This Day in Music
On this day in music, April 11, 1961, Bob Dylan made his live debut in New York City, opening for blues maven John Lee Hooker at Gerde’s Folk City – a recently-established Greenwich Village venue, which would soon be recognized as an incubator for some of the era’s most influential artists. The 19-year-old singer-songwriter, who had arrived in Manhattan months earlier, was too young to hold a cabaret license that would permit him to play, so one of the club’s owners, Mike Porco, became his guardian – or as the singer once described him, “the Sicilian father I never knew I had.” Dylan later referenced this show in his song “Talkin’ New York.”
In 1994, Oasis unleashed their debut single, “Supersonic.” Though it stalled at No.31 in the UK, it performed better in the US, reaching No.11 on Billboard’s Modern Rock Tracks chart.
In 1966, the influential folk-rock band Buffalo Springfield took to the stage for the first time at The Troubadour in West Hollywood. Best remembered for their counterculture anthem “For What It’s Worth” (a 1967 US Top Ten hit), band members Stephen Stills and Neil Young later played together in Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.
In 2006, June Pointer, the youngest of the four Pointer Sisters died of cancer at 52. Although the Pointer Sisters topped the US R&B charts with “How Long (Betcha Got A Chick On The Side)” in 1975, they are best remembered for pop hits like “I’m So Excited,” “Automatic” and “Jump (For My Love),” which they racked up between 1979 and 1985. Away from the group, Pointer made two solo albums.
In 1964, The Beatles put themselves in the pop history books by simultaneously placing 14 songs on the Billboard Hot 100. The highest placed was “Can’t Buy Me Love,” at the top of the chart while the lowest was the Liverpudlian group’s debut single, “Love Me Do,” at No. 81.
In 2017, guitarist J Geils, leader of The J. Geils Band, died at the age of 71. Born John Warren Geils Jr, his band scored their biggest commercial success in 1981 with the chart-topping single “Centerfold” taken from the No.1 US album, Freeze-Frame.
In 1970, guitarist Peter Green left Fleetwood Mac to join a Munich commune during a tour of Germany. To avoid being sued for a breach of contract, he was persuaded to return and finish the tour. He left the band for good on May 20 of that year.
BORN ON APRIL 11
1956: Neville Staples (The Specials)
1958: Stuart Adamson (Big Country)
1966: Lisa Stansfield
1969: Cerys Matthews (Catatonia)
1970: Delroy Pearson (Five Star)
1971: Oliver “Ollie” Riedel (Rammstein)
1977: DJ Fresh (DJ and record producer)
1978: Tom Thacker (Sum 41)
1987: Joss Stone
1996: Summer Walker
