Rock's Backpages: Search Results

Retrospective and Interview by Barney Hoskyns, MOJO, June 1997

HIGH UP in Laurel Canyon, with all of Los Angeles spread out around him, Arthur Lee would sit and stare and contemplate death – "sitting ...

Jeff Beck: The Jeff Beck Interview

Interview by Charles Shaar Murray, MOJO, April 1999

WHEN JEFF BECK WALKS INTO A PUBLIC SPACE, PEOPLE TURN and stare. They're seeing a fit-looking 50-something with stubble and an archetypal rock'n'roll haircut, wearing ...

Isley Brothers, The, Isley Jasper Isley: The Isley Brothers: "We-e-e-e-e-e-elll!"

Retrospective and Interview by Ben Edmonds, MOJO, January 2000

Their cry was first heard in 1959. The Isley Brothers are about to enter their sixth decade of pop stardom. They inspired The Beatles, employed Hendrix, funked-up Neil Young and ...

Van Morrison, Richard Davis: Nothin' But A Stranger In This World: Van Morrison and Astral Weeks

Retrospective by Barney Hoskyns, MOJO, November 2001

THE FITFUL BRITISH SUMMER of 2001 is ending not with a whimper but a bang – a burst of Bank Holiday heat that's got everyone ...

The Deviants

Retrospective by Mick Farren, MOJO, October 1999

They couldn’t sing. They couldn’t play. They were winding up the hippy establishment a decade before punk. And 30 years ago they enjoyed their finest ...

Randy California, Spirit: Randy California

Retrospective by Johnny Black, MOJO, February 2004

Just turned 22, Spirit guitarist and figurehead Randy California stands on Chelsea Bridge, staring down into the grey waters of the River Thames. It's April 1973, ...

Odysseys and Oddities: Jon Savage compiles the definitive Space-Rock Tape

Guide by Jon Savage, MOJO, March 1995

MUSIC AND THE cosmos have a special relationship, bound by mathematics, spirituality and that basic human need to get out there. Just as important as ...

Grand Funk Railroad: Hot Rails To Hell

Retrospective and Interview by Dave DiMartino, MOJO, October 2003

They were America's biggest band. Live they outsold The Beatles. Then they sued their manager. Dave DiMartino charts the remarkable highs and ridiculous lows of ...

Troggs, The: The Troggs: The Missing Links

Retrospective and Interview by Phil Sutcliffe, MOJO, July 2011

"YEEEEOW," THE GUITAR howled and groaned, the band went dumdum, dumdum, and "Wild thing!" Reg Presley breathed and sighed… and across the table in this ...

Lemmy: Speed kills...

Interview by Sylvie Simmons, MOJO, July 2006

… but not when you have the constitution of a warthog and you're the Lewis gun of the bass guitar. Cue tales of Sid Vicious, ...

Can: Art Terrorism! Sensory Derangement! Holistic Vomiting! Available Weekends…

Retrospective and Interview by Andy Gill, MOJO, April 1997

CAN ALWAYS added to more than the sum of their experience and influences. When the group made the seminal Monster Movie in 1968, three of ...

Derek & The Dominos: Derek and the Dominos: The Story of Layla

Retrospective and Interview by Phil Sutcliffe, MOJO, May 2011

NOTE: This is a slightly modified version of the original MOJO piece. ...

Cat Stevens, Yusuf: Cat Stevens: Time to Make a Change

Profile and Interview by Colin Irwin, MOJO, June 2000

It's one of music's most overdue reconciliations. Yusuf Islam has made peace with Cat Stevens. ...

Fall, The: Mark E. Smith: An Interview

Interview by Mark Paytress, MOJO, February 2006

Heading: Hates "school prefect" Blair and punk. But after 30 years of booze, wives and 28 studio albums, has the Fall frontman finally found redemption? ...

John Martyn

Interview by Mat Snow, MOJO, August 2006

THERE AREN'T too many singers who've been shot, stabbed, burst their pancreas, and had their right leg amputated at the knee. Fewer still whose career ...

Derek & The Dominos: The Prince Of Love… Or How The Recording Of 'Layla', Clapton's Ode To Forbidden Love, Made Victims Of Derek And The Dominos

Retrospective by Harry Shapiro, MOJO, January 2001

IMAGINE THIS story: a world-famous guitarist decides to form a band where nobody is supposed to know it's him. While it's coming together, he falls ...

Patti Smith: The Rebel: Patti Smith

Interview by Ben Edmonds, MOJO, August 1996

To R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe, she is "one of the premier artists of my lifetime – I’ve blindly stolen from her for years." To Bob Dylan, ...

Free: The Harder They Come

Retrospective and Interview by Phil Sutcliffe, MOJO, May 1998

They were young. They were feral. They played unfeasibly good rock music. And they hit the road hard. It could only end in heartbreak. Phil ...

Donovan

Retrospective and Interview by Richie Unterberger, MOJO, January 2005

MID JULY 2004. In the dark-wooded, rich red subterranea of San Francisco's Cafe du Nord a song is building off little more than a two-chord ...

Townes Van Zandt: Wanderin' Star

Retrospective by Sylvie Simmons, MOJO, April 2003

What do you do when you're really down? Listen to Townes Van Zandt Sylvie Simmons charts the artistic triumphs and personal disasters of sadness's most ...