Welcome to another edition of Today in Boston ROCK, where I, Adam 12, spotlight Very Important Days In Rock History. August 22 is one.
August 22, 1958: Vernon Alphonsus Reid is born is London. His family would move to New York City, where he would grow up as Vernon Reid and become the founding guitarist and main songwriter in Living Colour. Reid’s educational pedigree is quite impressive: he attended Brooklyn Technical High School, one of the elite public high schools in New York City. He then went on to study at New York University. But what’s more impressive is that Reid, much like Eddie Van Halen, was self-taught at the start. His influences are wide-ranging, from jazz to blues to funk to rock. And the backgrounds of the musicians he studied with over the years are just as varied. He talks about it a bit in the clip below. Take a look and give it up for this underrated guitar god and birthday boy.
August 22, 1967: Layne Rutherford Staley is born in Kirkland, Washington. Layne Staley fronted Alice In Chains and, in doing so, became one of the strongest voices out of not just the Seattle grunge scene, but of the ’90s rock scene in general. If Kurt Cobain was the “voice of a generation,” Layne Staley was that voice’s harmony. On the 4th, not the 3rd or the 5th. To celebrate what would have been Layne’s 55th birthday, let’s revisit one of his most emotional and haunting vocal performances: “Down In A Hole” from AIC’s MTV Unplugged.
August 22, 1994: Stone Temple Pilots headlined the Tsongas Arena in Lowell. I was there, and I wrote about the gig a few years ago to mark the 25th anniversary. Still one of the greatest rock shows I saw in that era.
