08.31: Van Morrison, he of moondancing and G-L-O-R-I-A fame, was born on this day in 1945.

09.01: R.L. Burnside, the 78-year old blues veteran whom every music lover should’ve and should still know, died on this day in 2005. For real, seek out his burly, hill country blues.

09.01: The very first release, titled U2-3, by a little Irish band called U2 flew onto the scene on this day way back in 1979. Containing a mere three tracks, hence the title, the EP hit the top of the Irish charts and earned the guys critical praise and music awards. The first of much and many, respectively.

09.01: INXS performed for the first time under that name on this day in 1979. Before that, the band, simply known as The Farriss Brothers, already did things in excess, but after that the band name seemed a bit more apropos.

09.02: The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame opened its doors on this day in 1995 in Cleveland, Ohio, forever enshrining all that is awesome and good about rock and roll, rhythm and blues, hip-hop, country, and most other genres of which one could think. Cleveland had long argued its position as the birthplace of rock and roll, with the actual coining of the term by Cleveland disc jockey Alan Freed, in lobbying to be the home of the Hall of Fame, beating out Memphis, Cincinnati, and New York.

09.02: On this day in 1970, Genesis placed an add for a drummer in Melody Maker magazine. Phil Collins answered the ad. Lucky for us that he did. Otherwise, who knows if the world ever would have experienced the mysticism and enchantment that is "Easy Lover.”

09.04: The Animals, they of “House of the Rising Sun," one of the first salvos in the British Invasion of the ‘60s, played their first show in the U.S. at the Paramount Theater in Brooklyn on this day in 1964. America would very quickly become Brit-happy day trippers, rolling like stones and thinking ‘bout tambourine men.

09.04: The Beatles “Love Me Do” became recorded reality, for the 2nd of 3 times, on this day in 1962 at Abbey Road Studios. It’d been recorded a few months earlier with The Beatles’ first drummer, Pete Best. After Ringo joined the group, they re-recorded it. Their producer, George Martin, however, didn’t like Ringo’s drumming, so another version, the one people are most familiar with, was recorded one week later using a session drummer. Ringo was still on that version, though. He played the tambourine.

09.05: Aerosmith didn’t miss a thing on this day in 1998 when the biggest hit of their career, their one and only #1 song, hit the top of the charts and remained there for four weeks. Can you guess which song it was? If you guessed “Sweet Emotion,” you are a loser.

09.05: On this day in 1946, Freddie Mercury, lover of champions, fat-bottomed girls, Scaramouche, and fandangos, was born. The frontman’s frontman, Mercury’s stage presence would never be equaled by anyone, ever. The man couldn’t not be cool.

09.05: On this day in 1992, John Cougar Mellencamp pounced on his matrimonial prey. The rocker married model Elaine Irwin after the two met when she was hired to appear on a Mellencamp album cover. And so, the long line of model-rocker marriages would remain intact, though the Mellencamps, who are still married, seem to have bucked the subsequent trend of model-rocker divorces that’ve hit the likes of Billy Joel, Paul McCartney, and Rod Stewart.

09.06: On this day in 1944, Roger Waters was born. Fortunately, there weren’t any floating pigs, walls, or dark sides of any moons in the delivery room. Those would come later when Roger and his little band that could, Pink Floyd, took over the world.