TODAY IN MUSIC – APRIL 10
2007
The Hendersonville, Tennessee, house once owned by Johnny Cash burns to the ground. It had been purchased after Cash’s death by Barry Gibb of The Bee Gees, who planned to renovate it.
1998
Three days after being arrested in a Los Angeles park for lewd conduct, George Michael comes out as gay in an interview with CNN. “I have no problem with people knowing that I’m in a relationship with a man right now,” he says.
1993
Depeche Mode’s eighth album, Songs of Faith and Devotion, reaches #1 in America, knocking Whitney Houston’s soundtrack from The Bodyguard off the top spot, and holding off challengers Eric Clapton, Kenny G and Sting. Inspired by the grunge scene, the band adds distorted guitars and live drums to their signature synth sound.
1985
Madonna begins her first tour, the Virgin Tour, in Seattle. Her opening act is a petulant, little-known white rap trio called the Beastie Boys, which gets booed throughout their set.
1976
Peter Frampton’s album Frampton Comes Alive! hits #1 in the US, where it stays for 10 non-consecutive weeks, more than any other album in 1976.
1970
In publicity materials released to promote his first solo album, Paul McCartney indicates that he’s done with The Beatles.
1970
At one of the band’s last concerts, in Boston, Doors frontman Jim Morrison asks the audience if they’d like to see something of his “that rhymes with ‘sock,'” and then, more bluntly, screams “Would you like to see my genitals?” The power in the stadium is switched off, and keyboardist Ray Manzarek pulls the singer, already facing similar charges from a Miami gig, off the stage.
1962
Stu Sutcliffe, original bass guitarist for The Beatles, dies at age 21 of a brain aneurysm.
1956
Performing to an all-white audience at a segregated show in Birmingham, Alabama, Nat King Cole is attacked by four members of the Ku Klux Klan who rush the stage to assault him. Cole suffers a back injury and is treated at the hospital, but returns that night to play his second show, this time to an all-black audience. The attackers receive the maximum sentence of 180 days in jail.
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