1941

So I was thinking about Bob Dylan last night and realized he’ll turn 80 this year! Yikes! In my mind, he’s still the freewheelin’ young guy on that album cover singing what we yet younger folks needed to hear. As did the Beatles and Simon and Garfunkel and Joni Mitchell and Aretha and countless others. I was 12 when the Beatles came on Ed Sullivan—they felt so much older! In fact, most were about 10 years older, but when you’re 12, that feels like a whole generation away. Now on the cusp of 70, 80 feels like a peer group. Again, yikes!

But few things are so boring as our constant amazement at our age as we mature. What is much more interesting to me is my curiosity about who else in the music world is turning (or has turned) 80 this year. It was one of those moments when you could almost forgive Google for the inflated San Francisco rents,  appreciate the Internet in spite of the ease with which hate groups spread lies. All I had to do was type in “Musicians born in 1941” and it saved me hours (days?) of the old-fashioned library research. 

And prepare to be amazed. It turns out that 1941 was an extraordinary year in terms of famous musicians. I’m fascinated by these moments in time when all the stars align in a certain way to produce an explosive flowering of notable people and/or events. Tonight I’m teaching a jazz class about the year 1959, I’ve given lectures about the year 1924 in regards to Orff Schulwerk and other artistic breakthroughs and 1964 is also a pretty interesting year in popular music, with the Beatles I Want to Hold You Hand sharing the top 40 with Louis Armstrong’s Hello Dolly and Stan Getz/ Astrud and Joao Gilberto/ Antonio Carlos Jobims’ Girl from Ipanema. But for now, let's look at 1941.

It turns out that 25 pretty prominent musicians who I suspect most of you (over 50, at least) will recognize will celebrate (fingers crossed for the next 9 months) their 80^thbirthday and another 15 or so were born the same year but left us anywhere between 1974 and 2021. Below is that list and below that the same people grouped by musical genre. See how many you know. (I put them by mistake in a new font, but looks interesting! )

MUSICIANS BORN IN 1941: STILL LIVING 

 

Aaron Neville

Art Garfunkel

Bob Dylan

Buffy St. Marie

Charlie Watts (Rolling Stones)

Chubby Checker

Chucho Valdes

David Crosby (Stills and Nash)

David Ruffin (Temptations)

Eric Burdon (the Animals)

Glen Moore (bass in Oregon)

Jeremy Clyde (Chad and Jeremy)

Jesse Young (Youngbloods)

Joan Baez

Little Anthony (and  the Imperials)

Martha Reeves (and the Vandellas)

Mike Love (Beach Boys)

Neil Diamond

Placido Domingo

Paul Anka

Paul Simon

Pete Best (original Beatles drummer)

Ritchie Valens (La Bamba)

Sergio Mendez

Tom Fogerty (Credence Clearwater)

 

DECEASED

Bobby Hutcherson (2016)

Chick Corea (2021)

Chad Stuart (Chad and Jeremy) (2020)

Dr. John (2019)

Helen Reddy (2020)

Lester Bowie (Art Ensemble) (1999)

Mama Cass Elliot (The Mamas and Papas) (1974)

Maurice White (Earth, Wind and Fire) (2016)

Otis Redding (1967)

Paul Kantner (Jefferson Airplane) 2016

Richard Gill (2018)- (Australian conductor and Orff teacher I knew!)

Richie Havens (2013)

Tim Hardin (1980)

WIlson Picket (2016)

 

JAZZ

Bobby Hutcherson (2016)

Chick Corea (2021)

Chucho Valdes

Glen Moore (bass in Oregon)

Lester Bowie (Art Ensemble) (1999)

 

MOTOWN

David Ruffin (Temptations)

Little Anthony (and  the Imperials)

Martha Reeves (and the Vandellas)

Otis Redding (1967)

WIlson Picket (2016)

 

ROCK

Aaron Neville (Neville Brothers)

Art Garfunkel (Simon and Garfunkel)

Chad Stuart (Chad and Jeremy) (2020)

Charlie Watts (Rolling Stones)

Chubby Checker 

David Crosby (Stills and Nash)

Eric Burdon (the Animals)

Helen Reddy (2020) 

Jeremy Clyde (Chad and Jeremy)

Jesse Young (Youngbloods)

Mama Cass Elliot (The Mamas and Papas) 1974)

Mike Love (Beach Boys)

Neil Diamond

Paul Anka

Paul Kantner (Jefferson Airplane) 2016

Paul Simon (Simon and Garfunkel)

Pete Best (original Beatles drummer)

Ritchie Valens (La Bamba)

Sergio Mendez (Brasil 66)

Tom Fogerty (Credence Clearwater)

 

FOLK ROCK

Joan Baez

Buffy St. Marie

Bob Dylan

Richie Havens (2013)

Tim Hardin (1980)

 

Are you still with me here? Now being a good scientist, I wondered whether I could find a similar list for any other random year. So I put in 1951, my birth-year ten years later to check and could only find SIX musicians that I recognized in contrast to the forty above. As follows: 

Bill Frisell

Jaco Pastorious

Janis Ian

Stanley Clark

Sting

Zakir Hussein

 

Hmm. What does it all mean? At the very least, I suggest a massive group 80^thbirthday party for those above still with us. Anyone want to organize it?