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Noteworthy Then

7/28/1973 Watkins Glen hosts 600,000 at Summer Jam

 

Watkins Glen in the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York is a quiet, rural village on days when its race track is not hosting car races.  Attendance at the annual NASCAR race and Formula One racing the course at the Glen used to host would draw crowds thousands of times larger than the community's population.  On this day in 1973, Watkins Glen hosted an event that drew a crowd that even dwarfed the turn-out for races at the track.  An estimated 600,000 were on hand to see the Allman Brothers Band, the Grateful Dead and The Band.  Although the official event was limited to one day, fans arriving the night before got to hear extensive soundchecks.

 

Other July 28 Noteworthy Classic Rock events include...

 

1943 Mike Bloomfield born.

1945 Pink Floyd's Richard Wright born.   

1948 Bad Company and Free drummer Simon Kirke born.

1949 Steve Took, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and vocalist in T-Rex is born (Steven Ross Porter). 

1951 Gregg Giuffria keyboardist in band bearing his own name and House of Lords born.

1954 Kansas, Dixie Dregs, Deep Purple's Steve Morse born.   

1970 Ned Kelly movie with Mick Jagger in the lead role premieres.

1975 Bob Dylan starts recording sessions for his Desire album.   

1975 Black Sabbath releases Sabotage.

1979 Aerosmith, Journey, The Nugent play World Series of Rock at Cleveland Stadium.   Joe Perry quits the band after feuding with other Aerosmith members during the concert.

1979 Rainbow releases Down to Earth.

1986 Neil Young releases Landing On Water.   

1986 REM releases Life’s Rich Pageant.  

1987 Beatles sue Nike over use of Revolution in sneaker commercial.   

1993 Roger Waters of Pink Floyd marries Priscilla Phillips.   

2004 Poco drummer and vocalist has a heart attack during the group's opening song at a Springfield, MA concert.

2005 John Lennon's hand written lyrics for All You Need Is Love bring close to $1 million at London auction. 

2007 Police play Fenway Park in Boston. 

2007 Eric Clapton, Steve Winwood, Albert Lee, John Mayer, Willie Nelson, Sheryl Crow, BB King, Vince Gill and Alison Krauss play Eric's second Crossroads Festival in Chicago.

2009 Gov't Mule releases By A Thread.

2011 Meat Loaf suffers an asthma attack and passes out on stage during a Pittsburgh concert.

2014 Linda Ronstadt is awarded the National Medal of Arts.

2021 ZZ Top bassist Dusty Hill dies in a Houston hospital at 72. Billy Gibbons says that before passing his band mate had implored him to keep the band going by making guitar tech Ellwood Francis the bass player by saying, "Give Ellwood the bottom and take it to the Top."