Gary Pig Gold
Ever since first encountering The RanDells' immortal "Martian Hop" as a child in his Aunt Jenny's cottage, Gary has lead a life absolutely filled with writing, writing about, making, manufacturing, distributing, performing, championing-in-general and - oh yeah! - listening to music of all sorts, shapes, stripes and formats. These merry melodic adventures have carried him far from his home and native Toronto to, amongst many other people, places and things, the nascent London pub/punk rock scene, an historic record deal with the once Soviet state's Melodiya label, a decade as founder-publisher of Canada's first-ever music fanzine, a Maximum Rhythm and Bluegrass song in the second Brady Bunch movie (almost) and a happy home today running a virtual record company from high atop the Heights of Jersey City, USA. Gary could've made it to Australia as Jan and Dean's bass player once as well, but forgot his passport somewhere along the way. Nevertheless, with his infamous socio-musical "Pigshit" column entering its fourth decade of faithful service, and many a note-worthy mission still to be done and sung, Gary continues to be, in the All Music Guide's well-chosen words, "rock music's all-time hardest-working man ...with all apologies to James Brown."
GARY PIG GOLD BIBLIOGRAPHY:
"Music Hound Rock: The Essential Album Guide"
(both Original and Revised editions)
edited by Gary Graff and Daniel Durchholz
(Visible Ink / Omnibus, 1996, 1999)
"Music Hound Country: The Essential Album Guide"
edited by Brian Mansfield and Gary Graff
(Visible Ink / Omnibus, 1997)
"Music Hound R & B: The Essential Album Guide"
edited by Gary Graff, Josh Freedom du Lac and Jim McFarlin
(Visible Ink / Omnibus, 1998)
"Music Hound Folk: The Essential Album Guide"
edited by Neal Walters and Brian Mansfield
(Visible Ink / Omnibus, 1998)
"Music Hound Lounge:
The Essential Album Guide to Martini Music and Easy Listening"
edited by Steve Knopper
(Visible Ink / Omnibus, 1998)
"On A Cold Road: Tales of Adventure in Canadian Rock"
by Dave Bidini
(McClelland & Stewart, 1998)
"Music Hound Swing: The Essential Album Guide"
edited by Steve Knopper
(Visible Ink / Omnibus, 1999)
"Music Hound World: The Essential Album Guide"
edited by Adam McGovern
(Visible Ink / Omnibus, 2000)
by Tracy Johnson
(Humble Press, 2000)
"Paul McCartney: I Saw Him Standing There"
by Jorie B. Gracen
(Billboard Books, 2000)
"Bubblegum Music is the Naked Truth:
The Dark History of Prepubescent Pop,
from the Banana Splits to Britney Spears"
edited by Kim Cooper and David Smay
(Feral House, 2001)
"The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds:
The Greatest Album of the Twentieth Century"
by Kingsley Abbott
(Helter Skelter, 2001)
edited by Kim Cooper and David Smay
(Routledge, 2005)
"T.V. A-Go-Go: Rock on T.V. from American Bandstand to American Idol"
by Jake Austen (Chicago Review Press, 2005)
"The Little Black Book of Music"
edited by Sean Egan
(Cassell Illustrated, 2007)
"The Top 100 Canadian Albums"
by Bob Mersereau
(Goose Lane Editions, 2007)
"Treat Me Like Dirt:
An Oral History of Punk in Toronto and Beyond, 1977-1981"
by Liz Worth, edited by Gary Pig Gold
(Bongo Beat Books / ECW Press, 2009, 2011)
"The Mammoth Book of Bob Dylan"
edited by Sean Egan
(Constable & Robinson / Running Press, 2011)
by Jaimie Vernon
(Bullseye Canada, 2012)
“A Lennon Pastiche: Expressions From Fans of John Lennon”
edited by Judith Furedi
(PANGEA Publishing, 2013)
“A Tribute To The Forgotten Rebels”
edited by Brad Pine
(ePub Bud, 2013)
“The Mammoth Book of the Rolling Stones”
edited by Sean Egan
(Constable & Robinson / Running Press, 2013)
plus THE PIG PAPER,
which Gary has written, edited and published since 1975.
GARY PIG GOLD
DISCOGRAPHY:
List of articles in the library by artist
Film/DVD Review by Gary Pig Gold, Rock and Roll Report, January 2011
A FULL DISCLOSURE right up front, one and all: Way back in the 1980 hey!day of my fanzine, The Pig Paper, a certain Kevin Michael ...
Eric "Roscoe" Ambel: Eight Questions For Eric
Interview by Gary Pig Gold, Jumping Fences, 2002
THOUGH ERIC may prefer to refer to himself as simply "guitarist / record producer / songwriter / bar owner / American," his musical resume is ...
Beach Boys, The: An Interview With Dominic Priore: Good Things Come To Those Who SmiLE, part 1
Interview by Gary Pig Gold, fufkin.com, August 2005
Gary Pig Gold climbs into the Virtual Sandbox ...
Beach Boys, The: Middle-Aged Symphonies Towards God: The Beach Boys’ Brother Years
Overview by Gary Pig Gold, fufkin.com, October 2000
YES INDEED, it goes without saying that Brian Wilson and his familial band full of brothers, cousins and friends have enjoyed a career quite unlike ...
Beach Boys, The: The Beach Boys: The Beach Boys Love You (Brother/Reprise KMS-2258)
Review by Gary Pig Gold, Pig Paper, The, August 1977
WHY DOES EVERY CANADIAN POP PUBLICATION IGNORE THE BEACH BOYS? WHY IS THEIR NEW SINGLE, 'ROLLER SKATING CHILD', DYING ON THE RACKS? WHATEVER HAPPENED TO ...
Beach Boys, The: The Beach Boys: Endless Winter
Comment by Gary Pig Gold, fufkin.com, December 2001
MAYBE IT'S THE weather, maybe it's CNN overload ...maybe it's just "the time of man," as it were, but I've been stuck to the web ...
Interview by Gary Pig Gold, fufkin.com, September 2005
Gary Pig Gold climbs into the Virtual Sandbox ...
Beach Boys, The, Dennis Wilson: Dennis Wilson: Beached Boy – A True Story
Report and Interview by Gary Pig Gold, Pig Paper, The, October 1977
IT WAS Monday, August 29, 1977, it was hot, and it was about to pour rain. But as always, it was a sunny Saturday afternoon ...
Beatles, The: The Beatles: Gary Pig Gold Presents A Fab Forty
Guide by Gary Pig Gold, fufkin.com, February 2004
HAS IT REALLY been four decades already since television's greatest-ever talent scout took a chance on a brash young musical novelty act from far-off Britain? ...
Beatles, The, Bob Dylan: An Interview With The Blacklisted Journalist Al Aronowitz
Profile and Interview by Gary Pig Gold, inmusicwetrust.com, February 2005
Gary "Pig" Gold meets the Man Who Invented the Sixties. ...
Bee Gees, The: Pronounced "Morris", By The Way: The Rare, The Precious, The Death of a Bee Gee
Obituary by Gary Pig Gold, earcandymag.com, February 2003
JOHN ENTWISTLE. George Harrison. So how come it's the utterly coolest-by-far members of some of our all-time favorite bands who seem to be departing far, ...
Pat Boone: My Breakfast with Boone
Memoir by Gary Pig Gold, Cosmik Debris (cosmik.com), June 2002
AS BIZARRE as even I still consider this lil' factoid to be, Yours Truly honestly did spend the majority of the Reagan administration touring Canada's ...
Pat Boone: Should Pat Boone be Inducted Into the R'n'R Hall of Fame?
Comment by Gary Pig Gold, Cosmik Debris (cosmik.com), April 2002
SEEMS A simple, even innocent enough little inquiry, doesn't it? But I swear, seldom in all my quarter-century-plus of Piggery has one topic – one ...
Essay by Gary Pig Gold, Cosmik Debris (cosmik.com), November 2002
[What follows is the concluding portion of our Pat Boone trifecta, part one being the infamous RnR Hall Of Fame Poll, which somehow led straight ...
Johnny Cash: The Mantra In Black: Ten Reasons Why Johnny Cash Always Matters
Comment by Gary Pig Gold, earcandymag.com, October 2003
1. LUTHER PLAYED THE BOOGIE Without a red hot and blue band to back it all the way up, even a Man in Black's powers ...
Perry Como: To Catch A Falling Star
Retrospective by Gary Pig Gold, inmusicwetrust.com, June 2001
WIT DULY SHARPENED and tongue even firmer within cheek than usual, I treated the Sunday New York Times news of Perry Como's death as little ...
Deviants, The: Mick Farren & The Deviants: On Your Knees, Earthlings!!! (Total Energy)
Review by Gary Pig Gold, inmusicwetrust.com, November 2003
MICK FARREN is one of the greatest madcaps Britain has yet to produce, I hereby loudly exclaim, and On Your Knees gathers together yet another ...
Johnny Dowd: Pictures From Life's Other Side (Koch Entertainment)
Review by Gary Pig Gold, inmusicwetrust.com, October 1999
I SURE HAD A feeling something was up when a strange little disc called WRONG SIDE OF MEMPHIS, written and solely performed by a forty-nine-year-old ...
Johnny Dowd: Either One Hell Of A Storyteller, Or Someone Who Should Be Locked Up
Comment by Gary Pig Gold, Indie Journal, September 1999
IT WAS BACK in the fall of 1996 that a strange little disc called WRONG SIDE OF MEMPHIS first crept into my life. ...
Bob Dylan: The Bootleg Series, Volume 4: Bob Dylan, Live, 1966
Review by Gary Pig Gold, Cosmik Debris (cosmik.com), September 2003
IT SEEMS EVERY time Our Boy Bob scores big with a contemporary piece of new work, he feels secure enough to bless us with another ...
Bob Dylan: No Direction Home: Gary Pig Gold meets N.Y. Driven Women # 12 & 35
Report by Gary Pig Gold, earcandymag.com, September 2005
BOB DYLAN'S EX-WIFE sits on the bleachers in a smoky little Hoboken nightclub watching her latest son-in-law belting out his latest demo tape to an ...
John Entwistle: Too Late The Hero: John Entwistle's Rigor Mortis Sets In
Obituary by Gary Pig Gold, earcandymag.com, June 2002
"WHAT I FEEL inside I can't explain. That John Entwistle should die in his late fifties is totally unthinkable. He was the indestructible one. He ...
Review by Gary Pig Gold, inmusicwetrust.com, July 2001
HARD TO BELIEVE it's been thirty-two years now since the self-proclaimed "Rock 'n' Roll King of the Southwest," who practically single-handedly bridged the (southern-fried) Fifties ...
Review by Gary Pig Gold, inmusicwetrust.com, July 2001
OK CLASS, READY? It's time to remember exactly WHAT (real) Punk Rock is (was). ...
Guess Who, The, Teenage Head, Michel Pagliaro: Ten Canadian Records You Shouldn’t Live Without
Guide by Gary Pig Gold, Cosmik Debris (cosmik.com), April 2001
CULTURALLY, CANADA is without a doubt one of the most diverse nations on the planet, and with its record stores awash since the 1950's in ...
Jimi Hendrix: Eight Little-Known Facts About Jimi Hendrix
Comment by Gary Pig Gold, inmusicwetrust.com, November 2000
THE LINES, MUSICAL and otherwise, between Fact and (Science) Fiction tend to blur quite a lot whenever one dares speak of (a) Our Heroes, and/or ...
Jimi Hendrix, Noel Redding: He Don't Live Today (Sorry): My Noel Redding Experience
Memoir by Gary Pig Gold, Rock's Backpages, May 2003
LET ME TELL YOU: The very first "real" concert I was ever allowed to attend as a wee Canadian tyke just so happened to be ...
Hollies, The: The Hollies' Terry Sylvester
Report and Interview by Gary Pig Gold, Pig Paper, The, December 1977
EVEN THE most punktured newavists will confess, "The Hollies – Yeah, I heard of them". ...
Buddy Holly: Those Should've Been The Days: Had Buddy Holly Not Taken That One Last Ride, That Is…
Essay by Gary Pig Gold, earcandymag.com, February 2006
Gary Pig Gold channels The Cricket That Got AwayYESSIR, THAT LAST tour was sure a sumbitch, wasn't it? "Winter Dance Party" my lone starred ass! ...
Review by Gary Pig Gold, inmusicwetrust.com, August 2001
CAUTION: EVEN THE most self-respecting of record stores now house a section way in the back, between the Soundtrack and Male Vocalist departments, called "Lounge." ...
Retrospective and Interview by Gary Pig Gold, fufkin.com, September 2001
"MUSWELL HILLBILLIES isn’t just a better country-rock album than anything by Wilco or Son Volt; It’s a better country-rock album than anything by The Byrds." ...
Memoir by Gary Pig Gold, Big O, December 2002
I KNOW AT LEAST one of his fellow supposedly-lovin’ Spoonfuls resents the situation to this day, but whenever Zal Yanovsky appeared on stage alongside John ...
Roy Orbison: The Complete Sun Sessions (Varese Sarabande)
Review by Gary Pig Gold, inmusicwetrust.com, January 2004
FOR THOSE WHO may be only marginally aware of The Big O's 1950's recordings (ie: via Creedence's credible cover of 'Ooby Dooby' 'way back when), ...
Orion, Elvis Presley: Not Elvis, BUT….
Retrospective by Gary Pig Gold, Rock's Backpages, August 2012
FIRST, THERE WAS you-know-who. Or at least up until thirty-five years ago there was. ...
Comment by Gary Pig Gold, purrmag.com, Spring 1999
IT WAS ELVIS' BIRTHDAY a few weeks ago. While this fact usually only piques the interest of a few misguided Teddy Boys overseas at this ...
Ramones, The: A Night At The Ramones
Report and Interview by Gary Pig Gold, Pig Paper, The, August 1977
IF YOU weren't square, you weren't there, or something. In other words, the gasping legions of Canadian punkdom filled the aptly-named New Yorker Theatre in ...
Obituary by Gary Pig Gold, fufkin.com, July 2002
WITH THE DEATH of yet another Ramone, perhaps little really needs to be added at this point on how Dee Dee and his honorary brethren ...
Ramones, The: Joey Ramone: Don't Worry About Me
Review by Gary Pig Gold, fufkin.com, May 2002
Don't Worry Joey: the Lead Ramone's Parting Shots ...
Rolling Stones, The: 10 Reasons Why the Rolling Stones Were the World's Greatest Rock and Roll Band
Comment by Gary Pig Gold, inmusicwetrust.com, November 2002
I. BRIAN JONES' HAIR ...
Rolling Stones, The: Skuawk! DVD Pick: The Rolling Stones - Rock and Roll Circus
Film/DVD Review by Gary Pig Gold, skuawk.com, February 2005
I THINK WE'RE more than all in agreement here that something very, very special took place during the middle 1960's; a magical, monumental something in ...
Profile and Interview by Gary Pig Gold, Pig Paper, The, August 1977
DID YOU know that there's a punk band in Australia? Well, there are punk bands in Toronto so nothing should surprise you. ...
Sex Pistols, The: Ten Reasons Why The Sex Pistols Didn't (or Couldn't) Save Rock And Roll
Comment by Gary Pig Gold, inmusicwetrust.com, August 2005
In honor of Julien Temple's great new film The Filth And The Fury Gary Pig Gold humbly submits to both punks and non-punks, old and ...
Sex Pistols, The, John Lydon: Johnny Rotten in Toronto
Interview by Gary Pig Gold, Pig Paper, The, August 1978
Johnny Says Never Mind The Bollocks ...
Stooges, The: Iggy & The Stooges: Wild Love (Bomp!)
Review by Gary Pig Gold, inmusicwetrust.com, April 2004
BOMP RECORDS' exquisitely lo-lo-fi Iguana Chronicles proudly soldiers forward with this hour's-plus of rehearsal tapes from the Stooges' glory daze pre- (and possibly even post-) ...
Joe Strummer: Gary Pig Gold Got His Kicks With Joe Strummer
Memoir by Gary Pig Gold, inmusicwetrust.com, March 2003
WHILE THE CLASH were hardly the only band that ever mattered to ME, I personally sure owe a tip-o-the ol' snout to the one, the ...
Talking Heads: Love Goes To Building On Fire
Report and Interview by Gary Pig Gold, Pig Paper, The, October 1977
Talking Heads, New Yorker Theatre, Toronto, Midnight 16 Sept '77 ...
Tiny Tim with Brave Combo: Girl (Rounder Records)
Review by Gary Pig Gold, inmusicwetrust.com, August 1999
ANYONE NOT already familiar with the trials and tribulations, musical and otherwise, that was Mr. Tim should read no further. ...
Interview by Gary Pig Gold, Pig Paper, The, April 1978
GARY AND JOHNNY PIG IN A PIGSCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH NAZI DOG AND FREDDY POMPEII ...
Who, The, Keith Moon: Keith Moon: Like A Rat Up A Pipe
Profile by Gary Pig Gold, Pig Paper, The, December 1975
IF PETE Townshend is the mind of The Who, Entwistle the soul, and Roger the heart, then drummer Keith Moon is most definitely the gut. ...
Brian Wilson: And Your Dream Comes True
Live Review by Gary Pig Gold, inmusicwetrust.com, July 1999
Brian Wilson Live at the Beacon Theater, New York City, June 18, 1999 ...
List of genre pieces
This Is Rebel Music: The Harvey Kubernik InnerView: Part Two
Interview by Gary Pig Gold, fufkin.com, October 2004
"THIS EXTRAORDINARY ASSEMBLAGE of interviews by journalist and record producer Harvey Kubernik is, as Brian Wilson's blurb on the back cover says, "inside stuff." It's ...
Gary Pig Gold's All-Time Top Ten Psychedelic Records (circa 1966)
Guide by Gary Pig Gold, inmusicwetrust.com, May 1999
WITH EVERY waking hour bringing yet another ill-advised Revival of sorts to our virtual doorsteps – today Slinkies, tomorrow Saturday Night Fever – I thought ...
Gary Pig Gold's Top Ten All Time Power Pop People (in Chronological Order)
Guide by Gary Pig Gold, fufkin.com, July 2001
CERTAINLY WE COULD all be arguing blue-faced until that mythical Next Big Thing finally arrives over just what exactly IS "Pop," Powerful or otherwise. ...
Gary Pig's All-Time Top Ten Car Tunes
Guide by Gary Pig Gold, inmusicwetrust.com, July 1998
Summer having arrived yet again, it's now as good a time as any to compile:GARY PIG'S ALL-TIME TOP TEN CAR TUNES ...
Great Unsung Heroes Of Rock'n'Roll Radio
Overview by Gary Pig Gold, inmusicwetrust.com, August 2005
Do you remember Murray the KAlan Freed and high energy?Do you remember rock'n'roll radio?Do you remember rock'n'roll radio?(The Ramones) ...
Metal Machine Musings: Gary Pig Gold's All-Time Top Ten Heavy Primal Hitters
Overview by Gary Pig Gold, ballbustermusic.com, April 2007
NOW BEFORE ya all call out the KISS Army or somethin' on me, let's just insist that there's one terrifically fine line indeed between, say, ...
This Is Rebel Music: The Harvey Kubernik InnerView: Part One
Interview by Gary Pig Gold, fufkin.com, September 2004
"If there is a secret history of LA's music scene – the real dirt, the telling minutiae, the diseased spirit of the place – then ...
Too Cool For Words! Gary Pig Gold's All-Time Favorite Rock 'N' Roll Instrumentals
Guide by Gary Pig Gold, earcandymag.com, March 2007
DRUMS AND wires often DO speak louder than words, and in that age-old teen spirit I hereby present a wholly chronological, but admittedly entirely objective ...
Who Put The Bomp? Why, Greg Shaw, Of Course!
Obituary by Gary Pig Gold, torpedopop.com, October 2004
ACCOLADES AND AWARDS are being tossed around far too indiscriminately these days, wouldn’t you agree? Especially within the, uh, Wonderful World of Entertainment. I mean, ...
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