Bill Clinton is 65 today.
It’s also the birthday
… of Ginger Baker of Cream and Blind Faith. Peter Edward Baker, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, is 72. Rolling Stone says Baker is the third greatest rock drummer ever (after Neil Peart of Rush and John Bonham of Led Zeppelin).
Even if you missed growing up in the 1960s, you’re bound to have heard Ginger Baker’s explosive drumming with the rock bands Cream and Blind Faith. In both beat combos, Baker was an amazing sight.
His kit featured two bass drums, tuned slightly differently, so that he could play counter-rhythms with both feet, while his hands belaboured the snare, toms and cymbals. His arms flailed; his wild red hair shook like a Celtic warlord’s. He was, rumour had it, the most truculent of rock stars, handy with both verbals and fists; while his Cream co-members, Eric Clapton and Jack Bruce, were mostly cool and understated, he was mysteriously agitated, bug-eyed and feral, like a pissed-off wizard.
From a review of Hellraiser, The Autobiography of the World’s Greatest Drummer at The Independent
.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cqh54rSzheg
… of Johnny Nash. He’s 71.
I can see clearly now, the rain has gone
I can see all obstacles in my way
… of Jill St. John; she’s 71. A 1960s hottie, St. John, real name Jill Oppenheim, reportedly has an IQ of 162.
… of Fred Dalton Thompson. The actor and former U.S. Senator is 69.
… of Gerald McRaney, Major Dad. He’s 64 today.
… of Tipper Gore. She’s 63.
… of Kyra Sedgwick, 46.
… of Matthew Perry. The Friend is 42.
Gene Roddenberry was born on August 19th in 1921. The creator of Star Trek died in 1991.
The poet Ogden Nash was born on this date in 1902.
Candy
Is Dandy
But liquor
Is quicker.
From his “Reflections on Ice-Breaking.” Or, from “The Firefly”:
The firefly’s flame Is something for which science has no name
I can think of nothing eerier
Than flying around with an unidentified glow on a
person’s posteerier.
Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel was born on this date in 1883. She died in 1971.
Orville Wright was born on August 19th in 1871. He was four years younger than his brother Wilbur. The brothers opened a bicycle repair shop in 1892 and manufactured bicycles by 1896. It was Wilbur more than Orville that became interested in flight about that time. It was Orville however, who was the pilot for the first ever fatal crash. In 1908, Army Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge was a passenger. Selfridge was killed when the propellor fractured and the plane lost control and crashed. Orville Wright was seriously injured. This was at Fort Myer, across the Potomac from Washington. Orville, of course, flew again. In May 1910 he piloted with Wilbur as a passenger, the only time the two ever flew together. Wilbur died of typhoid in 1912, age 45. Orville last piloted a plane in 1918 but lived as the elder statesman of aviation until 1948. Photo shows the Wright brothers in 1910, Orville on left, Orville’s brother on right.
The British landed on the Patuxent River in Maryland on August 19th in 1814. It took them five days to reach Washington. Arsonist bastards.
Four men and one woman were executed in Salem, Massachusetts, on this day in 1692. They had been convicted of witchcraft.