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Richard Riegel

Richard Riegel

Richard Riegel decided he wanted to be a rock critic too, after reading Lester Bangs's manifesto "James Taylor Marked for Death" in 1972. Two years later, Riegel was writing for the great Bangs himself, at CREEM Magazine. A terminal Midwesterner, Riegel continued to do most of his rockwriting in the pages of CREEM, for years after Lester had departed for the green fields of Gotham. Along the way Riegel has also had his music pieces published in the Village Voice, Harp, Launch, Real Groove, the Washington Post, New York, Phonograph Record Magazine, Who Put the Bomp?, and his own Loose Palace fanzine, among other periodicals. As none of those gigs ever quite kept the wolf from the family door, Riegel also put in 30 years as a caseworker and quality control reviewer for the public welfare department, from which he was finally sprung by the Clinton/Gingrich "reform" in 1998. Riegel continues to reside with his wife, Teresa, in Cincinnati, Ohio, though he considers Columbus and Cleveland cooler cities on the whole.


True-story trivia note: In several incidents in recent years, strangers on the street have told Mr. Riegel that he looks "just like Andy Warhol!" Riegel is not bothered by the supposition that his naturally-achieved platinum locks evidently resemble Andy's funky wig, as he's gratified that if he has to resemble a celebrity, at least it's Warhol, someone whose artistry he's always admired. Riegel feels that if random passersby instead told him he resembled certain other celebs – e.g., Bruce Willis, Carol Channing – then an extreme makeover would be the only honourable way out.

Steven Ward's 2001 interview with Riegel

111 articles

List of articles in the library

By date | By artist | Most recently added

Allman Brothers Band, Wet Willie: Allman Brothers, Wet Willie: Cincinnati Gardens, Cincinnati, Ohio

Live Review by Richard Riegel, Phonograph Record, March 1973

DON'T KNOW how it is up in those choice stageside seats you pro critics reputedly get your asses greased with, but auditing a rock concert ...

The Beatles: 1962-1966, 1967-1970 (Apple)

Review by Richard Riegel, Phonograph Record, July 1973

Author's Note, 2009: This review of "the red and blue albums" generated the first-ever hate mail from a reader in my rock-critical career. He wasn't ...

Aerosmith: Get Your Wings (Columbia)

Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, August 1974

MGM RECORDS wasn't necessarily misguided in its big Bosstown hustle of 1968, they just flubbed up and signed the wrong bands. Why would you want ...

Black Oak Arkansas: Street Party (Atco)

Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, November 1974

H.L. MENCKEN once wrote that he could toss an egg out the window of a Pullman car anywhere in America and splatter a yokel. It's ...

Mahogany Rush: Strange Universe (20th Century)

Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, October 1975

Rrring! "Hey, Paul, get the phone, will ya?" Rrring! ...

Amon Düül (I & II): Amon Duul II: Made In Germany (Atco)

Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, January 1976

NO ONE BUT this X-th generation German-American seems to have remarked on the profound ironies of Kraftwerk's recent boast that they're the first German pop ...

Kraftwerk: Radio-Activity (Capitol)

Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, February 1976

DOES ANYBODY out there remember 1962's top ten screamer, 'Telstar', by the Tornadoes? I really loved it at the time. Not only was it one ...

John Lennon: Shaved Fish (Apple)

Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, March 1976

DID Y'EVER notice how each of the former Beatles has enjoyed a successive season in the sun as the rock critics' fave Fab Four survivor? ...

Sweet: Give Us A Wink (Capitol)

Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, May 1976

I SEE HERE in this clipping that Sweet lead singer Brian Connolly got his throat kicked in during a pub brawl in London in 1974. ...

C.W. McCall: Wilderness (Polydor)

Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, July 1976

LET'S FACE it. 'Convoy' was probably the one moment of pure inspiration C.W. McCall's adcopy-blighted brain will ever enjoy, and those fans hoping for a ...

Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes: Southside Johnny & The Asbury Dukes: I Don't Want To Go Home (Epic)

Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, September 1976

NAH, I DON'T blame Bruce Springsteen a bit. I woulda done the same if I'd been in his Beatle boots. With all the vultures of ...

The Marshall Tucker Band: Long Hard Ride (Capricorn)

Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, September 1976

IT COULD BE that the emerging stylistic identities of the various Southern rock bands derive as much from their differing geographic origins as from the ...

The Tubes: Young & Rich (A&M)

Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, September 1976

JUST WHAT is going down here, huh? The defining images of our pop heroes seem destined for ever-shorter useful lives, as though we're accelerating toward ...

Lynyrd Skynyrd: One More From the Road (MCA)

Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, December 1976

LYNYRD SKYNYRD: Does Their Conscience Bother THEM? ...

Elton John: Blue Moves (Rocket)

Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, February 1977

Elton Cops Some ZZZ's ...

Styx: Crystal Ball (A&M)

Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, February 1977

NOPE, I WON'T deny it, I've liked Styx since I first heard their 'Lady' single. The ferocious chords of that tune crashed out with a ...

ZZ Top: Tejas (London)

Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, April 1977

AS POWER trios go, Grand Funk are no longer a trio, and not nearly so powerful as their obstinate primitivism once made them seem. Yet ...

The Ramones: Leave Home (Sire)

Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, May 1977

ROCK CRITIC or not, your reviewer resides in the Midwest, and doesn't make it up to Noo Yawk any too often (last such trek occurring ...

Iggy Pop: The Idiot (RCA)

Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, June 1977

LET'S SEE, 1977 minus 1973 is four; it's been four whole years since Iggy and the Stooges' milestone Raw Power was released. Four years can ...

Peter Frampton: I'm In You (A&M)

Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, September 1977

FRAMPTON: "I'm In You"CALL THE EXORCIST! ...

The Jam: In the City (Polydor)

Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, November 1977

ANARCHY IN the U.K.? You ain't heard nothing yet — just wait till the Sex Pistols wake up to the realization that they pissed away ...

Blue Öyster Cult: Spectres (Columbia)

Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, January 1978

THE BLUE Öyster Cult have been able, in the past few years, to abandon their critic-induced anxieties about striving on as the vanguards of N.Y. ...

Aerosmith: Draw The Line (Columbia)

Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, March 1978

PAINT BY NUMBERS FOR DEAF MUTES ...

Parliament: Funkentelechy vs. The Placebo Syndrome (Casablanca)

Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, March 1978

AND SO it came to pass that Parliament-Funkadelic became the Great Black Hope of all the honky rock critics, became the champion musical force that ...

Van Halen: Van Halen (Warner Bros.)

Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, June 1978

LET ME TELL you about dinosaurs. No, "dinosaurs" may be too harsh a term, even if Van Halen-style rockers do find their evolutionary fulfillment in ...

The Good Rats: Good Rats: From Rats To Riches (Passport)

Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, July 1978

ACCORDING TO the liner notes, the Good Rats recorded this new set in just two weeks last fall. Never mind that this was their first ...

The Rolling Stones: Some Girls (Rolling Stones Records)

Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, September 1978

STONES FIND MOSS RETARDANT ELIXIR ...

Thin Lizzy: Tramping the Celt Belt with Thin Lizzy

Report by Richard Riegel, Creem, October 1978

LONDON, ENGLAND – So I've journeyed 4000 miles across the sea, made my pilgrimage to the cradle of the modern rock 'n' roll era, just ...

The Dead Boys: Dead Boys Tell No Tales (Under An Hour, That Is)

Report and Interview by Richard Riegel, Creem, February 1979

FIVE MINUTES into my first-ever meeting with the Dead Boys, and already I have an angle, a metaphorical hook for my story on the band: ...

Devo: Actual Size

Report and Interview by Richard Riegel, Creem, March 1979

(Investigative Reporter Dances The Poot) ...

The Clash: Give 'Em Enough Rope (Epic)

Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, March 1979

FUTURE SHOCK NOW (If You Want It) ...

Cheap Trick: At Budokan (Epic)

Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, May 1979

CHEAP TRICK are encouraging evidence of a new fluidity beneath the rigid fragmentation of today's pop music scene; they're proto types of the nouveau ironic ...

Iggy Pop: Metallic J.C.'s Consciousness-Raising Wrap Session

Report by Richard Riegel, Creem, May 1979

TURIN, ITALY – In a surprise announcement this week, it was revealed that the so-called "Shroud of Turin," long believed to be the cloth in ...

Cheap Trick: An Afternoon Of Reality Therapy With Rick Nielsen & Cheap Trick

Report and Interview by Richard Riegel, Creem, July 1979

"IT'S LIKE I always tell people," says Rick Nielsen, "'I'm not a conservative, I'm a realist'." ...

Electric Light Orchestra: Discovery (Jet)

Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, September 1979

THE ELECTRIC Light Orchestra was a shaky proposition from the beginning, as far as this hard-boiled Yank observer was concerned. Roy Wood's announced intention of ...

Siouxsie & the Banshees: The Scream (Polydor)

Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, September 1979

SIOUXSIE OF the Banshees was a tantalizing pledge of the coming New Wave Millennium, when her photo began appearing in U.S. fanzines in early 1977. ...

Paul Revere & the Raiders: Punks Just Keep Getting Harder to Find

Report and Interview by Richard Riegel, Creem, November 1979

MIDDLETOWN, OHIO – As the car clanks over the first peak of the Screaming Eagle rollercoaster, poised to begin its exhilarating hurtle downward, I have ...

Cheap Tricksters Deny Plans For Global Conquest

Report and Interview by Richard Riegel, Creem, December 1979

Term Mass Invasion A "Dream Police Action" ...

Blondie: Eat To The Beat (Chrysalis)

Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, January 1980

TOUCHED BY YOUR PRESENTS, DEARS ...

The Knack: Max Knack Attack

Report by Richard Riegel, Creem, January 1980

PACKS FEW FACTS, JACK (BUT STACKS OF TRACKS PUT THE PAX ON FLACKS' YAKS) ...

Lester Bangs: 'Let It Blurt'/'Live' (Spy 45)

Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, February 1980

Lester Bangs Walks It Like He Talks It ...

James Chance, James White and The Blacks: The Contortions: Buy The Contortions (Ze); James White And The Blacks: Off White (Ze)

Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, February 1980

SOME DAYS it's fun being a real Midwesterner trying to make it in the art rackets; the powers on the good-taste-is-timely Coasts already have you ...

The Knack: Knuking The Knack Inside Their Own Reactor

Report and Interview by Richard Riegel, Creem, April 1980

Connubial Alliance Invades the Heart Of the Beast ...

Destroy All Monsters: Bogart's, Cincinnati OH

Live Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, July 1980

We Almost Lost Detroit – Part 2
 ...

J. Geils Band: Juke Joint Jimmy in Midlife Crisis: GEIL-itis Still Got a Hold on Me

Report by Richard Riegel, Creem, July 1980

DON'T ASK ME where we were going, as I can't remember now, but I know it was the Saturday morning before the Sunday evening J. ...

Nico: Bogart's, Cincinnati

Live Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, September 1980

Be Real Kraut For Me, Baby! ...

Bob Dylan: Saved (Columbia)

Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, October 1980

I NEVER bothered buying Bob Dylan's landmark albums when they were released, in the frantic 1960s. All my friends then already had all the albums, ...

John Mellencamp: John Cougar: XR-7's Entire Midwest Metropolis

Report by Richard Riegel, Creem, December 1980

Renegade Stories Down Thru the Years: ...

Pat Benatar: Crimes of Passion (Chrysalis)



Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, December 1980

YOU'VE PROBABLY heard much of this album on the radio already, maybe you've gone ahead and bought it (I see that the album's now #5 ...

Jim Carroll: The Jim Carroll Band: Catholic Boy (Atco)

Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, February 1981

JIM CARROLL'S the latest word pusher (as in prose, poetry, you know, the pen-meets-paper thing) to cross the art-will-be-convulsive-or-not-at-all line, into the authentically electric seizures ...

Iggy Pop: World's Most Forgotten Boyo Discovered Performing Alternative Service For The Bourgeoisie

Comment by Richard Riegel, Creem, March 1981

COMING, ON your own TV, sometime around 1986: A loud, but dry, staccato male voice opens the commercial: "Do you remember those thrilling days when ...

The Specials: More Specials (Chrysalis/2-Tone)

Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, March 1981

SO HOW would you like to be sitting on top of the Specials' 2-Tone global music empire right about now? You can bet it's a ...

Grace Slick: Welcome To The Wrecking Ball (Grunt)

Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, April 1981

THIS ISSUE will be hitting the stands a week or two after Valentine's Day, so I won't be too remiss in telling Grace Slick that ...

Elvis Costello and the Attractions: Trust (Columbia)

Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, May 1981

"ACCESS" IS a word that has never tripped lightly off Elvis Costello's devilishly silver tongue. As in "Access All Areas," rockbiz parlance for an unlimited ...

Ozzy Osbourne: Blizzard Of Ozz (Jet)

Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, July 1981

THIS MAY be a little hard for Cliff Richard to take, but his fellow Xian, Ozzy Osbourne, has by now become the English Elvis Presley. ...

Human Switchboard: Deft Mutants in a Telephone Booth: Human Switchboard at Walnut Hills, Dayton

Live Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, August 1981

DAYTON, OH -- "Maximum Occupancy: 110" says the sign high up on the wall of the Walnut Hills Bar, and by a conservative estimate, I'd ...

Yoko Ono: Season Of Glass (Geffen)

Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, October 1981

YOKO ONO'S first post-John album has been out a month or so as I write this, but you'd never know that from tuning into your ...

Pat Benatar: Hot L Baltimore's (Not Just) For Children: Nice Girl Finishes First & Demands Recount

Report by Richard Riegel, Creem, November 1981

COLUMBIA, MARYLAND, is a "planned community" nestled among scads of functional greenery, midway between Baltimore and Washington D.C. Columbia was laid out according to the ...

Daryl Hall & John Oates: Private Eyes (RCA)

Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, December 1981

I GOTTA HAND it to these guys. Just a few years back, if the merest snatch of any of their biggies – 'She's Gone' was ...

Quarterflash: Quarterflash (Geffen)

Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, February 1982

BET IF YOU'RE like me, you made your definitive acquaintance with Quarterflash via the magic of radio. Sure, I received my album right off, but ...

Bob Dylan: More Of An Outlaw Than You Ever Were? (Hold The Mayo On The Golden Globe Awards)

Essay by Richard Riegel, Creem, March 1982

During the '70s, Dylan got swept up into those overblown, superstarred ships of fools which claimed so many promising prophets from the '60s. ...

Van Morrison: Beautiful Vision (Warner Bros.)

Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, June 1982

AND REMEMBER, CLEANLINESS IS NEXT TO GODLINESS ...

Asia: Asia (Geffen)

Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, July 1982

HOW FITTING to confront this record at the same moment the Royal Navy is steaming toward the Falklands, in the last-hurrah hard-on of Tory imperialism. ...

The Thompson Twins: Thompson Twins: In The Name Of Love (Arista)

Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, September 1982

"THEY DON'T KNOW what to call us/'Cause we don't have a name" croons an anxious Tom Bailey, in the Thompson Twins' 'Perfect Game'. ...

Stiv Bators, The Dead Boys: Old Dead Boys Never Die, They Just Get Spayed Away

Report by Richard Riegel, Creem, October 1982

LONDON/NEW YORK — One-time Dead Boy vocalist/ scartissue-monger Stiv Bators married his beloved, one Anastasia, on May 1st in London, thus breaking the dog-collared hearts ...

REO Speedwagon: Good Trouble (Epic)

Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, October 1982

FROM OUT OF THE STEREOS OF BABES ...

Romeo Void: Benefactor

Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, December 1982

ROMEO VOID'S Debora Iyall has said that her band's name "means there are not romantic notions here — and there shouldn't be; we are about ...

Billy Joel: The Nylon Curtain (Columbia)

Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, January 1983

REVENGE OF THE SUBURBS ...

Prince: 1999 (Warner Bros.)

Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, February 1983

DRESSED TO FUNK 

 ...

Yazoo: Yaz: Upstairs At Eric's (Mute/Sire)

Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, March 1983

"YAZ," ARE really "Yazoo," and still go by that name in the U.K. and Europe, but for North American consumption they had to drop the ...

Supertramp: ...Famous Last Words... (A&M)

Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, April 1983

MANY' FINE nouns come to me whenever I think of Supertramp, and most of the printable ones can be found in the section of my ...

The Lords Of The New Church: I Just Wanna Testify

Report by Richard Riegel, Creem, April 1983

IT'S LIKE a scene from a Lisa Robinson rock novel, here at Swingo's Hotel in downtown Cleveland. The lobby's a baroque mishmash of fake 18th-century ...

The Members: Members of Punk-Reggae Wedding Claim Not Always Bridesmaids

Profile and Interview by Richard Riegel, Creem, May 1983

WE'RE DOWN in Bogart's new dressing room, a concrete-block bunker beneath the stage, and as I retrieve a Budweiser from the tub on the amenities ...

U2: War (Island)

Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, May 1983

JERRY MATHERS' days as TV's beloved Beaver were numbered the second his voice began to crack and change, and U2's new War may force similar ...

Bow Wow Wow: When the Going Gets Tough The Tough Get Going (RCA)

Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, July 1983

PERSONALLY, I never lost a minute's sleep over 15 1/2-years-old-and-semi-nude Annabella's supposed exploitation at the hot little hands of Malcolm McLaren when he was pushing ...

Men at Work: Cargo (Columbia)

Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, August 1983

SURE, I LIKE Men At Work too. Doesn't everybody? They seem able to please all the people all the time, even though that's not their ...

Wall of Voodoo's Off Sound Track Betting

Profile and Interview by Richard Riegel, Creem, August 1983

Caricatures Shown Not Intended To Depict Artemia Salina ...

The Human League: Fascination! (A&M)

Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, September 1983

BACK IN THEIR serious-artiste days, before they shed the future Heaven 17 to go POP! with capital P's, the Human League used to attempt to ...

Robert Plant: The Principle Of Moments (Atlantic)

Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, November 1983

BACK IN THOSE firebrand days when I foolishly believed that the Ramones and Sex Pistols could overturn the whole rock establishment, I often felt that ...

The Stray Cats: Stray Cats: Rant N' Rave With The Stray Cats (EMI America)

Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, December 1983

SETZER, SETZER, LEND ME YOUR COMB ...

MTV: Behind The Scenes (MTV Special Program)

Film/DVD/TV Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, January 1984

MTV Or Not MTV ...

X Spots the Mark: Raw Chemicals With a Spoon

Interview by Richard Riegel, Creem, February 1984

AS I ENTER Billy Zoom's Cincinnati motel room, I glance at the usual rockband-on-tour pile of black leather jackets, but I also take note of ...

Billy Idol: Rebel Yell (Chrysalis)

Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, March 1984

BILLY IDOL has designated the respective sides of the single-pocket Rebel Yell as "3" and "4," in the same big numerals he used for "1" ...

Girlschool: Staying After Girlschool

Report and Interview by Richard Riegel, Creem, May 1984

GIRLSCHOOL MEMBERS Kim McAuliffe and Gil Weston flash me quick smiles as we're introduced in their road manager's hotel room, and I'm relieved to note ...

XTC: Mummer (Geffen)

Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, May 1984

MUMMER MARKS XTC's psychic retreat to the band's native village of Swindon, where folk are rough and still near to the earth. The women wear ...

Nena: 99 Luftballons (Epic)

Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, June 1984

IF YOU DON'T already have a crush on Nena Kerner for the sweetly tumbling gutturals of her vocals, and the sexiness of her hands-in-pockets stride, ...

Madness: Keep Moving (Geffen)

Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, July 1984

MADNESS WARNED us as long ago as 1979 that they intended to "move with the times" as new pop fashions scudded across that fickle London ...

Ratt: Ratt (Time Coast/Atlantic)

Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, April 1985

RATT BETWEEN THE LIPS ...

Motörhead: Loving Them Like Reptiles

Report and Interview by Richard Riegel, Creem, June 1985

MOTÖRHEAD ARE so fucking LOUD my ears are already bolting for the door so they can hop a bus and flee home to the security ...

The Smiths: Meat Is Murder (Sire)

Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, June 1985

EVEN THOUGH I happen to think that this group's debut disc was one of the best albums of 1984, I'm afraid that they may be ...

Alison Moyet: Alf (Columbia)

Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, July 1985

THIS ALBUM'S not bad, but it could have been a lot better. Alison Moyet, as you may recall, graced our airwaves back in 1982-83 with ...

Robert Plant: Shaken'n'Stirred (Es Paranza)

Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, September 1985

AS LUCK WOULD have it, just a couple nights ago I tuned in Radio 1990 and caught the ever-photogenic Mr. Plant, who was being grilled ...

Sting: The Dream Of The Blue Turtles (A&M)

Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, October 1985

O SOLO STINGO ...

Brian Setzer: The Knife Feels Like Justice (EMI America)

Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, June 1986

...AND THE DISH RAN AWAY WITH THE SPOON ...

Hüsker Dü: Not Bohemia, But Estonia!

Interview by Richard Riegel, Creem, June 1986

"HÜSKER DÜ" is Danish for "Do you remember?," and I do, I recall very clearly my meeting with the guys from the rock band of ...

Ted Nugent: Little Miss Dangerous (Atlantic)

Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, July 1986

ONE DOESN'T usually associate the terms "pedestrian" and "boring" with an ignoble savage who poses for liner photos with particles of small-quadruped flesh stuck between ...

Van Halen: 5150 (Warner Bros.)

Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, August 1986

THERMOS HUNT CONTINUES! ...

The Jesus & Mary Chain: Darklands (Warner Brothers)

Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, February 1988

IT'S BEGINNING TO LOOK A LOT LIKE CHRISTMAS... ...

Bryan Ferry: Bête Noire (Reprise)

Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, March 1988

BRYAN FERRY was easier for a common clod like me to take back in the 1970s, when his precocious elegance and studied world-weariness were contained ...

Foreigner: Inside Information (Atlantic)

Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, April 1988

LONG-TIME Foreigner fans should open this album's gatefold jacket very slowly (if at all), as the double-spread group photo within confirms that Our Boys are ...

Lester Bangs: Liberation Critic

Essay by Richard Riegel, Throat Culture, 1990

JAMMED INTO that soft-sided suitcase of guilts I've carried with me into my forties is the dull-but-persistent ache that I "owed" Lester Bangs a letter ...

The Beatles: We Can Work It Out: The Ten Most Over- & Underrated Beatles Songs

Comment by Richard Riegel, Real Groove, December 1996

The Ten Most Underrated Beatles Cuts (Arranged Chronologically) ...

The Kinks: Thank You for the 1/288th of the Day, Ray!

Memoir by Richard Riegel, Real Groove, April 1997

BACK IN OUR mid-1960s adolescence, my friend B. entertained a magnificently huge crush on Dave Davies of the Kinks. We were young Yanks in thrall ...

Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley: Hey Conductor You Must: Rock'n'Roll Iconoclasm In America

Essay by Richard Riegel, Loose Palace, Spring 2000

2006 Author's note: I wrote the following piece in the summer of 1993 on assignment for Rob O'Connor's Throat Culture magazine, after I had suggested ...

Love: Forever Changes(Elektra/Rhino)

Review by Richard Riegel, The Village Voice, 16 April 2001

LOVE'S THIRD ALBUM mystified both the band's ardent fans and the scene's founding rockwriters almost from the day it appeared in November 1967. ...

John Mellencamp: Cuttin' Heads (Columbia)

Review by Richard Riegel, The Village Voice, 5 December 2001

ROBERT ZIMMERMAN wanted to emulate Woody Guthrie, while John Mellencamp aspired to be the next-to-last David Bowie, and here they are at fateful birthdays 60 ...

Lou Reed: NYC Man -The Ultimate Lou Reed Collection

Review by Richard Riegel, Harp, July 2003

FOR "QUINTESSENTIAL New Yorker" Lou Reed, the irony he's directed toward his fans has often been less subtle patronization than his hectoring middle finger thrust ...

Creem: Censored by a Futurist!

Memoir by Richard Riegel, Rock's Backpages, 24 April 2009

CREEM SUFFERED ITS first bankruptcy in August 1985, a little over ten years after I'd begun writing regularly for the magazine.   ...

Lester Bangs at Home

Memoir by Richard Riegel, unpublished, May 2009

NOTE: I wrote this mini-memoir for one of the neo-Creem projects of recent years, but it wasn't used. ...

Where Did (My) Zeitgeist Go?: A Life in Rock Writing

Comment by Richard Riegel, Rock's Backpages, 18 April 2012

I'VE JUST FINISHED reading Rock and Roll Always Forgets: A Quarter Century of Music Criticism, by my old friend and former Village Voice editor Chuck Eddy, ...

Louise holds a handful of rain...

Retrospective by Richard Riegel, Rock's Backpages, 6 June 2012

VERY GLAD TO see Louise Criscione as the featured rockwriter in the "Almost Famous" spot on RBP's front page this week, as I'd meant to ...

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