This Week in Rock History: Mind the Bollocks

This week in 1998, singer Frank Sinatra died at the age of 82. Teenage fan reaction when he first burst upon the music world in 1944 set the template for star-struck freakouts to follow, from Elvis to New Kids on the Block and beyond. In the late '50s, Sinatra said of rock, "It is sung, played and written, for the most part, by cretinous goons." He later made peace with it, however, recording songs written by Lennon and McCartney, George Harrison, Billy Joel, Neil Diamond, Joni Mitchell, Paul Simon and Stevie Wonder, and even duetted with Bono on a 1993 album.

...In 1971, Pink Floyd headlined the Crystal Palace Garden Party in London with the Faces, Mountain and Quiver. The show marked the first performance of a song that would become an early '70s concert staple. It was known at the time as The Return of the Sun of Nothing, and would be briefly renamed Looking Through the Knotholes in Granny's Wooden Leg before being named Echoes for good. Floyd's staging was supposed to include an inflatable octopus rising from a pond on the grounds. But the octopus refused to rise, and smoke bombs set off in the pond killed the fish in it.

...In 1969, the Who played the Fillmore in New York City. During the show, a police officer rushed on stage to warn the band and the audience that a nearby building was on fire. But Pete Townshend thought he was being attacked, and defended himself by kicking the cop "in the bollocks," as one report put it. Townshend was arrested and paid a fine for third-degree assault.

...In 1949, Rick Wakeman was born. Wakeman joined Yes in 1971 and appeared on Fragile, Close to the Edge, and Tales from Topographical Oceans before leaving in 1974, then rejoined for Going for the One and Tormato in 1977 and 1978. Even before leaving Yes the first time, he'd become a prog-rock solo star with The Six Wives of Henry VIII. Journey to the Center of the Earth followed in 1974; so did a heart attack, when Wakeman was just 25. While recovering, he wrote The Myths and Legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, which he took on the road in 1976 -- as an ice show. His solo career was never quite the same after that, although it's continued up to the present day. 

Comments

[Kev]

Its good to see that Roger Waters runaway pig at Coachella wasn't his first stage/prop mishap.

[Fraig]

I was at that Who show,I was fourteen,and it was a night I will never forget. From the minute they charged onstage, I was transfixed. Daltry was wearing a fringed leather vest, and leather pants, and had a twenty foot long cable attached to his mic, that he would throw out to the audience, and than wip it back like he was a lassoer. Townshend had on a white jumpsuit and black Dr. Martens, and was playing a Gibson SG, that probably knew it wouldn't last thru the night. I was on the right side of the stage, first row in fact, so I didn't see much of Entwistle, who was thumping steadily on his bass, over on the left. And then there was Moon, wailing away on his drum kit, knocking over his symbols, and then spitting at the roadie, as he tried to right the scene. They performed much of "Tommy" that night, using tape machines to suppliment the missing keyboards and horn section. I vaguely remember "I Can't Explain" and "Summertime Blues, but I certainly remember the plain clothes police officer, junmping onstage, and trying to wrestle the mic away from Daltry, when out of nowhere, Townshend came over and kicked the cop in the balls! By now everyone was standing on their seats, and Bill Graham(who rarely set foot in the Filmore East)had to calm us all down, and ask us to leave because there was a fire in the supermarket next door. We were herded out of there like some sheep, but what a glorious night.