Elton John will take his final bow at Dodger Stadium. So let’s time travel back to his legendary 1975 concert at the famed baseball stadium that is now the home of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
This was the year of the Rolling Stones, who had just released their latest album, Aftermath. The year’s second single, “Street Fighting Man,” was about the world’s most dangerous sport. The year’s second song was about another dangerous sport, the boxing match between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier.
“The Champ” was also a song about boxing, though it was sung by his band, the Kinks. In addition to being a hit, “The Champ” was the year’s first true rock hit single.
While the Rolling Stones had yet to release their seminal album, the year’s single song may have been David Bowie’s cover of Paul McCartney’s “Let It Be.” (Both songs became hits, though not before the Beatles sang their own versions of them the following year.)
The following year, the Beatles were on the cover of Life magazine. They had just broken up, and their manager was working to sell them back into the public eye.
The year in music was also a year of the year, with the year’s music being the hit albums by The Animals, The Kinks and The Rolling Stones. It was also the year when the Beatles began working on what would become “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da,” with all of them singing harmony together.
By 1975, The Beatles had already been at it long enough that they’d begun getting tired of doing it. The band was now down to six people, including Paul McCartney, bassist Stuart Sutcliffe, drummer Pete Best and keyboard player Ian Mellors.
After the band broke up, drummer Ringo Starr tried to work on his own solo project, which would be a major hit. But Starr was not a natural musician, and as a result, his solo album would not be released. (In 1971 Starr had formed an all-star band using musicians who played drums better than he.)
That same year, the