History Highlight:

Today in 1969, Neil Young appeared with Crosby, Stills and Nash for the first time at The Fillmore East in New York. Young was initially asked to help out with live material only, but ended up joining the group on and off for the next 30 years.

Also, Today In:

1925 - The first 50,000-watt radio station, WGY from Schenectady, NY, began transmission.

1965 - At the Newport Folk Festival, Bob Dylan played an electric set for the first time, horrifying folk purists everywhere.

1968 - The Beatles recorded their first take of George Harrison's "While My Guitar Gently Weeps." Harrison had been reading the Chinese philosophical text the I Ching, which stipulates that there are no coincidences in the universe (i.e. that everything is connected and thus meant to be), and decided to use the book as inspiration to write a song. So, he opened another book and told himself he would compose a song based on the very first words his eyes landed on. The words turned out to be "gently weeps".

1999 - Woodstock '99 ended in chaos with riots, fires, looting, three rapes, and other crimes, including three accidental deaths. In addition, several fans were hospitalized from drinking polluted water.

Birthdays:

Jim McCarty, Yardbirds drummer, is 72.

Thurston Moore, Sonic Youth guitarist and singer, is 58.

Highlights for Today in Music History are gathered from This Day in Music, Paul Shaffer's Day in Rock, Song Facts and Wikipedia.