Celebrating the epic (brilliant) musical catalog of Damon Albarn (Blur/Gorillaz/The Good The Bad The Queen/etc etc etc), who turns 43 today.

Damon Albarn armed with melodica (photo by Shannon, Camden NJ 2010)

Here is just a sliver of some of his works and collaborations over the years in various personnel configurations and under different names. Which brings to mind a  twist on a famous line . . . a musical project by any other name would sound just as sweet. I think if you took every song he’s ever written or collaborated on and played them end to end, the tracks would circle the earth at least twice! . . . wait, does that even make sense? . . . perhaps better stated, they would provide the soundtrack the entire duration of a road trip to the outer rim of the solar system.  Here’s just a few:

“Tomorrow Comes Today” live video shot by yours truly during our epic Gorillaz adventure in October 2010

“Swamp Song” live at Basico 40 in 1999

B-side to “Crazy Beat” from Blur’s 2003′s Think Tank

The Good, The Bad and The Queen (the album, not the band name) “Nature Springs” live at St. Denis 2007

and again, this time with “Herculean” live on Henry Rollins show (sharing the stage with some of Gorillaz Demon Strings members)

with The Black Ghosts on “Repetition Kills You” from 2008

A beautiful Gorillaz in-studio cover of the xx’s Crystalized

With Afel Bocoum and the Mali Music project in 2002 on Later With Jools Holland

and again on Jools Holland this time with a selection from his collaboration with artist Jamie Hewlett for the Chinese opera, Monkey Journey to the West in 2008

and a moment I shan’t forget anytime soon (or ever), being part of the rush invited on stage and then actually being on stage with my sister and about 50 others to help sing the chorus for “Clint Eastwood” during Gorillaz Live on Letterman webcast on October 7, 2010 in New York City (say what? I’ll never see David Letterman’s studio on tv the same again).

and this last one for my blog buddy, fellow Clash/Blur aficionado, music loving-Clash Blog-writing dear friend, Tim.

I could go on and on adding videos, but I’ve already posted so many here on the blog you can easily get to them via a little collection on the Song of the Day category here called (self-explanatorily enough)  “Melodica: The music of Damon Albarn”

Happy birthday and thank you for sharing your musical talent with the world, Damon!