The last and controversial Beatles number one hit
1969
The Beatles recorded the controversial ‘The Ballad Of John and Yoko’ a song John Lennon wrote about his marriage to Japanese multimedia artist Yoko Ono and their run-ins with authorities. Only two members of the band recorded the song. Paul McCartney played bass, drums and piano with John on guitars and lead vocals.
It was the late time that Lennon and McCartney collaborated and it was the last Beatles song to be released as a single. It became the band’s 17th and final #1 hit record.
The song was recorded and mixed in nine hours on the same day. The line ‘Christ, you know it aint easy,’ caused a lot of controversy with its meaning with the conservative BBC banning it on radio with several US radio stations doing the same.
However, on some stations, the word ‘Christ’ was edited in backwards to avoid the ban.
Buddhist monks chant at Cobain’s funeral
1994
Iconic Nirvana front man Kurt Cobain, leader of the 1990s grunge era, was cremated at the Bleitz Funeral Home, Seattle. The death certificate credited Cobain’s occupation as Poet/Musician and his type of business as Punk Rock.
His partner at the time, Courtney Love divided his ashes; keeping some in a teddy bear and some in an urn.
She also a portion to the Namgyal Buddhist Monastery in Ithasa, New York to have them ceremonially blessed by Buddhist monks. The ashes were then mixed into clay, which were used to make memorial sculptures.
His mother, Wendy, held a final ceremony on May 31, 1999, at which a Buddhist monk chanted while Cobain’s daughter, Frances Bean, scattered his ashes into McLane Creek in Olympia, Washing, the city which fueled Cobain’s artistic muse.
Born this day, that year
Rock music welcomes a guitar legend
1945
English guitarist and songwriter Ritchie Blackmore from the legendary British rock band Deep Purple who scored several hit records like the 1973 classic ‘Smoke On The Water’. The song maybe over four decades old but it still inspires beginners to pick up their first instrument and attempt to copy Blackmore’s style.
In 1975 the Guinness Book of World Records listed Deep Purple as “the globe’s loudest band” for a 1972 concert at London’s Rainbow Theatre. Blackmore, who was renowned for creating a musical maelstrom with his signature Stratocaster guitar, later formed Rainbow who had several hit singles including the two most famous of them, Temple of the King and Man on the Silver Mountain. Many of Blackmore guitar solos have been voted among the best in rock music history.
