Let It Rock
Let It Rock was a monthly British music magazine, published for 35 issues between October 1972 and December 1975, which featured lengthy critical articles, record reviews, and features covering a wide spectrum of popular music.
244 articles
List of articles in the library
Atomic Rooster: The Rooster Crows
Comment by Phil Hardy, Let It Rock, June 1972
ATOMIC ROOSTER is Vincent Crane. Or, if you prefer it like the cinema ads, Vincent Crane is Atomic Rooster, which should sound surprising when you ...
Review by Charlie Gillett, Let It Rock, July 1972
IF I WERE thirteen, or Lou was, or better still if we both were, this would be great, everything I wanted to think about life, ...
Curtis Mayfield: Where He's Been And Where He's Going
Profile and Interview by Roger St. Pierre, Let It Rock, October 1972
AFTER SUCH COMMITTED, socially conscious compositions as 'This Is My Country', 'Mighty Mighty, Spade and Whitey' and 'Choice Of Colours' Curtis Mayfield believes the time ...
Flying Burrito Brothers: After The Burritos
Retrospective and Interview by Jerry Gilbert, Let It Rock, October 1972
BY THE TIME rhythm guitarist Gram Parsons left the Byrds shortly after the release of their monumental Sweetheart Of The Rodeo album, country-rock had become ...
Profile by Pete Wingfield, Let It Rock, October 1972
IVE NEVER met Joe Tex, never met anybody who has; never seen or heard an interview with him, never read a feature on him — ...
Lindisfarne: You Can't Carry On Being a Geordie Band Forever
Profile and Interview by Dave Laing, Let It Rock, October 1972
FINCHLEY CENTRAL, you'll recall, was a hit record for the New Vaudeville Band (I think it was the follow-up to the equally appalling 'Winchester Cathedral').It's ...
Profile by Richard Williams, Let It Rock, October 1972
ONE OF THE MOST CELEBRATED MOMENTS IN late-Sixties rock comes at the beginning of 'To Be Alone With You' on Bob Dylans Nashville Skyline album. ...
Rod Stewart: Never A Dull Moment (Mercury 6499-154)
Review by Phil Hardy, Let It Rock, October 1972
RIGHT NOW, a new album by Rod Stewart can't fail to be a success: at the time of writing the album is already No.1 on ...
Review by John Tobler, Let It Rock, October 1972
ROCK JOURNALISTS ARE not born. Probably theyre not made either it doesnt work to tell someone that theyre a rock writer, although people do. ...
Allen Toussaint: Toussaint: Life, Love And Faith
Review by Pete Wingfield, Let It Rock, October 1972
TO PUT THIS album in its proper perspective, I’d need to rhapsodize at length over New Orleans R&B and the neglected talents of Allen Toussaint, ...
Review by Pete Wingfield, Let It Rock, October 1972
ANYBODY OUT THERE listen to rock on A.F.N. at all? well, if you do, you'll know Tower of Power: Tony Pigg, an FM D-J ...
Van Morrison: Saint Dominic's Preview (Warner Bros.)
Review by Dave Laing, Let It Rock, October 1972
LIKE ANYONE else, a record reviewer has certain expectations and anticipations of an album before he hears it, and tends to judge it on whether ...
Jimmy Cliff: Various Artists: The Harder They Come
Review by Charlie Gillett, Let It Rock, October 1972
HOW TO GET into reggae in two easy stages. First you go to see the film The Harder They Come, which will engross you with ...
Brinsley Schwarz: Happy Doing What We're Doing
Profile and Interview by Phil Hardy, Let It Rock, November 1972
IT ALL STARTED in Woodbridge, Suffolk, in 1963-4 when Brinsley and Nick Lowe started a school group. Sounds 4 plus 1, playing rather suprisingly for ...
Review by Simon Frith, Let It Rock, November 1972
RULE 47 OF THE record reviewers' charter reads: it's not nice to go bonkers for Budgie. My conversations with editors are always the same. They ...
Jimmy Cliff: It’s A Hard Road to Travel, Yes It’s a Rough, Rough Road to Ride
Interview by Charlie Gillett, Let It Rock, November 1972
Why is there no Jamican International superstar? Despite providing the worlds pop music with the only genuinely new dance rhythm since rock n roll, and ...
Billy Stewart: Billy Stewart's Golden Decade (Chess)
Review by Pete Wingfield, Let It Rock, December 1972
'BRRRRRRRR-RP.. CHUP. CHUP.. CHUP-CHUP.... HEH!' With the soul scatting that became his trademark, 'Summertime' begins a belated tribute to the original contribution of Billy 'Fat ...
Review by Max Bell, Let It Rock, December 1972
DESPITE BLACK SABBATH'S protestations that they have spent both a great deal of time and money on their latest album (earthshatteringly entitled Volume 4) the ...
Graham Bond, Pete Brown and His Battered Ornaments: Graham Bond & Pete Brown: Premium Bond
Profile and Interview by Dave Laing, Let It Rock, December 1972
TEN YEARS ago, Graham Bond was playing alto sax at the Marquee on Tuesday nights with Alexis Korner's Blues Incorporated, and then with his equally ...
Heinz, Joe Meek, The Tornados: Heinz: Just Like Eddie
Retrospective and Interview by John Pidgeon, Let It Rock, December 1972
EVEN IF HE was born in Germany as the music papers said, we always suspected that Heinz's hair wasn't really that colour. It was his ...
The Everly Brothers: Looking Back with the Everlys
Retrospective and Interview by John Tobler, Let It Rock, December 1972
SOME OF THE earliest rocknroll to capture my imagination was purveyed by the Everly Brothers. "Whatcha mean?" mutters a Brylcreem-encrusted voice, emerging from a Neanderthal ...
Review by Michael Gray, Let It Rock, December 1972
GLORIFIED MAGNIFIED is a new album from a famous star and his relatively new much-publicised band, and comes in a glossy, snazzy package fold-out ...
Savoy Brown: Band Of A Thousand Changes
Interview by John Pidgeon, Let It Rock, December 1972
SAVOY BROWN CAME up on John Mayall's coat tails playing supporting gigs with him at the start of the blues boom. The boom, which occurred ...
Gamble-Huff, Thom Bell and the Philly Groove
Overview by Pete Wingfield, Let It Rock, January 1973
On a balmy night in the late summer of 67, while the world was wearing flowers in its hair, I was sinking into my seat, ...
Review by Michael Gray, Let It Rock, January 1973
A NEW ALBUM by John Prine is an event. Let it be said at once that Prine is immeasurably the best singer-songwriter to come out ...
RockFile: Where The Writing Ends, The Memory Game Begins
Review by Mick Houghton, Let It Rock, February 1973
ROCK FILE is one of the current crop of books on music which has moved away from the more historical analysis, and deals with the ...
Colin Blunstone: One Year After
Interview by John Tobler, Let It Rock, February 1973
Nowadays, degrees and A levels are almost as common rock musicians as they are among aspiring rock critics. But it was headline news back in ...
Profile and Interview by John Pidgeon, Let It Rock, February 1973
IT'S VERY EMBARRASSING to be caught out when you haven't done your homework. We hadn't planned much before we met Dave Berry because we automatically ...
Review by Bob Fisher, Let It Rock, February 1973
ALL THESE ALBUMS were recorded (apart from Dr. Ross) in England at the Chalk Farm studios and produced by Jim Simpson. They represent probably the ...
Live Review by John Pidgeon, Let It Rock, February 1973
THE NEWS THAT Pete Townshend had "formed an instant supergroup to back Eric Clapton when the guitarist makes his come-back at London's Rainbow Theatre on ...
Rory Gallagher: Gallagher's Travel
Interview by Chris Salewicz, Let It Rock, February 1973
"They have the push of the line on you!" says Rory Gallagher — who else could be expected to phrase it like that — when ...
Gypsy: Brenda and the Rattlesnake
Review by Chris Salewicz, Let It Rock, February 1973
I've waited for one like this ever since the first Crazy Horse album in 1971. Gypsy's second album starts off with the sound of a ...
Retrospective by John Pidgeon, Let It Rock, February 1973
AT A TIME when most receptive organs — eyes, ears, pockets — were turned to Liverpool and its Merseybeat, another (and as it turned out ...
Report and Interview by Chris Salewicz, Let It Rock, February 1973
"OO WAS THIS cult then that dug us and never bought our records?" grunts Mike Harrison, singer and keyboards man with a much-loved and under-estimated ...
Review by John Pidgeon, Let It Rock, February 1973
THE FACT THAT someone bothered to print the lyrics of Piledriver there's a title safe from prosecution under the Trades Description Act on ...
Stealers Wheel: Stealers Wheel
Review by Simon Frith, Let It Rock, February 1973
Gerry Rafferty is a lunk. He put together a fine group, cut a lovely album and then split. It's the most lunatic thing since Dave ...
The Band: Rock of Ages (Capitol E-STSP 11)
Review by Karl Dallas, Let It Rock, February 1973
IT IS WHAT The Band leave out as much as what they include that makes them impressive. Among all the welter of ego-tripping pyrotechnicians which ...
Grateful Dead: The Grateful Dead: Europe '72
Review by Mick Gold, Let It Rock, February 1973
THE DEAD have never ceased to feed off their origins as a performing band in order to avoid the danger of becoming marooned in a ...
The Penguins: ‘Earth Angel’ and the Heavenly Host
Retrospective by Bill Millar, Let It Rock, February 1973
THERE WERE a lot of a angels in the Rockin Fifties: Teen Angel, Angel Baby, Angel Face, Angel of Romance, Angel of Mine; Angels in ...
Retrospective by Mick Houghton, Let It Rock, February 1973
TIM BUCKLEY had moved from the East Coast to Southern California and became involved, playing and touring, with various country bands like Princess Ramona and ...
Essay by Greil Marcus, Let It Rock, March 1973
IN THE NOVEMBER issue of Let It Rock, Tony White offered some rather hysterical opinions in his Dylan bootleg discography, and Tony Scaduto, author of ...
Review by Michael Gray, Let It Rock, March 1973
THERE ARE TIMES when rock music seems about as relevant as O-level Geography, and listening to Don McLean's new album is one of them. ...
Allman Brothers Band, Duane Allman: Duane Allman: An Anthology (Warner/Capricorn)
Review by Charlie Gillett, Let It Rock, March 1973
PEOPLE WHO get this record in order to have a testament to one of the generation’s finest musicians will find that they have taken home ...
Elephant's Memory: Elephant's Memory (Apple Sapcor 22)
Review by Phil Hardy, Let It Rock, March 1973
IT WOULD BE very easy to put down Elephant's Memory. Of course, first you'd say nice things about their playing in general, pick out a ...
John Entwistle: John Entwhistle and The Bloody English
Profile and Interview by Chris Salewicz, Let It Rock, March 1973
JOHN ENTWHISTLE has always been an enigma. On the other members of the Who we can pin an identity. Townshend creator and, at the ...
Review by Michael Gray, Let It Rock, March 1973
THIS IS ONE of those albums which makes me feel I should apologise to the artist concerned for previously undervaluing her work. Even as late ...
Profile and Interview by Chris Salewicz, Let It Rock, March 1973
PITY, I THOUGHT, when I heard Long John Baldry was in panto. It used to happen to faded rock'n'rollers – not very good rock'n'rollers, mind ...
The Moody Blues: Moody Blues: Seventh Sojourn
Review by Simon Frith, Let It Rock, March 1973
IT'S THE BIG, BALD MOODY who scares me. There's a picture of his disembodied head floating across the inside of the sleeve, a look of ...
Review by John Pidgeon, Let It Rock, March 1973
WAY BACK IN 1959, Sedaka was a teenage songwriting prodigy. He wrote a love song to an equally precocious girl who worked in the same ...
Review by Charlie Gillett, Let It Rock, March 1973
Rock and roll at its very best, today. Which is not the same thing as rock 'n' roll at its very best in 1956, as ...
The Four Seasons: Ten Years And Still Hanging On
Retrospective by Bob Fisher, Let It Rock, March 1973
IN AUGUST LAST YEAR Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons celebrated ten years as one of the most successful recording groups America has ever produced. ...
Kim Fowley, The Rockin' Berries: The Rockin' Berries v. Kim Fowley. Or, The Vulture Scoops the Pool
Essay by Phil Hardy, Let It Rock, March 1973
The only time the Rockin' Berries met Kim Fowley was in Los Angeles in 1964. Phil Hardy has met them both recently and found that ...
Traffic: Shoot Out At The Fantasy (Island)
Review by Simon Frith, Let It Rock, March 1973
FOR A BRIEF but heady period Traffic were my favourite rock band. I still get a spark from the thought of a new Traffic album ...
Report by Pete Wingfield, Let It Rock, March 1973
THE NAMES Ashford and Simpson should ring a bell with anybody that reads the small print on Motown records: Nicholas and Valerie have chalked up ...
West, Bruce & Laing: West Bruce & Laing: Why Dontcha
Review by John Tobler, Let It Rock, March 1973
I DON'T WANT to be boring, but there's a whole heap of over obvious things to say about a band like this, just a couple ...
Review by Pete Wingfield, Let It Rock, April 1973
May I shout in your ear? The word is Bloodstone: no, not Bloodrock, Terry Knight's horror, nor my kind employer, the British Mr. Blunstone, but ...
The Platters: Buck Ram and The Platters
Profile and Interview by Bill Millar, Let It Rock, April 1973
BUCK RAM is remembered for The Platters and a number of hit records: 'Only You' and 'The Great Pretender' (1955); 'The Magic Touch', 'My Prayer' ...
Chuck Berry and those who influenced him
Essay by Charlie Gillett, Let It Rock, April 1973
ONE THING everybody agrees about: the 'forties was a bad time for music. The big bands of the thirties got sweeter and sweeter before falling ...
Chuck Berry's Influence on the UK R & B Scene
Essay by John Pidgeon, Let It Rock, April 1973
'DING-A-LING' gave Chuck Berry his only British No 1 seventeen years after his first record release, 'Maybellene'. He had five Top Ten hits in the ...
Doug Sahm: Doug Sahm And Band (Atlantic K40466)
Review by Greil Marcus, Let It Rock, April 1973
HI, WELCOME to 1973! (Youre probably used to it by now, but this was written in January) Its gonna be a banner year for rocknroll ...
Elton John: Don't Shoot Me I'm Only The Piano Player
Review by John Pidgeon, Let It Rock, April 1973
THE ONLY SUPERFICIAL sign of the album's French origin is its title, a contrary translation of Truffaut's film Tirez Sur Le Pianiste. Truffaut's pianist was ...
Review by Mark Leviton, Let It Rock, April 1973
THE NEW Fairport Convention LP is going to alienate some fans – a radical change in musical approach by a popular band will always do ...
Badger, Flash: Flash: Flash; Badger: One Live Badger
Review by Chris Salewicz, Let It Rock, April 1973
"DIFFERENCES in musical policy" is the standard euphemism whenever a member quits a band, or, as is more often the case, gets the boot. Yes ...
Review by Mick Gold, Let It Rock, April 1973
IT ALL DEPENDS what you expect an LP to do. If you'd like 40 minutes of rhythmic pap to plug a hole in your air ...
Review by Chris Salewicz, Let It Rock, April 1973
MY PAST EXPERIENCES of Rory Gallagher have not all been pleasant a damp day at Crystal Palace; seemingly countless Grey Whistle Tests (I may ...
The Strawbs: Bursting At The Seams
Review by John Pidgeon, Let It Rock, April 1973
THOSE WHOSE acquaintance with the Strawbs is older than a few months must have been surprised by the band's recent form: neither 'Lay Down' nor ...
Alice Cooper: Billion Dollar Babies
Review by Simon Frith, Let It Rock, May 1973
Alice Cooper is uglyAlice Cooper's a starWhen he shows his tummy on tellyAll the girls go aaaaaahghh. ...
Curtis Mayfield, Diana Ross: Black Music
Comment by Dave Marsh, Let It Rock, May 1973
SOMETIME LAST fall, John Percy Boyd, Mark Bethune and Michael Brown, a trio of black college students in Detroit, decided to put an end to ...
Timmy Thomas: Breaking the rules: Timmy Thomas
Report and Interview by Pete Wingfield, Let It Rock, May 1973
IN THE American record business, like any other, its the biggies with the bread that rule the roost. But every so often, an obscure record ...
Interview by Chris Salewicz, Let It Rock, May 1973
IT'S JUST an office-type office. No Habitat or Heals lunar module seats. Just a desk and a couple of chairs. Plus one of those huge ...
Derek & The Dominos: In Concert (RSO)
Review by Mick Gold, Let It Rock, May 1973
FOR A CULTURE that was geared to acknowledging the importance of flux and individual freedom, rock is ludicrously prone to attacks of nostalgia. ...
Diana Ross: Lady Sings The Blues
Review by Charlie Gillett, Let It Rock, May 1973
YOU'LL HAVE READ by now that Elvis had to cancel his 1973 tour of the UK in order to do location shooting in Las Vegas ...
Heads Hands and Feet: Old Soldiers Never Die
Review by John Pidgeon, Let It Rock, May 1973
THEY SHOULD HAVE named the album after the opener on Side One. Old Soldiers Never Die suits well enough they've all been doing battle ...
Review by John Pidgeon, Let It Rock, May 1973
HUMBLE PIE ARE your archetypal underachieves. Every album they lay down a couple of tracks that show what they can really do when they set ...
J.J. Cale: J.J.Cale: Really (A&M)
Review by Charlie Gillett, Let It Rock, May 1973
If J.J. Cale were told to climb a mountain, he’d probably ask to be blindfolded and then start walking up backwards. He likes to make ...
Heads Hands and Feet, Jerry Lee Lewis: Jerry Lee Lewis: The Session Men
Report and Interview by John Pidgeon, Let It Rock, May 1973
"WHAT HAPPENS when some of today's great pop stars put a session together in London with a rock 'n' roll legend?" asks the ad for ...
Jon Landau: It’s Too Late To Stop Now
Review by Simon Frith, Let It Rock, May 1973
I FEEL UNEASY, confronting Landau. If a rock critic is a parasite, what is the critic of a rock critic? Landau is a rock critic ...
David Cassidy: Limpalong Cassidy
Live Review by Simon Frith, Let It Rock, May 1973
HE CAME OUT sheathed in white, like a tape worm. For someone whose primary appeal is physical, he’s surprisingly clumsy, graceless. Constipated bumps and grinds. ...
The Beatles: Peter McCabe and Robert D. Schonfeld: Apple To The Core (Martin, Brian and O'Keeffe)
Book Review by Phil Hardy, Let It Rock, May 1973
A short sighted look beyond the stars ...
Wishbone Ash: Top of the Polls with Twin Guitars
Interview by Simon Frith, Let It Rock, May 1973
ROCK WRITERS have a thing about genealogy. I don’t know who’s fault it is but I’m always reading about second generation bands and third generation ...
Vinegar Joe: Rock'n'Roll Gypsies
Interview by Chris Salewicz, Let It Rock, May 1973
"COME ON. Get up off the fucking floor. Shake yer arses and clap yer ands." Its not Michael Philip Jagger enticing them to rip that ...
Review by John Tobler, Let It Rock, June 1973
WHEN I INTERVIEWED Colin Blunstone for Let It Rock one of the points that he made several times was that Argent were just about the ...
Comment by Dave Laing, Let It Rock, June 1973
WHAT YOU THINK of Bowie depends on your idea of rock-and-roll. It's no good criticising him for falling short in what he's trying to do, ...
Profile by John Pidgeon, Let It Rock, June 1973
FOR A 'SINGLES' band Creedence Clearwater Revival made a lot of albums: six in two years (1969 – 70), then one as a trio in ...
Essay by Simon Frith, Let It Rock, June 1973
ARGUING ABOUT pop stars is mostly a loony thing to do. So many of the judgements involved are subjective that the inarticulacy of a Juke ...
Review by John Pidgeon, Let It Rock, June 1973
MAC REBENNACK'S situation is Jekyll and Hyde reversed. Mac took something and turned into the Doctor, split from his identity as a New Orleans songwriter/session ...
Led Zeppelin: Houses Of The Holy
Review by Jonh Ingham, Let It Rock, June 1973
THE WAY I SEE IT, if you've been a Led Zep fan since day one, and think that 'Whole Lotta Love' is the cat's pyjamas, ...
Procol Harum, Robin Trower: Procol Harum: Grand Hotel and Robin Trower: Twice Removed From Yesterday
Review by Mark Leviton, Let It Rock, June 1973
TIME WAS when I'd say that my favourite group and guitarist were Procol Harum and Robin Trower. It seemed all so simple, the steady intelligence ...
Retrospective and Interview by Charlie Gillett, Let It Rock, June 1973
BY THE TIME you read this, Dr. John's 'Right Time, Wrong Place' will probably be in the American Top Ten. Which will be mighty gratifying ...
Flying Burrito Brothers: The Flying Burrito Brothers: Live In Amsterdam
Review by Mick Houghton, Let It Rock, June 1973
THE FIRST double album in rock that I remember was Blonde On Blonde, and to this day it is one of the few which really ...
Review by Mick Gold, Let It Rock, June 1973
A DIFFICULT ONE to start with: who created the Mid-West Sound? Bet you dont know. Bet you didnt know there was a Mid-West Sound. Well, ...
Sutherland Brothers and Quiver: The Sutherland Brothers
Profile by John Pidgeon, Let It Rock, June 1973
IT'S HARD to figure out why the Sutherland Brothers have managed to remain so little known. Perhaps it's simply a lack of publicity, because as ...
Electric Light Orchestra, Wizzard: Wizzard: Wizzard Brew/Electric Light Orchestra: ELO 2 (Harvest)
Review by Phil Hardy, Let It Rock, June 1973
COMMERCIALLY the death of the Move has been very successful: both Wizzard and the ELO have had top ten hits. ...
Alan Hull: Pipedream (Charisma)
Review by Jerry Gilbert, Let It Rock, July 1973
THERE WAS NO justification for prolonging the life of Lindisfarne Mark One while it suppressed the primal scream of Alan Hull. ...
Roy Buchanan: An Oldie but Goodie: Roy Buchanan
Retrospective and Interview by Bill Millar, Let It Rock, July 1973
FREAKS MAY BE trading in their Rory Gallagher albums for those by the new, laid-back, spaced out, country Clapton, but 'Echoes' readers know better – ...
Essay by Phil Hardy, Let It Rock, July 1973
Rock, Country & Gram Parsons ...
Review by Michael Gray, Let It Rock, July 1973
WHEN YOU HEAR of an album a fortnight or so before getting hold of it, and pepper the intermediate couple of weeks with anticipation, you ...
David Bowie, Roxy Music, T. Rex: T. Rex/David Bowie/Roxy Music Albums
Review by Simon Frith, Let It Rock, July 1973
T. Rex: TanxDavid Bowie: Aladdin SaneRoxy Music: For Your Pleasure ...
Dr. John: The Dr. John Story part II: Los Angeles, The World
Retrospective and Interview by Charlie Gillett, Let It Rock, July 1973
"It's O.K. Mac, you can come out now" ...
J. Geils Band: The J. Geils Band: Bloodshot
Review by Mick Gold, Let It Rock, July 1973
EVER SINCE the first Butterfield Blues Band album Ive been waiting and hoping for a group that could combine gut mangling excitement with instrumental virtuosity ...
Review by John Pidgeon, Let It Rock, July 1973
PAUL McCARTNEY, it seems, has never been his own man. First he was John's, now he's Linda's, and the difference shows. With John he sparked ...
Review by John Pidgeon, Let It Rock, August 1973
WHAT'S THIS? No Dado? No Samwell-Smith? No Cat Stevens artwork on the cover? ...
Review by Simon Frith, Let It Rock, August 1973
IN ART THE avant-garde is the outrageous. Its what breaks traditional rules, both artistic and social; John Cage, Marcel Duchamp, or whoever, outraged their audiences. ...
Mike Oldfield, The Stooges: Mike Oldfield: Tubular Bells; Iggy And The Stooges: Raw Power
Review by Simon Frith, Let It Rock, August 1973
SOME RECORDS GET so much critical attention that I can’t listen to them blind, can’t ignore other opinions. So, according to John Peel Tubular Bells ...
Paul Simon: There Goes Rhymin’ Simon
Review by Charlie Gillett, Let It Rock, August 1973
Paul: middle class rock, O.K.? ...
The Beach Boys, Jan & Dean: Surfin' USA
Retrospective by Gene Sculatti, Let It Rock, August 1973
THOUGH its hard to believe, there actually was a time when youth simply signified non-adult status. Adults and youth each held to their own preferences, ...
Review by John Pidgeon, Let It Rock, September 1973
10cc ARE SO damn good, it makes you wonder where they've been all this time. Geographically the answer is simple if drab: Stockport, Cheshire. Musically ...
Report by Mick Houghton, Let It Rock, September 1973
THIS AUTUMN, England is due for an invasion by some of America's top contemporary country groups. The new wave will be well represented by Commander ...
Profile and Interview by Simon Frith, Let It Rock, September 1973
WHEN I WAS a teenager I even had problems in my sexual fantasies. I veered from Brigitte Bardot (too dirty) to Hayley Mills (too clean) ...
Blue Ridge Rangers, Grin: Blue Ridge Rangers: Blue Ridge Rangers; Grin: Gone Crazy
Review by Simon Frith, Let It Rock, September 1973
JOHN FOGERTY became a hero by living in the Bay Area for 20 years and never becoming a hippie. He didnt desert his rock n ...
King Crimson: In the Court of the Crimson King
Profile by Chris Salewicz, Let It Rock, September 1973
KING CRIMSONS launch in 1969 was a classic case of subliminal hype. From every musical corner that summer, with Teutonic fanfares, new super-groups appeared almost ...
Little Feat: Dixie Chicken (Warner Bros.)
Review by John Pidgeon, Let It Rock, September 1973
CATEGORIZING ROCK is of pretty limited usefulness. Unlike terms in other music that refer to specific and exactly defined forms, rock labels merely indicate broad, ...
Neil Sedaka: A Night With Neil
Report by Bob Fisher, Let It Rock, September 1973
IS NEIL SEDAKA for real? It really is hard to comprehend how such a nice guy could ever get involved in world of rock 'n' ...
P.F.M.: PFM: What we did on our holidays
Live Review by Chris Salewicz, Let It Rock, September 1973
PFM: LAltro Mondo, Rimini ...
Review and Interview by Mick Houghton, Let It Rock, September 1973
AFTER A YEAR of voluntary exile from England, Terry Reid was back over here this June for a short tour to promote his first album ...
Report and Interview by Mick Houghton, Let It Rock, September 1973
AFTER A YEAR of voluntary exile from England, Terry Reid was back over here this June for a short tour to promote his first album ...
Van Morrison: Hard Nose The Highway
Review by Charlie Gillett, Let It Rock, September 1973
WHAT'S HE BEEN DOING, listening to Brahms? If that title is a riddle that holds the answer, I give in, and the cover doesn't help ...
Review by Simon Frith, Let It Rock, October 1973
REMEMBER ALL THE excitement when people discovered that the Beatles wrote their own songs? There have been a lot of bridges over a lot of ...
Ian Matthews: Countryside Comfort
Profile and Interview by Mick Houghton, Let It Rock, October 1973
IT SEEMED almost inevitable that Ian Matthews would find himself living and recording on the West coast of America, and he admitted that before he ...
Review by Mick Gold, Let It Rock, October 1973
IN THE PAST John Cale has appeared to be engaged in investing themes of madness and chaos with a deranged from of classical dignity. I ...
Review by Simon Frith, Let It Rock, October 1973
MOTT IS THE ALBUM All The Young Dudes should have been; arrogant, defensive. The Hoople are the first people to go on the Bowie ego-trip ...
Neil Sedaka: The Tra-La Days Are Over
Review by Simon Frith, Let It Rock, October 1973
NEIL SEDAKA'S album is a more explicit farewell to his past the tra-la days are over. Except on this album, where Sedaka's sharp voice ...
Report and Interview by Lester Bangs, Let It Rock, October 1973
I'VE NEVER SEEN anything like it, though you may have. The kids come jostling in and pack the halls every time. Two or three thousand ...
Soul Foundations: Twenty Essential Soul Records
Guide by Pete Wingfield, Let It Rock, October 1973
OH LORD – I'M GONNA GET SHOT down for this. I mean, who am I, P.W., a mere mortal of 25, irrevocably bound to one ...
Tony Joe White: Homemade Ice Cream
Review by John Pidgeon, Let It Rock, October 1973
TONY JOE WHITE just loves to play the ingenu. The sleeve of Homemade Ice Cream has photographs of him "up at Turkey Creek" and titles ...
The Carpenters: Carpenters: Now And Then
Review by Lester Bangs, Let It Rock, November 1973
WHAT ARE WE gonna do with these two? Look, ain't saying I don't love 'em they've always been one of my favourite swoontracks, especially ...
Lou Reed: A Deaf Mute In A Telephone Booth
Interview by Lester Bangs, Let It Rock, November 1973
YOU WALK into the dining room of the Holiday Inn filled with expectation at finally getting to meet one of the musical and psychological frontiersmen ...
The Rolling Stones: Rolling Stones: Goats Head Soup (RS Records)
Review by Charlie Gillett, Let It Rock, November 1973
THE CONTEST for the title of The Worlds' Greatest Rock 'n' Roll Band is like those dance marathons that were held in the States during ...
I Roy, Toots & The Maytals: The Maytals: From The Roots (Trojan)/I ROY: Presenting... (Trojan)
Review by Charlie Gillett, Let It Rock, November 1973
THIS STUFF IS even harder to understand than Jethro Tull's Passion Play, but nobody's going to stop singing because some dumb reviewer can't work it ...
Faust, Frank Zappa, The Mothers Of Invention: Ugly, vulgar, insulting — Zappa scores!
Review by Simon Frith, Let It Rock, November 1973
The Mothers: Overnite Sensation (Discreet)Faust: Faust IV (Virgin) ...
Dan Hicks And His Hot Licks: Where’s The Money?; Last Train to Hicksville
Review by Mick Gold, Let It Rock, December 1973
LIFE USED TO be tough but simple in Tin Punk Alley: you made it or you didnt. Groups would ride in their pink Cadillacs or ...
John Fahey: After The Ball (Reprise K 44246)
Review by Mick Gold, Let It Rock, December 1973
JOHN FAHEY goes glitter! Well, the package is a neat parody of a fifties style music-to-smooch-to album cover, complete with purple spotlight and lacquered blonde. ...
Review by Michael Gray, Let It Rock, December 1973
SLADE REMINDS ME of 1963 not because their music is that regressive, but because the pattern is the same: Lennon-McCartney/Jagger-Richard (or Nanker-Phlenge, as they ...
Steely Dan: Countdown To Ecstasy (MCA)
Review by Mick Gold, Let It Rock, December 1973
STEELY DAN IS a vehicle for the songwriting talents of Donald Fagen and Walter Becker, who entered the music world via a two-year gig with ...
John Martyn: Fire and Water: The Elemental, Avant-Garde John Martyn
Comment by Dave Laing, Let It Rock, 1 December 1973
1967: "SO THERE I WAS on this barge on the river wearing nothing but denims and a smile…" so runs the sleeve note on London ...
Bob Dylan: Bringing The Garbage Back Home: A.J. Weberman
Report by Mick Gold, Let It Rock, January 1974
A.J. WEBERMAN sprang into the limelight some five years ago, around the time that students and banana-smoking intellectuals everywhere loved to argue about Bob Dylan. ...
Essay by Dave Marsh, Let It Rock, January 1974
LET'S GET one thing straight. Otis Redding's posthumous rise to the Kingship of soul is highly suspect. He earned the accolade a little too easily ...
Wolfman Jack: What’s Happenin’, Jack?!
Interview by Pete Wingfield, Let It Rock, January 1974
WAS HE BLACK? Was he white? Was he young? Was he old? Was he human? Until the seventies he was just a disembodied croak, howling ...
Jimi Hendrix: How Rock Society Blew Another Mind
Essay by Michael Gray, Let It Rock, February 1974
WHEN JIMI HENDRIX flew into England for the first time, with Chas Chandler, they went straight from the airport to Zoot Money's house for an ...
Kevin Ayers, Soft Machine: Kevin Ayers: Keeping the ’67 faith
Profile by Simon Frith, Let It Rock, February 1974
It begins with a blessing (but ends with a curse)Making life easy (but making it worse)... ...
Essay by Dave Laing, Let It Rock, February 1974
IF IT HADN'T been for Sgt Pepper, Paramhansa Yogananda would never have become part of the rock tradition. ...
Yes: Tales From Topographic Oceans (Atlantic K80001)
Review by Karl Dallas, Let It Rock, February 1974
IF YOU TEND to wonder if the critics (with the noble exception of Bob Shelton) were right and this double album is the bummer they ...
Review by Mick Gold, Let It Rock, March 1974
HE'S NOT ONLY trying to sing like he used to, he's even surfaced with some more stoned sleeve notes and two or three lines actually ...
Review by Simon Frith, Let It Rock, March 1974
WHEN IT COMES to the critical crunch it ain't necessarily the Dylanologists who as the right questions. Sure they knew about Dylan when they were ...
Profile and Interview by Bill Millar, Let It Rock, April 1974
THE RAINBOW, July 2nd last. Art Neville saved the show. Didn't he? Dr. John made a gas of an entrance but, from then on – ...
Review by Michael Gray, Let It Rock, April 1974
ME, I LIKE IT. I don't accept the much-aired view that if it had been up to Dylan, he would never have issued an album ...
Creedence Clearwater Revival: Live In Europe (Fantasy)
Review by Lester Bangs, Let It Rock, April 1974
I MEAN REALLY, who cares about Creedence anyway? They're dead now, I'd already forgot about 'em till this thing came out. ...
Gallagher & Lyle: Gallagher and Lyle: Music For The People
Profile and Interview by Dave Laing, Let It Rock, April 1974
BENNY GALLAGHER and Graham Lyle aren't singer-songwriters, they're songwriters who sing. They are not really interested in the idea of baring their souls before the ...
Maggie Bell: Queen Of The Night
Review by Michael Gray, Let It Rock, April 1974
THIS REVIEW WAS planned as a joint one, intended to incorporate new albums from Carole King, Buffy St. Marie and other notable women artists. However, ...
Profile by Mick Gold, Let It Rock, April 1974
THE LEGEND runs that in the summer of 1965 the Hawks (also known as the Crackers) were playing a night club in the seashore resort ...
Mahavishnu Orchestra: The Mahavishnu Orchestra: Live — Between Nothingness & Eternity (CBS 69046)
Review by Mick Gold, Let It Rock, April 1974
SRI CHIMNOY must be laughing all the way to the Void. John McLaughlin cleaned up in 1973 as the guru guitarist leading his band up ...
Review by Phil Hardy, Let It Rock, May 1974
WITH THIS album, Gram Parsons ends what was probably one of rock's most uneven and exciting careers on a high note. Always a writer of ...
How the other half lives: The Best of Girl Group Rock
Guide by Greil Marcus, Let It Rock, May 1974
GIRL GROUP ROCK flourished between 1958 and 1965, and though, with the passing of the Brill Building and the coming of the sophistication of the ...
Leiber And Stoller Part One: The Blues (1950-1953)
Retrospective by Bill Millar, Let It Rock, May 1974
JERRY LEIBER AND MIKE STOLLER. They rank alongside Berry as rock n rolls wittiest composers and their influence as record producers has been immeasurable. ...
Review by Mick Gold, Let It Rock, May 1974
AND IT CAME TO PASS in the 1970's that rock culture began to doubt whether it existed at all, and every time that two or ...
Richard and Linda Thompson: British Hokey Pokey
Profile and Interview by Dave Laing, Let It Rock, May 1974
ALTHOUGH the mid sixties was a golden era for British rock, very few of the best artists from that time have survived as significant parts ...
Review by Simon Frith, Let It Rock, May 1974
LET IT ROCK recently got hold of a bundle of old publicity photos that Decca was throwing out and the fascinating thing (apart from the ...
Profile and Interview by Simon Frith, Let It Rock, May 1974
ROXY MUSIC ARE Paul Thompson, Phil Manzanera, Andy Mackay, Bryan Ferry and Eddie Jobson, but the first thing youve got to understand is that Roxy ...
Buffy Sainte-Marie: Buffy St Marie: The Best Of Buffy Sainte-Marie Volume 2 (Vanguard)/Buffy (MCA)
Review by Michael Gray, Let It Rock, June 1974
WHEN BUFFY ST. MARIE is good she is very, very good, and when she is bad she is horrid. It is her misfortune that her ...
Chilli Willi & The Red Hot Peppers: Red Hot
Profile and Interview by Phil Hardy, Let It Rock, June 1974
A month or two ago, a jovial group of rock critics in search of a drink and some music stumbled across Chilli Willi and the ...
Joni Mitchell: New Victoria, London
Live Review by Mick Gold, Let It Rock, June 1974
WHEN JONI MITCHELL sang in a cinema next to Victoria Station, her entire audience fell in love with her three nights running. For weeks afterwards ...
Curtis Knight, Jimi Hendrix: Knight Life: Curtis Knight
Report by Michael Gray, Let It Rock, June 1974
JIMI HENDRIX FANS will be familiar with Curtis Knights name: hes the man who found Hendrix down and out in New York in 1965, gave ...
Leiber And Stoller Part Two: The rock 'n' roll years
Retrospective by Bill Millar, Let It Rock, June 1974
THE SWITCH from blues to rock ‘n’ roll was gradual and, as far as Leiber and Stoller were concerned, never total. ...
Paul Simon, Simon & Garfunkel: Paul Simon: Not So Simple Simon
Essay by Dave Laing, Let It Rock, June 1974
Dave Laing surveys Paul Simon's ten years in music ...
Review by Michael Gray, Let It Rock, June 1974
I FOUND VAN MORRISON by a most tortuous, circumlocutory route: first (after the mediocrity of 'Here Comes The Night') there was, of course, 'Gloria', which ...
Overview by Mick Gold, Let It Rock, July 1974
YOU COULD hardly miss him on the first album: his rubber-stamped signature was the only wording on the front cover, while on the back his ...
Stevie Wonder: Motown the Uptight
Essay by Richard Williams, Let It Rock, July 1974
Weve got love a go-go nowLets not wonder whyLove-a, love a go-go nowTomorrow that love may die Stevie Wonder, 1966 Sing it loud for your ...
Joe Cocker: I Can Stand A Little Rain
Review by Michael Gray, Let It Rock, November 1974
ONE APPROACHES a new Joe Cocker album in the same way one peers back at a road accident – to see if what's there is ...
Review by Mick Gold, Let It Rock, November 1974
BILL HENDERSON of Sounds has written with seductive simplicity that Paris 1919 (Cale's last release) was an album created in America 'about' Europe, whereas Fear ...
Sly & the Family Stone: Sly Stone: Small Talk
Review by Pete Wingfield, Let It Rock, November 1974
BY SLY'S SLUGGISH standards, it's not that long since the last album, Fresh; maybe married life has given him a creative surge. ...
Bob Marley & the Wailers: Bob Marley: Lively Up Yourself
Overview by Idris Walters, Let It Rock, December 1974
Idris Walters on the music, the history and the Rasta background of Bob Marley and The Wailers. ...
Bruce Springsteen: Shouldn't He Be Famous?
Comment by Dave Marsh, Let It Rock, December 1974
IT WAS DIFFICULT to tell just when the stage caved in. It seemed to happen during 'Rosalita', the last song before the encore. But maybe ...
Chilli Willi & The Red Hot Peppers: Bongos Over Balham (Mooncrest Crest 21)
Review by Phil Hardy, Let It Rock, December 1974
MULLING OVER just how to explain why Bongos Over Balham is an important album and yet one that promises more than it delivers, I turned ...
Country Joe & The Fish: Country Joe: Gimme an F!
Interview by Mick Gold, Let It Rock, December 1974
Mick Gold interrogates Country Joe and indulges in some Fishy nostalgia ...
Review by Michael Gray, Let It Rock, December 1974
DOUG SAHM'S LAST album, Doug Sahm And Band on Atlantic Records, was one of the very finest bits of squashed vinyl of 1973. Sahm's band ...
The Faces, Ian McLagan: Ian McLagan's Top Ten
Interview by John Pidgeon, Let It Rock, December 1974
I'VE GOT sixty records on my juke box and I had a hell of a job whittling my singles collection down to them. But ten!?!... ...
Mike Oldfield: Balm for the Walking Wounded
Profile and Interview by Karl Dallas, Let It Rock, December 1974
Mike Oldfield, the man and his music, by Karl Dallas. ...
The Shangri-Las: Shangri Las: A Teenage Melodrama
Retrospective by Mitchell Cohen, Let It Rock, December 1974
SHALL WE DANCE? ...
Review by Simon Frith, Let It Rock, January 1975
Randy Newmans album starts:Last night I saw Lester Maddox on a TV showwith some smartass New York Jewand the Jew laughed at Lester MaddoxAnd the ...
Genesis: The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway (Charisma COS 101)
Review by Karl Dallas, Let It Rock, January 1975
JUST WHAT the world needs now, as Frank Zappa might well have been heard to exclaim, another concept album! ...
Neil Sedaka: Packing Up Is Hard To Do
Profile and Interview by John Pidgeon, Let It Rock, January 1975
1. A Stairway To HeavenAs a Brooklyn-born Jewish boy of Spanish descent, Neil Sedaka may have been a typical New Yorker, but he wasn't a ...
The Byrds, Roger McGuinn: Roger McGuinn and Country Rock: Older Than Yesterday
Retrospective and Interview by Michael Gray, Let It Rock, January 1975
IT'S FRIDAY 30TH AUGUST, in Birmingham England, and it's afternoon. Roger McGuinn is listening to a track off his second solo album, Peace On You. ...
Sutherland Brothers and Quiver: The Sutherland Brothers: The Beat Of The Street
Review by Simon Frith, Let It Rock, January 1975
I HAVE ALWAYS thought that the Sutherland Bros and Quiver were a worthy group. Making the right noises, going to gigs regularly, kindly, but no ...
Retrospective by Martin Hawkins, Let It Rock, February 1975
And when I hear that double-eagle guitar Makes me think of Carl Perkins when he was a star,Makes me think I spent some of my ...
Lynyrd Skynyrd: My Top Ten: Lynyrd Skynyrd
Interview by Michael Gray, Let It Rock, February 1975
Compiled on coach-trips and in hotel bars by Michael Gray ...
John Lennon, Yoko Ono: Plastic Ono Band: The End Of Another Dream
Essay by Idris Walters, Let It Rock, February 1975
Idris Walters describes the strange marriage of rock'n'roll and conceptual art which produced some of the most arresting sounds of the last few years and ...
Slade: Slade In Flame (Polydor)
Review by Simon Frith, Let It Rock, February 1975
Some things I'm sure of: Noddy Holder is a great rock singer, up there with the best of British, with John Lennon, even. And Slade ...
Retrospective by Penny Reel, Let It Rock, February 1975
1961. Rock'n'roll was dead and buried. The Beatles weren't even a twinkle in Epstein's eye. Pop was Kenny Ball and Anne Shelton, Acker Bilk and ...
Bad Company: The Way They Choose
Essay by Idris Walters, Let It Rock, March 1975
IT LOOKS AS though Bad Company is a popular band: everybody's into Bad Company. ...
Profile by Pete Wingfield, Let It Rock, March 1975
BEHIND THE front line of acknowledged soul stars, the Stevies, Arethas, Al Greens of the day, has always lurked a second league of creative talent; ...
Overview by Mick Houghton, Let It Rock, March 1975
Sailin' Shoes (Warner Bros K46156)Dixie Chicken (Warner Bros K46200)Feats Don't Fail Me Now (Warner Bros K56030) ...
Chaka Khan, Rufus: Rufus, featuring Chaka Khan: Rufusized (ABC Dunhill)
Review by Idris Walters, Let It Rock, March 1975
RUFUS DATE back to 1968. They were called the American Breed. They had 'Bend Me Shape Me' for a hit record. The American Breed became ...
Review by Simon Frith, Let It Rock, April 1975
JANIS JOPLIN was an awkward Texan girl with a rough voice who became one of the major idols of the sixties 'counter culture'. Why? ...
Bob Dylan: Blood On The Tracks
Review by Michael Gray, Let It Rock, April 1975
I DON'T KNOW HOW, but some adjustment in our consciousness must now follow from the fact that it is Bob Dylan who has produced, in ...
Bill Justis, Roscoe Shelton, Joe Simon, Ella Washington: Echoes: John Richbourg — Southern Soul Man
Retrospective and Interview by Bill Millar, Let It Rock, April 1975
Producer and DJ John Richbourg has been involved with the careers of Bobby Hebb, Joe Simon and many more. ...
LaBelle: Nightbirds (Epic EPC 80566)
Review by Idris Walters, Let It Rock, April 1975
PATTI LABELLE, Nona Hendryx and Sarah Dash. The Ordettes and Del Capris came together in the early sixties to form Patti LaBelle and the Bluebells ...
Review by Phil Hardy, Let It Rock, April 1975
OVER RECENT months those familiar figures, the singer/songwriter and the solo artist have made their reappearance on the scene. But if you cast your eyes ...
Arthur Lee, Love: Love With Arthur Lee: Reel To Real (RSO SO4804)
Review by Idris Walters, Let It Rock, April 1975
LOVE'S LAST British tour left a confusion of critical comment in its wake. It seemed to me he was better than ever. But then there ...
Review by Simon Frith, Let It Rock, April 1975
I'D BETTER DECLARE myself: I like Philly Sound, the Stylistics, Barry White even (or, rather, sometimes); I don't think Norman Whitfield mangled Motown: I do ...
Raspberries: The Raspberries: Starting Over
Review by Dave Marsh, Let It Rock, April 1975
A YEAR AGO, the Raspberries seemed like nothing so much as a prefabricated rock band in the tradition of the Monkees. ...
Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen: Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen
Review by Mick Houghton, Let It Rock, May 1975
When you step up to a Juke box and you slip a nickel in,You can bet your bottom dollar when the record starts to spin,You'll ...
Doo-wop: Still White & Alright
Retrospective by Bill Millar, Let It Rock, May 1975
FIRST, A BOOK. Despite the comparatively recent growth industry in rock'n'roll literature, we still don't have a half-way decent encyclopaedia worthy of the name. The ...
Eric Clapton: There's One In Every Crowd (RSO)
Review by Idris Walters, Let It Rock, May 1975
Acupuncture is healing by means of the manipulation of energy centres on the surface of the body. Patti Boyd used to hang out with George ...
Jimmy Jones: Timin' Is The Thing
Retrospective by Penny Reel, Let It Rock, May 1975
What would have happened if you and IHadn't just happened to meet?We might have spent the rest of our livesWalking down misery street. ...
Profile by Chris Salewicz, Let It Rock, May 1975
ABOUT SIX MONTHS AGO THE BUZZ BEGAN TO SLIP IN AGAIN FROM THE SIDELINES. It had received appropriately casual nurturing since the summer of 1973 ...
Comment by Dave Laing, Let It Rock, May 1975
THEY STARTED a bit more than three years ago as a sort of supergroup of Scottish songwriters, and for the next couple of years changed ...
Ronnie Lane: The Bass Player At The Gates Of Dawn: How come Ronnie Lane left The Faces?
Report and Interview by John Pidgeon, Let It Rock, May 1975
THERE MUST BE something frustrating about playing bass in a group. Else why would so many want to swap instruments like Ron Wood, go solo ...
Allen Toussaint: Southern Nights (Reprise)
Review by Phil Hardy, Let It Rock, June 1975
ALLEN TOUSSAINT certainly has an impressive track record: Smiley Lewis, 'Ooh Pa Pah Doo', Lee Dorsey, Ernie K-Doe, Benny Spellman, Irma Thomas, Frankie Miller, the ...
Profile and Interview by Mick Gold, Let It Rock, June 1975
"We didn't set out to look like deranged bank clerks..." ...
Frank Zappa: What Did You Do In The Revolution, Dada?
Essay by Karl Dallas, Let It Rock, June 1975
Karl Dallas asks the pertinent questions... ...
Martin Hawkins and Colin Escott: Catalyst (Aquarius)
Book Review by Bill Millar, Let It Rock, June 1975
A new book on Sun Records by experts Cohn Escott and Martin Hawkins that is exhaustive, informative and available now! ...
Mud, Suzi Quatro, Sweet: Nicky Chinn: From Riches to Riches
Interview by Giovanni Dadomo, Let It Rock, June 1975
LiR EXCLUSIVE: Journey to the centre of pop. Nicky Chinn interviewed ...
Paul Revere & the Raiders: An American Dream
Retrospective by Vivien Goldman, Let It Rock, June 1975
"WHILE STILL in his teens Paul Revere was running a drive-in theatre and two barbershops in Boise, Idaho. One night while listening to a combo ...
Sadistic Mika Band: Sadist Faction
Interview by Jonh Ingham, Let It Rock, June 1975
TWO YEARS AGO I attended an out of town Roxy gig. Along for the ride was Kazuhiko and Mika Katoh, husband and wife leaders of ...
Review by Jonh Ingham, Let It Rock, June 1975
WHEN I FIRST RECEIVED this album it engendered dispassionate dislike, but the more I play it the more I become merely ambivalent. Certainly there are ...
The Sensational Alex Harvey Band: Tomorrow Belongs To Me (Vertigo)
Review by Mick Houghton, Let It Rock, June 1975
IT'S IMPOSSIBLE to listen to Alex Harvey without feeling distinctly unsettled. On stage he's an obsessive – a malevolent dictator figure – in full control ...
Report and Interview by Robin Katz, Let It Rock, July 1975
1. 'What Can I Do For You?' PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania. November 1974. Breakfast time (10:30). Patti LaBelle, Sarah Dash and Nona Hendryx are sitting in one corner of ...
Lesley Gore: They Don't Own Her
Report by Dave Marsh, Let It Rock, July 1975
IN 1964, A seventeen-year-old freshman named Lesley Gore put out her first record, 'It's My Party (And I'll Cry If I Want To)'. It was ...
Shirley and Lee, Shirley Goodman: Shirley Goodman: Good Times Roll Again
Profile and Interview by Bill Millar, Let It Rock, July 1975
JET-BLACK RINGLETS and bra-busting cuddliness; nothing about Shirley Goodman tells you that she used to resemble the waif-like teenager on the front of those old ...
Profile and Interview by Penny Valentine, Let It Rock, August 1975
WHEN SHE SINGS 15 year old girls run out of the audience, down the auditorium, arms raised in a two fisted salute. What they are ...
Arthur Lee, Love: Love: A Good Day at Black Rock
Essay by Idris Walters, Let It Rock, August 1975
Starring: Arthur Lee; Script by: Idris Walters ...
James Brown: The Classic Soul of James Brown
Guide by Cliff White, Let It Rock, August 1975
It's White on Black. Cliff White examines the output of the sex machine inch by inch. ...
Various Artists: The Stax Story — Volumes 1&2 (Stax)
Review by Cliff White, Let It Rock, August 1975
COMPILATION ALBUMS are like Chinese meals. A wise choice of carefully balanced ingredients can be delicious: sometimes you just get heartburn. ...
The Band, Bob Dylan: Bob Dylan and the Band: The Basement Tapes
Review by Mick Gold, Let It Rock, September 1975
On Blonde on Blonde, Dylan gave us his metaphysical, amphetamine dreams from some smoke-filled apartment in midtown Manhattan. On John Wesley Harding, he synthesized a ...
Ritchie Valens, Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs: Chicano Rock: Down Mexico Way
Overview by Bill Millar, Let It Rock, September 1975
Chicano Rock: Ritchie Valens, Sam The Sham, Sunny and the Sunglows and more. ...
Henry Cow, Slapp Happy: Henry Cow/Slapp Happy: In Praise of Learning (Virgin V2027)
Review by Dave Laing, Let It Rock, September 1975
IN THE PAST, Henry Cow have tended to be slotted into a critical compartment reserved for 'English Avant-Garde, jazzy/ eccentric', alongside Hatfield and the North, ...
Manhattan Transfer, Paul Anka: Paul Anka: Feelings/Manhattan Transfer: Manhattan Transfer
Review by Simon Frith, Let It Rock, September 1975
FIRST OF ALL there was that punky Canadian kid with the big voice and the tremor that even got to me ("Put your head on ...
Pink Floyd: Walters, Gilmour, Wright and Mason RIBA
Essay by Idris Walters, Let It Rock, September 1975
99. THERE ARE only three interesting things about Stevenage New Town. One is that there is a Museum there. (!) A Museum? Another is that ...
Smokey Robinson: A Quiet Storm
Review by Pete Wingfield, Let It Rock, September 1975
COULD THIS BE Smokey's What's Going On the album to elevate him, like Marvin Gaye, from a singles-orientated soul veteran to an across-the-board contemporary ...
The Eagles: One Of These NIghts
Review by Mick Houghton, Let It Rock, September 1975
I CAN'T THINK of anything good to say about One Of These Nights. What's so distressing is that it's not a bad album by any ...
Tim Buckley: A Fleeting House: The Music of Tim Buckley
Retrospective by Mick Houghton, Let It Rock, October 1975
...
Tim Buckley: A Fleeting House: The Music of Tim Buckley
Retrospective by Idris Walters, Let It Rock, October 1975
LIFE AND DEATH are becoming indistinguishable. New biologies are beginning to prove that Death is just a change of state in the cycle of life. ...
Betty Davis, Miles Davis: Betty Davis: Putting the Miles behind her
Interview by Robin Katz, Let It Rock, October 1975
BETTY DAVIS is the amazon-sized, raucous, screeching ex-wife of Miles Davis who has copped (unofficially) this year's award for best B-side of a flop single. ...
Freddy Fender: Back In San Antone
Profile by Bill Millar, Let It Rock, October 1975
DURING THE SEVENTEEN years he's been making records Freddy Fender has drawn standing room only crowds to club appearances, done time in Angola and scored ...
Willie Nelson: Red Headed Stranger
Review by Mick Houghton, Let It Rock, October 1975
WILLIE NELSON has never written easy songs or recorded easy albums. He has penned his share of country standards over the past fifteen years, all ...
Emmylou Harris: The Prairie and the Sky
Interview by Mick Houghton, Let It Rock, November 1975
EMMYLOU HARRIS is a country singer. Not simply because she has a single high in the country charts – it's her voice and the feeling ...
Pink Floyd: Wish You Were Here
Review by Mick Gold, Let It Rock, November 1975
TODAYS LESSON is taken from the Book of Bowie, chapter 1984, side 2, track 4: ...
The Archies, Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart, Tommy James & the Shondells: Bubblegum: A Beginners' Guide
Guide by Ken Barnes, Let It Rock, December 1975
ARCHIES: As the Monkees started to slip in late '68, Don Kirshner unveiled his new media blitz – a cartoon show (based on a popular ...
Review by Idris Walters, Let It Rock, December 1975
DEAR MAILBAG, I would have expected these two titles to sail away, hand in hand, into a black sunset. But they don't. Yours SR Gibbs, ...
Joan Baez: Slack Time For The Revolution
Interview by Penny Valentine, Let It Rock, December 1975
JOAN BAEZ PUTS it bluntly: "If I'd done another political album at this point, I'd have been bankrupt. I had no money left. So I ...
Review by Simon Frith, Let It Rock, December 1975
THE SUNDAY TIMES' recent 'Rock Report' has been useful just for gathering together in one place all the clichés of the supercilious school of rock ...
Toots & The Maytals: Toots and Maytals: Caribbean Vikings
Retrospective by Penny Reel, Let It Rock, December 1975
IT IS TWO YEARS since those behind the Maytals previously attempted to promote the group to a rock audience. ...
Overview by Mick Houghton, Let It Rock, December 1975
THE TERM PUNK is bandied about an awful lot these days. It seems to describe almost any rock performer who camps it up to any ...
Kool and the Gang, The Ohio Players: Kool and the Gang: Spirit Of The Boogie; Ohio Players: Honey
Review by Richard Williams, Let It Rock, 1 December 1975
OCCUPYING ROUGHLY the same area in the impressively wide spectrum of contemporary Black music, these two orchestras both play for dancers but nevertheless perform entirely ...
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