Unusual Rock Trivia?

[roccobass]

Regarding the formation of Genesis..

One of the names they considered was "Gabriel's Angels." Their manager gave them the name Genesis. Their first album was called From Genesis To Revelation. It sold about 650 copies, partly because record stores thought it was a religious album and placed it accordingly.

 

[Richland123]

A teenage Bryan Adams was a member of the band Sweeney Todd. He replaced Nick Gilder when he left the band to start his solo career.

 

[Polish Thunder]

...Speaking of Kenny Rogers, many are not familiar with his early music career. BTW, this is my favorite Kenny Rogers tune.

 

[Bob_Ross]

Their first album was called From Genesis To Revelation. It sold about 650 copies, partly because record stores thought it was a religious album and placed it accordingly.

my college girlfriend circa 1978 had a copy of that album! Irrespective of what one thinks of (any of) the later versions of Genesis, the band on that first album definitely sounded different.

 

[MonetBass]

my college girlfriend circa 1978 had a copy of that album! Irrespective of what one thinks of (any of) the later versions of Genesis, the band on that first album definitely sounded different.

Confirmed during a fairly recent interview, the boys in Genesis weren't looking to be a commercial band but more a group of songwriters. At the time of those recordings, they were known as The New Anon and consisted of guitarist Anthony Phillips, bassist Mike Rutherford, lead vocalist Peter Gabriel, keyboardist Tony Banks, and drummer Chris Stewart.

 

[SubHuman]

The Shaggs were an American all-female rock and outsider music band formed in Fremont, New Hampshire in 1968.
Dot, Betty and Helen formed the Shaggs in 1968, on the insistence of their father, Austin Wiggin, who believed that his mother had predicted their rise to stardom. Their only studio album, Philosophy of the World, was released in 1969.

The Shaggs are one of Kurt Cobain‘s favourite bands along with Frank Zappa.

The New Hampshire proto-punk band formed in 1968 and disbanded in 1975, releasing their sole studio album ‘Philosophy of the World’ in 1969. That album was later ranked at number five on Cobain’s list of the 50 best albums of all time. The band have long enjoyed a cult following and have been references in film and TV shows like Empire Records and Gilmore Girls.

This band has been inspiration for me...I am at least not THAT bad. Ha!

 

[MonetBass]

Link Removed

 

[Polish Thunder]

I ran across this interview last night of Chris Squire of Yes meeting Jimi Hendrix. If I am not mistaken, Noel was a very good guitar player that actually never played bass prior to The Jimi Hendrix Experience.

Why Jimi Hendrix Hired Noel Redding, Who'd Never Played Bass Before the Experience

 

[roccobass]

In October 2006, a BMI London Million-Air Award was given to Rodgers and Fraser to mark over 3 million radio and television plays of "All Right Now". Simon Kirke later recalled: "'All Right Now' was created after a bad gig in Durham. We finished our show and walked off the stage to the sound of our own footsteps. The applause had died before I had even left the drum riser. It was obvious that we needed a rocker to close our shows. All of a sudden the inspiration struck Fraser and he started bopping around singing 'All Right Now'. He sat down and wrote it right there in the dressing room. It couldn't have taken more than ten minutes.

 

[IMMusicRulz]

One of Edward and Alex Van Halen's earliest bands was called Genesis, but they were pressured to change the name after a certain progressive rock band had already been calling themselves Genesis...

 

[roccobass]

@IMMusicRulz
LOL....they got stuck again before getting it right!

Continuing in the Van Halen vein....
After they tried to use Genesis, they picked the name Mammoth
Of course, Mammoth wouldn't stick either: In mid- to late 1973, they received a cease-and-desist letter from a San Fernando group with the same name. But a new era deserved a clean start anyway: By 1974, they'd hired Roth as their frontman and brought on Michael Anthony to replace original bassist Mark Stone.

 

[IMMusicRulz]

The Chicago horn section (saxophonist Walter Parazaider, trumpet player Lee Loughnane and trombone player James Pankow) played horns on the Three Dog Night song Celebrate.

 

[Cave Puppy]

Adam Duritz, the lead singer of Counting Crows, worked as a Viper Room bartender in late 1994 – early 1995 to escape his new found fame. The Viper Room is a nightclub located on the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood, California. It was opened in 1993 and was partly owned by actor Johnny Depp until 2004. The club became known for being a hangout of Hollywood elite, and was the site where actor River Phoenix died of a drug overdose on Halloween morning in 1993. Despite the death of River Phoenix the year the venue opened, the club became and remained a hangout for Hollywood’s most popular young actors and musicians. Regulars included Jennifer Aniston, Lisa Marie Presley, Jared Leto, Christina Applegate, Angelina Jolie, Rosario Dawson, Tobey Maguire, and Leonardo DiCaprio.

A lot of us LA locals used to play The Central a lot, before it became The Viper Room. In fact, a band I'm in now (but wasn't back then) played TVR's opening night as backup for Shane MacGowan, he of Pogues fame.

 

[Cave Puppy]

A young Harrison Ford helped build Sergio Mendez's (Brazil '66) home studio. I see the picture every once in a while on social.

 

[Cave Puppy]

The hilarious prank George Harrison pulled on Phil Collins
George Harrison went out of his way to pay a whole band to spend a day in the studio with him just so he could pull a joke on Phil Collins. His commitment to this prank shows precisely the character that Harrison was and provides a beautiful snapshot into what he was like behind the curtain.

Collins was in his former band Flaming Youth and wouldn’t audition to join Genesis until later on in the same year. Speaking to Classic Rock, Collins recalled about how the opportunity to collaborate with Harrison came about: “Our manager got a call from Ringo Starr’s chauffeur, who said they needed a percussionist, and he suggested me. So I went down to Abbey Road, and Harrison was there and Ringo and Billy Preston and Klaus Voormann and Phil Spector, and we started routing the song,” Collins stated.

The seed for his prank on the Genesis drummer began back in 1970 when Collins was a teenage session musician who grew up in absolute awe of everything Beatles related. The chance to work with Harrison was one that he couldn’t quite believe. Even though he was a nervous wreck, this opportunity was potentially a life-changing one, and Collins grasped it with both hands.

Harrison was recording his debut solo album; All Things Must Pass.

Collins continued: “No one told me what to play, and every time they started the song, Phil Spector would say, ‘Let’s hear guitar and drums,’ or ‘Let’s hear bass and drums.’ I’m not a conga player, so my hands are starting to bleed. And I’m cadging cigarettes off Ringo – I don’t even smoke, I just felt nervous. Anyway, after about two hours of this, Phil Spector says, ‘Okay congas, you play this time.’ And I’d had my mic off, so everybody laughed, but my hands were shot.

“After that they all disappeared – someone said they were watching TV or something – and I was told I could go. A few months later, I buy the album from my local record shop, look at the sleeve notes, and I’m not there. And I’m thinking, ‘There must be some mistake!’ But it’s a different version of the song, and I’m not on it,” he added.
Although, Collins missed out on getting to say that he played on All Things Must Pass, the dedication to the cause that Harrison showed in making those tapes more than makes up for getting cut from the album.

Read the whole story here:

The hilarious prank George Harrison pulled on Phil Collins

Phil was also an extra in Hard Day's Night.

 

[SubHuman]

I ran across this interview last night of Chris Squire of Yes meeting Jimi Hendrix. If I am not mistaken, Noel was a very good guitar player that actually never played bass prior to The Jimi Hendrix Experience.

Why Jimi Hendrix Hired Noel Redding, Who'd Never Played Bass Before the Experience

I love Chris Squier's bass playing! I saw YES when they did a US tour way back in 1972 at the Civic Theatre which is a beautiful old Movie Cinema. It is complete with Gothic Castle stage and stars on the ceiling with moving clouds projected into the sky. It's a small hall with great ambience and acoustics.
Needless to say it influenced me as a budding bass player, which both encouraged and discouraged me by their awesome talent. I stuck with it and though I'll never be a Chris Squier (maybe closer to Noel Redding) I have enjoyed a lifetime of playing and recording.

 

[Richland123]

Confirmed during a fairly recent interview, the boys in Genesis weren't looking to be a commercial band but more a group of songwriters. At the time of those recordings, they were known as The New Anon and consisted of guitarist Anthony Phillips, bassist Mike Rutherford, lead vocalist Peter Gabriel, keyboardist Tony Banks, and drummer Chris Stewart.

Before Genesis, there was an act called The Sound Of Genesis and released an album and this single that made the Top 40 in the U.S.

I have this song on a 45 record I got when it was new.

 

[roccobass]

George Porter, Jr.,regarding a high point during his tenure with the Meters.

In 1975, they were touring as the opening act to The Rolling Stones, Porter has said that the best moment in his musical career is when he and the other Meters were opening for the Stones in Paris in 1976. The crowd started to boo them, when both Keith and Mick came out in support of The Meters and told the crowd to shut up and listen to the music. He said that moment kept The Meters alive for the time being. By 1977, however, the band broke up due to personal differences. After the breakup, Porter Jr. formed a band called Joyride.

 

[FilterFunk]

@IMMusicRulz
LOL....they got stuck again before getting it right!

Continuing in the Van Halen vein....
After they tried to use Genesis, they picked the name Mammoth
Of course, Mammoth wouldn't stick either: In mid- to late 1973, they received a cease-and-desist letter from a San Fernando group with the same name. But a new era deserved a clean start anyway: By 1974, they'd hired Roth as their frontman and brought on Michael Anthony to replace original bassist Mark Stone.

And now the name "Van Halen" is synonymous with "rock" for many people.

 

[SubHuman]

Wally Amos, Jr. was born in Florida in 1936. He moved to New York City’s Harlem at age 12 to live with his Aunt Della. Amos dropped out of high school, but earned his G.E.D. while serving in the Air Force. In 1957, he returned to New York and joined the William Morris Agency, where he worked his way up from the mailroom to become the first black talent agent in the industry. Amos headed the rock ’n’ roll department, where he signed Simon and Garfunkeland worked with Motown megastars The Supremes, Diana Ross, Sam Cooke and Dionne Warwick.

Attempting to become a self-made music producer mogul, moved to Los Angeles in 1970.
As Amos would soon discover, the world of business — especially in the entertainment agency — wasn't a kind nor fair one, and he would soon lose his clients and his agency started failing.
Amos' love for baking soon began to pour into his work, to the point where he would show up at meetings or the recording studio with bags of treats for the clients. They loved his treats.
Amos soon decided he liked baking more then managing artists so he convinced record executive Artie Mogull, producer Jeff Wald, and singers Helen Reddy and Marvin Gaye to float Him the money to get his business out of the oven and into history.
You know him today as the Founder of Famous Amos Cookies in 1975. He is known as the father of the gourmet chocolate chip cookie industry and has since become a household word.