More Than A Hundred Albums Later, Tito Puente Is Still Going Strong.
By Dave McElfresh
LUCKY FOR THE music world, a torn ankle tendon meant that
the young Tito Puente had to give up an anticipated dancing career.
Had he not, the stateside influence of Latin music would ve been
greatly diminished. (For starters, Carlos Santana would ve gone
without his career-boosting hit, Oye Como Va, a Puente
composition.) So whaddya do when you can no longer trip the light fantastic?
In Puente s case, he learned to play timbales, congas, bongos,
saxophone, piano and vibes. He also studied music at Julliard
under the G.I. Bill, following his WWII service. Big band music
By Keefer
Apr 20, 2021
1971 - Five friends at San Rafael High School in California coined the term 4:20 as a euphemism for smoking pot. April 20 became a popular day to spark one up, as did 4:20 p.m. Note that the Boston song, Smokin , clocks in at 4 minutes, 20 seconds, and if you multiply the title numbers in Bob Dylan s Rainy Day Women, No. 12 and No. 35, you get 420.
In perhaps the most fitting commemoration of the number 420, legendary stoners Snoop Dogg (whose Up In Smoke Tour ended on 4/20/2000) and Willie Nelson record the song Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die on 4/20/2009, in - where else? - Amsterdam.