This month in Rock and Roll History - July

July 31, 1927: Ralph Peer, the recording engineer for the Victor Talking Machine Company, recorded The Carter Family in Bristol, Tennessee. These sessions are considered by many country fans as The Big Bang (the sessions that essentially turned country music from a rural music form into a viable commercial musical genre). Others recorded during the July sessions were the Alcoa Quartet, The Teneva Ramblers, Henry Whitter, Uncle Eck Dunford and the best solo country acts of the time, Jimmie Rodgers. According to the story, the Carter Family (from Virginia) had never recorded before and were paid $50.00 for the six sides that they cut that day. Some of the tracks to come from these sessions were "The Wabash Cannonball", "Will The Circle Be Unbroken" and "Wildwood Flower" – all country music classics.

July, 1940: Woody Guthrie's "Dust Bowl Ballads" is released. Recorded in one day, April 26th, 1940, the disc(s) are considered the basis for all folk-music to come afterwards. Although the Great Depression was over, the lingering effects still drifted through the social fabric of America and it was these social inequities and "hard times" that both tormented and inspired Guthrie. Released in a two disc volume in July 1940, it's commercial and critical success was modest. However as the folk scene began to pick up steam in the 50's and 60's, the discs seemed to gain some poignancy. A young Bob Dylan was so taken with the discs, that he adopted Guthries style at the start of his career. You can still hear the echo of Guthrie in the continued works of Dylan, Springsteen and Billy Bragg.

July 11, 1951: The debut of "Allen Freeds Moondog Rock and Roll Party". Cleveland disc jockey Allen Freed had been playing jazz and pop from his radio shift in Cleveland from his arrival in town in 1949. This all changed based on a chance encounter between Freed and Leo Mintz, owner of Record Rendezvous, a store that did a big business in R&B records. Mintz explained to Freed that white teenagers were starting to frequent his store and purchase the R&B records. Freed decided to take a chance and on July 11th, 1951, he launched his new radio show "The Allen Freed Moondog Rock and Roll Party". Freed opted to use the term 'rock and roll' as opposed to "rhythm and blues" to appease to his primarily white audience although the term rock and roll was already slang in the black community for sex. Freed refused to play the milder white version of these R&B records opting instead for the originals. Teenagers at the time flocked to this sound and "rock and roll' began to dominate the airwaves.

July 6th, 1957: John Lennon and Paul McCartney meet. The Quarry Men were one of the main attractions at a garden fete at St. Peter's – the parish church in Woolten, Liverpool. The Quarry Men (Rod Davis on banjo, Eric Griffiths on guitar, Colin Hanton on drums and Pete Shotton on washboard) were a skiffle band. They played a modest set of a few Elvis tunes and songs that had been recorded by Lonnie Donegan. John added verses about their schoolteachers when covering the Del-Vikings "Come Go With Me" most likely because he didn't know all of the actual verses. Lennon and McCartney were introduced by a mutual friend; Ivan Vaughn. Lennon, although a bit drunk at the time, was impressed with McCartney's musical talents. At that time, Lennon only played with 4 strings on his guitar, playing banjo chords on his guitar that he had learned from his mother.

July 25th, 1965: Bob Dylan at the Newport Folk Festival. On July 25th, 1965, five days after the release of "Like a Rolling Stone" (Dylan's first nationally released electric track backed capably by Chicago blues guitarist, Mike Bloomfield) Dylan took the stage at the Newport Folk Festival. The festival, a normally sedate affair, Dylan turned the festival on its ear by playing his second set backed by the Paul Butterfield Blues Band. According to the various stories that have been circulating for years now, the day before, Dylan played an acoustic version of "All I Really Want To Do" to a typical folk crowd reception. That night after the Paul Butterfield Blues Band had been introduced, a fight broke out between Alan Lomax and Albert Grossman (Dylans manager) over whether the Paul Butterfield Blues Band was a legitimate blues band since they were "white" and they played electric guitars. Dylan was highly insulted considering that his friend, Bloomfield, was the lead guitarist for Paul Butterfield and that the release of "Like a Rolling Stone" clearly showed his intention to move from folk to rock. He made a decision that has made the 1965 Newport Folk Festival somewhat legendary. The following day, Dylan came on stage with the Paul Butterfield Blue Band backing him up, plugged in an electric guitar and played "Maggie's Farm", "Like a Rolling Stone" and "It Takes A Lot To Laugh, But It Takes A Train To Cry" and the crowd booed him. Many of his early fans felt that Dylan had sold out and that the electric guitar was symbol of corporate commercialism and greed. Although he lost some of his fan base that day, what he gained by moving into rock and roll is immeasurable.

July 6th, 1977: Pink Floyd plays gig that inspires the creation of "The Wall". At a concert at Olympic Stadium in Montreal, Canada, a fan sitting near the front of the stage kept setting off firecrackers during while the band was launching into "Pigs". Roger Waters addressed the fan multiple times to stop and tried to re-start the song. As the fan continued setting off the fireworks, Waters, after launching into a tirade spit in the face of the fan. After taking a short break, the band re-took the stage and managed to complete their set in a somewhat abbreviated fashion. Waters has said in interviews that he felt horrible about the incident and that it was all the culmination of mounting frustration the band was feeling from the "disrespect" they were receiving from their fans during the concerts. " I found myself increasingly alienated in that atmosphere of avarice and ego until one night in the Olympic Stadium, Montreal, the boil of my frustrations burst. Some crazed teenage fan was clawing his way up the storm netting that separated us from the human cattle pen in front of the stage screaming his devotion to the demi-gods beyond his reach. Incensed by his misunderstanding and my own connivance, I spat my frustration in his face. Later that night, back at the hotel, shocked by my behavior, I was faced with a choice. To deny my addiction and embrace that comfortably numb but magic-less existence or accept the burden of insight, take the road less traveled and embark on the often-painful journey to discover who I was and where I fit. The wall was the picture I drew for myself to help me make that choice.' That's a good summation of it."

July 18, 1985: Live-Aid. Taking the rousing success of "Do They Know It's Christmas?" (the biggest selling single in U.K. chart history) and amping it up a few thousand notches, Bob Geldof and Midge Ure staged "Live Aid" in their mission to help the starving in Ethiopa. By staging marathon concerts in London at Wembley Stadium and JFK Stadium in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, rock musicians, working for free, raised over $70 million dollars for emergency food supplies and long-term Third World development projects. The line-ups included such rock luminaries as Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, U2, Elton John and Mick Jagger but perhaps the two acts that really made the concerts memorable were The Who and Led Zepplin who reunited briefly for the shows. Although each act was only given 15 minutes of stage time, the shows were considered a staggering success. Watched by an estimated 1.5 billion people, it set the stage for giant rock and roll fund-raisers, a theme that has been repeated many times in the years since Live Aid.

Notable July Birthdays:

July 1, 1915: Willie Dixon
July 1, 1945: Debbie Harry
July 3, 1878: George M. Cohan
July 4, 1943: John Waite
July 5, 1943: Robbie Robertson
July 7, 1940: Ringo Starr
July 8, 1970: Beck
July 9, 1947: Mitch Mitchell
July 9, 1975: Jack White
July 9, 1946: Bonn Scott
July 13, 1942: Roger McGuinn
July 15, 1956: Joe Satriani
July 17, 1949: Geezer Butler
July 20, 1947: Carlos Santana
July 22, 1954: Al Di Meola
July 22, 1947: Don Henley
July 23, 1971: Allison Krauss
July 26, 1943: Mick Jagger
July 28, 1954: Steve Morse
July 28, 1943: Mike Bloomfield
July 30, 1936: Buddy Guy
July 31, 1971: John 5