...It's the birthday of native Londoner George Martin (1926) who's renown in the music world stems primarily from his work as the producer of the Beatles circa 1962 - 1969...an auspicious chance meeting with a Liverpudlian band manager Brian Epstein who sang the high praises of this quartet in his artist stable led to Martin's signing the four lads to his label...Though George has also worked with such diverse talents as Peter Sellers, Ella Fitzgerald, the rock band America and singers Peter Gabriel and Celine Dion, his Beatles affiliation helped make him the most successful producer in the recording game...
...it's also the day that Van Dyke Parks came screaming into the world in 1941. Born in Hattiesburg, MS, Parks was a child prodigy who majored in music at the Carnegie Institute and U Penn, a year after he graduated, he was signed to MGM where he cut a marginally successful single called "Come into the Sunshine" which forced him to form a proper band to perform with but nothing else caught on and the outfit disbanded. After doing session work with Anthony and Cleopatra (later Sonny and Cher), Paul Revere and the Raiders and artists like the Byrds, Judy Collins and Tim Buckley, it was producer Terry Melcher, who hooked parks up with many of the session gigs mentioned earlier, who introduced him to the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson who was searching for a lyricist that was as gifted at writing words as he was at composing-- Parks fit the bill and the result: the SMiLE LP...Later, Van Dyke was signed to Warner Bros. by producer Lenny Waronker and helped the A/R man realize his vision for the label...Parks made his debut with the LP "*Song Cycle,*":http://www.thestore24.com/Music/Album.aspx?p_id=P+++++5107&a_id=R++++14867&PersonID=P%20%20%20%20%205107&prodid=WBAD25856.2&si=rhino (pictured above)an eclectic mixture of American genres that, despite modest commercial returns, would influence many a recording artist who would follow...the album's still in print...
...a happy birthday shout-out to Buffalo Springfield and CSN member Stephen Stills who was born in Dallas, TX today...After dropping out of college, he shot up to NYC to become a folk singer, he joined forces with Richie Foray which lead to a tour of Canada where he met guitarist Neil Young who was in an opening act called the Esquires at the time...Stills eventually re-located here, to Los Angeles, where the folk rock scene was gaining traction, and after auditioning for session work (and a spot as one of TV's The Monkees) he got together with Young (who had moved to town after his group, the Mynah Birds which featured the future Punk-funkster Rick James failed to make any waves at their Motown label), Bruce Palmer (bass) and drummer Dewey Martin to form an act that would eventually become "*Buffalo Springfield*":http://www.rhino.com/store/ProductDetail.lasso?Number=74324-- Stephen's "For What it's Worth" would make them all stars but within two years the group dissolved...as fate would have it, an impromptu jam session, expedited by Mama Cass Elliott of the Mama's and the Papas, with David Crosby (formerly of the Byrds) and Graham Nash (formerly of the Hollies) lead to the formation of Crosby,Stills & Nash who's eponymous debut album blew up, initially based on the popularity of "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" which Stills wrote in homage to folk singer Judy Collins...
...it's the birthday of another London native, John Paul Jones (far right) who was born in 1946 and at the ripe age of 14 played in his first band with his father who nurtured the young musician who, by his mid teens was already securing session work. By the last half of the 60s, John Paul was a seasoned studio vet, having backed artists like Jeff Beck, the Stones, the Yardbirds, the Everly Brothers and the Supremes...In 1968 Jimmy Page (who Jones had jammed with in a later version of the Yardbirds) tapped Jones to join him on a new project that would become this little group known today as Led Zeppelin...
On the writing front, it's the birthday of John Ronald Reuel (J.R.R.) Tolkien, who was born in South Africa (1892). Later in life he became s professor of the study of the derivation of languages (or philology) at Oxford and was fluent in Greek, Latin, Old Norse, Old English, Anglo-Saxon and an ancient Germanic tongue called Gothic, among many other European dialects. Tolkien's love of old European languages prompted him try to create an entire language of his own, with it's own special alphabet and finding no practical use for his linguistic hobby, when he sat down to write Lord of the Rings, he assigned his invention to the Elf characters in the story, calling it "High Elvish"...the popularity of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings film trilogy belie the cool reception that Tolkien's book, the basis for the films, was given by the public when the first volume was published in the mid-50s and didn't make any real ripples in the writing world until the 60s when college students began to pick it up...Lord of the Rings took 12 years to complete...and, coincidentally, the tune "Ramble On" featured on Led Zeppelin's "II" album was written in homage to Frodo Baggins, who was doing just that in the storyline of Tolkien's epic tale... ...and finally, on a literary side note, it was on this day in 1841 that Herman Melville, son of a once affluent businessman, set sail from Massachusetts on the Acushnet, a newly-christened whaling vessel that was set for a the Pacific Ocean, whose captain was willing to hire a hand with no sea-faring experience...ultimately, the future writer would spend four years at sea and would spend a lot of his remaining days writing about everything that took place during his tenure on board, no doubt, fodder for his classic, Moby Dick....
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