Happy Birthday to.....

A nice way, i hope, to celebrate some interesting people, and share their....stuff!  

First birthday of the year is....

GRANDMASTER FLASH, musician - born 1st January 1958

"I needed a way to have the platter continuously spinning while i'm moving the record back and forth.  I went to a fabric store.  When i touched this hairy stuff - felt - i found it.  I rubbed spray starch on both sides and ironed it until it became a stiff wafer.  After that, i was able to stop time." 

So, if Grandmaster Flash hadn't spray starched and ironed the "hairy stuff", we wouldn't have had this:

J.D. SALINGER, writer - born 1st January 1919

"I'm known as a strange, aloof kind of man.  But all i'm doing is trying to protect myself and my work." 

“I thought it was, "If a body catch a body," Anyway, i keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and no ones around - nobody big I mean - except me. And I'm standing on the edge of this crazy cliff. What i have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff - I mean if they're running and they don't look where they are going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That's all I'd do all day. I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know its crazy, but that the only thing I's really like to be. I know its crazy.” 
― J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye

ISAAC ASIMOV, writer & scientist - born 2nd January 1920

"Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent." 

DAVID BAILEY, photographer - born 2nd January 1938

"Being dyslexic, i was told that i was an idiot all the time." 

Ok 

SERGIO LEONE, director - born 3rd January 1929

"When i was young, i believed in three things: Marxism, the redemptive power of cinema, and dynamite.  Now i just believe in dynamite." 

STEPHEN STILLS, musician - born 3rd January 1945

"Once you decide that it is the art that is important and not how popular and well received you are, you no longer have an albatross."

MICHAEL STIPE, musician - born 4th January 1960

"Super casual music listeners.  That's most of the people in the world.  And you have to understand, that's why Top 40 radio exists.  It's not there for people who seek out music and who love music." 

Sir Roger Tichborne, missing U.K. heir who was the subject of the longest criminal trial in British history----born 5th January 1829

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tichborne_case

Chris Stein, rock guitarist and co-founder of Blondie (Heart of Glass, Call Me) --born 5th January 1950 in Brooklyn, New York

Thanks Coolio.  We have to wait till June for Debbie's birthday. 

Chris Stein is an excellent photographer too.  He always took the best photos of Debbie.

Interesting case.  I didn't know about this.

"The blended image (centre) was said by the Claimant's supporters to prove that Roger Tichborne (left, in 1853) and the Claimant (right, in 1874) were one and the same person."

DIANE KEATON, actress/writer/photographer - born 5th January 1946

"A sense of freedom is something that, happily, comes with age and life experience." 

SYD BARRETT, musician - born 6th January 1946

"I'm full of dust and guitars."    

NICOLAS CAGE, actor - born 7th January 1964

"I would like to find a way to embrace what Led Zeppelin did, in filmmaking."  

Aye!

January 8, 1935, marks the birth of Elvis Presley, the man destined to become a legend in rock and roll. 

What Was Special About Presley's First Hit Song "Heartbreak Hotel?"Elvis proves that when you have rhythm, you have it all over.Presley released his version of this song in 1956 with his band, the Blue Moon Boys. The pianist on the song was Floyd Cramer and guitarist was Chet Atkins, both of whom went on to have lucrative careers of their own. "Heartbreak Hotel" was special because it was only the second song in Billboard history to reach the top of the three Billboard charts.

How Much Did Presley Pay for Graceland Mansion?So many hands to touch, so little timeElvis purchased Graceland Mansion in 1957 for about $102,000 from Ruth Brown Moore, after making a $1,000 deposit. Situated on 13.7 acres, the house has 23 rooms, including the famous Polynesian-designed jungle room. As part of a larger farm owned by S.E. Toof and family, the home was named after a member of the family named Grace and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It has the distinction of being the second most frequently visited house in the country, after the White House. 

The home operates as a museum, with tours of the home and estate grounds, including the burial places of Elvis, his mother and father, Vernon and Gladys Presley, his grandmother, Minnie Mae, and a memorial cenotaph to his twin brother, Jesse Garon Presley, who died at birth. By May 2016, over 20 million people had visited the home of the "King."

Why Did Elvis Never Do a World Tour?The King of Rock and Roll was famous throughout the world for many years but only traveled outside the country once to entertain. Three concerts were given in Canada in 1957 during a three-day tour. The reason might have had to do with Col. Tom Parker, Presley's manager. Years later, it was discovered that Col. Parker's real name was Andreas van Kuijk. He had been born in Breda, Netherlands. After arriving in the United States, he had taken the name Tom Parker from the man who had interviewed him for the Army. Allegedly, Parker was most likely in the country illegally. This explains why Parker did not accompany Presley to Canada, since he never obtained a passport.

What Are Elvis Presley's Accomplishments and His Legacy?With a grand total of over one billion records sold worldwide over the years, Presley holds the number two spot for records sold, just behind The Beatles. With 33 movies and three concert specials on television, Presley was widely known both through his music and on the screen. He was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1971 at the young age of 36 and won three Grammys out of 14 nominations. Although Presley passed away in 1977, there are still over 400 active Elvis Presley fan clubs in existence around the world, passing on his legacy of great rock and roll.

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