I love rock n’ roll…

On this day in 1982 Joan Jett and the Blackhearts’ cover of “I Love Rock n’ Roll” reached the top of the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart for the first of seven consecutive weeks.

Joan Jett (born Joan Marie Larkin) was a founding member of The Runaways before starting her own band, the Blackhearts.  Their first album together included the songs “I Love Rock n’ Roll”, “Crimson and Clover” and “Little Drummer Boy”

I can’t even count the number of times I played this song on the jukebox, but then again,
that's what the song is all about.


 
     The Historical Inebriant:  Rock and Roll
     http://www.idrink.com/v.html?id=51672

Ingredients:

• Cola 
• Peppermint Schnapps 
• Rum 
• Vodka

I have no idea of the proportions on this drink since the directions are screwed up…
Isn’t that half the fun of drinking anyway?  You start with some crazy ass
ingredients and try to make it work but, usually by the time you think it starts
to taste good you’re completely shot anyways so who knows!

Beware the Ides of March???

Back in the day, say about 1st century BC, the Ides of March were simply another reason to celebrate.  It would roughly equate to Wednesday, half the week is done, half the week till the weekend.

In the lunar Roman calendar month there were three important dates:

• Kalends  - originally thought to be associated with the new moon, it was the first day of the month and was then, as it is now, the day the bills fall due.  At the beginning of the year Kalends is New Years Day.
• Nones – the seventh day of the month and associated with the half moon.  Also the day the month’s Feriae, or free festival days, were announced.
• Ides -  mid-month generally the 15th day, associated with the full moon.  The Ides of March were a festive occasion with parades to honor Mars, the Roman God of War.

Confusingly, the other days of the month were referred to by their relation to the closest forward of these three dates and counting backwards from it.  The 30th of October would be called III Kalends November.  Funny how this never caught on past the Middle Ages.

 

     The Historical Inebriant:  Bloody Caesar
     http://cocktails.about.com/od/vodkadrinkrecipes/r/bloody_caesar.htm

 

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 oz vodka
• 4 oz clamato juice
• 2 dashes Worcestershire sauce
• dash of Tabasco sauce
• celery salt
• lime wedge
• pepper to taste
• celery salt
• celery stalk for garnish

Rim a highball glass with juice from a lime wedge and a combination of celery salt and salt.
Add the vodka and clamato juice.
Season with pepper, Worcestershire and Tabasco sauces to taste.
Stir well.

Et tu, Brute?

The Planets

On this day in 1781 William Herschel discovered Uranus, the 7th planet from the sun and the first planet to be discovered in modern times.  Hershel, an astronomer and composer, discovered the planet (named for the primeval Greek god of the sky) while searching for double stars.
 
Herschel was also a very accomplished telescope maker.  Later in life, while testing different filters to observe sun spots, Herschel found heat being produced when red filters were used.   He had inadvertently discovered infrared radiation in sunlight by passing it through a prism.  The Herschel telescope named for him located in the Canary Islands uses this technology to explore deep space.

The German-born British astronomer also composed 24 symphonies.

As an interesting side note on this day in 1930, word of the discovery of the planet
Pluto was telegraphed to the Harvard College Observatory.

As an aside to an aside, the English composer of German descent Gustav Holst
wrote a seven movement orchestral suite entitled “The Planets”

The True lyrics, the FBI and the Marching Band

Ok, so I’m looking through some sites trying to find interesting material for this blog and on a "This Day in Music" site I came across the following entry for today:

1964 - The publisher of the song "Louie Louie" offered $1,000 to anyone would could find               suggestive lyrics in the song. (pronounced "Loowee Lewii")

My first thought was “Suggestive lyrics"... things have changed!  Living in an era of explicit lyrics and Parental Advisories for Cd's, I have a hard time imagining being in a position where you would have to offer a grand to defend your song from a “suggestive lyric” accusation.  My second thought was that I needed to learn a lot more about this song.

Filled with competing bands, unintelligible lyrics, rumours, hearsay, banned music, FBI investigations and a drawn out legal battle, the story of Louie, Louie is big screen material.  If you have time please read the entire story on Wiki (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louie_Louie), I have excerpted one particularly amusing paragraph:

In February, 1964, an outraged parent wrote to Robert Kennedy, then the Attorney General of the United States, alleging that the lyrics of "Louie Louie" were obscene. The Federal Bureau of Investigation investigated the complaint. In June 1965, the FBI laboratory obtained a copy of the Kingsmen recording and, after two years of investigation, concluded that the recording could not be interpreted, that it was "unintelligible at any speed,"[9] and therefore the Bureau could not find that the recording was obscene.[1] In September 1965, an FBI agent interviewed one member of the Kingsmen, who denied that there was any obscenity in the song.[1][27]
The lyrics controversy resurfaced briefly in 2005 when the superintendent of the school system in Benton Harbor, Michigan, refused to let the marching band at one of the schools play the song in a parade. She later relented.[28][29]
A history of the song and its notoriety was written by Dave Marsh.[30]

In the end, when you hear a rapper or a hip hopper going on about different acts or body parts, there is a debt to paid to those who sung “Louie, Louie” and the Kingsmen.

Also in the end, as you well know, there is a drink.

The Historical Inebriant:  Louie Louie
http://www.drinkswap.com/louie-louie.htm

3oz Southern Comfort
1oz Vodka
1oz Coffee Liqueur


After listening to the song, I would bet with the producer.

Three Islands...11,000 Virgins

On January 17th, 1917 the United States purchased the 

Virgin Islands from Denmark.  Upon learning that, in fact,
there were no virgins on the island the US tried in vain to 
back out of the deal but finally took possession of the 
islands of St. Croix, St. John and St. Thomas
on March 31, 1917. 

The Historical Inebriant:  Virgin Mary - Vodka optional

Want to know more:
http://www.vinow.com/general_usvi/history/