Some of the most interesting musicians were just a little out of phase with their generation. Ira Kaplan of Yo La Tengo was born in 1957, nearly a decade prior to Pavement’s Stephen Malkmus. Get this: Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth is older than Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols. She rose from the underground in the 90s alongside musicians from the succeeding (my) generation. Patti Smith is closer in age to Paul McCartney and Jimi Hendrix than she was to David Byrne and the rest of her peers at CBGBs. And, of course, there’s David Bowie. Like Patti Smith, his peak period came 5-10 years after his generational cohort. What about Joni Mitchell? Carol King? Howie Gelb?

“Redshirting” is the practice in youth sports of holding back kids in school so they’ll be more physically developed than their peers and have an advantage. I know a mom who did that, so I can attest that it’s a real thing. And not just in the South. But I’m using the term facetiously here, because the very idea feels absurd applied to music and other creative pursuits. Competition in music isn’t structured like sports. If anything—at least in the world of classical music—it’s the opposite. And yet, whether they didn’t get started in music until later in their lives like Smith, or they walked a circuitous path to stardom like Bowie, I can’t help thinking that each of these artists benefited from the extra fermentation time. All of the musicians I mentioned are just a little frothier, aren’t they?

If I can make any kind of generalization about these artists, then it’s this: these are musicians’ musicians. While some of them were (are) very successful, they inspired later musicians who ended being even more popular. It’s like they were able to refine and iterate their peers’ influences and then put it forward in a form that inspired later generations. Kim Gordon brought an evolved punk and no wave sensibility to music that influenced Nirvana, Hole, and others who had greater commercial success. Patti Smith pushed past her peers with the flowers in their hair by combining poetic sophistication with the urban energy of New York’s Downtown scene. R.E.M., among others, took what she was doing and refracted it. In their case, they put a Southern Gothic spin on it, all kudzu and tumbledown shacks.

Howie Gelb is a great example. I imagine that most people reading this might wonder who he is, he’s not exactly a household name. He was born in 1957, which makes him the same age as Nick Cave, Peter Murphy, and Sid Vicious—all of whom came into their own in the late 70s and early 80s. Gelb, however, really hit his stride with his band, Giant Sand, in the mid to late 1990s. His marriage of punk sensibility and American roots music had a big influence on the emergent Alt-Country scene. Two of his bandmates, Joey Burns and John Convertino went on to form Calexico and worked with Iron & Wine, Neko Case, and others. Giant Sand collaborated with Victoria Williams, Neko Case, Polly Jean Harvey, M. Ward, and others. Granted, none of these others are exactly household names either. But they do all right and have, in turn, influenced other, more commercially popular artists.

I don’t have anything further to add. I just don’t think that I’ve ever seen anyone make this particular point, so I thought I’d get it down on paper.