Chapter 01 — Today in music
On a day like today July 7
1940
Ringo Starr is born, rock's most underrated and best-loved drummer
On July 7, 1940, Richard Starkey was born in Liverpool — the sickly kid from Dingle who would become Ringo Starr. His egoless groove, inimitable fills and left-handed swing on a right-handed kit were the Beatles' solid ground. The joke that he wasn't even the best drummer in the band aged badly: serious drummers always knew the truth.
Ringo Starr
The Beatles
1932
Joe Zawinul is born: the Viennese who plugged jazz into the mains
On July 7, 1932, Josef Zawinul was born in Vienna. He arrived in the United States on a scholarship and ended up changing the direction of jazz. He wrote "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy" for Cannonball Adderley, played the electric keyboards on Miles Davis's "In a Silent Way" and in 1970 founded Weather Report, the band that turned the synthesizer into an improvising instrument. "Birdland" is his — the tune every school big band on earth still plays.
Joe Zawinul
Weather Report
Miles Davis
1980
Led Zeppelin play Berlin, unaware it's their farewell
On July 7, 1980, Led Zeppelin closed their European tour at Berlin's Eissporthalle with a 14-song set that ended in a 17-minute version of 'Whole Lotta Love'. No one on stage suspected it would be the band's last concert with John Bonham. The drummer died that September, and the group decided Led Zeppelin could not exist without him. That Berlin night became the unintended full stop of hard rock's biggest band.
Led Zeppelin
John Bonham
1990
Cazuza dies: the poet who sang about AIDS without lowering his voice
On July 7, 1990, Cazuza died in Rio de Janeiro at 32 from complications of AIDS. He had been the voice of Barão Vermelho and then a ferocious solo artist who wrote "Ideologia" and "O Tempo Não Para", anthems for a Brazilian generation emerging from dictatorship. When the illness became visible he kept giving interviews and recording instead of hiding, and that decision forced Brazil to talk about it out loud for the first time.
Cazuza
Barão Vermelho
2006
Syd Barrett dies, the crazy diamond who lit up Pink Floyd
On July 7, 2006, Syd Barrett died in Cambridge at 60, after decades withdrawn from the world. Pink Floyd's founder and first pen, he defined British psychedelia with 'The Piper at the Gates of Dawn' before LSD and schizophrenia dimmed him. His former bandmates spent the rest of their career writing him love letters, from 'Shine On You Crazy Diamond' onward.
Syd Barrett
Pink Floyd
1851
Charles Albert Tindley is born: the preacher who wrote "We Shall Overcome" without knowing it
On July 7, 1851, Charles Albert Tindley was born in Maryland, the son of a slave, illiterate into adulthood and later pastor of one of the largest congregations in Philadelphia. He published hymns with his own words rather than European translations, and one of them, "I'll Overcome Some Day", mutated in the mouths of union organisers and protesters until it became "We Shall Overcome", the anthem of the civil rights movement.
Charles Albert Tindley
1913
Pinetop Perkins is born, and wins his Grammy at ninety-seven
On July 7, 1913, Joe Willie Perkins was born in Mississippi. He started as a guitarist and switched to piano after a chorus girl knifed his arm in a bar fight. That forced change made him the pianist in Muddy Waters's band through the 1970s. He kept playing to the end: in 2011 he won a Grammy at 97, the oldest winner in the award's history, and died three weeks later.
Pinetop Perkins
Muddy Waters
1930
Hank Mobley is born: the middleweight champion of the tenor saxophone
On July 7, 1930, Hank Mobley was born in Georgia — the saxophonist a critic dubbed the middleweight champion of the tenor: neither Coltrane's fury nor Rollins's heft, but a warm tone and a melodic sense that has aged better than most of hard bop. He recorded "Soul Station" in 1960, now regarded as an absolute classic, and played with Art Blakey and Miles Davis. Heroin cost him his career and he died poor in 1986.
Hank Mobley
1968
The Yardbirds bow out in Luton and open the door to Led Zeppelin
On July 7, 1968, the Yardbirds played their final concert at the College of Technology in Luton, England. The band that had schooled Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page dissolved after years of relentless touring. Page, the only one who wanted to carry on, assembled the 'New Yardbirds' weeks later to honor pending bookings. That emergency project would soon change its name: Led Zeppelin.
The Yardbirds
Jimmy Page
1993
Mia Zapata dies, the voice Seattle could not forget
On July 7, 1993, Mia Zapata, singer of the punk band The Gits, was murdered in Seattle while walking home from the Comet Tavern. She was 27, and her band was about to sign with Atlantic and embark on a national tour. Her death shook the Seattle scene at the height of grunge and spurred the creation of Home Alive, a self-defense collective for women. The crime was only solved in 2003 thanks to DNA evidence.
Mia Zapata
The Gits
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