Chapter 01 — Today in music
On a day like today December 10
1967
Otis Redding dies at 26, three days after recording his masterpiece
The plane carrying Otis Redding crashes into Lake Monona, Wisconsin, killing the singer and most of the Bar-Kays. He was 26, and three days earlier he had recorded “(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay”, which would become the first posthumous number one in Billboard history. Soul lost its greatest heart in mid-flight.
Otis Redding
1908
Olivier Messiaen is born, who premiered his masterpiece inside a prison camp
On December 10, 1908, Olivier Messiaen was born in Avignon, a composer and ornithologist who spent years transcribing birdsong to use as musical material. Captured by the German army in 1940, he wrote the "Quartet for the End of Time" in captivity and premiered it in January 1941 before hundreds of prisoners and their guards, on a cello missing a string.
Olivier Messiaen
1913
Ray Nance is born, author of the most famous trumpet solo in Ellington's orchestra
On December 10, 1913, Ray Nance was born in Chicago. He joined Duke Ellington's orchestra in 1940 to replace Cootie Williams, a job nobody envied. The following year he recorded the trumpet solo on "Take the A Train", so definitive that for decades musicians played it note for note. He also played violin and sang, unheard of in a big band.
Ray Nance
Duke Ellington
1926
Guitar Slim is born, who distorted the guitar a decade before anyone thought of it
On December 10, 1926, Eddie Jones was born in Mississippi. As Guitar Slim he played in red and blue suits with a hundred-metre cable so he could walk through the crowd and out into the street. In 1954 he sold a million copies of "The Things That I Used to Do", with Ray Charles on piano, using a saturated tone that anticipated everything. He died at thirty-two.
Guitar Slim
Ray Charles
1974
Meg White is born, minimalism made drums
Meg White, the rhythmic half of The White Stripes, is born in Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan. Her elemental style, criticized by purists and defended by giants like Dave Grohl, was exactly what 2000s garage rock needed: primitive pulse without ornament. The beat of “Seven Nation Army”, chanted in every stadium on earth, is hers.
Meg White
The White Stripes
1951
Johnny Rodriguez is born, the first Mexican American country star
On December 10, 1951, Johnny Rodriguez was born in Sabinal, Texas, seventh of ten children. He was discovered singing in a cell after a minor arrest, and by twenty-one he had his first number one on the country chart. He put Spanish verses inside Nashville songs at a time when that simply was not done, opening a door nobody had walked through before.
Johnny Rodriguez
1957
Paul Hardcastle is born, who made a number one out of a stuttering documentary voice
On December 10, 1957, Paul Hardcastle was born in London. In 1985 the producer watched a documentary about Vietnam veterans and fixed on one figure: the average American soldier was nineteen years old. He sampled the narration, made it stutter with the technology of the day and released "19", which went to number one in thirteen countries and ended up irritating the veterans themselves.
Paul Hardcastle
1965
J Mascis is born, who started as a hardcore drummer and ended up defining alternative rock
On December 10, 1965, Joseph Mascis was born in Amherst, Massachusetts. He played drums in a hardcore band until he decided to switch to guitar and slow everything down. With Dinosaur Jr. he crossed sweet melodies with unbearable walls of volume and a voice dragging with disinterest. All of nineties American alternative rock learned something from that formula.
J Mascis
Dinosaur Jr.
1972
Brian Molko is born, who put Placebo together after a chance meeting at a train station
On December 10, 1972, Brian Molko was born in Brussels to an American father and a Scottish mother, and raised in Luxembourg. At a London underground station he ran into a former schoolmate, Stefan Olsdal, and Placebo came out of that encounter. His nasal, androgynous voice and lyrics about sexual ambiguity and addiction found an audience across Europe and Latin America.
Brian Molko
Placebo
1990
Teyana Taylor is born, who arrived as a dancer and ended up directing her own videos
On December 10, 1990, Teyana Taylor was born in Harlem. She started as a choreographer before recording a single album. She danced and starred in the video for Kanye West's "Fade" and in 2018 released "K.T.S.E.", produced by him, as part of a run of seven-song records. She later began directing videos under a male pseudonym and won awards before anyone knew who she was.
Teyana Taylor
Kanye West
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