September 22, 1992. Bruce Springsteen appears on MTV’s “Unplugged.” Seems like a natural for Bruce to do this. He does perform a lot of acoustic numbers live. He comes out, does the first number unplugged, and then plugs in and plays a full-on rock set with the band he’s touring with at the time. The show ends up airing on November 11th, and then Bruce releases it as “MTV’s Plugged”, and it is very much a successful release for Springsteen.
Today in 1985, it’s the very first Farm Aid. It’s inspired by remarks that Bob Dylan makes at the end of Live Aid where he said they should do something like that for American farmers. So Neil Young, Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp, they found Farm Aid. They expect that the one concert will solve the problems for the farming industry in the United States. The problems are much too complex to solve with one benefit concert, and it ends up becoming an annual affair.
Today in 1979, Joe Walsh announces his candidacy for president. Yes, he ran for president. No, he did not win. But Joe, if you run again, you’ve got my vote.
Then we take a look at the calendar. We find a couple of Rock birthdays on it. Born today in 1958, Joan Marie Larkin. You may know her better as Joan Jett, former member of The Runaways and a solo artist, a very successful one. Although if you ask her, she’ll tell you that she’s a member of a band because it’s always Joan Jett and The Black Hearts. And born today in 1951, singer from Whitesnake and Deep Purple, David Coverdale.
