This Day in Music
On this day in music, July 3, 1971, Jim Morrison, the 27-year-old frontman of The Doors, was found dead in his Paris apartment. The influential singer, songwriter, and poet co-founded the Los Angeles rock band in 1965; rising to fame two years later with the chart-topping hit, “Light My Fire.” Before Morrison’s untimely passing, The Doors would become one of the biggest bands in the world, releasing six albums over five years and placing multiple singles on the Billboard Hot 100. As a frontman, Morrison captivated audiences with his commanding vocals, wild persona, and spoken-word improvisations. His songs, meanwhile, captured the collective feelings of the counterculture generation.
In 1969, 27-year-old singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist, Brian Jones, drowned. Best known as a founding member of The Rolling Stones, Jones began his career in the London blues scene, playing alongside Alexis Korner and such future stars as Paul Jones (Manfred Mann) and Jack Bruce (Cream). In 1962, he sought to form an R&B group, placing an ad in a local paper for musicians. Before long, they became The Rolling Stones. While he was a talented and versatile musician, whose brilliant work can be heard on such albums as Aftermath and Between The Buttons, Jones struggled with addiction. His demons, as well as growing tensions with his bandmates, led to his dismissal in June 1969.
In 1973, David Bowie figuratively killed his alter ego, Ziggy Stardust, during the final show of his UK Aladdin Sane tour. Just before launching into “Rock‘n’Roll Suicide,” Bowie delivered a vague farewell speech, shocking the audience at London’s Hammersmith Odeon, as well as the majority of his band and crew, who all assumed that the artist himself was retiring from the limelight. Bowie would, however, disband the Spiders from Mars (with the exception of guitarist Mick Ronson), and assemble a new ensemble ahead of his North American tour that fall.
In 1968, David Crosby, Stephen Stills, and Graham Nash all played together for the first time, during an impromptu jam session at Joni Mitchell’s Laurel Canyon house. The three musicians would officially become a group later that year, releasing their self-titled debut in 1969.
BORN ON JULY 3
1929: David Lynch (The Platters)
1930: Tommy Tedesco (Guitarist)
1940: Fontella Bass
1943: Judith Durham (The Seekers)
1948: Paul Barrere (Little Feat)
1952: Andy Fraser (Free, John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers)
1957: Laura Branigan
1960: Vince Clarke (Erasure, Depeche Mode)
1969: Kevin Hearn (Barenaked Ladies)
1976: Shane Lynch (Boyzone)
