February 1975

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Alto saxophonist Louis Jordan dies in Los Angeles at the age of sixty-six. The Arkansas-born Jordan had a string of rhythm & blues and pop hits throughout the Forties ad early Fifties, and he and his band, the Tympany Five, influenced rockers from Chuck Berry to Joe Jackson with their numerous jump blues and novelty sides.
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Down by the Jetty, Dr. Feelgood's first record, is put out by United Artists in England over Kokomo and Chilli Willi on the Naughty Rhythms tour, is perhaps the missing link between pub rock and punk; its hard-edged, almost brutal R&B sound and throwback stance presages much of what emerges in England over the next two years.
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Bob Dylan's Blood on the Tracks earns a gold record. The LP marks not only Dylan's return to Columbia Records from Asylum, but also a return to form on vinyl; the album is deemed to be of such significance that Rolling Stone devotes to its entire review section to a study of it by various writers. Interestingly, the liner notes by Pete Hamill are awarded a Grammy in 1976, despite being withdrawn from the back cover after the initial pressing.

Chad Mitchell, former leader of a folk trio named after him, is sentenced to five years in prison by a U.S. District Court judge in San Antonio for possession of marijuana. The original charges of smuggling, conspiracy with intent to distribute and possession were made after Mitchell was caught driving a truck carrying 400 pounds of grass across the border from Mexico into Texas in October 1973.
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John Lennon releases Rock 'N' Roll, his final record before a self-imposed five-year exile from the music business. The album of oldies -- with some songs coproduced by Phil Spector and the others rushed out at New York's Record Plant in November 1974 when Lennon's deportation seemed imminent -- fails to capture much public or critical favor, reaching #6 before plummeting rapidly. The idea for an oldies album originally came form Roulette Records President Morris Levy, who (claiming a verbal agreement with Lennon) later uses mail-order television ads to market Roots, a record culled from roughly mixed session tapes. Lennon sues to withdraw the product and wins his case in a New York courtroom a year later.
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Dragon Fly, the first album by Jefferson Starship, a reformed and revamped version of Sixties San Francisco protest and acid-rock band Jefferson Airplane, wins a gold record. The album, which includes "Ride the Tiger," "That's for Sure" and "Caroline," is actually the second to be released under the Starship aegis; the first, 1970's Blows against the Empire, was recorded before Jefferson Airplane officially became Jefferson Starship, and Airplane-Starship singer/guitarist/ songwriter Paul Kantner insists there is no connection between the two.
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Cher files for divorce from her husband of ten years, Sonny Bono. The divorce is finalized June 26; four days later, she will marry Gregg Allman.
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John Entwistle begins the only solo tour by a Who member in Sacramento, California. The quiet bassist and his band, Ox (after his own nickname), play for five weeks in the States, with mixed results: Entwistle later complains the tour cost him a fortune and that he hates guitarist Robert Johnson. it is his last public solo endeavor for over six years.

David Bowie's "Young Americans" is released, and although it climbs to only #28 on the charts, three months later, it continues the new "white soul" image projected by Bowie since his 1974 U.S. tour and David Live album. His second studio effort in that direction proves far more successful: "Fame," issued from his Young Americans LP, in March, eventually rises to Number One.
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The second single from John Lennon's Walls and Bridges album, "#9 Dream," peaks at -- of course -- #9 on the charts.

Top of the charts: Average White Band's "Pick Up the Pieces" (pop single) and AWB (pop album).
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Attorney General Edward Levi reveals that former FBI director J. Edgar Hoover amassed potentially damaging personal information about past presidents, congressmen and other public figures who opposed him. CBS reports the next day that investigations into past CIA activity reveal at least three assassination plots aginst foreign leaders.
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