February is a very busy month. It’s Black History Month, which I’ll continue to celebrate throughout the month. And there are of course, several important birthdays that coincide and will be celebrating, as well.
- Big Boi, who also celebrated his 50th birthday on February 1
- Rick James, who was born 77 years ago on February 1
- Stan Getz was born on this day 98 years ago on February 2
- Graham Nash celebrated his 83rd birthday on February 2
- Stone Temple Pilots‘ Robert DeLeo celebrated his 59th birthday on February 2
- LCD Soundsystem frontman and DFA Records founder James Murphy celebrated his 55th birthday on February 2
- The Temptations‘ Dennis Edward, who also was born 82 years ago on February 3
- Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the godmother of rock ‘n’roll
- Bobby Brown, who also celebrated his 56th birthday on February 5
- The legendary Bob Marley was born 80 years ago on February 7
- Motley Crüe‘s Vince Neil celebrates his 64th birthday today
- French touch pioneer and one-half of acclaimed electronic outfit Daft Punk, Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, celebrated his 51st birthday on February 8
- The legendary Roberta Flack celebrated her 88th birthday on February 10
- Bad Brains‘ founder and frontman H.R., who also celebrated his 69th birthday on February 11
- Acclaimed singer/songwriter, pop star and actor Brandy celebrated her 46th birthday on February 11
- The Doors‘ Ray Manzarek was born 85 years ago on February 12
- Michael McDonald, one of the kings of blue-eyed soul and yacht rock celebrated his 73rd birthday on February 12
As a child of the 80s, I grew up watching a lot of unsupervised music programming on TV. I have fond memories of watching The Monkees repeats on Nickelodeon, and around that time, they had a reunion/comeback album that was quite a big deal. (A couple of videos from the album were aired on MTV at some point or another.)
The Monkees was a bit of goofy, clearly Beatles-esque fun with some really great songs. I somehow didn’t know that Neil Diamond wrote “I’m A Believer,” but now that I think of it, I hear Neil Diamond in the song. He also wrote a handful of other Monkees songs. Go figure! The Monkees brought folks a lot of joy throughout their run together.
The band’s Peter Tork was born 83 years ago today. Happy birthday, Peter! Happy birthday, wherever you are!
Discover more from The Joy of Violent Movement
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.