Chapter 01 — Today in music
On a day like today July 17
1959
Billie Holiday dies, under police guard until her last breath
On July 17, 1959, Billie Holiday died in a New York hospital at 44, with police posted at her room's door over drug charges. The voice that turned pain into phrasing and denounced lynchings with 'Strange Fruit' went out persecuted by the very country she had gifted her art to. Her influence runs through jazz, soul and the whole of rock.
Billie Holiday
1928
Joe Morello is born: the near-blind drummer who made five-four danceable
On July 17, 1928, Joe Morello was born in Massachusetts. He could barely see, because of a congenital condition, and learned to play by ear and by touch. He joined Dave Brubeck's quartet in 1956 and three years later recorded the solo on "Take Five", a tune in five-four that should never have worked on radio and became the best-selling jazz single in history. He taught drums until the end of his life, by then completely blind.
Joe Morello
Dave Brubeck
1928
Vince Guaraldi is born: the pianist who taught jazz to generations of children
On July 17, 1928, Vince Guaraldi was born in San Francisco — a jazz pianist with a modest career until 1963, when a television producer heard him on the radio in a taxi and called him in to score a cartoon. That is how the Charlie Brown soundtracks and "Linus and Lucy" came about, a melody millions recognise without knowing they are listening to jazz. He died of a heart attack in 1976, aged 47, between two sets.
Vince Guaraldi
Charlie Brown
1949
Geezer Butler is born: the dark poet who gave metal its words
On July 17, 1949, Terence 'Geezer' Butler was born in Birmingham, England. As Black Sabbath's bassist and main lyricist, he wrote the texts of war, paranoia and the occult that defined heavy metal's imagery. His dense, melodic bass was the anchor on which Tony Iommi built the genre's founding riffs. Without his lyrics, 'War Pigs' or 'Paranoid' would just be heavy music; with them, they became mythology.
Geezer Butler
Black Sabbath
1968
'Yellow Submarine' premieres in London and pop conquers animation
On July 17, 1968, the film 'Yellow Submarine' premiered at the London Pavilion, with the Beatles turned into psychedelic cartoons fighting the Blue Meanies. Its aesthetic revolutionized animation, proving the medium could be visual avant-garde for adults. The Beatles themselves, skeptical at first, ended up delighted with their impossibly colored versions.
The Beatles
1939
Spencer Davis is born: the Welshman who gave young Winwood a stage
On July 17, 1939, Spencer Davis was born in Swansea, Wales. Leading the Spencer Davis Group, he turned British rhythm and blues into incendiary hits like 'Gimme Some Lovin'' and 'Keep On Running'. His greatest stroke was one of keen instinct: recruiting a teenage Steve Winwood whose voice seemed impossible for his age. The band was both school and springboard for one of British rock's great talents.
Spencer Davis
1947
Wolfgang Flür is born, and hand-builds Kraftwerk's first electronic drum kit
On July 17, 1947, Wolfgang Flür was born in Frankfurt — a drummer who joined Kraftwerk in 1973 and, rather than bring an acoustic instrument, built metal pads with a friend and wired them to a home-made sequencer. It was one of the first electronic drum kits ever played live. With that machine he recorded "Autobahn", "Trans-Europe Express" and "The Man-Machine", three albums that much of later dance music comes out of.
Wolfgang Flür
Kraftwerk
1950
Phoebe Snow is born, and trades a whole career for caring for her daughter
On July 17, 1950, Phoebe Laub was born in New York, owner of a four-octave voice that in 1975 took "Poetry Man" into the top five and put her on the cover of Rolling Stone. A year later her daughter was born with severe brain damage and doctors recommended institutionalising her. She refused, cared for her at home for thirty-one years and all but abandoned her career. She returned to the stage only after the girl died, in 2007.
Phoebe Snow
1963
Regina Belle is born: the voice that won an Oscar singing on a magic carpet
On July 17, 1963, Regina Belle was born in New Jersey, a rhythm and blues singer who was studying opera and accounting when she was discovered. She strung together hits in the late eighties, but her most remembered moment came in 1992: "A Whole New World", the duet with Peabo Bryson over the end of "Aladdin", won the Oscar and the Grammy and went to number one. After that she returned to gospel, where she had come from.
Regina Belle
Peabo Bryson
1996
Chas Chandler dies: the bassist who gave Hendrix to the world
On July 17, 1996, Chas Chandler died at 57, bassist of The Animals and one of the most influential figures behind the scenes of rock. After leaving the stage, he discovered an unknown Jimi Hendrix in a New York club and took him to London in 1966 to turn him into a legend. He produced Hendrix's first records and later repeated the feat by taking Slade to the top of the British charts. His story proves that some ears change music as much as the hands that play it.
Chas Chandler
The Animals
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