December 29, 1964: "The T.A.M.I. Show"

December 29, 1964: The T.A.M.I. Show is released in movie theaters. It was filmed at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium on October 28 and 29, 1964.

The Auditorium opened in 1958, and from 1961 to 1967 hosted the Academy Awards -- the Oscars. On May 27, 1972, George Carlin recorded his album Class Clown there, including his bit "Seven Words You Can Never Use On Television." It still stands.

"T.A.M.I." stood for "Teen Age Music International." The show was directed by Steve Binder, who later went on to direct Elvis Presley's 1968 "Comeback Special." It was hosted by Jan Berry and Dean Torrence. Jan & Dean had already had a few hits together.

The various acts were backed up by go-go dancers, including Teri Garr, who became a major actress; and Toni Basil, who become one of America's top choreographers, and had a Number 1 hit in 1982 with "Mickey." Film director John Landis claimed he attended the show with his classmate, future Partridge Family star David Cassidy.

Here's the set list, and the songs they sang at the show. It's one hell of a list, even if you only count what these performers had already done, not what they would later do. An asterisk (*) indicates the performer has been elected to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame:

1. Jan and Dean, singing "(Here They Come From) All Over the World." The song incorrectly places The Rolling Stones in Liverpool, when they were from London and environs.

2. * Chuck Berry: "Johnny B. Goode," "Maybellene," "Sweet Little Sixteen" and "Nadine."

3. Gerry and the Pacemakers, who actually were from Liverpool: "Don't Let the Sun Catch You Crying," "It's Gonna Be Alright" and "I Like It."

4. * The Miracles, from Motown Records, led by Smokey Robinson: "That's What Love Is Made Of," "You've Really Got a Hold On Me" and "Mickey's Monkey."

5. * Marvin Gaye, from Motown Records: "Stubborn Kind of Fellow," "Pride and Joy," "Can I Get a Witness" and "Hitch Hike."

6. Lesley Gore: "Maybe I Know," "You Don't Own Me," "You Didn't Look Around," "Hey Now," "It's My Party" and its sequel "Judy's Turn to Cry."

A reprise of Jan and Dean: "The Little Old Lady from Pasadena" and "Sidewalk Surfin'" (the 1st hit song about skateboarding).

7. * The Beach Boys: "Surfin' U.S.A.," "I Get Around," "Surfer Girl" and "Dance, Dance, Dance."

8. Billy J. Kramer and The Dakotas: "Little Children," "Bad to Me," "I'll Keep You Satisfied" and "From a Window."

9. * The Supremes, from Motown Records, with Diana Ross singing lead: "When the Lovelight Starts Shining Through His Eyes," "Run, Run, Run," "Baby Love" and "Where Did Our Love Go."

10. The Barbarians, probably the only band ever to come out of Cape Cod. They never had a Top 40 single, not even the song they performed here, "Hey Little Bird."

11. * James Brown and The Famous Flames: "Out of Sight," "Prisoner of Love," "Please, Please, Please" and "Night Train." This performance is often credited with introducing The Godfather of Soul to white audiences. Within a year, his new audience had given him his 2 biggest hits: "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" and "I Got You (I Feel Good)."

12. * The Rolling Stones: "Around and Around," "Off the Hook," "Time Is On My Side," "It's All Over Now," "I'm Alright" and "Let's Get Together." They were still a few months away from releasing "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction."

*

December 29, 1964 was a Tuesday. Baseball was out of season. The NFL and the AFL had just wrapped up their seasons. No college football bowl games were played. There was 1 NBA game played that day: The St. Louis Hawks beat the San Francisco Warriors, 122-104 at the Kiel Auditorium in St. Louis. Wilt Chamberlain scored 35 points in a losing effort.

And there was 1 NHL game: The Chicago Black Hawks beat the New York Rangers, 4-2 at the old Madison Square Garden. The Rangers led 2-0 and blew it. Bobby Hull scored 2 goals for the Hawks. 

December 19, 1989: The Rolling Stones vs. Donald Trump

Left to right: Bill Wyman, Charlie Watts,

Keith Richards, Mick Jagger and Ron Wood

December 19, 1989: When The Rolling Stones have the moral high ground over you, that is not a good sign.

In 1985, lead singer Mick Jagger released his 1st solo album, She's the Boss. In 1987, he released Primitive Cool. Neither did well. In 1988, lead guitarist Keith Richards, who isn't even as good a singer as Mick (Mick is one of the greatest frontmen in rock history, but not a good singer), released his 1st solo album, Talk Is Cheap. It did do well, proving that Mick needed Keith a lot more than the other way around.

So, with the Stones' eligibility for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame kicking in for 1989, and the band's reuniting for the certain induction ceremony, Mick ate crow, and got together with Keith to write new songs. The result was the album Steel Wheels, which produced "Mixed Emotions," which hit Number 5, and remains the last major hit for "The World's Greatest Rock and Roll Band."

And so, at the induction ceremony, the Stones announced the Steel Wheels Tour. Mick said, "You know, Americans are a funny people: First they arrest you, then they put you in a museum."

And so, for the last time with the lineup established in 1974, the Stones hit the road: Jagger, Richardson, rhythm guitarist Ron Wood, bass guitarist Bill Wyman, and drummer Charlie Watts. (Wyman left the group after the tour.) Chuck Leavell, formerly of The Allman Brothers Band, became their keyboard player and musical director in 1982. Bobby Keys became their touring saxophone player.

The tour hit mostly stadiums, including Shea Stadium in New York, Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia, the Los Angeles Coliseum, and the Oakland Coliseum to meet the San Francisco Bay Area market. Oddly, they didn't play in Chicago, the nation's 3rd-largest city. But they did play the top 3 cities in Canada: BC Place in Vancouver, the Olympic Stadium in Montreal, and Exhibition Stadium and later the newly-opened SkyDome (now named the Rogers Centre) in Toronto.

The oldest of the Stones was Wyman, 53; the youngest, Wood, 42. Already, jokes were being told about their age. Filling in for Johnny Carson on  The Tonight Show, Jay Leno, no spring chicken himself at 38, said, "You can tell which tour bus is the Stones': They leave their left blinker on." (Turn signal.)

The tour was scheduled to conclude on December 19, 1989, at Convention Hall (now named Boardwalk Hall) in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Producer Michael Cohl organized a pay-per-view broadcast of that concert. This event was expected to generate significant revenue. But it required a major financial backer.

New York real estate mogul Donald Trump agreed to shell out a huge sum. I used to think Trump was smart, because he put his 1st Atlantic City casino, Trump Plaza, between that city's two most famous buildings: Caesars Atlantic City (then as now, the best-known American casino-hotel outside Las Vegas) and Convention Hall. In the years to come, I came to the conclusion that, as they used to say on Match Game, Dumb Donald was so dumb (How dumb was he?), the idea had to be someone else's.

Time magazine, January 16, 1989

Trump's reputation for dishonesty in business -- as well as in his 1st marriage, to Ivana Zelníčková, which was then breaking up in the public eye -- was already well-known. And the Stones, with their history of drinking, drugs, debauchery, and leaving their native Britain to avoid high taxes, were reluctant to do business with him.

So Cohl contracted strict conditions: Trump was not allowed to publicly promote the show, he would not be allowed to attend the concert, and his name would not allowed to dominate the advertising.

When the band arrived at the Convention Hall, they were met with advertising posters that read, "Donald Trump presents The Rolling Stones." It seemed like shameless advertising at the band's expense, especially since the band's name was in small print.

An hour before the concert, the band was scheduled to broadcast live to major U.S. news channels. When producer Cohl entered the press room, he found Trump in the midst of his own press conference. Cohl asked Trump to leave, reminding him of his contract. Trump waved his arms at the crowd of American TV journalists who were actually waiting to hear The Rolling Stones, and replied, "But Michael, they begged me to come up here! They begged me!"

This was, like so many things Trump has said over the years, a flat-out lie. Upon learning of what was happening, Richards summoned Cohl to his dressing room. When Cohl arrived, Richards pulled out a knife, and jammed it into the table, yelling, "What the hell am I paying you for? Should I go and kick him out myself? It's him or us! If he doesn't leave, we're not going on stage!"

Cohl went to Trump, and gave him the band's demands. Trump went into his fake tough-guy act, saying the Stones weren't going anywhere, weren't leaving Atlantic City, and his security team would "beat the shit out of your whole band."

Did I mention that Dumb Donald was so dumb? Cohl called the tour's head of security. He immediately called out four dozen of the band's security men. They arrived with hockey sticks, screwdrivers, and tire irons. Trump and his entourage hurriedly left the building. I guess they forgot about what happened at Altamont, 20 years to the month earlier.

The concert went on, on time. The broadcast was perfect, and the Stones made all the money, just as planned.

In 2016, Donald Trump was "elected" President of the United States. Keith Richards said, "I warned America back in 1989!" Yes, he did.

*

December 19, 1989 was a Tuesday. Baseball was out of season. Football was in midweek. There were 10 games played in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks beat the Utah Jazz, 115-107 at Madison Square Garden. Patrick Ewing scored 41 points and grabbed 15 rebounds. The Stones played The Garden many times, the 1st being on November 27, 1969, a Thanksgiving Night. Although they toured the United States before the old Garden closed in 1968, they never played there.

* The New Jersey Nets beat the Miami Heat, 100-98 at the Miami Arena. The Stones never played there.

* The Washington Wizards beat the Minnesota Timberwolves, 112-99 at the Capital Centre in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland. The Stones played there several times, starting on their 1975 tour.

* The Charlotte Hornets beat the Dallas Mavericks, 102-97 at the Charlotte Coliseum. The Stones went on to play that arena on March 20, 1999. They played the previous building with the name, now named the Bojangles Coliseum, on November 15, 1965 and July 6, 1972.

* The Atlanta Hawks beat the Sacramento Kings, 115-112 at The Omni in Atlanta. The Stones played there on July 30, 1975.

* The Detroit Pistons beat the Seattle SuperSonics, 94-77 at The Palace in the Detroit suburb of Auburn Hills, Michigan. The Stones went on to play there on February 22, 1999.

* The Chicago Bulls beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 93-83 at the Chicago Stadium. Michael Jordan scored 37 points. The Stones played there on July 22, 23 and 24, 1975.

* The Boston Celtics beat the Milwaukee Bucks, 95-86 at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee. The Stones went on to play there on February 19, 1999 and September 8, 2005.

* The Los Angeles Clippers beat the Indiana Pacers, 128-102 at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena. Ron Harper scored 39 for the Clips, and Chuck Person 42 for the Pacers. The Stones played the Sports Arena early in their career, on December 5, 1965.

* And the Portland Trail Blazers beat the Houston Rockets, 119-100 at the Portland Memorial Coliseum. The Stones played there on July 21, 1966.

And there were 6 games played in the NHL:

* The New York Islanders beat the New Jersey Devils, 5-4 at the Nassau Coliseum. Former New York Ranger Don Maloney won the game for the Islanders, scoring the winning goal with 1:42 left in overtime. The Stones have never played a concert at the Nassau Coliseum.

* The Washington Capitals beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 2-1 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia. The Stones played there a few times, including 2 shows on July 20, 1972, with Stevie Wonder as the opening act.

* The Hartford Whalers beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 8-4 at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh. The Stones played there several times, including on their early tours in 1965 and 1966.

* The Edmonton Oilers beat the Minnesota Twins, 5-0 at the Metropolitan Sports Center in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. The Stones played there on June 18, 1972.

* The Los Angeles Kings beat the Winnipeg Jets, 9-5 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California. The Stones played there many times, the first time on their 1969 tour.

* And the Calgary Flames beat the Vancouver Canucks, 2-1 at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver. The Stones opened their 1972 tour there on June 3.

December 6, 1969: The Altamont Disaster

Mick Jagger in cape. Note the Hell's Angel behind him.

December 6, 1969: The Altamont Free Concert is held at the Altamont Speedway in Tracy, California. After seeing the 500,000 or so people who had come to the Woodstock Music & Art Fair in New York's Catskill Mountains in August, with several West Coast acts performing, including Jefferson Airplane, that band's drummer, Spencer Dryden, suggested a "Woodstock West."

As with Woodstock, the hard part turned out to be securing a location. Finally, Altamont was suggested. The concert's poster says it's in Livermore, but current sources say it's in Tracy. Regardless, it's at the eastern edge of the San Francisco Bay Area's East Bay region. Opened in 1966, the facility last known as Altamont Raceway Park hosted auto racing until it was closed in 2008. The 7,500-seat main structure still stands, 56 miles east of San Francisco, 45 miles east of Oakland, 49 miles northeast of San Jose, and 78 miles south of Sacramento.

The initial plan was to have the Airplane, their San Francisco and Woodstock compatriots The Grateful Dead, and the band that, with The Beatles having retreated from live performing, were now the biggest live rock and roll band in the world, The Rolling Stones. Anybody else they could get would have been considered gravy.

Well, 5 bands performed, but The Dead wouldn't be one of them. In order of their taking the stage: Santana, also San Franciscans who had been at Woodstock; The Jefferson Airplane; The Flying Burrito Brothers, based in Los Angeles, including former members of The Byrds Gram Parsons and Chris Hillman; David Crosby, Stephen Stills, Graham Nash & Neil Young, who had also been at Woodstock, and Crosby had also been a Byrd; and The Rolling Stones.

The day before, The Stones had released a new album, titled Let It Bleed. Lead singer Mick Jagger would later call it his favorite Stones album. But on December 6, he got the title's wish -- which contradicted a line from the album's closing song: "You can't always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you just might find you get what you need." What everybody got at Altamont, nobody wanted or needed.

Airplane lead singer Grace Slick was interviewed for Rolling Stone magazine 20 years later. (While the band was named for "Rollin' Stone," a blues song by Muddy Waters, the magazine was named for Bob Dylan's song "Like a Rolling Stone.") She was one of several performers who said that Woodstock was the worst performance of her career, and added that the music was better at Altamont.

But everything else was wrong. She said, "The vibes were bad. Something was very peculiar, not particularly bad, just real peculiar. It was that kind of hazy, abrasive and unsure day. I had expected the loving vibes of Woodstock, but that wasn't coming at me. This was a whole different thing."

On July 5, the Stones had given a concert at Hyde Park in London, in memory of bandmate Brian Jones, who had died of a drug-related drowning 2 days earlier. (After being kicked out of the band for his drug use, something no other member of that famously druggy band was.) Like Woodstock, it was said to have attracted 500,000 fans.

The security at that concert was run by the London chapter of the Hell's Angels Motorcycle Club. There were no security issues there. So Stones lead singer Mick Jagger suggested the Hell's Angels as security for Altamont. Unfortunately, no one counted on the fact that the Hell's Angels weren't just a motorcycle club: They were a gang, involved in organized crime, a Mafia on two wheels. And they would be operating out of the East Bay, their home territory.

At Woodstock, out of 500,000 people, there were 3 deaths, all accidental: A drug overdose, a burst appendix, and a kid who made the mistake of trying to sleep under a tractor on a hill. At Altamont, out of 300,000 people, there were 4 deaths. Three were accidental: Two in a hit-and-run car accident, and one kid high on LSD who fell into an irrigation canal and drowned.

One death at Altamont was no accident. As can be seen in Gimme Shelter, the documentary film made by Albert and David Maysles, during the performance of "Sympathy for the Devil," the Stones had to stop, because there were fights near the stage. While playing "Under My Thumb," they had to stop for a medical emergency.

Just as The Who, 10 years later to the week, didn't know until they had finished a concert in Cincinnati that 11 fans had been killed in an accident before the show, the Stones didn't know what the emergency was. If they did, they might have stopped the show entirely. Certainly, they would've closed with a song other than "Street Fighting Man," their song inspired by the Paris demonstrations of the year before.

The Hell's Angels guarding the stage were mean, and they were drunk. Meredith Hunter, an 18-year-old black man from Alameda, climbed onto a speaker. He had been told that, the further east you got from Oakland and Berkeley, the worse the racism got. This was a reasonable claim: Inland, California can be just as hicky as The South, just as New York State is the further you get from the City, and Pennsylvania is the further you get from Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.

Hunter had heard this, so he packed a gun. He wasn't using it when he stood on the speaker. But the Angels grabbed him, started punching him, and, discovering the gun, stabbed him. The Angel who did the stabbing would be charged with murder, but was acquitted on self-defense grounds.

Afterward, the Maysles Brothers showed Jagger their footage of what happened, and filmed him watching it. Mick, who has so often embraced his devilish image -- before taking the title role in "Sympathy for the Devil," he titled a Stones album Their Satanic Majesties Request -- is not a man known for attacks of conscience. On the film, he appears genuinely shocked and scared.

Not enough to change his ways, though. He was still 26 years old, and the leader of what was already being called "The World's Greatest Rock and Roll Band." He thought he could do anything, and get away with it. And he has gotten away with a lot. The shock is not that Jagger's excesses of the 1960s led to the disaster at Altamont, 25 days before the decade's end. It's that he, or the Stones as a whole, haven't had another incident like Altamont -- or worse.

Rolling Stone soon called Altamont "Rock and roll's all-time worst day, December 6th, a day when everything went perfectly wrong." Shades of Franklin Roosevelt calling December 7th, 1941, the day of the attack on Pearl Harbor, "a date which will live in infamy." And in 1990, writer A.E. Hotchner would publish a book about the Stones, Jones' death, and Altamont, titled Blown Away: The Rolling Stones and the Death of the Sixties.

Of course, worse was to come: The rest of December 1969 -- I was born 12 days after Altamont -- and the 1st half of 1970 would see the breakup of The Beatles, Diana Ross leaving the Supremes, President Richard Nixon extending the Vietnam War into Cambodia, the Kent State Massacre, and the Hard Hat Demonstration that essentially supported the 2 previous occurrences.

As the poet William Butler Yeats wrote half a century earlier, "Things fall apart. The center cannot hold."

*

December 6, 1969 was a Saturday. "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye," by the "studio group" Steam, hit Number 1. I have a separate entry for this event.

It was the off-season for baseball. There was 1 game played in the NFL that day, and it was also in the Bay Area: The San Francisco 49ers beat the Chicago Bears, 42-21 at Kezar Stadium in San Francisco. And there was 1 game played in the AFL: The New York Jets beat the Houston Oilers, 34-26 at the Astrodome in Houston.

The big story in America that day was not expected to be Altamont. It was expected to be a college football game that was moved to the Saturday after the intended last week of the regular season, because it looked like the teams involved would be ranked the top two in the nation. In this "Game of the Century," Number 1 Texas beat Number 2 Arkansas, 15-14 at Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville, Arkansas. I have a separate entry for this event.

There was 1 other college football game played that day: The Pasadena Bowl, held at the Rose Bowl stadium in Pasadena. San Diego State beat Boston University, 28-7.

Also that day, there were 5 games played in the NBA: 

* The New York Knicks beat the Milwaukee Bucks, 124-99 at what was still being called "The New Madison Square Garden Center." Walt Frazier and Bill Bradley each scored 29 points for the Knickerbockers, who advanced to 26-2 on the season that would end with their 1st NBA title. In a losing cause, Lew Alcindor (he changed his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in 1972) scored 26, and Len Chappell scored 24.

* The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Cincinnati Royals, 120-102 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia.

* The Seattle SuperSonics beat the Baltimore Bullets, 132-129 in overtime at the Baltimore Civic Center (now the CFG Bank Arena).

* The Chicago Bulls beat the Boston Celtics, 116-114 in overtime at the Chicago Stadium.

* And the Los Angeles Lakers beat the San Diego Rockets, 128-115 at the San Diego Sports Arena. Wilt Chamberlain did not play for L.A., but Jerry West scored 30, and Elgin Baylor 25. Elvin Hayes scored 40 in a losing effort. The Rockets moved to Houston in 1971, and the arena is now named the Pechanga Arena.

Two games were played in the American Basketball Association:

* The Denver Rockets beat the Washington Caps, 108-97 at the Washington Coliseum. The Rockets would become the Denver Nuggets in 1974, renaming themselves for the city's 1st NBA team, which were founded in 1935, joined the NBA in 1948, and folded in 1950. After the 1969-70 season, the Caps moved to Norfolk, and became the Virginia Squires. The Nuggets, the New York Nets, the Indiana Pacers and the San Antonio Spurs were merged from the crumbling ABA into the NBA in 1976. The Squires were not.

* And the New Orleans Buccaneers beat the Miami Floridians, 112-104 at the Miami Beach Convention Hall.

* Five games were played in the NHL. The New York Rangers, the only NHL team in the Tri-State Area at the time, were not involved in any of them:

* The Minnesota North Stars beat the Montreal Canadiens, 4-3 at the Montreal Forum.

* The Boston Bruins beat the Chicago Black Hawks, 6-1 at the Boston Garden.

* The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 5-0 at Maple Leaf Gardens.

* The Detroit Red Wings beat the St. Louis Blues, 5-1 at the St. Louis Arena.

* And the Los Angeles Kings beat the Oakland Seals, 5-3 at The Forum in the Los Angeles suburb of Inglewood, California.

Also, Arsenal drew with Southampton, 2-2 at Highbury in North London.

October 24, 1978: Keith Richards Cops a Plea

Left to right: Charlie Watts, Keith Richards,

Mick Jagger, Ron Wood, Bill Wyman

October 24, 1978: Keith Richards cops a plea. Having been busted for heroin possession at his Toronto hotel on the Rolling Stones' 1977 North American tour, the guitarist pleads guilty, gets a suspended sentence plus 1 year of probation, and forced rehab.

On that tour, Richards' addiction to heroin delayed his arrival in Toronto; the other members had already arrived. On February 24, 1977, when Richards and his family flew in from London, they were temporarily detained by Canadian Customs after Richards was found in possession of a burnt spoon and hash residue.

Three days later, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police arrived at Keith's hotel room, armed with an arrest warrant for Anita Pallenberg, Keith's longtime domestic partner, and the mother of 3 of his children. (One had died shortly after birth. Keith had stolen her from a former Stones member, the late Brian Jones.) They discovered 22 grams of heroin in the room. Keith was charged with importing narcotics into Canada, which carried a minimum 7-year sentence. The Crown prosecutor later conceded that Richards had procured the drugs after his arrival.

A blind fan testified on his behalf, so the judge got the idea to have Keith play a benefit concert on behalf of the Canadian National Institute for the Blind. With the Stones, Keith played 2 shows at the Oshawa Civic Auditorium in Oshawa, Ontario on April 22, 1979.

The story that Keith beat his addiction by having all of his blood drained and new blood of the same type pumped in is an urban legend. It's not possible: Such a procedure would kill the patient.

The old joke is that, if Keith Richards tells you that you have a drug problem, you know it's bad. But as recently as 2016, he says that he still smoked marijuana. In 2022, Keith, so often photographed with a cigarette in his mouth or in his hand, said that he had quit smoking 2 years earlier.

*

October 24, 1978 was a Tuesday. Baseball season had ended a week earlier, with the New York Yankees beating the Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series. Football was in midweek. There were 8 games in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks beat the Atlanta Hawks, 113-109 at Madison Square Garden.

* The New Jersey Nets beat the Indiana Pacers, 97-95 at the Market Square Arena in Indianapolis.

* The Cleveland Cavaliers beat the New Orleans Jazz, 122-104 at The Coliseum in the Cleveland suburb of Richfield, Ohio.

* The Kansas City Kings beat the Chicago Bulls, 123-117 at the Chicago Stadium. Artis Gilmore scored 30 points in defeat for the Bulls.

* The San Antonio Spurs beat the Boston Celtics, 132-109 at the HemisFair Arena in San Antonio.

* The Phoenix Suns beat the Milwaukee Bucks, 124-116 at the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum. Walter Davis scored 38 for the Suns.

* The San Diego Clippers beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 124-123 at the San Diego Sports Arena (now the Pechanga Arena). Lloyd "All-World" Free, later to change his name to World B. Free, scored 35 for the Clippers.

* And the Portland Trail Blazers beat the Washington Bullets, 104-102 at the Portland Memorial Coliseum.

There were 3 games in the NHL:

* The New York Islanders and the Philadelphia Flyers played to a tie, 4-4 at the Nassau Coliseum.

* The Atlanta Flames beat the Los Angeles Kings, 7-2 at The Omni in Atlanta.

* And the Boston Bruins beat the St. Louis Blues, 7-2 at the St. Louis Arena (then known as the Checkerdome).

And there were 2 games in the World Hockey Association. The New England Whalers beat the Cincinnati Stingers, 2-1 at the Riverfront Coliseum (now the Heritage Bank Center) in Cincinnati. And the Birmingham Bulls beat the Edmonton Oilers, 3-2 at the Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton.

July 5, 1969: The Brian Jones Memorial Concert

July 5, 1969: A concert is held in Hyde Park, in London, in memory of Brian Jones, who had died 2 days earlier.

Lewis Brian Hopkin Jones was born on February 28, 1942 in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, in England's West Country. In 1962, living in London, and already the father of 3 children by 3 different women, he placed an ad in a trade paper for musicians to form a band. It was answered by singer Mick Jagger and guitarist Keith Richards. They later added bass guitarist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts.

They were all fans of American blues performers, including Muddy Waters, and Jones named the group after one of Waters' songs: "Rollin' Stone Blues." It was later adjusted to "The Rolling Stones." By 1963, they were having hits in Britain. By 1964, they were having hits in America, and touring there. In 1965, they topped the American charts with "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction."

They were promoted as the "bad boys" of "The British Invasion," as opposed to The Beatles being "good boys." It was closer to the other way around: The Stones were middle-class kids, poseurs, who became genuine bad boys, while The Beatles were already pill-popping womanizers, though this was hidden from the public.

Jones was the best musician in the band: A good guitarist, he played the sitar on "Paint It, Black," the recorder on "Ruby Tuesday," and the piano on "Let's Spend the Night Together." But he developed a serious drug problem, as marijuana use led him to try heroin, and he became addicted.

On June 9, 1969, he made a public statement that he was leaving the band. It wasn't his choice: Because of a drug conviction, he was denied a visa to enter the U.S. for the band's tour. He was replaced by Mick Taylor from John Mayall's Bluesbreakers. (In 1974, Taylor was replaced, under far less controversial circumstances, by Ron Wood of The Faces.)

On July 3, 1969, Jones was found drowned in the swimming pool at his home at Cotchford Farm in East Sussex, formerly the home of Winnie-the-Pooh creator A.A. Milne. He was 27 years old, and this was before there was such a recognized thing as a "27 Club," making him one of the earliest rock stars to have died at that age.

Drugs were not a direct cause of his death, but an autopsy showed he had an enlarged heart and an enlarged liver, as a result of drug use. So he might not have lived a great deal longer, anyway. There is a theory that he was murdered, but this has never been proven.

The Rolling Stones had been scheduled to perform a free concert in Hyde Park two days later. The concert had originally been promoted weeks earlier as Taylor's public debut with the band. At the beginning of the concert, Jagger took the stage to read excerpts from "Adonais," a poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley, written in 1821 about the death of his friend and fellow poetic giant, John Keats. (Keats was 25. Shelley died the next year, at 29.) Stagehands then released hundreds of white butterflies from the stage area as a tribute to Jones.

A crowd of 500,000 is said to have attended the show. The same number that was alleged to have attended the Woodstock concert in New York State 6 weeks later. But, given the population difference between America and Britain, this was, proportionally, a far larger crowd.

When asked if he felt guilty about Jones's death, Mick Jagger told Rolling Stone magazine (named for the Bob Dylan song "Like a Rolling Stone," not the band) in 1995, "No, I don't really. I do feel that I behaved in a very childish way, but we were very young, and in some ways we picked on him. But, unfortunately, he made himself a target for it; he was very, very jealous, very difficult, very manipulative, and if you do that in this kind of a group of people you get back as good as you give, to be honest. I wasn't understanding enough about his drug addiction. No one seemed to know much about drug addiction."

Within the band, that would change.

*

July 5, 1969 was a Saturday. Hockey star John LcClair was born on this day. And these Major League Baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Cleveland Indians, 4-2 at Yankee Stadium. Steve Hargan outpitched Stan Bahnsen.

* A doubleheader was split at Fenway Park in Boston. The Washington Senators won the 1st game, 6-2. The Boston Red Sox won the 2nd game, 11-4. Carl Yastrzemski went 1-for-8 with a walk and an RBI.

* The Montreal Expos beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 6-4 at Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Detroit Tigers, 9-3 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. Brooks Robinson went 1-for-5 with a home run and 2 RBIs. Frank Robinson went 1-for-3 with 2 walks and 2 RBIs. Al Kaline went 3-for-4 with an RBI.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the California Angels, 4-3 at Comiskey Park in Chicago.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Oakland Athletics, 13-1 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. Harmon Killebrew hit 2 home runs, and Rod Carew went 1-for-5 with a walk and 2 RBIs. The A's only run came on a home run by Reggie Jackson.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat their arch-rivals, the Chicago Cubs, 5-1 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis. Ernie Banks did not play.

* The Kansas City Royals beat the Seattle Pilots, 6-4 at Kansas City Municipal Stadium. Fans of Jim Bouton's book Ball Four, take note: Mike Marshall did not get out of the 4th inning. I guess he didn't smoke 'em inside. Bouton pitched a scoreless 5th and 6th innings. Mike Hegan and Don Mincher each had 2 hits.

* The San Diego Padres beat the Houston Astros, 9-8 at San Diego Stadium (later renamed Jack Murphy Stadium and Qualcomm Stadium). The game went to extra innings, and each team scored a run in the 10th. The Astros scored 4 in the top of the 12th, but the Padres scored 5 in the bottom of the 12th. Walt Hriniak, later one of the game's great hitting instructor, singled home the winning run.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Cincinnati Reds, 6-5 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Pete Rose went 2-for-4 with 2 RBIs, and Johnny Bench went 0-for-2 as a pinch-hitter.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the San Francisco Giants, 7-1 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. Hank Aaron did not play. Willie Mays went 0-for-3 with a walk.

* And the New York Mets and the Pittsburgh Pirates were rained out at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. The game was made up as part of a doubleheader on September 12. The Mets won each game by a 1-0 score. In the opener, Jerry Koosman pitched a 3-hit shutout. In the nightcap, Don Cardwell outpitched Dock Ellis. And each Met pitcher singled home the only run of the game. Roberto Clemente went 2-for-4 in the opener, and pinch-hit without reaching base in the nightcap. 

May 12, 1965: The Rolling Stones Record "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction"

Left to right: Bill Wyman, Brian Jones,

Charlie Watts, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards

May 12, 1965: The Rolling Stones, already the next-biggest British rock and roll band behind The Beatles, record "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction." It becomes their signature song, and one of the most popular songs in rock and roll history.

The Stones consisted of lead singer Mick Jagger, lead guitarist Keith Richards, rhythm guitarist Brian Jones, bass guitarist Bill Wyman, and drummer Charlie Watts. Also on the recording were pianists Ian Stewart and Jack Nitzsche, although Jones could also play the piano -- and, as it later turned out, the sitar (on "Paint It, Black") and the recorder (on "Ruby Tuesday"). Andrew Loog Oldham produced the record.

Richards claimed he wrote the opening riff for the song at his apartment in St. John's Wood, North-West London. Then he recorded it on a reel-to-reel tape recorder. Then he fell asleep. When he played the tape in the morning, he found it contained 2 minutes of acoustic guitar, "and then me snoring for the next 40 minutes." It became one of the most famous opening riffs in rock and roll history. He said Jagger wrote the lyrics by the pool in Clearwater, Florida, in the Tampa Bay area.

They recorded the song on May 12, 1965, at the studio of Chess Records on the South Side of Chicago, home to Richards' hero Chuck Berry, and to blues musicians such as Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf and Willie Dixon. The studio's address became the title of an instrumental the Stones later recorded, "2120 South Michigan Avenue."

The song was released on June 5, and was so damn catchy that, despite the bad grammar of the title, Billboard magazine listed it as the Number 1 song in America in their July 11 issue. It remains the Stones' most familiar song. As Jagger put it: 

It was the song that really made The Rolling Stones, changed us from just another band into a huge, monster band... It has a very catchy title. It has a very catchy guitar riff. It has a great guitar sound, which was original at that time. And it captures a spirit of the times, which is very important in those kinds of songs... Which was alienation.

It hit Number 1 right around the high point of Lyndon Johnson's Presidency. And yet, had Johnson heard the song, whether he liked it or not, would have understood the title completely.

There are 3 surviving musicians from the recording session on "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction": Jagger, Richards and Wyman. Oldham is also still alive. Jones died in 1969, Stewart in 1985, Nitzsche in 2000, and Watts in 2021.

*

May 12, 1965 was a Wednesday. These baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Boston Red Sox, 2-0 at Fenway Park in Boston. Bill Monbouquette threw a 6-hit shutout, to outpitch Jim Bouton. Carl Yastrzemski went 0-for-2 with 2 walks. Mickey Mantle went 1-for-4.

* The New York Mets beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 2-1 at Shea Stadium. Jack Fisher went the distance for the win. Lou Brock went 1-for-3 with a walk.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 4-3 at Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia. Frank Robinson went 1-for-3 with a walk and an RBI. Pete Rose went 0-for-4 with a walk.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Cleveland Indians, 4-2 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Brooks Robinson did not play.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Washington Senators, 5-2 at District of Columbia Stadium in Washington. (It was renamed Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium in 1969.) Al Kaline went 1-for-4 with an RBI.

* The Milwaukee Braves beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 5-4 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. Joe Torre and Felipe Alou hit home runs for the Braves. Hank Aaron did not, but did go 3-for-5. For the Pirates, Roberto Clemente went 3-for-4 with an RBI.

* The Chicago White Sox swept a doubleheader from the Kansas City Athletics, 7-4 and 6-4 at Comiskey Park in Chicago.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the California Angels, 4-3 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. Harmon Killebrew hit 2 home runs.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Houston Astros, 4-2 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Don Drysdale went the distance for the win.

* And the Chicago Cubs beat the San Francisco Giants, 7-3 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. Ernie Banks went 1-for-4 with a walk and an RBI. Willie Mays went 2-for-3 with a walk and an RBI. Ron Santo of the Cubs and Willie McCovey of the Giants hit home runs.

January 15, 1967: "Let's Spend Some Time Together"

January 15, 1967: The Ed Sullivan Show is broadcast on CBS. The Rolling Stones were on, and wanted to sing their next single, "Let's Spend the Night Together." Trying to avoid a conflict with the censors, Sullivan's producer, and also his son-in-law, Bob Precht, suggested a slight change: "Let's Spend Some Time Together."

The Stones weren't stupid: They knew Sullivan was a powerful figure in American culture. Even more so, CBS Chairman William S. Paley was. They knew what would happen if they didn't tow the line: Rock star Bob Dylan and comedian Jackie Mason -- in very different ways -- had both crossed the line, and had been banned from the show.

They sang the words Precht demanded, but their anger is obvious on the tape. Drummer Charlie Watts was a stone-faced as ever, not unlike Sullivan himself. Playing piano, Brian Jones looks like he doesn't care, or maybe he was too high on drugs to care. But bass guitarist Bill Wyman was caught on camera rolling his eyes, just half a second after he noticed the camera was on him. Lead guitarist Keith Richards was practically gritting his teeth the whole way.

And lead singer Mick Jagger? He was pissed. Not drunk, like that word means in England, but furious. Instead of an invitation to a good time, this version of the song sounded like a coercion -- on him. Jaw clenched, eyes rolling every time he had to sing the words, "some time," practically spitting the lyrics... Mick was a man used to getting his way, and, this time, he didn't, and he couldn't handle it.

The Stones also sang what was intended to be the B-side of the single, "Ruby Tuesday," with Jones playing the recorder. Since "Let's Spend the Night Together" wasn't played that way on Sullivan, American disc jockeys -- especially those on Paley-owned CBS stations -- treated "Ruby Tuesday" as if it was the intended A-side. It hit Number 1. "Let's Spend the Night Together," while a great-sounding song, only reached Number 55.

But that was as far as punishment went for the Stones. They did appear on Ed Sullivan again, 2 years later, singing "Honky Tonk Women" -- which includes the line, "I laid a divorcee in New York City." Apparently, the censors had no problem with that -- or maybe they just missed it.

Eight months after the Stones changed the lyrics to a hit to avoid punishment, The Doors refused. They wouldn't be so lucky.

*

January 15, 1967 was a Sunday. This was also the day of Super Bowl I, in which the NFL Champion Green Bay Packers beat the AFL Champion Kansas City Chiefs, 35-10 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. I have a separate entry for that event.

Strangely, with videotape being expensive, CBS taped over their master copy of that game. NBC also broadcast it, and did the same. So we don't have a surviving full broadcast of this landmark sporting event. But because Bob Precht saved as much of The Ed Sullivan Show as he could, we still have the Stones' performance of "Let's Spend Some Time Together," in the bright colors and clear sound of the late 1960s.

There were 4 games played that day in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks lost to the Chicago Bulls, 131-116 at the Chicago Stadium. This as the Bulls' 1st season of play. Four months later, the Knicks drafted Walt Frazier. Three years later, they finally won their 1st NBA Championship.

* The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Boston Celtics, 110-95 at the Boston Garden. This runaway victory of Wilt Chamberlain and the Sixers over Bill Russell and the C's was a foreshadowing: While they had won the last 8 NBA titles, Boston would lose this year's Eastern Conference Finals to Philadelphia, which would win the title.

* The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Detroit Pistons, 127-116 at Cobo Hall in Detroit.

* And the St. Louis Hawks beat the San Francisco Warriors, 114-112 at the Kiel Auditorium in St. Louis.

This was the last season for the NHL's "Original Six" teams. And all 6 were in action:

* The New York Rangers beat the Detroit Red Wings, 2-0 at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit.

* The Montreal Canadiens beat the Boston Bruins, 3-1 at the Boston Garden. So both the Celtics and the Bruins lost at home on the same day; and each, arguably, to their biggest rivals.

* And the Chicago Blackhawks beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 4-0 at the Chicago Stadium. So the Stadium hosted both the Bulls and the Hawks on the same day. The Hawks, for the 1st time in their 41-season history, would finish 1st overall in the NHL in the regular season. But the Leafs would beat them in the Stanley Cup Semifinals, and then the Canadiens in the Finals.

And Lisa Velez, later to become the singer Lisa Lisa, was born on this day.