R.I.P. RON ASHETON ~ Ronald Frank Asheton (July 17, 1948 – January 6, 2009)

On January 6, 2009, Ron Asheton, the guitarist in the proto-punk band the Stooges, whose raw, animalistic playing laid the groundwork for the entire punk rock movement, was found dead in his Ann Arbor, Michigan home. He was 60. An autopsy is scheduled, but police don't suspect foul play or drug use. Alongside Iggy Pop, David Alexander and his brother Scott, Ron co-wrote such classics "I Wanna Be Your Dog," "No Fun" and "1969."

—That’s pretty much the gist of the announcement of Ron’s demise (in publications across the universe), and , although not nearly the whole story on the incredible individual who was Ronnie Asheton, it speaks volumes…

“Come on Ron, tell ‘em how I feel…”

After The Stooges imploded in 1974, Ron formed a new band, ultimately acquiring drummer Dennis "Machine Gun" Thompson, bass player Jimmy Recca and keyboardist Scott Thurston.

Ron was named #60 in the Rolling Stone Magazine's list of "Top 100 Guitar Players of All Time"

Asheton went on to play guitar in little-known groups such as the New Order, Destroy All Monsters and Dark Carnival. "I wasn't very successful in my endeavors," Asheton said in 2007. "But I kept on playing. I never got a regular job. If I made $50 a night I was happy. That was big bread. And just getting along with being able to pay the rent and cat food — they were the most important things. Then comes alcohol and cigarettes."--Rolling Stone Magazine interview 

 Destroy All Monsters, featuring Ron Asheton and Niagra Detroit, was another of Ron's projects.
     Although never achieving mainstream success, the band  earned some notoriety due to members of notable rock groups The Stooges (Ron and Scott Asheton), MC5 (Mike Davis), The Rationals (Scott Morgan), The Up (Gary Rasmussen), etc…









Although Destroy All Monsters never recorded a “proper album,”  Sonic Youth singer/guitarist Thurston Moore released a three compact disc compilation of the group's music in 1994

New Race was a punk/proto-punk super-group based in Sydney, Australia formed in April 1981.
                        New Race was a concept band featuring three members of Radio Birdman: Deniz Tek, Rob Younger, and Warwick Gilbert, along with their inspirational mentors: Ron Asheton of The Stooges,

and Dennis "Machine Gun" Thompson of the MC5.

The Stooges were finally inducted into The Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame in 2010

…ROCK ON RON!!! (R.I.P.)

HOLLYWOOD'S MACAMBO CLUB IN THE EVOLUTION OF ROCK 'N ROLL

The Mocambo was a nightclub in West Hollywood, California, at 8588 Sunset Boulevard on the Sunset Strip.

                                              
It was opened on January 3, 1941, and the Mocambo became an immediate success. $100,000 had been spent on the decor of the club with a Latin American theme. Along the walls were glass cages holding live cockatoos, macaws and other parrots. With big band music, the club became one of the most popular dance-till-dawn spots in town. On any given night, one might find the room filled with the leading men and women of the motion picture industry.

Frank Sinatra and Ava Gardner

 In 1943, when Frank Sinatra became a solo act,

he made his Los Angeles debut at Mocambo.

Frank Sinatra and Judy Garland

 

The mid 1950s saw Ella Fitzgerald become the first African-American to perform at the Mocambo, after Marilyn Monroe had lobbied the owner for the booking.

I owe Marilyn Monroe a real debt. It was because of her that I played the Mocambo, a very popular nightclub (Ella Fitzgerald)

The booking was instrumental in Fitzgerald's career. The incident was turned into a play by Bonnie Greer in 2005.

Among the celebrities who frequented the much talked about Mocambo were Gable and Lombard, Bogart and Bacall…

Bogart and Bacall were regulars at The Macombo

     Errol Flynn, Judy Garland, Janet Leigh and Louis B. Mayer. Myrna Loy and Arthur Hornblow celebrated their divorce there.

The club was featured on the TV series I Love Lucy, and Ricky Ricardo and his orchestra can still be seen there in reruns.

Desi Arnez a/k/a Ricky Ricardo

The Mocambo was also parodied mercilessly in a Bugs Bunny cartoon, Slick Hare.

According to a commentary track on the DVD with this cartoon, the man who came up with the visuals of the restaurant managed to get into the kitchen and drew the kitchen exactly as he saw it - complete with dripping grease on the refrigerator and vegetables lying around the ground!

Billy Ward And His Dominoes played at The Mocambo, Los Angeles on January 4, 1955

The Mocambo closed in 1959. The site is now a parking lot

JANUARY 3,1959: The BeginningS of Motown and HITSVILLE USA

January 3, 1959: Berry Gordy moves all of Motown's operations into a two-story house at 2648 West Grand Boulevard, which he christens "Hitsville"

"Hitsville U.S.A." is the nickname given to Motown's first headquarters. A former photographers' studio located at 2648 West Grand Boulevard in Detroit, Michigan

The property was purchased by Motown founder Berry Gordy in 1959 and converted into the record label's administrative building and the photography studio located in the back of the property was modified into a small recording studio, which was open 22 hours a day (closing from 8 to 10 AM for maintenance). 

The Gordys moved into the second floor living quarters and Motown had opened up shop as Tamla Records! 

"Shop Around", The Miracles' first #1 R&B hit, peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1960.

It was Tamla's first million-selling record. "

 By the mid-1960s, the label,

with the help of songwriters and producers such as Smokey Robinson

A&R chief William "Mickey" Stevenson

Who, incidentally was a writer/producer, as well as “The A&R Man” at Motown. He co-wrote “Dancing in the Streets” and then made it a hit for Martha Reeves and the Vandellas…

Brian & Eddie Holland, Lamont Dozier,

and Norman Whitfield,

Norman Whitfield and Barret Strong

was a major force in the music industry

By the end of 1966, Motown would occupy seven additional neighboring houses, Motown had hired over 450 employees and grossed an income of $20 million and the Gordys had moved out of the second floor living quarters:

Berry Gordy's "Motown Mansion"

Muddy Waters in THE EVOLUTION OF ROCK 'N ROLL

January 2, 1947: Muddy Waters makes three recordings for Columbia,
 "Jitterbug Blues,"
"Hard Day Blues"
and "Burying Ground Blues."

Jitterbug Blues

Burying Ground Blues

Testament Label does not release them until 1971—In the meantime, Muddy had to survive as a truck driver: well, sort of…

Working as a truck driver, Waters had managed to persuade the operators of Aristocrat-later Chess-Records, a small, independent Chicago firm, to record him...

 After a few unsuccessful attempts, Waters suddenly scored with the single "I Can't Be Satisfied”

B/W “I Feel Like Going Home”

And it is with this record that the history of the modern Chicago blues properly begins. Over the next few years, Waters gathered around him a group of like-minded, country-reared musicians with whom he proceeded to make blues history...

A complete Muddy Waters Biography can be found on the Official Muddy Waters Website. Check it out!

January 1, 1987: BLUES, SOUL, R&B AND DOO-WOP ALL SCORE BIG IN THE ROCK ‘N ROLL HALL OF FAME

Born in Mississippi on April 4, 1915,

McKinley Morganfield got the name Muddy Waters because he played in a creek as a boy. He grew up immersed in the Delta blues

 In 1943 he moved to Chicago and began playing in clubs. A record deal followed, and hits like "I'm Your Hoochie Coochie Man" and "Rollin' Stone" made him an iconic Chicago blues man.

Muddy Waters was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. On January 1, 1987

Singer Clyde McPhatter was already successful  on the gospel circuit when,  In 1950 , he joined Billy Ward and the Dominoes.

Shortly thereafter, Atlantic Records' sought to establish a new group around him. This group had a hit with "Money Honey."

In 1954 he was drafted into the army, but was able to continue recording. Upon his discharge he became a soloist.

Clyde McPhatter was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on January 1, 1987

Ahmet Ertegün was a Turkish American musician and businessman, best known as the founder and president of Atlantic Records. He also wrote classic blues and pop songs and served as Chairman of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and museum. Ertegun has been described as "one of the most significant figures in the modern recording industry."

Ahmet Ertegun was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on January 1, 1987

After serving in WWII, Riley B. King became a disc jockey at WDIA in Memphis, where he was dubbed "The Beale Street Blues Boy." That nickname was shortened to "B. B.," and the guitarist cut his first record in 1949. He spent the next decades recording and touring, playing over 300 shows a year. King has worked with artists from rock, pop, and country backgrounds. He won his 14th Grammy Award in 2006.

B.B. King was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame January 1, 1987

Jerome "Jerry" Leiber (April 25, 1933 – August 22, 2011) and Mike Stoller (born March 13, 1933) were American songwriting and record producing partners. Stoller was the composer and Leiber the lyricist.

Their most famous songs include "Hound Dog", "Jailhouse Rock", "Kansas City", "Stand By Me" (with Ben E. King), and "On Broadway" (with Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil).

Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on January 1, 1987

Aretha Louise Franklin (born March 25, 1942) is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist.

Although known for her soul recordings and referred to as The Queen of Soul, Franklin is also adept at jazz, blues, R&B, gospel music, and rock. Rolling Stone magazine ranked her atop its list of The Greatest Singers of All Time as well as the ninth greatest artist of all time.

Aretha Franklin is inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame January 1, 1987

Big Joe Turner (born Joseph Vernon Turner Jr., May 18, 1911 – November 24, 1985) was an American blues shouter from Kansas City, Missouri.

According to the songwriter Doc Pomus, "Rock and roll would have never happened without him." Although he came to his greatest fame in the 1950s with his pioneering rock and roll recordings, particularly "Shake, Rattle and Roll"

  Turner's career as a performer stretched from the 1920s into the 1980s. 

Big Joe Turner was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on January 1, 1987

  Gerald "Jerry" Wexler (January 10, 1917 – August 15, 2008) was a music journalist turned music producer, and was regarded as one of the major record industry players behind music from the 1950s through the 1980s. 

 

He coined the term "rhythm and blues", and was integral in signing and/or producing many of the biggest acts of the last 50 years, including Ray Charles, the Allman Brothers, Chris Connor, Aretha Franklin,  Led Zeppelin, Wilson Pickett, Dusty Springfield and Bob Dylan.  Jerry Wexler was one of the most highly-regarded A&R men in popular music history, a status bolstered by his accomplishments with Aretha Franklin. 

Jerry Wexler was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on January 1, 1987

 

The Coasters are an American rhythm and blues/rock and roll vocal group that had a string of hits in the late 1950s. Beginning with "Searchin'"

and "Young Blood"

 

 
their most memorable songs were written by the songwriting and producing team of Leiber and Stoller. Although the Coasters originated outside of mainstream doo wop, their records were so frequently imitated that they became an important part of the doo wop legacy through the 1960s

 
The Coasters were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on January 1, 1987

 

      NOT A BAD CROP OF INDUCTEES!!!