December 1970

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Eric Burdon is launching a CURB THE CLAP bumpersticker campaign aimed at fighting what he calls "the number-one sickness in the record business today -- VD," Rolling Stone reports. Burdon's manager, Steve Gold, denies that it has anything to do with MGM Records president Mike Curb's recent annnouncement that he was dropping eighteen acts from his roster because their music advocated drug use. "It's because Eric has the clap," says Gold. "He says from age fifteen to twenty-six he only had it once, but it's happened three or four times since. For every donation to the L.A. Free Clinic, Eric will send out a CURB THE CLAP bumpersticker. VD has more effect on this industry than any drug."
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Supersession, an album that evolved out of an ad hoc studio jam session with Mike Bloomfield, Al Kooper and Steve Stills, is certified gold.
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Gimme Shelter, Albert and David Maysles' documentary film about the Rolling Stones' 1969 tour of the U.S., premieres on the anniversary of the Altamont concert.

Nearly 200 Public Broadcasting stations around the United States air a sixty-minute show called San Francisco Rock: Go Ride the Music, featuring performances by and interviews with the Jefferson Airplane, Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead, Quicksilver Messenger Service and David Crosby.
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Rock critic John Mendelsohn's band, Christopher Milk, arouses the ire of Doug Weston, owner of the Troubador club in Los Angeles. At a Monday night audition there, the band's lead singer, Mr. Twister, wreaks havoc by pouring hot wax all over himself, biting audience members, overturning tables and spilling drinks in customer's laps.

Charges of "larceny by trick" are filed against Little Richard in Miami Beach, Florida, by Black, Inc., a black advocacy group that alleges the veteran rocker pocketed $250 he'd solicited for Blacks, Inc. Little Richard claims that all he wants is a receipt, and then he'll give them their money. A week later, the charges are dropped.
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In one day, five singles and five albums by Creedence Clearwater Revival are certified gold: "Down on the Corner, "Lookin' out My Back Door," "Travelin' Band," "Bad Moon Rising," "Up around the Bend" and Cosmo's Factory, Willy and the Poor Boys, Green River, Bayou Country and Creedence Clearwater Revival.
 17
The Beach Boys play a command performance for Princess Margaret at London's Royal Albert Hall.
 18
Creedence Clearwater's latest album, Pendulum, is added to their gold cache. And Bob Dylan's second album, Freewheelin' (vintage 1963), is certified gold.

The Beatles' last fan-club-only Christmas record is released.
 19
President Richard Nixon commends MGM chief Mike Curb for taking the iniative in ridding the music industry of drug users through his well-publicized dismissal of eighteen MGM acts who supposedly advocated drug use.
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Three new albums are certified gold: Traffic's reunion album, John Barleycorn Must Die, the original British studio recording of Jesus Christ Superstar and Judy Collins' In My Life.

The Supreme Court declares amendments to the Voting Rights Act constitutional, lowering the voting age to 18 for federal elections.
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Joni Mitchell, who's gained recognition as a songwriter through Judy Collins' recording of "Both Sides Now," and renditions of "Woodstock" by Matthews Southern Comfort and Crosby, Stills Nash and Young, earns her first gold disc as a performer with her third album, Ladies of the Canyon.
 24
New York garbage analyst and Dylanologist A.J. Weberman, in an article for Rolling Stone, sheds light on a line of Bob Dylan's "If Dogs Run Free" from the New Morning album: "The words are well-articulated and easy to understand until Bob sings, 'Oh winds which rush my tail to thee solglet me tone de.' When the last five unintelligible syllables are played backward at a slightly slower speed, one distinctly hears, 'If Mars Invades us.'"
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On the last day of 1970 it is officially announced that the Beatles are breaking up, which had been the worst kept secret in rock 'n' roll. Paul McCartney files a writ in London High Court against "The Beatles Co.," including Messrs. John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, seeking the legal dissolution of the Beatles' partnership.

Most popular music, books and film - 1970: Simon & Garfunkel's "Bridge Over Troubled Water" (pop single), Simon & Garfunkel's Bridge Over Troubled Water (pop album); the Jackson 5's "The Love You Save" and "I'll Be There" and Stevie Wonder's "Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours" (three-way tie for R&B single); Lynn Anderson's "Rose Garden" (C&W single); Mario Puzo's The Godfather (fiction); David Reuben's Everthing You Always Wanted to Know About Sex (nonfiction); Love Story (film).
  


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