Spoken word and poetry
30 articles
Rod McKuen: "Money Is Only Good To Buy Candy Bars"
Interview by Louise Criscione, KRLA Beat, 17 June 1967
NESTLED ON the side of a hill in Hollywood is the home of an extremely talented, highly successful, completely unassuming man named Rod McKuen. A ...
The Scaffold: Scaffold: Queen Elizabeth Hall, London
Live Review by Lon Goddard, Record Mirror, 17 February 1968
AN HILARIOUSLY comedic and subtly intimate evening sparsed with a few soft-core implications was to be had at the Queen Elizabeth Hall during the appearance ...
Joan Baez: Baptism (Vanguard SVRL19000)
Review by Karl Dallas, Melody Maker, 16 November 1968
Lovers of Baez folksong will be disappointed ...
Review by Vernon Gibbs, Columbia Daily Spectator, 29 September 1970
MOODY BLUES' Question of Balance (Threshold, THS3)I first heard of the Moody Blues early this year about five minutes before I was scheduled to interview them. A ...
Review by Sheila Weller, Fusion, May 1972
THE BLACK cultural tradition has always depended for its survival on oral, rather than written, communication: from the chants of tribal Africa to the folk-tales ...
Graham Bond, Pete Brown and His Battered Ornaments: Graham Bond & Pete Brown: Premium Bond
Profile and Interview by Dave Laing, Let It Rock, December 1972
TEN YEARS ago, Graham Bond was playing alto sax at the Marquee on Tuesday nights with Alexis Korner's Blues Incorporated, and then with his equally ...
Ivor Cutler: Dandruff (Virgin)
Review by Ian MacDonald, New Musical Express, 26 October 1974
I REMEMBER the time when you got seven tracks on each side of an album. Over the years, the quantity has been steadily decreasing and, ...
Gil Scott-Heron: "You Will Not Be Able To Plug In, Turn On, Cop Out"
Profile and Interview by Mick Brown, Street Life, 7 February 1976
IT'S A mystifying truism that perhaps the most surprising thing about Gil Scott-Heron is that he is still standing very much in the shadows as ...
Patti Smith: Cowboy Mouth, Rock & Roll Theater Company: Club 57, New York NY
Live Review by Richard Grabel, New York Rocker, November 1978
WHEN CAVALE, the Patti Smith-styled character in this play, tries to explain to her boyfriend Slim what rock 'n' roll is and what it means ...
John Cooper Clarke: This Year's Esperanto
Profile and Interview by Nick Kent, New Musical Express, 11 November 1978
JOHN COOPER-CLARKE, the poet who came in from the cold ...
The Doors, Jim Morrison: Jim Morrison: An American Prayer (Elektra 5E-502)*****
Review by Sandy Robertson, Sounds, 2 December 1978
Flashes from the archives of oblivion (Thank you, Roy Harper) ...
John Cooper Clarke: The Salford Surrealist
Report and Interview by Brian Case, Melody Maker, 16 December 1978
A poet and his roots ...
Linton Kwesi Johnson, Rico Rodriguez: Marquee, London
Live Review by Chris Bohn, Melody Maker, 16 June 1979
EVERY REFERENCE to cops getting hurt elicited cheers of approval from a largely white audience on Sunday. Is that the kind of solidarity that back-and-proud ...
John Cooper Clarke: Cool for Catholics
Interview by Peter Silverton, Sounds, 29 September 1979
John Cooper Clarke makes a good confession to Pete Silverton (lapsed) ...
Jim Carroll: The Transformation of Jim Carroll
Profile and Interview by Laura Fissinger, Musician, February 1981
IS JIM CARROLL, streetwise poet, athletic Catholic Boy, being pushed into the vacant position of rock'n'roll martyr? ...
The Clash, Allen Ginsberg: Ginsberg Finds Poetry in Punk
Interview by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 2 May 1983
WHEN THE Clash decided it wanted "the voice of God" in its last album, the group turned to Allen Ginsberg. The 56-year-old poet with the ...
Michael (Mikey) Smith: Michael Smith: Jamaica Killing
Report by Mick Brown, Guardian, The, 26 August 1983
MICHAEL SMITH, internationally acclaimed as Jamaica's foremost "dub" poet, was murdered last week, apparently a victim of Jamaica's turbulent and violent political climate. Smith, who ...
Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, January 1984
ALTHOUGH IT'S doubtful Nancy Reagan listens to either rap or reggae records (or anything more soulful than Ray Anthony, for that matter), she ought to ...
Mutabaruka: Reggae Star Is More Than A Poet
Report and Interview by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, 26 July 1985
"I DON'T LIKE being classified as a dub poet because dub poetry is a limit to one's expression," Mutabaruka declares. "It's like saying that you're ...
Ivor Cutler: Bloomsbury Theatre, London
Live Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 24 May 1986
FUNNY PECULIAR ...
Gil Scott-Heron: Life After Arista
Profile and Interview by Larry Jaffee, unpublished, August 1986
NOTE: This interview was intended for Tower Records' Pulse!, but was rejected for fear that Arista Records would pull its advertising. ...
Interview by Martin Aston, Rock's Backpages Audio, Winter 1989
The morning after a London performance, Ms Lunch discusses herself as a spoken word performer and artist: being censored; confronting issues such as abuse of women; her pleasure at being on the margins; other spoken word performers like Henry Rollins and Karen Finley; how she came to music via lyrics, and about the confrontational nature of audiences.
File format: mp3; total file size: 45.5mb, total interview length: 47' 21" sound quality: ****
Jello Biafra, Lydia Lunch, Henry Rollins: Spoken Word: Jello Biafria, Lydia Lunch, Henry Rollins
Report and Interview by Martin Aston, Independent, The, Winter 1989
ONCE UPON a time, people took to the stage without the blast of music behind them, and people would take them seriously. Poetry and the ...
Lightnin' Rod: Great Recordings: Lightnin' Rod — Hustler's Convention
Retrospective by Kodwo Eshun, Wire, The, October 1993
In 1973, Jalal Nuriddin of The Last Poets changed his name to Lightnin' Rod and recorded Hustler's Convention, the first Blaxploitation audiodrama. Kodwo Eshun recalls ...
Report by Chris Campion, Village Voice, The, April 1996
A LONG-RUNNING saga of legitimacy has embroiled the Last Poets in a situation that is rapidly echoing the sentiments of one of their own poems, ...
Damon Albarn, Blur: Blur: Meet Damon, The Poet
Interview by Caroline Sullivan, Guardian, The, 6 July 1996
Blur's Damon Albarn tells CAROLINE SULLIVAN he is tired of being a star, tired of Yob Pop and tired off feuding. That's why he's reading ...
Bob Dylan: The Curmudgeon: Interpreting Lyrics
Column by Geoffrey Himes, Paste, 13 November 2012
A QUICK SURFING run through the blogosphere confirms that the Dylanologists are already poring over Bob Dylan's lyrics from Tempest as if the bloggers were ...
Kate Tempest: Poet, performer, novelist: the rise of the uncategorisable Kate Tempest
Report and Interview by Laura Barton, Guardian, The, 12 September 2014
Mercury nomination and place on prestigious list of poets are well-deserved accolades for bright young performer ...
Marian McPartland, Kate Tempest: A Tale of Two British Women: Marian McPartland and Kate Tempest
Comment by Larry Jaffee, Women Across Frontiers, 25 August 2015
AMERICAN SINGER-SONGWRITER Aimee Mann once told me during an interview how male executives from major record labels always gave her problems when she wanted to ...
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 ...
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