Chapter 01 — Today in music
On a day like today July 14
1912
Woody Guthrie is born, the guitar that killed fascists
On July 14, 1912, Woody Guthrie was born in Oklahoma — the Dust Bowl troubadour who wrote 'This Land Is Your Land' and more than a thousand songs about migrants, workers and the dispossessed. On his guitar he painted the slogan 'this machine kills fascists'. Without his example there is no Dylan, no Springsteen, and no very idea that a song can be a political act.
Woody Guthrie
1960
Angélique Kidjo is born: the voice from Benin who won five Grammys
On July 14, 1960, Angélique Kidjo was born in Ouidah, Benin, daughter of a theatre director who put her on stage at six. In 1983 she fled to Paris to escape a Marxist regime that wanted to turn her into a propaganda singer, and from there she built a career crossing afrobeat with funk, samba and jazz. She won five Grammys and re-recorded Talking Heads' "Remain in Light" in full, to give Africa back what had been borrowed from it.
Angélique Kidjo
1967
The Who lands in America: the British hurricane as an unlikely opening act
On July 14, 1967, The Who played their first concert in the United States, in Portland, Oregon, opening for Herman's Hermits. The contrast could not have been greater: the wildest band in the UK smashing instruments before the teenage audience of a friendly pop group. That freshly started tour was the school where Townshend, Daltrey, Entwistle and Moon learned to win over American crowds. Two years later they would fill those same stages headlining with 'Tommy'.
The Who
1973
The Everly Brothers explode on stage and split for a decade
On July 14, 1973, at Knott's Berry Farm, California, Phil Everly smashed his guitar and stormed off mid-show; Don finished alone and announced the end. The brothers whose harmonies taught the Beatles and Simon & Garfunkel how to sing did not speak for ten years. The perfect formula of fraternal harmony concealed the perfect discord.
The Everly Brothers
1984
Philippé Wynne dies singing, on stage, in an Oakland club
On July 14, 1984, Philippé Wynne collapsed from a heart attack while singing in an Oakland club. He was 43. He had been the lead voice of The Spinners in their finest period — "Could It Be I'm Falling in Love" and "One of a Kind (Love Affair)" — and was famous for stepping down to sing among the tables until the audience lost all composure. He went doing exactly what he knew how to do, in front of people.
Philippé Wynne
The Spinners
1923
Robert Zildjian is born: the heir who lost the family firm and founded its rival
On July 14, 1923, Robert Zildjian was born into the family that has made cymbals since 1623 using an alloy formula kept secret for four centuries. When his father died, the will left the company to his older brother and left him out. Rather than accept it he crossed into Canada and in 1981 founded Sabian, today the other great cymbal brand in the world. The two names still compete on every stage on the planet.
Robert Zildjian
1949
Tommy Mottola is born: the executive who ran nineties music
On July 14, 1949, Tommy Mottola was born in the Bronx. He went from failed musician to head of Sony Music, and from there decided a good deal of what the world heard for fifteen years. He signed Mariah Carey when she was nineteen, made her the decade's best-selling artist and married her; the marriage lasted four years and she later described it as a cage. He also launched Shakira and Ricky Martin into the global market.
Tommy Mottola
Mariah Carey
1982
'The Wall' hits the screen: Pink Floyd's wall becomes cinema
On July 14, 1982, 'Pink Floyd – The Wall', Alan Parker's film based on the band's concept album, premiered in London. Bob Geldof played Pink, the rock star devoured by his traumas, and Gerald Scarfe's animations took the nightmare to another visual dimension. With barely any dialogue, the film translated the album's alienation into images that marked an entire generation. The wall stopped being just music and became a complete cultural icon.
Pink Floyd
1993
Léo Ferré dies: the anarchist who set the poets to music
On July 14, 1993 — exactly the French national holiday he so detested — Léo Ferré died at 76. Born in Monaco, he was one of the three giants of French song alongside Brassens and Brel, and the most awkward of the three: a declared anarchist who sang Rimbaud, Verlaine and Baudelaire with orchestral arrangements and wrote lyrics state radio refused to broadcast. He never accepted a single state award.
Léo Ferré
2002
'Highly Evolved': Australia joins the garage revival fever
On July 14, 2002, The Vines released 'Highly Evolved', their debut album, and put Australia on the map of the garage rock revival. Alongside The Strokes, The White Stripes and The Hives, Craig Nicholls' band embodied the promise of giving rock back its raw urgency. The record mixed punk fury with Beatlesque melodies and took the group to the cover of Rolling Stone before their first year of fame was over. It was one of the loudest debuts of that brief but intense new wave of guitars.
The Vines
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