"I saw rock and roll's future and its name is Bruce Springsteen"-Jon Landau-May 9, 1974...
That is just part of the quote but you get the idea that Jon kinda, sorta liked the Boss when he saw him perform on this date in 1974 at the Harvard Square Theater in Cambridge. Jon was the influential music critic whose credits included writing for the Boston Phoenix, the Real Paper in Boston and the legendary Rolling Stone. His quote would become one of the more famous music quotes of all-time and helped propel Springsteen into his rightful ranking as a pop icon...
25-year old Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band was opening for Bonnie Raitt on that spring night in New England and he would move well past being popular with the college crowd in the Northeast after this performance and the Landau quote which gave Columbia Records impetus to now mount a major campaign to promote Springsteen...
In October of 1974 when Springsteen re-appeared in Boston at the Music Hall, Bruce agreed to hire Jon as a co-producer. Eventually Landau would become Springsteen's manager. More on Jon Landau in my commentary...
More May 9 Memories...
1785] If you love brewski's you should build a shrine to Joseph Bramah for it was Joseph who patented the beer-pump handle ("pump up the volume, pump up the volume")...
1926] Americans Richard Byrd and Floyd Bennett (hey didn't they name a field after him ?) become the 1st men to make a flight over the North Pole (where they spot smoke coming out of Santa's igloo)...
1958] Alan Freed is indicted for inciting unlawful destruction of property in Boston (the result of a riot at one of his shows)...
1960] The Food and Drug Administration approves use of a birth control pill...
1961] Jim Gentile of the Orioles sets a major league record by hitting a grand slam home run in 2 consecutive innings (against the Minnesota Twins)...
1961] FCC chairman Newton N. Minow (great, he's named after the fig newton and the Gilligan's Island boat) condemns television programming as a "vast wasteland" in a speech to the NAB (he then goes to his room to watch "My Sister Eileen")...
1964] Peter and Gordon release "World Without Love"...
1967] Strange but true...Cardinals outfielder Roger Maris (#9) hits his 1st National League home run on the 9th day of the month and the ball lands in seat 9 of section 9 (spooky)...
1970] The Blues Image release "Ride Captain Ride" (and I can hear Bill Todd a.k.a. Johnny Williams at WRKO doing the intro in my head)...
1971] The last episode of "The Honeymooners" airs (but the show will be re-run somewhere on Earth and maybe even beyond, forever)...
1974] The House Judiciary Committee opens hearings on whether to recommend the impeachment of President Richard M. Nixon...
1974] The night of the Bruce Springsteen quote (see feature story)...
1978] The body of Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro who'd been inducted by the Red Brigades, is found in an automobile trunk in the middle of Rome...
1980] A day my friends in Tampa won't soon forget...A Liberian freighter rams the Sunshine Skyway Bridge over (Great) Tampa Bay, killing 35 motorists and causing a 1,400-foot section of the bridge to collapse (WLCY always would refer to "Great Tampa Bay" but we didn't do it that much at WFLA or WALT when I was there)...
1987] 27-year old madman Tom Cruise and 33-year old Mimi Rogers walk down the aisle in wedded Scientological bliss...
1998] Now this is a strange pairing...Puff Daddy and Jimmy Page are the musical guests on "Saturday Night Live" (who was the host ? Ozzy Osbourne ?...
2001] James Myers co-writer of "Rock Around the Clock" dies of leukemia at 81 (James wrote the song with Max Freeman in 1953)...
2001] Michael Jackson issues a statement saying "I want to clarify a silly rumor. The Beatles Catalogue is not for sale, has not been for sale and will never be for sale" (he does add that one prize llama, 3 giraffes, and Emanual Lewis are for sale)...
[To ensure accuracy of dates and content, multiple reference sources are used in the timeline]...
Commentary...
After we switched the format to top 40 at WRKO, Jon Landau, then writing for the Boston Phoenix wrote a series of articles on "AM Radio Wars" in which he compared us to WBZ but mostly to WMEX and offered his personal comments on his likes and dislikes. We got into a mini-war with Jon and swapped a few comments to each other which he printed in the Phoenix. I didn't know Jon well but he was always cordial when we would run into each other at various events. His quote on Bruce Springsteen was used to good advantage by Columbia Records and full-page ads were bought to support the promotional campaign that would launch the star that Springsteen would become...
Congratulations to WRKO for signing the Red Sox, who they will carry starting next season. Sister station WEEI will carry about 30 games...
Happy Birthday To...
1918] Mike Wallace (born in Brookline)...
1936] Albert Finney...
1936] Glenda Jackson...
1937] Crickets guitarist Sonny Curtis...
1942] Tommy Roe...
1946] Candice Bergen...
1949] Billy Joel...
1960] Tony Gwynn (who will be in Baseball's Hall of Fame in 2007)...
1962] "Sex and the City" and "Northern Exposure" DJ Chris, John Corbett...
[Today is the 129th day of 2006 with 236 days remaining in the year and 20 days until Memorial Day]...
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