Chapter 01 — Today in music
On a day like today December 13
1989
Taylor Swift is born, the songwriter who became an industry of her own
Taylor Swift is born in Reading, Pennsylvania; she went from teenage country to redefining the very scale of pop. By re-recording her albums to reclaim her masters she changed the rules of artistic ownership, and her Eras Tour became an economic phenomenon measured in GDP points. No artist of her generation has amassed such creative and commercial power.
Taylor Swift
1912
Luiz Gonzaga is born, the accordion player who set the Brazilian northeast to music
On December 13, 1912, Luiz Gonzaga was born in the interior of Pernambuco, son of an accordion repairman. He went south to try his luck and discovered that audiences in Rio wanted to hear exactly what he had left behind. With "Asa Branca" he turned the drought and the exodus of the sertão into popular song, and established baião as a Brazilian national genre.
Luiz Gonzaga
1948
Ted Nugent is born, the “Motor City Madman” with the Gibson Byrdland
Ted Nugent is born in Detroit; after fronting the Amboy Dukes of the psychedelic classic “Journey to the Center of the Mind”, he built an incendiary hard rock solo career. “Stranglehold” and “Cat Scratch Fever” made him one of the top-grossing live acts of the seventies. As controversial as he is influential, his hollow-body guitar at full volume is a registered trademark.
Ted Nugent
1957
Morris Day is born, Prince's rival on screen and his bandmate in real life
On December 13, 1957, Morris Day was born in Springfield, Illinois. He played drums in a teenage Minneapolis band alongside Prince. When Prince put together The Time as a side project, he made Day the frontman. In "Purple Rain" he played the arrogant antagonist with a mirror and a personal valet, and stole every scene he appeared in.
Morris Day
The Time
Prince
1980
"Master Blaster", Stevie Wonder's tribute to Bob Marley, piles up weeks at number one
On December 13, 1980, "Master Blaster (Jammin')" was still at number one on the American R&B chart, where it stayed for seven straight weeks, the longest run of that year. Stevie Wonder had written it as an explicit tribute to Bob Marley, with whom he had shared a stage, and lent Motown soul an undisguised reggae rhythm.
Stevie Wonder
Bob Marley
1903
Carlos Montoya is born, the Roma guitarist who took flamenco from the tablao to the concert hall
On December 13, 1903, Carlos Montoya was born in Madrid into a Roma family. He learned guitar from his mother and by fourteen was accompanying dancers in the cafés cantantes. He settled in the United States and was the first to play flamenco as a soloist in front of a symphony orchestra, something purists never quite forgave him for.
Carlos Montoya
1925
Dick Van Dyke is born, owner of the worst British accent in musical film history
On December 13, 1925, Dick Van Dyke was born in Missouri, a dancer and singer who in 1964 played the chimney sweep in "Mary Poppins". His attempt at a cockney accent became so legendarily bad that he publicly apologised for it decades later. That film's soundtrack won the Oscar and its songs remain compulsory children's repertoire.
Dick Van Dyke
1948
Jeff Baxter is born, guitarist for Steely Dan and later a missile-defence consultant
On December 13, 1948, Jeff Baxter was born in Washington, founding guitarist of Steely Dan and later a member of the Doobie Brothers. In the eighties he began studying military recording systems out of technical curiosity, wrote a paper on missile defence and ended up advising committees of the United States Congress for decades without ever leaving music.
Jeff Baxter
Steely Dan
The Doobie Brothers
1975
Tom DeLonge is born, who left the biggest pop punk band in the world to investigate UFOs
On December 13, 1975, Tom DeLonge was born in Poway, California, guitarist and singer of Blink-182, the group that took pop punk onto mainstream radio with "Enema of the State". In 2015 he left the band to run an organisation devoted to investigating unidentified aerial phenomena, and years later the Pentagon ended up acknowledging some of the material he had circulated.
Tom DeLonge
Blink-182
1981
Amy Lee is born, whose band won the Grammy for best new artist with an album everyone had rejected
On December 13, 1981, Amy Lee was born in Riverside, California, a classically trained pianist who put Evanescence together in Arkansas as a teenager. Labels turned the project down for years because they had no idea where to place a woman singing opera over metal guitars. In 2004 the group won the Grammy for best new artist and sold eighteen million records.
Amy Lee
Evanescence
One ephemeris a day, one editorial a week. Zero spam, pure archive.