Long Live Rock!

Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards was a boy scout ... Queen front man Freddie Mercury's real name ... and much, much more on Rock and Roll trivia.

Nov 22, 2022

Normally, I reserve this space for serious topics. Last week, I published a piece on the possibility of Cold War II turning into World War III.

But many people prefer a less stressful reading experience. I know I do. Because of that, I have accrued thousands of meaningless facts … none of which has made me a certified polymath. But I would kick ass on a narrow range of categories on Jeopardy!

So today it’s only rock-and-roll, a topic near and dear to this child of the 60s and 70s. Maybe you know some of these facts, maybe not. But it’s a good break from war, politics and Elon Musk. So I offer a list of Rock and Roll trivia (The Beatles, Elvis and Bob Dylan are excluded, as they are columns all on their own). Click on any of the highlighted titles to play the song.

Like A Rolling Stone(s)

They’ve been around for more than 50 years, 40 records and 1,000-plus concerts. In the interim, they lost three original band members — Brian Jones and Charlie Watts passed away and bassist Bill Wyman left the group in 1993 — Mick Jagger became Sir Michael Phillip Jagger (knighted in 2003), and added mophead guitarist Ronnie Wood in 1975.

Keith Richards? Well, somehow Keith’s still alive.

The Rolling Stones “hot lips” logo is Inspired by Kali, The Hindu Goddess Of Everlasting Energy.

There is an extra percussion beat on the Stones’ 1966 single “Let’s Spend the Night Together.” The unplanned rhythm came from a London police officer who was in studio during recording and kept time by banging his truncheon (nightstick) on a chair. Producer Glyn Johns left it in the original recording.
Keith Richards (2016)

Richards came up with the famous guitar riff for “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” in his sleep. He dreamt of the riff, woke up, recorded it on a tape player, and went back to sleep.
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Contrary to the long-standing rumor, the lyrics to Carly Simon’s 1971 hit “You’re So Vain” are not about Jagger. Simon said in the mid-80s that the song is about three self-absorbed men she knew, but named only one – actor Warren Beatty. But Mick did sing background vocals on the song (listen carefully to the chorus).

Richards was a Boy Scout. (Honest!)
Speaking of Richards, the “man that death forgot,” said in an interview with The Guardian in 2007 that he once snorted his late father's ashes by mixing them with cocaine. It was only half true, as he explained in his 2011 memoir, Life:

“As I took the lid off of the box (his father’s remains), a fine spray of his ashes blew out onto the table,” wrote Richards. “I couldn’t just brush him off, so I wiped my finger over it and snorted the residue.”

Which One’s Pink?

Of all the songs in Pink Floyd’s 13-album catalog, only two were sung by guest artists. First, there’s Clare Torry’s stunning vocal on “The Great Gig in the Sky” (click below to play) from Dark Side of the Moon (1973). The other was by English folk-rock singer Roy Harper, who sang “Have a Cigar” on the album Wish You Were Here (1975). Apparently, Roger Waters’ voice was shot after several days of recording, and neither David Gilmour nor Rick Wright has a gritty enough voice for the song.

Pink Floyd founder and songwriter Syd Barrett’s real name was Roger. Barrett wrote the group’s first two hit singles “See Emily Play” and “Arnold Layne,” and most of the group’s debut album Piper at the Gates of Dawn (EMI-1967). Sadly, Barrett was already in the midst of a mental breakdown, which was exacerbated by his excessive drug use (LSD).
By early 1968, Barrett was so far gone that he was replaced by Gilmour. “One day we were on our way to a gig,” said drummer Nick Mason, “and we just decided not to pick him up.” Barrett then disappeared from public view.
In 1975, as Pink Floyd was recording the album Wish You Were Here, a balding, grossly overweight man showed up at the EMI studio. Nobody recognized the man, who had shaved off his eyebrows and was carrying a bag of candy. It took a while, but eventually Waters and Gilmour realized it was Barrett. Eerily, that day they were recording the track “Shine on You Crazy Diamond,” which was written by Waters specifically about Barrett.
(Left) Syd Barrett (1967) and (right) at the Pink Floyd recording session for Wish You Were Here in 1975.
Pink Floyd recorded Piper at the Gates of Dawn in 1967 at EMI’s Studio 3 on Abbey Road. At the same time, right next door in Studio 2, The Beatles were recording Sgt. Pepper.

Dark Side of the Moon, the group’s highest-selling album (45 million sold worldwide), was on Billboard’s Top 100 charts for a record 741 consecutive weeks (from 1973 to 1988). No album of any genre even comes close. But it’s not the best-selling record of all time. That distinction is held by Michael Jackson’s Thriller (1983), with an estimated 70 million copies sold worldwide.

CSN … mostly S(tills)

The now-estranged trio of David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash, or foursome (with Neil Young), played together on and off for more than 40 years. When they weren’t doing solo work, touring or fighting, CSN produced some of the finest harmonies ever recorded.

Ultra-talented Stephen Stills played almost all of the instruments on the debut album, simply titled Crosby Stills and Nash, in 1969. Nash played piano on “Our House,” and Crosby played guitar bits here and there. But Stills played almost all of the other instruments, including drums.
Stephen Stills

Stills sings in Spanish at the end of the classic “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes.” (click to play a fabulous live performance in 1982). Here are the Spanish lyrics, and the rough translation …’

“Que linda me la traiga Cuba,
la reina de la Mar Caribe.
Cielo sol no tiene sangreahi,
y que triste que no puedo vaya, Oh va, oh va.”

Loosely translated:

“How happy it makes me think of Cuba,
the smiles of the Caribbean Sea,
Sunny sky has no blood, and how sad that
I'm not able to go, Oh go, oh go”

Stills wrote and sang “For What It’s Worth,” Buffalo Springfield’s biggest hit, in 1967. The song was highly popular with the troops in Vietnam, supposedly as an anti-war anthem. But Stills later it was written after he drove past a crowded “New Orleans-style funeral” for a popular bar that was closing in Laurel Canyon. Many of the patrons spilled into the streets, and the Los Angeles Police Department was called to the scene.

“There’s something happening here;
What it is ain’t exactly clear.
There’s a man with a gun over there…
…a-tellin’ me I got to beware.” — For What It’s Worth (Buffalo Springfield 1967)

Miscellaneous

Trivia question: Who dances with Bruce Springsteen in the 1984 live music video for “Dancing in the Dark?” (Answer below)

Paul Simon wrote the immortal “The Sounds of Silence” while living in London at the age of 22.

The day the music died: The name of the airplane that crashed in Minnesota in 1959 killing Buddy Holly was “American Pie.”
The opening guitar riff on Eric Clapton’s most famous track “Leyla” was written and actually played on the record by Allman Brothers guitarist Duane Allman. Clapton wrote the song as a desperate love plea to Patti Boyd, who at the time was married to his friend George Harrison.
Eric Clapton (left) and Duane Allman
Queen’s frontman Freddie Mercury was born Farrokh Bulsara in Zanzibar.

Question: Who played on the most Top 40 hits in the 1960s and 70s? Answer: The Wrecking Crew, a group of session musicians based in Los Angeles who played on hundreds of Top 40 hits. The most famous of the dozen members of The Wrecking Crew were pianist Leon Russell and guitarist Glen Campbell, both of whom went on to stardom with their solo careers.
The Wrecking Crew played on records for everyone from Sonny & Cher to The Byrds to Frank Sinatra. In fact, Brian Wilson used the session players exclusively on Pet Sounds (1966), the Beach Boys’ most celebrated album. None of the other Beach Boys played a single note on the album … they only sang.
The Who guitarist Pete Townsend KO’d hippie activist Abbie Hoffman on stage at Woodstock in 1969. Hoffman jumped in front of the group to address the massive crowd about the imprisonment of John Sinclair, leader of the White Panther Party. Townsend was enraged at the intrusion and struck the activist’s head with his guitar, knocking him into the stage pit.
Guitarist Jeff (Skunk) Baxter played for Steely Dan and The Doobie Brothers in the 1970s and 80s. But in the 2000s the walrus-mustacheoed Baxter, whose interest in recording technology led him to study hardware and software development, became a missile defense consultant for the Pentagon and NASA.
Jeff (Skunk) Baxter with The Dobbie Brothers (left) and as a defense consultant for the Pentagon (right)

Last month, a federal judge in California dismissed a lawsuit against the Seattle-based rock group Nirvana (et. al.) filed by 31-year-old Spencer Elden. Elden was a baby when he was featured on the cover of Nirvana’s 1991 debut album Nevermind. He had brought the suit against the group, accusing them of engaging in child pornography.

Spencer Elden holding up a copy of Nirvana’s Nevermind in front of the swimming pool where the cover was shot. Photo courtesy of the *New York Times*.

Procol Harum’s most famous song and No. 1 hit “Whiter Shade of Pale” (1967) has a classical origin. As the group’s singer Gary Brooker confessed, the song’s haunting organ melody was “borrowed” from Johann Sebastian Bach's “Air on G String” orchestral arrangement. The song’s lyrics, written by Keith Reid, seem to be random and make little sense. But Reid said the dark tone of the lyrics was derived from his parents’ experience as survivors of the Holocaust.
Guitarist Peter Frampton has called “Whiter Shade of Pale” a “perfect song.”
I agree.