EAR FARM Rock History Lesson: 8 January

The insatiable quest to forecast and anoint the next next big thing lying just ahead of ahead of the curve has at times yielded....how can I put it....questionable results? Life is not always a race, and sometimes it's best to have some perspective with your hyperbole. You'll not only find that that nifty beat from the new Wu-Tang song was pretty darn good in its original state, but also that your history and social studies teachers were going blue in the face extolling history's riches for good reason.

For example, take a cursory stroll through Google and Wikipedia searches and faster than you can say "Bon Iver" you'll find a treasure trove of cool shit that's gone down on this very day throughout rock and roll's sordid history. So, without further ado, here's a very loose guide to today, January 8th, in ROCK:

1935 - Elvis Aaron Presley is born. No pelvis would ever again be immune.

1946 - Robby Krieger is born. Unfortunately, I will always picture Frank Whaley when hearing his name, thanks Oliver Stone.

1947 - David Bowie is born. Are you recognizing yet how rocking January 8th is?

1957 - Bill Hailey and His Comets start the first ever rock and roll tour of Australia, playing two sold-out shows in Sydney. So you can blame them for Silverchair.

1966 - The Beatles' Rubber Soul starts its six-week reign atop the US album charts.

1967 - R. Kelly is born, a solid 18 years before the 1997 object of his......affection

1974 - Kiss is signed to Casablanca Records.

1975 - Tickets for Led Zeppelin's three-night residency at Madison Square Garden - 60,000 tickets in all - sell out in a record four hours.

1979 - Rush is named Canada's official "Ambassadors of Music" by the Canadian government. A young Matt Tyson practices pronouncing "out" as "oot" in front of the mirror.

1991 - Def Leppard guitarist Steve Clark dies at the age of 31 after accidentally mixing prescription drugs and alcohol.

2000 - U.K. police foil plot to kidnap Posh Spice whilst hubbie Beckham was off playing soccer.

2001 - Karen Jane McNeil is arrested for stalking Axl Rose outside his house. She claims he was communicating with her telepathically. I think I'm siding with her.

Any novice historians in the house? Errors or omissions? Love of Frank Whaley? Speak!