Well, sure, I’m most jazzed that there’s shiny-new music by Pistol Annies and She & Him, not only because I’m a fan of women who sing about natural fibers (both Miranda Lambert and Zooey Deschanel have recorded “The Fabric of … Continue reading
People at the Staples Center in LA this week spent a considerable chunk of cash to be in the same room as The Rolling Stones, and I’m sure everyone in attendance had a swell time, but I’m still not sure … Continue reading
If the details of Burt Bacharach’s romantic escapades — and there were many, since as Sammy Cahn once said, Burt was the only songwriter who didn’t look like a dentist, and his charms were not lost on an array of … Continue reading
Anyone who goes to see Fleetwood Mac or Rickie Lee Jones in 2013 knows what to expect, at least in terms of repertoire. Paying for a ticket — neither admission price being what you’d consider inexpensive — is like striking … Continue reading
The other night the nostalgia channel Antenna (lots of reverse-mortgage ads) screened a double bill of Twist Around The Clock and Don’t Knock The Twist. The headin’-to-Broadway reunion of The Rascals, Once Upon A Dream, traces the group from its beginnings, including some members’ … Continue reading
The Eagles and producer Glyn Johns parted creative company after three albums because Johns had the nerve to tell them they weren’t a convincing Rock Band. He knew about Rock Bands: he’d worked with The Stones, The Who, Led Zeppelin, … Continue reading
The whole “The Day The Music Died” mythology is a crackpot idea of rock history. Buddy Holly died for somebody’s sins, but not to become a symbol of rock & roll youth cut down in its prime and left to … Continue reading
It seems that I saw The Blues Project, The Fugs, Phil Ochs, Jim & Jean and a whole mess of other performers (Children of Paradise?) at NYU’s Loeb Student Center on February 3, 1967 (a Friday), and that it cost … Continue reading
The audacity of the new Fiona Apple makes me so happy, because I can imagine what went on over at her record company when they heard it and realized there was absolutely nothing they could do about it, nothing at … Continue reading
There was an informal poll on some music website a few years ago asking contributors to nominate candidates for the Best American Band Ever, and immediately I shot back “The Band.” Then I was reminded that 4/5ths of the members … Continue reading
I remember so little from my childhood, at least very little that doesn’t have something to do with television, movies, radio, comic books, records. I remember the kids on American Bandstand giving an appallingly low score to Gene McDaniels’ “A … Continue reading
She was anointed, for sure. Behind the curtain, all the machinery was being cranked up for her debut, all the fanfare that was possible back when record labels had money to lavish on marketing. But the Whitney Houston I met … Continue reading
In ‘High Fidelity,’ two of the guys who work at the record store have a discussion about the relative merits of ‘Little Latin Lupe Lu’ as performed by The Righteous Brothers and Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels. I have … Continue reading
I can listen to six hours of Phil Spector recording sessions, some of which amount to take after take of Spector instructing the lead singer of The Crystals on how to sing the opening lines of ‘Uptown;’ I’ve listened to … Continue reading
On 1966′s ‘A Web of Sound,’ the second album by The Seeds, the one with ‘Mr. Farmer’ and ‘Rollin’ Machine,’ there is a track called ‘Up In Her Room,’ which, along with the opus on side 2 of Love’s ‘Da … Continue reading
I suppose I should be grateful that I was whisked away from the hot city during the summertime as a kid, but lately I’ve been harboring some resentment, because in my mid-teen years, when I was most consumed by music … Continue reading
We were at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame dinner, the year Billy Joel was inducted (I know, you’re asking: Why?, but whatever…), and the thing about Joel getting in was that he asked Ray Charles to be his … Continue reading
#4 – Don’t Worry Baby – The Beach Boys (Capitol) I don’t know what it is about car songs. I’ve never been behind the wheel of any vehicle, never even ridden a bicycle, but I find the whole rock fixation … Continue reading
On the big video screens flanking the ‘Mane Stage,’ Miranda Lambert turned around to face her rockin’ band and wiggled her butt to kick off a raucous version of the Faces’ ‘Stay With Me.’ A few tunes later, she got … Continue reading
Intrigued by a New York Times article about the Grateful Dead, I went online and streamed a concert from May 8, 1977, which is supposedly The Best Dead Show Ever. You’d think it’d be hard to quantify something like that. … Continue reading
You can now purchase The Shadows of Knight’s version of “Gloria” on iTunes for 69 cents, but you have to be careful, because while it’s available for that price on the album “Dark Sides,” the exact same recording is still … Continue reading
I consider myself something of an expert on the rock cinema of the 1950’s and ‘60s, but until the other night, I had never seen a snappy little item called “Let’s Rock,” and I can’t say my life has been … Continue reading
When I finally made it uptown to the Beacon for one of the Allman Brothers Band’s 40th anniversary shows, I had already heard about what’d been going on up there. Visits by Boz Scaggs, Levon Helm, Eric Clapton, Southside Johnny, … Continue reading
#3 – Lively Up Yourself – Bob Marley & The Wailers (Island) So I get a call from an editor at Phonograph Record Magazine asking me if I’d like to interview Bob Marley. Well, yeah. When is he going to … Continue reading
#2 – Can’t Smile Without You – Barry Manilow (Arista) Oh, shit. I am so busted. Barry Manilow. Sometimes people ask me how I got into the record business. I say: A friend of mine messed up his leg in … Continue reading
