The Beatles were playing to 80,000 Beatlemaniac Filipinos in Manila today in 1966. Afterward, the ruling Marcos family had arranged a lavish reception at the presidential palace, but the Beatles didn't show...they'd politely declined, but nobody had bothered to tell the Marcos'. The Philippine media reported it as a deliberate snub, and the next day the fab four were greeted by angry mobs on the way to the airport, and the government called off any police protection.
The Doors were just north of the border tonight in 1969, playing to a captive audience...literally...at the Willingdon Juvenile Detention Home for Girls in Vancouver.
Meanwhile in Georgia, a nice little line-up at the Atlanta Pop Festival '69: Led Zeppelin, CCR, Spirit, Janis Joplin, Chicago, Johnny Winter, Blood Sweat and Tears, Joe Cocker, and Canned Heat...which is very much what you get, minus the can, this time of year in Atlanta.
Steely Dan played their last live show...for 18 years...tonight in 1974 in L.A. despite the fact that their Rikki Don't Lose that Number was the #4 song in all the land. Donald Fagen and the late Walter Becker were notorious perfectionists, never much liked playing live or touring, and figured they would do fine just selling albums. Which worked well...for 18 years...but no one buys albums anymore, and the 21st century economy had Steely Dan touring more than ever until Becker passed in 2017. At a show here in Seattle's Paramount Theater a few years ago (they did their Asia and Royal Scam albums, which they'd never done live, front to back), Fagen dropped that the first time they'd played live was right there, opening for The James Gang in 1972.
The Clash played their first live show tonight in 1976 in Sheffield, England opening for the Sex Pistols.
Ozzy Osbourne married the daughter of his former band Black Sabbath's manager (who'd fired him) Sharon Alden today in 1982 on the Hawaiian island Maui. Ozzy said he'd picked America's Independence Day so that he'd never forget his anniversary. They would have 3 kids together, the younger two of whom would agree to appear on the family's MTV reality show.
Rockers Born On The Fourth Of July
Bill Withers would be 82, he passed back in March of heart trouble,not from COVID-19.
Dave Rowberry would be 78. He took over for Alan Price as the keyboard player of The Animals when Price quit in 1964 because of his fear of flying. Eric Burdon later said Rowberry was chosen not so much for his musicianship as his similarity in appearance to Price. Dave died in 2003.
Alan "Blind Owl" Wilson would be 76. He played guitar, harmonica, sang, and wrote all the hits for Canned Heat, and joined what Kurt Cobain's Mom would later call "That Stupid Club" by overdosing at age 27.
Fleetwood Mac's other guitarist from the Peter Green era, Jeremy Spencer is 72. He'd had a rough go of recovering from a mescaline trip and quit the band mid-tour in 1971 right before a scheduled show at the Whiskey-A-Go-Go in Hollywood, saying he was going out to a bookstore near their hotel...he never came back, and was found some days later having joined a religious group called The Children of God. He later became the first Fleetwood Mac member to release a solo album.
William Goldsmith is 48. The Seattle native drummer was in a pretty great band here called Sunny Day Real Estate, who were already on the verge of breakup when former Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl decided he and bass player Nate Mendel would be perfect for the band he was putting together to tour for his Foo Fighters debut album, on which Grohl had played every instrument himself. Mendel is still with the band, and it's made him quite wealthy, but Goldsmith felt that things were going downhill as the Foos took off, and was irritated when Grohl overdubbed his drum parts himself on the band's second album, and quit.