Chapter 01 — Today in music
On a day like today September 29
1935
Jerry Lee Lewis is born, the flaming piano of early rock and roll
Jerry Lee Lewis, “The Killer”, is born in Ferriday, Louisiana: Elvis's wild rival at the dawn of rock. “Great Balls of Fire” and “Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On” turned the piano into a combat instrument, kicked and pounded on stage. His career, ruined and resurrected several times, embodies all the glory and scandal of the genre.
Jerry Lee Lewis
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1948
Mark Farner is born, the engine of Grand Funk Railroad
Mark Farner is born in Flint, Michigan: guitarist and voice of Grand Funk Railroad. Critics tore them apart, but they sold out Shea Stadium faster than the Beatles and moved millions of records on pure word of mouth. Their case remains the best proof that in rock, connection with the audience can outweigh press approval.
Mark Farner
Grand Funk Railroad
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1973
Grand Funk hit number one by putting in writing where they are from
On 29 September 1973 "We're an American Band" topped the American chart: the first number one for a group critics had spent years ignoring while it filled stadiums. Drummer Don Brewer wrote it, stitching together loose anecdotes from the road, and Todd Rundgren produced it. The single was pressed on gold vinyl, in case anyone had missed the gesture.
Grand Funk Railroad
Don Brewer
Todd Rundgren
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1977
Billy Joel finds Phil Ramone and stops being a songwriter who does not sell
The Stranger came out on 29 September 1977, cut in two months at A&R Studios with Phil Ramone in charge and Joel's touring band in place of session players. Four Top 40 singles, two Grammys and, in time, the best-selling record in Columbia's catalogue, ahead of Simon and Garfunkel.
Billy Joel
Phil Ramone
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1984
Prince lands a second number one with a sermon and a runaway solo
On the Billboard chart dated 29 September 1984, "Let's Go Crazy" reached number one and held for two weeks. It was his second chart-topper that year, after "When Doves Cry". The song opens Purple Rain with a funeral organ and a spoken exhortation to carry on, then collapses into a party with a runaway guitar ending.
Prince
The Revolution
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1992
Dirt arrives with a burning city behind it and an addiction that was not a metaphor
Dirt came out on 29 September 1992. It was cut in Los Angeles with Dave Jerden during that spring's riots — the band fled to the Joshua Tree desert at one point — with Layne Staley singing about heroin from inside it, not from a distance. Number six and a hundred and two weeks on the chart. It was the last album with all four original members.
Alice in Chains
Layne Staley
Jerry Cantrell
Dave Jerden
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1992
Stone Temple Pilots debut on the same day as Alice in Chains and wear the copycat label
Core came out on 29 September 1992, recorded in Los Angeles with Brendan O'Brien. Critics accused them of tracing Pearl Jam, and Rolling Stone named them worst new band of the year in the same issue where its readers voted them the best. They finished at number three in America with eight million copies sold.
Stone Temple Pilots
Scott Weiland
Brendan O'Brien
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1997
The Verve sell a quarter of a million in a week and lose their best song
Urban Hymns came out on 29 September 1997, after Richard Ashcroft had considered putting it out under his own name and Nick McCabe rejoined the band at the last moment. Two hundred and fifty thousand copies in seven days and a number one. The irony came from behind: "Bitter Sweet Symphony" used an orchestral arrangement of a Stones song, and ABKCO ended up with the whole publishing.
The Verve
Richard Ashcroft
Nick McCabe
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1998
'Aquemini': the album with which the South stopped asking permission
On September 29, 1998, OutKast's 'Aquemini' was released. The title joins its two members' star signs, Aquarius and Gemini, and the record does the same with the music: live funk, guitars, harmonicas and raps that sounded like nothing from either coast. Rosa Parks sued them over the use of her name in a song; the case settled in 2005 by funding educational programmes about her.
OutKast
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2009
Alice in Chains return with another singer and Elton John plays the farewell to Layne
Black Gives Way to Blue came out on 29 September 2009, fourteen years after the previous album and seven after Layne Staley's death. William DuVall took the microphone without imitating anyone, and Jerry Cantrell sang half of it. On the title track, a goodbye to Staley, the piano is played by Elton John. Number five and a gold record.
Alice in Chains
William DuVall
Jerry Cantrell
Elton John
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2018
Otis Rush dies, the left-hander who played the guitar upside down and sounded like nobody else
On 29 September 2018 he died in Chicago at eighty-four, of complications from a stroke. Left-handed, he played right-handed guitars flipped over with the low E at the bottom, and out of that came a long, acid vibrato that Eric Clapton and Peter Green copied without hiding it. He cut the first versions of "All Your Love" and "I Can't Quit You Baby".
Otis Rush
Eric Clapton
Peter Green
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1963
Les Claypool is born: the bassist Metallica rejected for playing too strangely
On September 29, 1963, Les Claypool was born in California. He auditioned to replace Cliff Burton in Metallica and was turned down: they told him he played too well and too strangely for what they needed. He built Primus, where the bass is the lead instrument rather than the foundation, with a slapping and picking technique like nobody else's. Kirk Hammett had been his schoolmate.
Les Claypool
Primus
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1979
The Police take their first number one with a song about having nobody
On the UK chart dated 29 September 1979, "Message in a Bottle" went to number one and held for three weeks. It was the trio's first chart-topper and the calling card for Reggatta de Blanc. Sting had written the story of a castaway who sends out a plea and, when an answer finally arrives, finds the beach covered in other people's bottles.
The Police
Sting
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1986
Iron Maiden plug in guitar synthesisers and Dickinson writes nothing at all
Somewhere in Time came out on 29 September 1986, the band's first album with guitar synthesisers. They had just played one hundred and eighty-seven shows in under a year, and Bruce Dickinson arrived at the studio with acoustic songs the others turned down: he has no writing credit anywhere on it. Adrian Smith filled the gap and wrote both singles.
Iron Maiden
Bruce Dickinson
Adrian Smith
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1986
New Order split an album in two halves and the machines win
Brotherhood came out on Factory on 29 September 1986 with a simple plan: one side of guitars, one of synthesisers. Stephen Morris admitted years later that it never quite worked. No matter: inside was "Bizarre Love Triangle", the song that finally opened up America and Australia and still plays on floors where nobody has heard of Joy Division.
New Order
Stephen Morris
Peter Saville
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1987
The only Chili Peppers album with all four founders playing on it
The Uplift Mofo Party Plan came out on 29 September 1987: the band's third album and the only one where Anthony Kiedis, Flea, Hillel Slovak and Jack Irons all play on every track. Number 148 in America, their first chart entry. Nine months later Slovak died of an overdose and Irons left. The original line-up lasted exactly one album.
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Hillel Slovak
Jack Irons
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1990
The Nelson twins hit number one and complete three generations
On September 29, 1990, the duo Nelson's '(Can't Live Without Your) Love and Affection' was number one in the United States. With it, Gunnar and Matthew completed something no other family had managed: their grandfather Ozzie, their father Ricky and themselves, three consecutive generations with a number one. Ricky had died in a plane crash five years earlier, without seeing it.
Nelson
Ricky Nelson
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1992
EMI puts out a Chili Peppers compilation to collect on their move to Warner
What Hits!? came out on 29 September 1992, a year into Blood Sugar Sex Magik turning the band into headliners for another label. EMI still held the rights to their first four albums and assembled a hits collection from singles that had barely grazed the chart. It sold a million copies in America. The title was a sincere question.
Red Hot Chili Peppers
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1998
Mercury Rev record their farewell album and it turns out to be the one that saves them
Deserter's Songs came out on 29 September 1998. The band was in pieces: no manager, no drummer, and Jonathan Donahue coming out of two nervous breakdowns. They made it in the Catskills convinced it would be their last, and called in two illustrious neighbours, Levon Helm and Garth Hudson of The Band. The NME made it album of the year.
Mercury Rev
Jonathan Donahue
Levon Helm
Garth Hudson
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2017
Pearl Jam release two nights at Wrigley Field and the autumn of the Cubs
Let's Play Two came out on 29 September 2017, drawn from 20 and 22 August 2016 at Wrigley Field, home of the Chicago Cubs. Eddie Vedder has supported them since childhood, and that autumn the team won the World Series for the first time in a hundred and eight years. Danny Clinch shot the film; the title is a line from Ernie Banks.
Pearl Jam
Eddie Vedder
Danny Clinch
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