Chapter 01 — Today in music
On a day like today August 16
1977
Elvis Presley dies: the day Graceland became a shrine
On August 16, 1977, Elvis Presley was found dead at Graceland, at 42, devoured by prescription drugs and isolation. The Memphis truck driver who had invented the very figure of the rockstar ended up its first great victim. Tens of thousands surrounded the mansion that night. As someone said at the time: Elvis didn't die, he just went home.
Elvis Presley
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1938
Robert Johnson dies at 27: the blues legend collects its debt
On August 16, 1938, Robert Johnson died near Greenwood, Mississippi, at 27, supposedly poisoned by a jealous husband. The man of the crossroads pact left just 29 songs that became rock's foundation stone. A chilling coincidence: he shares his death date with Elvis Presley. August 16 charges music royalty dearly.
Robert Johnson
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1962
"Pete forever, Ringo never": the Beatles dismiss their first drummer
On August 16, 1962, at ten in the morning in Brian Epstein's office, Pete Best was fired from the Beatles without anyone ever giving him a reason. George Martin had warned after the Parlophone audition that he would record with a session drummer, and the group seized the moment to make a clean break with Ringo Starr, who debuted two days later. In Liverpool there was jeering and protest signs, but the decision proved to be the final piece of the puzzle. Best remained the man who brushed against pop's greatest story.
Pete Best
The Beatles
1969
Santana plays Woodstock as an unknown and walks off a legend
On August 16, 1969, the second day of Woodstock, a San Francisco band almost nobody knew took the stage without a record out. Carlos Santana played 'Soul Sacrifice' on acid, convinced the neck of his guitar was writhing in his hands. It lasted eleven minutes. When it ended, Afro-Cuban percussion had entered rock for good and Santana was no longer an unknown.
Santana
Carlos Santana
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1997
'The Art of War': a double album from Cleveland at the top of the chart
On August 16, 1997, Bone Thugs-n-Harmony's 'The Art of War' topped the R&B and hip-hop albums chart. It was a double album, a gesture of outsized ambition in a genre where almost nobody attempted one then, and it arrived while rap was still processing the murders of Tupac and Biggie. The Cleveland group belonged to neither of the warring coasts, and that geographic distance saved their careers.
Bone Thugs-n-Harmony
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1929
Bill Evans is born: the pianist who taught harmony to whisper
On August 16, 1929, Bill Evans was born in New Jersey. He was the pianist on 'Kind of Blue', and much of that record's floating calm is his doing: open chords with the root note left out, letting air inside the music. His trio with Scott LaFaro changed how a piano, a bass and a drum kit listen to one another. Every keyboard player in rock who chose ambiguity over power owes him something.
Bill Evans
Miles Davis
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1944
Kevin Ayers, the lazy dandy of English psychedelia, is born
On August 16, 1944, Kevin Ayers was born in Herne Bay, Kent — founder of Soft Machine and a central figure of the Canterbury scene. After an exhausting tour opening for Jimi Hendrix, he sold his bass to Noel Redding and retreated to the beaches of Ibiza, returning with the songs of his first album, "Joy of a Toy". His pastoral psychedelia and unhurried baritone influenced generations of eccentrics, and he collaborated with Eno, Syd Barrett, Nico and Mike Oldfield without ever losing the air of a man who would rather be drinking wine in the sun.
Kevin Ayers
Soft Machine
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1953
J.T. Taylor is born: the voice that took Kool & the Gang to the world's weddings
On August 16, 1953, James Taylor was born in New Jersey — called J.T. so nobody confused him with the other one. When he joined Kool & the Gang in 1978, the band was an instrumental funk outfit that had gone a decade without a big hit. With his voice out front came 'Ladies' Night', 'Celebration' and 'Cherish'. One singer turned a band of musicians into a machine for party anthems.
J.T. Taylor
Kool & the Gang
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1958
Madonna, reinvention made flesh, is born
On August 16, 1958, Madonna Louise Ciccone was born in Bay City, Michigan; she would arrive in New York with 35 dollars and leave as the Queen of Pop. From the disco-punk scene of downtown New York she built a career based on perpetual reinvention, crossing pop, dance and provocation with unprecedented commercial instinct. Her mastery of the music video and of calculated scandal redefined what a female artist could control in the industry, and her shadow reaches all the pop that followed.
Madonna
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1991
Young Thug is born: the rapper who stopped rapping to do something else
On August 16, 1991, Jeffery Lamar Williams was born in Atlanta. As Young Thug he turned the voice into a rubber instrument: warbles, yelps, syllables stretched past the point of meaning, all over Atlanta trap synths. Half the generation that followed sings like him without knowing it. Few artists have been so widely imitated while still striking half the audience as illegible.
Young Thug
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