January 11

 

We remember "The Big Man" Clarence Clemons on his birthday today in 1942, the E Street Band's towering saxophonist whose soaring solos and brotherhood with Bruce Springsteen became the visual and sonic symbol of rock and roll camaraderie before his death in 2011…

 

We honor Louisiana blues master Slim Harpo on his birthday today in 1924, born James Moore, the harmonica player and vocalist whose swamp blues classics like "I'm a King Bee" and "Baby Scratch My Back" influenced the Rolling Stones and British blues rockers before his heart attack death in 1970…

 

The Boss conquered Hollywood today in 2009 when Bruce Springsteen won a Golden Globe award for "The Wrestler," his haunting theme song for Mickey Rourke's comeback film proving Springsteen could capture working-class desperation in cinema as powerfully as on record…

 

Jefferson Airplane lost their jazz-influenced timekeeper on this day in 2005 when drummer Spencer Dryden died at 66, ending the life of the musician whose loose, swinging style helped distinguish the San Francisco band's sound during their psychedelic peak…

 

Hip-hop soul's queen Mary J. Blige celebrates her 55th birthday today, the Bronx singer whose raw emotional honesty and blending of R&B with hip-hop beats made her the voice of a generation while earning her the title "Queen of Hip-Hop Soul."…

 

Psychedelic culture's accidental father Albert Hofmann was born on this date in 1906, the Swiss chemist who synthesized LSD in 1938 and discovered its effects in 1943, inadvertently providing the Grateful Dead generation with its sacrament before his death at 102 in 2008…

 

Country music's most troubled matriarch Naomi Judd was born on this day in 1946, the Judds' mother whose harmonies with daughter Wynonna made them country's most successful duo before mental illness led to her suicide in 2022, ending a life of triumph and tragedy…

 

Musical instrument innovation found its electric voice when Laurens Hammond was born today in 1895, the inventor whose Hammond organ became essential to jazz, gospel, and rock, its distinctive sound defining everything from Jimmy Smith to Deep Purple before his death in 1973…

 

Blues-rock's most powerful voice received her final statement today in 1971 when Janis Joplin's 'Pearl' was posthumously released, the album featuring "Me and Bobby McGee" proving what the world had lost when she died of a heroin overdose just three months earlier.