Inspired by some deep diving as I continue to inventory my CDs, here are some weird, obscure, or surprising bits of rock music trivia. Please add your favorites!

Shawn Colvin sings background vocals on Suzanne Vega's "Luka".

There is a subgenre called "Time Lord Rock" (or "Trock" for short) for music based on or about the Doctor Who television series.

Here's an example:

stephen stills did not make it into the monkees cast because of his very bad teeth.

Chuck Prophet played on two Cake records, Prolonging The Magic and Pressure Chief.

Michi Hirota, the Japanese vocalist on Bowie's It's No Game, is also one of the cover stars of Kimono My House

On Neil Young's Harvest James Taylor played banjo on Old Man, in addition to singing background vocals with Linda Ronstadt.

At one time, Laura Nyro considered becoming lead singer for Blood, Sweat & Tears, after the departure of founder Al Kooper, but was dissuaded by David Geffen.
Blood, Sweat & Tears would go on to have a hit with a cover of Nyro's "And When I Die".

I knew that.

Did you know that it's the same reason he was welcomed into CSN?

I do now!

Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention backed Burt Ward (Robin) on a series of recordings for a possible single in 1966.

From Burt Wards autobiography -
The image of the Boy Wonder is all American and apple pie, while the image of the Mothers of Invention was so revolutionary that they made the Hell’s Angels look like the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Even I had to laugh seeing a photo of myself with those animals.



Their fearless leader and king of grubbiness was the late Frank Zappa. (The full name of the band was Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention.) After recording with me, Frank became an internationally recognized cult superstar, which was understandable; after working with me, the only place Frank could go was up.



Although he looked like the others, Frank had an intelligence and education that elevated him beyond brilliance to sheer genius. I spent a considerable amount of time talking with him, and his rough, abrupt exterior concealed an intellectual, creative and sensitive interior...



In an attempt at self-preservation, the record company had me just talk on the second two sides I recorded. That I could do very well! The material for the song was a group of fan letters that had been sent to me. Frank and I edited them together to make one letter, which became the lyrics for the recording. Frank wrote a melody and an arrangement, and we titled the song, “Boy Wonder, I Love You!”



Among the lyrics was an invitation for me to come and visit an adoring pubescent fan and stay with her for the entire summer. She wrote, “I will even fix you breakfast in bed. I love you so much that I want you to stay the whole summer with me!” The lyrics ended with “I hope you know that this is a girl writing.”

their dental plan dental work was optional

Crosby, Snaggletooth, and Nash

Singer Tony Burrows, the lead vocalist on Edison Lighthouse's " Love Grows ( Where My Rosemary Goes) ", was also lead vocalist on White Plains' " My Baby Loves Lovin", The First Class's "Beach Baby", The Pipkins " Gimme Dat Ding", and Brotherhood of Man's " United We Stand".

Steve Vai, age 20, auditions for Frank Zappa and when Frank tells Steve to play this crazy Zappa style riff in 7/8 reggae time he goes “sure” and plays it. Then Frank says add this note and Steve says “sure” and figures it out. When Frank says add this note too, Steve says that’s impossible (cause the human hand doesn’t have enough fingers).Frank says “well kid...I hear Linda Ronstadt is looking for a guitar player.” Steve apologizes and says “I’ll just be leaving now.” Frank goes “just kidding, you’re in the band.”

I didn't know this but I'm glad I do now.

Joined: 24 Sep 2006
Posts: 24204
These popped into my mind most would not know...

Spike Lee’s Dad (Bill Lee) played double bass on the debut album by Simon & Garfunkel.

Marilyn Martin scored a #1 hit with Phil Collins in 1985 with “Separate Lives” and a solo hit in 1986 with “Night Moves” (love that creepy video).

Everything after that bombed and she went into real estate.

30 years later she joined Fleetwood Mac as a backing singer for the 2018 tour.

Squeeze are named after the bogus Velvet Underground album of the same name.

While Kansas were disbanded in the mid-80s, Steve Walsh joined Cheap Trick as a keyboardist.

These two is what popped into my head and I could almost see it!

I didn't know any of those things!

Maybe common knowledge? Tony Iommi briefly left Earth (precursor to Black Sabbath) for about 2 weeks in December 1968 to replace Jethro Tull's original guitarist, Mick Abrahams. Iommi never recorded anything in his brief stint with Tull, appearing only on the Rolling Stone's Rock & Roll Circus with Tull for one song ("Song for Jeffrey") which was filmed in that short period. And to me, this is the weird part: according to Wikipedia, "Only Ian Anderson's vocals and flute were actually amplified from the live performance; the rest of the band mimed their parts, but the sound was pre-recorded. This was the only Tull performance with guitarist Tony Iommi during his two-week tenure with the band, and it has been suggested that he had not had time to learn his part and thus relied on Abrahams' recording."

Iommi returned to Earth and was replaced in Tull by Martin Barre, who would be Tull's guitarist for the next 40+ years.

Martin Page has three co-writing credits on Robbie Robertson's eponymous solo album...



Robertson returned the favor by guesting on Page's In The House Of Stone And Light, which also featured a couple of performances by Phil Collins.