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Ben Edmonds

Ben Edmonds

Former Editor of Creem and longtime contributor to Rolling Stone and other U.S. publications, Edmonds was the co-author with Al Kooper of Backstage Passes and a former US correspondent for MOJO. Ben passed away in March 2016.

113 articles

List of articles in the library

By date | By artist | Most recently added

The Chambers Brothers: Love, Peace and Happiness

Review by Ben Edmonds, Fusion, 6 February 1969

THE CHAMBERS BROTHERS have enjoyed a good deal of popularity and commercial success during the past couple of years, but to be quite honest, the ...

Allman Brothers Band: The Allman Brothers Band: The Allman Brothers Band

Review by Ben Edmonds, Fusion, 20 February 1970

THE ALLMAN BROTHERS BAND has been causing somewhat of a commotion in the music world of late. They were the talk of the town during ...

MC5: Back In The USA (Atlantic)

Review by Ben Edmonds, Fusion, 20 March 1970

WHAT A difference a year can make. This time last year the MC5 were riding high on the crest of the biggest hype in the ...

Richie Havens: Stonehenge (Stormy Forest)

Review by Ben Edmonds, Fusion, 20 March 1970

THE SUBJECT OF Richie Havens is always sure to provoke an argument. Those who tend to dislike him do so with a great deal of ...

James Taylor: Sweet Baby James (Warner Bros.)

Review by Ben Edmonds, Fusion, 15 May 1970

JAMES TAYLOR was the first artist signed to the Beatles’ Apple label, and ironically, the first to leave it as well. While there, he produced ...

Nico: The Marble Index

Review by Ben Edmonds, Fusion, 12 June 1970

THIS ALBUM was released well over a year ago, sold very few copies, and has been confined to the dungeons of neglect. ...

Captain Beefheart

Profile and Interview by Ben Edmonds, ZigZag, August 1970

Beefheart is and always was a Zigzag hero; we get more letter about him than any other artists, I should think – asking for news ...

Big Brother & The Holding Company: What Big Brother Is Up To

Report and Interview by Ben Edmonds, Circus, October 1970

THE EXPLOITS OF Janis Joplin in her post-Big Brother days are inevitably front-page material, but what of the band she left behind? Big Brother & ...

Free Are All Right Now

Profile by Ben Edmonds, Circus, December 1970

HARD, THUMPING rock. That's what is coming out of England these days, and if it's a trend that can't very well last too long, at ...

J. Geils Band: The J. Geils Band

Profile by Ben Edmonds, ZigZag, 1971

If you don't have the J. Geils Band album, don't try to talk to me about what's happening ...

Bob Seger: The Bob Seger System: Mongrel (Capitol SKAO-49Q)

Review by Ben Edmonds, Rolling Stone, 7 January 1971

WHEN VIEWED in the context of his two previous albums, Bob Seger's Mongrel fares very favorably. It's easily his best overall work to date, but ...

Bob Seger: Mongrel

Review by Ben Edmonds, Rolling Stone, 21 January 1971

When viewed in the context of his two previous albums, Bob Seger's Mongrel fares very favorably. It's easily his best over-all work to date, but ...

Quicksilver Messenger Service: What About Me (Capitol)

Review by Ben Edmonds, Rolling Stone, 18 February 1971

QUICKSILVER displayed acute weaknesses on their previous album and they remain very much in evidence on What About Me. Though the group has polished up ...

J. Geils Band: J Geils Band: Beantown Get-down

Profile by Ben Edmonds, Creem, March 1971

JANUARY 17, 1970 would have been its fourth birthday, but that hardly matters now. The Boston Tea Party is no more. Since the beginning of ...

The Chambers Brothers: New Generation

Review by Ben Edmonds, Rolling Stone, 27 May 1971

AT THE OUTSET, the Chambers Brothers were a warmly exciting gospel act (catalogued on a series of fine albums released by Vault), but they apparently ...

Mountain: Nantucket Sleighride (Windfall)

Review by Ben Edmonds, Creem, June 1971

Nantucket Sleighride. Whalers of sturdy New England stock hauled by their harpooned prey in salt-water acceleration. I happen to be a New Englander, but even ...

The Beach Boys: A Group For All Seasons

Profile by Ben Edmonds, Circus, June 1971

FROM THEIR inception back in the early part of the last decade, the Beach Boys were at the pinnacle of the rock establishment, with an ...

Mott the Hoople: Wildlfe

Review by Ben Edmonds, Rolling Stone, 10 June 1971

THE OUTCOME of the battle has yet to be conclusively determined, but my scorecard gives the race for "The Most Beloved Rock And Roll Band ...

Jackie Lomax: Home Is In My Head

Review by Ben Edmonds, Rolling Stone, 24 June 1971

JACKIE LOMAX' FIRST album, released in 1969 on Apple, was produced by George Harrison, contained an excellent single ('The Eagle Laughs At You' b/w 'Sour ...

Jimmy Webb: And So: On (Reprise RS-6448)

Review by Ben Edmonds, Rolling Stone, 2 September 1971

ARRIVING IN nearly the same breath as the magnificent Words And Music, this second album by Jimmy Webb is another impressive step in the conspiracy ...

Big Brother & The Holding Company: Big Brother : How Hard It Is

Review by Ben Edmonds, Rolling Stone, 30 September 1971

IT HAS RIGHTEOUSLY ranked my ass to see the shabby treatment accorded Big Brother and the Holding Company over the course of the past four ...

Jefferson Airplane: Grunt Records: What A Lovely Sound

Report by Ben Edmonds, Phonograph Record, November 1971

IT WAS going to be, if you believed the hype and hung on to your hopes, the event on an otherwise lackluster social calendar for ...

Crabby Appleton: Is Crabby Appleton The Supergroup Nobody's Heard?

Profile by Ben Edmonds, Phonograph Record, December 1971

"I heard an acetate of their first single 'Go Back'...I sat there with my jaw at knee-level and the top of my head blown off, ...

David Blue: Stories (Asylum SD-5052)

Review by Ben Edmonds, Rolling Stone, 2 March 1972

FORGET ANYTHING, good or bad, which you might ever have associated with the name David Blue. Stories might as well be considered as David Blue's ...

Captain Beefheart: The Spotlight Kid (Reprise)

Review by Ben Edmonds, Dave Marsh, Creem, April 1972

The Kid is gonna Booglarize ya ...

Linda Ronstadt: Linda Ronstadt

Review by Ben Edmonds, Creem, April 1972

THIS PAST AUGUST, a friend and I braved the colorless bullshit of the Troubador in Los Angeles to catch a Linda Ronstadt set, supposedly being ...

The Wackers: Hot Wacks

Review by Ben Edmonds, Creem, July 1972

HAVING NOTHING more pressing to tackle than a watered-down bourbon and some hotel room TV on one March mid-afternoon in New York, I happened to ...

Todd Rundgren: Something/Anything? (Bearsville)

Review by Ben Edmonds, Creem, July 1972

THE NAME TODD Rundgren has passed across so many lips in the past few months that you can almost detect traces of chapstick around its ...

Janis Joplin: Joplin in Concert

Review by Ben Edmonds, Creem, August 1972

IT MAY WELL BE an admission of blasphemy, but I was never one of the worshippers at the Janis Joplin altar. I seldom missed an ...

Paul Butterfield Blues Band: The Paul Butterfield Blues Band: Golden Butter

Review by Ben Edmonds, Creem, August 1972

ANTICIPATION of this anthology's arrival was always accompanied by a warm feeling somewhere between nostalgia and celebration. The Paul Butterfield Blues Band(s) have ranked with ...

Todd Rundgren Unchained

Interview by Ben Edmonds, Creem, August 1972

THE FIRST SIGNAL of his approach is the abrupt appearance of a small black dog, hauling its thoroughly pregnant belly behind a couch just quickly ...

The Eagles: The Eagles (Asylum)

Review by Ben Edmonds, Creem, September 1972

EVER SINCE some unwitting fool made the mistake of pointing out that much of the rock and roll musician evolved from the hillbilly, we've been ...

The Fabulous Rhinestones: Just Sunshine

Review by Ben Edmonds, Creem, September 1972

I ALWAYS thought that the bassplayer was the guy who stood there and didn't say much. While the rest of the band goes out partying, ...

Alice Cooper: School's Out

Review by Ben Edmonds, Creem, October 1972

AS WE ALL KNOW, summer never lasts forever, and Alice was faced with the problem of rushing out a follow-up album before the leaves began ...

Hound Dog Taylor And The House Rockers

Profile by Ben Edmonds, Creem, November 1972

CONTRARY TO whatever stereotypes have been created to cover the contemporary bluesman, there is a side to the blues that has absolutely nothing to do ...

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 ...

Jimmy Webb: Letters (Reprise)

Review by Ben Edmonds, Creem, November 1972

OVER THE LAST four years, I've suffered some of the worst abuse and harassment imaginable simply because of my insistence that Jimmy Webb is the ...

Allman Brothers Band: Snapshots of the South: The Allman Brothers and Capricorn Records

Profile and Interview by Ben Edmonds, Creem, November 1972

MAKING AN AIR APPROACH to Atlanta is like diving into a monstrous tossed salad. The land below is a fluffy carpet of complimentary greens which ...

T. Rex: T Rex: The Slider (Reprise)

Review by Ben Edmonds, Creem, November 1972

THE ELECTRIC WARRIOR hardly brought us to our knees the way he'd expected he would. After a string of superbly programmed chart-topping singles and genuine ...

Various Artists: Nuggets (Elektra)

Review by Ben Edmonds, Creem, November 1972

I LEARNED ABOUT golden oldie collections the hard way. I was all of eleven, and had finally managed to figure out what that noise coming ...

Raspberries: The Raspberries: Side Three

Review by Ben Edmonds, Phonograph Record, 1973

MENTION THE RASPBERRIES, and right away you're caught in a crossfire. In one corner are those (a few over-zealous rock critics and enough real kids ...

J. Geils Band: Full House (Atlantic)

Review by Ben Edmonds, Creem, January 1973

MUCH AS I love it, this album tends to piss me off. ...

The Wackers: Shredder

Review by Ben Edmonds, Rolling Stone, 1 February 1973

"Dylan is old/The Stones are cold/The Beatles are gone/ And it's making me yawn..." ...

Richie Havens: On Stage

Review by Ben Edmonds, Rolling Stone, 15 February 1973

The question of motion has developed into a trap of sorts since our entertainers became artists. Artists must continually grow and evolve, but invariably draw ...

The Stooges: Raw Power

Review by Ben Edmonds, Phonograph Record, March 1973

ONE OF MY EARLIEST and most special memories is of sitting in front of a big television on a very early weekend morning watching a ...

Grin: All Out

Review by Ben Edmonds, Creem, April 1973

A ridiculously easy winner in 1971's "most promising" category was Grin, fronted by Nils Lofgeren, whose credentials were a matter of public record long before ...

Blind Faith, Spencer Davis Group, Steve Winwood, Traffic: Stevie Winwood: Not Just A Singer In A Rock And Roll Band

Retrospective by Ben Edmonds, Phonograph Record, April 1973

I MADE INITIAL contact with Stevie Winwood in March of 1966, a weekend rebel still in the high school clutches of suburban Boston. As was ...

Alice Cooper: Billion Dollar Babies (Warner Bros.)

Review by Ben Edmonds, Creem, May 1973

QUITE SIMPLY, Billion Dollar Babies is the Sgt. Pepper of punkdom. Or a reasonable facsimile there of, which in the end is probably just as ...

Alice Cooper: Scenes From An Impending Conquest

Profile by Ben Edmonds, Creem, June 1973

"Alice Cooper...I thought it was gonna be like Judy Collins or something: It was the most revolting thing I've ever seen. You shoulda been there..." ...

Johnny Winter: Back and Kicking

Profile and Interview by Ben Edmonds, Creem, July 1973

THE HOUSE is an easy hour by car from the wall-to-wall insanity of midtown Manhattan, situated in one of the bedroom communities just over the ...

J. Geils Band: J Geils Band: Bloodshot (Atlantic)

Review by Ben Edmonds, Creem, August 1973

FROM THE guitar blitz that ushers in ‘House Party,’ you know that, after a couple of false starts, Bloodshot is the record which finally begins ...

New York Dolls Greatest Hits Volume 1

Profile and Interview by Ben Edmonds, Creem, October 1973

(They're not a fag band. -Ed.) ...

Mott The Hoople: The Ballad Of Mott The Hoople

Profile and Interview by Ben Edmonds, Creem, November 1973

MOTT THE HOOPLE. Good old Mott. "Oh yea, aren't they the band that..." Almost everybody, it seems, has their own "oh yea" for Mott the ...

Raspberries: Side 3

Review by Ben Edmonds, Creem, January 1974

MENTION THE RASPBERRIES, and right away you're caught in a crossfire. ...

Elton John, Prisoner of Wax

Report and Interview by Ben Edmonds, Creem, February 1974

Could it be that this mild-mannered popstar is actually... a vinyl junkie? ...

Todd Rundgren Tells the Truth (or The Things His Hairdresser Doesn't Know)

Report and Interview by Ben Edmonds, Creem, November 1974

1972: THE FIRST – and to be disastrously short-lived – tour of Todd Rundgren's Utopia has stopped for a breather in Chicago. The band is ...

Mick Ronson, Mott The Hoople: Mott The Hoople: Mick Ronson's One Of The Boys

Report and Interview by Ben Edmonds, Creem, January 1975

"I'd like," announced Ian Hunter, his sweeping hand motion orchestrated by an imaginary drum, "to introduce the new lead guitarist of Mott the Hoople...Mick Ronson!" ...

Fleetwood Mac: Fleetwood Mac (Reprise)

Review by Ben Edmonds, Phonograph Record, September 1975

If you’re one of those people like me who lost track of Fleetwood Mac in the post-Peter Green haze of erratic albums and perpetual personnel ...

Linda Ronstadt: Prisoner In Disguise

Review by Ben Edmonds, Phonograph Record, October 1975

AN UNHEALTHY PORTION of the attention devoted to Linda Ronstadt over the years has dealt with her supposed physical attributes at the expense of her ...

Flo & Eddie: Illegal, Immoral and Fattening

Review by Ben Edmonds, Rolling Stone, 23 October 1975

INSIDIOUS. Here we have the mainspring of the Turtles, Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan, with an album that contains two songs (‘Rebecca’ and ‘Let Me ...

Daryl Hall & John Oates: Hall & Oates: Daryl Hall and John Oates

Review by Ben Edmonds, Rolling Stone, 23 October 1975

After three albums Daryl Hall and John Oates finally have a clear-cut style. This is Hall & Oates's Wild Honey: lean, basic and more concerned ...

Elton John: Rock Of The Westies (MCA)

Review by Ben Edmonds, Phonograph Record, November 1975

It might seem ridiculous to contend that an artist was weakened by two albums which sold a higher number of copies than I can count ...

Pink Floyd: Wish You Were Here

Review by Ben Edmonds, Rolling Stone, 6 November 1975

WITHOUT PINK FLOYD we would not have the European sci-fi multitudes (Hawkwind, Can, Amon Duul II and all their little friends) to kick around. They ...

Roxy Music: Siren

Review by Ben Edmonds, Phonograph Record, December 1975

ROXY MUSIC IS among the handful of very best bands in the world. You didn't know that? You're not exactly alone, but the number of ...

Eric Carmen: Eric Carmen

Review by Ben Edmonds, Rolling Stone, 18 December 1975

AS THE FORMER lead singer of the Raspberries, a group whose misadventures prevented them from ever seeing sales figures that compared equitably with their true ...

David Bowie: Station to Station – A Report

Report by Ben Edmonds, Phonograph Record, January 1976

A YEAR AGO, David Bowie's public face was a mess. The Diamond Dogs tour he'd recently completed had certainly been successful enough, but it was ...

Van Dyke Parks: The Clang of the Yankee Reaper

Review by Ben Edmonds, Rolling Stone, 29 January 1976

In rootless Southern California, the only cultural traditions are those which you create for yourself. Maybe that's why Van Dyke Parks is much beloved of ...

David Bowie: Ol' Orange Hair Is Back

Live Review by Ben Edmonds, RAM, March 1976

MR. DAVID BOWIE could hardly have selected a more suitable jumping off point for his 1976 world tour than Vancouver, British Columbia, (somewhere in) Canada. ...

Sweet: The Sweet: Give Us A Wink (Capitol)

Review by Ben Edmonds, Phonograph Record, March 1976

The question with The Sweet has always been one of validity. In England, it was the struggle to become something more than the string of ...

Todd Rundgren: Faithful: The Todd Rundgren You've Been Waiting For

Review by Ben Edmonds, Phonograph Record, April 1976

THIS IS THE Todd Rundgren album that a lot of people have been waiting for. The part of his audience that considered Something/Anything pop heaven ...

David Bowie: Bowie Meets The Press: Plastic Man or Godhead of the Seventies?

Interview by Ben Edmonds, Circus, 27 April 1976

AFTER THE BRILLIANT plumage of every previous David Bowie incarnation, the stark black and white figure on the Station to Station stage might have come ...

The Runaways: The Runaways

Review by Ben Edmonds, Phonograph Record, May 1976

"We're the queens of noise/ The answer to your dreams." ...

Flo & Eddie: Moving Targets

Review by Ben Edmonds, Phonograph Record, August 1976

SO WHAT WOULD you do if you were Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman? ...

Al Kooper: Act Like Nothing's Wrong

Review by Ben Edmonds, Phonograph Record, November 1976

TO PRESERVE WHAT little remains of a once-great dignity, I'm obligated to confess to a blatant conflict of interest in the following evaluation of Al ...

Mink Deville: Return To Magenta

Review by Ben Edmonds, Sounds, 13 May 1978

(Ben Edmonds, a former CREEM editor in Detroit, signed Mink DeVille to Capitol when he worked for that label in 1976. He now resides in ...

Bryan Ferry, Roxy Music: Bryan Ferry: The Original's Still The Greatest

Interview by Ben Edmonds, Creem, July 1993

"Why don't we just call the damn magazine Roxy Music Monthly?" ...

Tori Amos: I Believe In Peace, Bitch. Tori Amos Talks Back

Profile and Interview by Ben Edmonds, Creem, March 1994

EVERYBODY IS multi-lingual. You learn a language to communicate with other people. You learn a dream language to communicate with yourself. But the real language, ...

Tori Amos

Retrospective and Interview by Ben Edmonds, Contemporary Musicians, September 1994

AFTER SPENDING years in classical piano training, then experimenting with the Los Angeles rock scene, Tori Amos attracted a popular music audience with her pure ...

Smashing Pumpkins: Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness

Review by Ben Edmonds, MOJO, December 1995

ADORE OR despise Billy Corgan's unmistakable musical shitstorm of hubris and angst – and he is a walking ammunition stockpile for both positions – it ...

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers: Playback (MCA)

Review by Ben Edmonds, MOJO, January 1996

Ben Edmonds rewinds 20 years of Tom Petty ...

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, ...

Beck: Ogden Street Concert Hall, Buffalo, NY

Live Review by Ben Edmonds, MOJO, October 1996

"Who are you?" a voice asks Beck not long into the goofball savant’s utterly delightful new album O-de-lay. "I’m the Enchanting Wizard of Rhythm," he ...

Gil Evans, Miles Davis: Miles Davis and Gil Evans: The Complete Columbia Studio Recordings

Review by Ben Edmonds, MOJO, October 1996

THEIR CURIOUS YET inspired partnership resulted in music of rare beauty. Ben Edmonds salutes a landmark box set that fully captures the genius of Miles ...

Carlene Carter live

Live Review by Ben Edmonds, MOJO, November 1996

"I WANNA TELL Y’ALL SOMETHING," Carlene Carter notifies the young country audience that’s braved an outdoor venue on an unseasonably cold and wet September evening. ...

Smashing Pumpkins: The Smashing Pumpkins: American Gothic

Interview by Ben Edmonds, MOJO, December 1996

The music of the Smashing Pumpkins has brought the dark night of the soul to the wide open spaces of America’s arenas and radio waves. ...

Kiss: Palace Of Auburn Hills, Detroit

Live Review by Ben Edmonds, MOJO, January 1997

CAN NOTHING stop these brutes? ...

? and the Mysterians: Phone Home: ? and the Mysterians

Interview by Ben Edmonds, MOJO, February 1997

"WHOA! IT'S WILD that you called today. Little Frank, the original organist in The Mysterians, has just rejoined the band. He was down in Texas ...

Psychedelia USA

Retrospective by Ben Edmonds, MOJO, June 1997

Ben Edmonds finds out what happened when acid hit blue-collar America. WHEN POET JOHN SINCLAIR was released from the Detroit House of Correction in August ...

Psychedelia: Poster Artists

Retrospective by Ben Edmonds, MOJO, June 1997

IT COULD BE SAID THAT THE POSTER ART WAS THE best thing that ever happened to psychedelic music. As concert posters they didn’t just advertise ...

Carl Wilson

Obituary by Ben Edmonds, MOJO, April 1998

CARL WILSON didn't get to record his first lead vocal for the Beach Boys until April 30, 1965, almost four years into the group's career. ...

R.L. Burnside: R. L. Burnside: Live in Detroit

Live Review by Ben Edmonds, MOJO, May 1998

"WELL, WELL, WELL..." ...

Bobby Womack: 10 Questions for Bobby Womack

Interview by Ben Edmonds, MOJO, July 1998

What were you up to in the studio last night? ...

Prince: 18 Questions for THE ARTIST (still generally known as Prince)

Interview by Ben Edmonds, MOJO, August 1998

How did you spend your 40th birthday? ...

Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era 1965-1968

Review by Ben Edmonds, MOJO, September 1998

Groundbreaking garage-punk compilation expanded into a 4-CD box: over 100 big hits, hip misses, influential tracks, cultural oddities and sonic abominations. ...

Aretha Franklin: The 100 Greatest Singers Of All Time: #1 Aretha Franklin

Retrospective and Interview by Ben Edmonds, MOJO, October 1998

 "She has all the Olympian leaps and trills, plus what's so often missing from others — believability." Eddi Reader "The essence of human spirit." Vic Chesnutt "I'm ...

Taj Mahal: The Birth Of His Blues: Taj Mahal

Review and Interview by Ben Edmonds, MOJO, November 1998

Tracks: Leaving Trunk / Statesboro Blues / Checkin' Up On My Baby / Everybody's Got To Change Sometime / E Z Rider / Dust My ...

Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band: Grow Fins (Revenant); The Dust Blows Forward (Rhino)

Review by Ben Edmonds, Detroit Metro Times, 7 July 1999

NOW THAT Don Van Vliet’s abandonment of music in favour of his career as a painter appears to be permanent, what are we finally to ...

The Isley Brothers, 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 ...

Fred Neil: I Don't Hear a Word They're Saying...

Retrospective and Interview by Ben Edmonds, MOJO, February 2000

He gave Dylan his start, wrote a song you know by heart, and was rated by many performers as the very best there ever was. ...

Curtis Mayfield

Obituary by Ben Edmonds, MOJO, March 2000

With his high, pure tenor and songs of peace, love and empowerment, Curtis Mayfield was a soul revolutionary whose influence spanned four decades. Ben Edmonds ...

Pearl Jam: Live in Europe 1-25

Review by Ben Edmonds, Rolling Stone, 26 October 2000

PEARL JAM's late-spring 2000 tour is remembered for the mosh-pit tragedy that claimed the lives of nine fans in Denmark. But up until then, the ...

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 ...

John Phillips, The Mamas and The Papas: John Phillips: The Wolfking of LA

Obituary by Ben Edmonds, MOJO, May 2001

LIKE KEITH RICHARDS, WHOM HE often equalled in the extreme party stakes back in the blackout days of '70s rock excess, I always figured John ...

Bobby "Blue" Bland, R.L. Burnside, Reverend Gary Davis, Lightnin' Hopkins, Koko Taylor, Muddy Waters: Various Artists: Blues albums

Review by Ben Edmonds, Rolling Stone, 24 May 2001

A BOUNTY OF classic blues albums has recently become available on CD, fortified with bonus tracks and unissued material. ...

Buffalo Springfield: The Box Set

Review by Ben Edmonds, Rolling Stone, 19 July 2001

BUFFALO SPRINGFIELD are that rarest of beasts: an influential 1960s band whose recorded legacy hasn't been recycled into dust. Classic-rock radio stations don't dig much ...

The Temptations' Final Frontier

Retrospective and Interview by Ben Edmonds, MOJO, August 2001

MOTOWN KING BERRY GORDY was royally miffed. None of his subjects could come up with a hit for the act many considered the finest in ...

The Jackson 5

Retrospective and Interview by Ben Edmonds, MOJO, December 2001

AS ANYONE FAMILIAR with the Motown fairytale can tell you, it was Diana Ross who discovered Michael Jackson. She was performing at a 1968 fundraiser ...

Curtis Mayfield and Superfly: No Exit

Retrospective by Ben Edmonds, MOJO, June 2002

"THESE GUYS WERE LIKE outlaws, the real cowboys," says Phillip Fenty of the street characters who inspired his screenplay of Superfly. ...

MC5: The MC5: The Battle Of New York

Retrospective by Ben Edmonds, MOJO, September 2002

AS THEIR FLIGHT FROM DETROIT TOUCHED DOWN AT NEW York's LaGuardia Airport on Thursday, December 26, 1968, the MC5 figured they had the future by ...

The Beach Boys, Dennis Wilson: Dennis Wilson: The Lonely Sea

Retrospective by Ben Edmonds, MOJO, November 2002

WITH TIME TO KILL BEFORE SOUNDCHECK ON A windy New York afternoon in 1971, the drummer of The Beach Boys had decided, on a whim, ...

Patti Smith: The MOJO Interview: Patti Smith

Interview by Ben Edmonds, MOJO, July 2004

Working in a piss factory, breaking her neck on stage,
the "horror" of her armpit
hair. All this plus punk poetry,
tragedy and "gentleman"
Bill Burroughs in the amazing ...

The Creation, Bo Diddley, The Electric Prunes, New York Dolls, The Stooges, The Strokes, Steven Van Zandt: Little Steven's International Underground Garage Festival: Randall's Island, N.Y.

Live Review by Ben Edmonds, MOJO, October 2004

Forty-five bands plus Van Zandt's Boss defy failing weather and technology for New York's biggest garage rave-up. ...

Bob Dylan: Revolution In His Head

Retrospective by Ben Edmonds, MOJO, February 2005

40 years ago this month, Bob Dylan walked into Columbia's Studio A and walked out having invented rock music as we know it. Corralling eyewitness ...

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