Chapter 01 — Today in music
On a day like today June 5
1956
Elvis scandalizes America by shaking his hips on national television
On June 5, 1956, Elvis Presley sang 'Hound Dog' on the Milton Berle Show, swiveling his hips before millions of viewers. The press crucified him as a moral threat and censors decided to film him from the waist up in future appearances. The scandal, of course, only multiplied his fame: that night the moral panic over rock and roll was born.
Elvis Presley
2002
Dee Dee Ramone dies, the broken heart who wrote the Ramones' anthems
On June 5, 2002, Dee Dee Ramone died of an overdose in Los Angeles, barely a year after Joey. The Ramones' bassist and main songwriter, he wrote classics like '53rd & 3rd' from a life on the edge he never fully romanticized. His '1-2-3-4' shout opening every song remains punk's universal starting gun.
Dee Dee Ramone
Ramones
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