April 27
America's greatest poet received his nation's highest civilian honor today in 2012 when Bob Dylan was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Barack Obama, the recognition acknowledging six decades of songwriting that had chronicled and shaped American culture like no other artist… Beatles romance found its happiest ending today in 1981 when Ringo Starr married actress Barbara Bach, beginning the marriage that has endured over four decades and proved the most stable of any Beatle union despite the drummer's battles with alcoholism… Progressive rock's most reluctant participant Gordon Haskell was born on this date in 1947, the King Crimson bassist-vocalist whose brief tenure with his school chum Robert Fripp's band preceded a solo career that found unlikely success before his death in 2020… We remember Badfinger's tragic songwriter Peter Ham on his birthday today in 1947, the musician whose "Without You" became a massive hit for o...
