Chapter 01 — Today in music
On a day like today July 21
1987
'Appetite for Destruction': hard rock's last great detonation
On July 21, 1987, Guns N' Roses released 'Appetite for Destruction'. Ignored by radio for months, it ended up the best-selling debut album in US history, with 'Welcome to the Jungle' and 'Sweet Child o' Mine' as its artillery. At the height of hairspray glam, it gave hard rock back its danger, its filth and its street urgency.
Guns N' Roses
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1948
Cat Stevens is born, the seeker who turned his questions into songs
On July 21, 1948, Steven Georgiou was born in London — known as Cat Stevens and later as Yusuf Islam. After nearly dying of tuberculosis, he wrote the confessional albums 'Tea for the Tillerman' and 'Teaser and the Firecat', peaks of introspective folk. In 1977 he left music for Islam and returned decades later, closing one of rock's most singular spiritual arcs.
Cat Stevens
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1979
"Bad Girls" crowns Donna Summer in the summer disco began to fall
On July 21, 1979, "Bad Girls" topped Billboard's soul chart. Donna Summer was coming off an unrepeatable year: three number ones and a double album on which she sang about street prostitutes over orchestral arrangements and a rock band. Barely a week earlier, in Chicago, a crowd had blown up a pile of disco records in the middle of a baseball stadium. She went on selling millions while the genre collapsed around her.
Donna Summer
1981
Romeo Santos is born: the king of bachata who grew up in the Bronx
On July 21, 1981, Anthony Santos was born in the Bronx to a Dominican father and a Puerto Rican mother. With Aventura he took the rural bachata his elders listened to and fed it rhythm and blues, rap and the lyrics of an urban teenager; the Dominican old guard accused them of betrayal and the public turned them into a phenomenon. Solo, he filled Yankee Stadium two nights running, something no Latin artist had done before.
Romeo Santos
Aventura
1990
The Wall falls twice: Roger Waters raises 'The Wall' in Berlin
On July 21, 1990, Roger Waters performed 'The Wall' in full at Berlin's Potsdamer Platz, on the strip of land where the Wall had stood months earlier. More than 350,000 people witnessed a colossal show with guests including Scorpions, Van Morrison and Sinéad O'Connor, and a 25-meter cardboard wall that came crashing down at the climax. The work Waters had written about isolation found its definitive stage in the newly reunified city. It was one of the most ambitious and symbolic concerts in rock history.
Roger Waters
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1898
Sara Carter is born: the voice of the first group to record country music
On July 21, 1898, Sara Dougherty was born in Virginia. In 1927 she walked with her husband and sister-in-law into a makeshift studio in Bristol and recorded the songs that founded commercial country music. She sang the lead melodies with an unadorned coldness that became the genre's standard. The group's repertoire — old Appalachian ballads — passed on to Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan and half a century of folk.
Sara Carter
The Carter Family
1931
Plas Johnson is born: the sax everyone has hummed without knowing his name
On July 21, 1931, Plas Johnson was born in Louisiana — a session saxophonist who settled in Los Angeles and played on thousands of records, adverts and soundtracks. His most-heard moment lasts two minutes: he is the man playing "The Pink Panther" theme, which Henry Mancini wrote with his sound specifically in mind. He worked with Sinatra, the Beach Boys and Marvin Gaye while almost never appearing in the sleeve credits.
Plas Johnson
Henry Mancini
1973
Jim Croce reaches the top with 'Bad, Bad Leroy Brown', his only number one
On July 21, 1973, 'Bad, Bad Leroy Brown' took Jim Croce to number one on the Hot 100 for the first time. The playful portrait of the most feared tough guy on Chicago's South Side showcased the Philadelphia songwriter's gift for turning neighborhood characters into radio anthems. It would be his only number one in his lifetime: two months later, Croce died in a plane crash at 30. That July peak remained the brightest moment of a tragically short career.
Jim Croce
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1978
Damian Marley is born: the youngest son who did not hide behind the surname
On July 21, 1978, Damian Marley was born in Kingston, Bob's youngest son, born when his father was already ill. They called him Junior Gong because Bob was Tuff Gong. Rather than imitate seventies reggae he went into dancehall and hip-hop: "Welcome to Jamrock", from 2005, portrays Kingston's violence with no tourist gloss and won him two Grammys. He later recorded an entire album with Nas.
Damian Marley
Bob Marley
2005
Long John Baldry dies, the giant who godfathered British blues
On July 21, 2005, Long John Baldry died in Vancouver at 64, one of the absolute pioneers of British blues. Through his sixties bands passed a very young Rod Stewart, discovered singing on a train platform, and a keyboard player named Reg Dwight who would take half of his stage name from him: Elton John. Nearly two meters tall and blessed with a deep voice, Baldry was a mentor and a bridge between American blues and the explosion of English rock. Few figures so little celebrated left such an illustrious lineage.
Long John Baldry
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