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December 2008, This Day In Rock

December 3rd: This Day In Rock

Wed, Dec 03, 2008

Facts from the past, December 3rd

Greetings and salutations on this fine December 3rd.  I hope this day finds you well as we get ready to take our daily stroll down memory lane.

We will start today out with a birthday so worth mentioning.  Today none other than rock legend Ozzy Osbourne was born in 1948 in Birmingham, England.  So, a BIG happy birthday to Ozzy from all of us here at Road Crew Magazine!

Just when I think that I'm not giong to be shocked by or amused by any of the facts that I run across, I'm proven wrong.  And this fact made me verbaly go "Nahhhh" but after re-reading it, it didn't change, my eyes weren't playing tricks on me and as I was drinking tea, I know that my beverage had nothing to do with it. 

On this day back in 1965, during a concert in Sacramento, California, Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards stepped on a micrphone cable and was electorcuted and knocked unconscious.  After a brief break, he was able to continue the show.

I'm going to do something I haven't done in the brief history of this column and I am NOT going to go in year order.  This next tidbit comes from the year 1986 and is again, one of those facts that makes me scratch my head trying to figure people out.  I don't understand people who use music, books, movies or other types of entertainment and blame them for things they do.  Sadly, this is something seen over and over.  Judas Priest faced such blame when a lawsuit was filed against them and CBS Records, saying that 2 fans shot themselves after listening to the the band's music for 6 hours.


The information for this next fact comes from and is credited to Wikipedia:

December 3rd 1971, Montreux Casino burned down during a concert by Frank Zappa, after a fan had set the venue on fire with a flare gun, reducing it to ashes. Claude Nobs saved several young people who, thinking they would be sheltered from the flames, had hidden in the casino from the blaze. A recording of the outbreak and fire announcement can be found on a Frank Zappa Bootleg album titled "Swiss Cheese / Fire"[1] English rock group Deep Purple subsequently made Montreux famous with their song "Smoke on the Water", which tells the events of December 1971:

“ We all came out to Montreux on the Lake Geneva shoreline / To make records with a mobile - We didn't have much time / Frank Zappa & the Mothers were at the best place around / But some stupid with a flare gun burned the place to the ground / Smoke on the water, fire in the sky

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