July 1974

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The third Newport Jazz Festival/New York ends its ten-day run a healthy $150,000 in the red; this, in contrast to the previous year when an overextended festival incurred a hefty deficit. The 1974 festival sells out more than half of its thirty-six events. Highlights include sets by McCoy Tyner, Keith Jarrett, Bill Evans and the festival's headliner, Diana Ross.
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Bob Dylan and the Band's Before the Flood turns gold, just several months after their tour. This live set from that tour makes #3.
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Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young begin their reunion tour in Seattle. The group performs a four-hour set (which leaves David Crosby practically without a voice for the next few shows), including both CSN&Y and solo material. A crowd of 15,000 attends.

The House Judiciary Committee releases transcripts of White House tapes that differ substantially form those President Nixon supplied. Four days later, the Watergate Committee concludes its investigative activities and issues a final report urging criminal prosecution of all those involved in the 1972 campaign scandals and cover-up. Vice President Ford confidently states that he feels the House will reject the impeachment bill.
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David Bowie, in the midst of a highly successful tour, records his two-night stand at Philadelphia's Tower Theater. Released later in the year, David Live goes Top Ten.
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The Grateful Dead receive two gold records for discs they released back in 1970, Workingman's Dead and American Beauty. Both were considered landmark albums for the Dead, who showed off their sweet, acoustic side and their love for vintage American blues.
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Ronnie Wood of the Faces plays a two-night solo stand in London, for which he's joined by Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones. Both Richards and Mick Jagger play on Wood's soon-to-be-released solo debut, I've Got My Own Album to Do.
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Florida TV commentator Chris Chubbuck announces her own suicide at the end of the news broadcast, and proceeds to shoot herself in the head on the air. The event gains her national attention and scores of newspaper headlines.
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The Moody Blues open the world's first quadraphonic studio.
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The Justice Department announces that it has ordered John Lennon to leave the country within 60 days (by September 10), after the Immigration Service denies the ex-Beatle an extension of his nonimmigrant visa because of his guilty plea in England to a 1968 marijuana possession charge. Even the New York Post comes to Lennon's defense, proclaiming in an editorial, "The crime for which John Lennon was convicted in London in 1968 would not even land him in jail." On Aug. 31, Lennon will assert in federal court that these actions are politically motivated and stem from his involvement in anti-war activities.

Rolling Stone reports that Rare Earth drummer Peter Hoorelbeke has been arrested for tossing his drumsticks into the crowd at one of the band's shows. He admits to doing it for audience reaction.
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After performing in twenty-eight cities, David Bowie's Diamond Dogs tour ends with a show at Madison Square Garden. Bowie had enlisted a ten-piece band for the tour, as well as designer Mark Ravitz, who came up with a three-dimensional city landscape set. Bowie made it clear on the tour that Ziggy Stardust is dead, no doubt disappointing many of his earlier fans, who came out to the show bedecked in glitter and makeup.
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After a week of deliberation in the House Judiciary Committee, Congressman Lawrence Hogan (R-MD) is the first Republican committee member to publicly support impeachment. The next day, the Supreme Court supports special prosecutor Leon Jaworski's request for 64 outstanding White House tapes and documents.
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John Denver receives a gold record for his all-time biggest hit, "Annie's Song." The former member of the Chad Mitchell Trio has been enjoying a highly lucrative career singing earnest, "sensitive" songs about love and nature ("Take Me Home, Country Roads," "Rocky Mountain High," "Sunshine on My Shoulders") since 1971. "Annie's Song" was written about Mrs. Denver, who later divorced him.
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Lightnin' Slim, often described as "the greatest living swamp bluesman," dies in Detroit of stomach cancer. Born Otis Hicks in St. Louis, he was in his thirties and had moved to Louisiana when he began to seriously sing the blues. Some of his most popular records wre "Bad Luck," "Hoo-Doo Blues," "My Starter Won't Work" and "Rooster Blues." He was sixty-one.
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Mama Cass Elliot dies at age thirty-two, in Harry Nilsson's home in London. A postmortem the next day shows that she died as a result of choking on a sandwich while in bed and from inhaling her own vomit. It will later be revealed that she suffered a heart attack. Elliot, born Ellen Naomi Cohen in Alexandria, Virginia, made her name as a member of the Mamas and the Papas, who had numerous hits from 1965 to 1968. She tried a solo career after that, which was fairly successful, and by the early Seventies was playing nightclubs and appearing on TV talk shows and Hollywood Squares. Four days later, she is cremated in Hollywood.
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The House Judiciary Committee passes three articles of impeachment, including obstruction of justice and abuse of power, against President Nixon.
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