This is something I used to do in a magazine I used to edit a couple of years ago. I took the idea from a column that used to appear on Scientific American magazine written by a British scientist called James Burke. His column was called “Connections” and consisted in relating history and science facts that were linked by a word until the cycle was finished. I just adapted it to Rock And Roll. Now, I’ll try to resurrect it every first Friday of the month here in the blog.
Mike McInnery was the author of the cover for Tommy, The Who’s seminal Rock Opera.
The Who’s drummer, Keith Moon died at the same flat on Curzon Square in London where singer Mama Cass had died.
Mama Cass was a singer in the Mamas and the Papas who before had sang in a band called The Mugwumps with a Canadian called Zal Yanovski.
Zal Yanovski left The Mugwumps and got together with John Sebastain to form Lovin’ Spoonful.
One of Lovin’ Spoonful’s greatest hits was “Summer in the City” used as soundtrack to Die Hard With a Vengeance and earned a killer version in the album Big Bang Theory by Styx.
One of Styx’s guitarists and vocalists, Tommy Shaw also played with Ted Nugent in Damn Yankees and once did a solo tour opening for The Kinks.
The Kinks’ drummer Mike Avory once played a gig with a fledgling band called The Rolling Stones.
The Rolling Stones had an official pianist called Ian Stewart in its initial formation, but he was removed in 63. However, the band had occasional pianists like Nicky Hopkins.
Nicky Hopkins became an in-demand session player, including playing electric piano in the single “Revolution” by The Beatles.
The Beatles version of classic early Rock song “Bad Boy” was quoted by Stephen King in his recently released new short-stories collection The Bazaar of Bad Dreams to have inspired him to write the story with the same name in the book. Recently another great version was recorded by HeadCat, the band formed by Slim Jim Phantom former Stray Cats drummer and the late great Lemmy Kilmister from Motorhead.
Motorhead’s drummer Mikkey Dee before getting the gig with the band was already an established name on the scene for his work with King Diamond.
King Diamond as everybody knows was the lead singer of Mercyful Fate who had in the Reunion album In The Shadows released in 1993 a guest appearance on the track “Return of the Vampire” from Lars Ulrich of Metallica.
Metallica’s original bass player often cited as one of his greatest influences, Geddy Lee from Rush.
Rush released a covers album in 2004 called “Feedback”. One of the highlights (they even played it live) was “Heart Full of Soul” from The Yardbirds.
The Yardbirds of course had once in their line-up both Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck. Beck left the band and formed The Jeff Beck group with Rod Stewart on vocals.
Rod Stewart later fronted The Faces who had Ronnie Lane as a bass player.
Ronnie Lane got so tired of so much hedonism and debauchery on the road that after a Faces tour in 1973 he moved to the Wales countryside to live as a gypsy with his second wife, Kate Lambert.
Do you know who Kate Lambert had recently divorced when he got together with Ronnie? Tommy’s cover artist Mike McInnery.
Be sure to check out my book “Straight and Lethal”
You can contact me at: carloantico666@gmail.com
Add me on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/#!/carlo.antico
Follow me on twittter: @CarloAntico
Carlo Antico Author Blog 