Chapter 01 — Today in music
On a day like today May 19
1945
Pete Townshend is born, the windmill arm that treated rock as art
On May 19, 1945, Pete Townshend was born in London — guitarist, songwriter and brain of The Who. He invented the windmill, smashed guitars as an aesthetic statement and wrote 'My Generation', 'Tommy' and 'Quadrophenia'. Nobody made rock's physical fury and conceptual ambition coexist better: Townshend treated the genre as literature and demolition at once.
Pete Townshend
The Who
1951
Joey Ramone is born, the eternal beanpole who gave rock its speed back
On May 19, 1951, Jeffrey Hyman — the future Joey Ramone — was born in Queens. Shy, gangly and obsessed with sixties pop, he became the improbable face of the punk revolution: two-minute songs, zero solos and pure melody at maximum speed. The Ramones never had a massive hit, and still they changed rock forever.
Joey Ramone
Ramones
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