Happy Birthday To Me... and Jeff Lynne

     Today is my birthday and one of my presents was getting to renew my Rock Hall membership. As I walked around the Rock Hall, I was trying to think of an idea for a blog post. Then it came to me, I'll look up musicians who were also born on December 30th. I already knew I shared a birthday with Lebron James, Tiger Woods, Matt Lauer and Teri Hatcher, but I didn't know any musicians. It turns out it's a pretty awesome list: Del Shannon, Bo Diddley, Jeff Lynne, Patti Smith and two Monkees, Mike Nesmith and Davy Jones.
     Del Shannon was well before my time and I only know the song "Runaway" and that Tom Petty referenced it in a song once. Still, I know he was an important figure in the history of rock music. And he was born in Michigan. Maybe I'll spend some time investigating his music.
     I don't know much about Bo Diddley either, except I love to look at his guitar whenever I go to the Rock Hall. It truly is one of the iconic guitars in music history.
     I've always meant to check out Patti Smith's music, but never get around to it. I know Michael Stipe is a huge fan and I love U2's cover of "Dancing Barefoot", but that's all I know about her. I definitely have to rectify this musical omission.
     I was very excited that not one, but two, Monkees shared my birthday. I remember being at my cousins' house when I was a kid and they were watching The Monkees. I'd never seen it before and I thought it was awesome. Then, when I was at college, I used to watch MTV all day in the dorm TV room. This is when MTV played videos, but they also played episodes of The Monkees. So I spent hours watching their zany exploits instead of drinking and having sex. I never owned anything by them until Davy Jones died, when I decided to buy a greatest hits collection. My wife has seen them in concert and has some of their records. "Last Train to Clarksville" is one of my favorite songs and I really loved their show. It's too bad they spent so much energy fighting each other instead of entertaining their fans.
     I was most excited about Jeff Lynne. To me, he is an unsung giant in the history of popular music. He has amazing songwriting skills, but is often dismissed as a Beatles' impersonator. Just his output with the Electric Light Orchestra is stellar. 10538 Overture. Mr. Blue Sky. Evil Woman. Turn To Stone. Sweet Talkin' Woman. Can't Get It Out of My Head. Do Ya. Showdown. Don't Bring Me Down. I could go on forever. Add to that The Move and The Traveling Wilburys and Jeff Lynne should be a legend. When I was a kid, I had a 45 of ELO's "Sweet Talkin' Woman" on purple vinyl, but my sister broke it. I still have a greatest hits and Out of the Blue on vinyl and I recommend that my kids listen to those. I think I'll start collecting their other records on vinyl and see if I can track down a replacement purple vinyl 45.
     I also had an awesome steak dinner at Fleming's, so this turned out to be a great birthday. Peace.