Essay by Brad Balfour
When I was working as the Cincinnati Post’s pop/rock critic, I covered an Elvis Presley concert in 1976. Little did I know that would be his last tour. I reviewed him during that tour and caught hell for mentioning his bloated state. Then, on August 16, 1977, Elvis died from a drug overdose while sitting on the potty in a Graceland bathroom. I still have the un-torn ticket from the performance I never got to see (wonder what that’s worth?)
Now, these many years later, I’m finding out that on this day in 1969, it was also at the height of the Woodstock weekend, the great mega-rock festival that took place between the 15th and the 18th of that year. On that Saturday, August 16th, such mega-rockers as Mountain (this was only their third gig), the Grateful Dead (their set concluded with a 50-minute version of “Turn On Your Love Light”), Creedence Clearwater Revival, Janis Joplin with The Kozmic Blues Band, Sly and the Family Stone, The Who and Jefferson Airplane played well into the next day.
On August 16th in 2018, Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul died, bringing to a close her sterling career as a groundbreaker. Drawing on her gospel roots, she captured international audiences for a rock-and-soul music that was only beginning to cross-over to global audiences when she joined Atlantic Records and released such hits as “Respect,” “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman,” and “Chain of Fools” among many others.
Another major music figure was born on this day in 1958 — Madonna Louise Ciccone. After she moved to NYC from Michigan in 1978, she became a club kid and dancer who eventually propelled gay-tinged, new wave dance music into the mainstream while playing with her image and sexuality. With her flair for reinvention, she pushed the boundaries of pop art by stirring outrage and controversy.
As if in keeping with the outrage, a day earlier, on August 15th in 1975, “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” was released in movie theaters (it had previously been a cult musical). Though much of this film’s campy telling of a cross-dressing Dr. Frank-N-Furter (Tim Curry) trying to seduce two innocents seems quaint now, in the ’70s it was truly rebellious and subversive, embracing freaks and weirdos by celebrating queerness and decadence in age when this was just coming to the fore.
And, as if that wasn’t enough, the 15th of August, 1965, was also the night the Beatles played at Shea Stadium in New York City. The highlight of the group’s 1965 tour, the euphoria and mass hysteria that was Beatlemania in America came fully into view and was a monumental benchmark in the band’s ever-changing, profoundly revolutionary career.
While these music-makers shook up their community and the world, they were all part of the renegade pop culture that was emerging out of World War II’s devastation. In the minds of the many survivors of this global catastrophe, there was a desire to express oneself in terms beyond prewar modalities. And as these artists expressed that need in myriad ways, a subversive counter-culture took form post War.
I mention all this because, on August 15th, 1945, Emperor Hirohito made the announcement of Japan’s acceptance of the terms of the Potsdam Declaration in a radio broadcast to the Japanese people. His government had told the Allies of the surrender by sending a cable to U.S. President Harry S Truman via the Swiss diplomatic mission in Washington, D.C.
With that move, V-J Day (or Victory in the Pacific Day, or V-P Day), World War II was ended. All this came after the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki — on August 6th and 9th, 1945, respectively. Those two monstrous acts launched the Atomic Age and a new kind of existential anxiety took hold which has spurred the massive cultural response evidenced in these bands and musicians cited above.
Why this block of days? I have no idea. Maybe some astrologist or mystic can find the ethereal answer. Maybe this acknowledgment could spur some fantastical writing or sci-fi adventure series based on this revelation. Whatever it will be, I will never think of this time in the dog days of summer as I had previously. What new confluences will happen on this weekend going forward?