Down Memory Lane

The Jackson siblings Randy, Janet and Michael (1972)

The Jackson family seen at home here is the best-known family in music history and they were on the scene for decades. The children of the family first began their careers in the band called The Jackson 5 and this led to the solo careers of Janet and Michael. Out of the ten Jackson children, Randy Janet and Michael were the youngest and at the time this photo was taken. At the time, Michael was only 14 but even though he was the youngest member of the Jackson 5 (Which consisted of Michael and his brothers Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, and Marlon), he was the only one of the five who was starting a solo career. Randy was 11 at the time and even though he still wasn’t an official member of the Jackson 5, he still occasionally performed with them on percussion. Janet was only 6 years old here and wasn’t successful just yet, but she too would find her fame in the '70s and early '80s as an actress.

Willie Nelson (1949)

Willie wrote his first song when he was seven, and at 10 began playing guitar in a polka band. Born during the Great Depression and raised by his grandparents (seen here with his grandmother), he married for the first time at 19. He and 16-year-old Martha had three children and they spent most of the 1950s moving from state to state, trying to find day jobs to support the family while Willie pursued his music career in honkytonks at night. Finally, in 1960, emboldened by selling his first song, Family Bible, for $100, he moved to Nashville. Within a year, he had made a name for himself as a songwriter. In 1961, Faron Young recorded Hello Walls, Patsy Cline recorded Crazy, Billy Walker recorded Funny How Time Slips Away and Ray Price recorded Nightlife, and all four were top 20 hits in the country charts. In 1971 he moved to Austin saying, 'They kept fooling with the music when I knew it needed to be simpler. I felt I knew more than they did, because I saw it every day and they were only looking at numbers. I knew I had an audience. I just had to make a decision and say, this is the way I’m going.' The rest, as they say, is history. Four wives, seven children, over 350 albums and his own line in marijuana - Willie Nelson has never done anything by halves; Willie went on to become an American icon!

Neil Diamond (1955 / 1972)

For his 16th birthday, he received his first guitar when still in high school, and at a camp for children in upstate New York, he saw folk singer Pete Seeger perform. Watching other children singing songs for Pete that they wrote themselves had an immediate effect on Diamond; he became aware of the possibility of writing his own songs. "And the next thing, I got a guitar when we got back to Brooklyn, started to take lessons and almost immediately began to write songs," he said, helping him release his youthful 'frustrations'. He also used his newly developing skill to write poetry to write poems for girls he was attracted to in school. After a lengthy stint of having the cover versions of his songs released before his own he charted in 1969 culminating in sold out concerts at the Greek Theatre in 1971 and 1972 the latter of which he added a quadrophonic sound system for his performance, to create full surround-sound. In the fall of 1972, Neild performed for 20 consecutive nights at the Winter Garden Theater in New York City, the first that theater had staged a one-man show since Al Jolson had in the 1920s and the 1930s, with every performance reportedly sold out. It also made him the first rock-era star to headline on Broadway.

Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, and Bob Dylan (1972)

The place is New York City, the year is 1972 and it’s Mick Jagger’s 29th birthday. So, what else could Mick do but dress up as a lion tamer while Keith Richards pulled on a stripy suit jacket and go out and celebrate? Since it was the early ‘70s, the fashion isn’t as crazy as it looks. Then of course, another rock and roll legend decided to join them, and it was the great Bod Dylan dressed as a lumberjack. It doesn’t matter of course because he’s Bob Dylan and he can wear whatever he likes. This really looks like an amazing get together any Rolling Stone fan would be more than happy to attend.

Kris Kristofferson (1971)

Kris' songs from the late ’60’s and early ’70’s are the gold standard for songwriting in Country music, some of the best lyrics ever written, deep meanings, complex topics and clever phrasing. In one year, 1970, Kris's songwriting won 'Song Of The Year' from The Academy Of Country Music, and 'Song Of The Year' from The Country Music Association. But the awards were for two different songs, 'For The Good Times' (Ray Price) and 'Sunday Morning Coming Down' (Johnny Cash). That feat has not been done before or since. He famously landed his helicopter down in Johnny Cash's front yard to get his attention to his songs. Kris has said that he would like the first three lines of Leonard Cohen's 'Bird on the Wire' on his tombstone: 'Like a bird on the wire | Like a drunk in a midnight choir | I have tried in my way to be free'.

Janis Joplin and Tom Jones (1969)

This was certainly unusual. Not many people would think of Janis Joplin and Tom Jones as a likely pair for a duet. But seeing how it’s show business and anything is possible it’s not that surprising. Tom Jones had a show in 1969 called This is Tom Jones. On the show Janis Joplin performed a duet with Tom. Many other artists could also be considered too hip but that certainly didn’t stop Moody Blues, Joe Cocker, Joni Mitchell, and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. And in a special kind of way, Tom’s impressive voice and Janis’ unique sound worked well in a song called “Raise Your Hand”.

Cher (1969)

This music icon, the powerful pop diva Cher, has a short name but long hair, long legs and a long career. She started off her with her husband Sonny Bono as the pop-chart topper Sonny & Cher. Later on, the pair found even more success as a comedic duo with the Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour in the '70s. In the ‘80s Cher started appearing in movies such as Mask (1985), The Witches of Eastwick (1987), and Moonstruck (1987). However, she reached the top of her fame when she released her hit song “Believe” in 1998 and became the pop voice and fashion icon of a generation. This photo is however from her younger days posing for Vogue magazine shows that she was so beautiful in her younger years that she also might have been a model if she wanted.

Pink Floyd (1970)

Pink Floyd's fame and stardom began in 1973 when they released the album Dark Side of the Moon. Tracks such as Wish You Were Here, Animals, The Wall, and The Final Cut all managed to climb to the top of the charts all around the world and soon enough, sales of the album increased globally. However, the music Pink Floyd made before releasing Dark Side of the Moon was much more challenging and had long instrumentals and even some sound experiments. If you think you could enjoy 20-minute, multi-part songs, make sure to check out some of the band’s earlier work in albums such as A Saucerful of Secrets, Ummagumma, and Atom Heart Mother. In this picture, we can see members Rick Wright, David Gilmour, and Roger Waters playing songs from the Aton Heart Mother album while doing a stage shoot during a concert in San Diego.

Alice Cooper (1974)

If you’re a celebrity who’s constantly in the eye of the public, there’s a good chance you will often meet some other celebrities. In this picture we are witnessing a meeting between Alice Cooper and Colonel Harland Davis Sanders (left), the founder and face of Kentucky Fried Chicken. It just so happened that both of them were doing PR for their own businesses at the same hotel in Amsterdam and just happened to run into each other. We can only wonder if Cooper decided to tell Sanders the story about how he once brought a live chicken onto the stage and promptly killed it.

Blues Brothers (1980)

Jake Blues (right) and Elwood Blues (left) were the fictional Blues Brothers and they were played by John Belushi and Dan Aykoroyd. The two gave musical performances on Saturday Night Live and soon became fan favorites. Aykroyd and Belushi might have been cast members of the very successful and long-running Saturday Night Life, but they were also great lovers of blues and soul music. They took their band really seriously and decided to release their own music independently from SNL. Their first album, Briefcase Full of Blues, quickly climbed to the number 1 spot on the Billboard charts.

Joan Jett (1977)

The year was 1977 and The Runaways and its member Joan Jett were famous worldwide except it seems in the United States. The band was selling out venues in Canada, UK, and Japan. It was there that they were mobbed by screaming fans at the airport but somehow in the US they never reached that level. After leaving The Runaways other members ultimately found their path to fame elsewhere. Lita Ford went on to have a solid solo artist, Micki Steele joined the Bangles. But all that success was nothing compared to the popularity of Joan and her song “I Love Rock n Roll” which ruled the charts all over the world. “Crimson & Clover” was in top ten and later “I Hate Myself for Loving You” also became a hit. Joan is still performing even now and is considered by many fans to be the Queen of Rock N Roll and the Grandmother of Punk.

Judas Priest (1975)

Their second album called The Sad Wings of Destiny was released in 1976. While making this album, the group finally found their unique sound that was a mixture of hard rock and progressive rock, or to put it in other words, the genre of heavy metal was starting to get defined. It didn’t take long for CBS to notice the band and The Sad Wings of destiny and so making a third studio album with a major label was even easier for the band. This album was called Sin after Sin and after that, Judas Priest practically went into heavy metal history. 

Kurt Cobain (1986)

In this pre-Nirvana photo, we see Kurt Cobain as a happy, sweet kid, far from a grunge poet and a casualty of the rock and roll he would later become. In this photo, we see Kurt as a 19-year-old who will soon team up with future Nirvana bandmates Krist Novoselic and Aaron Burckhard. In his youth, he has had his share of troubles, from the divorce of his parents, problems with bullies in school, vandalism and other forms of antisocial behavior. But it’s nice to see that even the moody antiheroes have some fun from time to time. At this point in his life, Kurt was set on following the rock and roll path. Sadly, of course, the troubles caught up with him and he took his own life at the age of 27.

Loretta Lynn

Loretta Lyn has had 24 chart-topping singles and 11 number-one albums which undoubtedly makes her one of the most successful female recording artists in the history of country music. She was even named the “artist of the decade” by The Academy of Country music for the 1970s. She recorded feisty and rebellious songs which should be the anthems for any feminism. She sang of female empowerment and the double standards we still see when it comes to birth control for males and females in songs such as 'Rated X' and 'The Pill'; and she also addressed women who steal men from other women in such songs as 'You Ain't Woman Enough (to Take My Man)' and 'Fist City'.

Robert Plant and Sandy Denny (1970)

In this picture, you can see Robert Plant from the famous group Led Zeppelin with one of his closest friends Sandy Denny, who was a member of a British folk band called Fairport Convention. Denny was another piece of the puzzle that would go on to help shape the band of Led Zeppelin since her vocals are featured in “The Battle of Evermore”, which she sang alongside Robert Plant of the album Led Zeppelin IV. This song became an instant classic and for her contribution to the band, Sandy was awarded her very own runic symbol just like every other member of the band – hers was a downward-facing triangle. However, Sandy Denny sadly passed away in 1978, at only 31 years old.

Stevie Nicks and Tom Petty (1981)

Stevie Nicks and the late great Tom Petty were very close friends, but there was never anything romantic between them. Nicks idolized Perry in a way and told him that she would love to be one of the members of his band, the Heartbreakers. The two friends wrote songs for each other and appeared on both the live versions as well as studio versions for each other’s songs. One of the most notable examples of this was the track "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around," which Petty initially wrote for his band, but decided to give it to Nicks after all. This was a good move since the song ended up being number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 and after a few decades, Nicks got her wish and was made an honorary Heartbreaker by Petty. Their last performance together happed at London's Hyde Park, in July 2017, only a few short months before Tom Petty’s death.