
Flight to Mexico now boarding. Oh, that's me.
- [22:57]
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- [23:03]
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Buzz Knight
We've got it.
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Buzz Knight
We'll know it.
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Host 1
Uh huh.
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