Bizarre Musical Facts That Almost Nobody Knows....

[Mr. Paul]

The guitar solo on Jennifer Warnes' "First We Take Manhattan" is played by Stevie Ray Vaughn.

On Donovan's "Barabajagal" the band is the Jeff Beck Group.

George Harrison's "Not Guilty" first appeared during demos for The White Album.

[jseth]

Hilarious thread to resurrect! Some really good stuff in here, but a lot of "hearsay", as well... stuff that sounds interesting but doesn't have verification...

I'll throw in a couple...

When Lowell George was a member of The Mothers of Invention, Frank Zappa once commented to him, "You know, Lowell, for a fat guy... you sure have little feet..." Of course, Lowell changed the spelling for his future band...

After the Buffalo Springfield broke up, Stephen Stills actually played bass for Ritchie Furay's new band with Jim Messina... they called themselves Pogo, until they were sued by Walt Kelly and changed the band's name to Poco...

During that same period, Stills and David Crosby were hanging out a lot, writing songs and doing a few duo shows, billing themselves as "Sniffles and Tufts" (no doubt a reference to both Crosby's receding hairline and Stephen's penchant for a certain white powder...)

Van Morrison, a legendary "control freak" when recording his music, did an album with the Crusaders in the early/mid-70's... replete with Larry Carlton on guitar (this would have been around the time of "Chain Reaction", a wonderful album by the Crusaders, and Carlton's masterful playing on Steely Dan's "The Royal Scam). When the final recording was completed, Van was completely unsatisfied by the result, saying that the music didn't sound the way he wanted it to sound... so he took the master tapes and left! Those tapes have still never seen anyone's turntable or cd player... (this was told to me by the recording engineer on the date, Tom (T.A.) Anderson...)

Jackson Browne's first name is Clyde...

The song "Time After Time" was a big hit for Cyndi Lauper, who "officially" shares the writing credit with Rob Hyman, one of the members of The Hooters... apparently, he wrote the song and got it to Cyndi, via her management, and it was "decreed" that Cyndi would do a single of the song, IF she was given half credit... Rob decided that "half of something" looked good and went for the deal...

...that's all for now!

[GuitarsFromMars]

Originally Posted by architype

Don Felder of the Eagles taught guitar lessons at a guitar shop in Gainsville FL when he was a teenager. One of his students was Tom Petty.

Lipham's Music on University.

[Johnny K]

Toni Tennille of Captain & Tennile fame has a credit as a backup singer on Pink Floyd's The Wall release.

[Dru Edwards]

Well, this is an old thread but a good one.

David Gilmore is famous for his Strat playing. One of his most famous solos, Another Brick in the Wall, was played on a vintage Gibson Les Paul Goldtop with P90s.

[jpd]

Ernie Ball wrote "When Irish Eyes are Smiling"

[FrankHudson]

I just read today that one of Motorhead's earliest recordings was a live set at a 1978 benefit to help raise the costs of preserving English Romantic poet William Wordsworth's papers. As the last song fades out Lemmy shouts "Read plenty of Wordsworth!"

Or here's another poetical-musical factoid I once thought I'd discovered, but it turns out others got there first. When Bob Dylan was filmed in the famous "Don't Look Back" clip where "Subterranean Homesick Blues" plays as he drops hand-lettered cue cards with a deadpan look, it was in a alley beside the Savoy Hotel that's very near the spot where poet and artist William Blake died in his poverty row room in 1827. Allen Ginsberg (a Blake admirer) is in the Dylan film talking and gesturing in the background. Total speculation, and Dylan was staying at the Savoy so the alley was a convenient spot to film, but I wonder if Ginsberg knew.

Probably more investment that a trivia thread is worth, but here's a 7 minute performance of me telling the Blake/Dylan story:


Angels in the Alley

[Cypress Knee]

When James Taylor was working on his breakthrough "Sweet Baby James" album he was basically broke and couch-surfing. He was due a twenty thousand dollar advance upon completion of the album ( over hundred thousand today) and had nine out of ten songs completed. So he took three unfinished compositions, blended them together, and finished the final track, titled "Suite for 20G".

CK

[KenL]

Originally Posted by rcoolz

IN1973. Jerry Garcia started a bluegrass band in SF area..He was the Banjo player..he played very well ....also had David Grossman on mandolin. And John Hartford on fiddle...They were know as Old and in the way...they only lasted 2 yrs.. too much bickering

Speaking of Jerry Garcia, that's him playing the pedal steel on CSN's "Teach Your Children."

[Murphy Slaw]

Vassar Clements played fiddle. Richard Greene ( a fiddle MASTER) played with them a bit, early.

The debut album, released in 1975, is one of the best selling bluegrass albums of all time.

[Dave Abrahamson]

Cool old thread!
When John Belushi aka Bluto, walked down the stairs in the movie Animal House, the guy playing the guitar that Jonh grabbed and smashed into the wall was Stephen Bishop
"I gave my love a cherry, that haaaaddd....bam!!😵😂😂😂

[Photojeep]

I saw a TV interview where Dick Clark said in the early days of American Bandstand he was a partner in a record label. His partner would call and play demos to him over the phone. If they both agreed it was a possibility, they would play it on the "Rate-A-Record" segment of Bandstand to see if kids liked it then decide whether or not to sign them.

Once, long after Dick had gone to bed, his partner called waking him up to play another demo to him. Dick was con committal but agreed to put it on Rate-A-Record.

He played it for the kids on the show who gave it a mediocre rating but nothing really great, so he and his partner passed.

The record? "A Hard Day's Night" by the Beatles.

Best,
PJ

[XYRN]

Back in the 80s somewhere I learned that the Wheel of Fortune theme song "I'm a Wheel Watcher" is a spin off of "I'm a Girl Watcher" by a band from the 60s, the O'Kaysons.

Critically important information, you're welcome.

[Ozzy the dog]

Originally Posted by BobbyBadd

The first song to win a Grammy for the newly added category, Reggae, was the Eagles, Hotel California.

I've always liked this version.