One of the greats behind the kit was born on this day in 1950. Carl Palmer played drums with several groups before gaining wider recognition when he took over for The Crazy World of Arthur Brown when the band's beat keeper left the band in the middle of its 1969 tour. After a brief stint in Atomic Rooster, a band that also included Arthur Brown alum Vincent Crane on keyboards, Keith Emerson, then in the Nice, invited Palmer to audition for a new band he was putting together. Carl proved to be a good fit, and became the Palmer of Emerson, Lake & Palmer.
Carl joined up with Steve Howe of Yes and Family, King Crimson, Roxy Music and Uriah Heep and UK veteran John Wetton to form Asia after ELP called it quits in 1980.
John Lennon married Yoko Ono on 3/20/1969 at the British Consulate in Gibraltar, during a crazy week recounted in the song The Ballad of John and Yoko. On the same day the following year, David Bowie married Angela Barnett, a union that lasted 10 years. And Eric Clapton's 4 year-old son Conor died in a fall from a New York apartment after a window was left open during a cleaning on this day in 1991. The tragedy moved Eric to write Tears in Heaven with Will Jennings.
