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Hank Bordowitz

Hank Bordowitz

There are few things Hank Bordowitz hasn't done in the entertainment biz, and lived to tell the tale. His career has taken him to television, radio, records, the web, infinity and beyond.

As a musician, he played in bars and pit bands through High School, touring with a theater company by night while attending classes by day. His edgy work on college radio nearly got him thrown out of school his first semester. He graduated to a hot moment as a recording artist for a company that went out of business weeks after he turned in his master. He has subsequently worked on the biz side of things for A&M, Antilles New Directions, Columbia, IRS, Island, PolyGram, RCA/BMG, Atlantic, Intuition, Tuff City and others.

As an editor, Hank top-kicked Rock Scene, Rock Fever Metal Mania, Creem Special Issues and Concert Shots magazines, managed the editorial at Wizard, The Guide To Comics, served as Director of Editorial Content at MCY.com and edited the original Interactive Quarterly, the first magazine about Cyberotica - and takes credit for coining the word.

Hank's work appears in half a dozen books including the forward of the Peanuts Illustrated Songbook. His own books include

• Bad Moon Rising: The Unauthorized History of Creedence Clearwater Revival,
• The U2 Reader: A Quarter Century of Commentary, Criticism and Reviews
• The Bruce Springsteen Scrapbook
• Every Little Thing Gonna Be Alright: The Bob Marley Reader,
• Turning Points of Rock and Roll, Noise of the World, Non-Western Musicians in their Own Words
• Billy Joel: Life & Times of an Angry Young Man, and
• Dirty Little Secrets of the Record Business: Why So Much Music You Hear Sucks.

His work has appeared in hundreds of magazines including Playboy, Gallery and, Spin. Hank's television work includes stints with VH-1, the CBS Morning Show, and TV-1 News, Finland. He worked extensively on the PBS show Spike and Company Do It A Cappella.

In addition to all of this, he also teaches as an adjunct professor at the music department of Ramapo College of the State of New Jersey, Colorado State University(online) and Baruch College.

List of articles in the library by artist

King Sunny Ade: An Interview

Interview by Hank Bordowitz, unpublished, 1985

HB: You are doing something most American bands wouldn't think off, touring the country with a 20 odd person entourage. ...

Creedence Clearwater Revival: “I Was the Leader Already": Creedence's Beginnings

Book Excerpt by Hank Bordowitz, Schirmer Books, 1998

IN 1958 ROCK music had passed its infancy -- it was more like a toddler -- but it still was not reputable. Not many high ...

Bo Diddley: Man Among Men, Guitarist Among Guitarists

Interview by Hank Bordowitz, Guitar Player, October 1996

YOU KNOW BO Diddley invented that beat, one of the driving forces of rock and roll. You know he had a bunch of seminal ...

Thomas Dolby: Techno Beatnik: Thomas Dolby

Profile and Interview by Hank Bordowitz, unpublished, 2002

MY WIFE AND two-year-old huddle over my wife’s iMac. Billy, the two year old, giggles uncontrollably as the computer makes boinging and slide-whistle sounds, ...

Dr. John: Hoodoo Man: Mac Rebennack

Interview by Hank Bordowitz, Jazziz, July 1994

MAC REBENNACK'S music continues a 40 year long mardi gras of the mind, a sound that never gets old, never gets tired. ...

Donald Fagen: Get Your Motor Running

Interview by Hank Bordowitz, Creem, 1993

With Kamakiriad, Donald Fagen proves that behind every great album is a great car ...

Willie Nelson: Expecting the Unexpected

Profile and Interview by Hank Bordowitz, Gallery, March 2001

WILLIE NELSON studies martial arts. He has honed his skills as a karateka in various styles for around 40 years now. When you ...

Parliament, Funkadelic: The Jazzy Funkateers: Life after James Brown and P-Funk

Report and Interview by Hank Bordowitz, American Visions, Winter 1993

AS THE SEVEN musicians on the stage at Tramps in New York launch into a instrumental version of 'Cold Sweat', six hundred voices in the ...

Ringo Starr

Interview by Hank Bordowitz, Special Reports, Summer 1992

EVERY NOW AND then you get a call from an old dear friend, someone who has been lurking around at the edges of your consciousness ...

List of genre pieces

Ahmet Ertegun And The History Of Atlantic Records

Profile and Interview by Hank Bordowitz, Schwann Spectrum, Winter 1991

"WHEN I FIRST started Atlantic Records," reflects the label founder, Ahmet Ertegun, "I intended to make good blues and jazz music, as well as some ...

The Sultan’s Story: Ahmet Ertegun and Atlantic Records

Retrospective and Interview by Hank Bordowitz, Schwann Spectrum, Fall 1992

FIFTY YEARS AGO, the son of the Turkish ambassador to the United States, then in college, sought to supplement his allowance. He and his partner ...

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