Tommy’s Coffee Break Calendar for July 28th

"You say it's your birthday...", well it is for one of our favorite drummers, a great guitarist gone too soon, and a founding member of Pink Floyd...

7/28/1943 - Born on this day, guitarist extraordinaire Mike Bloomfield -- One of the first musical superstars of the 1960's, Mike earned his reputation almost entirely on his musical prowess (since he rarely sang) playing with the original line-up of The Paul Butterfield Blues Band, along with providing lead guitar for Bob Dylan's "Highway 61 Revisited" LP and well-deserved acclaim for many live gigs with Al Kooper -- No. 22 on Rolling Stone's list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists Of All Time" -- Inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 2015 -- Sadly, Mike was found dead in his car from a drug overdose on February 15, 1981, the same day his last album, "Cruisin' For A Bruisin'", was released; he was only 37.

7/28/1945 - Born on this day, original Pink Floyd member and keyboardist Rick Wright -- With the lone exception of "The Final Cut" (and despite many differences with Floyd co-founder Roger Waters), he performed on every one of the group's albums and tours -- Rick's contributions to the Floyd sound have been drastically under-appreciated; his jazz/improvisation influences no doubt helped establish the band's decades-long successful run of art-rock (it's flat-out impossible to imagine "Dark Side Of The Moon" without his keyboard contributions; by the way, that's Rick doing vocals on "Time") -- Gone too soon: Richard passed away at home from lung cancer on September 15, 2008; he was 65.

7/28/1949 - Happy Birthday to drummer Simon Kirke, 71 years old today -- Best known as the percussionist-par-excellence of Bad Company and Free, it's fair to say that (even with Paul Rodgers as lead singer) neither one of those bands would today be deemed "classic" were it not for Simon's superbly understated back-beats. He is rather good, you know...

Share your hummina-hummina's with the Calendar here on our web site and on the WBLM Facebook and Twitter pages with the hashtag #TommysCoffeeBreak.

"You missed the starting gun...", xoxo!