Seventies Daily Music Chronicle - June 1977

June 1977
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5 "Sleepy" John Estes dies at age seventy-seven after suffering a stroke in a Brownsville, Tennessee, hospital. Estes was one of the authentic country blues singers and guitarists "rediscovered" by young blues and folk-music enthusiasts in the early Sixties. In the Seventies, he recorded with Ry Cooder and Mike Bloomfield, and the Joy of Cooking had a minor hit with his "Going to Brownsville." Alice Cooper, preparing for his first American concert appearance in two years (kicking off on June 19 in Anaheim, California), suffers a setback when his boa constrictor -- for many years a feature of his stage act -- is mortally bitten by the live rat it was fed for breakfast ("Like being hit on by your Wheaties," mourns Cooper). A public audition for a new performing snake is scheduled for June 13 at the ABC Entertainment Center in Century City, California, where a panel of judges consisting of Cooper, Jaye P. Morgan, Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman (Flo and Eddie) will choose a boa named Angel from a field of forty slithering herpetoids. Avowed Grateful Dead-head Bill Walton leads the Portland Trailblazers in defeating the Philadelphia 76ers, 109-107, to clinch the NBA championship.	6 Stevie Wonder delivers an unannounced lecture to a UCLA class studying the record industry. (The Billboard- sponsored course is titled "Number One with a Star.") Wonder discusses his up-and-down relationship with Motown Records and then performs a brief set -- his first in the U.S. in a year and a half.	7	8	9 In Carey v. Population Services International, the Supreme Court rules 7 to 2 that it is unconstitutional for states to insist that nonprescription contraceptives be sold only in drug stores or by doctors, and that minors at least 16 years of age can be allowed access to contraceptives.	10 Joe Strummer and Topper Headon of the Clash are arrested for painting their band's name on a London wall.	11 The Top Five 1. "I'm Your Boogie Man" - K.C. & The Sunshine Band 2. "Dreams" - Fleetwood Mac 3. "Got to Give It Up, Pt. 1" - Marvin Gaye 4. "Gonna Fly Now (Theme from 'Rocky')" - Bill Conti 5. "Feels Like the First Time" - Foreigner
12	13	14 The U.S. Supreme Court rules in National Socialist Party of America v. Village of Skokie that Frank Collins' neo-Nazi group is permitted to demonstrate in Chicago's predominantly Jewish suburb of Skokie, Illinois, home to many Holocaust survivors and their descendants. The event never happens in Skokie but instead the following year in Chicago's own Marquette Park and causes much internal division among its backers, the ACLU, many of whom are Jewish. This causes many ACLU members to resign as well as many former ACLU supporters to stop contributing, and was the basis of the 1981 tele-film named for the town, Skokie. Actor and voiceover artist Alan Reed, best known as the voice of Fred Flinstone in the 1960s cartoon sitcom The Flintsones, dies at 69.	15	16 "Beatlemania," a musical revue based on songs by John Lennon and Paul McCartney and starring four Beatle lookalikes, opens at the Winter Garden Theatre on New York City's Broadway. The show will run for 1,006 performances, moving later to Broadway's Lunt Theatre and then the Palace Theatre before closing in 1980.	17 Michael Schenker, the German lead guitarist of the English heavy-metal band UFO, disappears after a concert in Leeds, England, and is feared to be sick, dead or absconded by Moonies. He will turn up in Germany six months later, explaining that he wanted to quit UFO but didn't know how to say so in English, so he simply left without a word. Schenker will, however continue to play on and off with UFO until 1980, when he forms the Michael Schenker Group.	18 Knife-wielding hoodlums, offended by the Sex Pistols' antimonarchist stance in their hit single "God Save the Queen," attack the group's Johnny Rotten on a London street, slashing his face and hands. The following day, Sex Pistol Paul Cook will be jumped by another gang of royalists and beaten with an iron pipe. The New York Yankees dugout becomes a verbal battlefield as manager Billy Martin and outfielder Reggie Jackson hurl obscenities at each other on national TV. Fleetwood Mac's new album Rumours and their latest single "Dreams" both top their respective charts. Rumours, which hints at the incestuous romantic woes of the band's members, spends 31 weeks at No. 1, a run unsurpassed by any album since. The Top Five 1. "Dreams" - Fleetwood Mac 2. "Got to Give It Up, Pt. 1" - Marvin Gaye 3. "Gonna Fly Now (Theme from 'Rocky')" - Bill Conti 4. "Feels Like the First Time" - Foreigner 5. "Lucille" - Kenny Rogers
19	20 Island Records releases Steve Winwood's eponymous first solo album and first record under any name since Traffic's When the Eagle Flies three years earlier. Steve Winwood will reach #22 on the American LP chart. Crude oil begins to flow through the Alaska pipeline for the first time.	21 Watergate conspirator H.R. Haldeman enters the Lompoc federal prison in California to serve his sentence for his role in the scandal and cover-up. Former Richard Nixon attorney general John Mitchell begins his sentence the next day at a military prison in Alabama. Haldeman had been convicted of obstruction of justice and perjury, while Mitchell was targeted for conspiracy, obstruction of justice and perjury. Mitchell, who once told Washington Post reporter Carl Bernstein that his publisher Katherine Graham will "get her tit caught in a big fat wringer if that's published," will be paroled for medical reasons after serving only 19 months.	22	23	24 Harvest/EMI Records releases the first punk compilation album, Live at the Roxy. The set includes concert numbers by the Buzzcocks, Eater, Johnny Moped, X-Ray Spex, the Adverts, Slaughter and the Dogs, the Unwanted and Wire, recorded at London's preeminent punk club.	25 The Emotions' "Best of My Love" hits Number One on the R&B chart; two months later, it will do the same on the pop chart. The female vocal trio was formed in 1968 by the three Hutchinson sisters, Wanda, Sheila and Jeanette, who had been singing gospel music professionally since the beginning of the decade. "Best of My Love," recorded after touring with Earth, Wind and Fire, was written and produced by EW&F frontman Maurice White. In 1979, the Emotions will team up with EW&F for "Boogie Wonderland" -- a hit which, like "Best of My Love," sets gospel-style singing to a disco beat -- but "Best of My Love" will remain the Emotions' biggest commercial success. The Floaters' first single, "Float On," enters the R&B chart, where it will reach Number One in August. Peaking at #2 on the pop chart, it will be this Detroit vocal quartet's biggest hit. The Top Five 1. "Got to Give It Up, Pt. 1" - Marvin Gaye 2. "Gonna Fly Now (Theme from 'Rocky')" - Bill Conti 3. "Undercover Angel" - Alan O'Day 4. "Feels Like the First Time" - Foreigner 5. "Lucille" - Kenny Rogers
26 "Elvis has left the building"... for the last time: Elvis Presley makes what will be his last public appearance with a concert at the Market Square Arena in Indianapolis, Indiana. The last song he sang was his own personal favorite, "Can't Help Falling in Love."	27	28	29 The U.S. Supreme Court rules in Coker v. Georgia that rape without murder is no longer a capital crime.	30 Marvel Comics, the publishing company that introduced such superheroes of American pop culture as Spider Man, issues the first of two comic books based on the costumed and masked stage characters of the members of Kiss. The red ink for the initial printing was reportedly mixed with small amounts of blood from each member of the group. Kiss releases its sixth studio album, Love Gun. Featuring a gender reversal cover of The Crystals' 1963 hit single "Then He Kissed Me," it will peak at No. 4, becoming the shock rockers' most successful album.

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