Historic events this week from Talking Heads, Aerosmith, Rod Stewart, Fleetwood Mac and more
OCTOBER 7, 2016: DESERT TRIP 2016
The epic Desert Trip 2016 took place over two weekends.
The classic rock festival featured performances from Bob Dylan and the Rolling Stones (October 7 & 14), Neil Young and Paul McCartney (October 8 & 15), The Who and Roger Waters (October 9 & 16).
The Rolling Stones would cover The Beatles’ “Come Together”, while Paul McCartney (with Neil Young) performed “Why Don’t We Do It in The Road?” live for the very first time.
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OCTOBER 8, 1980: REMAIN IN LIGHT
Talking Heads expanded their sound on their fourth album, Remain in Light, by adding dance-rock and worldbeat to their established New wave and post-punk palette.
Featuring the single “Once in a Lifetime”, the Library of Congress has deemed the album “culturally, historically, or artistically significant”.
Remain in Light was their third and final album produced by Brian Eno.
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OCTOBER 10, 1977: AEROSMITH INJURED ONSTAGE
Before an encore in Philly, an M-80 was thrown on stage.
The explosion burned Steven Tyler’s cornea and ruptured an artery in Joe Perry’s hand.
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OCTOBER 11, 2016: ROD STEWART IS KNIGHTED
“Rod the Mod” became Sir Roderick David Stewart in 2016 for his services to music and charity.
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OCTOBER 12, 1968: CHEAP THRILLS IS #1
Big Brother and the Holding Company’s second album was #1 for 5 straight weeks.
Cheap Thrills was the group’s final album with Janis Joplin on lead vocals, and featured “Piece of My Heart” and the Gershwin classic, “Summertime.”
After Jimi’s Electric Ladyland unseated the album for 2 weeks, Cheap Thrills climbed its way back to #1 for an additional 3 weeks.
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OCTOBER 12, 1979: TUSK
Fleetwood Mac followed up Rumours with the experimental double-album, Tusk.
Tusk was initially scheduled to be released on 10/15/79. However, the release date was moved up when radio stations began playing the album in full, and encouraging listeners to tape it.
Despite its experimental nature, Tusk would go on to sell over 2 million copies, and the singles “Sara” & “Tusk” would go top 10 in the US.
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OCTOBER 12, 1987: KICK
Working again with producer Chris Thomas, who helmed the 2x Platinum Listen Like Thieves, INXS delivered their biggest album.
Kick featured four US top 10 singles: Need You Tonight (#1), Devil Inside (#2), New Sensation (#3) and Never Tear Us Apart (#5)
The album has sold over 20 million copies worldwide.
