Chapter 01 — Today in music
On a day like today November 17
1966
Jeff Buckley is born, the voice that turned a single album into eternal legend
Jeff Buckley is born in Anaheim, California, son of the also ill-fated Tim Buckley. With “Grace” (1994), his only finished album, and his now-canonical version of “Hallelujah”, he set a vocal bar no one has reached. He drowned in a Memphis river in 1997, at 30, sealing one of modern rock's most painful legends.
Jeff Buckley
1938
Gordon Lightfoot is born, Canada's national troubadour
Gordon Lightfoot is born in Orillia, Canada: the songwriter Dylan cited among his absolute favorites. “If You Could Read My Mind”, “Sundown” and his chronicle of the Edmund Fitzgerald's sinking made Canadian folk an exporting power. He wrote like a journalist and sang like a tavern baritone: an irresistible combination.
Gordon Lightfoot
1942
Bob Gaudio is born, who sealed half a century of royalties with a handshake
On November 17, 1942, Bob Gaudio was born in the Bronx. At fifteen he already had a national hit and at seventeen he joined the Four Seasons as their writer. He wrote "Sherry", "Big Girls Don't Cry" and "Walk Like a Man" within months. In 1962 he agreed with Frankie Valli to split everything they earned down the middle, with no contract and no paperwork: just a handshake both men honoured for fifty years.
Bob Gaudio
Frankie Valli
The Four Seasons
1944
Gene Clark is born, who left the Byrds at their peak because flying terrified him
On November 17, 1944, Gene Clark was born in Missouri, the Byrds' principal songwriter in their early years and author of much of what made them great. In 1966, at the height of their success, he got off a plane before take-off and left the group: fear of flying made touring impossible. In 1974 he released "No Other", a hugely expensive album that sold nothing and is now considered a masterpiece.
Gene Clark
The Byrds
1960
RuPaul is born, who took drag from Atlanta clubs into the charts
On November 17, 1960, RuPaul Charles was born in San Diego. He moved to Atlanta as a teenager and spent years performing in the alternative scene's clubs before settling in New York. In 1993 "Supermodel (You Better Work)" entered the charts and MTV's rotation, something no drag artist had achieved. The following year he signed a cosmetics contract, another absolute first.
RuPaul
1925
Charles Mackerras is born, who went to Prague to rescue a forgotten composer
On November 17, 1925, Charles Mackerras was born in the United States and raised in Australia. In 1947 he went to study in Prague on a scholarship. There he first heard the music of Leoš Janáček, practically unknown outside Czechoslovakia, and devoted the rest of his life to spreading it: his recordings of Janáček's operas are the reason they are staged all over the world today.
Charles Mackerras
Leoš Janáček
1946
Martin Barre is born, who played in the same band for forty-three years
On November 17, 1946, Martin Barre was born in Birmingham, a guitarist who joined Jethro Tull in 1969 and stayed forty-three years, the whole life of the group. The "Aqualung" solo is his, recorded while Jimmy Page waved at him from the other side of the studio glass and ruined his concentration. In a band whose leader played the flute, he was the rock anchor.
Martin Barre
Jethro Tull
1967
Ronnie DeVoe is born, of the boy band that split into three separate careers
On November 17, 1967, Ronnie DeVoe was born in Boston, a member of New Edition from the age of thirteen, the boy group that became the model for everyone who followed. When the group fractured, three of its members formed Bell Biv DeVoe and in 1990 released an album mixing rhythm and blues with hip-hop beats that sold four million copies.
Ronnie DeVoe
New Edition
Bell Biv DeVoe
1967
Tab Benoit is born: the bluesman who uses touring to save Louisiana's wetlands
On November 17, 1967, Tab Benoit was born in Louisiana, a guitarist of dirty swamp blues, closely tied to his state's tradition. He is also a pilot and, flying over the coast, saw the wetlands disappearing: Louisiana loses territory to the sea every year. In 2003 he founded an organisation of musicians to denounce it, and since then every album and every tour of his doubles as a campaign.
Tab Benoit
1972
Kimya Dawson is born, whose homemade songs ended up on the year's best-selling soundtrack
On November 17, 1972, Kimya Dawson was born in New York. With the Moldy Peaches she recorded deliberately clumsy songs, with out-of-tune guitars and childlike lyrics, on the New York antifolk circuit. In 2007 the director of the film "Juno" built almost the entire soundtrack from her songs; the album reached number one in the United States and sold more than a million copies.
Kimya Dawson
The Moldy Peaches
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