Chapter 01 — Today in music
On a day like today October 29
1971
Duane Allman dies at 24: the most celestial slide goes out on a motorcycle
Duane Allman dies in a motorcycle accident in Macon, Georgia, at 24. In just a handful of years he had founded the Allman Brothers Band, recorded the legendary “At Fillmore East” and gifted the immortal slide of “Layla” alongside Clapton. His death left the eternal question of how far that limitless talent would have gone.
Duane Allman
The Allman Brothers Band
1944
Robbie van Leeuwen is born, who wrote "Venus" and retired before thirty-five
On October 29, 1944, Robbie van Leeuwen was born in The Hague, guitarist, producer and author of almost all Shocking Blue's songs. "Venus" is his, the record that in 1970 took a Dutch group to number one in the United States for the first time. When the band dissolved in 1974 he decided he had done enough: he retired from the industry before turning thirty-five and never came back.
Robbie van Leeuwen
Shocking Blue
1945
Melba Moore is born, who won a Tony, lost everything and started again
On October 29, 1945, Melba Moore was born in New York, daughter of a saxophonist and a singer. She was a music teacher before joining the musical "Hair" and winning a Tony award in 1970. She strung together rhythm and blues hits for fifteen years. A divorce and a series of ruinous contracts left her with nothing in the nineties, living on public assistance; she rebuilt her career from zero and returned to the stage.
Melba Moore
1946
Peter Green is born, the Fleetwood Mac founder B.B. King envied
Peter Green is born in London; he replaced Clapton in the Bluesbreakers and then founded Fleetwood Mac as a blues band. B.B. King said he was the only guitarist who gave him “the cold sweats”. He wrote “Albatross” and “Black Magic Woman” before schizophrenia sidelined him, leaving one of British blues' most beautiful, truncated legacies.
Peter Green
Fleetwood Mac
1891
Fanny Brice is born: the comedian whose life became a Broadway musical
On October 29, 1891, Fania Borach was born on New York's Lower East Side, daughter of Hungarian Jewish immigrants. As Fanny Brice she was the great comic star of the Ziegfeld revues for two decades, able to move from parody to a devastating ballad like "My Man" in the same evening. Her story and her marriage to a con man ended up as the plot of "Funny Girl".
Fanny Brice
1925
Zoot Sims is born, one of the Four Brothers in Woody Herman's orchestra
On October 29, 1925, John Haley Sims was born in California, son of two vaudeville performers. At nineteen he joined Woody Herman's orchestra and became part of the saxophone section a famous tune christened the Four Brothers. He played with such natural swing that colleagues said he sounded just as good at any hour and in any condition. He recorded more than a hundred albums.
Zoot Sims
Woody Herman
1944
Denny Laine is born, the only man who lasted all ten years of Wings
On October 29, 1944, Brian Hines was born in Birmingham; as Denny Laine he sang "Go Now" with the Moody Blues before the band turned symphonic. In 1971 Paul McCartney called him in to form Wings, and he was the only musician besides the McCartneys to be in the group from beginning to end. He co-wrote "Mull of Kintyre", the best-selling British single in history until 1984.
Denny Laine
Paul McCartney
The Moody Blues
1945
Mick Gallagher is born: the keyboard player on the Clash's triple album
On October 29, 1945, Mick Gallagher was born in Newcastle, organist with the Blockheads, Ian Dury's band. When the Clash recorded "Sandinista!", the 1980 triple album on which they tried reggae, dub, gospel and everything else, they called him in to put keyboards on a good part of its thirty-six songs. That sprawling record does not sound the same without him, and hardly anyone knows he was there.
Mick Gallagher
The Blockheads
The Clash
1962
Einar Örn is born, who shouted alongside Björk and ended up on Reykjavík city council
On October 29, 1962, Einar Örn Benediktsson was born in Iceland, trumpeter and the other voice of The Sugarcubes, the group that brought Björk out of obscurity in 1987. His role was to interrupt her by shouting, a contrast half the critics found unbearable. In 2010 he stood in Reykjavík's municipal elections with a party founded by a comedian as a joke; they won, and he ended up a city councillor.
Einar Örn Benediktsson
The Sugarcubes
Björk
1987
Tove Lo is born: the Swede who writes for others the hits she does not want to sing
On October 29, 1987, Ebba Nilsson was born in Stockholm, out of the same music school that produced half the Swedish pop industry. Her own career started with "Habits", a song about getting drunk to forget someone that became a worldwide hit precisely because it dressed nothing up. In parallel she writes for Ellie Goulding, Lorde and Ariana Grande, a trade she moves through with equal ease.
Tove Lo
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