Chapter 01 — Today in music
On a day like today October 28
1941
Hank Marvin is born, Britain's first guitar hero
Hank Marvin is born in Newcastle: guitarist of The Shadows and the first Briton to become a legend for his red Stratocaster. His clean, echo-laden sound on instrumentals like “Apache” taught an entire generation to play: Clapton, Brian May, Gilmour and Knopfler all cite him as the origin. Before guitar heroes existed, there was Hank.
Hank Marvin
The Shadows
1922
Gershon Kingsley is born, author of the first electronic song to become a worldwide hit
On October 28, 1922, Gershon Kingsley was born in Bochum, Germany, a Jew who escaped to Palestine as a teenager and reached the United States after the war. In 1969 he composed "Popcorn" on a Moog synthesizer: two minutes of bouncing melody without a single word. A 1972 cover turned it into a hit across half the world and the first piece of electronic music to reach the sales charts.
Gershon Kingsley
1945
Wayne Fontana is born, British Invasion voice of “The Game of Love”
Glyn Ellis, who would take the stage name Wayne Fontana, is born in Manchester. With the Mindbenders he reached number one in America in 1965 with “The Game of Love”, one of the British Invasion's anthems. His time at the top was brief, but that song still plays like Manchester beat in its purest state.
Wayne Fontana
1953
Desmond Child is born: the hired songwriter who wrote half a decade of choruses
On October 28, 1953, John Barrett was born in Florida, son of a Cuban songwriter. As Desmond Child he became the most effective songwriter in the industry: he co-wrote "Livin' on a Prayer" and "You Give Love a Bad Name" with Bon Jovi, "Dude (Looks Like a Lady)" with Aerosmith and, twenty years later, "Livin' la Vida Loca" with Ricky Martin. Bands who believed themselves self-sufficient called him in secret.
Desmond Child
Bon Jovi
Ricky Martin
1987
Frank Ocean is born, who published a letter days before his album and changed the genre's rules
On October 28, 1987, Christopher Breaux was born in Long Beach, raised in New Orleans until Hurricane Katrina destroyed his studio and drove him out of the city. In July 2012, days before releasing "Channel Orange", he posted a letter online saying his first love had been a man; in a genre that had rarely admitted such a thing, the reaction was almost unanimous support.
Frank Ocean
Odd Future
1936
Ted Hawkins is born, who sang for twenty years sitting on a crate on Venice Beach
On October 28, 1936, Ted Hawkins was born in Mississippi. He passed through reform schools and prison before settling on the Venice boardwalk in Los Angeles. He sang there every day, seated on a milk crate with a glove on his left hand, in a soul voice that stopped people dead. He signed to a major label at fifty-seven and died five months later.
Ted Hawkins
1937
Graham Bond is born, whose band was the seedbed of British rock
On October 28, 1937, Graham Bond was born in Essex, an organist and saxophonist who in 1963 put together a band that Jack Bruce, Ginger Baker and John McLaughlin all passed through before they were famous. He was among the first to bring the Hammond organ into British blues. His obsession with the occult — he came to believe he was Aleister Crowley's son — gradually pulled him away from everything. He died under a London Underground train in 1974.
Graham Bond
Jack Bruce
Ginger Baker
1939
Andy Bey is born: the jazz singer who disappeared for twenty years and came back better
On October 28, 1939, Andy Bey was born in New Jersey, a prodigy already making records at thirteen. His voice spans four octaves and drops into a low register almost nobody can hold. In the eighties the work dried up and he vanished from the scene; he returned in the mid-nineties saying publicly that he was gay and had been living with HIV for years, unheard of in the jazz world of the time.
Andy Bey
1969
Ben Harper is born, raised in his family's instrument shop
On October 28, 1969, Ben Harper was born in California, grandson of the owners of an instrument and folk music shop where he spent his childhood among old guitars and rare records. There he found an early twentieth-century Hawaiian guitar played resting on the knees and made it his main instrument, crossing blues, gospel and reggae into a sound that resembles nothing else.
Ben Harper
1988
Jamie xx is born, who remixed the whole of Gil Scott-Heron's last album
On October 28, 1988, Jamie Smith was born in London, producer of The xx, the band that made a style out of silence and empty space. In 2011 he did something extraordinary for a beginner: he completely rebuilt Gil Scott-Heron's final album, recorded by the poet shortly before his death, and the result was released as a record in its own right. His dance music always sounds like something remembered from a distance.
Jamie xx
The xx
Gil Scott-Heron
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