9 March

Pick a Day

9 MARCH

In Music History

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2020 An appellate court upholds a 2016 ruling that Led Zeppelin's "Stairway To Heaven" did not infringe on the Spirit song "Taurus," bringing an end to the lawsuit that was filed in 2014. The court also overturns the "inverse ratio rule," which sets a lower standard for infringement based on how much access a defendant had to a song.

2018 After 66 years, the British music magazine NME publishes its last print edition. The London rapper Stefflon Don gets the cover.

2018 Iconic album-cover-artist Gary Burden passes away.

2015 Eugene Patton, known as Gene Gene the Dancing Machine from the classic '70s Gong Show, dies at age 82 in Pasadena, California.

2015 R&B singer Angie Stone is arrested in Georgia on assault charges after allegedly punching her 30-year-old daughter's teeth out.

2011 Eric Clapton auctions off 75 guitars and 55 amplifiers, with proceeds going to his Crossroads rehab center in Antigua. Items sold include a vintage 1948 Gibson L-5P guitar and a Fender Twin amp.

2011 Phil Collins clears up rumors about why he is retiring. Speculation has included health problems, bad reviews, depression and an interest in devoting time to his collection of Alamo memorabilia, but Collins states the real reason: "So I can be a full time father to my two young sons on a daily basis."

2009 In New Orleans, Britney Spears launches her Circus tour, her first since 2004. The tour, which features acrobats, clowns, magicians, Pussycat Dolls, and lots of hits, is a triumphant return for Spears, who seemed unhinged throughout 2007 as she battled addiction and dealt with the fallout from her divorce.

2007 Boston lead singer Brad Delp commits suicide at age 55.

2005 George Scott of The Blind Boys of Alabama dies at age 75.

2005 Country singer Chris LeDoux dies from liver disease at age 56.

2005 The tour bus driver for The Dave Matthews Band pleads guilty to dumping sewage into the Chicago River, which hit a group of tourists cruising on an architectural tour. Stefan Wohl denied the charges at first, but admitted it when confronted with surveillance video. The band was not on the bus at the time.

2000 Croatian singer Ivo Robic dies at age 77.

1993 Sting releases his fourth solo album, Ten Summoner's Tales, which contains the hit "Fields of Gold."

1990 At The Central in Seattle, Mother Love Bone play their last show, as their lead singer Andrew Wood dies of a heroin overdose 10 days later. Jeff Ament and Stone Gossard from the band form Pearl Jam later that year.

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U2 Explore America On The Joshua Tree

1987

U2 release their fifth studio album, The Joshua Tree. The first two singles, "With Or Without You" and "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For," climb to #1 in America. The album becomes their first #1 in that country, and takes the Grammy Award for Album of the Year.


According to U2 frontman Bono, the album is a testament to a two-faced nation that holds great beauty but generates ugliness in its Reagan-era politics. "There's two Americas: There's the mythic America and the real America," the Irish rocker tells NPR. "We were obsessed by America at the time. America's a sort of promised land for Irish people - and then, a sort of potentially broken promised land." The Joshua Tree reunited U2 with producers Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois, who helmed their previous album, The Unforgettable Fire. The duo supported the band in their experimentation with ambient sound, which was a marked shift from their seminal rock/post-punk releases. With The Joshua Tree, U2 wanted to capture a cinematic panorama of America, in part by exploring its musical genres and conventional song structures. "With Or Without You," the lead single, is a twisted love song that finds Bono torn between a domestic existence with his wife and his on-the-road life as a musician. "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" is a gospel-influenced "anthem of doubt" that finds the band searching for enlightenment, while "Where The Streets Have No Name" dips into the blues, befitting lyrics about discovering who we are in the midst of trying times. Other tracks denounce the influence of American foreign policies on other nations - something Bono witnessed first hand on his trip to war-torn El Salvador, which inspired the songs "Mothers Of The Disappeared" and "Bullet The Blue Sky." The song "In God's Country" uses barren desert imagery and a bit of rock 'n roll guitar to challenge Americans' resistance to new political ideas. Despite the band's critique of America, The Joshua Tree, their fifth album, is their breakthrough release in the country. "With Or Without You" and "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" are the band's first #1 singles in the US and the album earns them their first Grammy Awards. They take home the trophies for Album Of The Year and Best Rock Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal. The album sells 25 million copies and dominates charts around the globe, making U2 bonafide (or should we say Bono-fied) superstars.

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