Search Results

Bob Dylan (1991)

Interview by Paul Zollo, Rock's Backpages Audio, 4 April 1991

Bob on why he writes songs, how he writes songs, what he writes songs about, what he doesn't write songs about, the keys he writes songs in, where he likes to write songs, what songs are and aren't, and some memories of his own songs.

File format: mp3; file size: 75.5mb, interview length: 1h 22' 29" sound quality: **½

Johnnie Taylor (1989)

Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages Audio, 8 July 1989

Soul legend Johnnie Taylor tells Barney Hoskyns about his background in gospel with the Highway QCs and the Soul Stirrers, Sam Cooke, Stax Records, having hits in the disco era, and finding a new home at Malaco.

File format: mp3 File size: 20.8mb Interview length: 22 minutes 45 seconds Sound quality: ****

Beatles, The, Paul McCartney: Paul McCartney (2003)

Interview by Johnny Black, Rock's Backpages Audio, 14 March 2003

A long, free-flowing conversation, during which Paul talks about Phil Spector and Let It Be, on his relationship with Yoko and the "whose name first" saga, and the deaths of John Lennon and George Harrison, plus much more.

File format: mp3; file size: 75.8mb, total interview length: 1h 22' 44" sound quality: ****

Gun Club, The: The Gun Club's Jeffrey Lee Pierce and Jim Duckworth (1983)

Interview by John Tobler, Rock's Backpages Audio, 18 April 1983

Jeffrey Lee Pierce talks about writing for Slash magazine; tells possible lies about his "Texas upbringing"; forming the band in Los Angeles; on people like Phast Phreddie Patterson, Alex Chilton, and the Panther Burns; running the Blondie fan club; Geoff Travis editing Duckworth off the Panther Burns album; why the band keeps changing personel; bass player Patricia Morrison, and on being produced by Chris Stein.

File format: mp3; total file size: 29.2mb, total interview length: 30' 22" sound quality: *****

Tony Joe White (1977)

Interview by Cliff White, Rock's Backpages Audio, June 1977

The Louisiana Swamp God on having his best stuff rejected by Warner Bros.; selling songs to others, and his pleasure at some of their versions; Elvis doing 'Polk Salad Annie'; on songwriting; on being compared to Barry White; on going fishing with his mom, and eating catfish; his new album, Eyes, and looking back at how he got started.

File format: mp3; file size: 21.9mb, interview length: 22' 47" sound quality: *****

Living Colour's Vernon Reid (1988)

Interview by Mark Sinker, Rock's Backpages audio, April 1988

Vernon Reid talks about Living Colour signing to Epic Records; about his other projects and producing other acts; the state of Black music in America; the life and death of disco; the importance of Prince; his early days with Ronald Shannon Jackson's Decoding Society and Defunkt; the Black Rock Coalition; negative energy, drugs and racism; and the clichéd perceptions of African-Americans.

File format: mp3; file size: 78.9mb, interview length: 1h 22' 12" sound quality: ***

Marshall Jefferson (1999)

Interview by Frank Broughton, Rock's Backpages audio, 22 February 1999

The House music pioneer on the founding fathers of the music; DJs like Ron Hardy and Frankie Knuckles; the clubs — the Music Box, the Warehouse, the Power Plant; starting making tracks; key songs like 'I've Lost Control' and 'Move Your Body'; the Trax Records rip-offs, and Marshall's own definition of House.

File format: mp3; file size: 75.2mb, interview length: 1h 22' 08" sound quality: ****

Shirley Collins (1991)

Interview by John Tobler, Rock's Backpages audio, 17 May 1991

Brit-folk doyenne Shirley Collins revisists her 1971 No Roses album track by track and discusses how the songs were chosen – and the move away from folk tradition. Collins also talks about 10,000 Maniacs' cover of 'Just as the Tide was a-Flowing'; working with Maddy Prior and Fairport Convention; the Albion Country Band... and about the state of folk today.

File format: mp3; file size: 55.1mb, interview length: 57' 22" sound quality: *****

Black Flag, Henry Rollins: Henry Rollins (1994)

Interview by Andy Gill, Rock's Backpages audio, May 1994

Henry reflects on Kurt Cobain's recent death; Black Flag's influence on the new bands; his disapproval of slackers and his ascetic lifestyle; his disciplinarian father; violence in America; what he likes and loathes about England; his youthful fondness for Ted Nugent, and '70s hard rock in general; the difference between Black Flag and his Rollins Band; music vs. spoken word; his literary influences, including Nietzsche; his mother's record collection; being knocked out by punk rock; his gym work... and his relationship with his fans.

File format: mp3; file size: 79.5mb, interview length: 1h 22' 46" sound quality: ****

Norah Jones: Come Away With Me (EMI Capitol)

Review by Tim Clifford, Rock's Backpages, February 2002

NORAH JONES may not be up there with Wolf J Flywheel in the memorable moniker stakes, but mark it well. Produced by Arif Mardin, this ...

J. Geils Band: The Morning After (Atlantic)

Review by Nick Tosches, Phonograph Record, January 1972

GOOD HARD fast kool kat musick is the best kind. Anything without any metaphysical pretentions and with a lot of rebop raunch. ...

Disclosure: Settle

Review by Ian Gittins, Virgin Media Music, 3 June 2013

CLUBLAND HAS been polarised between two dispiriting extremes for close on a decade now. If the DJ isn't playing twitchy, edgy, introspective grime or dubstep, ...

Housemartins, The: The Housemartins: London 0 Hull 4

Review by Terry Staunton, Record Collector, 24 May 2009

LIKE THE all-conquering Madness during the first half of the '80s, the Housemartins pulled off the admirable trick of shoehorning well-considered social comment into the ...

Vejtables, The: Vejtables Growing in San Francisco

Profile and Interview by Carol Deck, KRLA Beat, 1 January 1966

THE LAST thing on anybody's mind would be to call themself a vegetable, but five young San Franciscans have gone one step farther and call ...

Chocolate Syrup: Introducing Chocolate Syrup

Profile and Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, 7 January 1972

1971 HAS been a remarkable year for group's names and none has been more imaginative than Chocolate Syrup, five young men who are currently enjoying ...

Billy Preston: Billy's a Natural

Profile by Richard Green, NME, 12 July 1969

IF EVER there was a "natural" for the charts, Billy Preston's 'That's The Way God Planned It' — which enters this week at No. 19 ...

Bobby Bland, John Lee Hooker: John Lee Hooker: John Lee Hooker Plays And Sings The Blues (Chess CRL4500); Bobby Bland: Here's The Man (Vocalion VA-PS041)

Review by Max Jones, Melody Maker, 15 January 1966

HOOKER RECORDS abound, but the latest from Chess, John Lee Hooker Plays And Sings The Blues (CRL4500) is a more than usually satisfying set. ...

Bruce Springsteen: Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ (CBS 65480, £2)

Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 14 April 1973

Springsteen is special ...

Mickie Most: Newcomer to the Charts: Mickie Most Goes Right Back...

Profile by Ian Dove, New Musical Express, 19 July 1963

MICKIE MOST may be a newcomer to the NME Top 30 with 'Mr. Porter', but he's had one of the longest careers in beat music ...

Gerry & The Pacemakers: New to the Charts: Gerry, Pacemakers from Beatle-land!

Profile by Alan Smith, NME, 22 March 1963

CRASHING into the NME Chart this week comes another beat name from Beatle-land, Liverpool's Gerry and the Pacemakers. Gerry is featured vocalist on 'How Do ...