Musician
Jimi Hendrix: The Voodoo Lives On
Essay by Dave Marsh, Musician, October 1980
HENDRIX SAW himself as a symbolic figure who contained in his bloodstream elements of all races. The goal of his performances was both racial and ...
Interview by Roy Trakin, Musician, October 1980
The '70s were dawning, and the golden age of rock 'n' roll was about to give way to terminally mellow singer/songwriters or lowest-common-denominator heavy metal ...
Review by Roy Trakin, Musician, November 1980
"YES, THE BOY'S got a voice/But his words don't connect to his eyes," sings Paul Simon, and I couldn't describe the problem with One Trick ...
Talking Heads: Remain In Light (Warner Bros.)
Review by Van Gosse, Musician, January 1981
I DON'T KNOW about you, but I've been holding my breath through all of 1980, waiting for something to happen. So far there's been a ...
Elton John: Concert in Central Park, September 1980
Live Review by Roy Trakin, Musician, January 1981
SOME PERFORMERS just don't know when to quit — and thank goodness for that. We followed tennis star Jimmy McEnroe into Central Park's Sheep Meadow ...
Gary Numan, XTC: XTC and Gary Numan: The New English Art Rock
Report and Interview by Roy Trakin, Musician, February 1981
BOTH XTC and Gary Numan express a sense of the new English isolation. Americans seem to like the car-crazy Numan, while the pure British pop ...
Review by Roy Trakin, Musician, February 1981
THE WANDERER is disco diva Donna's Inferno, a trip that will take us through her cold hell, up against fiendish temptation and out the other ...
Interview by Dave Marsh, Musician, February 1981
A YEAR AGO, taking a respite from recording to play two nights of the M.U.S.E. anti-nuke concerts, Bruce Springsteen pared his normal three hour show ...
Creedence Clearwater Revival, John Fogerty: Where Has John Fogerty Gone?
Essay by Dave Marsh, Musician, April 1981
As apocalyptic anxiety at nameless dread descend on the body politic, how relevant the work of Creedence Clearwater now seems. ...
Beach Boys, The: The Beach Boys' Schizophrenia
Essay by Geoffrey Himes, Musician, April 1981
ON JULY 4, 1980, the Beach Boys sat at the base of the Washington Monument and played to a vast sea of half a million ...
Clash, The: The Clash: Sandinista!
Review by Roy Trakin, Musician, April 1981
The slapstick guerilla politics have never sounded more outlandishly unfashionable. Gone are the triple-front-line punk harmonics & amphetamine raw power. Ditto for the crunching metallic ...
Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis: The Million Dollar Quartet
Essay by Dave Marsh, Musician, June 1981
WE USUALLY think of Elvis Presley simply stepping into Sun Studios in Memphis, in answer to Sam Phillips' call, and walking out a few days ...
Live Review by Roy Trakin, Musician, June 1981
TONIGHT, the smoky Rock Lounge is filled with sassy fifteen-year-old teeny-boppers in leather jackets, jeans and black Converse sneakers, looking tough, chewing gum and hanging ...
Dave Edmunds, Rockpile: Dave Edmunds: New Wave, 1955
Profile and Interview by Dave Schulps, Musician, July 1981
"MUSICALLY, WE didn't find a niche for ourselves. It amounted to a couple of songs from a Nick Lowe album, a couple of songs from ...
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers: Tom Petty
Interview by Dave Marsh, Musician, July 1981
WHEN TOM PETTY burst into his manager's Sunset Blvd offices early this April he was exuberant. No wonder. He'd just finished mixing his fourth and ...
Doors, The: Jim Morrison: Bozo Dionysus A Decade Later
Essay by Lester Bangs, Musician, August 1981
WE SEEM TO BE in the midst of a full-scale Doors Revival. It had been picking up steam for a while, but when Jerry Hopkins' ...
Bill Blue Band, The, Iron City Houserockers, Beaver Brown: The Heart Of Blue-Collar Rock
Report and Interview by Geoffrey Himes, Musician, August 1981
The voices of the American working class, a gritty chorus or struggle, boredom, and uneasy weekend refuge, are heard in the music of the Iron ...
Review by Roy Trakin, Musician, August 1981
WHEN IS A guitarist not a guitarist? What distinguishes pop music from avant-garde or classical? Why is most cerebral music purely instrumental? Can you dance ...
David Johansen, New York Dolls, Johnny Thunders: Beyond The Valley Of The New York Dolls
Report and Interview by Roy Trakin, Musician, October 1981
THE FIRST TIME I ever laid eyes on the New York Dolls was New Year's Eve, 1972, at the old Mercer Arts Center, and, quite ...
Profile and Interview by Geoffrey Himes, Musician, October 1981
Urban time warps and geomusical quantum leaps later, Kid Creole and his pal Sugar-Coated are washed up on a sandy Island with only their wits ...
Ramones, The, Squeeze: Radio Relief: Squeeze And The Ramones
Profile and Interview by Roy Trakin, Musician, November 1981
Squeeze and the Ramones keep alive an intercontinental rivalry of rhythm for real-life people. But the Beatles and the Beach Boys?...Well, maybe not. ...
Rossington Collins Band, The, Lynyrd Skynyrd: The Rossington Collins Band
Profile and Interview by Geoffrey Himes, Musician, February 1982
Southern Rock Survival Among the Alligators ...
Interview by Roy Trakin, Musician, February 1982
Malcolm McLaren, the shaker and baker of British punk, turned the Sex Pistols into an epochal event, turned Adam Ant around and now plays Svengali ...
Review by Van Gosse, Musician, February 1982
Talking Heads Alone ...
Eric Clapton: Farther Up The Road
Interview by John Hutchinson, Musician, May 1982
FEW MUSICIANS have been more misunderstood, more overburdened with great expectations and more erroneously worshipped than Eric Clapton. ...
Joe Cocker's Island Renaissance
Report and Interview by Fred Schruers, Musician, July 1982
THE NOONDAY sun has come and gone over the town of Nassau, the Bahamas, and Joe Cocker's afternoon boating party, which left port as proper ...
Willie Nelson: Always On My Mind (Columbia)
Review by Geoffrey Himes, Musician, July 1982
JUST WHEN you thought you couldn't bear one more version of Paul Simon's 'Bridge Over Troubled Water', Willie Nelson comes by and makes the song ...
Interview by Geoffrey Himes, Musician, December 1982
LUTHER VANDROSS curled up in the stuffed arm chair with his Wizard-of-Oz red ruby shoes tucked under his massive bulk. When he described Dionne Warwick's ...
Elvis Presley: Elvis: The New Deal Origins of Rock 'n' Roll
Essay by Dave Marsh, Musician, December 1982
EACH YEAR, on August 16, the anniversary of Elvis Presley's death, Memphis State University hosts a memorial service and seminar in his honor. ...
Donald Fagen Revisits an Era of Innocence
Interview by Fred Schruers, Musician, January 1983
"LACK OF IRONY," says Donald Fagen with a wry grin, "is not exactly my specialty." It's an odd apology – more like a boast – ...
Review by Roy Trakin, Musician, January 1983
THE "MYSTICAL" BEATLE had his first hit in a long time last year with that cloying, simplistic eulogy, ‘All Those Years Ago’. On his latest ...
Review by Roy Trakin, Musician, January 1983
THESE ART-ROCKERS ward off chaos with an armor of meticulously conceived pop songs that cloaks its creators' identifies even as it showcases their talents. ...
Marvin Gaye: Midnight Love (CBS)
Review by Carol Cooper, Musician, February 1983
UPON RELOCATING to England in 1981, Marvin Gaye complained to London's New Musical Express that his last Tamla release, In Our Lifetime, was flawed because ...
Beat, The: The English Beat: 2-Tone Survivors Make a Joyful Noise
Interview by Bill Holdship, Musician, February 1983
"THE CIRCUMSTANCES that brought the Beat together make us tenuous, in a way," observes singer/guitarist Dave Wakeling. "With any one set of musicians, sooner or ...
Joe Jackson: Who Needs Rock'N'Roll?
Profile and Interview by David Gans, Musician, February 1983
JOE JACKSON works, from the very start of his two and a half hour show. He sings with every inch and every ounce of his ...
Thompson Twins, The, Culture Club, ABC, Yazoo: New Romantics: Sweat & Ice
Report and Interview by Roy Trakin, Musician, March 1983
THE NEW BRITISH DANCE ROMANTICS: ABC, THOMPSON TWINS, YAZ, CULTURE CLUB ...
U2: Small Victories in a Rock and Roll Struggle of Sound and Emotion
Report and Interview by Fred Schruers, Musician, May 1983
STUMPY, PRINCELY Bono Vox drives along Dublin Bay, left arm grasping the wheel of his humble sedan while he uses the right – temporarily game ...
Interview by Michael Goldberg, Musician, May 1983
IT HAPPENS all the time. Some well-meaning rock fan comes up to guitarist Albert Lee and starts telling him he's a great player. "And man, ...
Culture Club: Hey Fella, You Wanna Step Outside And Say That?
Interview by Geoffrey Himes, Musician, October 1983
BOY GEORGE and Culture Club aren't what they seem. ...
Interview by Michael Goldberg, Musician, November 1983
THE FOUR women stood in the semi-dark recording studio. "Okay, let's go," said the producer. ...
dBs, The: Seasoned Native Sons Follow Their Own Muse: The dB's
Interview by Ira Robbins, Musician, 1984
"THERE'S NOTHING WRONG with honest American music," says Peter Holsapple, guitarist, keyboard player and main songwriter of the dB's. He goes on to cite Elvis ...
Led Zeppelin, Jimmy Page: Jimmy Page: The Life And Times Of A Guitar Prophet
Interview by John Tobler, Musician, January 1984
JIMMY PAGE was born in Heston, West London, on January 9, 1944, and moved with his family to nearby Feltham during his infancy. He spent ...
Was (Not Was): Was Not Was: All Over The Road With Two Motor City Outcasts In A Studio Tornado
Interview by David Gans, Musician, February 1984
"WHEN BLACK people hear our music," proclaims Don Fagenson, "they know we're white. Even our funkiest stuff. I think it happens to be a plus. ...
Morrissey, Smiths, The: Not the Jones: Morrissey
Interview by Roy Trakin, Musician, June 1984
AMERICA MAY HAVE been charmed by Boy George, but it's more difficult to imagine it embracing the Smiths and their poetic singer/writer Morrissey, the U.K.'s ...
Report and Interview by Don Snowden, Musician, June 1984
"THERE WERE times last year when I would walk in here and say, 'Look at this,'" muses George Duke, surveying the now calm control room ...
Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark: Two Guys And A Tape Deck Become A
Interview by Ira Robbins, Musician, 1985
Only one of the following two statements is true. Which? A) Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark is a synthesizer duo, a pair of chilly intellectual ...
Ry Cooder: Cooder at the Movies
Interview by Don Snowden, Musician, February 1985
"A MOVIE SCORE is probably the last refuge of abstract music," remarks Ry Cooder in the spartan foyer of a Hollywood sound studio. "You can't ...
Santana: Cooling Into The Norm
Profile and Interview by Don Snowden, Musician, March 1985
A BRISK BREEZE cools the crisp San Francisco afternoon but the glaring lights and cumulative body heat of 50-odd crew members, band friends and label ...
Peter Gabriel: From Brideshead to Sunken Heads
Interview by John Hutchinson, Musician, July 1986
PETER AND I were at school together – at Charterhouse, an expensive private school in Surrey, of the variety the British perversely insist on calling ...
Interview by John Hutchinson, Musician, September 1986
"I DON'T REALLY see myself as a guitar player," says U2's Edge. "I'm more of a songwriter or composer. In looking for a new way ...
Interview by John Hutchinson, Musician, May 1987
U2 Wrestle With Their Moment Of Glory ...
k.d. lang: Shadowland: The Owen Bradley Sessions (Sire)
Review by Holly Gleason, Musician, July 1988
LISTENING TO Shadowland, k.d. lang's second album, you can't help thinking you've fallen into a time warp, back to when Patsy Cline ruled the radio. ...
Jesse Johnson: Every Shade of Love (A&M)
Review by Roy Trakin, Musician, July 1988
YOU'D BE excused for mistaking one-Time guitarist Jesse Johnson for his former Twin Cities running mate, Prince. ...
Jeff Healey Band: Jeff Healey: Have Guitar, Will Sit
Interview by Ted Drozdowski, Musician, March 1989
JEFF HEALEY is the most unorthodox guitarist since Stanley Jordan. He plays seated, most of the time, with his guitar flat on his lap. As ...
Joe Satriani, Mick Jagger: The Devil And Joe Satriani
Interview by Ted Drozdowski, Musician, April 1989
A Guitar Hero Strikes a Different Kind of Bargain ...
Last Exit: Johnny D's Uptown Lounge, Sommerville MA
Live Review by Ted Drozdowski, Musician, April 1990
Love at First Sight ...
Interview by Fred Schruers, Musician, June 1990
KRIS KRISTOFFERSON occupies an unusual place among American songwriters. His songs have been covered by such legends as his inspiration Bob Dylan ('They Killed Him'), ...
Report and Interview by Robert Gordon, Musician, December 1990
WHO Little Richard WHERE Macon, Georgia WHEN September 23, 1990 ...
Carl Stalling: The Carl Stalling Project: Music from Warner Bros. Cartoons 1936-1958
Review by Roy Trakin, Musician, December 1990
MOST PEOPLE have probably never heard of the late Carl W. Stalling, but they've undoubtedly heard his music. As the chief composer for cartoons at ...
Traveling Wilburys: Bert and Ernie Fill in for Lefty: Traveling Wilburys - Vol. 3
Review by Dave DiMartino, Musician, December 1990
THEY SAY YOUR PERSPECTIVE changes when you’ve got a kid, and since little Mikey hit the one year mark at our house, I’ve been listening ...
Crazy Horse, Neil Young: Neil Young: Ragged But Right
Interview by Fred Schruers, Musician, February 1991
RIGHT THIS minute out here on the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, the future of gutbucket rock stands in some question. ...
Fishbone Swims Upstream To Spawn Its Punk-Funk Hybrid
Interview by Roy Trakin, Musician, May 1991
IT'S ONLY a rehearsal in a warehouse in a desolate section of downtown L.A. ...
EMF: Naughty Neophytes of Noise
Interview by Mat Snow, Musician, August 1991
The thin line between accessibility and credibility ...
Willis Alan Ramsey: A Perfect Ending to a 20-year Vacation
Profile and Interview by Tom Graves, Musician, March 1992
AT THE END of Willis Alan Ramsey's only album, a self-titled 1972 Shelter release, the song 'Northeast Texas Woman' fades to studio chatter, and the ...
Bill Nelson, Robert Wyatt: Robert Wyatt & Bill Nelson: Tough Guys Don't Dance
Interview by Mac Randall, Musician, August 1992
Bill Nelson meets Robert Wyatt. For 20 years they've bucked the system and made music at the edge of rock. Two vets discuss the never-ending ...
Black Crowes, The: The Black Crowes' Attitude
Profile and Interview by Fred Schruers, Musician, January 1993
THE CORRECT ROCK 'N' ROLL ANSWER to society's "What are you rebelling against?" has always been Brando's "Whaddya got?" In this regard, Black Crowes frontman ...
James, Soup Dragons: The Soup Dragons and James Tour America Together
Report and Interview by Paul Zollo, Musician, February 1993
"OUR GREATEST ambition is to play on the NASA Space Station," says Sean Dickson, songwriter and singer of the Soup Dragons. "We want to be ...
Blues Traveler: Paramount Theatre, NYC
Live Review by Mike Mettler, Musician, February 1993
FOR BLUES TRAVELER, 1992 was a year to forget. An eager, improv-hungry, neo-retro band that long ago dubbed their endless cross-country trekking "On Tour Forever," ...
Eurythmics, Annie Lennox: Annie Lennox: Front Woman
Interview by Mac Randall, Musician, March 1993
CONGRATULATIONS ON your Grammy nominations. Are you making any bets on how you'll do? ...
Interview by Mac Randall, Musician, April 1993
"WE'VE HAD a joke going recently," Aimee Mann says, "that the new album has three themes: despair, defeat and revenge." ...
Dinosaur Jr: J Mascis' Big Step
Interview by Mac Randall, Musician, June 1993
WHEN DINOSAUR JR comes to your town, get ready for a unique event: the Dance of the 17 Footswitches. ...
Daniel Lanois: The Book of Daniel
Interview by Fred Schruers, Musician, September 1993
Dan Lanois The Musician Eclipses Lanois The Producer ...
Nirvana: Territorial Pissings: The Battles Behind Nirvana's New Album
Report and Interview by Michael Azerrad, Musician, October 1993
KURT COBAIN has found that being a professional rock musician is not quite what he imagined when he was banging out his raunchy punk rock ...
Robin Trower, Alvin Lee, Blodwyn Pig: Is There Life After Rock Guitar Godhead?
Overview by Roy Trakin, Musician, 1994
ALVIN LEE HAD reached the pinnacle of rock guitardom. Of course, by the time Woodstock was over, his "I'm Going Home... by helicopter" histrionics would ...
Neil Young: Sleeps With Angels
Review by Bill Holdship, Musician, October 1994
IT'S A LITTLE LIKE San Francisco weather: If you don't care for Neil Young's musical style at any given moment, wait a while and it'll ...
Review by Deborah Frost, Musician, October 1994
IF EXILE IN GUYVILLE was Liz Phair's response to Exile on Main Street, Whip-Smart may well be her answer to Smell the Glove. As if ...
Review by John Mendelsohn, Musician, March 1995
LISTENING TO this predominantly gloomy album, it's easy to forget that, at his best – in 'Over You', say, or 'More Than This', Bryan Ferry ...
Sleeping With The Enemy: When Musicians Become Record Executives
Report and Interview by Roy Trakin, Musician, March 1995
YOU WOULD think Gary Lemel is one of the luckiest guys around. As President of Music for Warner Bros, films, he gets to pal around ...
Des'ree: Hitting the Unexpected Note
Report and Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Musician, May 1995
AT A TIME WHEN British pop is struggling to make inroads into the American charts, the stateside success of a South London girl named Des'ree ...
The Third Invasion: Britpop Strikes!
Overview by Barney Hoskyns, Musician, July 1996
"Oasis must die. Do not buy Oasis records. They will come to rape and pillage our women and invade America."(Courtney Love on the Net, early ...
Elvis Costello: All This Useless Beauty (Warner Bros.)
Review by Dave DiMartino, Musician, July 1996
IT'S EASY to get lost within the sheer bulk of Elvis Costello's work – particularly since most of it, from 1977's My Aim Is ...
Radiohead: Radiohead Get The Details
Interview by Mac Randall, Musician, September 1997
On tour in Spain with five musicians for whom the little things mean a lot ...
Rolling Stones, The: The Rolling Stones Chase The Voodoo Down
Report and Interview by Harvey Kubernik, Musician, October 1997
"MY WHOLE behavior with the Rolling Stones is governed by my first encounter with Keith," recalls Don Was. "He sent me a fax before we ...
Bernie Taupin, Elton John: Bernie Taupin
Interview by Paul Zollo, Musician, January 1998
AS ELTON John's lyricist for three decades, Bernie Taupin is one of the most famous British songwriters of all time. ...
Interview by Dave Marsh, Musician, April 1998
ROCK BANDS ARE like families on the Tolstoyan model. The happy ones are exactly the same (perhaps because they're nonexistent?) while the unhappy ones are ...
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