Rock's Backpages: Search Results

Interview by Rob Fitzpatrick, The Sunday Times, 27 October 2013

The 16-year-old Ella Yelich-O'Connor looks like the most remarkable songwriter of her generation ...

Retrospective by Barney Hoskyns, unpublished, 1986

MUSCLE SHOALS: the very name suggests some grotesque image dreamt up by a surrealist painter. Shouldn't it be Mussel, you wonder... and yet this North ...

Larry Williams

Retrospective by Mick Farren, MOJO, July 2000

ON JANUARY 7, 1980, THE BODY OF LARRY WILLIAMS WAS FOUND lying in a pool of blood on the garage floor of his Laurel Canyon ...

Joe Tex: The Clown Prince of Soul

Sleevenotes by Barney Hoskyns, 'The Very Best of Joe Tex' (Charly Records), May 1988

WHEN NASHVILLE publisher-producer Buddy Killen first met Joe Tex in 1961, the singer already had six years of recording and performing under his belt. They ...

Brian Wilson: Gettin' in Over My Head

Report by Gene Sculatti, ICE, June 2004

WITH A RESILIENCE REMINISCENT of that battery-powered bunny or California's governor in his biggest pre-politics role, Brian Wilson is back – again. Fresh on the ...

Muddy Waters: Chess Records Round-Up

Review by Charles Shaar Murray, Q, April 1990

THE NAME OF Chess Records spells "Chicago Blues" just as clearly as Levi's spells jeans, Zippo spells lighters and Special Brew spells headaches. ...

Pink Q&A

Interview by Sheryl Garratt, The Face, October 2003

You were scheduled to snog Madonna at the MTV awards, but you dropped out and Britney took over. Why? ...

Esther Phillips: 'Little' Esther Phillips: Better Beware

Sleevenotes by Barney Hoskyns, Charly, July 1990

OF ALL the blues-shouting earth mamas who dominated the distaff side of R&B in the early '50s, easily the most disarming was Little Esther, born ...

Phish and H.O.R.D.E.: In the Beginning

Report and Interview by Mike Mettler, Guitar Player, 31 August 1993

Blues Traveler, Phish, Widespread Panic & Col. Bruce Hampton haven't merely risen from the Dead ...

Johnny Otis: The Godfather of R&B

Retrospective by Bill Millar, Record Mirror, 29 July 1972

I THOUGHT Johnny Otis was suffering from over-exposure Dave Wolf who has drained his life savings to bring over Johnny's entire package thinks not. So ...

Steeleye Span: Parcel of Rogues (Chrysalis)

Review by Charles Shaar Murray, NME, 14 April 1973

IT WOULD be considerably more than a pity if Steeleye Span, that most English of bands, have to become superstars in the States before really ...

Dave Godin's Deep Soul Treasures Volume 3

Review and Interview by Barney Hoskyns, MOJO, January 2001

"DEEP SOUL Records will be just what their name implies," the manifesto for Dave Godin's Deep Soul label declared when it launched in 1969. "Non-commercial ...

Big Brother & The Holding Company, Janis Joplin: Janis Joplin: Pearl/Big Brother and the Holding Company: Be A Brother (CBS)

Review by Charlie Gillett, Cream, May 1971

THEY ALL AGREED, the people who went to see her on stage, that Janis had something special. The effect of her personality didn’t come over ...

Hank Ballard and the Midnighters: Hank Ballard 1927-2003

Obituary by Phast Phreddie Patterson, Rock's Backpages, March 2003

RHYTHM & BLUES singer Hank Ballard (76) died of throat cancer on March 2 at his home in Los Angeles. His chief claim to ...

Minnie Riperton: S'Wonderlove

Interview by David Rensin, Rolling Stone, 10 October 1974

LOS ANGELES – Along with many of the stars and hopefuls at Chicago's 1971 Black Expo, Minnie Riperton waited patiently backstage to approach the blind ...

Isaac Hayes: Chronicle/For The Sake Of Love

Review by Pete Wingfield, Melody Maker, 18 November 1978

IT'S MY CONTENTION that, whatever bizarre circumstances caused the flurry of lawsuits circulating round Isaac Hayes prior to the demise of Stax Records, and the ...

Hank Ballard and the Midnighters: Hank Ballard & The Midnighters: From The Sins Of Annie To The Twist

Retrospective by Nick Tosches, Creem, March 1983

IT WAS TOWARDS the end of 1951 that Johnny Otis (born John Veliotes; he found it gainful to pass as black), the 30-year-old Savoy recording ...

Sia Interview

Interview by Dan Gennoe, Making Music, 2001

"PEOPLE USED TO SAY I looked like her and I used to be mortified." Sia, the diminutive Australian singer who injected a much need dose ...

B.B. King: How to buy B.B. King

Guide by Fred Dellar, MOJO, March 1998

HE’S FILED under ‘Blues’. Which is convenient. But Riley ‘Blues Boy’ King can be anything you want him to be — king of the juke ...

Chess Records: The Original Blues Brothers

Interview by James Maycock, The Independent, November 1997

"WOW, YOU guys are really getting it on!" exclaimed Chuck Berry, observing the Rolling Stones cut 'Down The Road Apiece', a track he'd recorded himself ...