FORGOTTEN 45 @5.45PM
WHAT A WASTE – IAN DURY
#9 APR 1978
“WHAT A WASTE” IS A SONG AND SINGLE BY IAN DURY AND THE BLOCKHEADS, ORIGINALLY RELEASED ON THE STIFF RECORDS.
THE SONG HAS REMAINED IN THE BLOCKHEADS’ SET FOLLOWING DURY’S DEATH.
ESSENTIALLY A SONG ABOUT BEING IN A JOB THAT MAKES YOU HAPPY, DURY CLAIMED IN A 1984 INTERVIEW THAT WHILE NOT CONDEMNING 9-TO-5 JOBS, HE HAD WRITTEN THE SONG TO MAKE PEOPLE QUESTION THEIR LIVES.
THE SONG’S VERSES LIST A NUMBER OF THINGS THE SONG’S NARRATOR COULD HAVE BEEN, FROM A DRIVER, POET, TEACHER OR SOLDIER TO AN INMATE IN A LONG-TERM INSTITUTION AND THE TICKET MAN AT FULHAM BROADWAY STATION BEFORE THE CHORUS REVEALS THAT INSTEAD HE CHOSE TO ‘PLAY THE FOOL IN A SIX-PIECE
MUSIC DIARY
1971 – THE ROLLING STONES RELEASED THEIR CLASSIC ALBUM STICKY FINGERS IN THE UK, WHICH WAS TO GO TO #1 IN THE THERE, AND IN THE US. THE BAND’S FIRST RELEASE ON THEIR OWN LABEL VIA ATLANTIC RECORDS, THE COVER WAS DESIGNED BY ANDY WARHOL, WHO WAS PAID $15,000 FOR HIS EFFORTS. THE LP SLEEVE FEATURED A CLOSEUP OF A PAIR OF JEANS WITH A WORKING ZIP. WIDELY ASSUMED TO BE THAT OF MICK JAGGER, THE CROTCH PHOTOGRAPHED FOR THE COVER WAS ACTUALLY THAT OF ACTOR JOE DALLESANDRO.
1991 – FOUNDER MEMBER OF THE NEW YORK DOLLS JOHNNY THUNDERS (JOHN ANTHONY GENZALE, JR), DIED OF A DRUG OVERDOSE. HE RENAMED HIMSELF JOHNNY THUNDERS, AFTER A COMIC BOOK OF THE SAME NAME. THE INFLUENTIAL NEW YORK DOLLS FORMED IN 1972 AND MADE JUST TWO ALBUMS.
1992 – GEORGE MICHAEL ANNOUNCED HE WAS DONATING $500,000 ROYALTIES FROM THE SALE OF ‘DON’T LET THE SUN GO DOWN ON ME’, TO VARIOUS BRITISH AND AMERICAN CHARITIES.
1995 – PETER HODGSON, FROM LIVERPOOL FOUND A TAPE IN HIS ATTIC CONTAINING 16 OF THE BEATLES’ EARLIEST RECORDINGS MADE IN 1959. THE TAPE INCLUDED ‘HELLO LITTLE GIRL’, A LENNON-MCCARTNEY COMPOSITION THAT THE BEATLES NEVER RECORDED AND RAY CHARLES’ ‘HALLELUJAH, I LOVE HER SO’. THE SESSIONS HAD BEEN MADE ON A REEL-TO-REEL RECORDER THAT HODGSON’S FATHER HAD LENT TO PAUL MCCARTNEY.
2008 – BON JOVI GUITARIST RICHIE SAMBORA WAS SENTENCED TO THREE YEARS PROBATION AFTER ADMITTING TO DRIVING UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF ALCOHOL. 48-YEAR-OLD SAMBORA WHO WAS NOT AT THE COURT HEARING WOULD ALSO HAVE TO ATTEND FIRST OFFENDER ALCOHOL AWARENESS CLASSES. HE WAS ARRESTED IN LAGUNA BEACH AFTER HIS CAR WAS SEEN WEAVING BETWEEN TRAFFIC LANES.
BORN ON THIS DAY
1936 – ROY ORBISON, SINGER, SONGWRITER, WHO HAD A 1964 UK & US NO.1 SINGLE WITH ‘PRETTY WOMAN’ PLUS OVER 20 US & 30 UK TOP 40 SINGLES. WITH THE TRAVELING WILBURYS HE HAD A 1988 UK NO.21 SINGLE WITH ‘HANDLE WITH CARE’. ORBISON DIED ON DECEMBER
1949 – JOHN MILES, SINGER, SONGWRITER, GUITARIST, (1976 UK NO.3 SINGLE ‘MUSIC’).
1939 – RAY PETERSON, US SINGER, (1960 US NO.7 SINGLE ‘TELL LAURA I LOVE HER’).
1960 – STEVE CLARK, GUITARIST WITH DEF LEPPARD, WHO HAD A 1987 UK NO.6 SINGLE WITH ‘ANIMAL’, A 1987 WORLDWIDE NO.1 ALBUM WITH HYSTERIA AND A 1988 US NO.1 SINGLE WITH ‘LOVE BITES’. CLARK DIED ON JANUARY 8TH 1991, AGED 30 AFTER A NIGHT OF HEAVY ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION COMBINED WITH PRESCRIPTION DRUGS.
1955 – RAY BURNS, (CAPTAIN SENSIBLE), THE DAMNED, (1983 UK NO.3 SINGLE ‘ELOISE’) SOLO (1982 UK NO.1 SINGLE ‘HAPPY TALK’).
