Chapter 01 — Today in music
On a day like today December 31
1970
McCartney sues the Beatles: the legal end of the century's band
On the last day of 1970, Paul McCartney files suit in London to dissolve the Beatles' legal partnership and free himself from manager Allen Klein. The band no longer existed in practice, but this filing sealed the ending in court. And so, with lawyers instead of chords, the decade the Beatles defined officially came to an end.
Paul McCartney
The Beatles
1899
Silvestre Revueltas is born, the Mexican composer who went to the Spanish Civil War
On December 31, 1899, Silvestre Revueltas was born in Durango, a violinist and composer who filled his music with village bands, sones and street noise. "Sensemayá", based on a poem by Nicolás Guillén about killing a snake, is his best-known piece. In 1937 he travelled to Spain to support the Republic. He died three years later at forty, ill and penniless.
Silvestre Revueltas
1930
Odetta is born, the voice that made Bob Dylan trade his electric guitar for an acoustic
On December 31, 1930, Odetta Holmes was born in Alabama, trained as a classical singer and turned to folk and blues. Her repertoire of prison and work songs made her a figure of the civil rights movement; she sang at the 1963 March on Washington. Bob Dylan said that on hearing her first record he sold his electric guitar to buy an acoustic one.
Odetta
Bob Dylan
Martin Luther King
1947
Rita Lee is born, thrown out of Os Mutantes and crowned queen of Brazilian rock
On December 31, 1947, Rita Lee was born in São Paulo, a member of Os Mutantes, the band Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil put at the centre of tropicália. In 1972 her bandmates threw her out of the group. Alone she built a far bigger career, became the best-selling Brazilian woman artist in her country and died in 2023 as a national figure.
Rita Lee
Os Mutantes
1948
Donna Summer is born, the queen of disco
LaDonna Gaines, the future Donna Summer, is born in Boston. With producer Giorgio Moroder she recorded “I Feel Love” (1977), the fully electronic track that anticipated decades of dance music, alongside anthems like “Hot Stuff” and “Last Dance”. Her gospel voice over synthesizers defined an era and seeded the future of electronic pop.
Donna Summer
1959
Paul Westerberg is born, whose band made a point of ruining every chance it had
On December 31, 1959, Paul Westerberg was born in Minneapolis, singer and writer for The Replacements, one of the most loved American rock bands of the eighties and also one of the most self-destructive. Their 1986 national television appearance, completely drunk, got them banned from the show and probably cost them the mass career that was about to arrive.
Paul Westerberg
The Replacements
1909
Jonah Jones is born, who came late to success and sold more than ever at fifty
On December 31, 1909, Jonah Jones was born in Louisville, a trumpeter who started out playing on Ohio River steamboats and spent a decade in Cab Calloway's orchestra. Only in the late fifties, well into middle age, did he find his formula: genial swing with a muted trumpet. Those albums sold in the millions and made him a late-blooming star.
Jonah Jones
Cab Calloway
1920
Rex Allen is born, Hollywood's last singing cowboy
On December 31, 1920, Rex Allen was born in Arizona, raised on a ranch with no electricity. He was the last of the singing cowboys who starred in musical westerns in the forties and fifties, a genre that vanished with him. After the cinema stopped calling, his deep voice narrated dozens of nature documentaries for the Disney studios.
Rex Allen
1940
Mani Neumeier is born, a free jazz drummer who helped invent krautrock
On December 31, 1940, Mani Neumeier was born in Munich. He came out of free improvised jazz when he founded Guru Guru in 1968. The band mixed psychedelia, noise and hypnotic repetition, and was one of those that shaped what the British press dismissively called krautrock, a name the German musicians themselves ended up adopting with pride.
Mani Neumeier
Guru Guru
1973
Malcolm Middleton is born, who campaigned for a Christmas number one with a song about dying
On December 31, 1973, Malcolm Middleton was born in Scotland, guitarist of Arab Strap, a duo famous for its raw portraits of Scottish nightlife. In 2007 he launched a campaign to make his track "We're All Going to Die" the UK Christmas number one. He did not manage it, but it reached number thirty-one and the joke went round the country.
Malcolm Middleton
Arab Strap
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