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Bob Dylan: The First Interview

Press Release by Billy James, Columbia Records, October 1961

DYLAN: Well, let me say that I was born in Duluth, Minnesota – give that a little plug. That's where I was born and, uh, ...

The Rolling Stones: Pop Weirdies Set Out To Play It Grim

Profile by Chris Welch, The Bexleyheath & Welling Observer, January 1964

OF ALL the sensational groups to hit British pop music since the advent of the Mersey Sound and the rhythm 'n' blues revival, the weirdest, ...

Eric Clapton, John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers: John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers: Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton

Sleeve notes by Neil Slaven, Decca Records, July 1966

IN JOHN MAYALL and Eric Clapton we have the two most dedicated blues musicians in this country. Together with John McVie and Hughie Flint, they ...

The Doors: Paul Rothchild Speaks, March 1967

Book Excerpt by Paul Williams, Outlaw Blues, 1967

This interview was taped in Englewood, New Jersey, in March 1967, shortly after the release of the first Doors album, which Paul Rothchild produced. Last ...

The Deviants: Ptooff! (Deram)

Sleeve notes by Miles, Deram, 1967

FROM THE DEPTHS of London's secret UNDERGROUND headquarters, fully equipped with complex electronic machinery, a 20th century bohemia illicitly recorded, furtively edited at great cost ...

Monterey Pops! An International Pop Festival

Report by Michael Lydon, unpublished, for Newsweek, 20 June 1967

Reporting for Newsweek took me to Monterey. I'd gone to work for Newsweek right out of college in 1965 – I was a reporter in ...

Monterey Pops! An International Pop Festival (2)

Report by Michael Lydon, unpublished, for Newsweek, 20 June 1967

Part TwoDAY TWO was over and Sunday came grey and cold, but the excitement was still there and growing. Could anyone believe what had happened, ...

Fred Neil: Sessions (Capitol)

Sleeve notes by Pete Johnson, Capitol Records, 1968

EIGHT TRANSCRIPTS of Fred Neil's life rise from a grey-crinkled formica counter, plastic on plastic, half-inch dun highways which had whispered through the antiseptic jaws ...

Earth Opera, Joni Mitchell: The Way We Are Today

Book Excerpt by Paul Williams, The Age of Rock, 1969

Joni Mitchell: Joni Mitchell (Reprise)Earth Opera: Earth Opera (Elektra) ...

Karen Dalton: Bi•og'ra•phy: Karen Dalton

Press Release by uncredited writer, Capitol Records, September 1969

ALL KAREN DALTON has to do to create her own legend is sing. When she does, in a voice that belongs to no specific time ...

The Kinks: Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire)

Sleeve notes by Geoffrey Cannon, Pye Records, Fall 1969

Update 2019. Arthur (the Decline and Fall of the British Empire), the Kinks's second song-cycle, was released half a century ago, in October 1969. It ...

Jimi Hendrix: The Final Interview

Interview by Keith Altham, interview transcript, 11 September 1970

On the evening of Friday, September 11th, 1970, Jimi gave what was to be his final interview at his Cumberland hotel suite. The interview was ...

Amon Düül (I & II): Amon Düül: A Science Fiction Rock Spectacle

Sleeve notes by Lester Bangs, unpublished, 1971

Part One: The Aluminium Revolution IT HAD TO HAPPEN! It's been some seven years now since the impact of American popular music first rebounded ...

The Beach Boys, Brian Wilson: Brian Wilson/The Beach Boys - A Celebration Of Wild Honey: a discussion with David Anderle

Book Excerpt by Paul Williams, Outlaw Blues, 1971

WHEN DAVID ANDERLE AND I BEGAN our discussion of Brian Wilson, we had just finished listening to Wild Honey (the Beach Boys, Capitol Records, November ...

Dear Charlie... Love, Lester

Retrospective by Lester Bangs, Excerpts from letters to Charlie Gillett, 1971

CREEM,187 South Woodward Avenue, Suite 203Birmingham, Michigan 48011(313) 642-8833[Autumn 1971] ...

Paul McCartney: The Paul Perplex: A British Commentary

Book Excerpt by Richard Williams, Giants of Rock Music, 1971

And here’s another clue for you allThe Walrus was Paul. ...

Donny Hathaway: The Word Is Out On Donny Hathaway

Profile by Jerry Wexler, Fusion (advertisement), 25 June 1971

A FEW WEEKS ago, the superb composer-singer Carole King picked up eight copies of Donny's first LP (Everything Is Everything, produced by himself) and distributed ...

Pink Floyd's Nick Mason and Rick Wright (1971)

Interview by Ted Alvy, KPPC-FM 106.7 Pasadena, 16 October 1971

A splendid radio interview with Messrs. Mason and Wright in which they talk to DJ Ted Alvy about Meddle, the Zabriskie Point soundtrack, their quadraphonic p.a. system, and playing live. Originally broadcast on KPPC-FM Pasadena in October 1971.

File format: mp3 File size: 33.8mb Interview length: 36 minutes 52 seconds Sound quality: ****

Annette Peacock: I'm the One

Press Release by uncredited writer, RCA Records, November 1971

THE SUMMER IS probably the best time to go down there, to the far reaches of the west West village. It's really calm, quiet and ...

Buddy Knox

Sleeve notes by Bill Millar, Pye Records, 1972

Tex-Mex rockabilly is synonymous with Buddy Holly and it’s impossible to write of Buddy Knox without reference to his more famous namesake. ...

Frankie Lymon: Why Do Fools Fall In Love?

Sleeve notes by Bill Millar, Pye Records, 1972

Black vocal groups once sang for enjoyment on street-corners throughout ghettos in each of the big American cities. Late into the night they harmonised together, ...

So You Wanna Be a Rock'n'Roll Writer (Keep a Carbon!)

Guide by Charlie Gillett, Rock File 1, 1972

My favourite music magazine is called Creem. It's published in Detroit, Michigan, and every month the first thing I see is a statement next to ...

Wayne County & The Electric Chairs, New York Dolls: They Simper At Times: New York Dolls, Wayne County: The Mercer Arts Center, New York City

Live Review by Miles, New York Dolls/Glam Rock, 1972

"It’s a fact that LA soft rock has been stomped on by glittering lurid day-glo platform shoes worn by a female impersonating, posturing hard-rock singer... ...

Howlin' Wolf

Profile by Ben Edmonds, Ann Arbor Blues & Jazz Festival program, November 1972

"Howlin' Wolf, man...he's the guts of America spilling out on the floor, that's all."Greil Marcus/CREEM ...

Grand Funk Railroad

Profile by Metal Mike Saunders, bio, Capitol Records, 1973

"The live concerts, that’s what we enjoy most of all. You see the group, you see a performance, and that’s where we’re at." (Mark Farner) ...

Randy Weston Finds Himself in Africa

Press Release by Vernon Gibbs, Polydor, November 1973

RANDY WESTON sits in the middle of the hustling, super city of New York, the spiritual capital of the country that 22 million Afro-Americans consider ...

Aretha Franklin: A Spirit in the Dark: Aretha at the Fillmore

Book Excerpt by Michael Lydon, Boogie Lightning, 1974

IT WAS A NIGHT of nights. Tower of Power set the mood: 'You Got To Funkify', and then King Curtis and his Kingpins and the ...

Bo Diddley

Book Excerpt by Michael Lydon, Boogie Lightning (Da Capo), 1974

Everything I know I taught myself.– Bo Diddley ...

David Bowie: How to Become a Cult Figure in Only Two Years

Profile by Steve Turner, Unpublished piece for Nova, 1974

Mickie Bloomfield is a 16-year-old shipping clerk who lives in a tower block off the Old Kent Road and who in order to ‘be great ...

Brian Eno: Eno

Press Release by Richard Cromelin, Island Records, 1974

There isOne artNo moreNo lessTo doAll thingsWith art-Lessness– Piet Hein ...

The Action: London 1966

Book Excerpt by Michael Lydon, 'Boogie Lightning' , 1974

IN THE FALL OF 1966 the Action were at their zenith, one short step above complete obscurity. For one all too brief moment they had ...

The Beach Boys: Smiley Smile and Friends

Sleeve notes by Gene Sculatti, Reprise Records, 1974

Oddly enough, while thumbing through my record collection for these two albums, so that I might fashion a more perfect set of introductory notes, I ...

The Beach Boys: Wild Honey and 20/20

Sleeve notes by Gene Sculatti, Reprise Records, 1974

Somewhere right now someone is listening to the Beach Boys for the very first time. And somewhere else, someone is playing a Beach Boys record ...

Raspberries: The Raspberries

Profile by Metal Mike Saunders, Biography for Capitol Records, 1974

YOU KNOW the group's story by now: how the Raspberries came out of nowhere in Summer 1972 to score with their million selling single, 'Go ...

Big Star Biography

Press Release by uncredited writer, Ardent Records, February 1974

IN SEPTEMBER, 1972 Ardent Records released Big Star's first album, Number One Record. The group consisted of Alex Chilton – guitar, keyboards, and vocals, Chris ...

Tom Jans: Tom Jans

Press Release by uncredited writer, A&M Records, October 1974

TOM JANS is a native Californian with a life-long love for music and language. He crammed his adolescence full of books, sports, and music, playing ...

Star Trek: You, too, can be a superstar

Report by uncredited writer, IPC News, December 1974

A MILLION men go from ashes to ashes. Only the man-in- a-million journeys from dust to stardust. ...

Buffy Sainte-Marie

Book Excerpt by Bruce Pollock, 'In Their Own Words' (Collier Books), 1975

BUFFY SAINTE-MARIE came to prominence during the folk era, hoisted to underground approval on the virtue of her classic ‘Universal Soldier’ and her first album ...

Doc Pomus

Book Excerpt by Bruce Pollock, 'In Their Own Words' (Collier Books), 1975

DOC POMUS (with Mort Shuman), Jerry Leiber (with Mike Stoller), Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, and a handful of others were the seminal figures during the ...

Felice and Boudleaux Bryant

Book Excerpt by Bruce Pollock, 'In Their Own Words' (Collier Books), 1975

THIS HUSBAND-AND-WIFE country songwriting team have been at it for more than twenty-five years, proving the old adage, the family that plays together, stays together. ...

Frank Zappa

Book Excerpt by Bruce Pollock, 'In Their Own Words', 1975

ALTHOUGH PRIMARILY considered a composer, Frank Zappa's lyrics reflect his unique approach to rock 'n' roll almost as well as his music does. Combining a ...

Gerry Goffin

Book Excerpt by Bruce Pollock, 'In Their Own Words' (Collier Books) , 1975

ALONG WITH HIS first wife, composer Carole King, Gerry Goffin has been responsible for some of the most memorable and enduring music of the early ...

Harry Chapin

Book Excerpt by Bruce Pollock, 'In Their Own Words' (Collier Books), 1975

HARRY CHAPIN IS probably the most novelistic of our songwriters. Using techniques most often found in prose, he has created a series of story songs, ...

John Prine

Book Excerpt by Bruce Pollock, 'In Their Own Words' (Collier Books), 1975

ALTHOUGH AT FIRST he may sound like an early incarnation of Bob Dylan, lyrically John Prine has a voice all his own. Fusing his country ...

John Sebastian, The Lovin' Spoonful: John Sebastian

Book Excerpt by Bruce Pollock, 'In Their Own Words' (Collier Books), 1975

IT IS IMPOSSIBLE to describe the feeling, being away from the Village for the first time, living in San Francisco in the summer of 1965, ...

Loudon Wainwright III: Loudon Wainwright

Book Excerpt by Bruce Pollock, 'In Their Own Words' (Collier Books), 1975

ANOTHER OF THE new breed of songwriters – sharp, witty, terse, incisive – Loudon Wainwright III arrived on the Greenwich Village scene just as it ...

Melanie Safka

Book Excerpt by Bruce Pollock, 'In Their Own Words' (Collier Books), 1975

MELANIE EMERGED on the music scene, a tiny figure in the rain at Woodstock in 1969, alone onstage with her guitar and her songs. She ...

Melvin Van Peebles

Book Excerpt by Bruce Pollock, 'In Their Own Words' (Collier Books), 1975

THE FIRST MAJOR black lyricist who comes to mind, circa 1955, is Chuck Berry. To many, Berry is rock 'n' roll. His lyrics, however, spoke ...

Mike Oldfield

Profile and Interview by Steve Turner, unpublished, for Rolling Stone, 1975

Photographs of Mike Oldfield show him to he a tight-lipped introvert with hardly a trace of emotion present in his face. The interviews, when granted, ...

Phil Ochs

Book Excerpt by Bruce Pollock, 'In Their Own Words' (Collier Books), 1975

FOR A LONG PERIOD of time in Greenwich Village, Phil Ochs served as a sort of town crier. Each month at the Sunday Songwriters Workshop ...

Linda Creed, Thom Bell: Philly’s Lyric Queen: Linda Creed

Book Excerpt by Bruce Pollock, 'In Their Own Words' (Collier Books), 1975

IN THE ‘70S THE most popular form of music is, once again, R&B, also known as Soul. Emanating primarily from Philadelphia, it is a laid-back ...

Randy Newman

Book Excerpt by Bruce Pollock, In Their Own Words (Collier Books), 1975

SLOWLY BUT SURELY, almost against his will, Randy Newman has become a legend in his own time – although not too many people know it, ...

Grateful Dead, Robert Hunter: Robert Hunter

Book Excerpt by Bruce Pollock, 'In Their Own Words' (Collier Books), 1975

ROBERT HUNTER is the resident lyricist for the Grateful Dead, rock eminences of the San Francisco scene. An underground poet with a solo album, Tales ...

Tim Rice

Book Excerpt by Bruce Pollock, 'In Their Own Words' (Collier Books), 1975

FIRST TOM SANKEY brought The Golden Screw to off-off Broadway. Then, summarizing rapidly, Al Carmines applied his lyric touch to the outrageous Home Movies and ...

Badfinger: The Breaking of Badfinger

Profile and Interview by Steve Turner, unpublished, for Rolling Stone, July 1975

"I used to think the Beatles were in a mess," says Bill Collins, personal manager to Badfinger for the past nine years, "but let me ...

Crosby Stills Nash & Young, Dr. Feelgood, The Faces, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Slade: Introduction

Book Excerpt by Mick Gold, 'Rock on the Road' (Futura), 1976

THE IDEA OF doing a book of photo-essays about live music was sparked by a desire to examine two areas: what the job of being ...

Jackson Browne

Profile and Interview by Steve Turner, unpublished, for NME, 1976

He has one of those haircuts favoured by Americans not yet accustomed to the artistry of male hair-styling: shiny, lank and equal length all over. ...

Crosby Stills Nash & Young: Mel Bush: The Man Who Hired The World

Book Excerpt by Mick Gold, Rock On The Road (Futura), April 1976

A PROMOTER IS THE middleman between a musician and an audience. A promoter hires a venue, books an act, organises the publicity, is responsible for ...

The Sex Pistols: 1976

Book Excerpt by Caroline Coon, 1988: The New Wave Punk Rock Explosion, 1977

THE SEX PISTOLS made their debut at St Martins School of Art on Friday 6th of November 1975. The irate social secretary cut the power ...

Al Green

Book Excerpt by Lenny Kaye, David Dalton, Rock 100, 1977

FINDING AN UNDISCOVERED TONE ON THE soul scale in the early seventies was almost like inventing a new color, but Al Green scanned the high ...

Four on the Floor: The Motown Sound

Book Excerpt by Lenny Kaye, David Dalton, Rock 100, 1977

IT WAS EVER MORE THAN A RECORD LABEL. At its zenith, during a span that dominated most (if not all) of the sixties, the hit ...

Jimi Hendrix

Book Excerpt by David Dalton, Lenny Kaye, Rock 100, 1977

THIS IS NEWARK, THE NIGHT AFTER MARTIN Luther King's assassination. Jimi Hendrix is playing the Symphony Theatre to a crowd of white, modishly dressed hippies. ...

Led Zeppelin

Book Excerpt by David Dalton, Lenny Kaye, Rock 100, 1977

ON MAY 5, 1973, A CAPACITY CROWD OF 56,800 paid $309,000 to watch Led Zeppelin perform for nearly three hours in a Tampa, Florida, football ...

The Adverts, Alternative TV, Buzzcocks, Eater, Generation X, The Jam, The Saints, Siouxsie & The Banshees, The Subway Sect, Ultravox, The Vibrators: Other Punk Bands

Book Excerpt by Caroline Coon, 1988: The New Wave Punk Rock Explosion, 1977

"I want more bands like us. I want people to go out and start something, to see us and start something, or else I'm just ...

Otis Redding

Book Excerpt by Lenny Kaye, David Dalton, Rock 100, 1977

"I FIRST MET HIM IN 1962," SAYS STEVE Cropper who co-wrote two of Otis's hits, 'Fa, Fa, Fa, Fa, Fa' and 'Dock Of The Bay', ...

Elvis Presley: Rock 100: Elvis Presley

Retrospective by David Dalton, Lenny Kaye, Rock 100, 1977

"THAT'S FINE, MAN," CHORTLES SAM Phillips over the studio intercom at 760 Union Avenue, Memphis. "Hell, that's different. That's a pop song now." ...

Buzzcocks, The Clash, The Damned, Sex Pistols, Siouxsie & The Banshees: The 100 Club Punk Rock Festival

Book Excerpt by Caroline Coon, '1988: The New Wave Punk Rock Explosion', 1977

Monday, September 20th: The Sex Pistols, the Clash, Subway Sect, Siouxsie and the Banshees. Tuesday, September 21st: The Damned, Chris Spedding and the Vibrators, the ...

The Beach Boys

Book Excerpt by David Dalton, Lenny Kaye, Rock 100, 1977

IN THE BEGINNING... WERE THE BEACH BOYS. Under the avalanche of the English Invasion, the Psychedelic Apocalypse, supersonic guitars and flash, it is almost forgotten ...

The Clash

Book Excerpt by Caroline Coon, '1988: The New Wave Punk Rock Explosion', 1977

WHEN I FIRST interviewed the Clash in their barrack like studio in Chalk Farm, they had yet to sign a record contract, although they were ...

The Damned

Book Excerpt by Caroline Coon, '1988: The New Wave Punk Rock Explosion', 1977

IN OCTOBER 1976 Nick Lowe produced the single 'New Rose' in an eight-track recording studio. It was the first U.K. punk sound on vinyl, preceeding ...

The Damned: The First European Punk Rock Festival

Book Excerpt by Caroline Coon, 1988: The New Wave Punk Rock Explosion', (Omnibus), 1977

VERY LITTLE ABOUT the festival turned out as planned. Initially the Heartdrops (now the Clash), Richard Hell, the Sex Pistols and Graham Parker and the ...

Grateful Dead: The Grateful Dead

Book Excerpt by Lenny Kaye, David Dalton, Rock 100, 1977

THE GRATEFUL DEAD ARE A LIVING HIPPIE monument, lysergic storm troopers who have carried "the Message" across continents and psychic thresholds, oblivious of all laws ...

The Rolling Stones

Book Excerpt by David Dalton, Lenny Kaye, Rock 100, 1977

THEY HAVE PARTICIPATED IN AND provoked the transformation of the morals and manners of their generation so effectively that to future social historians the Rolling ...

The Sex Pistols

Book Excerpt by Caroline Coon, '1988: The New Wave Punk Rock Explosion', 1977

THE RECORD INDUSTRY is waking up. In October there were rumours about huge deals on the horizon, and Polydor look set to be the first ...

The Slits

Book Excerpt by Caroline Coon, '1988: The New Wave Punk Rock Explosion', 1977

ONE OF THE arguments trotted out to minimize punk rock was that however good or bad the sound was live, it would be impossible to ...

The Stranglers

Book Excerpt by Caroline Coon, '1988: The New Wave Punk Rock Explosion', 1977

THE STRANGLERS slogged through over four hundred gigs in two years building up an ever-increasing following. They did not jump on the punk bandwagon but ...

Velvet Underground: The Velvet Underground

Book Excerpt by Lenny Kaye, David Dalton, Rock 100, 1977

OBVERSE, REVERSE, INVERSE, PERVERSE. A whiplash girl-child waits in the dark, splintered in blue fragments, pinpricks of white heat. The Velvet Underground cauterized their time, ...

The Who

Book Excerpt by David Dalton, Lenny Kaye, Rock 100, 1977

THE TEEN DREAM LIES AT THE CORE OF rock & roll and no group has explored, projected and interpreted the turbulent substances of teenage craniums ...

Van Morrison

Book Excerpt by David Dalton, Lenny Kaye, Rock 100, 1977

ON THE WALL OF HIS NORTHERN CALIFORNIA home, a note announces to friends and visitors that "Van Morrison the person only sometimes has anything to ...

The Beatles, Bob Dylan: I Don't Believe in Zimmerman

Book Excerpt by Mark Shipper, Paperback Writer (New English Library), 1978

THE FIRST few months of 1966 were pleasant ones for the Beatles. Meat The Beatles remained at the top of the charts all over the ...

Roky Erickson (1978)

Interview by Howie Klein, KSAN San Francisco, 1 April 1978

The deeply batty Mr Erickson terrorizes KSAN's presenters, shouts at listener's phoning in, and breaks into "song".

File format: mp3; file size: 41.1mb, interview length: 44' 48" sound quality: ****

Van Morrison: Astral Weeks

Essay by Lester Bangs, Stranded (ed. Greil Marcus), 1979

VAN MORRISON'S Astral Weeks was released ten years, almost to the day, before this was written. It was particularly important to me because the fall ...

The Rolling Stones: The Sea's Endless, Awful Rhythm & Me Without Even a Dirty Picture

Book Excerpt by Nick Tosches, Stranded, Ed. Greil Marcus, December 1979

CALL ME Gilligan. As I confront in earnest the problems of divine retribution, way-out sex, and the value of the Folk Mass, so I confront ...

The Frontier Ethic of Anti-Fashion

Overview by Cynthia Rose, The Virgin Yearbook, 1980

THOUGH THE dictionary defines it as "the prevailing customs and usages of upper-class society, especially in dress", fashion is really a way to re-spell thievery. ...

Tom Waits on Heartattack and Vine

Interview by Stephen K. Peeples, Elektra-Asylum Records, Spring 1980

NOTE: With the appointment made to conduct a Tom Waits interview on the Zoetrope Studios lot in Hollywood on Sept. 4, 1980, I listened to my ...

Madness

Profile by Garry Bushell, Dance Craze, 1981

I WAS STUCK on a five hour train journey from Glasgow to London in the summer of '79 with no buffet and with only the ...

The Kingston Trio

Book Excerpt by Bruce Pollock, from the book 'When Rock Was Young', 1981

IN THE PARKING LOT of the high school, the ageing greasers stood by their late model gas guzzlers, trading sips of blackberry brandy washed down ...

Throbbing Gristle: The Tape Decays: Throbbing Gristle

Sleeve notes by Jon Savage, , 1981

CUT UP END incantations. Click. Machines hum. Silence clears. Slowly, the tape recorders start to spin: the vortex is set in motion. IBM computer tape: ...

Suicide: The Sound of NYC

Sleeve notes by Lester Bangs, ROIR Records, September 1981

OVER THE LAST few years there've been a whole lot of catch phrases bandied about to describe what folks kept insisting was "new" music unlike anything ...

The Mekons: The Mekons Story (CNT) 1982

Sleeve notes by Lester Bangs, CNT Records, 1982

THE MEKONS are the most revolutionary group in the history of rock 'n' roll. They are also the finest artists ever to have graced this ...

Madness: A Brief Case History Of Madness

Book Excerpt by Mark Williams, Proteus Books, 1982

Their condition as carriers of a fast reggae hybrid, ska, was first diagnosed in 1979. This nutty sound was then transmitted to an increasingly larger ...

The Eagles, Joe Walsh: Bill Szymczyk

Interview by John Tobler, Stuart Grundy, 'The Record Producers', 1982

THERE CAN'T BE too many people whose surnames have eight letters, none of which is a vowel, but it hardly needs to be said that ...

Blondie, Mud, Suzi Quatro, Sweet: Chinn and Chapman

Book Excerpt by John Tobler, Stuart Grundy, 'The Record Producers', 1982

THE YEARS BETWEEN 1971 and 1975 were tucked between psychedelia on the one hand and punk rock on the other, and while they featured country ...

Chris Thomas

Book Excerpt by Stuart Grundy, John Tobler, The Record Producers (BBC Books), 1982

THE END OF 1981 sees Chris Thomas, ex-student of the Royal Academy of Music and also producer of the earliest (and best) Sex Pistols' records, ...

Donald Fagen Spins His Favourite Records

Book Excerpt by Charlie Gillett, Capital Radio broadcast, 1982

After the release of The Nightfly, Donald Fagen visited the U.K. to promote it, and one of the few "interviews" he permitted was with Charlie ...

The Beatles: George Martin

Profile and Interview by Stuart Grundy, John Tobler, The Record Producers (BBC Books), 1982

IN MUCH THE same way as Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller were the first American record producers, that accolade in Britain belongs to the man ...

Glyn Johns

Book Excerpt by Stuart Grundy, John Tobler, 'The Record Producers' (BBC Books), 1982

WHILE THE NAMES of George Martin and Mickie Most are probably the best known among British record producers, Glyn Johns was making hit records with ...

Leiber and Stoller

Book Excerpt by John Tobler, Stuart Grundy, The Record Producers (BBC Books), 1982

ELVIS PRESLEY was the King of Rock'n'Roll – anyone who might care to dispute that should try reading another book, for without Presley, neither we, ...

Mickie Most

Profile and Interview by Stuart Grundy, John Tobler, The Record Producers, 1982

THERE HAVE been numerous record producers who have started their own label, including Phil Spector, Richard Perry, Tony Visconti and Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman. ...

The Monkees: Peter Tork: The Monkees and After

Interview by Bruce Pollock, When The Music Mattered, 1982

IT WAS PROBABLY late 1966 or early 1967 when word first began to circulate through the Village. "You know the Monkees, that plastic-fantastic pop group, ...

Phil Spector

Book Excerpt by Stuart Grundy, John Tobler, The Record Producers (BBC Books), 1982

WHENEVER THE subject of record producers is discussed by anyone born before 1960, one name will always surface, that of Phil Spector. ...

Barbra Streisand, Captain Beefheart, Carly Simon, Harry Nilsson, Leo Sayer, The Pointer Sisters, Ringo Starr, Tiny Tim: Richard Perry

Book Excerpt by John Tobler, Stuart Grundy, 'The Record Producers', BBC Books, 1982

IF ANY PRODUCER could be said to have an instantly identifiable sound, aside from the obvious case of Phil Spector, it would be Richard Perry. ...

Roy Thomas Baker

Book Excerpt by John Tobler, Stuart Grundy, The Record Producers (BBC Books), 1982

RUNNING NORTH off Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood is a steep road which twists and turns upwards into the Hollywood Hills. ...

The Chantels

Book Excerpt by Alan Betrock, Omnibus Press, 1982

Extract from Girl Groups — The Story of A Sound ...

Todd Rundgren

Interview by Stuart Grundy, John Tobler, 'The Record Producers' (BBC Books) , 1982

WHEN SIFTING through the potential candidates for a book such as this, it is obviously essential to reflect the present and future, as well as ...

Tom Dowd

Book Excerpt by John Tobler, Stuart Grundy, The Record Producers, 1982

CAREERS IN POPULAR music are often notoriously short, particularly in the most creative areas of activity, therefore it is of more than passing interest to ...

David Bowie, T. Rex, Thin Lizzy: Tony Visconti Talks

Book Excerpt by Stuart Grundy, John Tobler, 'The Record Producers' (BBC Books), 1982

IN MUCH THE same way that George Martin is known for his work with the Beatles, anyone who has ever inspected the small print on ...

Toto

Profile by John Tobler, Virgin Yearbook, 1982

A THEORY was circulating during the last two or three years to the effect that the acts dominating the US album charts, and therefore the ...

B.B. King

Book Excerpt by John Tobler, Stuart Grundy, The Guitar Greats (BBC Books), 1983

IN CONSIDERING the dozens of potential candidates for this book, one essential ingredient was a representative of the blues/R&B heritage, for without the inspiration of ...

Queen: Brian May

Book Excerpt by John Tobler, Stuart Grundy, The Guitar Greats (BBC Books), 1983

AT THE START of the 1980s, the rock band which was generally accepted, if not as the most popular group in the world, then as ...

Santana: Carlos Santana

Book Excerpt by John Tobler, Stuart Grundy, 'The Guitar Greats' (BBC Books), 1983

CARLOS SANTANA has continuously led the band that bears his name for nearly fifteen years, and maintained a substantial worldwide popularity, something which requires an ...

Eric Clapton

Book Excerpt by John Tobler, Stuart Grundy, The Guitar Greats, BBC publications, 1983

Out of the long list of potential candidates for this book, very few names were obvious and automatic choices, but one certainty for inclusion was ...

Hank Marvin, The Shadows: Hank B. Marvin

Book Excerpt by Stuart Grundy, John Tobler, 'The Guitar Greats' (BBC Books), 1983

TO DEMONSTRATE to any potential unbelievers the importance of Hank B. Marvin, we must go back to 1977, when a TV commercial was screened showing ...

Elvis Presley, Emmylou Harris, James Burton, Rick Nelson: James Burton

Book Excerpt by Stuart Grundy, John Tobler, 'The Guitar Greats' (BBC Books), 1983

ONE OF THE GREAT rock'n'roll guitarists of the 1950s, but a man who remained virtually unknown to all but the cognoscenti until comparatively recently, is ...

Jeff Beck

Book Excerpt by Stuart Grundy, John Tobler, The Guitar Greats (BBC Books), 1983

AN AMERICAN JOURNALIST once described Jeff Beck as having an oversized heart and soul, which elevates him above most other guitarists and compared him in ...

Jimmy Page, Led Zeppelin: Jimmy Page

Book Excerpt by Stuart Grundy, John Tobler, 'The Guitar Greats' (BBC Books), 1983

THERE ARE CERTAIN guitar players without whom this book could not claim to approach completeness, and, of course, one of our criteria for inclusion was ...

Joe Walsh

Interview by John Tobler, Stuart Grundy, The Guitar Greats (BBC Books), 1983

In 1969, The Who toured Britain, dragging around a support act who were, to say the least, an unknown quantity to all but a very ...

L.A. Punk

Book Excerpt by Danny (Shredder) Weizmann, 'Hardcore California', 1983

IN 1978 THE suburbs of Los Angeles (Anaheim, Fullerton, Garden Grove, Huntington Beach, Redondo Beach etc.) were still a home for Disneyland, Movieland Wax Museum ...

Pete Townshend

Book Excerpt by Stuart Grundy, John Tobler, The Guitar Greats (BBC Books), 1983

PETE TOWNSHEND NEEDS little introduction – he is, although he would perhaps reject the term, a celebrity. Pete was born on 19 May 1945, in ...

Deep Purple, Rainbow: Ritchie Blackmore

Book Excerpt by Stuart Grundy, John Tobler, 'The Guitar Greats' (BBC Books), 1983

ONE REASON for the selection of ace heavy metal guitarist Ritchie Blackmore as one of our subjects relates to a previous, slimmer and somewhat inferior ...

Ry Cooder

Interview by John Tobler, Stuart Grundy, 'The Guitar Greats', BBC Books, 1983

IT MAY BE that American readers of this book may wonder ‘Why?’ And even perhaps, ‘Who?’ It is an unfortunate fact that Ry Cooder, a ...

Elvis Presley, Scotty Moore: Scotty Moore

Book Excerpt by Stuart Grundy, John Tobler, 'The Guitar Greats' (BBC Books), 1983

THERE CAN BE few more graphic illustrations of the fact that rock'n'roll music is no longer some here-today-gone-tomorrow speck of lint in the wind than ...

Steve Miller

Book Excerpt by John Tobler, Stuart Grundy, 'The Guitar Greats', 1983

WHEN WE MET Steve Miller in the Seattle studio where he mostly works these days, he was planning to make more than one album – ...

Velvet Underground: The Velvets Hit Hollywood

Book Excerpt by Victor Bockris, Gerard Malanga, Omnibus Books, 1983

An extract from Uptight: The Velvet Underground Story by Victor Bockris & Gerard Malanga, first published by Omnibus Press in 1983. (Currently available as a ...

Arthur Alexander

Sleeve notes by Bill Millar, Ace Records, 1984

DURING THE early '60s, Arthur Alexander wrote a famous clutch of compact, well-crafted country-soul songs. Stories of inconstant love and private gloom, they were covered ...

Jackie Wilson

Sleeve notes by Bill Millar, Ace Records, 1984

JACKIE WILSON, pioneer showman of the old rhythm and blues school, possessed the most acrobatic voice in black music. ...

Laurie Anderson Goes For The Throat

Interview by Mark Dery, High Performance, 1984

FORGET the Pippi Longstocking coyness that led Newsweek to dub her "a cybernetic Lily Tomlin." Forget the dimples and the I-had-an-argument-with-10,000-volts-and-lost hairstyle. When Laurie Anderson ...

Cat Stevens: The Making of Cat Stevens

Book Excerpt by Chris Charlesworth, Proteus Books, 1984

An extract from Cat Stevens by Chris Charlesworth, originally published by Proteus Books in 1984 but now out of print. ...

Morrissey, The Smiths: The Year Of The Smiths

Comment by Barney Hoskyns, The Virgin Yearbook, 1984

GAY MEN PAVED pop’s way this year. With Boy George’s wardrobe fully open, all the closet cases came spilling forth: Burns and The Bronskis, Frankie ...

Big Jay McNeely

Sleeve notes by Bill Millar, Saxonograph Records sleevenote, 1985

IN AUGUST 1983 Big Jay McNeely flew to London for the R & B Jamboree at Camden 's Electric Ballroom where he topped a bill ...

The Dominoes

Sleeve notes by Bill Millar, Charly Records, 1985

BILLY WARD'S DOMINOES, from whose personnel Clyde McPhatter and Jackie Wilson later emerged as star soloists, were the founding fathers of gospel-oriented doowop with a ...

Big Maybelle: Blues, Candy & Big Maybelle

Sleeve notes by Dan Nooger, Savoy Jazz, 1986

BIG MAYBELLE has been called a legend, one of black music's tragic figures and one of the greatest blues shouters of all time. And she ...

Lesley Gore: Anthology

Sleeve notes by Gene Sculatti, Rhino Records, 1986

Hey, come on in. Glad you could make it. Gonna be a great party (take your coat?) Lesley'll be here in a minute. She's over ...

Paul Anka: Best of Paul Anka

Sleeve notes by Gene Sculatti, Rhino Records, 1986

No 'bout a doubt it, Mr. A has shaken a lot of action. He cut his first hit, a nifty nine-million seller, at fifteen, wrote ...

The Autumn Records Story

Sleeve notes by Gene Sculatti, Edsel Records, 1986

It was no Sun Records. It wasn't Philles or Dimension, or Cameo-Parkway or even Big Top. But Autumn Records surely qualifies as one of America's ...

Van Morrison

Interview by Mick Brown, promo for 'No Guru, No Method, No Teacher', 1986

Musical Roots ...

The Four Seasons, Frankie Valli: The Four Seasons: 25th Anniversary

Sleeve notes by Gene Sculatti, Rhino Records, 1987

"... He turned on his record player, dressed up in his sharpest clothes, and practiced dancing as if as long as Kookie Byrnes or Cousin ...

Clyde McPhatter, The Drifters: Clyde McPhatter & The Drifters

Sleeve notes by Pete Grendysa, Atlantic Records, 1988

FROM THE MOMENT the lights were dimmed in the old St. Nicholas Arena for Alan Freed's first New York Rock And Roll Show in January, ...

Fingers Inc.: Another Side

Sleeve notes by Simon Witter, Jack Trax/Indigo Music, 1988

2009 NOTE: I wrote a few album sleevenotes in the 80s, but none that I was more chuffed to have been asked to do than ...

Johnny Cash

Profile and Interview by Steve Turner, Unpublished, written for Q, 1988

Who do people think Johnny Cash is? "A conservative country singer who lives down in the South somewhere," according to the Man in Black himself, ...

Scritti Politti: Making Provision: Green speaks

Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Virgin Records press release, 1988

THREE YEARS of silence are finally broken this week as Scritti Politti release the first single off a new album. Featuring the inimitable trumpet of ...

Prince: Time of the Sign

Book Excerpt by Barney Hoskyns, 'Imp of the Perverse' (Virgin Books), 1988

1987 WAS A comparatively low-profile year for Prince, a year that saw some of his greatest music on the double Sign 'O' The Times album ...

Chuck Willis: The Great Chuck Willis

Sleeve notes by Pete Grendysa, Official Records, 1988, 1988

OF ALL THE artists brought into prominence by Atlantic Records in the mid-1950's, Chuck Willis had perhaps the most potential to become a great Soul ...

Joe Tex: The Clown Prince of Soul

Sleeve notes by Barney Hoskyns, 'The Very Best of Joe Tex' (Charly Records), May 1988

WHEN NASHVILLE publisher-producer Buddy Killen first met Joe Tex in 1961, the singer already had six years of recording and performing under his belt. They ...

Joe Simon: Lookin’ Back

Sleeve notes by Barney Hoskyns, Charly Records, August 1988

JOE SIMON IS one of soul’s great deepies, possessor of a richly mellow voice that puts him up there with such deep-throated greats as Jerry ...

Bobby Womack: Doin’ It His Own Way: Bobby Womack

Sleeve notes by Barney Hoskyns, 'Womack Winners', 1989

WHEN BOBBY WOMACK called his seventeenth solo album The Last Soul Man and set out on 1987’s quasi-missionary tour of the same name, he was ...

The Four Seasons, Frankie Valli: Frankie Valli and the Four Lovers

Sleeve notes by Pete Grendysa, Bear Family Records, 1989

IF ‘CHICAGO AIN'T Nothin' But A Blues Band’, then Newark ain't nothin' but an Italian quartet. It's a safe bet that the northern New Jersey ...

Gerry Rafferty: Right Down the Line

Sleeve notes by Jerry Gilbert, EMI USA Records, 1989

THE SHADOW OF melancholy now seemed to rise like a weight from Gerry Rafferty's shoulders. 'Baker Street' was an instant smash and he went on ...

Saint Etienne: Foxbase Alpha

Sleeve notes by Jon Savage, Mantra Records, 1989

There are still plenty of real Londoners who sleep the night in London as well as work the day there – some in love, some ...

Steve Jordan: El Huracan

Sleeve notes by John Morthland, Rounder Records, 1989

ONCE, I TRIED to interview Steve Jordan. Oh, I knew it was unlikely I would ever pull it off, because everyone around the Texas music ...

Brook Benton: 40 Greatest Hits

Sleeve notes by Colin Escott, Polygram Records, 1990

BROOK BENTON'S music was a study in contrast. The lushness of the backings was juxtaposed against the contained passion in his voice. On ...

Irma Thomas: Something Good: The Muscle Shoals Sessions

Sleeve notes by Don Snowden, Chess/MCA Records, 1990

CHESS WAS pre-eminently a blues label and Chess was most definitely a Chicago-based label but Chess was also a hit-seeking label and that fundamental fact ...

Lucinda Williams: Happy Woman Blues

Sleeve notes by John Morthland, Smithsonian Folkways, 1990

THE DAUGHTER of an English lit professor, Lucinda Williams was born in Lake Charles, Louisiana, and spent most of her youth moving from college town ...

Madonna: The Immaculate Collection

Sleeve notes by Gene Sculatti, Sire Records, 1990

"The Coolest Queen of White Heat"... "An outrageous blend of Little Orphan Annie, Margaret Thatcher and Mae West"... "Narcissistic, brazen, comic... the Goddess of the ...

The Flatlanders: More a Legend Than a Band

Sleeve notes by Colin Escott, Rhino Records, 1990

AS THE FLATLANDERS DROVE TO NASHVILLE IN March 1971 to cut their lone album, Tammy Wynette was sitting atop the country charts with 'Bedtime Story'. ...

Johnnie Ray: The Johnnie Ray Story

Sleeve notes by Pete Grendysa, Bear Family box set, 1990

THE LONG WHITE limousine is rocking like a rowboat, engulfed by a stormy sea of screaming bobby-soxers. Waves of petticoated and sweatered girls break against ...

Esther Phillips: 'Little' Esther Phillips: Better Beware

Sleeve notes by Barney Hoskyns, Charly, July 1990

OF ALL the blues-shouting earth mamas who dominated the distaff side of R&B in the early '50s, easily the most disarming was Little Esther, born ...

Little Willie John: Fever

Sleeve notes by Barney Hoskyns, Charly, July 1990

LITTLE WILLIE JOHN's is one of the saddest stories in the book of soul. A pintsized hipster from the Motor City, he notched up 14 ...

Grateful Dead: Reporting Live from Deadland

Essay by David Gans, KPFA Folio, July 1990

I'M DANCING with my notebook in my hand at the Shoreline Amphitheater on Friday, June 15, 1990. I've been avoiding this Folio article for two ...

Albert King, Otis Rush: Albert King/Otis Rush: Door To Door

Sleeve notes by Don Snowden, Chess Records, Fall 1990

CERTAINLY IT made sense for Chess to release an album combining the handful of songs recorded by Albert King and Otis Rush during their short-lived ...

Allen Toussaint: The Collection

Sleeve notes by Don Snowden, Reprise Records, 1991

BY THE TIME Allen Toussaint released his first Warner Bros. album, Life, Love And Motion, in 1972, it was already impossible to look at New ...

O.V. Wright: Beautiful Screamer: O.V. Wright

Book Excerpt by Barney Hoskyns, 'From a Whisper to a Scream' (Fontana), 1991

IF JAMES CARR and the (predominantly baritonal) country 
balladeers were one side of the southern Soul Man coin, the gritty, gravelly tenor voices of singers ...

Chris Rea: The Road To Hell

Book Excerpt by John Pidgeon, Classic Albums (BBC Books), 1991

IF ANYONE EVER gets round to compiling a list of the sources of inspiration behind big-selling records, major motorway tailbacks are unlikely to figure high ...

Dion: Bronx Blues — The Columbia Recordings (1962-1963)

Sleeve notes by Gene Sculatti, Sony/Columbia Records, 1991

"Rock 'n' roll started as rebellious music. It had an attitude, and in that attitude was a lot of stuff: anger, frustration, joy, and that ...

INXS: Kick

Book Excerpt by John Pidgeon, Classic Albums (BBC Books), 1991

Kick and, specifically, the irresistibly rhythmic rock of 'Need You Tonight' turned Australia's INXS into a world-wide success overnight, except overnight success doesn't happen to ...

The Doors: James Douglas Morrison, 1943-1971

Essay by Nick Tosches, Foreword to David Dalton's 'Mr. Mojo Risin'', 1991

JERSEY CITY, June 1968. 'Hello, I Love You'. I remember not only where I was but also whom I was with when it came through ...

Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson on Aqualung

Book Excerpt by John Pidgeon, Classic Albums (BBC Books), 1991

Aqualung was Jethro Tull's fourth album since the group first gained attention with 'Song For Jeffrey' in 1968. Further hit singles had followed in the ...

Koko Taylor: What It Takes - The Chess Years

Sleeve notes by Don Snowden, Chess/MCA Records, 1991

IT'S ALTOGETHER FITTING that Koko Taylor's first Chess single was ‘I Got What It Takes’. Nearly three decades in the blues business--years punctuated by a ...

Lowell Fulson: Hung Down Head

Sleeve notes by Don Snowden, Chess Records, 1991

HUNG DOWN HEAD was a profoundly shocking record when it was first released in 1970 as Chess LP 408. ...

Lucinda Williams: Ramblin'

Sleeve notes by John Morthland, Smithsonian Folkways, 1991

WHEN IT WAS first released in 1979, Ramblin' could not have been more out of step. Lucinda Williams, who did indeed have ramblin' on her ...

N.W.A: Poison The Hood: Niggaz with Attitude

Retrospective by John Mendelssohn, unpublished, for Playboy, 1991

ON A SPRING EVENING in 1991, the late Eazy-E accepted the invitation of Dr. Dre, his fellow member of the notorious "gangsta" rap group NWA, ...

Professor Longhair: Mardi Gras In Baton Rouge (Rhino)

Sleeve notes by Don Snowden, Rhino, 1991

AHH, YES, THE virtues of the repertoire.Admittedly, it's a foreign concept these days, when artists are almost universally expected to write and perform fresh material ...

George Jones, Hank Williams, Lefty Frizzell: Redneck Soul: George Jones and the White Man's Blues

Book Excerpt by Barney Hoskyns, 'From a Whisper to a Scream' (Fontana), 1991

NO ONE IS FONDER of saying that country music is "the white man's blues" than black artists like B.B. King, Etta James and Bobby Womack. ...

Screamin' Jay Hawkins

Sleeve notes by Gene Sculatti, Sony/Epic Records, 1991

As with most successful artists, Screamin' Jay Hawkins career hung on lots of ifs... It might not have happened at all if his first manager ...

The Small Faces: Small Faces: Ogden's Nut Gone Flake

Book Excerpt by John Pidgeon, Classic Albums (BBC Books), 1991

WRITTEN, PERFORMED and produced by musicians who, after three years of hit singles, were still not long out of their teens, the Small Faces' Ogden's ...

The Danleers

Sleeve notes by Pete Grendysa, Bear Family, 1991

THE AMERICAN RHYTHM & blues vocal group was a development of the Pop groups that enjoyed heavy popularity from the 1910's into the 1950's. When ...

Tina Turner: Private Dancer

Retrospective and Interview by John Pidgeon, Classic Albums (BBC Books), 1991

IN 1983, AT THE age of 45, Tina Turner could lay claim to a handful of hit singles, the first of which had come in ...

Bobby "Blue" Bland: Two Steps from the Blues: The Gospel According to Bobby 'Blue' Bland

Book Excerpt by Barney Hoskyns, From a Whisper to a Scream (Fontana Books), 1991

WHEN HOWLIN' WOLF left Memphis for Chicago in late 1952, Sun Records' Sam Phillips was left with a crop of younger blues singers who in ...

Ruth Brown: Fine and Mellow

Sleeve notes by Kirk Silsbee, Fantasy Records, June 1991

FRANK OWENS, arranger/pianist and strawboss of the music on this album, was running down his chart to the band at Sage and Sound in Hollywood ...

Big John Greer

Sleeve notes by Pete Grendysa, Bear Family, 1992

JOHN GREER, one of the forgotten men of rhythm & blues, had all the talent necessary to succeed, and a few extra advantages besides. ...

Bobby "Blue" Bland: Bobby “Blue” Bland: I Pity The Fool – The Duke Recordings, Vol. 1

Sleeve notes by Don Snowden, Chess/MCA Records, 1992

AN ENDURING IRONY of the periodic blues revivals that rear their heads is that each and every one has managed to pass by the immense ...

Buddy Johnson

Sleeve notes by Pete Grendysa, Bear Family, 1992

A LINE OF golden saxophones held carefully aslant over the showy blue and white "BJ" bandstands catches the eye first. Arrayed behind are trombones flanked ...

Howlin' Wolf: Live and Cookin' at Alice's Revisited

Sleeve notes by Don Snowden, Chess/MCA Records, 1992

BY 1972, HOWLIN' WOLF was on the downhill side of his fabled career as one of the twin titans of Chicago blues. ...

Icicle Works: The Best of the Icicle Works

Sleeve notes by Terry Staunton, Beggars Banquet Records, 1992

"TRY NOT TO listen to it all in one go, it'll do your head in." Sound advice? Maybe, but pretty unusual when you consider that ...

King Curtis: Blow Man, Blow! (Bear BCD 15670)

Sleeve notes by Pete Grendysa, Bear Family, 1992

"BLOW MAN, BLOW!" The big man with the glittering horn sent showers of squeals and shrieks out over the heads of his ecstatic shouting audience, ...

Leonard Cohen On Songwriting

Interview by Paul Zollo, from 'Songwriters On Songwriting', 1992

WE ARE SITTING Indian-style on the second floor of Leonard Cohen’s home in Los Angeles. On his bookshelf are many books that he’s written himself, ...

O.V. Wright: The Soul of O.V. Wright

Sleeve notes by Bill Bentley, MCA Records, 1992

OVERTON VERTIS Wright sang straight to the soul. As a child, Wright called the church choir home, and turned his voice to God. As he ...

Roy Buchanan: Sweet Dreams – The Anthology

Sleeve notes by Colin Escott, Polydor Records, 1992

ROY BUCHANAN seemed to come out of nowhere in 1972 when a laudatory article in Rolling Stone was followed by his first album, but it ...

Keith Richards: Wingless and Angelic: Keith Richards in Jamaica

Book Excerpt by Victor Bockris, Keith Richards: The Unauthorised Biography, 1992

An extract from Keith Richards: The Unauthorised Biography by Victor Bockris, first published in 1992. (Currently available as a paperback published by Omnibus Press, 426pp, ...

Buddy Guy: The Complete Chess Studio Recordings

Sleeve notes by Don Snowden, Chess Records, January 1992

THE BEST measure of Buddy Guy's talents as a bluesman could well be the fact that he's been presiding over the most distinguished fan club ...

Big Star: Big Star Live

Sleeve notes by Robert Gordon, Rykodisc, February 1992

WINDING DOWN a recent set, Alex Chilton asked, "Anything else anyone needs done for them?" That menacing kindness goes a long way toward explaining the ...

Johnny Thunders: Go, Johnny, Go: Thunders' So Alone

Sleeve notes by Ira Robbins, Sire Records, February 1992

AMONG THE LIFETIME residents of abyssville are those rock'n'rollers whose faith in the liberating rebellion of mangy guitar music gets crossed up into a personal ...

Johnny Cash: The Gospel Collection

Sleeve notes by Colin Escott, Sony, July 1992

ONE NIGHT in August 1957, after an appearance on Town Hall Party in Compton, California, Johnny Cash went to the home of Lawrence and Hazel ...

The Meters: Uptown Rulers! Live on the Queen Mary (Rhino)

Sleeve notes by Don Snowden, Rhino CD, July 1992

SAY WHAT else you will about Paul and Linda McCartney, they sure knew how to throw a party back in 1975. ...

Pete Townshend: What Came Next: Pete Townshend Goes It Alone

Sleeve notes by Ira Robbins, Who Came First, August 1992

As spiritual epiphanies go, Pete Townshend's public acknowledgment of his personal rebirth was made with remarkable understatement for a major celebrity. ...

Bobby Bare: Detroit City and Other Hits/500 Miles Away from Home (RCA)

Sleeve notes by Colin Escott, RCA Records, 1993

THE FIRST THE WORLD thought it had heard from Bobby Bare was in the summer of 1963 when 'Detroit City' hit the Top 20 in ...

Dion: Lovers Who Wander

Sleeve notes by Gene Sculatti, EMI/Right Stuff, 1993

"I've got my J-200 there with me. That's the big Gibson, like the kind the Everly Brothers had custom-made for them. So beautiful. The case ...

Dion: Runaround Sue

Sleeve notes by Gene Sculatti, EMI/Right Stuff, 1993

One of the few good things left in the current morass of ‘oldies’ radio is the element of surprise. In a world where the same ...

Little Walter: The Essential Little Walter

Sleeve notes by Don Snowden, Chess/MCA, 1993

LITTLE WALTER was a singular figure among the Chess artist roster by virtue of the fact that he was the only one whose popular appeal ...

Little Willie John

Sleeve notes by Pete Grendysa, Rhino, 1993

HE LOOKED LIKE he just stepped off the top of a wedding cake – a dapper, smooth-faced little man in a tailored suit topped off ...

Louis Jordan

Sleeve notes by Pete Grendysa, Bear Family, 1993

FOR TEN of the most crucial years in the history of American black music, Louis Jordan was the main man, the solid sender, the hep-est ...

Otis Redding: The Definitive Otis Redding

Sleeve notes by Carol Cooper, Rhino Records, 1993

THE HISTORY IN JUNE 1993, Essence magazine published the results of a listener poll conducted by WBGO-FM’s Felix Hernandez, host of the weekly rhythm & ...

The Beasts Of Bourbon: The Ugliest Band On Earth

Book Excerpt by Clinton Walker, Ten Years Behind Bars (Music Sales), 1993

Preface to the Beasts of Bourbon songbook, Ten Years Behind Bars: From The Belly Of The Beasts ...

Velvet Underground: The Velvet Underground: What Goes On

Sleeve notes by Clinton Walker, Raven Records, 1993

AT A TIME in the late '60s when the hippies were preaching peace and love – as they would have it, in short, a whole ...

Magic Sam, Otis Rush: Various Artists: The Cobra Records Story

Sleeve notes by Don Snowden, Capricorn Records, 1993

STRANGE THAT The Cobra Story marks the first time that these late '50s recordings culled from three short-lived Chicago labels run by Eli Toscano have ...

In Pursuit of Pure Sound: The Story of the Audiophile Record Label, Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs

Report by Tom Graves, American Way, 1 May 1993

HERB BELKIN, EXECUTIVE vice president of ABC records at the time, remembers the day in 1977 when two young audio engineers came into his office ...

Billy Boy Arnold: Back Where I Belong (Alligator)

Sleeve notes by Kirk Silsbee, Alligator, August 1993

SPEAK FACE to face with bluesman Billy Boy Arnold and you have the feeling that something about him doesn't quite add up. He looks to ...

The Everly Brothers: Walk Right Back: The Everly Brothers On Warner Bros.

Sleeve notes by Colin Escott, Warner Bros., 14 September 1993

SUPPOSEDLY, it was the richest deal in the history of the record business when it was announced in November 1959. ...

The Posies: Frosting on the Beater

Press Release by uncredited writer, DGC Records, Spring 1993

A DECADE AGO, two puny kids ages 13 and 14 began a band. These were formative music years, of course, but while others might have ...

Big Joe Turner

Sleeve notes by Pete Grendysa, Rhino Records, 1994

SHOW BUSINESS is full of Kings, Queens, Counts, Dukes, and even a Boss, but high above all the royalty shines the real Boss Of The ...

Big Maybelle

Sleeve notes by Pete Grendysa, Sony Legacy, 1994

THERE'S A picture of her taken at the Fox Theater in Detroit in 1956. She's at the microphone in a sleeveless satin gown, head down, ...

Billy Fury: Halfway to Paradise

Book Excerpt by Mick Houghton, 'Love is the Drug' (Penguin Books), 1994

BILLY FURY, Britain's only authentic rock'n'roll singer, wrote most of his own material but had his most outstanding commercial success with big ballads like 'Halfway ...

Billy Lee Riley: Blue Collar Blues

Sleeve notes by Robert Gordon, Hightone album, 1994

BILLY LEE RILEY would be a multi-instrumentalist even if he didn't play guitar, harmonica, and bass. That voice. Those voices. ...

Carole King: A Natural Woman – The Ode Collection

Sleeve notes by Stephen K. Peeples, Sony Records, 1994

ON FEBRUARY 6, Legacy will premiere a video of King's 1971 BBC live studio performance with James Taylor accompanying on guitar. The set includes live ...

Duane Eddy: Twangin' from Phoenix to L.A. (Bear Family)

Sleeve notes by Colin Escott, Bear Family Records, 1994

LET'S NOT TALK about guitarists who can play circles around other guitarists, or about which famous picker influenced which other famous picker. ...

Electric Light Orchestra: Afterglow

Sleeve notes by Ira Robbins, Sleevenotes, 1994

The Electric Light Orchestra, for most people, exists as a memorable collection of hit singles, carefully crafted production numbers that defined an entire rock genre ...

Elvis Presley: Elvis: The Goldman Factor

Essay by John Tobler, 'Aspects of Elvis', 1994

ELVIS PRESLEY WAS THE UNKNOWING centre of controversy in his quite short life: only being screened from the waist upwards on TV so that his ...

John Martyn: Johnny Too Bad: John Martyn

Book Excerpt by Mark Cooper, 'Love is the Drug' (Penguin), 1994

HE'S A JAZZ MAN, he's a folkie and he's been a drinker. Singer songwriter John Martyn has been most things, apart from commercially acceptable. Now ...

The Byrds, Moby Grape: Just Like Gene Autry: A Foxtrot

Book Excerpt by Tom Hibbert, 'Love is the Drug' (Penguin), 1994

THE BYRDS FORMED in 1964 when Jim (later Roger) McGuinn, a Dylan-obsessed folkie from San Francisco, saw A Hard Day's Night. He decided there and ...

Mary Wells: Dear Lover, The Atco Sessions

Sleeve notes by David Nathan, liner notes, 1994

CONSIDERED, for good reason, one of the top black female vocalists of the early to mid-Sixties, the late Mary Wells' initial recordings for Motown Records ...

Elvis Presley: Memphis Blues Again: Elvis ’69

Retrospective by Barney Hoskyns, Aspects of Elvis (Sidgwick & Jackson), 1994

ELVIS PRESLEY must have sensed that his credibility was on the line when he made the decision, in early January 1969, to cancel a Nashville ...

Siouxsie & The Banshees: Siouxsie and the Banshees: A Kiss in the DreamHouse

Book Excerpt by Lucy O'Brien, 'Love is the Drug' (Penguin), 1994

ALTHOUGH SHE'D been one of punk's founding fathers, as it were, Siouxsie Sioux never really looked like she could last the distance. She's still here ...

The Clash

Book Excerpt by Ira Robbins, The Big Takeover, 1994

Even if the basic impetus for punk rock was just traditional teen needs like pissing off parents and claiming a cultural identity, some of the ...

Marion Williams: The Genius of Marion Williams: My Soul Looks Back

Sleeve notes by Anthony Heilbut, Spirit Feel/Shanachie, 1994

IN RETROSPECT, Marion Williams' last year assumes an almost mythic shape. She finally received the worldly honours and material goods long denied her: the rush ...

The Triffids: Hell of a Summer

Book Excerpt by David Cavanagh, 'Love is the Drug' (Penguin), 1994

HAILING FROM Perth, Western Australia, the five (later six)-piece Triffids lived in London for much of 1984-5 and were part of a brief musical wave ...

Elvis Presley: Wise Men Say: Elvis Presley

Book Excerpt by Simon Frith, Aspects of Elvis, 1994

"I DON'T THINK EL WILL EVER RATE WITH the more serious students of popular song – his syrupy crooning with vibrato went out with Rudy ...

The Platters: Four Platters and One Lovely Dish

Sleeve notes by Pete Grendysa, Bear Family, March 1994

GOING FROM complete unknowns to classics of American pop music took the Platters only two short years. ...

Duke Henderson: Get Your Kicks (Delmark)

Sleeve notes by Kirk Silsbee, Delmark Records, May 1994

ASK THE handful of remaining African-American performers and entertainers who were active during Los Angeles' Central Avenue heyday in the 1940s about blues singer Duke ...

Barbara Lynn: Barbara Lynn: The Atlantic Sessions

Sleeve notes by David Nathan, ammended, for Ichiban Soul Classics, September 1994

WHILE THE ANNALS OF R&B music history are filled with artists whose initial impact is never surpassed, there are more than a few men and ...

R.E.M.: Rock Criticism and the Rocker: A Conversation With Peter Buck

Book Excerpt by Anthony DeCurtis, Rocking My Life Away, September 1994

IN SEPTEMBER 1994 R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck kindly took time off from promoting R.E.M.'s Monster to do an interview with Anthony DeCurtis, who wanted an ...

The Band, Bobby Charles: The Story of Bobby Charles and Bearsville

Retrospective and Interview by Colin Escott, Stony Plain Records, September 1994

BOBBY CHARLES IS one of the great Louisiana records, and there have been a few. It doesn't matter that it was recorded in upstate New ...

Mary Wells: Dear Lover - The Atco Sessions

Sleeve notes by David Nathan, revised, for Ichiban Soul Classics, Fall 1994

Mary Wells: The Soul Queen Who Quit Motown. Considered, for good reason, one of the top black female vocalists of the early to mid-'60s, ...

The Sweet Inspirations: The Best Of The Sweet Inspirations

Sleeve notes by David Nathan, Liner Notes, Fall 1994

THAT HITMAKING FEMALE vocal groups from New York City existed in abundance throughout the early to mid-Sixties is without dispute. But while the Ronettes, the ...

Lester Bangs: Jook Savages

Memoir by Nick Tosches, The Nick Tosches Reader, 1995

LESTER BANGS, with whom I had drunk but whose writing I had never read, had died not long after Hellfire came out, in the spring ...

Ronnie Lane: One For The Road (Edsel)

Sleeve notes by John Tobler, Edsel, 1995

IN 1995, THE WORLD seems to have finally rediscovered The Small Faces, one of the most significant and respected groups of the British beat boom ...

The Cadillacs

Sleeve notes by Pete Grendysa, Bear Family, 1995

IN JANUARY, 1956, a skinny and bespectacled 16-year old laid down his dollar and got 11 cents change and a shiny new 45rpm record (resplendent ...

The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Yes: The Moment: 25 Years of Rock Photography

Book Excerpt by Jill Furmanovsky, 'The Moment' (Paper Tiger), 1995

A Beatles fan MY FIRST ROCK picture, taken circa 1967 on an instamatic camera, was of Paul McCartney with two of my school friends outside his ...

Richard Hell: Victor Bockris presents Susan Sontag & Richard Hell, New York City, 1978

Interview by Victor Bockris, The Poetry Project, February 1995

IT WAS THE EVENING of the fifteen-foot snow blizzard and SUSAN SONTAG was due at my Greenwich Village apartment from her 107th Street penthouse at ...

Lenny Williams, Tower of Power: Lenny Williams

Sleeve notes by David Nathan, Ichiban Soul Classics LP, September 1995

These liner notes were originally written for the now out-of-print 1995 Ichiban Soul Classics CD Lenny Williams: 'Cause I Love You: The Best of Lenny ...

Grateful Dead: The Grateful Dead: Hundred Year Hall and the '72 European Tour

Interview by David Gans, The Grateful Dead Hour, 16 October 1995

The Album Network Special: Hundred Year HallPhil Lesh and Bob Weir interviewed 9/7/95 by Marty Martinez and David Gans ...

The Beach Boys: Brian Wilson and the Legend of Smile

Book Excerpt by Barney Hoskyns, 'Waiting For The Sun', 1996

BY THE TIME ‘Good Vibrations’ had hit No.1 at the end of 1966, Brian was firmly committed to extending pop's boundaries as far as he ...

Chess New Orleans

Sleeve notes by Don Snowden, MCA Records, 1996

THE COMPETITION amongst independent R&B labels after the post-World War II era was understandably fierce. Labels often lived from single to single – moving fast ...

Clarence Carter: I Caught You Making Love: The ABC Years

Sleeve notes by Don Snowden, Ichiban Soul Classics//Sony Music, 1996

SELF-TAUGHT ON guitar, formally trained on piano, a gospel church-bred singer, Clarence Carter combined a bluesman's flair for storytelling with a frankly lusty take on ...

J.J. Cale: Anyway the Wind Blows

Sleeve notes by Colin Escott, Mercury Records, 1996

COINCIDENCE OR NOT, the phrase "laid back" crept into common use right around the time of J.J. Cale's first album. Nearly everyone but Cale missed ...

James Burton: Play It, James!

Book Excerpt by Colin Escott, 'Tattooed on their Tongues' (Schirmer), 1996

JAMES BURTON CRADLES a dark red 1953 Telecaster. The finish is cracked in a few places and the fretboard is worn, but it's got ...

Jesse Stone

Sleeve notes by Pete Grendysa, Bear Family, 1996

THEY'VE GOT A Hall of Fame for rock 'n' roll now and a lot of the residents in that hallowed hall are craggy-faced and grayhaired, ...

John Denver: Reflections (Songs Of Love & Life)

Sleeve notes by Colin Escott, RCA Records, 1996

NO ONE WAS ever less ashamed of wearing their heart on their sleeve than John Denver. No one was ever less afraid to share moments ...

Ruth Brown

Sleeve notes by Pete Grendysa, Rhino album, 1996

GRANDEUR IS A term rarely used to describe a singer of popular music, but no other word can describe the physical presence and magical personal ...

Elvis Presley: Sweet Movements Of A Hillbilly Hellion

Essay by Robert Gordon, Cleveland Ballet Company (official program), 1996

THERE ARE CINDER block joints you can still go to in Memphis, wooden shacks in Mississippi, places that are out of the way and not ...

The Love Parade

Report by Dave Rimmer, Pozor, 1996

NOTE: As a veteran of the event, I have written a lot about the Love Parade – for various music magazines in the UK, for ...

The Sherrys

Sleeve notes by Pete Grendysa, Bear Family, 1996

NEW ORLEANS SINGER Chris Kenner looked around at the music scene one day in 1963 and wrote a song called 'The Land Of 1,000 Dances'. ...

ZZ Hill: Z.Z. Hill: Love Is Good When You're Stealing It

Sleeve notes by Don Snowden, Ichiban Soul Classics/Sony Music, 1996

Z.Z. HILL WORE many hats during a career that was cut tragically short by a heart attack in 1984. A songwriter who enjoyed early hits ...

Cheap Trick

Sleeve notes by Ira Robbins, Sex, America, Cheap Trick (Sony Legacy), May 1996

AT A TIME WHEN AMERICAN ROCK'N'ROLL was sinking under the commercial weight of glitter-ball beats, arena bombast and California no-cal, Cheap Trick blew out of ...

Bread: Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread

Sleeve notes by Barney Hoskyns, Elektra Records, Summer 1996

IN SO MANY ways, Bread’s is a quintessentially L.A. pop story. An Oklahoman and a Tennessean make their separate ways to Hollywood in the early ...

Dan Fogelberg: Portrait - The Music of Dan Fogelberg from 1972-1997

Sleeve notes by Paul Zollo, Columbia Legacy, 1997

IT'S ONE OF his earliest memories: He's four years old, standing up on a box in front of his father's big band, baton in hand, ...

Al Green: Anthology

Sleeve notes by Robert Gordon, Hi Records, 1997

Al Green's voice is a beautiful musical instrument. Al Green's singing can create pictures, can loll in clover and tease birds. That man can sing ...

Bo Diddley: His Best: The Chess 50th Anniversary Collection

Sleeve notes by Don Snowden, Chess/MCA Records, 1997

TO PARAPHRASE the titles of two of the 20 Bo Diddley nuggets contained on His Best: The Chess 50th Anniversary Collection , you can't judge ...

Kenny Gamble, Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes, MFSB, O'Jays, The Salsoul Orchestra, The Spinners: Brotherly Love: The Musicians

Sleeve notes by Vernon Gibbs, Epic/Philadelphia International, 1997

Original contribution to sleevenotes for The Philly Sound: Kenny Gamble, Leon Huff & The Story Of Brotherly Love (1966-1976) (Epic/Philadelphia International) ...

Buddy Guy: The Complete Chess Studio Sessions

Sleeve notes by Don Snowden, Chess, 1997

THE BEST measure of Buddy Guy's talents as a bluesman could well be the fact that he's been presiding over the most distinguished fan club ...

Etta James

Sleeve notes by Pete Grendysa, MCA Records, 1997

ETTA JAMES WAS just 21 years old when she came to Chess Records in 1960, but she was a seasoned show business veteran with six ...

Glen Campbell: The Glen Campbell Collection (1962-1989)

Sleeve notes by Colin Escott, Razor & Tie Records, 1997

ALTHOUGH GLEN CAMPBELL has always insisted that he's a country boy who sings--not a country singer, he arrived at a time when country music was ...

Harper's Bizarre: Harpers Bizarre: Feelin’ Groovy

Sleeve notes by Gene Sculatti, Warner Bros. Records, 1997

"The object of A&R is to give people what they want to have, not what you think they might like to hear." Thus spoke a ...

Ben Folds Five: Interview with Ben Folds (December 1997)

Interview by Kit Aiken, extracted in Uncut (July 1999), 1997

KA: What's on this new compilation (Naked Baby Photos) on Caroline? ...

Crowded House: My Second Life Has Just Begun – April 1994

Book Excerpt by Chris Bourke, 'Something So Strong' (Pan Macmillan Australia), 1997

NOTE: In this excerpt from Chris Bourke's Crowded House biography Something So Strong (Pan Macmillan Australia, 1997), drummer Paul Hester has been brooding for months ...

Oasis Talk!

Interview by Simon Witter, Unpublished interview for television, 1997

1) Brother Liam ...

Stone the Crows: Stone the Crows

Sleeve notes by Chris Welch, Repertoire Records, 1997

"STONE THE CROWS!" shouted legendary manager Peter Grant, when he first heard this splendid young Scottish band roaring into action. Although it was the Londoner's ...

The Flamingos

Sleeve notes by Pete Grendysa, MCA Records, 1997

THEY DIDN'T ROCK; they didn't roll. Their singing had nothing of the street corner or local school yard about it. With roots in a little-known ...

Richard Thompson: Watcher Of The Dark: Richard Thompson, Guitar God From Planet Eureka

Book Excerpt by Gerrie Lim, 'Inside the Outsider' (BigO Books) , 1997

IT'S NIGH HIGH impossible to summarize Richard Thompson's vast repertoire and immense talent, not to mention demented humor, but one particular sentence from Thompson himself ...

Grateful Dead, Jerry Garcia: Carolyn "Mountain Girl" Garcia

Interview by David Gans, The Grateful Dead Hour, 29 January 1997

Carolyn "Mountain Girl" Garcia was victorious in her lawsuit against the estate of her late ex-husband, Jerry Garcia. Following the guitarist's death in August 1995, ...

Sly & the Family Stone: On The Record: Sly & the Family Stone

Book Excerpt by Joel Selvin, Simon & Schuster, July 1997

Introduction & Voices ...

Sly & the Family Stone: On The Record: Sly & the Family Stone

Book Excerpt by Joel Selvin, Simon & Schuster, July 1997

Chapter I: A Little Prince ...

Sly & the Family Stone: On The Record: Sly & the Family Stone

Book Excerpt by Joel Selvin, Simon & Schuster, July 1997

Chapter 2: Really A Rhythm and Blues Cat ...

Sly & the Family Stone: On The Record: Sly & the Family Stone

Book Excerpt by Joel Selvin, Simon & Schuster, July 1997

Chapter 3: Boys, Girls, Black, White ...

Sly & the Family Stone: On The Record: Sly & the Family Stone

Book Excerpt by Joel Selvin, Simon & Schuster, July 1997

Chapter 4: Pussycat à Go Go, Electric Circus ...

Sly & the Family Stone: On The Record: Sly & the Family Stone

Book Excerpt by Joel Selvin, Simon & Schuster, July 1997

Chapter 5: Playing Toilets ...

Sly & the Family Stone: On The Record: Sly & the Family Stone

Book Excerpt by Joel Selvin, Simon & Schuster, July 1997

Chapter 6: As Big As Life ...

Sly & the Family Stone: On The Record: Sly & the Family Stone

Book Excerpt by Joel Selvin, Simon & Schuster, July 1997

Chapter 7: There Is Going To Be a Riot ...

Sly & the Family Stone: On The Record: Sly & the Family Stone

Book Excerpt by Joel Selvin, Simon & Schuster, July 1997

Chapter 8: Guns And Dogs ...

Sly & the Family Stone: On The Record: Sly & the Family Stone

Book Excerpt by Joel Selvin, Simon & Schuster, July 1997

Chapter 9: Sly's Last Chance ...

Sly & the Family Stone: On The Record: Sly & the Family Stone

Book Excerpt by Joel Selvin, Simon & Schuster, July 1997

Chapter 10: Time To Go ...

Sly & the Family Stone: On The Record: Sly & the Family Stone

Book Excerpt by Joel Selvin, Simon & Schuster, July 1997

Chapter 11: Only Kidding ...

Sly & the Family Stone: On The Record: Sly & the Family Stone

Book Excerpt by Joel Selvin, Simon & Schuster, July 1997

Chapter 12: Nobody Believed Anymore ...

Sly & the Family Stone: On The Record: Sly & the Family Stone

Book Excerpt by Joel Selvin, Simon & Schuster, July 1997

Discography ...

U2: The Year of Living Dangerously

Report and Interview by Andrew Mueller, The Irish Independent, 30 December 1997

U2 started '97 badly, but their annus horribilis has undergone a miraculous recovery. Interview: Andrew Mueller ...

Cassius Clay: "Nobody is going to beat me": Cassius Clay's I Am The Greatest!

Sleeve notes by Paul Gorman, Rev-Ola Records, 1998

AUTHOR'S 2016 NOTE: I was commissioned to write these sleeve-notes by Joe Foster for his label Rev-Ola's 1998 reissue of I Am The Greatest, the ...

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

Book Excerpt by Hank Bordowitz, Schirmer Books, 1998

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

Dire Straits: Dire Straits Revisited

Sleeve notes by Charlie Gillett, Phonogram Records , 1998

FROM THE START, Dire Straits was a classic case of wrong time, wrong place. In the summer of 1977, Britain was ablaze with the aggression ...

4 Hero

Book Excerpt by Ben Thompson, Seven Years Of Plenty, 1998

IT’S A humid, late-summer day in 1997. In a ramshackle northwest London recording studio, a soft breeze kisses the skin: not some cooling breath of ...

Pavement: Across the Cracks: Pavement

Book Excerpt by Ben Thompson, 'Seven Years of Plenty' (Gollancz), 1998

PAVEMENT HEAVEN, steps 1-7: ...

The Everly Brothers, Don Everly: An Everly Brother In Winter: Walkin' Right Back with Don Everly

Retrospective and Interview by Colin Escott, 'Tattoed on their Tongues' (Schirmer), 1998

WHEN ROCK 'N' ROLL ARRIVED, it triggered a three-alarm anxiety attack in Nashville. Many hoped that they would wake up one morning to find it ...

Bert Jansch Conundrum: Thirteen Down (Fantasy/Kicking Mule)

Sleeve notes by Bill Wasserzieher, Fantasy/Kicking Mule Records, 1998

MUSIC COMMENTATOR Colin Harper once wrote that Bert Jansch, on a scale of one to 10 in terms of popular notoriety, probably would come in ...

Eddie Cochran: Somethin' Else - The Fine Lookin' Hits of Eddie Cochran

Sleeve notes by Colin Escott, Razor & Tie Records, 1998

EDDIE COCHRAN was truly Somethin' Else. He had the look. He had the talent. He had the attitude. He played guitar - really played guitar. ...

How To Start A Record Company: Decca Records

Retrospective by Colin Escott, 'Tattoed on their Tongues' (Schirmer Books), 1998

DECCA RECORDS was launched in the United States in August 1934 when business confidence was mired below zero. If Decca had collapsed, as it ...

Pulp: Inside Jarvis: A Reluctant Stardom

Book Excerpt by Ben Thompson, Seven Years of Plenty, 1998

Autumn 1993 ...

Keith Moon, The Who: Moon Over America

Book Excerpt by Tony Fletcher, Omnibus Books, 1998

An extract from Dear Boy: The Life Of Keith Moon, by Tony Fletcher, first published by Omnibus Press in 1998. (616pp, currently available in the ...

Origin of the Spices: From Riot Grrrl to Girl Power

Book Excerpt by Ben Thompson, Seven Years of Plenty (Victor Gollancz) , 1998

The riot grrrl/girl power liaison: from a whisper to a screen near you ...

Future Sound of London, Orbital, Ultramarine, Underworld: Our Electric Friends: Humanising the Highway, from ‘Autobahn’ to Orbital

Book Excerpt by Ben Thompson, 'Seven Years of Plenty', 1998

DRIVING ON THE M25 in a rusty Mini. Early evening, thick drizzle. Only one windscreen wiper works because someone has snapped the end off the ...

Roy Buchanan: The Messiah Will Come Again

Book Excerpt by Colin Escott, 'Tattoed on their Tongues' (Schirmer Books), 1998

ROY BUCHANAN broke the mould. Usually the record comes out, then the articles follow, and then the concerts start selling out, and then there's ...

Solomon Burke: Music To Make Love By

Sleeve notes by Colin Escott, Chess Records, 1998

SOLOMON BURKE'S ultimate triumph is that he's almost as great as he says he is, and has almost accomplished everything he says he has. He ...

Arab Strap: Strapping Youth: Arab Strap

Book Excerpt by Ben Thompson, Seven Years of Plenty, 1998

IN THE MIDDLE of 1996, dynamic Falkirk duo Aidan Moffatt and Malcolm Middleton were inspired by the first big weekend of their summer to write ...

Marc Bolan, David Bowie, Freddie Mercury: The Androgynous Mirror

Book Excerpt by Jim Farber, 'Rolling Stone: The Seventies' (Little, Brown), 1998

ON A SWAMPY July night in 1974, I left my suburban home bound for David Bowie's Diamond Dogs concert, dressed in midnight-blue eyeliner, hepatitis-yellow platforms ...

Aphex Twin: The Aphex Twin

Book Excerpt by Ben Thompson, Seven Years of Plenty , 1998

MIDI CIRCUS at Brixton Academy in 1992. Three men dressed in Creature From the Black Lagoon outfits are trying to eat each other, and a ...

Smog: The Man Behind the Smog

Book Excerpt by Ben Thompson, Ways of Hearing, 1998

BILL CALLAHAN HAS BEEN releasing strange and disturbing records as Smog – both on his own and with various accomplices, most notably erstwhile soulmate Cynthia ...

The Misunderstood

Book Excerpt by Richie Unterberger, 'Unknown Legends of Rock 'n' Roll' (Backbeat), 1998

IT WAS LATE 1966, and Fontana Records had assembled several dozen members of the press to hear the label's newest and most adventurous act at ...

The Prodigy

Book Excerpt by Ben Thompson, Seven Years of Plenty, 1998

LIAM HOWLETT - soft-spoken mastermind behind The Prodigy's globe-subjugating juggernaut of organised chaos - is a very busy man. If you want some idea of ...

The Story of Pye Records

Sleeve notes by Jim Irvin, Sequel Records, 1998

"AY-YI-YI, THE BEAT IS CRAZY!" ‘Sucu Sucu’, an insanely catchy samba novelty, was a chart sensation in the autumn of 1961. The forgotten theme to ...

Tricky: The Tricky Kid

Book Excerpt by Ben Thompson, 'Ways of Hearing' (Gollancz), 1998

HOTEL ROOMS ARE notoriously impervious to the characters of the people who stay in them: close proximity to a wicker basketful of complimentary toiletries has ...

New York Dolls: Too Much, Too Soon: The Dolls take New York

Book Excerpt by Barney Hoskyns, 'Glam!' (Faber), 1998

Note: this is a piece adapted in edited form from Glam! Bowie, Bolan & the Glitter-Rock Revolution (Faber, 1998) ...

New York Dolls: Up and Down in Paris and London: The New York Dolls trash Europe

Book Excerpt by Nina Antonia, Omnibus Books, 1998

An extract from Too Much Too Soon: The New York Dolls by Nina Antonia, first published by Omnibus Press in 1998. (208pp, currently available in ...

Will Oldham: Viva Will Oldham: The Permutations of Palace

Book Excerpt by Ben Thompson, 'Seven Years of Plenty', 1998

THE VARIOUS mutations of the Palace name are a cover for the extraordinary career of Louisville's Will Oldham. The opposite of the businessman who opens ...

Grateful Dead: The Grateful Dead: An Interview With Donna Jean (Godchaux) MacKay

Interview by David Gans, The Grateful Dead Hour, 28 March 1998

David Gans: Well, here I am in Philadelphia with Donna Jean MacKay. Hello! ...

Dawn, Tony Orlando: Tony Orlando and Dawn

Sleeve notes by Roy Trakin, The Definitive Collection of Dawn, August 1998

OCTOBER 1970. The war was still raging in Vietnam. Richard Nixon was in the White House and the Watergate was still just the name of ...

Dale Hawkins: The Shreveport Tornado

Sleeve notes by Bill Millar, Ace Records, September 1998

Dale Hawkins may be short on the recognition that blesses other 50s rock'n’rollers but that’s a blessing of a kind. He’s still a legend with ...

Blur, Gorky's Zygotic Mynci, Massive Attack, Super Furry Animals, Tricky: This Must Be The Place: Newport, Bristol, Walthamstow, Colchester: Everybody's Talking About... The True Significance Of Location

Book Excerpt by Ben Thompson, 'Seven Years of Plenty' (Gollancz), October 1998

"A recent article in the New York Times proclaimed Newport as The New Seattle..." Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 13 December, 1996 ...

DJ Kool Herc: Adventures on the Wheels of Steel: DJ Kool Herc and the Birth of Hip Hop

Book Excerpt by Bill Brewster, Frank Broughton, 'Last Night a DJ Saved My Life', 1999

Take a Break Face your partner, holding hands. Tap one foot behind the other and bring your feet together again. Repeat with your other foot. (Your ...

Alexis Korner: Bootleg Him (1973)

Sleeve notes by Kit Aiken, Castle, 1999

It’s hard to overstate Alexis Korner’s contribution to the development of British popular music. His position as a tirelessly driven champion of The Blues in ...

Alexis Korner: Me

Sleeve notes by Kit Aiken, Castle, 1999

THE Körners were an Austrian Jewish family who escaped war-torn Europe to settle in London. Youngest son Alexis, having spent much time away from his ...

Disco-Tex and His Sex-O-Lettes: Get Dancin'

Sleeve notes by Jon Savage, Castle Records, 1999

It's all about wonder the power to be like thunderexpressing electricity It's the greatest show with the best effectssince Disco Tex and the SexolettesPet Shop ...

Heinz, Joe Meek, The Tornados: Heinz Burt: The Last Interview

Sleeve notes by Chris Welch, Repertoire Records, 1999

In 1999 Chris Welch interviewed singer and Tornados bass guitarist Heinz Burt about his early career and final years as a rock'n'roll legend. In this ...

Ivory Joe Hunter

Sleeve notes by Bill Millar, Ace Records, 1999

ANY ONE ALBUM BY IVORY JOE HUNTER can only hint at the depth and breadth of a career which spanned five decades of entertainment experience. ...

Aretha Franklin: Rock 100: Aretha Franklin

Book Excerpt by David Dalton, Lenny Kaye, Cooper Square Books (reissue), 1999

IN 1972 WHEN ARETHA FRANKLIN RECORDED Amazing Grace, her first gospel album in 14 years, at the New Missionary Baptist Church in Chicago, it was ...

Bob Dylan: Rock 100: Bob Dylan

Book Excerpt by Lenny Kaye, David Dalton, Cooper Square Books (reissue), 1999

"I SEE THINGS OTHER PEOPLE DON'T," Dylan once said about himself. "I dissolve myself into situations where I am invisible." Dylan's progress has been a ...

Cream: Rock 100: Cream

Book Excerpt by Lenny Kaye, David Dalton, Cooper Square Books (reissue), 1999

CREAM WAS THE FIRST OF A NEW SPECIES – the high-voltage superblues group. By channeling their "amplified heat" through traditional blues, they created a clean, ...

Creedence Clearwater Revival: Rock 100: Creedence Clearwater Revival

Book Excerpt by Lenny Kaye, David Dalton, Cooper Square Books (reissue), 1999

PSYCHEDELIC MUSIC WAS PEAKING AND rock was undergoing a period of exhaustion in 1968 when Creedence Clearwater Revival arrived out of nowhere with their "lean, ...

David Bowie: Rock 100: David Bowie

Book Excerpt by Lenny Kaye, David Dalton, Cooper Square Books (reissue), 1999

HE IS, AS HE HAD PLANNED, MAGNIFICENT. The stage appears impeccably struck, lights arranged to catch the finer angles of his face, making him seem ...

Frank Zappa: Rock 100: Frank Zappa

Book Excerpt by Lenny Kaye, David Dalton, Cooper Square Books (reissue), 1999

"There is no undertaking more challenging, no responsibility more awesome than being a Mother."– RICHARD M. NIXON ...

Joni Mitchell: Rock 100: Joni Mitchell

Book Excerpt by David Dalton, Lenny Kaye, Cooper Square Books (reissue), 1999

I was born in Fort Macleod, Alberta, in the foothills of the Canadian Rockies – an area of extreme temperatures and mirages. When I was ...

Sly & the Family Stone: Rock 100: Sly and the Family Stone

Book Excerpt by David Dalton, Lenny Kaye, Cooper Square Books (reissue), 1999

JIMI HENDRIX WAS THE FIRST BLACK TO PLAY acid rock, but he remained a black musician playing to white audiences; he did not get played ...

Rock 100: Um, What Was It We Wanted To Say?

Book Excerpt by David Dalton, Lenny Kaye, Cooper Square (reissue), 1999

Introduction to the Second Edition David Dalton & Lenny Kaye, June 15, Very Late Twentieth Century ...

Roy Buchanan

Sleeve notes by Bill Millar, Roller Coaster, 1999

Roy Buchanan may be remembered as little more than a guitar player who achieved minor British chart success with 'Sweet Dreams' (#40 in 1973) and, ...

The Band

Book Excerpt by David Dalton, Lenny Kaye, Rock 100, Cooper Square Books (reissue), 1999

THE BAND was once described as the only group who could warm up the crowd for Abraham Lincoln. When they first appeared late in 1968, ...

The Beach Boys

Book Excerpt by David Dalton, Lenny Kaye, Cooper Square Books (reissue), 1999

IN THE BEGINNING... WERE THE BEACH BOYS. Under the avalanche of the English Invasion, the Psychedelic Apocalypse, supersonic guitars and flash, it is almost forgotten ...

Jeff Beck: Who Else But Jeff Beck?

Retrospective and Interview by Dave Thompson, Experience Hendrix, 1999

IN 1985, WITH A NEW single, "People Get Ready," reuniting him with vocalist Rod Stewart for the first time since 1969, Jeff Beck was lined ...

Grateful Dead: Carol Brightman: author of Sweet Chaos: The Grateful Dead's American Adventure

Interview by David Gans, Grateful Dead Hour, January 1999

Carol Brightman was an anti-war activist in the '60s and later the biographer of the writer Mary McCarthy. She sometimes wondered why so many of ...

Flaming Lips: Wayne Coyne on The Soft Bulletin

Press Release by Wayne Coyne, Warner Bros., 8 June 1999

I AM NOT On Drugs...yet. I sometimes think about how quiet the world must have been, maybe a hundred years ago. I say that, having ...

Free

Sleeve notes by Phil Sutcliffe, Universal Records, July 1999

"We were hell-bent on what we did. I didn’t care if I lived or died but for the band." – Paul Rodgers ...

Lonnie Mack: Memphis Wham!

Sleeve notes by Bill Millar, Ace Records, July 1999

The term 'influential' is applied to almost anyone these days but there’s still a case for saying that the massively popular blues-rock guitar genre can ...

Johnny Thunders: Forewarned: Johnny Thunders

Book Excerpt by Nina Antonia, Cherry Red Books, August 1999

JOHNNY THUNDERS didn’t just flirt with death, he courted it. Even so, his eventual demise in New Orleans on 23rd April 1991 still came as ...

Rick Holmstrom: Gonna Get Wild (Tone Cool)

Sleeve notes by Kirk Silsbee, Tone Cool, October 1999

IF YOU'VE partaken of the thriving blues scene in Los Angeles in the last 15 years, you've probably crossed paths with guitarist Rick Holmstrom. ...

Nappy Brown: Savoy Blues Legends: Nappy Brown

Sleeve notes by Colin Escott, Savoy Records, 2000

INCIPIENT SOUL. There's no other way to describe Nappy Brown. It's true that he gets into the statistic books for a couple of numbers that ...

Björk: Dancer In the Dark

Interview by David Toop, bjork.com, 2000

"I STILL HAVE so much music in my head," said Maurice Ravel. "I haven't said anything yet, and I have still so much to say." ...

Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band: Trout Mask Replica

Book Excerpt by Mike Barnes, 'Captain Beefheart: The Biography' (Quartet), 2000

"If there has been anything in the history of popular music which could be described as a work of art in a way that people ...

Charles Mingus: Growing Up Absurd

Book Excerpt by Gene Santoro, 'Myself When I Am Real' (Oxford University Press), 2000

THE BABY, barely three months old and pudgy but with bright eyes and an inquiring air, was the center of attention as he fussed on ...

Norman Jay: Good Times: The Stately Sound of London

Sleeve notes by Frank Broughton, Nuphonic Records, 2000

"IT'S VERY SIMPLE," says Norman Jay behind his shades, as we drive round the hallowed sites of the Notting Hill Carnival. "Good Times is about… ...

Ian Dury, Kilburn & The High Roads: Ian Dury’s High Road

Book Excerpt by Richard Balls, Omnibus Press, 2000

An extract from Sex & Drugs & Rock’n’Roll: The Life of Ian Dury, by Richard Balls, first published by Omnibus Press in 2000. (300pp, currently ...

Blondie: It was 40 Years Ago Today: The Story Of Blondie's Parallel Lines

Retrospective by Steve Pafford, 'The MOJO Collection' (Canongate), 2000

DESPITE BEING the last act out of the original New York punk scene to be offered a record deal, the blond ambition of ex-Playboy Bunny ...

Miles Davis: The Hat Makes the Man

Book Excerpt by Nick Tosches, The Nick Tosches Reader, 2000

THE WORD ITSELF is deadening: art, a devalued dollar of a word, no longer backed by meaning, as drained of worth as the politician's viability, ...

Patrick Adams

Sleeve notes by John McCready, Counterpoint Records, 2000

THOUGH MANY have tried, it’s hard to free disco of the negative associations that have shadowed it. "Disco Sucks", they still say. Boney M and ...

Paul Butterfield's Better Days: Bearsville Anthology

Sleeve notes by Colin Escott, Rhino Bearsville, 2000

PAUL BUTTERFIELD was a legend long before he ever set foot in Woodstock. Perhaps the first authentic white voice in the blues, his legendary '60s ...

Remembering the Fever

Sleeve notes by Carol Cooper, 'Hip Hop Fever' (Warlock Records), 2000

NOBODY'S TRYING to say that Disco Fever was the only important hip-hop club. But for various reasons, the Fever is still remembered as the most ...

Spirit

Sleeve notes by John Tobler, Sony Records sleevnote, 2000

THE TRAGIC AND unexpected death (from drowning) on the second day of 1997 of guitarist and vocalist Randy California effectively silenced Spirit, described by Billboard ...

Tim Buckley: Starsailor: Voyage into the Unknown

Book Excerpt by David Browne, Dream Brother, 2000

By early 1970, Larry Beckett had had an eventful 18 months, albeit in the worst ways. After being drafted, he had been assigned to a ...

The Bee Gees: Back to Blighty, 1967

Book Excerpt by Andrew Môn Hughes, Melinda Bilyeu, Hector Cook, Omnibus Books, 2000

An extract from The Bee Gees: Tales Of The Brothers Gibb by Melinda Bilyeu, Hector Cook and Andrew Môn Hughes, first published by Omnibus Press ...

Little Feat: The Little Feat Saga

Sleeve notes by Bud Scoppa, Rhino Records, February 2000

This is the story of a great American band, a band as quintessentially SoCal as the Beach Boys, as rootsy as the Band, as funky ...

Paul Anka: Vegas Style – The Best of the Late RCA and Buddah Recordings

Sleeve notes by Colin Escott, Taragon Records, July 2000

WE CATCH PAUL Anka in one of life's in-betweens. He had been one of the biggest stars of the '50s and would spectacularly resurrect his ...

The Byrds, Flying Burrito Brothers, Gram Parsons: Gram Parsons, Track by Track

Sleeve notes by Bud Scoppa, Sacred Hearts and Fallen Angels (Rhino), September 2000

The International Submarine Band: Safe at Home ...

Patsy Cline: 25 All-Time Greatest Recordings: The 4-Star Years (Varese Sarabande)

Sleeve notes by Colin Escott, Varese Sarabande, September 2000

AROUND 2:00 PM on Tuesday March 5, 1963, a Piper Comanche light airplane left Kansas City bound for Nashville. There were three passengers and a ...

The Band: Cahoots

Sleeve notes by Barney Hoskyns, Capitol Records, October 2000

IRONICALLY, after the release of Stage Fright in September 1970, The Band spent the ensuing three months touring America. "We had it set up pretty ...

The Band: Music From Big Pink

Sleeve notes by Barney Hoskyns, Capitol Records, October 2000

IT ALL BEGAN with a house. An unremarkable ranch house sitting at the end of a long dirt driveway in the shadow of a mountain ...

The Band: Stage Fright

Sleeve notes by Barney Hoskyns, Capitol Records, October 2000

THE BAND had good reason to call their third album Stage Fright. On the eve of their live debut at Bill Graham’s Winterland theater in ...

The Band: The Band

Sleeve notes by Barney Hoskyns, Capitol Records, October 2000

'TWAS IN the early summer of 1968 that legendary rock promoter Bill Graham drove up to the Catskill mountains to propose that The Band make ...

The Kinks: Larry Page: Kinky Music

Sleeve notes by Kieron Tyler, RPM Records, December 2000

KINKY MUSIC was originally issued on June 18, 1965, by Decca Records. The album included twelve instrumental interpretations of songs composed by Kinks Ray and ...

2 Live Crew

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

David Mr Mix Hobbs; Chris Fresh Kid-Ice Won Wong; Brother Marquis Ross; Luther Campbell ...

2 Unlimited

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Anita Doth, b. 28 December 1971, Amsterdam, The Netherlands (replaced by Marjon van Iwaarden, b. 18 June 1974, Kruiningen); Ray Slijngaard, b. 28 June 1971, ...

ABBA

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, 'Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music', 2001

Benny Andersson, b. 16 December 1946, Stockholm, Sweden; Agnetha Fältskog, b. 5 April 1950, Jönköping; Anni-Frid Lyngstad, b. 15 November 1945, Björkasen, Norway; Björn Ulvaeus, ...

Abba Down Unda

Book Excerpt by Carl Magnus Palm, Omnibus Books, 2001

An extract from Bright Lights, Dark Shadows: The Real Story of Abba, by Carl Magnus Palm, first published by Omnibus Press in 2001. (554pp, currently ...

ABC

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music, 2001

Martin Fry, b. 9 March 1958, Manchester, England; Mark Lickley; David Robinson; Stephen Singleton, b. 17 April 1959, Sheffield; Mark White, b. 1 April 1961, ...

Afghan Whigs

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music, 2001

John Curley; Greg Dulli; Steve Earle (replaced by Paul Buchignani, replaced by Michael Horrigan); Rick McCollum ...

A-ha

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music, 2001

Magne Foruholmen, b. 1 November 1962, Norway; Morten Harket, b. 14 September 1959, Norway; Pal Waaktar, b. 6 September 1963, Oslo ...

Air

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music, 2001

Jean-Benoit Dunckel, b. Versailles, France; Nicolas Godin, b. Versailles, France ...

Air Supply

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Russell Hitchcock, b. 15 June 1949, Melbourne, Australia; Graham Russell, b. 1 June 1950, England; Ralph Cooper, b. 6 April 1951, Coffs Harbour, Australia; Frank ...

Alabama

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music, 2001

Randy Yeull Owen, b. 13 December 1949, Fort Payne, Alabama, USA; Jeffrey Alan Cook, b. 27 August 1949, Fort Payne; Teddy Wayne Gentry, b. 22 ...

Albert Ammons

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 23 September 1907, Chicago, Illinois, USA, d. 2 December 1949, Chicago ...

Albert Lee

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 21 December 1943, Leominster, Herefordshire, England ...

Alice In Chains

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music, 2001

Jerry Cantrell, b. 18 March 1966, Tacoma, Washington, USA; Sean Kinney, b. 26 May 1966, Seattle, Washington; Layne Staley, b. 22 August 1967, Bellevue, Washington; ...

The Middle Class, The Negative Trend, The Weirdos: America’s Dreaming: California Punk, 1978

Book Excerpt by Jon Savage, England's Dreaming, 2001

25.8.78: This is my first visit to the U.S., let alone the West Coast, and I know that I’m on another planet, especially when, at ...

Amos Milburn

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 1 April 1926, Houston, Texas, USA, d. 13 January 1980, Houston ...

Amy Grant

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 25 November 1960, Augusta, Georgia, USA ...

Angela Winbush

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. St Louis, Missouri, USA ...

Arrested Development

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Speech, b. Todd Thomas, 25 October 1968, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA; DJ Headliner, b. Timothy Barnwell, 26 July 1967, New Jersey; Montsho Eshe, b. Temelca Gaither, ...

Art Ensemble Of Chicago

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music, 2001

Roscoe Mitchell, b. 3 August 1940, Chicago, Illinois, USA; Joseph Jarman, b. 14 September 1937, Pine Bluff, Arkansas; Lester Bowie, b. 11 October 1941, Frederick, ...

Arthur Alexander

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 10 May 1940, Florence, Alabama, USA, d. 13 June 1993, Nashville, Tennessee ...

Arthur Prysock

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 2 January 1929, Spartanburg, North Carolina, USA, d. 21 June 1997, Hamilton, Bermuda ...

Artie Shaw

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. Arthur Jacob Arshawsky, 23 May 1910, New York, USA ...

Robert Wyatt: A-Shleep at the Wheel: Robert Wyatt

Book Excerpt by Ben Thompson, 'Ways of Hearing', 2001

ROBERT WYATT lives on an isolated estuary in the misty North-East of England, where he sometimes likes to sit in quiet contemplation with his wife ...

Atlanta Rhythm Section

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Barry Bailey, b. 12 June 1948, Decatur, Georgia, USA; Paul Goddard, b. 23 June 1945, Rome, Georgia; J. R. Cobb, b. 5 February 1944, Birmingham, ...

B.J. Thomas: B. J. Thomas

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. Billy Joe Thomas, 27 August 1942, Houston, Texas, USA ...

Backstreet Boys

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Nick Carter, b. 28 January 1980, Jamestown, New York, USA; Howie Dorough, b. 22 August 1973, Orlando, Florida; Brian Littrell, b. 20 February 1975, Lexington, ...

Barbara Lynn

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. Barbara Lynn Ozen, 16 January 1942, Beaumont, Texas, USA ...

Barry Adamson

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music, 2001

b. Manchester, England ...

Barry McGuire

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 15 October 1937, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA ...

Bert Berns

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. Bert Russell, 1929, d. 31 December 1967, New York, USA ...

Betty Everett

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 23 November 1939, Greenwood, Mississippi, USA ...

Big Maybelle

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. Mabel Louise Smith, 1 May 1924, Jackson, Tennessee, USA, d. 23 January 1972 ...

Big Maybelle: Candy! On Savoy 1956-59

Sleeve notes by Colin Escott, Savoy Jazz Records, 2001

RECORD COMPANY files tell the story in a haunting, elliptical way. Let's take 1957, for instance: January 8, fifteen dollar advance; same day, another fifty ...

Bill Black

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 17 September 1926, Memphis, Tennessee, USA, d. 21 October 1965, Memphis ...

Bill Justis

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 14 October 1927, Birmingham, Alabama, USA, d. 15 July 1982 ...

Bill Laswell

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, 'Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music', 2001

ONE OF THE new breed of record producers of the '80s and '90s, Laswell regards songs as "an old-fashioned primitive format". He is renowned for ...

Billy Eckstine

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. William Clarence Eckstein, 8 July 1913, Pittsburgh, USA, d. 8 March 1993, Pennsylvania ...

Billy Ocean

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. Leslie Sebastian Charles, 21 January 1950, Trinidad ...

Blind Willie McTell

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 5 May 1901, Thomson, Georgia, USA, d. 19 August 1959, Milledgeville, Georgia ...

Blues Traveler

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Brendan Hill, b. 27 March 1970, London, England; Chan Kinchla, b. 29 May 1969, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada; John Popper, b. 29 March 1967, Cleveland, Ohio, ...

Bob and Marcia

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Bob Andy, b. Keith Anderson, 1944, Kingston, Jamaica; Marcia Griffiths, b. Kingston ...

Bob Wills & The Texas Playboys: Bob Wills

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 6 March 1905, Limestone County, Texas, USA, d. 13 May 1975, Fort Worth, Texas ...

Bobby Bare: The Singles 1959-1969

Sleeve notes by Colin Escott, BMG International, 2001

AN OUTLAW before his time, a folk singer who never played a coffee house, a rock 'n' roller who gave away his biggest hit. Bobby ...

Bobby Charles: Wish You Were Here

Sleeve notes by Colin Escott, Stony Plain Records, 2001

IT'S BOBBY CHARLES'S personal preference to maintain a low profile. He has famous friends who get twitchy when they're out of the limelight for ...

Bobby Darin

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music, 2001

b. Walden Robert Cassotto, 14 May 1936, New York, USA, d. 20 December 1973, Los Angeles, California ...

Bobby Goldsboro

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 18 January 1941, Marianna, Florida, USA ...

Bobby Hebb

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 26 July 1941, Nashville, Tennessee, USA ...

Bobby Rydell

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. Robert Louis Ridarelli, 26 April 1940, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA ...

Bobby Vee

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. Robert Thomas Velline, 30 April 1943, Fargo, North Dakota, USA ...

Bobby Vinton

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. Stanley Robert Vinton, 16 April 1935, Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, USA ...

Bonnie Tyler

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. Gaynor Hopkins, 8 June 1951, Skewen, Wales ...

Boyz II Men

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music, 2001

Wanya 'Squirt' Morris, b. 29 July 1973, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Michael 'Bass' McCary, b. 16 December 1972, Philadelphia; Shawn 'Slim' Stockman, b. 26 September 1972; ...

Boyzone

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Keith Duffy, b. 1 October 1974; Stephen Gately, b. 17 March 1976; Mike Graham, b. 15 August 1972; Ronan Keating, b. 3 March 1977; Shane ...

Brian Eno: An Uncle, A Celebrity, A Masturbator

Book Excerpt by Ben Thompson, 'Ways of Hearing' , 2001

ON THE BACK cover of A Year with Swollen Appendices, Brian Eno's diary of 1995, he supplies a handy guide to some of the things ...

Brian Hyland

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 12 November 1944, New York, USA ...

Bruce Hornsby

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 23 November 1954, Williamsburg, USA ...

Bryan Adams

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. Bryan Guy Adams, 5 November 1959, Kingston, Ontario, Canada ...

Buck Owens

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. Alvis Edgar Owens, 12 August 1929, Sherman, Texas, USA ...

Byron Lee & The Dragonaires: Byron Lee

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. Ken Lazarus, Jamaica ...

Cannonball Adderley

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. Julian Adderley, 15 September 1928, Tampa, Florida, USA, d. 8 August 1975, Gary, Indiana ...

Captain and Tennille

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Daryl Dragon, b. 27 August 1942, Los Angeles, California, USA; Toni Tennille, b. 8 May 1943, Montgomery, Alabama ...

Carolyn Hester

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 1936, Waco, Texas, USA ...

Celia Cruz

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. Santos Saurez, 21 October 1920, Havana, Cuba ...

Chairmen of the Board

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music, 2001

"General" Norman Johnson, b. 23 May 1943, Norfolk, Virginia, USA; Eddie Curtis; Harrison Kennedy, b. Ontario, Canada; Danny Woods, b. 10 April 1944, Atlanta, Georgia. ...

Champion Jack Dupree

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. William Thomas Dupree, 4 July 1910, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA, d. 21 January 1992 ...

Charley Pride

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 18 March 1938, Sledge, Mississippi, USA ...

The Charlie Daniels Band: Charlie Daniels Band, The

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Charlie Daniels, b. 28 October 1943, Wilmington, North Carolina, USA; Joel Di Gregorio, b. Worcester, Massachusetts; Tom Crain; Charlie Hayward; Fred Edwards; Don Murray; Charlie ...

Charlie Haden

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. Charles Edward Haden, 6 August 1937, Shenandoah, Iowa, USA ...

Chas and Dave

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Charles (Chas) Hodges, b. 28 December 1943, London, England; Dave Peacock, b. 24 May 1945, London; Mick Burt, b. 23 August 1943 ...

Chip Taylor

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. James Wesley Voight, 1940, New York, USA ...

Chris Blackwell

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 22 June 1937, London, England ...

Chris De Burgh

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. Christopher Davison, 15 October 1948, Argentina ...

Chris Rea

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 4 March 1951, Middlesbrough, Cleveland, England ...

Christy Moore

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 1946, Newbridge, County Kildare, Ireland ...

Chuck Willis

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 31 January 1928, Atlanta, Georgia, USA, d. 10 April 1958, Atlanta ...

Cleo Laine

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music, 2001

b. Clementina Dinah Campbell, 27 October 1928, Middlesex, England ...

Commander Cody

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, 'Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music', 2001

b. George Frayne, 19 July 1944, Boise, Idaho, USA ...

Crystal Gayle

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. Brenda Gail Webb, 9 January 1951, Paintsville, Kentucky, USA ...

Cyndi Lauper

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, 'Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music', 2001

b. Cynthia Anne Stephanie Lauper, 22 June 1953, Brooklyn, New York, USA ...

Dan Fogelberg

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 13 August 1951, Peoria, Illinois, USA ...

Dandy Livingstone

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. Robert Livingstone Thompson, 1944, Kingston, Jamaica ...

Danny and the Juniors

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Danny Rapp, b. 10 May 1941, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, d. 5 April 1983, Arizona; Dave White, b. David White Tricker, September 1940, Philadelphia (replaced by ...

Danny Elfman, Oingo Boingo: Danny Elfman

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 1954, Los Angeles, California, USA ...

Danny O'Keefe

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 1943, Wenatchee, Washington, USA ...

Dave Bartholomew

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 24 December 1920, Edgard, Louisiana, USA ...

Dave Edmunds

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, 'Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music', 2001

b. 15 April 1944, Cardiff, Wales ...

Dave Matthews Band

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Dave Matthews, b. 9 January 1967, Johannesburg, South Africa; LeRoi Moore, b. Charlottesville, Virginia, USA; Carter Beauford, b. Charlottesville, Virginia; Boyd Tinsley; Stefan Lessard, b. ...

Dave Van Ronk

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 30 June 1936, Brooklyn, New York, USA ...

David Ackles

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 20 February 1937, Rock Island, Illinois, USA, d. 2 March 1999, Tujanga, California ...

David Essex

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music, 2001

b. David Albert Cook, 23 July 1947, London, England ...

David Sanborn

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 30 July 1945, Tampa, Florida, USA ...

Debbie Gibson

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 31 August 1970, Long Island, New York, USA ...

Deee-Lite

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Lady Miss Kier, b. Kieren Kirby, Youngstown, Ohio, USA; Super DJ Dimitry, b. Dimitry Brill, Kiev, Ukraine; DJ Towa Tei, b. Doug Wa-Chung, Tokyo, Japan ...

Def Leppard

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, 'Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music', 2001

Frank Noon (replaced by Rick Allen, b. 1 November 1963); Steve Clark, b. 23 April 1960, d. 8 January 1991, London (replaced by Vivian Campbell, ...

Deford Bailey

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 1899, Carthage, Tennessee, USA, d. July 1982, Nashville, Tennessee ...

Delirious?

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Stuart Garrard, b. 7 June 1966, Ipswich, England; Tim Jupp, b. 1 May 1966, Eastbourne; Martin Smith, b. 6 July 1970, Woodford Green, Essex; Stewart ...

Della Reese

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music, 2001

b. Dellareese Taliaferro, 6 July 1932, Detroit, Michigan, USA ...

Dennis Bovell

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 1953, St Peter, Barbados ...

Derrick Morgan

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 1937, Kingston, Jamaica ...

Desmond Dekker

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, 'Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music', 2001

b. Desmond Dacris, 16 July 1942, Kingston, Jamaica ...

DInah Washington

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. Ruth Lee Jones, 29 August 1924, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, USA, d. 14 December 1963, Detroit, Michigan   ...

Django Reinhardt

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music, 2001

b. Jean Baptiste Reinhardt, 23 January 1910, Liverchies, Belgium, d. 16 May 1953, Samois, France ...

Don & Dewey

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Don 'Sugarcane' Harris, b. 18 June 1938, Pasadena, California, USA, d. 30 November 1999; Dewey Terry, b. 1938, Pasadena ...

Don Gibson

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 3 April 1928, Shelby, North Carolina, USA ...

Don Williams

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 27 May 1939, Floydada, Texas, USA ...

Doris Troy

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. Doris Payne, 1937, New York, USA ...

Doug Kershaw

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. Douglas James Kershaw, 24 January 1936, Teil Ridge, Louisiana, USA ...

Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show: Dr. Hook

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, 'Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music', 2001

Ray Sawyer, b. 1 February 1937, Chickasaw, Alabama, USA; Dennis Locorriere, b. 13 June 1949, Union City, New Jersey; William Francis, b. 16 January 1942, ...

Duke Ellington

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. Edward Kennedy Ellington, 29 April 1899, Washington DC, USA, d. 24 May 1974, New York ...

Earl Bostic

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 25 April 1913, Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA, d. 28 October 1965, Rochester, New York ...

Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 18 December 1917, Houston, Texas, USA, d. 2 July 1988 ...

Eels

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music, 2001

Butch; Mark 'E' Everett; Tommy (replaced by Elton Jones) ...

Electric Light Orchestra (ELO)

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, 'Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music', 2001

Bev Bevan, b. 25 November 1945, Birmingham, England; Melvyn Gale, b. 15 January 1952, London; Kelly Groucutt, b. 8 September 1952, London; Mik Kaminski, b. ...

Emile Ford

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. Emile Sweetman, 16 October 1937, Nassau, Bahamas ...

Enya

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. Eithne Brennan, 17 May 1961, Gweedore, County Donegal, Ireland ...

Erasure

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music, 2001

Vince Clarke, b. 3 July 1960, Basildon, Essex, England; Andy Bell, b. 25 April 1964, Peterborough, Northants, England ...

Ernest Tubb

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 9 February 1914, Crisp, Texas, USA, d. 6 September 1984, Nashville, Tennessee ...

Ernie K-Doe

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music, 2001

b. Ernest Kador Jnr, 22 February 1936, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA ...

Europe

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Joey Tempest; Kee Marcello; John Leven; Mic Michaeli; Ian Haughland ...

Ewan MacColl

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. William Miller, 25 January 1915, Auchterarder, Scotland, d. 22 October 1989, London, England ...

Ewart Abner

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 1923, Chicago, Illinois, USA, d. 27 December 1997, Los Angeles ...

Extreme

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Nuno Bettancourt, b. 20 September 1966, Azores, Portugal; Gary Cherone, b. 24 July 1961, Malden, Massachusetts, USA; Paul Geary, b. 2 July 1961, Medford, Massachusetts; ...

Fabian

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. Fabian Forte Bonaparte, 6 February 1943, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA ...

Faith No More

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, 'Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music', 2001

Roddy Bottum, b. 1 July 1963, Los Angeles, California, USA; Mike 'Puffy' Bordin, b. 27 November 1962, San Francisco, California; Billy Gould, b. 24 April ...

Felice and Boudleaux Bryant

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Boudleaux, b. 13 February 1920, Shellman, Georgia, USA, d. 30 June 1987; Felice Scaduto, b. 7 August 1925, Milwaukee, Wisconsin ...

Floyd Cramer

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 27 October 1933, Shreveport, Louisiana, USA, d. 31 December 1997 ...

Fontella Bass

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 3 July 1940, St Louis, Missouri, USA ...

Frankie Avalon

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. Francis Avallone, 18 September 1939, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA ...

Frankie Ford

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 1941, Gretna, Louisiana, USA ...

Frankie Laine

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

WITH CUMULATIVE sales of over 100 million discs, Laine was the most successful of the big-voiced balladeers – one contemporary reviewer described him as the ...

Freddie & The Dreamers

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Freddie Garrity, b. 14 November 1940; Pete Birrell, b. 9 May 1941; Roy Crewsdon, b. 29 May 1941; Bernard Dwyer, b. 11 September 1940; Derek ...

Freddie Jackson

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 2 October 1956, Harlem, New York City, USA ...

Freddy Cannon

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. Frederick Anthony Picariello, 4 December 1939, Revere, Massachusetts, USA ...

Furry Lewis

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music, 2001

b. Walter Lewis, 6 March 1893, Greenwood, Mississippi, USA, d. 14 September 1981, Memphis, Tennessee ...

Gary Puckett & The Union Gap

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music, 2001

Gary Puckett, b. 17 October 1942, Hibbing, Minnesota, USA; Dwight Bement, b. 28 December 1945, San Diego, California; Kerry Chater, b. 7 August 1945, Vancouver, ...

Gary US Bonds

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. Gary Anderson, 6 June 1939, Jacksonville, Florida, USA ...

Gene McDaniels

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 12 February 1935, Kansas City, Missouri, USA ...

George Strait

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 18 May 1952, Poteet, Texas, USA ...

Gerry Rafferty, Stealers Wheel: Gerry Rafferty

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 16 April 1947, Paisley, Scotland ...

Gipsy Kings, The

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companio to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Jahoul 'Chico' Bouchikhi; Nicolas Reyes, b. 1957; Andre Reyes; Tonino Baliardo; Canut Reyes ...

Gloria Estefan

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. Gloria Maria Fajardo, 1 September 1957, Havana, Cuba ...

Gordon Lightfoot

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 17 November 1938, Orillia, Ontario, Canada ...

Grant Lee Buffalo

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Paul Kimble (replaced by Dan Rothchild); Joey Peters; Grant Lee Phillips ...

Guy Mitchell

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music, 2001

b. Al Cernik, 21 February 1927, Detroit, Michigan, USA, d. 12 July 1999 ...

Hank Thompson

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, 'Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music', 2001

b. Henry William Thompson, 3 September 1925, Waco, Texas, USA ...

Hank Williams Jr.

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. Randall Hank Williams Jnr, 26 May 1949, Shreveport, Louisiana, USA ...

Happy to be a Part of the Industry of Human Happiness: The Trans-Continental Beat of the 1960s

Sleeve notes by Alec Palao, Nuggets II (Rhino Records), 2001

SO, AS WE’RE FREQUENTLY TOLD, the world has now shrunk to the size of a soccer ball. The internet has eliminated traditional terrestrial boundaries of ...

Harper's Bizarre: Harpers Bizarre

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Ted Templeman, b. 24 October 1944; Eddie James, b. Santa Cruz, California; John Peterson, b. 8 January 1945, San Francisco; Dick Scoppettone, b. 5 July ...

Harry Connick Jr

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 11 September 1967, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA ...

Helen Reddy

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 25 October 1941, Melbourne, Australia ...

Hootie and the Blowfish

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Mark Bryan, b. 6 May 1967, Gaithersburg, Maryland, USA; Dean Felber, b. 9 June 1967, Bethesda, Maryland; Darius Rucker, b. 13 May 1966, Charlston, South ...

Howard Jones

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. John Howard Jones, 23 February 1955, Southampton, Hampshire, England ...

Hoyt Axton

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 25 March 1932, Comanche, Oklahoma, USA, d. 26 October 1999, Oklahoma ...

I Heard a New World

Essay by Greg Shaw, Nuggets II (Rhino Records), 2001

GROWING UP in America in the '60s, I was surrounded by garage bands, and although I never realized how many more there were across the ...

Ian and Sylvia

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Ian Tyson, b. September 1933, British Columbia, Canada; Sylvia Fricker, b. September 1940, Chatham, Ontario ...

Inez & Charlie Foxx: Inez and Charlie Foxx

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion of 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Charlie, b. 29 October 1939, Greensboro, North Carolina, USA, d. 18 September 1998; Inez, b. 9 September 1944, Greensboro ...

Inner City

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Kevin Saunderson, b. 9 May 1964, Brooklyn, New York, USA; Paris Grey, b. Shanna Jackson, 5 November 1965, Glencove, Illinois ...

Iron Butterfly

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Ron Bushy, b. 23 September 1941, Washington DC, USA; Darryl deLoach, b. San Diego, California; Doug Ingle, b. 9 September 1947, Omaha, Nebraska; Jerry Penrod, ...

J.B. Lenoir: J. B. Lenoir

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 5 March 1929, Monticello, Mississippi, USA, d. 29 April 1967, Urbana, Illinois ...

Jack Scott

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. Jack Scafone, 28 January 1938, Windsor, Ontario, Canada ...

Jackie Edwards

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. Wilfred Edwards, 1938, Kingston, Jamaica, d. 15 August 1992 ...

James Burton

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 21 August 1939, Shreveport, Louisiana, USA ...

James Carr

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music, 2001

ONE OF THE finest exponents of Southern soul, whose intense performances won him a strong cult following, Carr made the original versions of the often-recorded ...

James Last

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music, 2001

b. Hans Last, 17 April 1929, Bremen, Germany ...

Jason Donovan

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 1 June 1968, Melbourne, Australia ...

Jay & the Americans

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Sandy Deane, b. Sandy Yaguda, 30 January 1943; Howie Kane, b. 6 June 1942; Marty Sanders, b. 28 February 1941; John Jay Traynor (replaced by ...

Jennifer Warnes

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 3 March 1947, Seattle, Washington, USA ...

Jerry Jeff Walker

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. Ronald Clyde Crosby, 16 March 1942, Oneonta, New York State, USA ...

Jerry Ragovoy

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 1935, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA ...

Jerry Reed

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. Jerry Hubbard, 20 March 1937, Atlanta, Georgia, USA ...

Jewel

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. Jewel Kilcher, 23 May 1974, Payson, Utah, USA ...

Jim Croce

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 10 January 1943, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, d. 20 September 1973, Natchitoches, Louisiana ...

Jim Reeves

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 20 August 1923, Galloway, Texas, USA, d. 31 July 1964, Nashville, Tennessee ...

Jimmy Buffett

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 25 December 1946, Mobile, Alabama, USA ...

Jimmy Clanton

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 2 September 1940, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA ...

Jimmy Jones

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 2 June 1937, Birmingham, Alabama, USA ...

Joe Ely

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music, 2001

A CRITICS' FAVOURITE, Ely's brash high-energy blend of Texas honky-tonk styles and rock was an important influence on country performers at a time when the ...

Joe Satriani

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 15 July 1957, Long Island, USA ...

Joe Tex

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music, 2001

b. Joseph Arrington Jnr, 8 August 1933, Baytown, Texas, USA, d. 13 August 1982, Navasota, Texas ...

John D. Loudermilk

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Later, 2001

b. 31 March 1934, Durham, North Carolina, USA ...

John Hartford

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. John Harford, 30 December 1937, New York, USA ...

John Holt

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 1947, Kingston, Jamaica ...

John McLaughlin

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, 'Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music', 2001

b. 4 January 1942, Yorkshire, England ...

John Stewart

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 5 September 1939, San Diego, California, USA ...

Johnnie Ray

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, 'Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music', 2001

b. John Alvin Ray, 10 January 1927, Dallas, Oregon, USA, d. 24 February 1990, Los Angeles ...

Johnny Ace

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music, 2001

b. John Marshall Alexander Jnr, 9 June 1929, Memphis, Tennessee, USA, d. 23 December 1954, Houston, Texas ...

Johnny and The Hurricanes

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Johnny Paris, b. 1941; Tony Kaye (replaced by Bill Savitch, replaced by Lynn Bruce, replaced by Jay Drake); Lionel 'Butch' Mattice, b. 1941 (replaced by ...

Johnny Burnette

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 25 March 1934, Memphis, Tennessee, USA, d. 14 August 1964, Clear Lake, California ...

Johnny Copeland

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 27 March 1937, Haynesville, Louisiana, USA, d. 3 July 1997 ...

Johnny Hallyday

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. Jean-Philippe Smets, 15 June 1943, Paris, France ...

Johnny Horton

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 30 April 1927, Tyler, Texas, USA, d. 5 November 1960, Milano, Texas ...

Johnny Kidd & the Pirates

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Johnny Kidd - b. Frederick Heath, 23 December 1939, Willesden, London, England, d. 7 October 1966, Lancashire ...

Johnny Mathis

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 30 September 1935, San Francisco, California, USA ...

Johnny Preston

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. John Preston Courville, 18 August 1939, Port Arthur, Texas, USA ...

Johnny Tillotson

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 20 April 1939, Jacksonville, Florida, USA ...

Jonathan Richman

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 16 May 1951, Boston, Massachusetts, USA ...

Jose Feliciano

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 10 September 1945, Lares, Puerto Rico ...

Josh White

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

September b. 11 February 1915, Greenville, South Carolina, USA, d. 5 1969, Manhasset, New York ...

Judy Garland

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music, 2001

b. Frances Ethel Gumm, 10 June 1922, Grand Rapids, Minnesota, USA, d. 22 June 1969, London, England ...

Kathy Mattea

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 21 June 1959, Cross Lanes, West Virginia, USA ...

Kenny Rogers

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. Kenneth Donald Rogers, 21 August 1937, Houston, Texas, USA ...

Kim Carnes

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 20 July 1945, Los Angeles, California, USA ...

King Curtis

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. Curtis Ousley, 7 February 1934, Fort Worth, Texas, USA, d. 13 August 1971, New York ...

King Sunny Ade

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music, 2001

b. Sunday Adeniyi, 1946, Ondo State, Nigeria ...

King Tubby

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. Osborne Lawrence, 28 January 1941, Kingston, Jamaica, d. 6 February 1989, Kingston ...

Know Your NME!

Book Excerpt by Paul Gorman, Sanctuary Press, 2001

Paul Gorman's In Their Own Write: Adventures in the Music Press (Sanctuary Press) was an oral history of rock journalism in Britain and America – ...

Lambchop

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music, 2001

Paul Burch Jr; C Scott Chase; Dennis Cronin; John Delworth; Allen Lowery; Alex McManus; Jonathan Marx; Mark Nevers; Paul Niehaus; Matt Swanson; Marc Trovillion; Deanna ...

Lambert, Hendricks & Ross: Lambert, Hendricks and Ross

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music, 2001

Jon Hendricks, b. John Carl Hendricks, 16 September 1921, Newark, Ohio, USA; Dave Lambert, b. 1917, Boston, Massachusetts, d. 1966; Annie Ross, b. Annabelle Lynch, ...

Laurel Aitken

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 1928, Cuba ...

LaVern Baker

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 11 November 1929, Chicago, Illinois, USA, d. 10 March 1997, New York ...

Leadbelly

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. Huddie Ledbetter, 29 January 1889, Mooringsport, Louisiana, USA, d. 6 December 1949, New York ...

Lee Dorsey

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 24 December 1924, Portland, Oregon, USA, d. 2 December 1986, New Orleans, Louisiana ...

Leon Redbone

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 1941 Toronto, Canada ...

Leon Russell

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, 'Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music', 2001

b. Hank Wilson, 2 April 1941, Lawton, Oklahoma, USA ...

Leonard Feather

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 13 September 1914, London, England, d. 22 September 1994, New York, USA ...

Les Paul

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. Lester Polfuss, 9 June 1915, Waukesha, Wisconsin, USA ...

Lionel Richie

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. Lionel Brockman Richie Jnr, 20 June 1949, Tuskegee, Alabama, USA ...

Lisa Stansfield

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 11 April 1966, Rochdale, Lancashire, England ...

Little Anthony & the Imperials: Little Anthony and The Imperials

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Little Anthony, b. Anthony Gourdine, 8 January 1940, Brooklyn, New York, USA; Tracy Lord (replaced by Sam Strain, b. 9 December 1940); Ernest Wright, b. ...

Little Milton

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music, 2001

b. Milton Campbell, 7 September 1934, Inverness, Mississippi, USA ...

Little River Band

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Beeb Birtles, b. Gerard Bertlekamp, 28 November 1948, Amsterdam, Netherlands; Rick Formosa, b. Italy (replaced by David Briggs, b. 26 January 1951, Melbourne, replaced by ...

Lloyd Price

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 9 March 1933, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA ...

Lou Adler

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 1935, Los Angeles, California, USA ...

Lou Christie

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. Lugee Geno Sacco, 19 February 1943, Glenn Willard, Pennsylvania, USA ...

Lou Rawls

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 1 December 1937, Chicago, Illinois, USA ...

Louis Armstrong

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 4 July 1898, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA, d. 6 July 1971, New York ...

Louis Jordan

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 8 July 1908, Brinkley, Arkansas, USA, d. 4 February 1975, Los Angeles, California ...

Love: Forever Changes

Sleeve notes by Ben Edmonds, Elektra Traditions, 2001

June 1967. Peace and love wasn't all it was cracked up to be, and nowhere was this seen more clearly than under the smog-orange skies ...

Luscious Jackson

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Jill Cunniff, b. 1968, New York, USA; Gabby Glaser, b. 1968, New York; Kate Schellenbach, b. 1967, New York; Vivian Trimble, b. New York ...

Luther Ingram

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 30 November 1944, Jackson, Tennessee, USA ...

Lynn Anderson

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 26 September, 1947, Grand Forks, North Dakota, USA ...

Ma Rainey

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music, 2001

b. Gertrude Melissa Nix Pridgett, 26 April 1886, Columbus, Georgia, USA, d. 22 December 1939, Georgia ...

Mac Davis

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 21 January 1941, Lubbock, Texas, USA ...

Magic Sam

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. Samuel Maghett, 14 February 1937, Grenada, Mississippi, USA, d. 1 December 1969, Chicago, Illinois ...

Mance Lipscomb

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 9 April 1895, Navasota, Texas, USA, d. 30 January 1976, Navasota ...

Martin Carthy

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 21 May 1940, Hatfield, Hertfordshire, England ...

Marty Robbins

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. Martin D. Robinson, 26 September 1925, Glendale, Arizona, USA, d. 8 December 1982, Nashville, Tennessee ...

Marty Wilde

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. Reginald Leonard Smith, 15 April 1936, Blackheath, London, England ...

Marv Johnson

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Populat Music, 2001

b. 15 October 1938, Detroit, Michigan, USA, d. 15 May 1993, South Carolina ...

Marvin Rainwater

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. Marvin Percy, 2 July 1925, Wichita, Kansas, USA ...

Mary Chapin Carpenter

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 21 January 1958, Princeton, New Jersey, USA ...

Masters at Work

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Lil' Louis Vega; Kenny 'Dope' Gonzalez ...

Maurice Williams & The Zodiacs

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Maurice Williams, b. 26 April 1938, Lancaster, North Carolina, USA; Willie Bennet; Henry Gaston; Charles Thomas ...

Maxi Priest

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. Maxwell Elliott, 1962, Manchester, England ...

MC Hammer

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. Stanley Burrell, 30 March 1962, Oakland, California, USA ...

Men at Work

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Greg Ham, b. 27 September 1953, Australia; Colin James Hay, b. 29 June 1953, Scotland; John Rees, b. Australia; Jerry Speiser, b. Australia; Ron Strykert, ...

Mercury Rev on the Other Side

Book Excerpt by Ben Thompson, 'Ways of Hearing', 2001

NOT SINCE Joy Division turned into New Order has a band coped as well as Mercury Rev with losing its lead singer. But given that ...

Merle Travis

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 29 November 1917, Ebenezer, Kentucky, USA, d. 20 October 1983, Tahlequah, Oklahoma ...

Merrill Moore

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 26 September 1923, Algona, Iowa, USA ...

Mogwai: Metal Ear

Book Excerpt by Ben Thompson, Ways Of Hearing, 2001

"They had brought this music with them when they were born, these bandmen, in their hearts and their muscles, their blood and their bones".Jay Allison ...

Mica Paris

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. Michelle Warren, 1969, London, England ...

Michael Bolton

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. Michael Bolotin, 26 February 1953, New Haven, Connecticut, USA ...

Mickey Newbury

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The |Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 19 May 1940, Houston, Texas, USA ...

Midnight Oil

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Peter Garrett, b. 1954, Sydney, Australia; Jim Moginie, b. Sydney; Martin Rotsey, b. Sydney; Dwayne Hillman, b. New Zealand; Rob Hirst, b. Sydney ...

Missy Elliott: Missy 'Misdemeanor' Elliott

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music, 2001

b. Melissa Elliott, 1 July 1972, Portsmouth, Virginia, USA ...

Woody Guthrie, Burl Ives, Leadbelly: Moe Asch

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, 'Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music', 2001

b. Moses Asch, 1905, Warsaw, Poland, d. 19 October 1986, New York, USA ...

Mogwai

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Dominic Aitchisin, aka Demonic, b. Glasgow, Scotland; Stuart Braithwaite, aka pLasmatroN, b. Glasgow; Martin Bulloch, aka Bionic, b. Glasgow; Barry Burns, b. Lanarkshire, Scotland; John ...

Molly Hatchet

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Danny Joe Brown, b. 1951, Jacksonville, Florida, USA (replaced by Jimmy Farrar, b. La Grange, Georgia); Bruce Crump (replaced by Barry Borden, b. 12 May ...

Mongo Santamaria

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. Ramos Santamaria, 7 April 1922, Havana, Cuba ...

Mose Allison

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 11 November 1927, Tippo, Mississippi, USA ...

Mott The Hoople

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, 'Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music', 2001

Verden Allen, b. 26 May 1944 (replaced by Morgan Fisher); Dale 'Buffin' Griffin, b. 24 October 1948; Mick Ralphs, b. 31 March 1948, Hereford, England ...

Narada Michael Walden

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 23 April 1952, Kalamazoo, Michigan ...

Nathan Abshire

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 27 June 1913, near Gueydan, Louisiana, USA, d. 13 May 1981, Basile, Louisiana ...

Neil Diamond

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, 'Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music', 2001

b. 24 January 1941, Brooklyn, New York, USA ...

Neil Sedaka

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, 'Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music', 2001

b. 13 March 1939, Brooklyn, New York, USA ...

Nile Rodgers

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 19 September 1952, New York, USA ...

Nine Inch Nails

Book Excerpt by uncredited writer, 'Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music', 2001

Trent Reznor, b. Erie, Pennsylvania, USA ...

Norman Greenbaum

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 20 November 1942, Malden, Massachusetts, USA ...

Nucleus

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Ian Carr, b. 21 April 1933, Dumfries, Scotland; Jeff Clyne (replaced by Roy Babbington); Karl Jenkins (replaced by Dave MacRae); John Marshall; Brian Smith; Chris ...

Orbital

Book Excerpt by Ben Thompson, Ways Of Hearing, 2001

IT'S A GREY weekday lunchtime in glamorous East Anglia. Cambridge town centre is brought to a resentful standstill as a series of huge pantechnicons disgorge ...

Otis Rush

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 29 April 1934, Philadelphia, Mississippi, USA ...

Otis Spann

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 21 March 1930, Jackson, Mississippi, USA, d. 24 April 1970, Chicago, Illinois ...

Owen Bradley, Patsy Cline, Brenda Lee: Owen Bradley

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, 'Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music', 2001

b. 21 October 1915, Westmoreland, Tennessee, USA, d. 7 January 1998 ...

P.J. Proby: P. J. Proby

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music, 2001

b. James Marcus Smith, 6 November 1938, Houston, Texas, USA ...

LaBelle, Patti LaBelle: Patti Labelle and the Blue Belles

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music, 2001

Cindy Birdsong, b. 15 December 1939, Camden, New Jersey, USA; Sarah Dash, b. 24 May 1942, Trenton, New Jersey; Nona Hendryx, b. 18 August 1945, ...

Paul and Paula

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Paul, b. Ray Hildebrand, 21 December 1940, Joshua, Texas, USA; Paula, b. Jill Jackson, 20 May 1942, McCaney, Texas ...

Paul Anka

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 30 July 1941, Ottawa, Canada ...

Paul Williams

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 19 September 1940, Omaha, Nebraska, USA ...

Paula Abdul

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, 'Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music', 2001

DANCER AND choreographer Paula Abdul was one of America's most successful singers of the early '90s. Her first three albums of lightweight pop-dance music offered ...

Peabo Bryson

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. Robert Peabo Bryson, 13 April 1951, Greenville, South Carolina ...

Peggy Lee

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music, 2001

b. Norma Egstrom, 26 May 1920, Jamestown, North Dakota, USA ...

Percy Mayfield

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 12 August 1920, Minden, Louisiana, USA, d. 11 August 1984, Los Angeles, California ...

Pete Drake

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, 'Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music', 2001

b. 8 October 1932, Augusta, Georgia, USA, d. 29 July 1988, Nashville, Tennessee ...

Pete Seeger

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 3 May 1919, New York, USA ...

Peter Skellern

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 1947, Bury, Lancashire, England ...

Phil Upchurch

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. Chicago, Illinois, USA ...

Piano Red

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. William Lee Perryman, 19 October 1911, Hampton, Georgia, USA, d. 25 July 1985 ...

Pizzicato Five

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Yashuaru Konishi; Keitaro Takanami; Maki Nomiya ...

Pure Prairie League

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Craig Lee Fuller, b. 18 July 1949, Portsmouth, Ohio, USA; George Powell, b. North Carolina; John Call; Jim Lantham; Jim Caughlin ...

Queen Latifah

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. Dana Owens, 18 March 1970, Newark, New Jersey, USA ...

Queensryche

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Chris De Garmo, b. 14 June 1963, Wenatchee, Washington, USA; Eddie Jackson; Scott Rockenfield, b. 15 June 1963, Seattle, Washington; Geoff Tate, b. 14 January ...

Rage Against the Machine

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Tim Commerford, b. Irvine, California, USA; Tom Morello, b. 30 May 1964, New York; Zach de la Rocha, b. 1967, Irvine, California; Brad Wilk, b. ...

Ralph McTell

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. Ralph May, 3 December 1944, Farnborough, Kent, England ...

Ramblin' Jack Elliott

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music, 2001

b. Elliot Charles Adnopoz, 1 August 1931, Brooklyn, New York, USA ...

Ramsey Lewis

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 27 May 1935, Chicago, Illinois, USA ...

Randy Travis

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. Randy Bruce Traywick, 4 May 1959, Marshville, North Carolina, USA ...

Ray Price

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 12 January 1926, Perryville, Texas, USA ...

Ray Stevens

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. Ray Ragsdale, 24 January 1939, Clarkdale, Georgia, USA ...

Reef

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Jack Bessant, b. 19 March 1971, Wella, Somerset, England; Dominic Greensmith, b. 2 June 1970, Denby, Derbyshire; Kenwyn House, b. 1 August 1970, Tiverton, Devon; ...

REO Speedwagon

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music, 2001

Neal Doughty, b. 29 July 1946, Evanston, Illinois, USA; Alan Gratzer, b. 9 November 1948, Syracuse, New York (replaced by Bryan Hitt, b. 5 January ...

Richard and Mimi Farina

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Richard Farina, b. 1937, New York, USA, d. 30 April 1966, Carmel, California; Mimi Farina, b. Mimi Baez, 30 April 1945 ...

Richard Berry

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 11 April 1935, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA, d. 23 January 1997 ...

Rick Springfield

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. Richard Springthorpe, 23 August 1949, Sydney, Australia ...

Ricky Skaggs

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 18 July 1954, Cordell, Kentucky, USA ...

Robert "Bumps" Blackwell

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. Robert A. Blackwell, 23 May 1922, Seattle, Washington, USA, d. 9 March 1985, Whittier, California ...

Rocket From The Crypt

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Apollo 9; Atom; JC 2000; ND; John Reis, aka Speedo; Petey X ...

Rod McKuen

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. Rodney Marvin McKuen, 29 April 1933, Oakland, California, USA ...

Roger Miller

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. Roger Dean Miller 2 January 1936, Forth Worth, Texas, USA, d. 25 October 1992, Los Angeles, California ...

Ronnie Milsap

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 16 January 1944, Robbinsville, North Carolina, USA ...

Roxette

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music, 2001

Per Gessle, b. 12 February 1959, Halmstad, Sweden; Marie Fredriksson, b. 29 May 1958, Halmstad ...

Roy Acuff

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 15 September 1903, Maynardville, Tennessee, USA, d. 23 November 1992, Nashville, Tennessee ...

Roy Hamilton

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 16 April 1929, Leesburg, Georgia, USA, d. 20 July 1969 ...

Ruth Brown

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. Ruth Weston, 30 January 1928, Portsmouth, Virginia, USA ...

Ryuichi Sakamoto

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 17 January 1952, Tokyo, Japan ...

Sandy Nelson

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. Sander L. Nelson, 1 December 1938, Santa Monica, California, USA ...

Sandy Posey

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. Martha Sharp, 18 June 1945, Jasper, Alabama, USA ...

Sarah McLachlan

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 28 January 1968, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada ...

Sepultura

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Igor Cavalera, b. Belo Horizonte, Brazil; Max Cavalera, b. Belo Horizonte; Paulo Pinto Jr., b. Belo Horizonte; Jairo T (replaced by Andreas Kisser), b. Belo ...

Shabba Ranks

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. Rexton Fernando Gordon, 17 January 1966, Sturgetown, Jamaica, West Indies ...

Shakespears Sister

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Siobhan Marie Deidre Fahey, b. 10 September 1958, Dublin, Ireland; Marcella Detroit, b. Marcy Levy, 21 June 1959, Detroit, Michigan, USA ...

Shakin' Stevens

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. Michael Barrett, 4 March 1948, Ely, Wales ...

Shalamar

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music, 2001

Jeffrey Daniels, b. 24 August 1957, Los Angeles, California, USA (replaced by Micki Free); Gerald Brown (replaced by Howard Hewitt, b. 1 October 1957, Akron, ...

Shep & The Limelites

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

James 'Shep' Sheppard, b. New York, USA, d. 24 January 1970; Clarence Bassett, b. New York; Charles Baskerville, b. New York ...

Shirley and Lee

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Shirley Pixley, b. 19 June 1936, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA; Leonard Lee, b. 29 June 1935, New Orleans, d. 26 October 1976 ...

Shirley Ellis

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Ellis is best remembered for her performance of the series of novelty dance hits she wrote with her husband Lincoln Chase in the mid-sixties. ...

Showaddywaddy

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Dave Bartram, b. 1953; Malcolm Allured; Romeo Challenger; Russ Fields; Billy Gask; Al James; Trevor Oakes; Rod Teas ...

Sister Rosetta Tharpe

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. Rosetta Nubin, 20 March 1915, Cotton Plant, Arkansas, USA, d. 9 October 1973, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania ...

Skid Row

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Dave 'The Snake' Sabo; Sebastian Bach, b. Sebastian Bierk, 3 April 1968, Bahamas; Scotti Hill; Rob Affuso; Rachel Bolan, b. 9 February 1964 ...

Sleepy John Estes

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. John Adam Estes, 25 January 1899, Ripley, Tennessee, USA, d. 5 June 1977, Brownsville, Tennessee ...

Snooks Eaglin

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. Fird Eaglin, 21 January 1936, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA ...

Sonny Boy Williamson I, Sonny Boy Williamson II (Rice Miller): Sonny Boy Willamson

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Sonny Boy Williamson I, b. John Lee Williamson, 30 March 1914, Jackson, Tennessee, USA, d. 1 June 1948, Chicago, Illinois; Sonny Boy Williamson II, b. ...

Sonny Rollins

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, 'Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music', 2001

b. Theodore Walter Rollins, 7 September 1929, New York, USA ...

Brownie McGhee, Sonny Terry: Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music, 2001

Brownie McGhee, b. Walter Brown McGhee, 30 November 1915, Knoxville, Tennessee, USA, d. 16 February 1996, Oakland, California; Sonny Terry, b. Saunders Terrell, 24 October ...

SOUL II SOUL

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Jazzie B, b. Beresford Romeo, 26 January 1963, London, England; Nellee Hooper; Philip Harvey; Caron Wheeler, b. 19 January 1963 ...

Spirit

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music, 2001

Mark Andes, b. 19 February 1948, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA (replaced by Al Staehely, b. Texas); Randy California, b. Randolph Craig Woolfe, 20 February 1951, Los ...

Taj Mahal

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music, 2001

b. Henry St Clair Fredericks, 17 May 1942, New York City, USA ...

Tanya Tucker

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. Tanya Denise Tucker, 10 October 1958, Seminole, Texas, USA ...

Teddy Riley

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 1966, Harlem, New York City, USA ...

Ten City

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Byron Stingily; Herb Lawson; Byron Burke ...

Tennessee Ernie Ford

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. Ernest Jennings Ford, 13 February 1919, Bristol, Tennessee, USA, d. 17 October 1991, Fullerton, Virginia ...

Tex Ritter

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music, 2001

b. Woodward Maurice Ritter, 12 January 1905, Pana County, Texas, USA, d. 2 January 1974, Nashville, Tennessee ...

Texas

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Eddie Campbell; Ally McErlaine; Johnny McElhone, b. 31 October 1968, Glasgow, Scotland; Stuart Kerr, b. 16 March 1963, Glasgow (replaced by Richard Hynd); Sharleen Spiteri, ...

The Albion Band

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music, 2001

Shirley Collins, b. 5 July 1935, Hastings, Sussex, England; Ashley Hutchings, b. 26 January 1945, Southgate, Middlesex; Dave Mattacks, b. 13 March 1948, London; Simon ...

The Amazing Rhythm Aces

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Howard R. Smith, b. 17 June 1949, Lafayette, Tennessee, USA; Billy Earheart, b. Tennessee; Barry Burton, b. Tennessee (replaced by Duncan Cameron, b. 1978, Tennessee); ...

The Bellamy Brothers

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

David Bellamy, b. 16 September 1945, Derby, Florida, USA; Howard Bellamy, b. 2 February 1941, Derby ...

Ace Cannon: The Best of Ace Cannon: The Hi Records Years

Sleeve notes by Colin Escott, The Right Stuff/Hi Records, 2001

SPARE, FUNKY, and disarmingly simple. Ace Cannon and Bill Black defined a sound. There was never a surplus note or inflection. These were records that ...

The Brecker Brothers

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Randy Brecker, b. Randal E. Brecker, 27 November 1945, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Michael Brecker, b. 29 March 1949, Philadelphia ...

The Champs

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Gene Alden, b. Cisco, Texas, USA (replaced by Jim Seals b. 17 October 1941, Sidney, Texas); Dave Burgess, b. Lancaster, California; Van Norman; Dale Norris, ...

The Chantels

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Arlene Smith, b. 5 October 1941, New York, USA; Sonia Goring, b. 1940, New York; Lois Harris, b. 1940, New York; Jackie Landry, b. 1940, ...

The Chiffons

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Barbara Lee, b. 16 May 1947, Bronx, New York, USA, d. May 15, 1992; Patricia Bennett, b. 7 April 1947, Bronx; Sylvia Peterson, b. 30 ...

The Christians

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Garry (Garrison) Christian, b. 1955, Merseyside, England; Roger Christian, b. 1950, Merseyside; Russell Christian, b. 8 July 1956, Merseyside; Henry Priestman, b. 21 June, Hull ...

The Clovers

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Charles White, b. 1930, Washington DC, USA; John 'Buddy' Bailey, b. 1930, Washington DC; Harold Lucas; Thomas Woods; Mathew McQator; Bill Harris; Billy Mitchell ...

The Communards

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Richard Coles, b. 23 June 1962, Northampton, England; Jimmy Somerville, b. 22 June 1961, Glasgow, Scotland ...

The Contours

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Joe Billingslea; Billy Gordon; Billy Hoggs; Hubert Johnson; Sylvester Potts; Huey Davis; Dennis Edwards; Joe Stubbs ...

The Crests

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Johnny Maestro, b. John Mastrangelo, 7 May 1939, Brooklyn, New York, USA; Jay Carter, b. 1939, Brooklyn (replaced by Eddie Wright in 1960); Harold Torres, ...

The Crickets: In Style with the Crickets

Sleeve notes by Colin Escott, Bear Family Records, 2001

IT WASN'T AN ORIGINAL name; there was another group called the Crickets that had dented the Rhythm 'n' Blues charts a few years earlier, but ...

The Delfonics

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music, 2001

Randy Cain, b. 2 May 1945, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA (replaced by Major Harris, b. Richmond, Virginia, replaced by Bruce Peterson, b. Chicago); Wilbert Hart, b. ...

The Del-Vikings

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Norman Wright, b. 21 October 1937, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Corinthian 'Kripp' Johnson, b. 1944, Cambridge, Maryland, d. 22 June 1990, Pontiac, Michigan; Donald 'Gus' Bakus, ...

The Dovells

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Len Barry, b. Leonard Borisoff, 6 December 1942, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Arnie Satin, b. 11 May 1943, Philadelphia; Jerry Summers, b. 29 December 1942, Philadelphia; ...

The Eagles

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music, 2001

Don Henley, b. 22 July 1946, Linden, Texas, USA; Glenn Frey, b. 6 November 1946, Detroit, Michigan; Bernie Leadon, b. 19 July 1947, Minneapolis, Minnesota ...

The Easybeats

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

George Young, b. 6 November 1947, Glasgow, Scotland; Gordon 'Snowy' Fleet, b. 16 August 1946, Bootle, Lancashire, England; Dick Diamonde, b. 28 December 1947, Hilversum, ...

The Electric Prunes

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music, 2001

James Lowe, b. San Luis Obispo, California, USA; Mark Tulin, b. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Ken Williams, b. Long Beach, California; Preston Ritter, b. Stockton, California; Weasel ...

Gene Vincent, Led Zeppelin: The Enforcer: Peter Grant

Book Excerpt by Chris Welch, from 'The Man Who Led Zeppelin', Omnibus Books, 2001

An extract from Peter Grant: The Man Who Led Zeppelin by Chris Welch, first published by Omnibus Press in 2001. (256pp, currently available in softback ...

The Everly Brothers

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Don, b. 1 February 1937, Brownie, Kentucky, USA; Phil, b. 19 January 1939, Brownie ...

The Five Royales

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Compainion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Lowman 'Pete' Pauling, b. Winston-Salem, North Carolina, USA, d. 1975; Curtis Pauling, b. Winston-Salem (replaced by Johnny Tanner 1950); Eugene Tanner, b. Winston-Salem; Clarence Pauling, ...

The Five Satins

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Fred Parris, b. 26 March 1936, New Haven, Connecticut, USA; Rich Freeman, b. December 1940, New Haven; Al Denby, b. New Haven; Ed Martin, b. ...

The Flamingos

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Sollie McElroy (replaced 1954 by Nathaniel Nelson, b. 10 April 1932, Chicago, Illinois, USA); John Carter (replaced by Tommy Hunt, b. 18 June 1933, Pittsburgh, ...

The Fleetwoods

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Gary Troxel, b. 28 November 1939, Centralia, Washington, USA; Barbara Laine Ellis, b. 20 February 1940, Olympia, Washington; Gretchen Diane Christopher, b. 29 February 1940, ...

The Four Freshmen

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Bob Flanigan, b. 22 August 1926, Greencastle, Indiana, USA; Ross Barbour, b. 31 December 1928, Columbus, Indiana; Hal Kratzch (replaced by Ken Errair, b. 23 ...

Four Preps,The: The Four Preps

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Bruce Belland; Glen Larson; Ed Cobb; Mary Ingram; Marvin Inabett; Don Clarke ...

The Hues Corporation

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

H. Ann Kelly, b. 24 April 1947, Fairchild, Alabama, USA; St Clair Lee, b. Bernard St Clair Lee Calhoun Henderson, 24 April 1944, San Francisco, ...

The Judds

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

THE EIGHTIES equivalent of the Everly Brothers, Wynonna and her mother Naomi were the most successful female duo of modern country music. ...

The Kalin Twins

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Harold Kalin; Herbie Kalin, b. 16 February 1939 ...

The Kingston Trio

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Dave Guard, b. 19 November 1934, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA, d. 22 March 1991 (replaced by John Stewart, b. 5 September 1939, San Diego, California); Nick ...

The Lightning Seeds

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Ian Broudie, b. 4 August 1958, Liverpool, England ...

The Marcels

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Cornelius Harp, b. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; Ronald 'Bingo' Mundy, b. Pittsburgh; Fred Johnson, b. Pittsburgh; Dick Knaus (replaced by Allen Johnson, b. Pittsburgh); Gene Bricker, ...

The Marvelettes

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Katherine Anderson, b. 1944; Juanita Cowart, b. 1944; Georgeanna Tillman, b. 1944, d. 6 January 1980, Detroit, Michigan, USA; Gladys Horton, b. 1944 (replaced by ...

The McCoys

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Randy Hobbs; Bobby Peterson; Randy Zehringer, b. 1951, Union City, Iowa, USA; Rick Zehringer (also Derringer), b. 5 May 1947, Union City ...

The New Lost City Ramblers

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Mike Seeger, b. 1933, New York, USA; John Cohen, b. 1932, New York; Tom Paley, b. 19 March 1928, New York (replaced by Tracy Schwarz, ...

The Ohio Players

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music, 2001

William Beck; Leroy Bonner; Marshall Jones; Ralph Middlebrooks; Walter Morrison; Marvin Pierce; Clarence Satchell; James Williams ...

Sonny Til & The Orioles: The Orioles

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Sonny Til, b. Earlington Tilghman, 18 August 1925, Baltimore, Maryland, USA, d. 9 December 1981; George Nelson, b. Baltimore, d. 1968; Alexander Sharp, b. Baltimore, ...

The Orlons

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Shirley Brickley, b. 9 December 1944; Steve Caldwell, b. 22 November 1942; Marlena Davis, b. 4 October 1944 (replaced by Audrey Brickley); Rosetta Hightower, b. ...

The Rascals

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music, 2001

Eddie Brigati, b. 22 October 1946; Felix Cavaliere, b. 29 November 1943; Gene Cornish, b. 14 May 1945; Dino Danelli, b. 23 July 1945 ...

Raspberries: The Raspberries

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music, 2001

Eric Carmen, b. 11 August 1949, Cleveland, Ohio, USA; Wally Bryson, b. 18 July 1949, Gastonia, North Carolina; Jim Bonfanti, b. 17 December 1948, Windber, ...

The Ravens

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Jimmy Ricks; Maithe Marshal; Warren Suttles; Leonard Puzey ...

The Righteous Brothers

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Bobby Hatfield, b. 10 April 1940, Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, USA; Bill Medley, b. 19 September 1940, Santa Ana, California ...

The Seeds

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music, 2001

Sky Saxon, b. Richard Marsh; Daryl Hooper; Jon Savage; Rick Andridge ...

The Seekers

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Judith Durham, b. 3 July 1943; Athol Guy, b. 5 January 1940, Victoria, Australia; Keith Potger, b. 2 March 1941, Colombo, Sri Lanka; Bruce Woodley, ...

The Shirelles

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Shirley Owens, b. 10 June 1941, Passaic, New Jersey, USA; Addie 'Micki' Harris, b. 22 January 1940, Passaic, d. 10 June 1982, Los Angeles, California; ...

Aaliyah, Tori Amos, Phil Collins, Foreigner, Fountains of Wayne, Genesis, Debbie Gibson, Hootie and the Blowfish, INXS, Jewel, Kid Rock, The Lemonheads, Stevie Nicks, Robert Plant, Skid Row, Stone Temple Pilots, Pete Townshend: The Soul in the Machine: Whatever Happened to Atlantic Records?

Book Excerpt by Barney Hoskyns, What'd I Say, 2001

"UNFORTUNATELY, we’re running a big business here now," Ahmet Ertegun confessed to author Gerri Hirshey in 1982. "And it sort of ... well, it drives ...

The Stanley Brothers

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Carter Glen Stanley, b. 27 August 1925, McClure, Virginia, USA, d. 1 December 1966; Ralph Edmond Stanley, b. 25 February 1927, McClure ...

The Swinging Blue Jeans

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Ray Ennis, b. 26 May 1942, Liverpool, England; Ralph Ellis, b. 8 March 1942, Liverpool (replaced 1965 by Terry Sylvester, b. 8 January 1945, Liverpool); ...

The Ventures

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Bob Bogle, b. 6 January 1937, Portland, Oregon, USA; Don Wilson, b. 10 February 1937, Tacoma, Washington; Nokie Edwards, b. 9 May 1939, Lahoma, Oklahoma; ...

The Youngbloods

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music, 2001

Jesse Colin Young, b. Perry Miller, 11 November 1944, New York, USA; Jerry Corbitt, b. Tifton, Goergia; Joe Bauer, b. 26 September 1941, Memphis, Tennessee; ...

Theodore Bikel

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 2 May 1924, Vienna, Austria ...

Three Dog Night

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, 'Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music', 2001

Danny Hutton, b. 10 September 1946, Buncrana, Ireland; Chuck Negron, b. 8 June 1942, Bronx, New York, USA; Cory Wells, b. 5 February 1942, Buffalo, ...

Tito Puente

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Comapnion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 20 April 1923, Harlem, New York City, USA, d. 31 May 2000 ...

Todd Terry

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 18 April 1967, Brooklyn, New York, USA ...

Tom Rapp

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

On his own and with the group Pearls Before Swine, Rapp produced some of the most engaging and idiosyncratic music of the late sixties and ...

Tommy Edwards

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 17 February 1922, Richmond, Virginia, USA, d. 22 October 1969, Richmond ...

Tommy Roe

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. Thomas David Roe, 9 May 1942, Atlanta, Georgia, USA ...

Tommy Steele

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. Thomas Hicks, 17 December 1936, Bermondsey, London, England ...

Toni Braxton

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 7 October 1968, Severn, Maryland, USA ...

Tony Orlando

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. Michael Anthony Orlando Cassavitis, 3 April 1944, New York, USA ...

Trini Lopez

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. Trinidad Lopez III, 15 May 1937, Dallas, Texas, USA ...

Uncle Tupelo

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Jay Farrar, b. 26 December 1966, Belleville, Illinois, USA; Michael Heidorn (replaced by Ken Coomer); Max Johnson; John Stirratt; Jeff Tweedy, b. 25 August 1967, ...

U-Roy

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. Ewart Beckford, 1942, Kingston, Jamaica ...

Vangelis

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. Evanghelos Odyssey Papathanoussiou, b. 24 May 1943, Athens, Greece ...

Victoria Spivey

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 15 October 1906, Houston, Texas, USA, d. 3 October 1976, New York ...

Webb Pierce

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 8 August 1926, nr West Monroe, Louisiana, USA, d. 24 February 1991, Nashville, Tennessee ...

Wilbert Harrison

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 6 January 1929, Charlotte, North Carolina, USA, d. 26 October 1994, Spencer, North Carolina ...

Will Smith

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. 25 September 1968, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA ...

William Bell

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music, 2001

b. William Yarborough, 16 July 1939, Memphis, Tennessee, USA ...

Yello

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Dieter Meier; Boris Blank ...

Yusef Lateef

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music, 2001

b. William Evans, 1920, Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA ...

Gene: As Good As it Gets

Sleeve notes by Terry Staunton, Polydor Records, January 2001

THE 17 TRACKS gathered on this disc provide a perfect opportunity to re-appraise one of the brightest, most intriguing bands of recent times (isn't hindsight ...

Simon & Garfunkel: All Gone To Look for America: Simon & Garfunkel

Sleeve notes by Bud Scoppa, Sony Legacy, February 2001

Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M. THE NOTION THAT BABY BOOMERS can stake the first claim on rock and roll is a fiction. The fact is, it ...

"The Agora of the Wayward": A Quarter Century of Rough Trade

Sleeve notes by Jon Savage, Mute Records, March 2001

"I USED TO buy my records in a shop in Trafalgar Road, and the man there was quite avant-garde for his day. Whenever I bought ...

Hanoi Rocks: A History

Sleeve notes by Ian Fortnam, Castle Music, March 2001

PART THE FIRST: BANGKOK SHOCKS, SAIGON SHAKES, HANOI ROCKS ...

The Bill Black Combo: The Best of Bill Black's Combo – The Hi Records Years

Sleeve notes by Colin Escott, Hi/Fat Possum Records, April 2001

NO AMOUNT OF current technology could emulate the aching exactness of Bill Black's Combo. Guitar, bass, and drums somehow kept a loose yet militarily precise ...

Black Flag: Flying the Black Flag

Book Excerpt by Michael Azerrad, Our Band Could Be Your Life, 21 July 2001

The following is the first chapter from Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes from the American Indie Underground 1981-1991, in which Michael Azerrad vividly ...

Long John Baldry, The Foundations, Pickettywitch, Geno Washington: Various Artists: Buttercups and Rainbows – The Songs of Macaulay and Macleod

Sleeve notes by Kieron Tyler, Castle Music, September 2001

TONY MACAULAY and John Macleod had the Midas touch. When their 'Baby Now That I've Found You' hit number in November 1967 it was replaced ...

Little Feat: Time Waits for Columbus

Sleeve notes by Bud Scoppa, Rhino Records, October 2001

WHAT CONSTITUTES a great live album? It’s clearly not the mere replication of a band’s studio performances. That approach may satisfy the attending audience, but ...

Jefferson Airplane: Flying High with the Jefferson Airplane: How John Van Hamersveld created the cover of Crown of Creation

Book Excerpt by John Van Hamersveld, Surfadelic: From Surf Saga to Artist 64-74, 20 October 2001

DECEMBER 31st, 1967: The Winterland Ballroom. San Francisco. Bill Graham's The Doors concert this evening. I'm checking out the show backstage with The Family Dog ...

Lester Bangs: Remembering Lester

Book Excerpt by Paul Gorman, In Their Own Write: Adventures in the Music Press, November 2001

"Everybody's a rock critic." – Lester Bangs ...

Marc Bolan, T. Rex, Tyrannosaurus Rex: "Catch A Bright Star And Place It On Your Forehead": The Rise of Marc Bolan

Book Excerpt by Mark Paytress, Omnibus Books, 2002

An extract from Bolan: The Rise And Fall Of A 20th Century Superstar by Mark Paytress, first published by Omnibus Press in 2002. (378pp, currently ...

Radio Birdman, The Saints: Do The Pop! The Australian Garage Rock Sound 1976-87 (Shock)

Sleeve notes by Dave Laing (Australia), Shock, 2002

Come on baby it's time to moveYou been saying there's nothing to doDon't be afraid of bustin' out of your cageGonna cruise around gonna burn ...

Chris Smither: Don't It Drag On

Sleeve notes by Bill Wasserzieher, Tomato Records, 2002

WHETHER A digital stream encoded on a silver disc or deep grooves on vintage black vinyl, an album is a record of a time in ...

David Blue: David Blue

Sleeve notes by Richie Unterberger, Collector's Choice Records, 2002

WHEN DAVID BLUE came out in August 1966, folk-rock singer-songwriters with folk roots were scurrying to ride Bob Dylan's coattails into the rock mainstream. For ...

Harry Belafonte: Island in the Sun

Sleeve notes by Colin Escott, Bear Family, 2002

WHEN "WORLD MUSIC" became a phrase on everyone's lips a few years ago, it sometimes seemed as though an interest in other countries' musics was ...

Johnny Burnette

Sleeve notes by Colin Escott, 'Rockabilly Boogie' (Bear Family), 2002

IT'S STRANGE, THE TRICKS that history plays. Johnny Burnette, now dead almost forty years, would never have guessed that his legendary status would not be ...

Judy Henske: Judy Henske

Sleeve notes by Richie Unterberger, Collector's Choice Music, 2002

ELEKTRA RECORDS was thought of as a folk label in the early 1960s, and Judy Henske's early albums might have been filed under the folk ...

B.B. King: King Of The Road: On The Road With B.B. King In The Mid-1950s

Sleeve notes by John Broven, Ace Records, 2002

First published in the book accompanying the box set B.B. King: The Vintage Years (Ace Records), 2002. ...

Masterclass: Phil Ramone

Interview by Larry Jaffee, The Audiophile Voice, 2002

PHIL RAMONE is a legendary music producer who's been at the helm on recordings by a who's who of 20th century popular music, the likes ...

Paradise Garage and the Lost Art of DJ'ing

Sleeve notes by Frank Broughton, Bill Brewster, Strut/Nuphonic Records, 2002

PUTTING A ROOMFUL of people in the moment. Amazing them, surprising them, challenging, even confusing them; pushing, electrifying, loving them; carrying them with you towards ...

The Blasters: Testament: The Complete Slash Recordings

Sleeve notes by Don Snowden, Rhino Records, 2002

CRUNCH THE NUMBERS, run the marketing templates and when you get down to it, it just doesn't compute that the six-year life span of the ...

R.E.M.: The New Adventures of R.E.M.

Book Excerpt by Tony Fletcher, Omnibus Books, 2002

An extract from Remarks Remade: The Story of R.E.M. by Tony Fletcher, first published by Omnibus Press in 1989 and in three subsequent editions, the ...

Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five: The True Life Adventures Of Flash

Sleeve notes by Bill Brewster, Frank Broughton, Nuphonic Records, 2002

Chapter 1 FLASH ISN’T THE type of guy to start talking about "How it feels...", but that’s just what you want to ask him. How does ...

Various Artists: The Folk Years – Blowin' in the Wind

Sleeve notes by Barney Hoskyns, Time-Life Music, 2002

THERE WAS A TIME when the notion of the "folk singer-songwriter" was all but a contradiction in terms. "Folk" music was the ür-sound of the ...

Various Artists: The Folk Years – Yesterday's Gone

Sleeve notes by Barney Hoskyns, Time-Life Music, 2002

THE 18 TRACKS on this album whisk us back to the hopeful, happy days of America's Hootenanny boom. From the Caribbean lilt of Harry Belafonte's ...

John Leyton: Remembering John Leyton

Sleeve notes by Kieron Tyler, Sanctuary Records, February 2002

ONCE HEARD, 'Johnny Remember Me' is never forgotten. It was atmosphere itself, the first time British pop had distilled the essence of drama onto vinyl. ...

Dennis Brown: When Two Systems Clashed at Club Four Aces: A snapshot of London reggae culture in the early '70s

Book Excerpt by Penny Reel, Deep Down With Dennis Brown, 9 February 2002

Penny Reel was the pre-eminent reggae writer of reggae's '70s heyday, contributing regularly to NME, Black Echoes and other publications. His Deep Down With Dennis ...

Sigur Ros & Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson: Odin's Raven Magic

Preview by John Lewis, Barbican show programme, 21 April 2002

• Sigur Ros, Hilmar Orn Hilmarsson and Steindor Andersen with the London Sinfonietta and members of The Sixteen Choir • Music composed by Sigur Ros and ...

And So It Began: Remembering the First Issue of Crawdaddy!

Book Excerpt by Paul Williams, 'The Crawdaddy! Book' (Hal Leonard), May 2002

THE FIRST ISSUE of the first American rock music magazine was printed on Sunday, January 30, 1966, in a basement in Brooklyn, New York, on ...

Mike Sarne: Come Outside with Mike Sarne

Sleeve notes by Kieron Tyler, RPM Records, June 2002

THERE'S NOTHING else quite like Mike Sarne's 'Come Outside'. It hit number one in June 1962 with a massive bang. This was English pop in ...

Petula Clark, Tony Hatch, The Searchers, Jackie Trent: Call Me: The Songs Of Tony Hatch

Sleeve notes by Kieron Tyler, Sanctuary Records, July 2002

WHEN PETULA Clark hit number one in America with 'Downtown' in January 1965 she became the first British solo singer to top the US charts. ...

Soul II Soul: Timmy Regisford

Interview by Marc Rowlands, Southport Weekender Programme, September 2002

I'VE NEVER seen an interview with Timmy Regisford before. I don't know if he seldom does them. I know he doesn't enjoy them, not that ...

Sonic Youth: Seeking Sonic Truth On Murray Street: Sonic Youth

Comment by Wayne Robins, waynerobins.blogspot.com, 18 September 2002

I'M AMUSED EACH day when I cross Murray Street, a miles-long, largely residential street that wends its way from downtown Flushing north through various small ...

World of Mouth: Mariza and more

Essay by Charlie Gillett, The WOMEX Guide, October 2002

WHEN MARIZA SINGS, time stands still. Every word is sung with intense concentration, every note hit flawlessly. When she pauses for dramatic effect, ...

Eminem At The Top Of His Underclass: 8 Mile

Review by Wayne Robins, waynerobins.blogspot.com, 26 November 2002

8 MILE, Eminem's big screen debut, is middling as far as boxing movies go: Not as searing as Budd Schulberg's The Harder They Fall, and ...

Warren Zevon: Genius: The Best of Warren Zevon

Sleeve notes by Will Self, Rhino Records, Fall 2002

WHAT I DO is this; I leave the city and go about 50 miles away to a town in the county of Wiltshire called Swindon. ...

Phil Spector, The Ramones: End of the ‘70s: the Ramones Get Spectorized

Book Excerpt by Everett True, Omnibus Books, Fall 2002

An extract from Hey Ho Let’s Go – The Story of The Ramones by Everett True, published by Omnibus Press in 2002. (344pp, currently available ...

Mayor of the Sunset Strip

Film/DVD/TV Review by Chris Campion, Tartan Films, 2003

MORE THAN JUST a nostalgic character study, George Hickenlooper's Mayor Of Sunset Strip is an artfully-constructed meditation on fame that scratches at the surface world ...

Mott The Hoople: Mojo Presents ... Mott The Hoople

Sleeve notes by Phil Sutcliffe, Mojo CD, 2003

THE BALLAD OF MOTT The Hoople is a tale of thigh-high platform boots and enormous moodswings, big shades and black leather and plans so ill ...

Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup, Elvis Presley: Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup: Rock Me Mama: 22 Original Hits By The Godfather Of Rock & Roll

Sleeve notes by Colin Escott, Bluebird/RCA, 2003

"DOWN IN TUPELO," Elvis Presley famously remarked in June 1956, "I used to hear old Arthur Crudup bang his box the way I do now, ...

Bothered Blue Once More: The Barrett Rude Jr. and the Subtle Distinctions Story

Sleeve notes by D. Ebdus, Motherless Records, 2003

"The singer’s role is deceptive; in identifying and exploring disintegration and other potentially destructive aspects of black American life he or she is performing an ...

Howard Tate: Rediscovered

Sleeve notes by Andy Schwartz, Private Music/RCA, 2003

NOTE: I was surprised and very saddened to learn that the great soul singer Howard Tate had died 12.2.11 at age 72, reportedly from complications ...

Jefferson Airplane, Moby Grape, Skip Spence : Skip Spence and the Sad Saga of Moby Grape

Book Excerpt by Jeff Tamarkin, 'Got a Revolution', 2003

IN THE SUMMER of 1965, Jefferson Airplane decided to dismiss their first drummer, Jerry Peloquin. That's when a golden boy named Alexander "Skip" Spence came ...

John Lennon, Yoko Ono: Yoko Ono: A 1992 Interview

Book Excerpt by Paul Zollo, 'Songwriters on Songwriting' (rev. edn, Da Capo), 2003

IT WAS A SAD and a little spooky to walk into the Dakota on this dark and rainy winter night, an evening not unlike the ...

The Cinematic Orchestra: Barbican, London

Preview by John Lewis, Barbican show programme, 8 March 2003

Programme notes for Barbican Hall performance of The Man With The Movie Camera Part of the Only Connect festival, curated by Alex Poots ...

Double Figures: Ten Years Of The Domino Effect

Press Release by Ben Thompson, Domino Records, July 2003

CAPTAIN'S LOG, stardate 1993: John Major's village-cricket-and-warm-beer based moral crusade inspires a parallel "back-to-basics" drift in UK rock 'n' roll (with Justine Frischmann as its ...

Marvin Gaye: Marvellous Marvin Reconsidered

Book Excerpt by Ian MacDonald, 'The People's Music' (Pimlico), July 2003

RARELY DID AN artistic persona run more counter to the truth than in the case of Marvin Gaye. Onstage, he was the quintessence of urbanity: ...

Dan Penn, Eddie Hinton, Tony Joe White: Sumpn' Funky Goin' On: True Tales of Blue-Eyed Backwoods Soul

Sleeve notes by Barney Hoskyns, 'Country Got Soul' (Casual Records), July 2003

THERE WAS SOMETHING funky happening in the American South in the late ‘60s and you didn’t know what it was, did you, Mr Jones? ...

Cassandra Wilson

Preview by John Lewis, Programme notes for gig at Barbican Hall, 13 July 2003

CASSANDRA WILSON's voice can startle you the first time you hear it. It's down, deep and bassy, almost androgynous, with a hint of menace that ...

John Paul Jones, Led Zeppelin: Anchor Man: The Ultimate John Paul Jones Interview, Pt 1

Interview by Dave Lewis, Excerpt from 'The Tight But Loose Files', December 2003

In an in-depth extract from his new Led Zeppelin: The Tight But Loose Files (Omnibus Press), Dave Lewis gets the lowdown from the Led Zep ...

John Paul Jones, Led Zeppelin: Anchor Man: The Ultimate John Paul Jones Interview, Pt 2

Interview by Dave Lewis, Excerpt from 'The Tight But Loose Files', December 2003

Dave Lewis: How do you look back on the experience of making The Song Remains The Same. ...

Jimmy Page/Robert Plant, Led Zeppelin: Page and Plant Unledded: The London Filming for MTV

Book Excerpt by Dave Lewis, 'The Tight But Loose Files', December 2003

2004 INTRO: In 1993 all hopes of any conceivable type of Zeppelin reunion seemed well off the agenda. Page and Plant were both wrapped up ...

Eminem: Can't Forget The Motor City: Detroit from Hitsville to 8 Mile

Book Excerpt by Nick Hasted, Omnibus Books, Summer 2003

The Dark Story of Eminem is the first book by Nick Hasted, whose work has previously appeared in The Independent, the Guardian and Uncut magazine. ...

Jefferson Airplane: The End Of The Beginning: Jefferson Airplane at Altamont

Book Excerpt by Jeff Tamarkin, Helter Skelter Books, Summer 2003

THE VIOLENCE AT Altamont had begun before the Airplane even arrived, when a number of Hell’s Angels, who had been amassing near the stage, wantonly ...

Anti Social Workers and Me

Book Excerpt by Paul Wellings, 'I'm A Journalist...Get Me Out Of Here', 2004

UNLIKE MOST music journalists, I didn't want to be in a band. I'd signed a record deal a year before through the legendary dub producer ...

Chet Baker

Book Excerpt by Gene Santoro, 'Highway 61 Revisited...', 2004

IT'S EASY TO rephrase Tolstoy's opening to Anna Karenina so it describes junkies, who all share an essential plotline: Who and how to hustle in ...

David Gray: An Introduction

Book Excerpt by Colin Harper, Irish Folk, Trad & Blues (Collins Press), 2004

Author's Note: There was at least one prepared but discarded chapter in my joint book with Trevor Hodgett, Irish Folk, Trad & Blues: A Secret ...

Eric Dolphy: Iron Man

Sleeve notes by Hank Bordowitz, Fresh Sound Records, 2004

"Eric Dolphy was a saint, in every way, not just his playing." (Charles Mingus) ...

The Fania All Stars: Fania All Stars: Our Latin Thing

Sleeve notes by James Maycock, Vampi Soul Records, 2004

ON 19TH JULY, 1972, the first few images flickering on the screen at the premiere of Our Latin Thing in New York’s Line 2 cinema ...

The Red Hot Chili Peppers: Freaky and Stylish: When the Chili Peppers Met Dr. Funkenstein

Book Excerpt by Jeff Apter, 'Fornication' (Omnibus Press), 2004

By 1985 the Red Hot Chili Peppers were a band in trouble. Their self-titled debut album, released the year before, had been a disaster, and ...

Los Lobos: How The Wolf Survived: Los Lobos’ 30-Year Ride

Sleeve notes by Roy Trakin, Hollywood Records, 2004

"Someday I will go home /And I’ll find peace in the house/Of my heavenly father." (‘Someday’) ...

Joe Bataan: Young, Gifted And Brown

Sleeve notes by James Maycock, Vampi Soul Records, 2004

A ROMANTIC STREET punk, a jailbird with spirit, a champion of the blue-collar underdog – Joe Bataan is a rebel with soul. ...

Lenny Bruce

Book Excerpt by Gene Santoro, 'Highway 61 Revisited', 2004

THE SCENE: MIAMI in 1951. A 25-year-old strip show emcee initiates his first public demonstration of what would, decades later, be called performance art. It ...

Mary Lou Williams: Linda Dahl: Morning Glory – A Biography of Mary Lou Williams

Book Excerpt by Gene Santoro, 'Highway 61 Revisited...', 2004

MARY LOU WILLIAMS was the first girl who really made it into the boys' club that was (and mostly still is) jazz. Sure, girl singers ...

Louis Armstrong

Book Excerpt by Gene Santoro, 'Highway 61 Revisited...', 2004

FROM 1925 TO 1928, Louis Armstrong made an astonishing series of recordings, the jazz-creating legacy of his Hot Fives and Hot Sevens, a succession of ...

John Lydon: Lydon and I

Book Excerpt by Paul Wellings, 'I'm a Journalist...Get Me Out of Here!', 2004

I BLUFFED my way into journalism and am still bluffing in the PR world. If the truth were told, most journalists are bluffers to some ...

Memphis Slim, Sonny Boy Williamson: Memphis Slim & Sonny Boy Williamson: Live In Europe

Sleeve notes by Bill Wasserzieher, Reelin' in the Years/Hip-O/Experience Hendrix DVD, 2004

MEMPHIS SLIM AND Sonny Boy Williamson - even their names, their performing aliases, have a bigger-than-life aura. And though both passed away decades ago, time ...

The Sex Pistols, Sid Vicious: Sid Vicious: Threw a Glass Darkly

Book Excerpt by Mark Paytress, 'Vicious: The Art of Dying Young', Sanctuary Books, 2004

SID did it. Didn’t he? ...

The Beatles: Don't Fear The Reeperbahn

Retrospective by Johnny Black, 'The Beatles: Ten Years that Shook the World', 2004

"LIVERPOOL AND HAMBURG had a lot in common in the early sixties," muses Gibson Kemp. "They're both seaports, they're both on the same line of ...

The Firesign Theatre

Book Excerpt by Gene Santoro, 'Highway 61 Revisited...', 2004

IN THE LATE 1960s, millions of us walked around with alternate visions of reality dancing in our heads. No, it wasn't just drugs and the ...

Grateful Dead: The Grateful Dead

Book Excerpt by Gene Santoro, 'Highway 61 Revisited...', 2004

"Frenesi took her hand away from Flash's and they all got back to business, the past, a skip tracer with an obsessional gleam in its ...

Hawkwind: The Saga of Hawkwind

Book Excerpt by Carol Clerk, Omnibus Press, 2004

Emerging from the hippie heartland of London's Ladbroke Grove in 1969, Hawkwind invented space-rock with a potent, psychedelic mixture of jamming blues, electronica and lights. ...

The Who: The Who Sell Out from The Complete Guide to the Music of the Who

Book Excerpt by Chris Charlesworth, Omnibus Press, 2004

Original UK issue: Track 612 002 (mono) & Track 613 002 (stereo), released December 1967; UK CD: Polydor 835 727-24, remixed Polydor 527 759-2, 1995. ...

Willie Nelson At 70

Book Excerpt by Gene Santoro, 'Highway 61 Revisited...', 2004

ON APRIL 30, 2003, Willie Nelson turned 70, and celebrated with the release of his latest Greatest Hits collection. The Essential Willie Nelson (Columbia/Legacy), a ...

Woody Guthrie

Book Excerpt by Gene Santoro, 'Highway 61 Revisited...', 2004

ON APRIL 16, 1944, a slight, wiry-haired man with a guitar and harmonica wandered into Moe Asch's little recording studio on West 46 Street off ...

Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine: Brixton Mortars (Snapper)

Sleeve notes by Alex Ogg, Snapper CD, February 2004

CARTER THE Unstoppable Sex Machine combined the talents of Fruitbat (Leslie Carter) and Jim Bob (erm, Jim Morrison), both well-versed in the vaguaries and disappointments ...

Barry Adamson & Russell Maliphant Company: Barbican, London

Preview by John Lewis, Barbican show programme, 8 April 2004

Featuring Barry Adamson Band and the BBC Concert Orchestra Russell Maliphant Company – Anna Williams, Marie Goudot, Flora Bourderon, Michael Pomero and Miquel de ...

The Pogues: I Remember... (Melody Maker Reminiscences)

Memoir by David Stubbs, mr-agreeable.net, 26 July 2004

I REMEMBER a three month stint in 1986 as a trainee chartered accountant, a profession for which I was ill-suited in every respect except the ...

The Beatles, The Drifters, Kenny Lynch: Kenny Lynch: Nothing But The Real Thing

Sleeve notes by Kieron Tyler, RPM Records, September 2004

KENNY LYNCH HAS been at the heart of British showbusiness over 40 years. Whether he's acting, writing for light entertainment or drama, singing, performing comedy ...

Brian Bennett: Aim High

Sleeve notes by Kieron Tyler, RPM Records, October 2004

Aim High is the soundtrack to a film that was never produced. ...

ABC: "It Was Like Disco, But In A Bob Dylan Way": The Lexicon Of Love

Sleeve notes by Daryl Easlea, Neutron/Mercury Records, November 2004

FEW ALBUMS DEFINE the resonance and the beauty of a particular era as does The Lexicon Of Love by ABC. It could be said that ...

The Fall: 50,000 Fall Fans Can’t Be Wrong: The Very Best of The Fall 1978-2003

Sleeve notes by Daryl Easlea, Sanctuary Records, Spring 2004

IN THE EARLY months of 2004, The Fall’s first album, Live At The Witch Trials, celebrated its 25th anniversary. When The Fall started, rock wasn’t ...

David Byrne Looks Forward...and Back

Interview by Carol Cooper, The L Magazine, Fall 2004

Q: AS A SOLO ARTIST you have worked with horn sections and now with string sections to color and embellish your songs. Aside ...

John Martyn: The Gentlest Circus: One World

Sleeve notes by Daryl Easlea, Universal/Island Records, Fall 2004

YOU WOULD THINK one of the last characters to survive the supposed punk rock cull of 1976/77 would be John Martyn. To outsiders, he was ...

Boy George: Straight: An Introduction

Book Excerpt by Paul Gorman, Century Books, 2005

GEORGE ISN'T GOOD in the mornings. He strides out of his room, straight back, arms paddling by his side, in black. He catches your eye. ...

Joni Mitchell: Andy Wickham: A House Hippie at Warner-Reprise

Book Excerpt by Barney Hoskyns, 'Hotel California' (4th Estate), 2005

The news just came in that Wickham, the "company freak" who brought Joni Mitchell and others to the attention of Reprise boss Mo Ostin, died ...

Big Joe Turner: Shout Rattle & Roll (Proper)

Review by Neil Slaven, Proper Records, 2005

ROMANTICS CALLED it "The Paris Of The Plains" but no one ever decided which arrondissement of France's capital Kansas City actually resembled. The red light ...

Blood Sweat & Tears: Seeing Through The Past Darkly

Retrospective and Interview by Brian Torff, International Association of Jazz, 2005

HISTORY HAS a strange and highly selective memory. The past seems to lie in shadows with a filtered and distorted prism for a lens, and ...

Carole King in the Canyon: The Weaving of Tapestry

Book Excerpt by Barney Hoskyns, 'Hotel California' (Fourth Estate), 2005

UNLIKE MOST of her Brill Building contemporaries, Carole King was keen to keep pace with the changing times. Having scored as an artist in her ...

Donovan (2005)

Interview by Joel Selvin, Selvin On The City, KSAN 107.7, 2005

Mr Leitch looks back at his 40 years in music, from scoring hash in Goodge Street to recording with Rick Rubin, via Alice Cooper, Linda Lawrence and more.

File format: mp3 File size: 35.1mb Interview length: 38' 19"; Sound quality: ****

Grin: Grin

Sleeve notes by Terry Staunton, Acadia Records, 2005

AUGUST 25, 2004, was a special date in the calendar of Montgomery County, Maryland. More than 30 musicians gathered in the town of Strathmore for ...

The Cure: Hardcore Pornography: The Cure

Book Excerpt by Jeff Apter, 'Never Enough' (Omnibus Press), 2005

Goth rock icons the Cure had a lot to lose while recording their hugely influential, career-making album, 1982's Pornography - not the least being their ...

Duran Duran: How I Discovered Duran Duran. Or Did They Discover Me?

Memoir by Beverley Glick, beverleyglick.com, 2005

In the third extract from my memoir Hit Girl: My Bizarre Double Life in the Pop World of the Eighties, I tell the story of my ...

Bill Nelson: My Bizarre Double Life In The Pop World Of The Eighties

Memoir by Beverley Glick, beverleyglick.com, 2005

After a small ripple of public demand, I'm going to start posting a series of extracts from my unpublished memoir Hit Girl: My Bizarre Double Life ...

Odetta: Gonna Let It Shine – A Concert for the Holidays

Press Release by Bill Wasserzieher, M.C. Records, 2005

"If only one could be sure that every 50 years a voice and a soul like Odetta's would come along, the centuries would pass so ...

Harpers Bizarre, Joni Mitchell, Randy Newman, Jack Nitzsche, Van Dyke Parks, James Taylor, The Turtles, Neil Young: Ostin-powered: The Mogul of Burbank

Book Excerpt by Barney Hoskyns, 'Hotel California' (4th Estate), 2005

Five adapted excerpts from Barney Hoskyns' 2005 book Hotel California that chart the rise of Warner-Reprise Records during the reign of its revered chief Mo ...

David Blue, Jackson Browne, Ned Doheny, The Eagles, Linda Ronstadt, Judee Sill, J. D. Souther: Play It as It Lays: David Geffen and Asylum Records

Book Excerpt by Barney Hoskyns, 'Hotel California' (4th Estate), 2005

This is an excerpt from Barney Hoskyns'  Hotel California: Singer-Songwriters & Cocaine Cowboys in the L.A. Canyons (Fourth Estate, 2005) ...

Rico Rodriguez: Rico – Trombone Man: Anthology 1961-71 (TJDDD2222)

Sleeve notes by Mike Atherton, Trojan, 2005

FROM THE Duke Reid Group to the Jools Holland Rhythm & Blues Orchestra, from ghetto studios to the stage of Top Of The Pops, from ...

Slade: The Very Best of Slade

Sleeve notes by Chris Charlesworth, Polydor Records, 2005

IT IS JULY 1971 and I'm with Slade in Amsterdam's Vondelpark where they are shortly to perform on a bandstand in the centre of a ...

Slowdive: Just For A Day (Sanctuary Records)

Sleeve notes by Ian Watson, Sanctuary Records, 2005

DECEMBER 1990: Neil Halstead, then a mere two months into his twentieth year on the planet, is talking about the legacy of Slowdive, a group ...

Slowdive: Souvlaki (Castle Music)

Sleeve notes by Ian Watson, Castle Music, 2005

NEW YORK, sometime in the early Nineties. A rough-voiced man in his mid twenties is phoning a hotel to reserve a room for himself and ...

Spandau Ballet's Bible: How I Played My Part in Inventing the New Romantics

Memoir by Beverley Glick, beverleyglick.com, 2005

Here is the second extract from my memoir Hit Girl: My Bizarre Double Life in the Pop World of the Eighties. It is September 1980 and, ...

Average White Band: The Average White Band: Benny & Us/Warmer Communications

Sleeve notes by Daryl Easlea, (Columbia Records), 2005

Comprising the considerable talents of guitarists, bassists and vocalists Alan Gorrie, Hamish Stuart and Onnie McIntyre; the Dundee Horns themselves, Malcolm "Molly" Duncan and Roger ...

Depeche Mode: The Day I Met Four Terrified Teenagers Called Depeche Mode

Memoir by Beverley Glick, beverleyglick.com, 2005

In the fourth extract from my '80s memoir, another brand-new pop group gets interviewed by Sounds' Betty Page, who is fast establishing herself as the go-to ...

Soft Cell: The Day Soft Cell Saved Me From The Dance For Perfection

Memoir by Beverley Glick, beverleyglick.com, 2005

In the fifth extract from my memoir Hit Girl: My Bizarre Double Life in the Pop World of the Eighties, I recall my first meeting with ...

The Rise and Rise of the Casual: Football and Music

Book Excerpt by Paul Wellings, 'Spend it Like Beckham', 2005

THE BEST FANZINES in the mid 80’s were The End (from Liverpool, written by Pete Hooton, lead singer of The Farm, whose single ‘Altogether Now’ ...

Robert Johnson: Travelling Riverside Blues (Clarksdale, Mississippi)

Book Excerpt by Graham Reid, Random House, 2005

Travelling Riverside Blues is a chapter in Graham Reid's Postcards From Elsewhere collection of travel stories (Random House) and is available through his website: www.elsewhere.co.nz ...

The Roxy London WC2 — A Live Punk Box Set

Sleeve notes by Kieron Tyler, Sanctuary Records, February 2005

Every musical movement has a club at its heart. Merseybeat had The Cavern. Mods gravitated towards The Scene and The Flamingo. British psychedelia will always ...

The Fania All Stars: Rumba In The Jungle: Fania All Stars Live In Africa

Sleeve notes by James Maycock, Vampi Soul DVD, 21 February 2005

1974 WAS A fine year for Jerry Masucci's golden boys. Following the triumphs of Our Latin Thing, the Fania All Stars broke out across the ...

Chris Isaak (2005)

Interview by Joel Selvin, Selvin On The City, KSAN 107.7, March 2005

The American icon, together with sidekick Kenney Dale Johnson, spins some favourites and sings a couple of tunes too!

File format: mp3 File size: 32.2mb Interview length: 35' 13"; Sound quality: *****

Mötley Crüe, Tommy Lee: Mötley Crüe's Tommy Lee Lets It All Hang Out

Interview by Roy Trakin, Grammy Magazine, April 2005

EVEN BEFORE HE agreed to join bandmates Nikki Sixx, Vince Neil and Mick Mars in this year's surprisingly successful Mötley Crüe reunion tour – the ...

David Allan Coe

Sleeve notes by Colin Escott, Hackmart/Shout Factory! Records, May 2005

"I ALWAYS FIGURED David's stories were about ninety-two percent bullshit, but it made for good promotion," said record producer Shelby Singleton...who knew the value of ...

Ornette Coleman: Barbican, London

Preview by John Lewis, Barbican show programme, 2 May 2005

Programme notes for Barbican Hall performance of Ornette Coleman — Alto sax Denardo Coleman — Drums Greg Cohen — Bass Tony Falanga — Bass ...

The Alpha Band: The Alpha Band

Sleeve notes by Terry Staunton, Acadia Records, July 2005

VIEWERS OF star-studded awards shows in recent times may have been intrigued by a gangly six-and-a-half-foot figure occasionally appearing in the background of numerous TV ...

Phil Spector: The Killing Of A Barbarian Queen

Retrospective by Terry Staunton, DVD World, October 2005

It took a scandalous Hollywood shooting to catapult faded B-movie starlet LANA CLARKSON onto the front pages. TERRY STAUNTON looks back on the life and ...

The Members: At The Chelsea Nightclub

Sleeve notes by Alex Ogg, Captain Oi Records, December 2005

THE MEMBERS were punk's misfits, a little too lacking in personality disorders and raw ego to sit comfortably with the punk firestarters, a little too ...

Al Green

Profile by Terry Staunton, Notes for Live in '72 DVD, 2006

Terry Staunton profiles the life of Al Green for the sleevenotes for Revolver Entertainment's Live in '72 DVD ...

The Eagles, Linda Ronstadt, Michael Nesmith: Big Tit Sue and Bigger Tit Sue: Torrid Tales of the Troubadour

Book Excerpt by Barney Hoskyns, 'Hotel California', 2006

UP ON THE Sunset Strip, the live scene was hurting. Name bands were now too big to play small clubs like the Whisky: they'd be ...

Booker T & The MGs, Booker T. Jones: Booker T. Jones (2006)

Interview by Joel Selvin, Selvin On The City, KSAN 107.7, 2006

The Booker T & The MGs mainman talks about the Stax years, working with the likes of Otis Redding and Albert King, making 'Green Onions', and on to later projects with Santana, Neil Young and Boz Scaggs.

File format: mp3; file size: 25.5mb; Interview length: 27' 5"; sound quality: *****

Deon Jackson: Love Makes the World Go Round

Sleeve notes by Gene Sculatti, Collector's Choice, 2006

IF YOU HAVE TO BE remembered as a one-hit wonder, it helps if the hit was a wonderful one, a unique-sounding record from what was ...

Nirvana: Extract from Nirvana: The True Story (Omnibus Press)

Book Excerpt by Everett True, Nirvana: The True Story (Omnibus), 2006

No music writer in the world was closer to Nirvana than Melody Maker's Everett True, who saw them perform on over 70 occasions, interviewed them ...

Joy Division: Ian Curtis

Book Excerpt by Mick Middles, Linsday Reade, Torn Apart: The Life of Ian Curtis (Omnibus Press), 2006

The authors of this new biography are uniquely qualified to reveal the extraordinary events surrounding the life and death of Ian Curtis. Manchester-based Mick Middles was ...

Imagination: Just An Illusion

Sleeve notes by Bill Brewster, Demon Records, 2006

LOOKING AT Leee John's nether regions and his luxuriant falsetto, the phrase "all mouth and no trousers" might well have been invented to describe Imagination. ...

Jim Dickinson: Fishing with Charlie & Other Selected Readings

Sleeve notes by Bill Bentley, Birdman Records, 2006

THERE AREN'T MANY shamans still in our world. Most have been ground down to dust, and those left are laying low, hoping to dodge the ...

The Ronettes, Ronnie Spector: Ronnie Spector: The Last of the Rock Stars

Press Release by Andy Schwartz, press release for High Coin Records, 2006

ONLY A FEW ARTISTS in history have been capable of defining an entire era in pop music. Ronnie Spector is one of those artists: the ...

Rough Trade: The Second Coming

Profile and Interview by Dan Gennoe, British Council New Routes, 2006

IN THE WORLD of independent record labels, Rough Trade is a bona fide living legend. Born in the late '70s from the West London record ...

Foo Fighters, Nirvana, Scream: Scream And Scream Again: Dave Grohl

Book Excerpt by Jeff Apter, 'The Dave Grohl Story' (Omnibus Press) , 2006

In 1987, DC hopeful Dave Grohl finally scored what he thought was the best gig in the world: drumming for hardcore legends Scream. But what ...

Silverchair

Book Excerpt by Jeff Apter, A New Tomorrow, 2006

While making their fourth album, 2002's critics' favourite Diorama, Australian trio Silverchair underwent a creative makeover, endured tension with their label Atlantic, cemented a bond ...

The 5th Dimension: Up, Up and Away/Magic Garden

Sleeve notes by Gene Sculatti, Collector's Choice Records, 2006

IT'S NO SECRET that time has a way of erasing details and leaving our memories with only the broadest contours of our shared experience. Most ...

Allen Ginsberg: The Adventures Of The Imagination: Allen Ginsberg's Kaddish

Sleeve notes by Harvey Kubernik, Water Records, 2006

IN A PARIS CAFÉ in November 1957, Allen Ginsberg began the initial notations for Kaddish. In Ginsberg: A Biography, by longtime friend and author Barry ...

The Doors: Strange Days

Sleeve notes by Barney Hoskyns, Rhino Records, 2006

WHO, HAVING HEARD IT, could forget the creepy line that opens the title track of the Doors’ second album? Recorded at the height of the ...

The Prefects: Live 1978: The Co-Op Suite, Birmingham

Sleeve notes by Jon Savage, Caroline True Records, 2006

This recollection of a March 1978 concert was revived nearly 30 years after the event for Caroline True's issue of a full Prefects live show ...

The Vinyl Age

Essay by Clinton Walker, Sociology: Place, Time and Division (OUP), 2006

I GREW UP in a house without music. In suburban Melbourne in the 1960s, we had a spindly-legged (black and white) TV whose blonde-wood finish ...

Tom Waits (2006)

Interview by Joel Selvin, Selvin On The City, KSAN 107.7, 2006

Tom Waits talks about some of his favourite artists - William Burroughs, Daniel Johnston, Johnny Cash, and being the adult when working with Keith Richards!

File format: mp3 File size: 24.7mb Interview length: 26' 56"; Sound quality: *****

Curt Boettcher, Alex Chilton, Gene Clark, Elvis Costello, Dexys Midnight Runners, Dion, Fred Neil, Jack Nitzsche, Shuggie Otis, Gram Parsons, The Stooges, Hal Willner: The Rock Snob's Dictionary: An Introduction

Book Excerpt by David Kamp, Broadway Books, February 2006

2021 AUTHOR'S NOTE: This was written in 2005 and does not entirely hold up today. (But most of it does.) ...

Candi Staton Comes Home to Country Soul

Sleeve notes by Barney Hoskyns, Honest Jon's Records, March 2006

THERE ARE southern soul voices and there are southern soul voices. Raw and ravaged, Candi Staton's is one of the signature sounds of that particular ...

Chrissie Hynde, The Pretenders: The Pretenders: Notes on 15 singles

Sleeve notes by Kieron Tyler, 'Pirate Radio' (Rhino), March 2006

'STOP YOUR SOBBING' The debut single, produced by Nick Lowe, hot from his solo records, work with Elvis Costello and live outings with Dave Edmunds' Rockpile. ...

Sam & Dave

Sleeve notes by Gene Sculatti, Rhino Records Anthology, April 2006

Brooks & Dunn? Outkast? Big & Rich? Where are the duos of today? Sure, there are duet performances, and tons of hits by so-and-so ...

The Meaning of Rave

Retrospective by Bill Brewster, Springsix Festival brochure, May 2006

Well, someone had to explain what Quavers were to those funny foreigners. ...

Cheap Trick

Interview by Larry Jaffee, Monster Cable, 1 May 2006

ONE OF THE mid-1970s' (not to mention Homer Simpson's) most beloved "Power Pop" bands, Cheap Trick is still going strong, hitting dates this year on ...

The Blasters, Dave Alvin: Dave Alvin: Romeo's Escape

Sleeve notes by Terry Staunton, Acadia Records, June 2006

THE TIME: Summer, 1987. The place: Downtown Manhattan hang-out The Kat Klub. It's the height of the annual industry beanfest, the New Music Seminar, and ...

Paul Carrack: Suburban Voodoo

Sleeve notes by Terry Staunton, Acadia Records, June 2006

BY THE TIME the 1980s were just a few years old, the goodtime sounds of the pub rock movement had pretty much fallen out of ...

T Bone Burnett (2006)

Interview by Joel Selvin, Selvin On The City, KSAN 107.7, June 2006

T-Bone Burnett guests on Selvin On the City ( KSAN Underground Radio 107.7, San Francisco), talking about production, the soundtrack for O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Ralph Stanley, Jakob Dylan and more.

File format: mp3 File size: 27.2mb Interview length: 29' 44"; Sound quality: *****

Flying Burrito Brothers: The Flying Burrito Brothers: Flying Again/Airborne

Sleeve notes by Terry Staunton, Acacia Records, June 2006

THERE ARE FEW figures in the history of popular music who have been eulogised or mythologised as much as Gram Parsons. It's to be expected ...

Josef K: Entomology

Sleeve notes by Paul Morley, Domino Records, July 2006

...and then there was Josef K, a four piece group who formed for a number of reasons.  These are some of the reasons: ...

Duffy Power: Vampers and Champers (RPM)

Sleeve notes by Colin Harper, RPM, August 2006

AMONG ALL THE cases of stars who might have been, who had the magic but not the luck, the greatest is surely that of Duffy ...

ABBA: Arrival (Deluxe Edition)

Sleeve notes by Carl Magnus Palm, Polar Music, October 2006

'DANCING QUEEN', 'Fernando', 'Knowing Me, Knowing You' and 'Money, Money, Money' – these four tracks all belong at the top of the list of ABBA's ...

Rockin' on the Outskirts: S.F. Rock Beyond the Ballrooms

Sleeve notes by Gene Sculatti, Rhino, 21 October 2006

Love Is the Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets box (Rhino) ...

Dennis Coffey: Big City Funk

Sleeve notes by James Maycock, Vampi Soul, November 2006

Dennis Coffey: Original Old School Breaks & Heavy Guitar Soul (Vampi Soul) ...

Jerry Butler: The Ice Man Cometh/Ice On Ice

Sleeve notes by Gene Sculatti, Collectors Choice Music, November 2006

As well as being two classic albums of '60s pop-soul, The Ice Man Cometh and Ice on Ice comprise a tale of two cities – ...

The Four Seasons (2006)

Interview by Joel Selvin, Selvin On The City, KSAN 107.7, December 2006

Frankie Valli and Bob Gaudio chat about the Jersey Boys musical, about Bob Crewe, the Disco years and the lost Seasons/Beach Boys album.

File format: mp3 File size: 31.3mb Interview length: 34' 14"; Sound quality: ***

Dick Dale: Checkered Flag (Sundazed)

Sleeve notes by Gene Sculatti, Sundazed, 2007

I'M A SUCKER for this stuff, there was no way that, as a California teenager in 1963, I wasn't going to buy a copy of ...

Eric Clapton, The Yardbirds: Eric Clapton: Clapton Is God...The Cream Of Early Eric

Review by Neil Slaven, Castle Music, 2007

A VIGNETTE FROM the days when "God" walked the streets of London: Mike Vernon and I are making our way down Wardour Street towards Shaftesbury ...

Richard Brautigan, Mad River: Just Like a Poem: Richard Brautigan and Mad River

Retrospective and Interview by David Biasotti, Richard Brautigan (ed. John F. Barber), McFarland, 2007

THOUGH THEY RECORDED two albums for Capitol Records, Mad River remains one of the least-documented and enigmatic Bay Area bands of the late '60s. ...

Microdisney: Daunt Square To Elsewhere

Sleeve notes by Andrew Mueller, Castle, 2007

THE VERY fact of this compilation's existence tells you a great deal about the music it contains, and the band it honours. The most recent ...

Bobbie Gentry: Mystery Girl: The Forgotten Artistry of Bobbie Gentry

Retrospective by Holly George-Warren, 'Listen Again' (Duke University Press), 2007

SHE'S BEEN called the J.D. Salinger of rock & roll. Mississippi-born singer/songwriter/guitarist/producer Bobbie Gentry is every bit as mysterious as the steamy, Delta-flavored story-song she ...

Neil Sedaka: The Definitive Collection (Razor & Tie)

Sleeve notes by Gene Sculatti, Razor & Tie, 2007

IT'S ALMOST LIKE A scene from a movie, one of those Fifties cinematic cash-ins about crazy music and hopped-up teens. At a high-school talent show, ...

No Doubt

Book Excerpt by Jeff Apter, Omnibus Press, 2007

Driven by a love of all things 2-Tone and led by reluctant star Gwen Stefani, Orange County hopefuls No Doubt made their public debut at ...

NRBQ's Big Al Anderson (2007)

Interview by Joel Selvin, Selvin On The City, KSAN 107.7, 2007

Big Al takes us through life post-NRBQ, becoming songwriter to the Nashville Hat Act Stars, and looks back to the tough days on the road with NRBQ.

File format: mp3 File size: 33.5mb Interview length: 36' 25"; Sound quality: *****

Radiohead: 'Subterranean Homesick Alien' and the Poetry of Perspective

Book Excerpt by Tim Footman, Chrome Dreams, 2007

Excerpt from Welcome to the Machine: OK Computer and the Death of the Classic Album ...

Read All About It: Rock Books to Live By

Book Excerpt by Barney Hoskyns, Time Out's 1000 Books To Save Your Life, 2007

YOU'D THINK I'd be able to write about rock books in my sleep. But of course the task is dreadfully daunting, "rock" now being an ...

Spear Of Destiny: Grapes Of Wrath

Sleeve notes by Alex Ogg, Anagram, 2007

THE FOUNDATIONS of Spear Of Destiny can be traced back to 1978, when Kirk Brandon replaced bass player Jerry Isles in Devon punk band The ...

Young Marble Giants: Colossal Youth/Collected Works

Sleeve notes by Simon Reynolds, Domino Records, 2007

POSTPUNK AND "perfection" rarely went together. This was an era of experimental over-reach, of bands catalysed by the punk do-it-yourself principle attempting to expand the ...

The Rascals: The Definitive Rascals

Sleeve notes by Gene Sculatti, Rhino, February 2007

"THE FIRST ALBUM wasn't us," Felix Cavaliere confided to Hit Parader magazine in 1968. "It was our interpretation of other people's music. 'Good Lovin'' was ...

Haysi Fantayzee: Battle Hymns For Children Singing – The Best Of Haysi Fantayzee

Sleeve notes by Alex Ogg, Cherry Pop, 26 February 2007

HAYSI FANTAYZEE were formed in 1981 by a fashion photographer from Wigan, Kate Garner, and her boyfriend, Paul Caplin, late of EMI act Animal Magnet ...

Chuck Brown & The Soul Searchers: Blow Your Whistle: Original Old School Breaks & Classic Funk Bombs

Sleeve notes by James Maycock, Vampi Soul Records, March 2007

JANUARY 2003. AUGUSTA, GEORGIA. A documentary crew are filming James Brown outside the house his aunt operated as a brothel in the 1940s. It was ...

Arif Mardin: Groovin': The Genius of Arif Mardin

Sleeve notes by Barney Hoskyns, Rhino Records, April 2007

ATLANTIC'S JERRY WEXLER called him The Pasha, aka "His Soulful Turkish Eminence". It was a typically Wexleresque reference to Arif Mardin's aristocratic background and manner. ...

The Beau Brummels' Sal Valentino (2007)

Interview by Joel Selvin, Selvin On The City, KSAN 107.7, 3 May 2007

Sal Valentino takes us through the history of The Beau Brummels, from being produced by a young Sly Stone for Tom Donahue's Autumn Records to the Warners years, working with Van Dyke Parks and Randy Newman, and the Triangle and Bradley's Barn albums.

File format: mp3 File size: 31.2mb Interview length: 34' 02"; Sound quality: *****

Gene Vincent: Born To Be A Rollin' Stone The Challenge Sessions 1966-68

Sleeve notes by Tim Tooher, Rev-Ola Records, July 2007

SOMETIMES THE BEST things in life are the simplest things. Gene Vincent kept things simple. He had no airs and graces. No pretensions. He sang ...

Moby Grape: Moby Grape

Sleeve notes by Gene Sculatti, Sundazed Music Inc., 14 July 2007

"There was a definite shock value in hearing the Grape open up with a sound that you did not so much hear as feel in ...

Clyde McPhatter, The Drifters: Clyde McPhatter & The Drifters

Sleeve notes by Gene Sculatti, Collector's Choice Music, August 2007

"I fell in love with the man's voice. I toured with the group and watched Clyde and listened; finally I got a chance to join ...

The Cake: More of Cake Please

Sleeve notes by Chris Campion, Rev-Ola Records, August 2007

THREE TEENAGE girls are discovered singing along to records in a New York night club by two hotshot managers. They are rushed into a recording ...

The Drifters: I'll Take You Where The Music's Playing (Collectors' Choice Music)

Sleeve notes by Gene Sculatti, Collectors' Choice Music, August 2007

IF THE MID-'60s "Brill Building era" – when teams like Goffin-King, Bacharach-David and Mann-Weil wrote like what seemed two-thirds of the hits in Top 40 ...

Eddie Palmieri & La Perfecta: Sugar Daddy

Sleeve notes by James Maycock, Fania CD, September 2007

THE HIP DANCEFLOOR RHYTHMS OF PALMIERI'S LA PERFECTA: 1962-1967 ...

Lulu: The Atco Sesssions

Sleeve notes by Kieron Tyler, Atlantic Records, September 2007

LULU'S 1970 ALBUM New Routes has long been recognised as a landmark soulful classic – the album that finally provided the showcase Lulu's voice deserved. ...

Mario Telles: Mario Telles

Sleeve notes by Tim Tooher, Rev-Ola Records, September 2007

THE SUBTLE DANCE between melody and meaning, both music and lyrics, is what makes a song. This should, and often does, lessen the appeal of ...

ABBA: ABBA – The Album (Deluxe Edition)

Sleeve notes by Carl Magnus Palm, Polar Music, October 2007

AS CAREER trajectories for top-level pop groups go, certain aspects of the ABBA story could almost serve as a textbook example. "The first tentative steps", ...

Chuck Berry: Hail, Hail, Chuck Berry!

Essay by Jonh Ingham, Jonh Ingham's Blog, October 2007

"If you tried to give rock and roll another name, you might call it Chuck Berry."– John Lennon ...

Marianne Faithfull: Come My Way

Sleeve notes by Tim Tooher, Rev-Ola Records, November 2007

THE ACCEPTED WISDOM regarding Marianne Faithfull is that in the 1960s she was the mere puppet of oft-considered shady, behind-the-scenes operators like Andrew Loog Oldham ...

Paul Wasserman, Press Agent and Friend

Obituary by Wayne Robins, waynerobins.blogspot.com, 24 November 2007

PAUL WASSERMAN, the erudite press representative to a long roster of rock and movie stars, died in Los Angeles at age 73, according to an ...

Sly & the Family Stone: Sly and the Family Stone: Stand!

Sleeve notes by Barney Hoskyns, Sony Legacy, Spring 2007

IT'S A MEASURE of our fascination with the darker side of pop culture that Stand! now tends to take second stage to 1971's claustrophobic, coke-fuelled ...

GTR, Billy Joel: A Creem editor remembers…

Book Excerpt by Bill Holdship, 'America's Only Rock 'N' Roll Magazine', 2008

THERE ARE loads of CREEM stories to tell, such as the time I answered the editorial phone and Billy Joel was on the other end, ...

Barney Bubbles

Book Excerpt by Paul Gorman, 'Reasons To Be Cheerful' (Adelita), 2008

DESPITE HIS WISH for anonymity, Barney Bubbles' profile was rising high in 1978 on the back of the graphic wit, invention and clarity delivered over ...

Bobby Darin: Bobby Rocks

Sleeve notes by Todd Everett, Bear Family Records, 2008

THE ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME – the list of performers, not the museum in Cleveland – has often generated its share of controversy; ...

Warren Zevon: Warren Zevon

Sleeve notes by Bob Mehr, Rhino Records, 2008

THIS STORY BEGINS like one of Warren Zevon's own songs – with a few pleading lines scribbled on a postcard sent to some far-off locale. ...

KISS, Gene Simmons: Gene Simmons: Into The Belly Of The Beast

Interview by Elmo Keep, www.fasterlouder.com.au, 20 February 2008

"This is Gene Simmons," says the voice on the phone. There I was, sitting – more correctly, innocently lounging – in the meeting room of ...

The New Southern Rock

Book Excerpt by Mark Kemp, Novello Festival Press, April 2008

Essay published in music anthology: Wicker, Ann, ed., Making Notes: Music of the Carolinas. Charlotte, NC: Novello Festival Press, April 2008. ISBN: 0615159699 ...

Mink DeVille: Where Angels Fear to Tread

Sleeve notes by Gene Sculatti, Collector's Choice Music, 13 May 2008

PEOPLE TALK. When they talk about the music of Willy DeVille, they say things like "DeVille's talents transcend all trends. He fuses blues, rock and ...

Spiritualized's Jason Pierce

Profile and Interview by Ian Gittins, The National (UAE), 23 May 2008

JASON PIERCE is the great unsung hero of British rock music. As the singer, songwriter and philosophical pulse of his epic rock band, Spiritualized, he ...

Frankie Lymon: Rock 'N' Roll

Sleeve notes by Gene Sculatti, Collector's Choice Music, 8 July 2008

"I WAS 12 years old when I first heard Frankie Lymon singing 'Why Do Fools Fall in Love' on my grandmother's radio," wrote Ronnie Spector ...

Rock, Roll, and Me: Writing the '60s

Memoir by Jane Heil, Forum of World Cultures, 20 July 2008

THE FIFTY or so articles I wrote for Hit Parader and other rock and country magazines are packed away on a high shelf in my apartment. I ...

Jeff Buckley: A Pure Drop: The Life Of Jeff Buckley

Book Excerpt by Jeff Apter, Omnibus Press, August 2008

An excerpt from A Pure Drop: The Life Of Jeff Buckley, by Jeff Apter, published by Omnibus Press, September 2008. (304pp, hardback, £19.95) ...

Isaac Hayes: Remembering Isaac Hayes

Obituary by David Nathan, Stax 50th Online Blog, August 2008

IT MIGHT be easy to simply consider Isaac Hayes as Black Moses, as the distinguished winner of an Oscar for 'Theme For Shaft', as the ...

X-Ray Spex: Germfree Adolescents (Deluxe Edition)

Sleeve notes by Kieron Tyler, Sanctuary Records, August 2008

ALTHOUGH X-RAY Spex split up close to thirty years ago, their music remains timeless and vividly fresh. The band might have been birthed during 1977's ...

John Martyn: Ain't No Saint: 40 Years Of John Martyn

Sleeve notes by Daryl Easlea, Island Records, September 2008

"Love finds a way, just let it stay From day to day, just let it flow, just let it grow It will get you together ...

Aretha Franklin, Jerry Wexler: Remembering Jerry Wexler…

Comment by David Nathan, Stax 50th Online Blog, 1 September 2008

I'M NOT sure the first time I saw Gerald Wexler's name on an album. ...

Art school rock

Book Excerpt by John Lewis, London Calling: High Art and Low Life Since 1968, October 2008

London's rock history of the last 40 years can be traced through its art schools, says John Lewis ...

Robert Johnson: The Death of Robert Johnson

Book Excerpt by Tom Graves, DeMers Books, October 2008

Excerpt from the book Crossroads: The Life and Afterlife of Blues Legend Robert Johnson (DeMers Books) ...

Ry Cooder (2008)

Interview by Joel Selvin, Selvin On The City, KSAN 107.7, 23 November 2008

The meastro of roots and Americana talks about his recent work - I, Flathead, Chávez Ravine - and looks back to the making of his first album and subsequent career.

File format: mp3 File size: 32.4mb Interview length: 35' 27"; Sound quality: *****

The Mo-dettes: The Story So Far (Cherry Red)

Sleeve notes by Alex Ogg, Cherry Red, December 2008

THE MO-DETTES first emerged towards the end of 1978, after guitarist Kate Korus (aka Katherine Corris, formerly of the Slits) and drummer June Miles-Kingston met ...

Howlin Rain: Magnificent Fiend

Press Release by Don Waller, Birdman Records, Spring 2008

MAGNIFICENT FIEND is the second album from Howlin' Rain and the first to be issued under a joint agreement between multi-platinum record producer Rick Rubin's ...

Ben E. King: Supernatural and Benny And Us

Sleeve notes by Gene Sculatti, Collector's Choice Records, 2009

BY NOW IT'S A TRUISM that F. Scott Fitzgerald got it wrong when he said, "There are no second acts in American lives." Sure, lots ...

Flirtations with Chaos: The Life and Work of Robert Palmer

Essay by Anthony DeCurtis, 'Blues & Chaos', 2009

NOTE: This is Anthony DeCurtis' introduction to Blues & Chaos, his 2009 anthology of Bob Palmer's work. * ...

Ned Doheny: Ned Doheny

Sleeve notes by Richie Unterberger, Asylum Japan, 2009

WHEN NED Doheny's self-titled debut LP appeared in 1973, the artist had already been active in the Southern California singer-songwriter scene for several years. In ...

The Birthday Party, Nick Cave: Nick Cave: Back to the Ballroom

Book Excerpt by Clinton Walker, 'Cultural Seeds: Essays on the Work of Nick Cave', 2009

I FIRST MET Nick Cave in Melbourne in early 1978 when we were both, I daresay, players in a new music underground that was still ...

Pat Boone: Pat Boone Rocks

Sleeve notes by Todd Everett, Bear Family Records, 2009

UNWILLING TO meet the increased rent imposed by the managers of the Brooklyn Paramount Theater, New York City disc jockey Alan Freed moved his hugely ...

The Slits: An extract from Typical Girls; The Story Of The Slits

Book Excerpt by Zoë Street Howe, Omnibus Books, 2009

NOTE: Zoe Street Howe managed to interview all four original members of The Slits – Ari Up, Viv Albertine, Tessa Pollitt and Paloma 'Palmolive' Romero ...

Led Zeppelin: Thirty Years Gone: Remembering John Bonham

Book Excerpt by Roy Carr, 'Talk on the Wild Side' (EarBooks), 2009

WELL, THIS IS L.A., so I assume we're being hit by an earthquake. What else could cause the walls of my hotel room to vibrate ...

The Monochrome Set: The Lost Weekend

Sleeve notes by Alex Ogg, Cherry Red, February 2009

THE LOST Weekend was The Monochrome Set's first and only album for Warners subsidiary Blanco y Negro, following their exit from Cherry Red. Yet rather ...

Tom Waits: The Piano Has Been Drinking: Tom Waits in London Town

Book Excerpt by Barney Hoskyns, Lowside of the Road: A Life of Tom Waits (Faber), March 2009

In this excerpt from Lowside of the Road: A Life of Tom Waits, the barfly bard of the Hollywood sidewalks visits London for the first ...

Jerry Dammers, Sun Ra: Jerry Dammers' Spatial AKA Orchestra Presents a tribute to Sun Ra and other musical mavericks

Preview by John L. Walters, Barbican show programme, 10 March 2009

JERRY DAMMERS has long had a place in the nation's musical heart. His exuberant, hard-working band Special AKA (the Specials), helped to revive and redefine ...

Moondog: The Viking of 6th Ave: The Music of Moondog

Preview by John L. Walters, Barbican show programme, 30 May 2009

Presented by the Barbican and Eat Your Own Ears; part of Only Connect ...

The Beatles, George Harrison: By George: Harrison's Post-Beatles Solo Career

Retrospective by Roy Trakin, Capitol Vaults blog, June 2009

MOST PEOPLE THINK of George Harrison as "the Quiet Beatle," the spiritual one, the first to turn the band on to transcendental meditation, but the ...

The Jones Girls, Johnny Otis: Various Artists: Good To The Last Drop – Ember Soul

Sleeve notes by Mike Atherton, Fantastic Voyage Records, June 2009

EMBER RECORDS was founded in London in 1960 by Jeffrey S. Kruger. A longtime jazz fan – he played piano in his own band Sonny ...

The Rolling Stones: Villa Nellcote: Tommy Weber Arrives at the Rolling Stones' French Stronghold

Book Excerpt by Robert Greenfield, 'A Day in the Life' (Da Capo), July 2009

In this excerpt from his brilliant new A Day in the Life: One Family, the Beautiful People, and the End of the '60s, Robert Greenfield ...

Led Zeppelin: I Was There: Nostalgic Recollections From Led Zeppelin's 1979 Shows at Knebworth

Book Excerpt by Dave Lewis, Then As It Was (Tight But Loose Publishing), August 2009

FOR THE THOUSANDS of fans who converged on Hertfordshire over the first two weekends of August 1979, Led Zeppelin at Knebworth was more than a ...

Lee Dorsey: The New Lee Dorsey

Sleeve notes by Tim Tooher, Rev-Ola Records, December 2009

"Lee Dorsey's voice has a smile to it. If you listen to Lee Dorsey, you can see a smile and something in you can feel ...

Tom Waits: Take It With Me When I Go: Tom Waits Turns 60

Book Excerpt by Barney Hoskyns, 'Lowside of the Road: A Life of Tom Waits' (Faber), December 2009

To celebrate Tom Waits' 60th birthday (December 9), I hereby offer the coda to my biography Lowside of the Road. An account of seeing the ...

Aimee Mann: Cover Me – Aimee, Gail and the illustrators

Special Feature by Martin Colyer, Varoom!, Winter 2009

Video promos and downloads have diminished the value of sleeve art in the eyes of music companies, and illustration doesn't fit their brand-building approach to ...

Brewer and Shipley: Weeds/Tarkio Road

Sleeve notes by Richie Unterberger, Collector's Choice, 2010

AFTER INTRODUCING their harmony-driven brand of folk-rock on their late-'60s A&M debut album Down in L.A., singer-songwriter-guitarists Brewer & Shipley moved to the Kama Sutra label ...

The Dixie Hummingbirds, The Soul Stirrers, Marion Williams: How Sweet It Was: The Sights and Sounds of Gospel's Golden Age

Sleeve notes by Anthony Heilbut, Shanachie Records, 2010

"You know, friends, they got this new music ... this rocking and roll. And I'd just like to say that it gets its beat... its ...

Jimi Hendrix: He Shall Grow Not Old As Some Who Are Left Grow Old

Sleeve notes by Derek Taylor, Sony Music, 2010

These are the sleevenotes to the 2010 reissue of Electric Ladyland ...

Jorge Calderón: City Music

Sleeve notes by Gene Sculatti, Collector's Choice Records, 2010

AS A SONGWRITER, singer, producer and multi-instrumentalist, Jorge Calderon has amassed a list of credits that would easily qualify him for a master's degree in ...

Percy Sledge: Out Of Left Cotton Field: The Brokenhearted Country Soul Of Percy Sledge

Sleeve notes by Barney Hoskyns, 'The Complete Atlantic Recordings' (Rhino), 2010

PERCY SLEDGE IS as prone to romanticizing Muscle Shoals as the many music writers who rhapsodize about the area in pieces about local luminaries like ...

The Gun Club, Jeffrey Lee Pierce: Remembering Jeffrey, Not Jeffrey Lee Pierce

Sleeve notes by Don Snowden, Six Stream Sermon (Bang Records) , 2010

NOW, THE FIRST THING you should understand is that I never knew Jeffrey Lee Pierce. But I did know that same person as Jeffrey for ...

Slowdive: Pygmalion (Cherry Red Records)

Sleeve notes by Ian Watson, Cherry Red Records, 2010

THE PRESS hated it. Let's get that out of that way at the beginning. With the UK in the midst of Britpop euphoria, there was ...

The Orlons: Wah Watusi and South Street

Sleeve notes by Gene Sculatti, Collector's Choice, 2010

IF THEY'RE LUCKY, most decades get a handle–not right at birth, but usually by the time they grow up a little and let us know ...

ABBA: A Matter Of Blood, Sweat And Tears: ABBA's Voulez-Vous (Deluxe Edition)

Sleeve notes by Carl Magnus Palm, Polar Music, 31 May 2010

HINDSIGHT IS A wonderful thing. When studying the track list of compilation albums such as ABBA Gold, or perusing chart statistics, it is easy to ...

Them, Van Morrison: Them: 'Baby Please Don't Go' (1965)

Book Excerpt by Greil Marcus, 'When That Rough God Goes Riding', June 2010

IN 1965, THEM'S 'Baby Please Don't Go'–usually cited as a rock 'n' roll update of a song first recorded by the Mississippi blues singer Joe ...

Van Morrison: The Healing Game (1997)

Book Excerpt by Greil Marcus, 'When That Rough God Goes Riding' , June 2010

THE BLACK-AND-WHITE photo that appears on the face of The Healing Game–and on the disc itself, and on the back of the CD box, insisting ...

The Ugly Ducklings: The Yorkville Scene

Book Excerpt by Nicholas Jennings, 'Before the Gold Rush' (Penguin), 2 June 2010

ON A SPRING night in 1965, a warm breeze blew along Toronto's Yorkville Avenue, carrying with it a strange mixture of scents: rich coffee, pungent ...

Fairport Convention: What They Did On Their Holidays: Fairport Convention at Farley House, Summer 1969

Book Excerpt by Rob Young, 'Electric Eden' (Faber), August 2010

NOTE: This is an excerpt from Rob Young's superb new folk opus Electric Eden: Unearthing Britain's Visionary Music, published in August 2010 by Faber & ...

The Flying Lizards: The Fourth Wall (RPM)

Sleeve notes by Kieron Tyler, RPM Records, September 2010

THE PUNK BOOM opened doors and ears, allowing the off the wall, the experimental and the challenging a platform. Much of what leaked out has ...

Bobby "Blue" Bland: For Members Only: Bobby Bland on Malaco

Sleeve notes by Barney Hoskyns, Malaco Records, October 2010

TWENTY-FIVE years ago, searching for the extant spirit of southern soul, I made my way to a former Pepsi-Cola warehouse in a decidedly unlovely industrial ...

Blazers, the: The Blazers: East Side Soul

Sleeve notes by Don Snowden, New Rounder, 5 October 2010

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA – the first weekend of March, 1995. Mudslides wiped out nine homes in a town near Ventura while OJ trial junkies debated the ...

At Large in the Black Hole of Punk L.A.

Sleeve notes by Jon Savage, 'Black Hole' (Domino Records), November 2010

NOTE: Adapted from Strange Things # 1, published spring 1988, this forms the first part of the liner notes for Black Hole: Jon Savage Presents ...

Ken Colyer, Lonnie Donegan: Ken Colyer and the Birth of Skiffle

Book Excerpt by Various Writers, Goin' Home (The Ken Colyer Trust), December 2010

This an excerpt from Goin' Home: The Uncompromising Life and Music of Ken Colyer, published by the Ken Colyer Foundation. ...

Ahmet Ertegun: A Day of Tribute in New York

Book Excerpt by Robert Greenfield, 'The Last Sultan' (Simon & Schuster), 2011

APRIL 17, 2007. In the tiny village New York can sometimes become when it honors one of its own who has fulfilled the dream of ...

Brenda Lee: Brenda Lee Rocks

Sleeve notes by Todd Everett, Bear Family Records, 2011

PAT BOONE, WHO GOT HIS START before rock and roll was invented, remarked in 2008 that he had issues with the fact that he hadn't ...

Mickey Newbury: Guitars, Boats And Fairways: Mickey Newbury and Friends on Old Hickory Lake

Sleeve notes by Chris Campion, Saint Cecilia Knows Records, 2011

IT LOOKS, FROM ABOVE, like a snake arching through the brush. A series of long blind curves that begins at Hendersonville, the small community formed ...

The Monterey Pop House Band

Book Excerpt by Kirk Silsbee, 'A Perfect Haze' (Santa Monica Press), 2011

THE UNTOLD STORY of 1960s rock is the often-uncredited role that studio musicians played in the records that were the soundtrack to the era's youth.  ...

The Tymes: So Much In Love (Real Gone Music)

Sleeve notes by Gene Sculatti, Real Gone Music, 2011

IT SEEMS only appropriate that this noteworthy debut be discussed in the context of several other "firsts" associated with the Tymes. This package represents the ...

The Beatles: The Birth of Beatlemania: The Fab Four on Tour, 1963

Book Excerpt by Martin Creasy, 'Beatlemania!' (Omnibus), March 2011

NOTE: Martin Creasy spent two years tracing the trajectory of the Beatles' UK tours, interviewing scores of people who in some way connected with John, ...

ABBA: Expanding the boundaries: The making of Super Trouper

Sleeve notes by Carl Magnus Palm, Polar Music, May 2011

FOR A BAND whose music has sometimes been described as being born out of the long dark hours of the Scandinavian winter period, it may ...

Chic, Norma Jean Wright: Norma Jean Wright: Norma Jean

Sleeve notes by Daryl Easlea, Demon Records, July 2011

NORMA JEAN WRIGHT'S sole album on Bearsville, released in 1978, is something of a curio, and is notable for the fact it was the first ...

Paul Nelson on Neil Young

Book Excerpt by Kevin Avery, Everything is an Afterthought (Fantagraphics), November 2011

ON APRIL 14, 1983, Elliot Roberts, Neil Young's manager, wrote a letter to Paul: "This is to advise you that we will co-operate with you ...

Paul Nelson: Early Influences

Book Excerpt by Kevin Avery, Everything is an Afterthought (Fantagraphics), November 2011

MUSIC PLAYED A PART IN young Paul's life. "My aunt played piano. I remember hymns very fondly as the first music I ever heard." There ...

BBC Radiophonic Workshop, Daphne Oram, Delia Derbyshire, John Baker: The BBC Radiophonic Workshop: Back To The Future

Profile by Jude Rogers, The Daily Note, 6 December 2011

A group of outsiders left to their own devices, the BBC's Radiophonic Workshop took avant-garde electronics and strange new sounds into the nation's living rooms ...

Blondie: One Way or Another

Retrospective by Barney Hoskyns, 'Blondie: Panic of Girls' (Future Publishing), Summer 2011

MOST OF THE BOYS were there to watch Television. It was Saturday night, 28 May 1977, and the Hammersmith Odeon was packed with chaps who ...

Gentle Giant: I Lost My Head – Chrysalis Years (1975-1980)

Sleeve notes by Daryl Easlea, (Chryalis Records), 2012

I'M STILL NOT sure what the word "contrapuntal" means. But that and "pretentious" were two words I learned as a teenage Gentle Giant fan in ...

Herb Alpert: Fandango

Sleeve notes by Gene Sculatti, Shout! Factory Records, 2012

IN 1975, at the age of 32, Mick Jagger famously uttered one of the more regrettable, bite-yourself-in-the-behind remarks in modern pop history. "I'd rather be ...

Led Zeppelin: In the Misty Mountains: Led Zeppelin Get It Together in the Country

Book Excerpt by Barney Hoskyns, 'Trampled Under Foot' (Faber & Faber), 2012

JIMMY PAGE: It wasn't until the spring of 1970 that we actually had a real break.  That break was only probably a couple of months, ...

Rick Springfield: Beginnings

Sleeve notes by Richie Unterberger, Real Gone Music, 2012

TO LISTENERS in the United States and most of the world, Rick Springfield's name was not familiar until he rocketed to pop music and television ...

Sanford-Townsend Band: The Sanford-Townsend Band: Smoke From A Distant Fire

Sleeve notes by Gene Sculatti, Real Gone Records, 2012

IT'S A FUNNY THING about brass rings. Sometimes they come round and we pass on them, forever locked out of a future that might've been. ...

The Ghost of Roland Barthes is Suitably Perplexed: NME in the Post-Punk Era

Book Excerpt by Pat Long, Portico Books, March 2012

NOTE: In this excerpt from his History of the NME, published in the UK by Portico, Pat Long chronicles the decline of the world's top ...

Gary Burton, Chick Corea: Crystal Silence: Gary Burton & Chick Corea

Preview by John L. Walters, Barbican show programme, April 2012

NEARLY 40 YEARS have elapsed since Gary Burton and Chick Corea walked into an Oslo studio to record the nine exquisite tracks that make up ...

ABBA: The Visitors (Deluxe Edition)

Sleeve notes by Carl Magnus Palm, Polar Records, 23 April 2012

The final phase: The making of The Visitors ...

The Flamingos: A Doo-Wop Dream of Love Addiction: The Pop Perfection of the Flamingos' 'I Only Have Eyes for You'

Essay by Barney Hoskyns, Catalog for Doug Aitken's Song 1 exhibition, June 2012

I WAS FOURTEEN YEARS OLD – a glam-rock brat awakening to the golden innocence of pre-Beatles American pop – when I shelled out for the ...

Aretha Franklin, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Dinah Washington: Blue-Singing Gospel Girls: Aretha and her Forebears

Book Excerpt by Anthony Heilbut, 'The Fan Who Knew Too Much' (Knopf), June 2012

AMONG THE SEVERAL MYTHS Aretha's father Reverend C. L. Franklin incarnated was a familiar type, Reverend Eatemup, the man with pastoral appetites in food and ...

Pussy Riot: The Riot Girls' Style

Comment by Vivien Goldman, New York Times magazine blogs, 8 August 2012

IT HAS BEEN a shock to see the bravely smiling faces of three girls from the Russian punk collective Pussy Riot locked in a glass ...

Jeff Beck, Led Zeppelin, Terry Reid: "The new chaps are only about 19 and full of enthusiasm": The birth of Led Zeppelin

Book Excerpt by Barney Hoskyns, 'Trampled Under Foot' (Faber & Faber), September 2012

In this excerpt from his oral history Trampled Under Foot: The Power and Excess of Led Zeppelin, Barney Hoskyns charts the formation and ascent of ...

Scott Walker: Bish Bosch

Press Release by Rob Young, 4AD Records, September 2012

Bish (n. sl.), bitchBosch, Hieronymous (c. 1450–1516), Dutch painterBish bosh (sl.), job done, sorted* ...

Led Zeppelin: Their Satanic Majesties Request: When Led Zeppelin Ruled The World

Book Excerpt by Barney Hoskyns, 'Trampled Under Foot' (Faber & Faber), September 2012

By 1973, Led Zeppelin was the biggest rock band on the planet. In this excerpt from Trampled Under Foot, Barney Hoskyns' new oral history of ...

ABBA: Really Doing Something: The Making of the ABBA album

Sleeve notes by Carl Magnus Palm, Polar Music, November 2012

WHAT WOULD you do if you were a Swedish band who had just won the Eurovision Song Contest, a victory that resulted in the first ...

Various Artists: Blue Beat 1962

Review by Mike Atherton, Secret Records, December 2012

NUMBER ONE in a field of one, and an increasingly fertile field at that, isn't a bad place to be. That's where the Blue Beat ...

Eddie & The Hot Rods: Eddie and the Hot Rods: Do Anything You Wanna Do – The Best Of

Sleeve notes by Daryl Easlea, Spectrum Records, Fall 2012

A personal recollection by Barrie Masters of Rochford, England, talking on 10th September, 2012,to Daryl Easlea… also of Rochford, England.   ...

The Village Voice and the Birth of Rock Criticism: Two Excerpts from Writing the Record

Book Excerpt by Devon Powers, University of Massachusetts Press, 2013

1) From the Introduction: "Village" ...

The Bee Gees: Barry Gibb: Three-Minute Genius

Book Excerpt by Clinton Walker, 'Rock Country', ed. Christian Ryan (Hardie Grant), 2013

IN 1961 THE Gibb family – parents Hugh and Barbara and kids Lesley, Barry, twins Robin and Maurice, baby Andy – were living on Queensland's ...

Larry Williams: That Larry Williams (Real Gone Music)

Sleeve notes by Gene Sculatti, Real Gone Music, 2013

IT'S NOT JUST because he has such a common name. A quick Google search turns up a Larry Williams who's "an American author and commodity ...

Gavin Bryars, John Cage, Lol Coxhill, The Portsmouth Sinfonia: The Avant-Garde's Woodstock: The International Carnival Of Experimental Sound, 1972

Book Excerpt by Dave Thompson, 'June 1st, 1974', 2013

Excerpt from the book June 1st, 1974: Kevin Ayers, John Cale, Nico, Eno, Mike Oldfield and Robert Wyatt – The Greatest Supergroup Of The Seventies ...

Hello People: The Hello People: Fusion (Real Gone Music, 2013)

Review by Gene Sculatti, (Real Gone Music), 2013

IN THE HEYDAY of '60s and '70s pop, humanity's diversity was on display everywhere. There were People's Choice, Rupert's People, Ceylib People, just plain People, ...

Ron Sexsmith: Forever Endeavour

Press Release by Barney Hoskyns, Cooking Vinyl Records, February 2013

IN A WORLD of workaday singer-songwriters mired in vacuous self-regard, news of a new Ron Sexsmith record can only gladden the heart of those who ...

Sinead O'Connor: How About I Be Me (And You Be You)?

Interview by John Lewis, Barbican show programme, March 2013

"WHEN I'M AN old lady, I promise you I'll write my memoirs," Sinead O'Connor tells me. They promise to be quite a tale, because it's ...

Peace: Tiny, Smug and Blissfully Ignorant Minds: New British Indie and Peace's In Love (Columbia)

Special Feature by Neil Kulkarni, fuckyouneilkulkarni.blogspot.co.uk, 30 April 2013

"I. Man's perceptions are not bound by organs of perception; he perceives more than sense (tho' ever so acute) can discover." — William Blake, ...

Be Bop Deluxe: Hung up on these silver strings: Be-Bop Deluxe in 1975

Book Excerpt by Nick Coleman, 'Yes Is The Answer' (Rare Bird Books) , 30 May 2013

BE-BOP DELUXE came in through the out-door. And, this being England, they brought some weather in with them. ...

Laurie Anderson, Kronos Quartet: Laurie Anderson & Kronos Quartet: Landfall – Scenes from my New Novel

Preview by John Lewis, Barbican show programme, 28 June 2013

IN MANY WAYS, Laurie Anderson and the Kronos Quartet come from very different worlds, and not just because they're based on different sides of the ...

Mick Farren: You Say You Want A Revolution: Mick Farren Looks Back

Book Excerpt by Paul Moody, 'Search For The Lost Chord', July 2013

RBP contributor Paul Moody interviewed Mick earlier this year while researching his new book Search For The Lost Chord: Looking For The Spirit Of Rock'n'Roll. We're ...

John Zorn: Zorn@60: John Zorn and guests including Mike Patton and Marc Ribot

Preview by John Lewis, Barbican show programme, 12 July 2013

FOR THOSE OF US who've grown up listening to his music, it seems remarkable that John Zorn is celebrating his 60th birthday. ...

Dizzee Rascal, Tinchy Stryder, Tinie Tempah: "This is What London Is": The Growth of Grime

Book Excerpt by Lloyd Bradley, Serpent's Tail Books, August 2013

"WHEN I INITIALLY started producing, I started grabbing reggae influences, hip-hop influences, mixing it with my own London flava, then you got the MCs on ...

Eddy Grant: Eddy Come Back: Eddy Grant and the Equals

Book Excerpt by Lloyd Bradley, Serpent's Tail Books, August 2013

AS THE 1970S progressed, the keys to the buoyant Afro- funk recording industry were two of black London's biggest music-business movers-and-shakers, Eddy Grant and Aki ...

Janet Kay: Lover Boys and Girls: Lovers Rock in the UK

Book Excerpt by Lloyd Bradley, Serpent's Tail Books, August 2013

GIVEN THE TIDAL wave of superb dance records that flowed out of Jamaica in the 1960s, and the growth of UK sound systems, the island's ...

David Bowie, Gary Glitter, Goldfrapp, Joan Jett, Jobriath, Morrissey, New York Dolls, Suzi Quatro, Lou Reed, Roxy Music, The Runaways, Slade, Suede, Sweet, T. Rex: Various Artists: Oh Yes We Can Love – A History Of Glam Rock

Sleeve notes by Barney Hoskyns, Universal Records, August 2013

GLAMOUR HAS always been pivotal to pop music. Elvis Presley was Glam, and so were Little Richard ('Ooh My Soul') and Billy Fury ('Jealousy'). The ...

ABBA: Ring Ring (Deluxe Edition)

Sleeve notes by Carl Magnus Palm, Polar Records, October 2013

The First Step: The Making Of The Ring Ring Album ...

Mick Farren: Foreword

Book Excerpt by Charles Shaar Murray, 'Elvis Died For Somebody's Sins But Not Mine', Spring 2013

MICK FARREN IS a man of many parts, an impressive number of which are still working despite the natural wear and-tear incurred by decades of ...

The Runaways: Girl Power: The Birth of the Runaways

Book Excerpt by Evelyn McDonnell, 'Queens of Noise' (Da Capo), Summer 2013

Reprinted from Queens of Noise: The Real Story of the Runaways by Evelyn McDonnell. Available from Da Capo Press, a member of The Perseus Books ...

B. Mitchel Reed

Book Excerpt by Kirk Silsbee, Turn Up the Radio!... (Santa Monica Press), 2014

MOST AM RADIO DEEJAYS of the 1960s used airtime to cultivate their own images between records; very few paid serious attention to the music they ...

George Harrison, Ravi Shankar: Ravi and George in the Angel City

Book Excerpt by Kirk Silsbee, 'It Was Fifty Years Ago Today', 2014

GEORGE HARRISON is credited with bringing Indian music and Ravi Shankar to the attention of the larger public, through his sitar playing on 'Norwegian Wood', ...

The Sports: Sports: Reckless (Expanded Edition)

Sleeve notes by Dave Laing (Australia), Festival Records, 2014

THIS EXPANDED edition of Sports' 1978 debut Reckless presents as complete a picture of the band's first couple of years as a fan could want to hear. ...

Brian Auger, Mahavishnu Orchestra, John McLaughlin: The Brian Auger Quintet & the Rick Laird Trio: Fleeting Moments in 1964

Book Excerpt by Colin Harper, (Jawbone Books), 2014

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Rick Laird, who died on 4 July 2021, very kindly talked to me for Bathed In Lightning: John McLaughlin, the 60s and the ...

David Ruffin: My Whole World Ended/Feelin' Good (Real Gone Music)

Sleeve notes by Gene Sculatti, Real Gone Music, January 2014

JUST ONE look at the tune-stack on My Whole World Ended and there's a real temptation to draw a plumb line between the disconsolate titles ...

David Bowie: Me and David: An Interview with Photographer Mick Rock

Book Excerpt by Barney Hoskyns, 'The Rise of David Bowie' (Taschen), February 2014

YOU COULDN'T make the name up: as the man himself says in the interview that follows, "Mick Rock" sounds like a cartoon character, a distillation ...

Alex Chilton, Jim Dickinson, The Sex Pistols: Flies on Shit: Alex Chilton Goes Back to Memphis

Book Excerpt by Holly George-Warren, Viking Books, March 2014

The former Big Star man sees the Sex Pistols in Memphis and limbers up for the shambolic Like Flies On Sherbert. An exclusive excerpt from ...

Bert Berns, Solomon Burke: Cry to Him: The Dark Soul of Bert Berns

Book Excerpt by Joel Selvin, 'Here Comes The Night' (Counterpoint Books), April 2014

In these two excerpts from Joel Selvin's splendid new biography of Bert Berns, the soul hustler from the Bronx oversees the 1961 session for Solomon ...

ABBA: Reaching Out: The making of Waterloo

Sleeve notes by Carl Magnus Palm, Polar Records, April 2014

THE DATE IS April 6, 1974, and the scene is backstage at the Dome in Brighton, England, the spectacular building hosting the BBC's production of ...

Keith Richards, The Rolling Stones: The Time We Said Hello: The Day I Met Keith Richards

Book Excerpt by Robert Greenfield, 'Ain't It Time We Said Goodbye' (Da Capo), May 2014

Having been selected to conduct the Rolling Stone interview with Keith Richards in May 1971, the author embarks on a perilous journey to meet his ...

5 Seconds Of Summer

Profile and Interview by Toby Creswell, Rolling Stone Special: 5 Seconds of Summer, June 2014

LUKE HEMMINGS looks bushed. It's not the bed-hair, which has become a trademark of his band 5 Seconds of Summer. It's not just that the ...

The Whispers: The Complete Solar Hit Singles Collection

Sleeve notes by Bob Fisher, PIAS Records, June 2014

DESPITE ITS TITLE, this collection of all the charted singles released by the Whispers actually includes material recorded for labels they were signed to before ...

Bob Dylan: In The Dylan Zone: An excerpt from True Love Scars

Book Excerpt by Michael Goldberg, 'True Love Scars' (Neumu Press), July 2014

True Love Scars is a rock 'n' roll/ coming of age novel set in the late '60s and early '70s. If you liked On The ...

Shalamar: The Complete Solar Hit Singles Collection

Sleeve notes by Bob Fisher, Sanctuary Records, July 2014

Dick Griffey and Solar Records ...

What's In a Word: "Krautrock" as a Term

Book Excerpt by David Stubbs, 'Future Days' (Faber), August 2014

"THE GERMANS have every right to be critical of the word 'Krautrock',"  says Wire's Colin Newman, and it's hard to disagree. It would be one ...

Art Laboe, 1925-2022

Book Excerpt by Harvey Kubernik, 'Turn Up The Radio! Pop!' (Santa Monica Press), October 2014

NO ONE IN the history of Los Angeles radio did more to promote the music throughout Southern California – and indeed, the world – than ...

Bruce Cockburn: Rumours of Glory

Sleeve notes by Nicholas Jennings, True North Records, November 2014

IN HIS ILLUMINATING memoir, also called Rumours of Glory, Bruce Cockburn writes: "My songs are influenced by what I read, where I travel and what ...

Candi Staton: Nitelites

Sleeve notes by Bob Fisher, Sequel Records, November 2014

"As the president of Sugarhill Records Ltd, I have never given my opinion in writing on an album cover. I have often wondered why Candi ...

Chet Baker, Trumpeter, 1929-1988

Book Excerpt by Brian Case, On the Snap (Caught by the River, 2015), 2015

I CAN REMEMBER that Chet was major despondent. A black cloud marking time. Why was I interviewing him? No particular reason. The Jazz Centre Society ...

Come See about Me: Why the Baby Boomers Liked Stax but Loved Motown

Essay by Gary Kenton, 'Baby Boomers and Popular Culture' (Praeger Books), 2015

ETHNOMUSICOLOGIST and anthropologist Steven Feld studied how meanings are reconstituted when music moves from indigenous communities to a global market. He argues that you cannot ...

Anne Briggs, June Tabor: June Tabor: The Art Of Singing

Book Excerpt by David Burke, 'Singing Out' (Soundcheck), 2015

An excerpt from Singing Out: A Folk Narrative of Maddy Prior, June Tabor and Linda Thompson. ...

The NME, Music Paper, 1952–

Book Excerpt by Brian Case, On the Snap (Caught by the River, 2015), 2015

THERE WAS a general impression among the rock writers when I arrived that jazz was something that went with pottery in St Ives, whereas I ...

Jesse Winchester: Seems Like Only Yesterday: Live in Montreal 1976

Sleeve notes by Gene Sculatti, Real Gone Music , February 2015

AMONG THE more effective pieces of ordnance most writers keep close at hand is a gift for understatement. Jesse Winchester's arsenal has always been well-stocked. ...

Sandy Denny, Jackson C. Frank: Learning the Game: Sandy Denny and Jackson C. Frank

Book Excerpt by Mick Houghton, 'I've Always Kept a Unicorn' (Faber), March 2015

"I think my first songwriting influences came from somebody called Jackson Frank. He's an American bloke who made one album over here just called Jackson ...

Phil Spector: Talk of the Town: Phil Spector in London

Book Excerpt by Norman Jopling, 'Shake It Up, Baby!', March 2015

THE RECORD MIRROR office was a four-room apartment above Drum City at 116 Shaftesbury Avenue and employed a total of nine full-time staff and numerous ...

Bobby Fuller Four, The : Let 'Em Dance: The Bobby Fuller Four Recalled

Retrospective by Kirk Silsbee, Artsmeme.com, 21 March 2015

THE HOLLYWOOD Renaissance of the 1960s didn't need the Bobby Fuller Four. That unique conflagration of bands, managers, impresarios, producers, studios, engineers, session players, record ...

Lee Hazlewood: "I'm just an old cowboy who wrote a few songs…" A First Encounter with the legendary Lee Hazlewood

Book Excerpt by Wyndham Wallace, 'Lee, Myself & I' (Jawbone), May 2015

The following extract takes place within a few minutes of my first meeting with Lee Hazlewood in April, 1999, at New York's Grand Hyatt Hotel, ...

Crown Heights Affair: Dreaming A Dream (The Best of Crown Heights Affair)

Sleeve notes by Bob Fisher, Sanctuary Records, July 2015

'DREAMING A DREAM' was a game-changer in the world of dance music in 1975, and its impact cannot be overestimated. In 1975 the funk revolution ...

Françoise Hardy: Françoise Hardy

Sleeve notes by Kieron Tyler, Light in the Attic Records, October 2015

  ANY MENTION of the name Françoise Hardy conjures images of Gallic sophistication, an attitude to lyrics and music informed by a literate sensibility and a ...

Françoise Hardy: L'amitié

Sleeve notes by Kieron Tyler, Light in the Attic Records, October 2015

  AS IT WOUND down, 1965 proved itself as the year when Françoise Hardy became a global phenomenon. She was now more than about the music, ...

Big Brother & The Holding Company, Janis Joplin: Big Brother: John Simon in Woodstock and Bearsville

Book Excerpt by Barney Hoskyns, 'Small Town Talk' (Faber & Faber), 2016

Two excerpts from Small Town Talk that tell part of the story of John Simon, producer of The Band and Janis Joplin… plus one excerpt ...

The Band, The Beach Boys, The Beastie Boys, The Beatles, Garth Brooks, Glen Campbell, Natalie Cole, Nat King Cole, Merle Haggard, MC Hammer, Steve Miller, Buck Owens, Katy Perry, Bonnie Raitt, Linda Ronstadt, Bob Seger, Frank Sinatra, Sam Smith, Tina Turner, Keith Urban: Capitol at 75

Book Excerpt by Barney Hoskyns, 'Capitol 75' (Taschen), 2016

NOTE: Herewith the full "director's cut" version of the historical essay I contributed to the spectacularly lavish Taschen book marking the 75th anniversary of West ...

John Lennon's Rock'N'Roll

Book Excerpt by Everett True, '101 Albums You Should Die Before You Hear', 2016

TO THIS DAY, I am not sure why I was so attracted to Lennon as a surly teen. He was egotistical, sexist verging on misogynist, ...

Redbone: Redbone

Sleeve notes by David Burke, Repertoire Records, 2016

THEY WERE Native American culture in vivid sound and colour, contemporary scions of a proud people, renewing primordial rhythms and imagery, making them new again ...

Johnny Otis, Pete "Guitar" Lewis, T-Bone Walker: Various Artists: Masters Of West Coast Guitar 1946-1956

Sleeve notes by Neil Slaven, JSP Records, 2016

THE ROUTE TO the West Coast guitar skills so influential in the development of blues-and rock-guitar is a well-travelled one that can't avoid its well-spring, ...

John Cale: "Danger: Depressing": John Cale's Music for a New Society

Sleeve notes by Barney Hoskyns, Domino Records, January 2016

JOHN CALE'S Music for a New Society startled in 1982 and it startles in 2016. It was markedly at odds not only with the synthetic ...

Bob Dylan, Peter Yarrow: "The Greatest Place": Bob Dylan and Albert Grossman put down country roots in Woodstock

Book Excerpt by Barney Hoskyns, 'Small Town Talk' (Faber), February 2016

BY THE TIME Bob Dylan's 'Blowin' In The Wind' was turbo-charging the folk-protest movement in the summer of 1963, his manger Albert Grossman had become ...

David Bowie, 1947-2016

Book Excerpt by Chris Charlesworth, 'The Little Black Songbook' (Wise Publications), February 2016

"I pour out what has already been fed in. I merely reflect what is going on around me." (David Bowie, July 1973) ...

Bob Dylan: Going Up the Country: Woodstock's Post-Dylan influx

Book Excerpt by Barney Hoskyns, 'Small Town Talk' (Faber), February 2016

BOB DYLAN WASN'T the only artistic giant to seek sanctuary in the Catskill Mountains in the 1960s. Just as the singer had fled controversy and ...

Frankie Lymon: Crooks and Fools: Morris Levy, Frankie Lymon, and the story of 'Why Do Fools Fall in Love'

Book Excerpt by Richard Carlin, 'Godfather of the Music Business' (U. Miss Press), March 2016

'WHY DO FOOLS Fall in Love' is one of the classic hits of the '50s.  Along with its importance to the history of rock 'n' ...

The Last Shadow Puppets: Everything You've Come to Expect

Press Release by Barney Hoskyns, Domino Records, March 2016

WHETHER OR NOT we expected it, Everything You've Come to Expect has been a long time coming: to be exact, eight whole years since the ...

The Pad: An excerpt from Michael Goldberg's The Flowers Lied

Book Excerpt by Michael Goldberg, 'The Flowers Lied', March 2016

Michael Goldberg's rock 'n' roll coming-of-age novel, The Flowers Lied, has just been published. Richard Meltzer wrote that Goldberg's first novel, True Love Scars, was ...

The Sex Pistols, Patti Smith: Provincial Gains: Sex Pistols in the Early Summer of '76

Book Excerpt by Clinton Heylin, 'Anarchy in the Year Zero' (Route Books), May 2016

"The sound is a mean cacophony, not unreminiscent of Bowie's early Spiders, the material a mixture of Anglo-American teen punk classics – the Stooges' 'No ...

The Fall: Totally Wired: The Fall in NZ, 1982

Book Excerpt by Roger Shepherd, 'In Love with These Times' (Harper Collins), October 2016

WE ALL LOVED The Fall. They were one of the original English punk bands inspired by the Sex Pistols' visit to Manchester and quickly grew ...

Blue Oyster Cult: From Soft White Underbelly to the Stalk-Forrest Group

Book Excerpt by Mick Houghton, 'Becoming Elektra' (Jawbone), November 2016

NOTE: In an excerpt from the new edition of Becoming Elektra: The Incredible True Story of the pioneering Elektra Records label and its Far-sighted Founder, ...

John Cale: Fragments of a Rainy Season

Sleeve notes by Barney Hoskyns, Domino Records, December 2016

THOUGH FRAGMENTS of a Rainy Season is the fourth live album released by John Cale in his post-Velvet Underground career, it's the first to feature ...

Karen Dalton: Are You Leaving for the Country? Karen Dalton in Woodstock

Book Excerpt by Barney Hoskyns, 'Small Town Talk' (Da Capo), Spring 2016

FRED NEIL had returned to his beloved Florida by the early '70s, but from 1970 onwards Karen Dalton spent much of her time in Woodstock. ...

The Bee Gees: The Odessa Files

Book Excerpt by Jeff Apter, 'Tragedy: The Ballad of the Bee Gees' (Jawbone), Spring 2016

In 1968, the Bee Gees set out to make their very own Sgt Pepper, an album they hoped would prove they were much more than ...

Elvis Presley: Elvis & the Hustler: Colonel Tom Parker

Retrospective by David Burke, 'Vintage Rock – Elvis: A Celebration', 2017

NONE OF US will ever know if Elvis Presley would have become the king of rock'n'roll without the involvement of Colonel Tom Parker at the ...

Henry Rollins: Why Vinyl Matters: Henry Rollins

Book Excerpt by Jennifer Otter Bickerdike, 'Why Vinyl Matters' (ACC Editions), 2017

HENRY ROLLINS WAS barely out of his teens when he joined the legendary punk band Black Flag. Since parting with the band in 1986, Rollins ...

Metallica: Why Vinyl Matters: Lars Ulrich

Book Excerpt by Jennifer Otter Bickerdike, 'Why Vinyl Matters' (ACC Editions), 2017

LARS ULRICH WAS born in Denmark in 1963. After seeing his first concert at age 10, he became enamoured with the drums. His family moved ...

Barry Cain and Neil Matthews: Flexipop! The Book

Book Review by Jamie Atkins, , January 2017

ADAM ANT revealing that, as a child, his father used to call him Fadius Nicodemus; the peculiar habits of Robert Smith ("Today I dressed up ...

Wilson Pickett: Cometh the Hour, Cometh the Man: Wilson Pickett, the Midnight Mover

Book Excerpt by Tony Fletcher, Oxford University Press, January 2017

ON MAY 11, just a few days after Pickett's unexpected Apollo headline billing concluded, and with the surprise baby newly ensconced at home, he and ...

NOFX: Why Vinyl Matters: Fat Mike

Book Excerpt by Jennifer Otter Bickerdike, 'Why Vinyl Matters' (ACC Editions), January 2017

FAT MIKE, BORN Mike Burkett, is an American musician and producer. He is the bassist and lead vocalist for the punk rock band NOFX and ...

Ella Fitzgerald: 100 Songs For a Centennial (Verve 2016-00957)

Sleeve notes by Kirk Silsbee, Verve Records, February 2017

AT FIRST BLUSH, a hundred songs from any artist seems like overkill.  In the case of Ella Fitzgerald (1917-1996), whose recordings number in the thousands, ...

Jamiroquai's Automaton

Profile and Interview by Dan Gennoe, Virgin Records, March 2017

IT'S A BEAUTIFUL spring day in a quiet corner of the English countryside. Water gently runs in a stream, birds cheerfully sing in the trees ...

Working at the Artists' Garage: Excerpts from Michael Goldberg's Untitled

Book Excerpt by Michael Goldberg, Neumu Press, March 2017

Michael Goldberg's rock 'n' roll coming-of-age novel, Untitled, has just been published. "Oral prose," writes Larry Beckett, the brilliant poet and songwriter who penned the ...

Midnight Oil: "A bloody-minded bunch of bastards": Midnight Oil's The Over Flow Tank

Sleeve notes by Andrew Stafford, (Sony Legacy), May 2017

THE PLACE: 8 Ormiston Avenue, Gordon, a leafy suburb on Sydney's Upper North Shore. The year: sometime in 1972. A teenaged Robert George Hirst hauls ...

Meow! My Life with Tiger Beat's Teen Idols: An Introduction

Book Excerpt by Ann Moses, 'Meow!', June 2017

FEBRUARY 3, 1968 IT'S MY TWENTY-FIRST birthday. I'm standing at the front window of my house a block below the Hollywood sign, wearing a dress made ...

Elvis Presley: Caught in a Trap: The Kidnapping of Elvis – Two Excerpts

Book Excerpt by Chris Charlesworth, (Red Planet Books), August 2017

The first extract from Caught in a Trap features Elvis in hospital (which is true) accepting a phone call from Richard Nixon (which probably isn't). ...

The Doors, Jim Morrison: Jim Morrison at Thee Experience

Book Excerpt by Kirk Silsbee, 'The Doors: Summer's Gone', September 2017

AFTER THE DOORS had tasted success, Hollywood was Jim Morrison's playground. The Whisky a Go Go in West Hollywood, which launched the band, showcased all ...

David Bowie: White Noise/White Sands: The Bowie Who Fell to Earth

Book Excerpt by Susan Compo, 'Earthbound' (Jawbone), October 2017

"AFTER SEEING THE extraordinary landscape of the White Sands," Nic Roeg noted, "it prompted me to think of this: strangers always see something that is ...

Life after the NME: Nick Logan's journey from Smash Hits to The Face

Book Excerpt by Paul Gorman, 'The Story of The Face' (Thames & Hudson), November 2017

PAUSING TO MAKE his last appointment in the form of Danny Baker, fresh from punk fanzine Sniffin' Glue, Nick Logan handed in his notice as ...

Gregory Isaacs

Book Excerpt by Nick Coleman, 'Voices' (Jonathan Cape), January 2018

GREGORY ISAACS may or may not have been a nice man. He may or may not have been piously observant of the Rastafarian faith that ...

Roy Orbison

Book Excerpt by Nick Coleman, 'Voices' (Jonathan Cape), January 2018

THE IMPORTANCE of Roy Orbison cannot be overstated. He emerged from Wink, Texas, in the 1950s, blinking astygmatically behind heavy-rimmed spectacles, a pudding-faced introvert of ...

Bob Dylan: "A hundred-mile-an-hour clip": Bob Dylan and the Beats

Book Excerpt by Michael Goldberg, 'Kerouac on Record' (Bloomsbury), March 2018

Editor's note: The just-published Kerouac On Record includes many essays about the influence of Jack Kerouac on musicians, including the Grateful Dead, Patti Smith, Tom ...

Thee Hypnotics' Come down heavy: a dispatch from the rock'n'roll frontline

Sleeve notes by Julian Marszalek, Beggars Banquet, April 2018

EVEN BY THEIR own admission, the coruscating rock'n'roll explosion that was Thee Hypnotics was never built to last. ...

Can: Truth at 33 rpm

Book Excerpt by Rob Young, 'All Gates Open: The Story of Can' (Faber), May 2018

ONE OF THE many resonances of Can's name is the canister housing reels of celluloid film, a precious container protecting that most flammable and crumply ...

The Clash: Casbah Rock: A Death Threat against the Clash

Book Excerpt by Stuart Bailie, 'Trouble Songs' (Bloomfield), May 2018

Excerpted from Trouble Songs: Music and Conflict in Northern Ireland ...

Jeff Buckley in the U.K.

Book Excerpt by Jim Irvin, 'From Hallelujah to the Last Goodbye' (Post Hill), May 2018

Excerpted from Jeff Buckley: From Hallelujah to the Last Goodbye by Jeff's former manager Dave Lory and former MOJO man Jim Irvin (Post Hill Press). ...

Tav Falco's Panther Burns: Tav Falco

Book Excerpt by Robert Gordon, 'Memphis Rent Party' (Bloomsbury), June 2018

TAV LOOKED at me and said, "Our show was great. We cleared the room." A pal of mine was at the smallish San Francisco club ...

Crosby Stills and Nash, Rick Danko, Me'Shell Ndegeocello, Sinead O'Connor, Lou Reed: Dispatches from the Everyday World of Music: An Assortment

Book Excerpt by Martin Colyer, 'Five Things I Saw & Heard This Week', July 2018

Excerpts from RBP co-founder Colyer's new book Five Things I Saw & Heard This Week, published this week with an introduction by Richard Williams ...

The Band: John Niven's Music from Big Pink: A Foreword

Book Excerpt by Barney Hoskyns, 'Music from Big Pink' (Bloomsbury), July 2018

THE FACT THAT John Niven was just two years old in 1968 – the year in which The Band's Music from Big Pink was released ...

Bob Dylan: No One Else Could Play That Tune: An Introduction

Book Excerpt by Clinton Heylin, 'No One Else Could Play That Tune' (Route), October 2018

And I could never let you go, No matter what goes on, 'Cause I love you more than ever, Now that the past is gone. —Last ...

Ella Fitzgerald: An Angel Sings: Ella Fitzgerald's Live at Zardi's

Sleeve notes by Kirk Silsbee, Verve Records, Spring 2018

"Zardi's spares absolutely no expense to bring you the greatest. As I mentioned before, for two-and-a-half weeks, now, it's been my pleasure to make this ...

Big Brother & The Holding Company, Janis Joplin: Big Brother's Chick Singer

Book Excerpt by Holly George-Warren, 'Janis: Her Life and Music' (Simon & Schuster), 2019

Playing is the "mostest" fun there is – feeling things and really getting into it. That's what it's all about. – Janis Joplin ...

Crosby Stills and Nash: Crosby, Stills & Nash: At Large

Book Excerpt by Ellen Sander, Dover Publications, 2019

Excerpted from Ellen's seminal 1973 book Trips: Rock Life in the Sixties, reissued in 2019 in an "Augmented Edition" by Dover Publications ...

Bessie Smith: How Bessie Smith Really Died

Book Excerpt by Tom Graves, 'White Boy' (Devault-Graves), 2019

THE LONGEST AND best job I had during the 1980s not long after I got my college degree was as the copywriter for a major ...

Buddy Guy, Elvis Presley, Charlie Rich: Take The Music Seriously: An Interview with Peter Guralnick, 20th August, 2009

Book Excerpt by Maud Berthomier, 'Encore Plus De Bruit' (Éditions Tristram), 2019

"Because in the end to me, even today, it's never entirely clear exactly what any interview is about. Sometimes, the most important thing in an ...

The Dis-Education of Rock 'n' Roll

Essay by Gary Kenton, 'Teachers, Teaching, and Media' (Brill), 2019

This essay first appeared in Teachers, Teaching, and Media, Mary M. Dalton and Laura R. Linder, editors. ...

The Doubts Aired As Gags: Three Decades of Cross-Cultural Utopianism in UK Music-Writing

Book Excerpt by Mark Sinker, Strange Attractor Press, January 2019

Extract from Mark Sinker's introduction to A HIDDEN LANDSCAPE ONCE A WEEK: The Unruly Curiosity of the UK Music Press in the 1960s-80s, in the words ...

Radiohead: Present Tense: A Radiohead introduction

Book Excerpt by Barney Hoskyns, 'Present Tense' (Constable), February 2019

IN THE FINE essay included in Present Tense on Radiohead's 2000 album Kid A, Simon Reynolds asks why we shouldn't consider its predecessor – 1997's ...

Les Fancourt and Bob McGrath: The Blues Discography 1943–1970 (Third Edition)

Book Excerpt by Tony Burke, Eyeball Productions, February 2019

WELCOME TO the expanded and revised third edition of The Blues Discography 1943–1970. It is now 50 years since Mike Leadbitter and Neil Slaven first ...

Tina Turner at 80

Retrospective by Steve Pafford, stevepafford.com, 26 November 2019

How a middle aged woman from Tennessee pulled off the greatest comeback in music history ...

The Teardrop Explodes: Wilder Times: How the Teardrops Exploded

Book Excerpt by Mick Houghton, 'Fried and Justified' (Faber & Faber), Summer 2019

AUTHOR'S NOTE: The back story here is the release of the Teardrop Explodes' second album Wilder on 20 November 1981. Rather than do the usual ...

Big Bill Broonzy: The Midnight Special – Live in Nottingham, 1957

Sleeve notes by Larry Jaffee, ORG Music, 2020

IF BLUES LEGEND Big Bill Broonzy (1893-1958) plied his trade in the 21st century, he'd probably be an Uber driver. A gig-economy practitioner in his ...

Lou Reed: At Alice Tully Hall (January 27, 1973)

Sleeve notes by Ed McCormack, Legacy Recordings, 2020

I WROTE REGULARLY for Rolling Stone for over a decade – when it really meant something to write for that publication. I spent a lot ...

The Big Boys, Butthole Surfers, Scratch Acid: Someday All the Adults Will Die!

Book Excerpt by Pat Blashill, 'Texas is the Reason' (Bazillion Points), February 2020

THE MISFITS had never been to Texas. They were just four lunkheads from Lodi, New Jersey, who had heard about punk. They had black leather ...

Nick Kent, Malcolm McLaren, Sex Pistols, Midge Ure: I Was (Almost) a Teenage Sex Pistol: David Harrison

Book Excerpt by Paul Gorman, 'The Life & Times of Malcolm McLaren' (Constable), April 2020

IN 1975, THE regular customers at Sex – the fetish boutique operated at 430 King’s Road by Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood – included David ...

The Beatles: From Beetles to Beatles: It was 60 years ago today

Essay by Simon Warner, Kerouac.com, 1 June 2020

How Beat and a British poet changed the history of rock music ...

Jimi Hendrix: So who killed Jimi Hendrix?

Book Excerpt by Philip Norman, 'Wild Thing' (Weidenfeld & Nicholson), 5 August 2020

50 years after musician's death, Philip Norman tracks down the key players to tell the definitive story of one of rock's most tantalising mysteries - ...

Bruce Springsteen: "Cuyahoga": An excerpt from Loudmouth

Book Excerpt by Robert Duncan, Three Rooms Press, October 2020

...

Gary Crosby: The Ultimate Warrior: Gary Crosby

Book Excerpt by David Burke, Giant Steps (Desert Hearts), 2021

(Excerpt from Giant Steps: Diverse Journeys in British Jazz, published by Desert Hearts 2021)   ...

Nick Cave: The Journalist and the Singer

Book Excerpt by Mark Mordue, 'Boy On Fire' (Allen & Unwin), February 2021

THE FIRST TIME I ever spoke to Nick Cave was in a phone interview to promote his second solo album, The Firstborn Is Dead (1985), ...

Ornette Coleman, Chris Darrow, Nico: All That Is My Own: Nico at Steve Paul's The Scene, October 1967

Book Excerpt by Jennifer Otter Bickerdike, 'You Are Beautiful and You Are Alone' (Faber), July 2021

Excerpted from Jennifer Otter Bickerdike's You Are Beautiful and You Are Alone: The Biography of Nico, published this month by Faber ...

Alternative TV: Mark Perry on Sniffin' Glue

Book Excerpt by Hamish Ironside, 'We Peaked at Paper' (Boatwhistle Books), 2022

NOTE: This interview is an excerpt from We Peaked At Paper: An Oral History of British Zines by Gavin Hogg and Hamish Ironside, published by ...

The Beatles, The Quarrymen: The Quarrymen — A Legend is Born

Retrospective by David Burke, Vintage Rock Presents The Beatles: The Early Years, 2022

"EVERYBODY WAS in a skiffle group," said George Harrison of the hep new craze that swept through Britain in 1956. ...

caroline

Press Release by Patrick Clarke, Rough Trade Records, 1 January 2022

A VERSION of 'Dark blue', caroline's sublime first single that also opens their self-titled debut album, was written on the day Casper Hughes, Jasper Llewellyn ...

Keith Richards: Playing Air Guitar With Keith Richards

Memoir by Wayne Robins, Critical Conditions, 4 January 2022

It was a pretty good afternoon, bourbon included. ...

Bill Frisell: The Searcher

Book Excerpt by Philip Watson, Faber, March 2022

An extract from Chapter 1 of Bill Frisell, Beautiful Dreamer: The Guitarist Who Changed the Sound of American Music (Faber) ...

Alice Cooper, Lemmy: A Walk on the Wild Side of Sunset: Remembering Lemmy and the Hollywood Vampires

Book Excerpt by Ian Winwood, 'Bodies' (Faber & Faber), April 2022

This is an excerpt from Ian's new book Bodies: Life and Death in Music, published by Faber on April 21. ...

The Avengers: Watching the Avengers Absolutely Crush the Pistols

Book Excerpt by Michael Goldberg, 'Wicked Game' (HoZac Books), June 2022

NOTE: What follows is an excerpt from Michael Goldberg's new book Wicked Game: The True Story of Guitarist James Calvin Wilsey (HoZac Books). Goldberg is ...

Leonard Cohen: "Dance Me to the End of Love: In the Round" – Leonard Cohen on Later… with Jools Holland

Book Excerpt by Mark Cooper, 'Later... with Jools Holland' (Harper Collins), September 2022

LEONARD COHEN taught us what Later... could become. He would show us how the show could be much more than the accidental sum of its ...

"I Killed Christgau with My Big F*****g Dick". US indie magazines of the '80s and '90s

Book Excerpt by Paul Gorman, 'Totally Wired' (Thames & Hudson), September 2022

This is an excerpt from Paul's book Totally Wired: The Rise and Fall of the Music Press (Thames & Hudson, 2022) ...

Kate Bush: 'Under the Ivy' on The Tube, 1986

Book Excerpt by Tom Doyle, Nine Eight Books, October 2022

RAMSHACKLE AND FUNNY, chaotic and controversial, Channel 4's live-to-air music show The Tube flew in the face of the glossy pop cultural trends of the ...

Clive Davis and Arista Records

Book Excerpt by Mitchell Cohen, 'Looking for the Magic' (Trouser Press Books), Summer 2022

This is the second of two excerpts on RBP from Mitchell Cohen's book Looking for the Magic: New York City, the '70s and the Rise ...

Larry Uttal and Bell Records

Book Excerpt by Mitchell Cohen, 'Looking for the Magic' (Trouser Press Books), Summer 2022

This is the first of two excerpts on RBP from Mitchell Cohen's book Looking for the Magic: New York City, the '70s and the Rise ...

Adele Bertei: Showtime!

Book Excerpt by Adele Bertei, 'Twist: An American Girl' (ZE Books), April 2023

This is an excerpt from Adele's memoir Twist: An American Girl, published by ZE Books in April 2023. ...

Living Colour: Pride: Living Colour's Time's Up

Book Excerpt by Kimberly Mack, Bloomsbury Books, May 2023

This is an excerpt from Chapter 3 of Kimberly's 33 1/3 study of Living Colour's second album. ...

Big Joe Turner: Feel So Fine

Book Excerpt by Tony Burke, Hardinge Simpole Books, June 2023

This is Tony's foreword to Derek Coller's biography Big Joe Turner – Feel So Fine ...

The Beach Boys: Good vibrations: how the Beach Boys tuned in and turned on to Transcendental Meditation

Book Excerpt by Mick Brown, 'The Nirvana Express' (C. Hurst & Co.), September 2023

...

Paul Jones, Manfred Mann: Monday, December 4, 1972

Book Excerpt by Harold Bronson, 'Time Has Come Today' (Trouser Press Books), September 2023

I RECEIVED a letter (dated November 21) from Paul Jones, the original lead singer of Manfred Mann, thanking me for an album I had sent ...

Hollywood Swinging: Joan Didion in '60s L.A.

Book Excerpt by Evelyn McDonnell, 'The World According to Joan Didion' (4th Estate), October 2023

An excerpt from Evelyn's biography, published in the UK by 4th Estate. ...

Lou Reed: Introduction

Book Excerpt by Will Hermes, 'The King of New York' (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), October 2023

...

John Peel, The Undertones: Terri Hooley: I Need Excitement

Book Excerpt by Stuart Bailie, Dig With It Books, November 2023

NOTE: This is an excerpt from Seventy-Five Revolutions, Stuart Bailie's book about the legendary owner of Belfast's Good Vibrations record store. Buy the book here. ...

The Beatles: You say you don't want a 'Revolution 9'

Book Excerpt by Michel Faber, 'Listen: On Music, Sound and Us' (Canongate), November 2023

In this excerpt from "The siren call of horrible din", the eighth section of his Listen: On Music, Sound and Us (Canongate), Michel explains why ...

Crowded House, Neil Finn: Running Down a Dream: the making of Together Alone

Book Excerpt by Jeff Apter, 'Don't Dream It's Over' (Jawbone), February 2024

This is an edited extract from Don't Dream It's Over: The Remarkable Life of Neil Finn by Jeff Apter, published in the UK by Jawbone ...

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