Chapter 01 — Today in music
On a day like today October 9
1940
John Lennon is born in the Liverpool of the air raids
In the middle of World War II, John Winston Lennon is born in Liverpool, raised by his aunt Mimi and marked by abandonment and loss. That wound fed both the sarcasm of his Beatle years and the nakedness of “Mother” and “Imagine”. He founded the most important band of the twentieth century, then spent the rest of his life trying to tell the truth in songs.
John Lennon
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1918
Bebo Valdés is born, who spent thirty years playing in a Stockholm hotel
On October 9, 1918, Bebo Valdés was born in Quivicán, Cuba, bandleader at the Tropicana cabaret in Havana's golden years. He left the island in 1960 and ended up as a hotel pianist in Stockholm, where he spent three decades practically forgotten. He was rediscovered at seventy-six and recorded the best albums of his life, including "Lágrimas negras". His son Chucho stayed in Cuba and is a giant in his own right.
Bebo Valdés
Chucho Valdés
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1922
Olga Guillot is born: the queen of the bolero who refused to return to Cuba
On October 9, 1922, Olga Guillot was born in Santiago de Cuba. She turned the bolero into a matter of pure drama: she sang on her knees, arms open, wringing out every syllable. "Miénteme" and "La gloria eres tú" became the property of several Latin American generations. She left Cuba in 1961 and never went back, not even to visit; she died in Miami in 2010 without ever giving way on that.
Olga Guillot
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1944
John Entwistle is born, the man who taught the bass to make noise
He arrived on 9 October 1944 at a hospital in Hammersmith, and he was the only member of the Who with real musical training. That let him do the opposite of what was expected: instead of holding down the bottom, he attacked the strings with a metallic violence that went toe to toe with Townshend's guitar. The bass stopped being furniture.
John Entwistle
The Who
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1949
Rod Temperton is born: the silent Englishman who wrote "Thriller"
On October 9, 1949, Rod Temperton was born in an English fishing town — keyboard player in the funk band Heatwave and author of "Boogie Nights". Quincy Jones signed him as a writer, and out of that alliance came "Off the Wall", "Rock with You" and "Thriller", which he had titled "Starlight" until they looked for something more cinematic. He never gave interviews and hardly anyone knew his face. He died in 2016.
Rod Temperton
Michael Jackson
Quincy Jones
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1961
Hit the Road Jack goes to number one and the one who wins the argument is Margie Hendrix
On 9 October 1961 the Ray Charles single topped the Hot 100 and stayed there two weeks. Percy Mayfield wrote it, but what makes it unforgettable is the answer vocal: Margie Hendrix of the Raelettes isn't backing Charles, she's throwing him out of the house. Two voices fighting in under two minutes, with a Grammy as the prize.
Ray Charles
Margie Hendrix
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1965
Yesterday hits number one with no Beatle on it but McCartney
On 9 October 1965 it topped the Hot 100 and stayed four weeks. There is no band on the recording: just McCartney with an acoustic guitar and a string quartet overdubbed at Abbey Road in June. None of the other three played a note, and the group released it under its name anyway. Over the years it became one of the most covered songs there is.
The Beatles
Paul McCartney
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1971
Maggie May tops the UK chart as the B-side of the single
The chart that closed on 9 October 1971 put Rod Stewart at the top with a song his label had buried on the flip. The single went out with Reason to Believe as the A-side; radio turned the record over and never turned it back. Five weeks at number one in Britain, and another five in the United States.
Rod Stewart
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1975
Sean Lennon is born on his father's 35th birthday
Sean Ono Lennon, son of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, is born in New York on his father's 35th birthday. The birth changed John's life: he withdrew from music for five years to raise him, his famous “househusband” period. Sean would later become a musician and a sensitive custodian of the family legacy.
Sean Lennon
John Lennon
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1978
Jacques Brel dies, having left the stage eleven years earlier
On October 9, 1978, Jacques Brel died at 49 of lung cancer. The most intense Belgian in French song had walked away from performing in 1967, at his absolute peak, because he said repeating himself embarrassed him. He became a pilot, crossed the Atlantic by sailboat and settled in the Marquesas Islands. His songs — "Ne me quitte pas", "Amsterdam" — have been recorded by everyone from David Bowie to Nina Simone.
Jacques Brel
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1981
Prince opens for the Rolling Stones and ninety thousand people shout him off
On 9 October 1981, at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Jagger put an unknown twenty-three-year-old on before the Stones. He didn't make it to the fourth song: racist and homophobic abuse, fruit and pieces of fried chicken rained down. He walked off in tears and came back on the 11th because Jagger talked him into it. Three years later came Purple Rain.
Prince
The Rolling Stones
1993
In Utero debuts at number one despite being recorded not to please
The Billboard chart dated 9 October 1993 crowned Nirvana's third album with 180,000 copies in its first week. Cobain had hired Steve Albini precisely so it would sound dry and hostile, the opposite of Nevermind; Albini took a flat hundred thousand dollars and refused royalties on principle. Six days of recording in Minnesota for the most uncomfortable record of the year.
Nirvana
Kurt Cobain
Steve Albini
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2000
Beautiful Day arrives and U2 stop pretending to be a dance band
The single came out on 9 October 2000 and worked as a confession of regret: after a decade of electronic irony and plastic suits, the band went back to guitars and to the formula the Edge knew best. The result was obscene: number one across half of Europe and three Grammys, among them song and record of the year.
U2
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2004
American Idiot sends Green Day to number one after they nearly broke up
The chart dated 9 October 2004 gave them their first American number one with 267,000 copies. They had come off a weak album, internal fights and the theft of the master tapes of a whole record that never saw daylight. The answer was the most ambitious thing they had ever attempted: a rock opera against Bush's America that held the top ten for a year.
Green Day
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1944
Nona Hendryx is born, who dressed a soul group in silver and sent it into space
On October 9, 1944, Nona Hendryx was born in New Jersey, Labelle's songwriter. The group started as a conventional sixties vocal trio and she pushed it towards something else: silver science-fiction costumes, space themes and original songs about politics and desire. In 1974 "Lady Marmalade" went to number one. They were the first Black rock group to play New York's Metropolitan Opera House.
Nona Hendryx
Labelle
Patti LaBelle
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1957
Ini Kamoze is born, whose "Here Comes the Hotstepper" came out of a sixties record
On October 9, 1957, Ini Kamoze was born in Jamaica, a dancehall singer with a respected but small career until he recorded "Here Comes the Hotstepper" in 1994. The song is built on a fragment of "Land of 1000 Dances" and a backing track repeated to the point of hypnosis. It reached number one in the United States, something almost no Jamaican artist had managed before.
Ini Kamoze
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1959
Thomas Wydler is born, the Swiss drummer who decides which hit not to play
He was born in Zurich on 9 October 1959 and founded Die Haut before joining the Bad Seeds in 1985. Since then he has played on almost every Nick Cave record without a single showy fill: his craft is holding the songs up from the empty space he leaves around them. When Mick Harvey left in 2009, he became the longest-serving member after Cave himself.
Thomas Wydler
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
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1969
PJ Harvey is born: the only artist to win the Mercury Prize twice
On October 9, 1969, Polly Jean Harvey was born on a farm in Dorset, England, raised among sheep and her parents' blues collection. She changed skin with every album: from the raw, noisy trio of her early days to twisted pop, from bare piano to sung war reportage. She is the only person to have won the Mercury Prize for the best British album of the year twice, in 2001 and in 2011.
PJ Harvey
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1973
Elvis and Priscilla sign the divorce and leave the courthouse hand in hand
On 9 October 1973 a six-year marriage that had been over for eighteen months was formally dissolved. They had married at a Las Vegas hotel in an eight-minute ceremony and separated in February 1972. The striking part was the ending: the two of them walked out of the courthouse holding hands. Elvis had less than four years left to live.
Elvis Presley
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1980
A bottle drops Geezer Butler in Milwaukee and the crowd tears the arena apart
On 9 October 1980, with Dio on the microphone, Black Sabbath were two songs in when something thrown from the darkness knocked the bassist out cold. The show cancelled, the Milwaukee arena turned into a battle of ripped-out seats and smashed glass that ended with more than a hundred and sixty arrests. Butler always insisted it was an accident, not an attack.
Black Sabbath
Geezer Butler
Ronnie James Dio
1989
Queen release Scandal and hit the British press back
The single came out on 9 October 1989 and was, without disguise, a settling of scores: Brian May sick of his divorce filling front pages, Mercury sick of the speculation about his appearance every time he was seen in public. He had known his diagnosis since 1987 and would not make it public until the day before he died. The song stalled at twenty-five.
Queen
Freddie Mercury
Brian May
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1999
The Fragile hits number one and falls fifteen places the following week
The chart dated 9 October 1999 put Nine Inch Nails on top with 229,000 copies. Reznor had taken two and a half years to finish it, between grief over his grandmother and an addiction that left him unable to write lyrics, and the result was a double album that demanded patience. Seven days later it fell to sixteen: the biggest drop recorded to that point.
Nine Inch Nails
Trent Reznor
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2000
Placebo release Black Market Music, the album their own singer likes least
It came out on 9 October 2000 after nine months in the studio, the longest process the band had faced to that point. It reached number six in Britain and number one in France, where they were always loved more than at home. In 2016 Brian Molko named it his least favourite album in the whole catalogue: nine months of work to end up disowning it.
Placebo
Brian Molko
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2005
Franz Ferdinand go straight in at number one and take their label with them
The chart dated 9 October 2005 debuted You Could Have It So Much Better at the top: the band's first number one and Domino's too, an independent with a minority catalogue that until that day had never set foot in that part of the table. The Scots had taken barely a year to follow up their debut.
Franz Ferdinand
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2007
Band of Horses release Cease to Begin with half the band replaced
It came out on 9 October 2007, recorded in Asheville after Ben Bridwell was left almost alone: the other founders had walked away after the debut. It entered at thirty-five in the States, and one of its songs, No One's Gonna Love You, ended up given away in coffee chains until it wore out. The reverb covered the casualties.
Band of Horses
Ben Bridwell
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