06.30: On this day in 1975, Cher hopped back in the marriage saddle, this time with Greg Allman. The couple married just four days after Sonny and Cher called it quits. The fickle Cher then filed for divorce from Allman ten days after they married, but the pair stuck it out until 1979 before calling it quits for good. Did we say fickle? We meant, "Holy moly, Cher. Maybe you should give this marriage thing a little more thought before just going out and marrying the next rock star you meet at a party."
07.01: Blondie’s Debbie Harry was born on this day in 1946. Fronting the not-really-punk punk band in the '70s means she'll forever and ever (or as long as music historians ponder that time period in music history) be remembered in the same breath as The Ramones, The Sex Pistols, Talking Heads, The Clash, and X. Actually, now that we look at that grouping, we realize that the punk movement of the late '70s encompassed many bands that didn't carry that "punk" sound, but were, instead, just playing what they wanted, how they wanted, damn the critics and mainstream opinion. That's fairly punk. Happy b-day, punk rocker Debbie!
07.03: On this day in 1969, Rolling Stones founding member and guitarist, Brian Jones, was found dead in his swimming pool not even a month after having departed the Stones for "musical reasons," whatever that means. His death was labeled "death by misadventure" by the coroner, but there are still people, to this day, who claim that he was murdered. We may never know exactly how he died. What we do know, however, is that Brian's role in the Stones lineup had gone from frontman and lead guitar in the early days to second fiddle next to Mick and Keith, whose songwriting skills greatly outweighed Brian's swagger. Next to them, he really didn't have much to offer, so he left. For "musical reasons."
07.03: On this day in 1971, The Doors frontman Jim Morrison died in a Paris bathtub. His official cause of death was heart failure, but many fans speculated it was the result of a covered-up drug overdose. Their theory can never be proven, however, because French law did not require an autopsy. The third of three '60s talents to die in less than a year, following Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin, Morrison had retreated to Paris to gather himself after the chaos of the previous years, during the rise of The Doors and his subsequent run-ins with the law and Ed Sullivan. With these deaths, many people considered the '60s truly and officially over, in spirit and in music. We could speculate all day and night about what kind of music Jim, Jimi, and Janis would've made had they survived themselves, but that kind of thought experiment is fairly fruitless. Instead, we just like to enjoy what was left behind. Long live The Lizard King!
07.04: What a wonderful world, indeed, as American jazz great Louis Armstrong, or Satchmo as we love to call him, was born on this day in 1900. One of the greatest trumpeters and bandleaders during the big band and swing eras of jazz, inarguably the most popular time for jazz, Armstrong's amazingly raspy, deep, and smokey voice will, in our mind, forever reverberate through our heads with the tune "What A Wonderful World." What a great song and an amazing talent. For real, seek out his work, a greatest hits collection, whatever, and you will not be disappointed. Happy birthday, Louie. You are one of the original rock stars of jazz.