ON THIS DAY IN 1974, THE EAGLES HEADLINED THE OZARK MOUNTAIN FESTIVAL

Held at the Missouri County Fairgrounds in Sedalia, Missouri, the festival has earned a high level of praise. Commonly included in lists of Top 10 festivals of all time, the bill also included bands like Aerosmith, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Blue Oyster Cult, America, Bachman-Turner Overdrive and more, as well as popular singers like Boz Scaggs.

One of the largest festivals ever held, the Ozark Mountain Festival drew a crowd of around 350,000 people. Though the festival was due to start on Friday night, by Thursday night a steady line of cars had arrived, and by the time they left on Sunday, damage costs of close to $100,000 were reported. The Missouri Senate met in October and stated in a report that “The Ozark Music Festival can only be described as a disaster. It became a haven for drug pushers who were attracted from throughout the United States.”

Regardless of this feedback, after a break the festival was held again, and is now an annual event, albeit at a different venue.

On this day in 1973, The Who’s double album, Quadrophenia, went gold

Following the success of their first rock opera album Tommy, the group decided to make a second. The story, set in London and Brighton in 1965, follows a young mod named Jimmy and his quest for self-worth and importance.

Quadrophenia is the only album from The Who to be entirely composed by Pete Townshend. In order to do justice to the album, the group decided to build their own studio, Ramport Studios, in Battersea. The studios started construction in November 1972 but when time to record the album came by, an adequate mixing desk was still needed and so the group headed instead to a mobile studio owned by Townshend’s friend Ronnie Lane of Faces. Halfway though the recording, producer Kit Lambert began to miss sessions and was fired.

The album is now recognised as one of the great rock albums, with critics calling it the “most rewarding musical experience of the year”. Commercially it found great success as well, reaching number 2 on the US Billboard Pop Albums and the UK Albums Chart. Pete Townshend himself now considers Quadrophenia to be the last great album recorded by the band and that they “never recorded anything that was so ambitious or audacious again.

ON THIS DAY IN 1973, LED ZEPPELIN KICKED OFF A MONUMENTAL THREE NIGHT SHOW AT MADISON SQUARE GARDEN IN NEW YORK, CONCLUDING A MASSIVE THREE MONTH TOUR

The band performed three consecutive nights, and on the night of the third, it was discovered that $203,000 of the band’s earnings (approximately $1,117,981.35 in today’s money) had been stolen from their hotel safe deposit box. The cash was reportedly accounted for at 1:00pm that day, but by 7:30pm that evening, it had disappeared, with no evidence of forcible entry or tampering. The money was reportedly on hand to pay for the groups touring ‘expenses’ and a lawsuit against the hotel was later considered, but scrapped eventually as a $200,000 loss as compared to the $4 million profit seems more manageable. The case remains unsolved but has inspired a book based on the event called “Black Dogs: The Possibly True Story Behind Rock’s Greatest Robbery” and was also documented in the 1976 film, The Song Remains the Same.

The shows themselves went off without a hitch, and the group’s reviews were glowing. Coming off the back of the release of their fourth studio albums, Houses of the Holy, which added a new wealth of songs to perform live alongside the classics of their past albums. The setlist is considered to be something of a Zeppelin fans dream, opening with Rock and Roll and going on to classics like Dazed and Confused, Stairway to Heaven and Whole Lotta Love.  A film crew was invited to record the shows, the footage of which would become the basis for the aforementioned 1976 film.

The shows successfully pulled enormous crowds and won over reporters from various publications with their shattering three hour set, including a review from Playboy Magazine claiming, “they’re serious about what they’re up to, and when they decide to play rock ‘n’ roll, it doesn’t get any better.”

ON THIS DAY IN 1973, LED ZEPPELIN’S JOHN BONHAM CELEBRATED A WILD 25TH BIRTHDAY SURROUNDED BY FRIENDS AND MUSICAL LEGENDS

Following a gig at Los Angeles Forum, where Robert Plant led an impromptu rendition of Happy Birthday, the group headed back to Laurel Canyon for the party.

Ex-Beatle George Harrison was in attendance with his wife Pattie and reports from the night say he definitely got into the swing of the festivities. Seeing Bonham take a photo with his birthday cake, Harrison took hold of the cake and planted it onto Bonzo’s head. Bonham apparently found this amusing and threw the ex-Beatle and his wife into the swimming pool, where much of the party followed. Jimmy Page who is known to be unable to swim and was wearing a very expensive purple suit waded into the shallow end to avoid being thrown in by his drunken drummer.

Many other stories have released in the years since the party and since Bonham’s tragic death, including tales of Cadillacs and motorcycles being driven through the gardens, and Robert Plant climbing trees to shout to those round him. The party exemplifies Zeppelin’s rambunctious spirit, in particular the wild antics of their acclaimed drummer, Bonzo.

ON THIS DAY IN 1973, THE ROLLING STONES HELD A BENEFIT CONCERT TO RAISE FUNDS FOR THE NICARAGUAN EARTHQUAKE RELIEF EFFORTS

The Stones arrived in Los Angeles on the 16th of January, with the intention of performing at the benefit alongside Santana and Cheech and Chong, hoping to raise money for the relief efforts in Nicaragua and Japan.

The preparation ran less than smoothly, as a depressed Mick Jagger found himself involved in heated debates with the Japanese government over the cancellation of his visa. The officials found issue with a drug bust conviction on Jagger’s record, and although many musicians with convictions had been able to enter Japan, Jagger found himself barred. Rumours then spread that the benefit was being held only to court favour with Japan and hopefully change their minds about the visa situation. In reality, Mick Jagger’s wife, Bianca, was a Nicaraguan and they had reportedly accepted the benefit before any visa issues arose.

The benefit was held at the Forum, in Inglewood, California and brought forth an audience of close to 19,000. The show went for five hours, with two of them dominated by the standout Stones performance. Jagger was reportedly energised by his current predicaments and put on a very memorable show. The concert raised $200,000 for the relief efforts, putting them slightly short of their goals. Jagger then decided to donate a further $150,000 from his own pockets to the cause.

ON THIS DAY IN 1972, PAUL MCCARTNEY AND HIS WIFE LINDA WERE ARRESTED IN SWEDEN FOR POSSESSION OF DRUGS AFTER A CONCERT IN GOTHENBURG

The pair were pulled over while driving back to their hotel and found with an undisclosed amount of marijuana. Thankfully, the Swedish drug laws were more lenient than those of the Brits and Americans and the only charges received were fines totalling around $2000. Paul later joked that the arrest would serve as good publicity for the tour.

This would not be the only time the McCartney’s landed themselves in trouble for their enjoyment of cannabis. The very next year he was found growing a crop of marijuana on his property, leading to another fine and a charge for illegal cultivation. Paul claimed the seeds had been gifted to him by a fan and had no knowledge of what would blossom from them. This seems unlikely with his arrest history, and he was arrested for the plant again in 1975 in Los Angeles. The peak of his arrest sheet came in 1980 when Japanese customs officers discovered an amount in his luggage while arriving in Tokyo. This charge also brought his most serious consequence, landing him 9 days imprisonment. He was arrested once again in Barbados in 1984. McCartney went on to say of his arrests, “Cannabis is less harmful than rum, punch, whiskey, nicotine and glue, all of which are perfectly legal, I don’t think I was doing anyone any harm whatsoever.”

The incident in Sweden also inspired Paul to write one of his better known solo songs, “Band on the Run” from his third album of the same name. The album went on to hit number one three times, and reach triple-platinum status.

ON THIS DAY IN 1971, ONE OF THE WORLD’S BIGGEST BANDS RELEASED THEIR MOST POPULAR ALBUM

Led Zeppelin’s Led Zeppelin IV was a comeback of sorts, after critics gave their previous album a lukewarm response. After this critical reception, Zeppelin decided their fourth album would be officially untitled and instead be represented by four symbols, one chosen by each band member, which is now commonly used as the band’s logo.

The album was produced entirely by guitarist Jimmy Page, and was recorded in late 1970 and early 1971 at a country house called Hadley Grange. This informal setup allowed the band more creative freedom in terms of arrangements and musical styles. It also led to the writing of the groups most famous song, “Stairway to Heaven”.

Zeppelin’s enigmatic approach seemed to pay off well, as Led Zeppelin IV fared much better critically than it’s predecessor, becoming the group’s best selling album, moving over 37 million copies worldwide. As of 2018, it remains tied for the third-highest-certified album in the US, as well as reaching number 69 on Rolling Stone’s “500 Greatest Albums of All Time”, where it was called “the peak of Seventies hard rock”.

ON THIS DAY IN 1970, THE MEMBERS OF LED ZEPPELIN PERFORMED UNDER A DIFFERENT NAME

The name Led Zeppelin was based around the famed Zeppelin airship, designed by Count Ferdinand Adolf Heinrich August Graf von Zeppelin. His granddaughter, Countess Frau Eva von Zeppelin took insult to the name and felt that it dishonoured her family. They first noticed the Countess when she unsuccessfully attempted to have a television appearance cancelled, calling the band “shrieking monkeys”. She then threatened with lawsuits.

The band themselves were actually fairly amicable about the situation, inviting the Countess for a cup of tea at a television studio. By all accounts this meeting went well and the issue was resolved until the Countess glimpsed a cover for the groups debut album, featuring a picture of the Hindenberg airship combusting into flames and could not be calmed, even with offers of an all-areas backstage pass and, reportedly, free drugs.

It was at this point that notorious manager Peter Grant decided to temporarily change the bands name to The Nobs for several shows over their Scandinavian tour. The band apparently found this absurd but performed without complaint.

On this day in 1970, Van Morrison is awarded a Gold record with his album, Moondance

Van Morrison released his third studio album on the 27th of January 1970. After the perceived commercial failure of Astral Weeks, Morrison moved to New York to write and find musicians for Moondance.

The album saw Morrison abandoning the abstract folk-jazz style of his previous album in order to create more formally composed songs in a rhythm and blues/ rock style. The music also incorporated elements of soul, jazz, pop and Irish folk with lyrical content about finding spiritual redemption in nature, music, love and self-affirmation.

Moondance was released to immediate success, both critically and commercially with several songs becoming radio staples in the early 1970’s. The album made a slow climb to Gold in November of 1970 and eventually 3x Platinum. It is now considered one of Morrisons best albums and one of the best albums of all time, making numerous lists and being entered into the Hall of Fame in 1999.

On this day in 1970, a huge anti-war rock festival was held at Shea Stadium in New York

Billed as the Festival for Peace, it was the second in a series of events with the purpose of raising funds for anti-war political candidates. The first, the Winter Festival for Peace was held earlier in the year.

The date selected was of interest as it marked the 25th anniversary of the U.S. first use of an atomic weapon in the bombing of Hiroshima. Due to the festivals fundraising purposes, many of the artists billed to perform donated their time and performances for the cause.

Along the musicians to play were Paul Simon, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Steppenwolf, Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock and Janis Joplin. The Festival for Peace would soon be immortalised as one of Joplin’s last performances, as well as a reunion and last performance with her former band, Big Brother & the Holding Company.