Chapter 01 — Today in music
On a day like today November 6
1975
The Sex Pistols play their first gig and get unplugged after ten minutes
The Sex Pistols make their live debut at Saint Martin's art school in London, opening for a pub rock band. The show lasted about ten minutes before the power was pulled on them. That founding chaos was the spark of British punk: a year later, half of London would swear they had been in that tiny room.
Sex Pistols
1814
Adolphe Sax is born, who invented the saxophone and was ruined defending it in court
On November 6, 1814, Adolphe Sax was born in Belgium, son of an instrument maker and survivor of an absurd childhood: he fell from a third floor, swallowed a pin and was burned by gunpowder. In 1846 he patented the saxophone, a brass instrument with a reed mouthpiece designed to bind military bands together. Rival makers sued him relentlessly; he died poor in 1894.
Adolphe Sax
1854
John Philip Sousa is born: the march king who declared war on records
On November 6, 1854, John Philip Sousa was born in Washington, leader of the Marine Band and author of more than a hundred marches, among them "The Stars and Stripes Forever". In 1906 he published a furious article against recorded music, which he called canned music: he predicted that if people could listen without playing, families would stop making music at home. He was not entirely wrong.
John Philip Sousa
1893
Tchaikovsky dies nine days after premiering his most desolate symphony
On November 6, 1893, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky died in Saint Petersburg at 53. Nine days earlier he had conducted the premiere of his Sixth Symphony, a work that ends by fading away in the lowest register instead of closing in force, something the audience of the day did not understand. The official version was cholera from drinking unboiled water; more than a century later the cause is still argued over.
Piotr Ilich Chaikovski
1948
Glenn Frey is born, Eagles co-founder and architect of the California sound
Glenn Frey is born in Detroit; he migrated to Los Angeles and founded the Eagles with Don Henley after backing Linda Ronstadt together. He co-wrote “Hotel California”, “Take It Easy” and much of the catalogue of America's best-selling band. His partnership with Henley, as fertile as it was stormy, defined seventies rock.
Glenn Frey
Eagles
1941
Guy Clark is born, who built guitars by hand and songs like a man carving wood
On November 6, 1941, Guy Clark was born in Texas, son of lawyers and raised by a grandmother who ran a small-town hotel. He worked as a luthier before turning to writing, and treated songs the way he treated guitars: no ornament, joints left visible. "L.A. Freeway" and "Desperados Waiting for a Train" are his, and Steve Earle and Rodney Crowell came out of his Nashville kitchen.
Guy Clark
Steve Earle
1941
Doug Sahm is born, whose label disguised him as British to sell him better
On November 6, 1941, Doug Sahm was born in San Antonio, a steel guitar prodigy who at eleven played at Hank Williams's last concert. In 1965 he formed the Sir Douglas Quintet; the label presented them with an English name and a shadowy photograph to pass them off as British at the height of the invasion. They were Texans, mixing rock with Mexican conjunto, something later called Tex-Mex.
Doug Sahm
Texas Tornados
1946
George Young is born, who produced the first albums by his younger brothers' band
On November 6, 1946, George Young was born in Glasgow; his family emigrated to Australia in 1963 and settled in a migrant hostel. There he formed the Easybeats and wrote "Friday on My Mind", Australia's first international hit. He then turned to production, and in 1974 went into the studio with a new band formed by his younger brothers Malcolm and Angus: AC/DC.
George Young
The Easybeats
AC/DC
1988
Conchita Wurst is born, who won Eurovision in a gown and a full beard
On November 6, 1988, Thomas Neuwirth was born in Austria, growing up bullied in an Alpine village and building the character of Conchita Wurst: an elegant woman with a full beard. In 2014 she won the Eurovision Song Contest, and the victory became a political matter across half of Europe. The song was called "Rise Like a Phoenix" and sounded, deliberately, like a James Bond theme.
Conchita Wurst
2020
King Von dies at twenty-six, at the highest point of his career
On November 6, 2020, King Von died in a shooting outside an Atlanta nightclub. He was 26. Born on Chicago's South Side, he had come to rap out of prison and in barely two years became one of drill's most precise storytellers: his songs tell complete stories, with characters and twists, closer to short fiction than to song lyrics.
King Von
Lil Durk
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