What's your favorite piece of absurd music trivia?

I just read this in The Guardian. I guess it doesn't really qualify as absurd, but I had never heard it before. There's no source given, so who knows how true it is.

Jimi Hendrix’s first Stratocaster was one of Keith Richards’ guitars. The white instrument was given to him by Linda Keith, Richards’ girlfriend at the time. Hendrix had wanted one for years because it was played by two of his biggest idols, Buddy Guy and Otis Rush. Supposedly, it was given to Hendrix without Richards knowing.

 

Speaking of which, I think "Ma Belle Amie" by the Tee Set must be the only hit record sung in two languages, neither of which is the band's native language. (They're Dutch, and it's in English and French.)

 

The beach boys had few-- if any--- major hit songs into the 1970's. Yet two of their members wrote two of the biggest songs of the seventies -- "I write songs" by Bruce Johnston and "you are so beautiful" co-written by Dennis Wilson (although uncredited.)

 

Is that the Frankenstein or Tonto version?

I write songs, make whole world sing
I write songs, love special things
I write songs, make young girls cry
I write songs, I write songs

 

Ringo is the only Beatle who has tattoos.

 

They did have one big hit in the '70s, although it's one of the worst things they ever recorded: their cover of "Rock And Roll Music" got to #5 in 1976.

 

This reminds me of something else that could be worked into an interesting trivia item with some more details.

I recall reading a couple of different stories (a few years ago) about how Joe Walsh had given some incredibly iconic guitars to 2 or 3 different superstars. Like, one of Jimmy Page's Les Paul's and one of Townshend's guitars. This was back in the late 60s when Walsh was a cult figure at best, but apparently he had a real knack for finding these great instruments and passing them along, like "Here, you should be playing this."

Anyone with more knowledge of this is invited to fill in the details.

 

IIRC, Walsh gave Townshend an orange Gretsch that he used on Who's Next, and gave Page what became his main Les Paul.

 

Yeah, that's what I was thinking of. I mean, wow, how impact on the world of hard rock did that second act of generosity have? I wonder if there were any other beneficiaries of Walsh's taste in guitars.

 

except for one:

 

When Deep Purple toured The US after their first hist single "Hush" Jon Lord was on the American game show "The Dating Game" .

 

Just heard this this morning:

Until he sold it to the state of Texas, Phil Collins had the largest private collection of memorabilia commemorating the Alamo.

 

Don Letts graces the cover of Black Market Clash.

 

Prior to the punk/new wave era, I think most European rock groups sang in English (almost all German groups did).

 

Maybe I'm the only one on this board who didn't already know this, but when I recently picked up a Pure Prairie League comp I was stunned to hear the instantly-recognizable voice of Vince Gill.

 

He's like the Forrest Gump of PUNK!

 

Rob Harper, who stood in as drummer for The Clash in 1976, turned down joining The Clash AND Dire Straits.

 

• "Alone Again (Naturally)" by Gilbert O'Sullivan was used as the closing theme for one episode of the anime series Maison Ikkoku.
• Various covers (in different styles) of the song "Fly Me To The Moon" were used as the closing theme for the anime OAV Neon Genesis Evangeleon.
• BTW, the original name of the above song was "In Other Words" but it was changed to "Fly Me To The Moon (In Other Words)" (after the opening line of the song).
• Ringo Starr had the most chart success of the former Beatles in the early 1970s.
• Composer John Williams, famous for the soundtracks of movies like Star Wars and Superman, also provided music for Gilligan's Island.
• The "harpsichord" solo in The Beatles' song "In My Life" was actually a piano played back at an altered speed.
• The reason the standard for the audio Compact Disc is called "Red Book" is because that was color of the binder for the standard. This led to other colors being used to describe the other standards (such as Yellow Book for CD-ROM)*.

*Source: Wikipedia.

 

George Merrill from Boy Meets Girl was one of the singers who sang the acapella version of the Growing Pains theme song.

 

Half of the future Throbbing Gristle (GP-O and Cosi) are featured on the cover for UFO's 1976 LP "Force It", which you'll have to google up for yourself as it's not forum friendly. The US cover was bowdlerized, find the UK.

 

I saw the same show and I wondered how one goes about acquiring such things.

 

That's probably easier for people who speak a Germanic language. French and Spanish bands generally sang in their own languages, and I think the same is true of Italian bands, though I don't know that much about the scene there.

 

I'd like to point out whilst that's true, Calypso and Soca have significant latin jazz influences due to the cultural influence of nearby Venezuela and Cuba. It's largely in the horns and choice of percussion. Jamaican mento, by comparison, sounds much closer to traditional African music.

Arrow is incidentally, from Montserrat, which I think befits this thread as he is the only musician from there who's had any notable international success.

 

The oscilloscope in Keith Emerson's massive Moog rig didn't really serve any useful purpose. Keith just thought it looked cool.

 

Stuart Cable, the late drummer of the Stereophonics. His mother's name is Mabel.