American Bands and Artists

Rick Nelson: ‘You can’t please everyone, so you got to please yourself’

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“But it’s all right now, I’ve learned my lesson well. You see, you can’t please everyone, so you got to please yourself.” Those are lyrics from “Garden Party, a 1972 Top Ten single released by the late singer/actor Rick Nelson. The one-time teen idol who came to fame as the son in the popular 1950s TV show “The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet” (featuring his real-life parents) would have turned 75 today. He wrote “Garden Party” in response to being booed by audience members at a 1971 oldies show in Madison Square Garden (a “Garden Party”).

MC5: Kick Out the Censors, MoFos!

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Through the years, The Great and Powerful Walmart has banned countless CDs on the basis of album art and song lyrics they deem distasteful or obscene. These include releases by artists like Nirvana, Sheryl Crow, Prince, Marilyn Manson, The Goo Goo Dolls and Green Day. While profit-obsessed record company execs may take offense at Walmart’s music policing, the artists themselves probably couldn’t care less whether the world’s largest, most dehumanizing, morally righteous retail chain carries their wares. But there was one band from the 1960s – the MC5 – that didn’t take kindly to a local department store’s refusal to stock their record. And they sought revenge.

Bo’s Diddley Beat Made Lots of Beautiful Babies

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An important event on this date kicked off what would become an indispensable element of rock-n-roll music for time immemorial. On March 2, 1955, legendary R&B master Bo Diddley entered a Universal recording studio in Chicago and burned onto vinyl his song “Bo Diddley.” With it’s distinctive five-accent rhythm beat, it launched a thousand rock songs. The sound sprang from traditional African clave rhythms and gave way to a style known as “hambone” – a technique of making music by slapping one’s arms, legs, cheeks and chest while singing simple rhyming songs. Say the phrase, “shave and a HAIR CUT…TWO BITS” and you get a simple idea of the rhythm. Lots of Diddley-based tunes are obvious, like “Willy and the Hand Jive” and Bo’s own “Who Do You Love?” But you may not realize just how many songs have been fueled by that distinctive beat. No rocker can resist it! Here’s a collection of my favorite Bo Babies. Turn your speakers up loud and go crazy, man, crazy!

‘White Frankenstein’ Edgar Winter: The First to Wear a Strap-on

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Today is the 68th birthday of multi-instrumentalist Edgar Winter, who – along with his deceased brother Johnny – was highly recognizable as one of the few albinos in rock. But far beyond that, he’s also a talented keyboardist, saxophonist and percussionist who’s famous for fusing jazz, rock and blues. His Edgar Winter Band is best known for their monster instrumental track “Frankenstein,” which hit the top spot on Billboard’s Hot 100 in May 1973. The wild jam indeed raised the dead and helped pioneer the use of synthesizers in music.