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Don Waller

Don Waller

A second-generation native of Los Angeles, Don Waller is the author of The Motown Story (Scribner's, 1985). Unlike 99% of music books, it sold so many copies, they had to pay him royalties. Like 99% of music books, it's now out-of-print. Waller also contributed a chapter to the L.A. punk-rock history Make The Music Go Bang! and wrote about Lenny Bruce and Lord Buckley for The Rolling Stone Book Of The Beats.

A founding member of the semi-legendary Back Door Man fanzine/indie record label, he's since written extensively for Mojo, USA Today, Billboard, Variety, Radio & Records, L.A. Weekly, L.A. CityBeat and -- more than 370 stories-- for the Los Angeles Times. His byline also has graced the The Guardian, New York Rocker, Creem, Spin, Musician, Pulse, Request, Option, Raygun, ICE, Harp, Guitar World, Star Hits, Network, BAM, the L.A. Reader, the (Detroit) Metro Times, and California as well as Amazon, iTunes, Launch, eMusic, Playboy.com, Rollingstone.com, Sonicboomers, Napster, Addicted To Noise, Microsoft Music Central, Entertainment Asylum's Music Axis (AOL), Allstarmag, and Feed The Monster. Some of these are even still in business.

Waller also has written more than 40 sets of liner notes, including such various artist packages as Beg, Scream & Shout! The Big Ol' Box Of '60s Soul, multiple volumes of garage-rock Nuggets, New Orleans R&B, and Soul Shots, a compilation of the original versions of songs covered by the Beatles, and a '70s Party Killers collection that defies rational analysis. He also provided liners for reissues ranging from Little Richard to Los Lobos to SCTV Network90 Vol. 1, a multi-DVD collection of seminal shows from the Canadian comedy troupe. Some of these are even still in print.

Along with serving as a music consultant for several cable-TV shows, Waller contributed bonus material to the U.S. DVD edition of Don Letts’s documentary Punk: Attitude, and created a 90-page catalog detailing all the video properties owned by Dick Clark Productions.

Long before he became a not-so-humble scrivener, Waller was a member of proto-punk outfit the Imperial Dogs -- who wrote and recorded the original version of 'This Ain't The Summer Of Love', later reworked /re-recorded by the Blue Oyster Cult. The band recently unearthed an hour-long video performance, The Imperial Dogs: Live! In Long Beach (October 30, 1974), that's currently available from theimperialdogs.com.

Cooking is his hobby, music is his life. Contact him at donwaller@roadrunner.com

List of articles in the library by artist

Lester Bangs: My Black Pages: Lester Bangs' Mainlines, Blood Feasts, and Bad Taste

Book Review by Don Waller, LA CityBeat, August 2003

BACK FROM THE dead and bigger than ever! As a writer – hell, more importantly, as a reader – the Editorial We wuz turnin' cataleptic ...

Box Tops, The: The Box Tops: House Of Blues, Los Angeles CA

Live Review by Don Waller, MOJO, August 1997

ADDING YET another layer of cracked lustre to lead singer Alex Chilton's legendary cult-star, The Box Tops popped on-stage, pumping out a pluperfect-for-frat-parties version of ...

Solomon Burke: Go On Back To Him

Report by Don Waller, MOJO, June 2002

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! "What's that noise in my earphones?" soul giant Solomon Burke calls into the studio control roost from the vocal isolation booth. "That's ...

Chris Clark: Motown's Great White Hope: Chris Clark

Retrospective and Interview by Don Waller, Los Angeles Times, August 2009

CHRIS CLARK was a 17-year-old, 6-foot platinum blond when she arrived at Motown's Detroit headquarters in 1963 -- demo in hand -- to audition for ...

Falcons, The: The Falcons: Starwood, Los Angeles CA

Live Review by Don Waller, New York Rocker, June 1980

I dig rock 'n' roll music I can do the Twine and the Jerk I wear strictly Continental suits and high collared shirts I got ...

Joe Henry: Historical Home Studio: Joe Henry Records Himself in South Pasadena

Report and Interview by Don Waller, Glendale News-Press, December 2011

ROCK MUSICIAN and producer Joe Henry in his home and studio in South Pasadena on Tuesday, November 15, 2011. His home, a Greene & Greene ...

Howlin' Rain: Magnificent Fiend

Press Release by Don Waller, Birdman Records, Spring 2008

MAGNIFICENT FIEND is the second album from Howlin' Rain and the first to be issued under a joint agreement between multi-platinum record producer Rick Rubin's ...

Knack, The: The Knack: Starwood, Los Angeles CA

Live Review by Don Waller, New York Rocker, April 1979

ONCE UPON a time, The Knack was a movie starring (I believe) Michael Caine and Rita Tushingham. Set in swinging London, the plot revolved around ...

Curtis Mayfield: The Palomino, Los Angeles

Live Review by Don Waller, Los Angeles Times, October 1989

Mayfield Performs Cream of His Crop of Hits ...

Bill Withers: Who Is He…( And What Is He To You)?

Profile and Interview by Don Waller, MOJO, August 2003

HE WAS 32 years old before he got his first record contract, with the Sussex label in 1970. He'd never played a live show. He ...

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