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EPSTEIN Today in music history

The Canadian Press

• In 1953, Alex Lifeson, guitarist with the Canadian rock trio Rush, was born in Surrey. Lifeson, vocalist and bass guitarist Geddy Lee and drummer John Rut- sey formed the group in Toronto in 1968. Rutsey left after Rush’s first album in 1974, and was replaced by Neil Peart. Several of Rush’s LP’s, including 2112, All the World’s a Stage, Moving Pictures and Signals, have sold more than one million copies each. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2013. • In 1965, Bob Dylan’s Highway 61 Revisited was released. • In 1965, The Beatles met Elvis Presley at his Graceland mansion in Memphis. Colonel Tom Parker, Presley’s manager, performed the introduc- tions, after which a deathly silence ensued. Elvis is then reported to have said: “If you damn guys are gonna sit here and stare at me all night, I’m gonna go to bed.” The meeting deteriorated further after John Len- non’s suggestion that Elvis make some records like those he recorded for Sun Records at the beginning of his career. Presley is said to have felt the remark implied that his career had gone steadily downhill. • In 1967, The Beatles manager Brian Epstein was found dead in his London home from an overdose of Carbitol, a sleeping pill. His death was ruled acci- dental. At the time, The Beatles were in Wales on a retreat with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.

In 1990, Garth Brooks released his album No Fences. His sophomore release has sold over 20 million copies worldwide.

Epstein had first seen The Beatles at the Cavern Club in Liverpool in 1961. Within a month, he became their manager, cleaning up their image with the now-familiar Beatle haircuts and Pierre Cardin suits. Epstein got them a contract with EMI Records in 1962, after they had been rejected by many other companies. He remained their manager until his death. • In 1971, singer Freda Payne was awarded a gold record for Bring the Boys Home, an anti-Vietnam War song. • In 1978, two former members of Deep Purple, vocalist David Coverdale and keyboards player Jon Lord, were reunited in the newly-formed heavy metal band Whitesnake. • In 1983, singer-guitarist George Benson told the British magazine Melody Maker that AIDS was God’s revenge for blood transfusions. Benson is a Jehovah’s Witness, who consider transfusions sacrilegious. • In 1986, former Credence Clearwater Revival lead singer John Fogerty opened his first tour in 14 years in Memphis. The audience gave him six stand- ing ovations despite the fact he refused to perform any of CCR’s hits because of a royalties dispute. • In 1987, Charlie Smalls, the Tony Award-winning composer and lyricist of the hit musical The Wiz, died during surgery for a burst appendix. He was 43. • In 1989, Izzy Stradlin, guitarist for Guns ‘N’ Ros- es, was arrested at the Phoenix airport after urinating in a jetliner’s galley on a flight from Los Angeles to Indianapolis. Stradlin was apparently angry at hav- ing to wait to use the restroom. • In 1990, Garth Brooks released his album No Fences. His sophomore release has sold over 20 mil- lion copies worldwide. • In 1990, Grammy-winning blues guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan was among five people killed when their helicopter slammed into a hill at East Troy, Wis. He was 35. He had just completed a concert with Eric Clapton, Robert Cray and Buddy Guy. Vaughan and his band Double Trouble had a million-selling album in 1984 – Couldn’t Stand the Weather. • In 1996, the Smashing Pumpkins resumed their interrupted world tour with a show in Las Vegas. They had a new drummer, Matt Walker from Filter, and a new keyboardist, Dennis Flemion from The Frogs. The tour had halted in July after keyboardist Johnathan Melvoin died of a heroin overdose and drummer Jimmy Chamberlin was fired after being arrested for drug possession. • In 1998, Fleetwood Mac founder Peter Green launched a U.S. tour in Cleveland to promote The Rob- ert Johnson Songbook, his first studio album in nearly 20 years. Green, a much-praised blues guitarist, left Fleetwood Mac in 1970 after a psychological break- down and later spent time in a mental institution. • In 1998, The New York Times refused to print an ad featuring the cover of Marilyn Manson’s Mechani- cal Animals album. Manson appeared on it looking like a naked male-female alien hybrid. • In 2014, country music crossover star Taylor Swift’s first full venture into the world of pop music, Shake It Off, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, just the 22nd song to do so in the history of the chart.