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Richard Goldstein

Richard Goldstein

Widely regarded as America's first real "pop critic", Richard Goldstein wrote for the Village Voice from June 1966 until 2004, eventually becoming the paper's executive editor. He specializes in gay and lesbian issues, music, and counterculture topics, and is the author of the acclaimed memoir Another Little Piece of My Heart (2015).

Barney Hoskyns' review of 'Another Little Piece of My Heart'

52 articles

List of articles in the library

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Bob Dylan: Blonde on Blonde (Columbia)

Review by Richard Goldstein, The Village Voice, June 1966

LOOKING LIKE a man who's been waiting in line for two hours to find a vacant john, Bob Dylan peers in full color from the ...

The Beach Boys, The Byrds, Ray Charles, The Marvelettes, The McCoys, Stevie Wonder: Ray Charles, Little Stevie Wonder, The Beach Boys, the Byrds, the Marvelettes, the McCoys: Yankee Stadium, the Bronx NY

Live Review by Richard Goldstein, The Village Voice, 16 June 1966

Pop Eye: Soundblast '66 ...

The Shangri-Las: The Soul Sound from Sheepshead Bay

Profile and Interview by Richard Goldstein, The Village Voice, 23 June 1966

THEY STARTED with a twinkle in their eyes and leatherette on their hips. Out there on the stage of the Brooklyn Fox, with Murray the ...

The Rolling Stones: Pop Eye: The Rolling Stones

Report by Richard Goldstein, The Village Voice, 7 July 1966

THE JET landed amid a churning blast of mechanical thunder. The portable staircase was fixed in place. The stewardess and health officials departed. Finally, the ...

The Beatles: Revolver (Capitol)

Review by Richard Goldstein, The Village Voice, 25 August 1966

SWINGING LONDON, August 17 — The reception which the Beatles have received so far on their American tour has been less than ecstatic. But it ...

The Beatles: Revolver (Capitol)

Review by Richard Goldstein, The Village Voice, 25 August 1966

SWINGING LONDON, August 17 — The reception which the Beatles have received so far on their American tour has been less than ecstatic. But it ...

Simon & Garfunkel: The Sound of J.D. Salinger Clapping

Profile and Interview by Richard Goldstein, The Village Voice, 3 November 1966

WE KNOW about the sound of two hands clapping. We're pretty sure these days what one hand clapping sounds like. But what is the sound ...

The Mothers of Invention: The Balloon Farm, New York NY

Live Review by Richard Goldstein, The Village Voice, 1 December 1966

THE BALLOON Farm became much more than a discotheque last weekend, and the resident combo became much more than a pop-music ensemble. ...

The Beatles, George Harrison, Ravi Shankar: Pop Eye: Ravi and the Teenie Satori

Report by Richard Goldstein, The Village Voice, 5 January 1967

THEY ARE waiting for him in the glass-enclosed library of Asia House, over coffee, cream, and croissants. All the regulars are there: the lady reporter ...

Jefferson Airplane: The Jefferson Airplane: Webster Hall, New York NY

Live Review by Richard Goldstein, The Village Voice, 12 January 1967

(RBP Editor's note: this article was extracted from Goldstein's "Pop Eye" column. The opening paragraph refers to the previous item) ...

Tim Hardin, The Rascals, The Velvet Underground: Pop Eye: Mover

Profile and Interview by Richard Goldstein, The Village Voice, 19 January 1967

"HOW MANY columns you get in Newsweek?" ...

Buffalo Springfield, The Byrds, Donovan, The Rolling Stones, The Supremes: Pop Eye: Singles

Review by Richard Goldstein, The Village Voice, 26 January 1967

YOU KNOW something's fishy when you see that elastic grin on Brian Jones's face for the record jacket The title above tells all: 'Let's Spend ...

The Beach Boys, Jackson Browne, Buffalo Springfield, Love: Los Angeles: The Vanishing Underground

Report by Richard Goldstein, The Village Voice, 16 February 1967

LOS ANGELES — Sunset Strip is dead. ...

Buffalo Springfield, The Fabulous Fakes, The Mamas and The Papas, The Monkees, Ike & Tina Turner: Pop Eye — Ike & Tina Turner: 'River Deep, Mountain High' et al

Review by Richard Goldstein, The Village Voice, 23 February 1967

PHILLERS ...

Big Brother & The Holding Company, Charlatans, The (US), Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Sopwith Camel: San Francisco: The Flourishing Underground

Report and Interview by Richard Goldstein, The Village Voice, 2 March 1967

SAN FRANCISCO — Forget the cable cars; skip Chinatown and the Golden Gate; don't bother about the topless mother of eight. ...

The Diggers: In Search of George Metesky

Report by Richard Goldstein, The Village Voice, 16 March 1967

ON A WINTER evening, knots of anxious hippies assembled at San Francisco's Howard Presbyterian Church, overlooking the treelined mall called the Panhandle. Now and then ...

The Doors: Ondine, New York NY

Live Review by Richard Goldstein, The Village Voice, 23 March 1967

OPENING NIGHT at Ondines, that Queensboro Bridge of the soul, vast enough to encompass local beasts of prey, an occasional Rolling Stone on holiday, and ...

Donovan, The Lovin' Spoonful, The Rolling Stones: The Psychedelic Yenta Strikes Again!

Report by Richard Goldstein, The Village Voice, 23 March 1967

THE LOVIN' Spoonful may soon find their names anathema to the very underground which nurtured them. ...

The Who: Rock 'N' Wreck

Report and Interview by Richard Goldstein, The Village Voice, 30 March 1967

IN THE backstage halflight of the RKO 58th Street Theatre, Peter Townshend awaits his cue. Stagehands pace furiously, shouting orders in bizarre New York-ese. A ...

Grateful Dead: The Grateful Dead: The Grateful Dead (Warner Bros.)

Review by Richard Goldstein, The Village Voice, 13 April 1967

A GOOD ALBUM, like those long lasting cold remedies, is filled with tiny time capsules which burst open at their own speed. Cuts that astound ...

Velvet Underground: The Velvet Underground: The Velvet Underground & Nico (Verve)

Review by Richard Goldstein, The Village Voice, 13 April 1967

THE VELVET Underground is not an easy group to like. Some of the cuts on their album are blatant copies: I refer specifically to the ...

The Flower Children and How They Grow

Essay by Richard Goldstein, Los Angeles Times, 28 May 1967

Richard Goldstein is a young writer with a special view of the Flower Children and their contribution to modern American culture. He has been called ...

The Beatles: Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band (Capitol SMAS 2653)

Review by Richard Goldstein, The New York Times, 18 June 1967

We Still Need the Beatles, but… ...

The Animals, The Association, Big Brother & The Holding Company, Country Joe & The Fish, Electric Flag, Jimi Hendrix, Jefferson Airplane, The Mamas and The Papas, Hugh Masekela, Moby Grape, Laura Nyro, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Lou Rawls, Otis Redding, Johnny Rivers, Ravi Shankar, Simon & Garfunkel: Monterey Pop Festival: The Hip Homunculus

Report by Richard Goldstein, The Village Voice, 29 June 1967

"The West is the best: Get here and we'll do the rest!" — The Doors ...

The Beatles: I Blew My Cool Through The New York Times

Comment by Richard Goldstein, The Village Voice, 20 July 1967

IF BEING A critic were the same as being a listener I could just enjoy Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Other than one cut ...

The Supremes: The Super Supremes: 'Stop in the Name of Love'

Profile by Richard Goldstein, The New York Times, 23 July 1967

THE BREWSTER Project is one of those redbrick slums donated by the city of Detroit to house its local unwashed. Diana Ross, lead singer in ...

Jimi Hendrix, The Monkees: The Monkees, Jimi Hendrix Experience: Forest Hills Stadium, Queens NY

Live Review by Richard Goldstein, The Village Voice, 27 July 1967

DAVY JONES pretended to dip his microphone in a goblet of water. And Micky Dolenz admitted he had bought a Moog synthesizer ("I'm fooling around ...

Jackson Browne, Penny Nichols: The Billy James Underground

Report by Richard Goldstein, The Village Voice, 3 August 1967

HE CRUISES along the Freeway out of Los Angeles in an open Rolls, the kind that used to have upholstery and windows. His young son ...

Big Brother & The Holding Company, Charlatans, The (US), Grateful Dead: Chet Helms: Hurok of Haight Street

Report and Interview by Richard Goldstein, Los Angeles Times, 27 August 1967

HIS DESK looks impressive. A clean blotter is piled high with correspondence. A vertical file bulges with memos. A calendar and a trash can are ...

Cream: They Play Blues, Not Superstar

Report and Interview by Richard Goldstein, The Village Voice, 5 October 1967

IT'S SATURDAY night at the Village Theatre, New York's sad-eyed answer to the Fillmore-Avalon scene. Under the marquee, Slavs gape and Ratner's rejects mourn the ...

Donovan, Bob Dylan: Bob Dylan: Dont Look Back (Dir. D.A. Pennebaker, 96 mins)

Film/DVD/TV Review by Richard Goldstein, The New York Times, 22 October 1967

Dylan: 'We Trust What He Tells Us' ...

The Beach Boys: Smiley Smile (Brother — ST 9001)

Review by Richard Goldstein, The New York Times, 29 October 1967

Recordings: The Beach Boys Sing a Rock Prayer ...

Arlo Guthrie: Arlo Takes a Giant Step

Profile and Interview by Richard Goldstein, The New York Times, 5 November 1967

  WOODY GUTHRIE'S son Arlo is a folk-singer, too. ...

Leonard Cohen: Beautiful Creep

Profile and Interview by Richard Goldstein, The Village Voice, 28 December 1967

And the child on whose shoulders I stand whose longing I purged with public, kingly discipline today I bring him back ...

The Beatles: Magical Mystery Tour (Capitol 2835)

Review by Richard Goldstein, The New York Times, 31 December 1967

Are They Waning? ...

Frankie Avalon, Fabian, Paul Revere & The Raiders: Dick Clark: Packager of Pop

Profile and Interview by Richard Goldstein, Los Angeles Times, 7 January 1968

Though the folk-rock era ended his pop music dictatorship, there are signs Dick Clark is inching his way toward the center of the scene again. ...

The Beach Boys, The Beatles: Maharishi Mahesh Yogi: The Politics of Salvation

Report by Richard Goldstein, The Village Voice, 25 January 1968

The question of the hour is: can an honest man still be a fraud? ...

Jefferson Airplane: The Jefferson Airplane: After Bathing At Baxter's (RCA Victor LSO-1511)

Review by Richard Goldstein, The New York Times, 4 February 1968

Freedom can be costly ...

Van Dyke Parks: Talk of the Rock Rialto

Profile and Interview by Richard Goldstein, The New York Times, 3 March 1968

  VAN DYKE Parks might have grown old in comfortable obscurity. At 25, he had made his mark along Sunset Boulevard (California's Teflon-pan alley) as the ...

The Band, Bob Dylan, Buffy Sainte-Marie: The Band: Music From Big Pink (Capitol SKAO 2995)

Review by Richard Goldstein, The New York Times, 4 August 1968

Big Pink Is Just a Home in Saugerties ...

The Doors: The Shaman As Superstar

Report and Interview by Richard Goldstein, New York, 5 August 1968

"Morrison's eyes glow as he discusses the Apollonian-Dionysian struggle for life's force. It's an easy guess which side he's on." "The shaman... he was a man ...

Theatre of Fear: One on the Aisle

Report by Richard Goldstein, The Village Voice, 5 September 1968

CHICAGO — I brought the Fear out with me from New York, a white plastic helmet and a bottle of Vaseline. The same fear that ...

Country Joe & The Fish: C.J. Fish on Saturday

Interview by Richard Goldstein, The Village Voice, 3 October 1968

IT WAS Saturday afternoon and the Algonquin Hotel smelled of old marble and mahogany. In his suite, Country Joe MacDonald sat on a sofa and ...

Lillian Roxon

Obituary by Richard Goldstein, The New York Times, 26 August 1973

LILLIAN ROXON, who died on Aug. 9, understood something important about pop music and its milieu, which is that the very basis of its impact ...

Bette Midler, Barbra Streisand: The Dark Side of Bette Midler

Essay by Richard Goldstein, The Village Voice, 21 April 1975

I wear a red heart like others, and have a dark, inconsolate, ugly destiny. — Rahel Varnhagen, in Hannah Arendt's study ...

Talking Heads Hyperventilate Some Clichés

Report by Richard Goldstein, The Village Voice, 2 February 1976

TALKING HEADS offers a fragile middle finger to bands in which anonymous sidemen play powerhouse back-up through a Luftwaffe of amplifiers, while the man with ...

The Ramones, Sex Pistols, Patti Smith, Talking Heads, Television: The Possibilities of Punk

Comment by Richard Goldstein, The Village Voice, 10 October 1977

UP UNTIL about six months ago, CBGB's was the only rock bar I ever felt comfortable in. All you needed was a long scarf and ...

Studio 54: Innocent Until Proven Decadent

Comment by Richard Goldstein, The Village Voice, 25 December 1978

IT OUGHT TO be possible to wish the combined forces of the IRS and the DEA well in their early morning raid on Studio 54 ...

Fab 5 Freddy: In Praise of Graffiti: The Fire Down Below

Report by Richard Goldstein, The Village Voice, 24 December 1980

  JOHN LINDSAY hated graffiti. He vowed to wipe it off the face of the IRT, and allocated $10 million to its obliteration. But the application ...

Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin: Thinking About the Sixties

Essay by Richard Goldstein, The Village Voice, 8 March 1988

Something's happening here. What it is ain't exactly clear. Is the '60s revival a thaw in the Big Chill, or just more evidence of fashion ...

Reefer Redux: Why Pot Is Hot

Essay by Richard Goldstein, The Village Voice, 22 June 1993

"Let me tell you about the first time I got high. It was 1966, and I was a young reporter... There, sitting on the floor, ...

Eminem: The Eminem Consensus

Comment by Richard Goldstein, The Village Voice, 12 November 2002

TWO EVENTS of lasting significance occurred last week: the breakdown of the Democratic party and the breakthrough of Eminem. His debut film, 8 Mile, became the ...

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