Chapter 01 — Today in music
On a day like today July 3
1971
Jim Morrison is found dead in Paris: the Lizard King joins the 27 Club
On July 3, 1971, Jim Morrison was found dead in the bathtub of his Paris apartment, at 27, officially of heart failure — with no autopsy ever performed. The Doors' shamanic poet had fled to France hoping to become a writer and found legend instead. His grave at Père-Lachaise remains a pilgrimage site half a century later.
Jim Morrison
The Doors
1935
Cheo Feliciano is born: the sonero who brought tenderness to hard salsa
On July 3, 1935, José Feliciano Vega — Cheo — was born in Ponce, Puerto Rico. He arrived in New York as a percussionist and became one of the central voices of the Fania label. He sang with Joe Cuba and Eddie Palmieri, disappeared for years swallowed by heroin, and returned in 1971 with "Cheo", a comeback album containing "Anacaona" that is now studied as a classic. He died in 2014 in a car crash in San Juan, with more than half a century of work behind him.
Cheo Feliciano
Fania All-Stars
1969
Brian Jones is found dead in his pool, weeks after leaving the Stones
On July 3, 1969, less than a month after his exit from the Rolling Stones, Brian Jones was found dead in the swimming pool of his Sussex home, at 27. The multi-instrumentalist who founded the band and colored its best records became the first great name in the 27 Club. Exactly two years later Jim Morrison would die: July 3 was left cursed.
Brian Jones
The Rolling Stones
1973
Bowie kills Ziggy Stardust live on the Hammersmith stage
On July 3, 1973, closing a sold-out concert at London's Hammersmith Odeon, David Bowie announced that this would be 'the last show we'll ever do'. The audience heard a retirement; in truth Bowie was executing his creature, Ziggy Stardust, live on stage and dissolving the Spiders from Mars, who found out almost on the spot. After sixty concerts across three continents, the character was threatening to devour its creator. It was one of rock's most theatrical exits, and the start of Bowie's perpetual reinvention.
David Bowie
1942
Dr. Lonnie Smith is born: the turban that made the Hammond organ growl
On July 3, 1942, Lonnie Smith was born in Lackawanna, New York. He learned to sing in neighbourhood vocal groups before sitting down at a Hammond B-3 organ and never getting up. He played the bass lines with his feet while his hands did everything else, and out of that came a dirty, danceable sound that pushed jazz onto the floor. He recorded with George Benson and Lou Donaldson, adopted a turban and the title of doctor without asking permission, and kept playing until 2021.
Dr. Lonnie Smith
1948
Paul Barrere is born, Little Feat's southern-accented guitar
On July 3, 1948, Paul Barrere was born in Burbank, California — the son of Hollywood actors and Little Feat's guitarist from 1972 on. His slide playing and his pen gave the band pieces like 'Feats Don't Fail Me Now', 'All That You Dream' and 'Time Loves a Hero'. Alongside Lowell George he cooked up that unique blend of rock, funk and New Orleans flavor that made Little Feat a musicians' cult band. He played with the group for nearly half a century, until his death in 2019.
Paul Barrere
Little Feat
1952
Laura Branigan is born: the voice that turned an Italian song into a global anthem
On July 3, 1952, Laura Branigan was born in New York State, owner of a four-octave voice that 1980s pop used at full power. Her biggest hit, "Gloria", was actually an Umberto Tozzi song she remade in English and kept on the American chart for 36 weeks — a record for a female singer at the time. She pulled the same trick with "Self Control". She died of an aneurysm in 2004, aged 52, in her sleep.
Laura Branigan
1957
Poly Styrene is born: the teenager in braces who screamed at consumerism
On July 3, 1957, Marianne Elliott-Said was born in Bromley, England, to a Scottish mother and a Somali father. At nineteen she founded X-Ray Spex and renamed herself Poly Styrene. She sang "Oh Bondage Up Yours!" wearing dental braces and charity-shop clothes, refusing to be the sexy object rock expected of a woman. She put a saxophone where punk allowed only guitars, and wrote about plastic, advertising and rubbish before anyone else did.
Poly Styrene
X-Ray Spex
1960
Vince Clarke is born, the man who built anthems out of synthesizers
On July 3, 1960, Vince Clarke was born in England — founding songwriter of Depeche Mode and later the brains behind Yazoo and Erasure. 'Just Can't Get Enough', Depeche Mode's first big hit, is his, as are synth-pop anthems like 'Sometimes' and 'A Little Respect'. His formula of impeccable melodies over machines turned the synthesizer into a stadium instrument. Few musicians have written so many hits for so many different projects.
Vince Clarke
Depeche Mode
Erasure
1999
Mark Sandman collapses on stage near Rome
On July 3, 1999, Mark Sandman was struck down by a heart attack during the first song of a festival set in Palestrina, outside Rome. He was 46. With Morphine he had invented a formula that should not have worked: a two-string slide bass, a baritone saxophone and a drum kit, with no guitar at all. They called it low rock and it sounded like a bar closing. The band did not continue without him — his bandmates declared the project finished.
Mark Sandman
Morphine
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