A couple of years ago I wrote an article called "101 things you didn't know about rock 'n roll", which quite honestly sucked, had plenty of inaccuracies, and a couple of downright blasphemies for which I should have been banned. But I wasn't, so in an effort to redeem myself I've written this sequel, if one may call it that, but first, a foreword.
- They Aren't All About Rock And Roll. There, loud and clear. The list is long and it spans a wide variety of artists and genres, and I couldn't think of a title which wasn't yet more misleading or pretentious (like replacing "rock and roll" for "music"). Anyway, it's a catchy title.
- I know it is a long list, you might wanna read it by parts.Don't complain about the length or read it only halfway through because, to quote our very own Nolan Whyte, people who only read the first half of articles are jerks.
- Depending on your geekness, free time and curiosity you probably know quite a few of the facts, and if you do, please don't be a douchebag and comment "I knew all of them" or "come on, who doesn't know that?". Nobody's gonna love you any more than they do for it, and there might be plenty of people who actually didn't know it and are happy they've learnt a new, utterly useless bit of pop culture.
- Again, it's a long list, so I'm bound to be mistaken. I tried to research as much as I could, but if you know an alternate, correct or longer version of a fact, corrections will be greatly appreciated.
- Finally, English isn't my native tongue, so please forgive any misspellings, weird expressions or undecipherable sentences.
Anyway, here we go:
1) The White Stripes played their 'Shortest live show ever' on 16 July 2007 on George Street, St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada. Jack played a single C# note accompanied by a bass drum/crash cymbal hit from Meg. At the end of the "show", Jack announced, "We have now officially played in every province and territory in Canada." They then left the stage and performed a full show later that night.
2) Van Halen's standard concert contract called for them to be provided with a bowl of M&Ms backstage, but with provision that all the brown candies had to be removed. The presence of even a single brown M&M in that bowl, was sufficient legal cause for Van Halen to cancel a scheduled appearance without notice. The legendary "no brown M&Ms" contract clause was indeed real, but there was a reason for it's inclusion other than rockstar stravaganza: it was an easy way of determining whether the specifications of the contract had been thoroughly read (and complied with).
3) In 2006, two miners got trapped in an accident at Beaconsfield Mine in Australia. When the search parties arrived, they asked for sandwiches and Ipods loaded with Foo Fighters' songs to listen to until they got rescued. When Dave Grohl heard about it, he offered the miners free tickets to any FF's show and a chance to have a beer with the band afterwards. He kept his promise and made his offer good later on that year after a gig at the Sydney Opera House, where he played live for the first time the instrumental song The Ballad Of The Beaconsfield Miners (though only of the miners attended the show).
4) Eric Clapton has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame three times: once as a member of Cream, then as a members of the Yardbirs and finally as a solo performer.
5) Liam Gallagher of Oasis was voted third in a list of "Most-hated exhibits" at Madame Tussaud's wax museum in 1991. He finished behind Adolf Hitler and Slobodan Milosevic.
6) The band The Polyphonic Spree has been known to have at least 20 members, all of them performing onstage at the same time.
7) The Clash's "Rock The Casbah" was allegedly written after the banning of rock music in Iran under Ayatollah Khomeini, though Joe Strummer claimed the band's manager, Bernie Rhoads, while listening to an early, very long improvised version, asked them "does everything have to be as long as this raga?" (raga being an indian musical style known for it's length). He responded by writing the song's opening line "and the rest just followed". Anyway, the song was an unofficial anthem for US forces during the Gulf War, even being the first song played by Armed Forces Radio at the start of the war, which is sadly ironic given The Clash's firm left-wing position. This irony is revealed at it's cruelest in the documentary "Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten", where a friend of Joe's states he wept when he heard that "Rock The Casbah" was written on an American bomb that was to be detonated on Iraq during the 1991 Gulf War. He comments Joe said, while crying, "Hey, man, I never could think that a song of mine could be written as a death symbol on a f--king American bomb.".
8) Mike Portnoy of Dream Theater has the Lost numbers written on his insanely huge drum set.
9) If you ever drop by Jon Bon Jovi's place in L.A. Try not to act surprised when you ring the doorbell and you hear "You Give Love A Bad Name".
10) Tom Morello of Audioslave (and Rage Against The Machine, of course, don't wanna offend anybody) was the nephew of the late Jomo Kenyatta, one of the earliest and best known African nationalist leaders who went on to become the first president of Kenya.
11) Television's epic, 11 minute "Marquee Moon" was done in one take, and drummer Billy Ficca thought that they were just rehearsing.
12) Stuart Murdoch, Belle and Sebastian's singer, is colourblind.
13) Bob Dylan gave Nico on of his songs, "I'll Keep It With Mine", for her 1967 debut album Chelsea Girl, though he wasn't the only one: Lou Reed also gave her one of his early Velvet Underground songs, "I'll Keep it With Mine"
14) Sigur Ros are named after singer Jónsi Birgisson's younger sister, Sigurrós (a name in icelandic meaning "victory rose") who was born on the same day as the band was formed.
15) "Take the 'A' Train" is a jazz standard by Billy Strayhorn that was the signature tune of Duke Ellington's band. it's title refers to the A subway service that runs through New York City, going at that time from eastern Brooklyn up into Harlem and northern Manhattan, using the express tracks in Manhattan. On Ellington's self-titled 1962 album with John Coltrane (Duke Ellington and John Coltrane), the two performed a composition called, in yet another brilliant wordplay like "Blue Train" and "Traneing in", "Take The Coltrane".
16) And speaking of brilliant wordplays, The closing song on Dylan's "Blonde On Blonde" is the eleven-minute long "Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands", and his wife at the time was Sarah Lownds (and for those who didn't get it, on the "Desire" song "Sara", he sings "Stayin' up for days in the Chelsea Hotel, Writin' "Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands" for you").
17) In 1982, Vince Neil and his Motley Crue bandmates decided to bring their show to Canada. They encountered some difficulty crossing the border, however, when Canada Customs confiscated some of their most indispensable equipment. The problem? Drugs? Lewd props? No. Neil's spiked and studded stage paraphernalia was classified as "deadly weaponry."
18) As a teenager, Morrissey was the president of th New York Dolls' UK branch fan club.
19) Once, when Motley Crue was at it's peak, Tommy Lee and Nikki Sixx decided to hold a competition, to see who could go the longest without washing, showering or bathing in any way, yet still be able to sleep with groupies without them being I'll or bailing out. The competition went on for two months, during which the duo had nightly sex with up to four girls each, until finally a fan performing oral sex on Sixx became sick and threw up on him. The story later became known as "The Spaghetti Incident" after the groupie's supper (which has nothing to do with the Guns N' Roses cd, which was named after a food fight).
20) The most expensive music video in history is Michael Jackson's "Scream", featuring his sister Janet, which costed approximately 7, 000, 000 dollars. Michael has four more videos in the top 20, including Bad, Remember the Time, Black or White and Thriller.
21) It is widely known and pretty obvious Frank Zappa had an peculiar sense of humour. Maybe that's why he named his kids Moon Unit, Dweezil, Ahmet Emuukha Rodan and Diva Thin Muffin Pigeen. When he was asked why he had given them such unusual names, he answered "if they ever have problems caused by their names, it will be because of their last".
22) CBGB (Country, Blue Grass, and Blues) was a music club at 315 Bowery at Bleecker Street in New York. Founded by Hilly Kristal in 1973, it was originally intended to feature mainly artists who played the styles that named the joint, but it quickly became a forum for punk and punk-influenced bands, all of which can be seen here.
The club closed it's doors in 2006, and the final concert was performed by Patti Smith on October 15 th. Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers attended the show and even performed on a couple of songs with Smith and her band. Flea turned 44 at midnight, and the band and crowd sang "Happy Birthday" to him. Television's Richard Lloyd also guested on a few songs, including a version of "Marquee Moon". Toward the end of their set, the band played "Gloria", paying tribute to the Ramones during the chorus by alternating between the original lyrics and the "Hey! Ho! Let's go!". In her final encore, the song "Elegie", Smith listed many of the musicians who died since they last played at CBGB.The moving footage can be found here.
23) At age 22, Jerry Lee Lewis married for the third time. His bride? His thirteen year old cousin (though he and his management insisted she was fifteen)
24) Yo La Tengo's name comes from a baseball anecdote: during the 1962 season, New York Mets center fielder Richie Ashburn and Venezuelan shortstop Elio Chacón found themselves colliding in the outfield, comunication problems due to language barriers. Ashburn learned to yell "Yo la tengo! Yo la tengo!" which means "I've got it" in Spanish. In a later game, Ashburn happily saw Chacón backing off, so he positioned himself to catch the ball, and was instead run over by 200-pound left fielder Frank Thomas who understood no Spanish. After getting up, Thomas asked Ashburn "What the heck is a Yellow Tango?"
25) Fool's Gold Loaf is a sandwich made by a restaurant in Denver, Colorado called the Colorado Mine Company. The sandwich consists of a single loaf of hollowed out, warmed bread filled with one jar of creamy peanut butter, one jar of grape jelly, and a pound of bacon. On the night of February 1, 1976, Elvis Presley was at his home Graceland in Memphis, Tennessee entertaining Capt. Jerry Kennedy of the Denver Colorado police force, and Ron Pietrafeso of Colorado's Strike Force Against Crime. The three men began discussing the sandwich and Elvis decided he wanted one right then.Kennedy and Pietrafeso were friends of the owners and hung out there often, so they were driven to the Memphis airport and boarded Elvis's private jet, the Lisa Marie, and flew the two hours to Denver. When they arrived in Denver at 1:40 AM, the plane taxied to a special hangar where the passengers were greeted by the owner of the Colorado Mine Company, Buck Scott, and his wife Cindy who had brought 22 fresh Fool's Gold Loaves for the men. They spent three hours in the hangar eating the sandwiches, washing them down with Perrier and champagne. When they were done, they flew back to Memphis without ever having left the airport.
26) Pearl Jam's hidden song "4/20/02," about the fellow friend and grunge singer Layne Staley's overdose, is titled with his estimated date of the Alice in Chains singer's death and begins exactly 4:20:02 after the conclusion of the song "Bee Girl". The song was not featured as a listed track on Pearl Jam's album Lost Dogs because Pearl Jam lead singer Eddie Vedder did not wish for it to be exploitative.
27) In September 2002, Children of Bodom's guitarist Alexi Laiho's custom Jackson guitars (one of them bearing the famous "Wildchild" sticker) were stolen while he was sleeping after a night partying with the other members of the band. Alexi needed new instruments, but Jackson had just been sold to the Fender Musical Instrument Company and wouldn't be able to build a custom guitar for Alexi for at least one year. ESP Guitars, however, told Alexi they could build a replacement in three months, and he signed with the company which has manufactured his custom guitars since.
28)The "Rain Dogs" that give name to Tom Waits' 1985 album, and which have lead to his fans baptizing ourselves like that, are the dogs that get lost during storms because the rain washes away the smells which usually guide them home.
29) Ten out of the fourteen songs which comprise the Beatles first album "Please Please me" were recorded in little over twelve hours.
30) The original Pink Floyd pig was designed by Roger Waters and built in December 1976 in preparation for shooting the cover of the Animals album. Plans were made to fly the forty-foot, helium-filled balloon over Battersea Power Station on the first day's photo-shoot, with a marksman prepared to shoot the pig down if it broke free. However, the pig was not launched. On the second day, the marksman wasn't present because no one had told him to return, and the pig broke free due to a strong gust of wind. It disappeared from sight within five minutes, and was spotted by airline pilots at forty thousand feet in the air. Flights at Heathrow Airport were cancelled as the huge inflatable pig flew through the path of aircraft, eastwards from Britain, over the English Channel, and finally landing on a rural farm in Kent that night.
31) Once, The Misfit's were eating at a McDonald's on tour, and their drummer Arthur Googy wanted to buy a second cheeseburger, but since the band was low on money so they didn't let him. What did he do? He quit the band.
32) Dylan's "4th Time Around" is commonly speculated to be a response to The Beatles' song "Norwegian Wood" as the two tracks boast a reasonably similar melody and lyrical premise. The song, which has an obvious Dylan-influence, was considered an artistic leap for Lennon, since it was his earliest story-song. "4th Time Around" has been seen as either a playful homage, or a satirical warning to Lennon about co-opting Dylan's well-known songwriting devices, since last line "I never asked for your crutch./ Now don't ask for mine." can be interpreted as Dylan warning Lennon not to use Dylan's songs as a "crutch" for his songwriting.
33) During their early days, Joy Division were called Warsaw, in reference to the song "Warszawa" by David Bowie.The band renamed themselves Joy Division in late 1977, borrowing their new name from the prostitution wing of a Nazi concentration camp mentioned in the 1955 novel The House of Dolls.
34) Cynthia Albritton a.k.a Cynthia Plaster Caster is, in her own words, a "recovering groupie" who creates plaster casts of famous persons' penises and breasts. She began her career in 1968 by casting penises of rock celebrities which include Jimi Hendrix, his Experience bassist Noel Redding, the road manager from both Zep and The Who, members from MC5, a Zappa bodyguard, Dead Kennedys singer Jello Biafra, Television guitarist RIchard Lloyd and Karen O from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs on the breast section. KISS even made a song in her honor ("Plaster Caster") even though a cast of the band members has never been done.
35) "Yesterday", the song with the most official recorded cover versions in history, was originally called "scrambled eggs" and the lyrics went a little like "Scrambled eggs, Oh, baby how I love your legs".
36) Axl Rose is an anagramfor Oral Sex (yeah I know, you knew this one).
37) and Mr. Mojo Risin is an anagram for Jim Morrison (yeah, I know, this one too).
38) Strokes' singer Julian Casablancas has said the song 12:51's title is a reference to the habit of people looking at clocks before they have sex.
39) After playing four songs at the 1968 Miami Pop Festival, Jimi set his guitar on fire, and then gave it to his friend Frank Zappa. Years later, Frank's son Dweezil found the guitar in pieces under a staircase and offered to put it back together, to which Frank replied "no, why don't you have it?". Dweezil restored it and sold it in an auction in September 24, 2002 in the UK for £400, 000 (approximately $615, 000).
40) During concert encores, when Derek Sherinian was still in Dream Theater, the band members would trade instruments and perform Deep Purple's "Perfect Strangers" under the name Nightmare Cinema, though they played "Suicide Solution" once or twice. In the new lineup Petrucci played drums, Myung keyboards, Portnoy bass, Sherinian guitar, La Brie being the only one not switching positions. Wanna watch?
41) Many of Yngwie Malmsteen's guitars have the Ferrari logo on their back.
42) Slash's mother, Ola Hudson, worked as a costume designer for David Bowie.
43) After the Drama tour in the early 80's, Yes reconvened in England to decide the band’s next step. Drummer Alan White and bassist Chris Squire left Yes but continued working together, beginning sessions with former Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page. The band was to be called XYZ, said to be short for "ex-Yes-and-Zeppelin," but nothing came of the sessions when ex-Zeppelin vocalist Robert Plant declined the offer because of his dislike for complex progressive rock. XYZ produced a few demo tracks, elements of which would appear in later Yes music. Without a commitment from Robert Plant, the project was shelved shortly thereafter.
44) Phil Spector is famous for having worked with The Ramones, The Beatles, The Righteous Brothers, Ike and Tina Turner and has even been inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a non-performer, but in his later years he also became famous for his eccentricities. If you can call eccentricity having a gold coffin with a glass top on you basement, promising to kill and display you wife should she ever leave you. Or hiding her shoes to dissuade her from going out of the house. Or locking your son in his room with a pot to be used as a toilet. Or forcing both Leonard Cohen and Dee Dee Ramone to play according to his specifications at gunpoint. Or forcing the Ramones to play the opening chord to "Rock and Roll High School" eight hour straight.
45) The fact that Kiss had their own comic book wouldn't be shocking considering the band's amount and variety of merchandise. What IS shocking is that they mixed vials of their own blood into the red ink used to color the blood for the first issue of the Marvel's comic series (the whole process being witnessed by a lawyer and subject to a signed contract).
46) Alice Cooper and painter Salvador Dali were mutual fans, to the point Dali made a hologram entitled "First Cylindric Chromo-Hologram Portrait of Alice Cooper's Brain", which depicts Alice, wearing a million dollars worth of jewellery including a tiara and necklace, holding a statuette of the Venus De Milo as if it was a microphone, and A Dali sculpture of Alice`s brain with a Chocolate Eclair covered in ants placed behind him.
47) Tuomas Holopainen from Nightwish has a miniature Edward Scissorhand's figure on his two-tiered keyboard stand, and a Jack Sparrow one on his single stand keyboard.
48) Steve Vai rewards his touring band every night (but only if they have played really, really well) with some chocolate and vainilla ice cream, sprinkled with bit's of regular and dark chocolate, some brownies broken down into small pieces and a spoonful of nutella, or, as they call it, Vaiscream.
49) By the time he was 19, Robert Plant still hadn't kissed a girl.
50) These guys probably deserve a whole article. Mayhem is a black metal band formed in the mid-eighties in Norway and is considered one of the most controversial bands ever.The band was founded by guitarist Euronymous, bassist Necrobutcher, and drummer Manheim, later joined by vocalists Messiah and Maniac (none of them really matter), who would be replaced by this guy, Dead. Dead would cut himself onstage with hunting knives and broken glass and carried around a dead crow in a jar, which he smelled before each gig to "sing with the stench of death in his nostrils", but this wasn't too out of place considering the band had pig and sheep heads impaled on stakes onstage. The band moved in 1990 to a house in the woods, where Dead commited suicide and was found by Euronymous with his wrist slit and a shotgun round in his head, along with a note that said "sorry for the blood". So Euronymous did what anyone would do, went to a nearby store, bought a camera and took some pictures that were used for the cover of a bootleg album, Dawn of the Black Hearts. Euronymous didn't cook a stew with Dead's brain as it is rumoured, but he did do necklaces with pieces of his skull which he gave to musicians he considered worthy of receiving them. After the incident, musician Varg Vikernes known for his one-man project Burzum, joined Mayhem along with Snorre Ruch. One night both of them went to Euronymous house for a business meeting which got out of hand Sopranos-style and ended in Vikernes stabbing Euronymous in the forehead, but hey, it's ok, because Vikernes claims that Euronymous had plotted to torture him to death that night and videotape the event. He got 21 years, for the murder and several church arsons, though the hundred kilograms of dynamite they found in his basement probably didn't help. He actually smiled at the moment his verdict was read.
52) Bob Dylan was so blown away by Jimi's cover of his song "All Along the Watchtower" that he started playing the Jimi version live rather than his own, arguing he felt "I'm playing a tribute to Hendrix rather than the other way around every time I sing it".
53) Axl Rose used to earn $8 an hour for smoking cigarettes for a science experiment at UCLA.
54) On his debut album 'For You' Prince played 27 different instruments (though most were different types of synthesizers, but hey he was only 20)
55) In June of 1988, James Brown's wife Adrienne Rodriguez tried to get her traffic tickets dismissed because of "diplomatic immunity", since she claimed her husband was the official "ambassador of soul". She lost the case.
56) Beach Boys leader Brian Wilson once had a giant sandbox built around his piano, so he could feel the sand beneath his feet for song writing inspiration.
57) John Bonhan once played his pretty much solo, signature song "Moby Dick" over an hour because the power went out and the other instruments were electric.
58) The Verve sampled a strings part of the Rolling Stones song "The Last Time" for their anthem "Bittersweet Symphony" which is used as the song's foundation and main riff, but since they used "too much of the sample" they lost credit and pretty much control of the song. (well, I didn't know this one and it surprised me way more than the whole Mayhem thing)
59) When Miles Davis met Jimi Hendrix, the first words he uttered were simply "that machine gun". There are countless musicians who cite Miles as an influence, but in this case it was the other way around: Miles admired Jimi, whom he compared to Coltrane due to his improvisation skills. It is also widely believed that the name of the song "Miles Runs the Voodoo Down" is an homage to the Voodoo Child. Jimi was in turn very keen on jazz, which led to the musicians planning on recording at least one album together, a plan cut short by Jimi's early demise. It is surprising they kept getting along so well until Jimi's death, since there are strong rumours he had an affaire with Miles second wife, Betty Davis, which hastened their divorce. After the break up, Miles released what is considered a landmark in his carreer and pretty much the beginning of jazz fusion, the album "Bitches Brew", in which Miles acknowledges Hendrix as a main influence (and if you believe the affaire rumours, it's confirmation: the brew being Miles and Jimi's styles, and the bitch who united them being, well, Betty. Calling his wife a bitch on an album's title, Miles at his best).
60) Bob Marley is buried in a chapel near his birthplace with his Gibson Les Paul, a cannabis bud, a football, a ring he wore every day that had been given to him by the Prince Asfaw Wossen of Ethiopia (eldest son of Haile Selassie I), and a Bible.
61)John Lydon, better known as Johnny Rotten, was auditioned by singing along with an Alice Cooper recording, played on a jukebox
62) When Steve Vai was young he was scared he was the antichrist, since he was born on 6/6/60
63) Lou Reed claims the only thing that isn't true in "I'm Waiting for the Man" is the price of the heroin.
64) On October 2007 Soulwax took the world record for longest (and most pretentious) album title with their remix album "Most of the remixes we've made for other people over the years except for the one for Einstürzende Neubauten because we lost it and a few we didn't think sounded good enough or just didn't fit in length-wise, but including some that are hard to find because either people forgot about them or simply because they haven't been released yet, a few we really love, one we think is just ok, some we did for free, some we did for money, some for ourselves without permission and some for friends as swaps but never on time and always at our studio in Ghent" from Fionna Apple, who had been holding it since 1999 with her album "When the pawn hit's the conflicts he thinks like a king What he knows throws the blows when he goes to the fight And he'll win the whole thing before he enters the ring There's no body to batter when your mind is your might So when you go solo, you hold your own hand And remember that depth is the greatest of heights And if you know where you stand, then you know where to land And if you fall it won't matter, because you'll know that you're right", a poem she wrote after reading some bad reviews of her debut album, which she probably deserved. (ok, I know, this two are particularly non-rocknrolly, but the fact is still, um, interesting)
65) Frank Zappa released 57 albums during his carreer, with another 21 posthumous albums to his name and almost 15 compilations. Considering "Freak out!", his debut album, was released in 1966 and he died in 1993 that makes it an official release every six months or so (Maybe Axl Rose could learn a thing or two about Frank's album-releasing policy).
66) "Light My Fire" was performed by The Doors on a famous appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show September 17, 1967. In an oft-told legend, The Doors were asked to change the lyrics of the song (specifically, the line "girl, we couldn't get much higher"). The producers told Morrison to write a new lyric for the line, but he refused. The band promised to do so, but according to Jim Morrison he forgot to change the lyrics at the last minute and performed the unedited version live on-air, which he attributed to having been nervous. Years later, Ray Manzarek wrote that even after being told to change the lyrics, the band never even considered changing them. Despite applause from the crowd, Ed Sullivan was so upset that he refused to shake Morrison's hand as he left the stage. Backstage, the band was told that, despite being on the verge of signing a seven-episode deal to continue appearing on the program, they would never be on the Sullivan show again. Reportedly, Morrison's cavalier response was: "Hey, man, so what, we just did the Sullivan show!"
67) Allegedly, Janis Joplin had sex 54 times in 5 days while on tour. Allegedly.
68) "London Calling"'s cover was inspired by Elvis' debut album "Elvis Presley"; both covers have identical typography and a somewhat similar picture (y'know, black and white, a musician with an instrument)
69) During the instrumental break in Foo Fighters' "Everlong", three indecipherable tracks can be heard, whispered by Dave Grohl. Though the exact wording is unknown, they are a love letter, a technical manual and a story about a studio technician's father (or so claims the FF newsgroup, since Dave has only confirmed the manual thing)
70) During the weeks following the release of their debut album, "Is This It", The Strokes feared an avalanche of legal charges since bassist Nikolai Fraiture had stolen "every single bassline" from The Cure's songs.
71) And while we're at it, the UK-released version of the album, which features a black-and-white photo of a gloved hand on a woman's naked backside is said to reference Spinal Tap's "Smell The Glove".
72) At times during performances, other band members would unplug Sid Vicious' bass because his playing was so bad. It's not like he didn't know it, he once told Motorhead's Lemmy "I can't play bass", to which Lemmy replied "I know".
73) And you're wondering how Sid, John Simon Ritchie, got his nickname (ok, probably you aren't). He was actually named after Johnny Rotten's hamster, described by his owner as "the softest, furriest, weediest thing on earth", but described by Ritchie as "Sid is really vicious!" after the animal bit him. At the time, Sid was squatting with Johnny, and they would play Alice Cooper songs (Vicious playing the tambourine) asking for money, which people gave them to shut the hell up.
74) Led Zeppelin considered including steps on the cover of "Houses of the Holy" to explain how to dance to "D'yer Mak'er"
75) Jack Johnson's "Sleep Through The Static" was recorded entirely using solar energy
76) The Rolling Stones 1971 album "Sticky Fingers" featured in the cover a close-up photograph of a man's lower torso, including a working zipper, conceived by Andy Warhol (who, contrary to popular belief did not design the lips and tongue logo), which could be opened to reveal the underwear.
77) Elton John once terrified a particularly doped-up Iggy Pop when he stumbled on stage during a The Stooges show wearing a gorilla suit.
78) In their usual over-the-top, flamboyant style, The Decemberists claim to have met at a turkish bath. Anyway, I wouldn't take them very seriously, considering they also claim to travel exclusively by Dr. Herring's Brand Dirigible Balloons
79) Mancunian troubadour Badly Drawn Boy caused a stir among London commuters by busking outside Waterloo Station for a day, which was secretly filmed as the video for his song All Possibilities. But he didn't do too well - raising a paltry £1.60
80) In Roger Waters' 1991 album Amused To Death, he recorded a backward message critical of film director Stanley Kubrick, who had refused to let Waters sample a breathing sound from 2001: A Space Odyssey.The message appears in the song "Perfect Sense Part 1", in which Waters' backmasked voice says, "Julia, however, in light and visions of the issues of Stanley, we have changed our minds. We have decided to include a backward message, Stanley, for you and all the other book burners."
81) Dream Theater, Mr. Big, Scorpions and Racer X are the only bands that had two of it's members on G3 tour: John Petrucci on guitar and Mike Portnoy on drums (2001, 2002, 2005, 2006 & 2007), Paul Gilbert on guitar (2001, 2002 & 2007) and Billy Sheehan on bass (2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 & 2006), Michael Schenker and Uli Jon Roth both on guitars (1998), and Paul Gilbert and Bruce Bouillet both on guitar (2007).
82) Some of the profit's from The Dark Side Of The Moon were invested in the making of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. The members of Pink Floyd were reportedly huge Monty Python fans, to the point of interrupting recording sessions to watch the Flying Circus (though David Gilmour denied the statement saying "We would sometimes watch them but when we were on a roll, we would get on"). Jethro Tull and Led Zeppelin also contributed financially to the project.
83) One Sunday evening, while working on Iron Maiden's The Number Of The Beast, producer Martin Birch was involved in a car accident. He got his car back from the mechanic with the bill at exactly £666.66. Terrified, he demanded it to be rounded up to £667.
84) The Magic Numbers stormed out of their debut performance on BBC's Top of the Pops, after host Richard Bacon introduced them as "a big, fat, melting pot of talent"; talk about a poor choice of words.
85) Joe Satriani is 52 years old. (yeah, I know, lousy one. But I bet half of you didn't know it. And you are blown away)
86) The line "I won't open letter bombs for you" in The Clash's "Carreer Opportunities" is a reference to a former job of guitarist Mick Jones, who used to open letters for a British government department to make sure they weren't rigged with mailbombs.
87) Tickets for Frank Sinatra's first solo performance at the Paramount Theatre in New York City in 1942 were sold for 35 cents each.
88) Jonathan Houseman Davis, lead singer of Korn, was a member of his high school's bagpipe band.
89) Aerosmith's Dude Looks Like a Lady was inspired by Motley Crue's constant use of the word dude and their effeminate looks, but most specifically by Vince Neil.
90) David Bowie's eyes are both blue. However, one pupil is permanently dilated and as a result, one eye looks darker than the other. Bowie was injured after being stabbed with a compass by a friend in a fight over a girl.
91) Red Hot Chili Pepper's lead singer Anthony Kiedis carries a lucky charm with him everywhere he goes. it's a stone that was given to him by a random fan on a golf course in Germany.
92) On their 1979 tour, Van Halen's David Lee Roth gave each of the crew members 5 backstage passes, which they were supposed to give to beautiful women. If Roth shacked up with one of the babes, he gave the roadie that got her in $100 the next day.
93) In 1978, ABBA was Sweden's most profitable export. Car maker Volvo was number two.
94) If you ever had a beer with The Ramones, I hate to break it to you but you probably drank a little of the guys' piss along with it, since it was a little private joke they played on people outside their entourage (but hey, who cares, you had a beer with The Ramones!)
95) At age 13, Strokes' singer Julian Casablancas was sent to Le Rosey, a boarding school in Switzerland to resolve his drinking problems and improve his academic performance. Drinking problems. Age 13.
96) The Beastie Boys sampled 105 songs for their 1989 album "Paul's Boutique" and are still being sued for copyright infringement (when I found this I was kind of surprised, until I listened to Girl Talk's "Feed the Animals".Check it out, it features something like 360 samples).
97) The corner of 53rd and 3rd was a famous spot for male prostitution in New York, and it is speculated Dee Dee was a hustler there, to support his heroin addiction.
98) Peter Grant, Zeppelin's manager, was a huge guy, standing over six feet and weighing over 300 pounds. When the group was received by Elvis in his graceland mansion, and while the members of the band were greeting Presley, Grant sat on a nearby couch, not realizing it was already taken by Elvis' dad, Vernon, a small thin man. A small yell alerted everyone. On departing, Grant told his host "A pleasure meeting you Elvis, I'm sorry I sat on your dad".
99)And speaking of Grant, he was once at the front desk of the Hyatt Hotel in LA paying for the wrecks of the previous night, which included a dozen trashed tv sets. "You Know?" said the clerk "I've always wanted to throw a tv out of the window". Grant pulled a couple of hundred dollar bills, put them on the table and said "Here you go son, trash one on our account"
100) During the peak of the Waters-Gilmour war for the rights to Pink Floyd's name, Waters paid an artist to print a roll of toilet paper with Gilmour's face on each sheet.
101) U2 once signed a record contract inside a cubicle in the women's bathroom of the Lyceum club in london, Sex Pistols outside Buckingham Palace, and The Cramps on the grave of Frankenstein actor Bela Lugosi.
So there you go, 101 things you didn't know about rock and roll. I hope you enjoyed them, found them interesting, forgave my mistakes and maybe started researching on your favourite bands' facts. Thank you for reading, appreciate it. Agustin.
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