Monday, May 15, 2006

That Sounds About Right...


Wolfgang Sebastian Amadeus Mozart famously said that music is the universal language. Others might contend that Esperanto holds that particular title. Either way, only a true fan would "know the score" about these Very Little Known music trivia facts:




  • Everybody knows that the Beatles were the first band to "sample" a portion of another artist's work and incorporate it into a new song with their chart-topping single "Revolution No. 9." What you may not know is that this song nearly spawned the first sampling lawsuit in recording industry history. The Beatles sampled an unreleased track from the Jeff Beck Group entitled "Sunday Porridge." Rhythm guitarist Eric Clapton threatened to sue the Fab Four, but was dissuaded by his close personal friend Patti Boyd-Hearst who also happened to be George Harrison's wife. Years later "Slowhand" would rework the song with longtime collaborator Derek Domino into the classic hit "Layla."

  • DESERT ISLAND RECORDS: In 1981 French anthropologists studying the indigenous inhabitants of the remote Pola Malu islands discovered a cargo cult based on the Jackson Browne album Lawyers In Love after thousands of copies of the LP washed up on the shores of the South Pacific atoll.

  • Pearl Jam was named after lead vocalist and keyboardist Eddie Vedder's first band, ironically named Pearl Jam.

  • THE DAY THE MUSIC STOPPED: Country crooner Waylon Jennings was the sole survivor of the 1958 plane crash that killed Buddy Holly, Richie Havens, and the Big Bopper.

  • Due to a rare learning disability, Bob Dylan was never able to memorize the words to his own songs. In order to perform them live in concert he learned to sing the lyrics phonetically.

  • ONE FOR EACH FINGER: Some "bass" guitars have up to five strings.

  • After eighties techno band Devo broke up due to artistic differences, lead singer Mark Mothersbaugh not only became a writer for the hit Fox television cartoon The Simpsons, but he also wrote and performed all of the show's music!

  • NO WONDER THEY CALLED THEM THE BRAT PACK: Frank Sinatra had only one testicle and one lung. His sidekick Sammy Davis Jr. only had one testicle. Mario Lanza, the third member of the infamous trio, was bisexual.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

techno band devo? huwuh? and also , didnt danny elfman do the theme song for the simpsons? you know, he was in that eighties death-metal band, oingo boingo.

Anonymous said...

Waylon Jennings survived the plane crash that killed Buddy Holly because he wasn't ON the plane. Second, it was 1959, not '58, and thirdly, Holly died with the Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens, not Ritchie Havens

Anonymous said...

what do you mean about Bob Dylan? that makes no sense? using phonics for a whole song?

Anonymous said...

and agree with the other writer about the plane crash Ritchie Valens the La Bamba dude not Havens and it was 1959...and I know Elfman worked on the simpsons too

Anonymous said...

in:The Day the Music Stopped, Ritchis Havens is not the coreect name. It was Ritchie Valens