Welcome to another edition of Today in Boston ROCK, where I, Adam 12, spotlight Very Important Days In Rock History. August 25th is one.
1949
August 25, 1949: Chaim Vitz, aka Gene Klein, aka Gene Simmons, aka The Demon is born. You might've heard of him: he plays bass and sings and sticks out his abnormally long tongue for the rock group KISS. Here's Simmons with some vintage, bloody Demon antics from 1975.
1951
August 25, 1951: Robert John Arthur Halford, aka the Metal God, is born. He is truly a living legend, not only for his vocal work with British metal icons Judas Priest, but for coming out as gay in 1998, at a time when homosexuality was not exactly welcome in the rock world, metal or otherwise. Watch Halford execute one of the all-time great stage entrances in rock history.
1976
August 25, 1976: Boston rock band Boston releases Boston. We all know the lore: Tom Scholz tricked Epic Records into thinking he was recording with a producer in L.A., when he was actually recording the album bit-by-bit in his basement in Massachusetts from the fall of 1975 through the spring of 1976. Clearly, the ruse was a success, as Boston is regarded as one of the truly great rock albums of all-time, 45 years on.
1987
August 25, 1987: Aerosmith releases Permanent Vacation. It's the band's ninth album and marked the beginning of their late '80s "comeback." For the first time, they enlisted outside songwriters. And they had the benefit of big airplay on MTV, a trend that would continue with 1989's Pump and well into the '90s, further bolstering their popularity. "Rag Doll" is the jam, because Steve sings scat at the end like a real jazz cat.
1988
August 25, 1988: Metallica releases their fourth studio album, ...And Justice For All. The release was the first with new bassist Jason Newstead and marked the end of the "classic" era of Metallica albums. It also marked the first time the band used a music video to promote a single. Watch "One" below.
