by Robert Wilkinson
Today we celebrate the birthdays of some extraordinarily talented Libra musicians whose careers touch a wide variety of music. If you like twisting, the blues, early rockabilly, smoking guitar, and awesome female performers, you'll like today's tribute!
Due to the sheer number of musicians having a birthday today, I can't do full musical tributes. That said, I found some tunes each did that exemplify their amazing talent.
All of these share a Sun sign, so in some way their Light was similar, no small thing. These 6 span over 55 years of hitmaking! And so, let’s begin with the original twister!
First, Chubby Checker (born Ernest Evans, October 3, 1941)! Here's Chubby on Dick Clark's American Bandstand doing the dance that made him famous, "The Twist."
He also took this follow up to the top 10! Here's a great video of numerous twisters set to “Let's Twist Again." (Yes, there really were that many ways to do the Twist!)
With Dee Dee Sharp, here’s a 1962 tv appearance dancing to “Slow Twistin’”
Also from 1962, the sax driven “Lose Your Inhibitions Twist”
He took this Gary “US” Bonds’ hit and gave us his version of “Dear Lady Twist”
From later in his career, another of Chubby’s original hits. The Limbo was all the rage in the early 60s! Here he lip synchs and dances on the Oz version of Bandstand in 1963. “Limbo Rock”
We’ll close this with a great film performance in Don’t Knock the Twist of a very rocking twist tune called “The Fly”
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From innocence to hard core blues, here's Stevie Ray Vaughan (October 3, 1954 – August 27, 1990) in live performances doing several of his best! First, live from Montreux 1985, "Pride and Joy."
From there we go to Japan in 1985 for a superb delivery of "Texas Flood," followed by a great display of his "sharp as a knife" guitar licks on The Arsenio Hall Show in 1989 blistering out "Crossfire" and “The House is Rockin’”
From Montreux in 1982, “Hideaway” and “Rude Mood”
Here’s a great live version from Live at Night Music, Los Angeles CA 1989 of SRV cranking out “Crossfire”
We'll close Stevie's segment with his tribute to the guitar Master Himself! Here's Stevie Ray Vaughan live in Japan doing a 15 minute homage of “Voodoo Chile (Slight Return)”
Here’s a 10 minute version delivered up at Montreux 1985 of “Voodoo Chile (Slight Return)”
From 1987 in Tennessee, here’s another smoking performance of “Voodoo Chile (Slight Return)”
Here’s a 93 minute live concert of Stevie and Double Trouble! For your enjoyment, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble Live At Montreux 1985
And for those who just can’t get enough, here’s a 88 minute live concert of Stevie with the legendary Albert King on Canadian TV in 1983! For your enjoyment, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Albert King Live In Session
For our closer, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble in the music video for “Superstition”
Our encore is from 1989 in Austin Texas! “Look at Little Sister.”
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Eddie Cochran (October 3, 1938–April 17, 1960) was an American rock and roll pioneer whose career was way too short given his huge influence on rock music. His songs, especially "Summertime Blues," have been covered by thousands of bands, some of them the biggest in history. He “lived fast, died young, and made a good lookin’ corpse,” as it used to be said.
First, some great live film footage of Eddie in 1959 at the Town Hall Party TV Show performing the iconic “Summertime Blues” (As a special treat, here's the classic performance by the Who at Monterrey Pop in 1967 of "Summertime Blues")
Here’s an amazing classic one hour live performance film created way back when! It features Eddie and his best friend Gene Vincent of “Be Bop A Lula” fame, cranking out that legendary early rock and roll classic. “Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran – Legends in Concert
From the movie The Girl Can’t Help It, here’s some great color footage of Eddie live doing his smash hit “Twenty Flight Rock” (this was the song Paul sang to John that got Paul accepted as a member of the Quarrymen.)
Workin’ the rockabilly formula, here’s Eddie in another live clip performing his hit “C’mon, Everybody”
From 1959, Eddie performing the Chuck Berry classic “Hail Hail Rock and Roll”
Also in 1959, here’s a great live performance of “Teenage Heaven”
Here’s live footage of Eddie doing a slow one in February 1959, “Have I Told You Lately that I Love You” From the same gig, “Money Honey”
From very early in his career in 1955, classic country that predicted his epitaph! “Live Fast, Love Hard, Die Young”
We’ll close with a rare recording by this classic rockabilly pioneer called “Nervous Breakdown”
For his encore, here's one of the last recordings he did, in 1960 right before the fatal car crash. "Milk Cow Blues."
Last year I had a great 51 minute BBC documentary from 1982 called BBC Arena Documentary: Eddie Cochran but it’s disappeared. So instead, here an interesting hour and 8 documentary on “Book Club Live” titled Eddie Cochran final tragic 1960s UK Tour
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Lindsey Buckingham (October 3, 1949) was THE guitar in the mid-70s to early 80s version of Fleetwood Mac. This guy plays breathtaking guitar, and I found some great live performances!
Here’s Lindsey and Fleetwood Mac live in Japan 1977 performing a tune he wrote to kick off the 1975 eponymous Fleetwood Mac album, “Monday Morning”
From April 1976 on The Midnight Special tv show, Fleetwood Mac live doing another LB tune he wrote with Stevie, “World Turning”
From the album Rumors, here’s a LB tune that kicked off that album! The video is lousy, but the sound is great! From 1978, Fleetwood Mac live cranking out “Second Hand News”
From 2009 in Pittsburgh, Fleetwood Mac in a great live video of “Second Hand News”
From 1977, live in Japan, Lindsey and the band offering up a great version of his song, “Never Going Back Again”
Here’s Lindsey and Stevie in an acoustic duet of “Never Going Back Again."
From the 1998 RRHOF induction ceremony, here they are again doing "Landslide" and "Big Love"
In another acoustic gem from 2006, here's Lindsey live in Milwaukee doing "Trouble." From the same show, "Go Insane."
Live in 2008 at Bass Hall, “Big Love” and “Go Insane”
From here we go highly electric! Lindsey and his band in NY 2008 doing his signature tune, "Go Your Own Way." From the same show, another of his great tunes from his Fleetwood Mac days, "I'm So Afraid."
Here's Lindsey smoking with Fleetwood Mac! First, a 9+ minute awesome performance in Pittsburgh in 2009 by the band of “I’m So Afraid.” From that same year, this time in Paris, here’s another 9+ minute performance of “I’m So Afraid.” (his guitar work at times made my jaw drop!)
And lastly, from their live 1997 video The Dance, here they are again doing "I'm So Afraid."
We'll close Lindsey's birthday tribute with two more great ones from The Dance featuring his awesome guitar work. First, the bolero-like building intensity of his finger picking in "The Chain" which we’ll follow with his signature song! Here's da man performing the incredible "Go Your Own Way." His guitar work is magical and Mick’s impeccable drumming keeps the whole thing moving at breakneck speed!
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For those who have been on a Moon of Neptune these past 15 years, India.Arie (October 3, 1975) is a Grammy Award-winning American neo-soul and R&B musician, songwriter, and producer. I couldn't find many live performances, but I did find a couple, along with original music videos of her better-known hits.
The music video of "Video"
The music video of "Little Things."
I found a live acoustic Live at VH1 performance of India.Arie doing her hit "I Am Not My Hair." Here's the original music video of "I Am Not My Hair."
From the same VH1 performance, here she is doing "Ready For Love."
We'll close this segment with India.Arie performing live in the studio doing the beautiful "Beautiful Flower."
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And now, last but never least, the great Gwen Stefani (October 3, 1969)! She began as the frontwoman for the ska technopop group No Doubt, and has split her time between the band and solo careers as a performer and fashion designer. For her birthday tribute, I couldn't find much live material, but quite a few music videos.
Here's Gwen and No Doubt in the music video of their mega-hit "Spiderwebs."
The music video of No Doubt doing "It's My Life."
The music video of No Doubt doing "Just A Girl."
The music video of No Doubt doing "Hey Baby."
The music video of No Doubt doing "Simple Kind of Life."
The music video of No Doubt doing "Don't Speak."
From her solo career in 2004-08, the music video of her major hit "Hollaback Girl."
The music video of "Wind It Up."
We’ll close this brief tribute with the music video of her solo hit, "The Sweet Escape."
Our encore his her entire 2014 album which hit the top! This is What the Truth Feels Like
So from the original Twister through a tragic blues guitar hero to an equally tragic rock and roll pioneer, from a guitar flashmaster through the voice of neo-soul to ska-influenced technopop, we have had some great talents born on October 3. If you're inclined, please go back over to you tube and enjoy whatever you like of these amazing Libra mega-talents. In any case, a big Happy and Merry Birthday to all of these first rate performers!
© Copyright 2022 Robert Wilkinson
ps – Also send up a big Happy Birthday to Gore Vidal, born 3 Oct 1925, and the Mickey Mouse Club, "born" Oct 3, 1955. That show mattered if you were a kid back then. Also a highest respects and appreciation, very special Happy goes out to the great Western Arhat, Master of the Kabbalah Paul Foster Case, born at 5:28 p.m., October 3, 1884 in Fairport, New York. If you want to know the Western Mystery Tradition underpinnings to the Tarot, the Tree of Life, and the Cube of Space, his book The Tarot: Key to the Wisdom of the Ages is still the gold standard.
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