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Jeff Tamarkin

Jeff Tamarkin

For more than two and a half decades, Jeff Tamarkin has been a prolific music and popular culture journalist and historian. For 15 years he was Editor of Goldmine, the "bible" of record/CD collectors. Prior to that, he served as the first Editor of CMJ (College Media Journal) and as Editor of Relix. He was also the first Editor of Grateful Dead Comix, editor of Global Rhythm, has written for dozens of publications, including Boston Phoenix, Playbill, East Bay Express, Sing Out!, New York Daily News, Billboard, Pulse, Creem, Mojo, Newsday, Tracks and ICE, and has contributed to the Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music and the All-Music Guide.

Jeff has written liner notes for more than 75 CDs, by such artists as the Beach Boys, Tom Jones, Jefferson Airplane, J. Geils Band, Chubby Checker, Merle Haggard, Dean Martin and many others. Jeff has also served on the Nominating Committee of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and as a consultant to the Grammys. He has worked closely on projects with Bobby McFerrin, Anoushka Shankar, Zakir Hussain and others. In the course of his work he has interviewed hundreds of artists within all genres of music, ranging from Roy Orbison to Kiss, Ringo Starr, B.B. King, Yoko Ono, Elvis Costello, Nancy Sinatra, Brian Wilson, Chick Corea, Frank Zappa, Jerry Garcia, Dave Brubeck, Iggy Pop, Ray Davies, R.E.M. and many others. As a consultant to the Music Club CD label, he assisted in releasing over 180 reissues and compilations, in styles ranging from rock to jazz, country, world music and pop. His first full-length book, Got a Revolution! The Turbulent Flight of Jefferson Airplane (Atria Books), was published in June 2003.

The first biography of this legendary San Francisco band, it was written with the cooperation of all of the band members and placed the Airplane into the context of their times, the volatile 1960s. Got a Revolution! was named one of the best books of 2003 by the San Francisco Chronicle and the Boston Phoenix, and received rave reviews from Publisher’s Weekly, Kirkus, Austin Chronicle, New York Daily News, The Onion, Uncut, Jazz Times and many others.

Jeff is currently the editor of BestClassicBands.com and lives in Hoboken, NJ, with his wife, novelist and book columnist Caroline Leavitt.

Jeff Tamarkin online

75 articles

List of articles in the library

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J. Geils Band: Exclusive Interview with Peter Wolf

Interview by Jeff Tamarkin, Goldmine, 1 October 1983

1967 HAS GONE down in history as the Summer of Love, not as the year for great white R&B bands forming. But it was during ...

The Animals

Interview by Jeff Tamarkin, Goldmine, 1 October 1983

GOLDMINE: What was the impetus behind this reunion album and tour? The last time the original group was together was for the 1977 album, Before ...

The Long Ryders: Long Ryders: Don't Call Us Country-Rock

Profile and Interview by Jeff Tamarkin, Billboard, 5 January 1984

L.A. Band Following in Burrito Brothers' Footsteps ...

T Bone Burnett, Elvis Costello: Elvis Costello, T Bone Burnett: State University of New York, Stony Brook, N.Y.

Live Review by Jeff Tamarkin, Billboard, 5 May 1984

IT WAS THE old, familiar scene of singer/songwriter bearing acoustic guitar and playing for an attentive college crowd. What wasn't so familiar was that the ...

The Band, Richie Havens, Roger McGuinn, R.E.M., John Sebastian, Jesse Colin Young: R.E.M. and Friends: Capitol Theater, Passaic, N.J.

Live Review by Jeff Tamarkin, Billboard, 30 June 1984

IT WAS A folk-rocker's fantasy: R.E.M. was videotaping a concert for MTV broadcast in July, for a new series called Influences. And so the IRS Records ...

Greg Kihn: Reckihning & Rolling

Interview by Jeff Tamarkin, Creem, November 1984

EVEN IF YOU'VE never heard Greg Kihn's music, you probably know who he is – he's the character who comes up with dumb puns on ...

The Ramones: Things Get Exciting Again for Ramones

Profile and Interview by Jeff Tamarkin, Billboard, 10 November 1984

'Too Tough To Die' After 10 Years ...

The Mosquitos, The Raybeats: The Raybeats, The Mosquitos: Irving Plaza, New York NY

Live Review by Jeff Tamarkin, Billboard, 16 March 1985

THE RAYBEATS have been a New York club favorite for about five years now, but it was obvious from the ovation for the openers that ...

Richard Thompson, Richard and Linda Thompson: "The Most Exciting Thing Is Playing Live" — Richard Thompson Downplays Studio Work

Interview by Jeff Tamarkin, Billboard, 30 March 1985

NEW YORK — Considering that Richard Thompson's albums invariably end up near the top of year-end critics' polls, one would think that the veteran British ...

Linda Thompson, Richard Thompson: "The Most Exciting Thing Is Playing Live": Richard Thompson Downplays Studio Work

Interview by Jeff Tamarkin, Billboard, 30 March 1985

NEW YORK — Considering that Richard Thompson's albums invariably end up near the top of year-end critics' polls, one would think that the veteran British ...

Aztec Camera: Bottom Line, New York NY

Live Review by Jeff Tamarkin, Billboard, 27 April 1985

AZTEC CAMERA is Roddy Frame's group, and the 21-year-old Scot doesn't let you forget it. Although he was backed by a very competent four-piece band, ...

Joan Armatrading, Cook Da Books: Radio City Music Hall, New York NY

Live Review by Jeff Tamarkin, Billboard, 11 May 1985

IF JOAN Armatrading is still an artist with a cult following, as she has been here for so long, then let's just say her cult ...

Hüsker Dü: Maxwell's, Hoboken, N.J.

Live Review by Jeff Tamarkin, Billboard, 8 June 1985

VERY RARELY does Maxwell's, the small club that has become something of a local mecca for the new roots-oriented American bands, sell out in advance. ...

The Scorpions: From Europe To Video Domination

Interview by Jeff Tamarkin, Circus, 31 August 1985

AFTER SPENDING virtually all of 1984 on the road, rocking fans on four continents, you'd think Scorpions needed a break. So they did, and they ...

The Scorpions: Scorpions: Around the World

Interview by Jeff Tamarkin, Circus, 30 November 1985

IT TOOK THE Scorpions more than a dozen years to do it, but there now remains no doubt that the Hannover, West Germany-based rockers have ...

The Residents: The Ritz, New York NY

Live Review by Jeff Tamarkin, Billboard, 8 February 1986

CHANCES ARE that if you know the Residents at all, you know them by their eyeballs, not their music. Avant-garde to the max, the San ...

The Replacements: The Ritz, New York NY

Live Review by Jeff Tamarkin, Billboard, 1 March 1986

ACCORDING TO longtime devotees, there are two kinds of Replacements concerts: those at which the band is sloppy and anything goes, and those where the ...

The Pogues: The World, New York NY

Live Review by Jeff Tamarkin, Billboard, 29 March 1986

ST. PATRICK'S DAY came to New York a few weeks early with the debut American appearance of the Pogues. But traditional Irish music never sounded ...

The Jesus & Mary Chain: The Jesus And Mary Chain: The Ritz, New York NY

Live Review by Jeff Tamarkin, Billboard, 5 April 1986

LlKE MANY previous "Next Big Things," The Jesus And Mary Chain is actually a mixture of next big things which came before. The Scottish quartet ...

Peter Blegvad, Carla Bley, The Golden Palominos, The Raybeats, R.E.M., Chris Stamey: Golden Palominos: The Ritz, New York NY

Live Review by Jeff Tamarkin, Creem, May 1986

Horse Platitudes ...

Hüsker Dü, Dwight Yoakam: Irving Plaza, New York NY

Live Review by Jeff Tamarkin, Billboard, 3 May 1986

THE IDEA of pairing post-hardcore Hüsker Dü with neocountry Dwight Yoakam turned out to be more perverse in theory than in practice. There was no ...

A Flock Of Seagulls, Modern English: The Ritz, New York NY

Live Review by Jeff Tamarkin, Billboard, 24 May 1986

BRITISH SYNTH-poppers a Flock of Seagulls and Modern English each dented the top 10 three to four years ago — the former with 'I Ran' ...

Brian Setzer: Stray Cats No More

Interview by Jeff Tamarkin, Creem, June 1986

BRIAN SETZER has been keeping a mental list. Everyone he's spoken to lately seems to think his first post-Stray Cats album, The Knife Feels Like ...

The Pogues: Aye, Laddie — We're Off To The Isle…

Live Review by Jeff Tamarkin, Creem, June 1986

The Pogues: The World, New York NY ...

The Residents: Eyeball To Eyeball

Live Review by Jeff Tamarkin, Creem, June 1986

The Residents: The Ritz, New York, Jan. 16, 1986 ...

Yoko Ono: Beacon Theatre, New York NY

Live Review by Jeff Tamarkin, Billboard, 14 June 1986

AFTER AN earlier Radio City Music Hall date was canceled because of poor ticket sales, Yoko One finally played her first concert in New York ...

The Smithereens, The Ben Vaughn Combo: Ben Vaughn Combo, Smithereens: CBGB, New York, NY

Live Review by Jeff Tamarkin, Billboard, 21 June 1986

THE SMITHEREENS and the Ben Vaughn Combo were each nominated as best new rock band in the recent New York Music Awards, although neither band ...

The Cramps, Screaming Blue Messiahs: The Ritz, New York NY

Live Review by Jeff Tamarkin, Billboard, 30 August 1986

THAT THE Cramps have managed to thrive for 10 years without a U.S. major label deal is testimony to their devoted cult following. And that ...

Yoko Ono: Scream And Scream Again

Live Review by Jeff Tamarkin, Creem, September 1986

Yoko Ono: Beacon Theater, New York, May 22, 1986 ...

Steve Winwood: Pier 84, New York NY

Live Review by Jeff Tamarkin, Billboard, 18 October 1986

BEFORE LAUNCHING this tour in late August, Steve Winwood had long been absent from the concert circuit. And, seemingly, from his point of view those ...

Chad & Jeremy, Freddie & The Dreamers, Gerry & The Pacemakers, The Mindbenders, The Searchers: Chad & Jeremy, the Mindbenders, Freddie & the Dreamers, Gerry & the Pacemakers, the Searchers: The British Invasion — Felt Forum, New York NY

Live Review by Jeff Tamarkin, Billboard, 8 November 1986

PERHAPS HOPING to capitalize on the nostalgia fever that has made the recent Monkees tour a success, five acts that got their start during the ...

Elvis Costello: Broadway Theatre, New York NY

Live Review by Jeff Tamarkin, Billboard, 15 November 1986

ELVIS COSTELLO'S five-night stand on Broadway roughly coincided with the World Series, which may have kept die-hard Mets fans at bay. Still, the Costello series ...

Charlie Watts Orchestra: The Ritz, New York NY

Live Review by Jeff Tamarkin, Billboard, 24 January 1987

WATCHING CHARLIE Watts' omnipresent grin at this, the second show of a three-night stand in December with his 31-piece extracurricular jazz project, one imagined that ...

Camper Van Beethoven: Cat Club, New York NY

Live Review by Jeff Tamarkin, Billboard, 14 March 1987

CAMPER VAN Beethoven makes the term "genre" obsolete. The Santa Cruz, Calif.-based quintet thrives on piecing together seemingly incompatible musical styles, often within a single ...

Georgia Satellites: Fire The Retro Rockets

Interview by Jeff Tamarkin, Creem, April 1987

"CREEM WAS always my favorite magazine when I was a kid," Rick Richards is saying, dreams of Boy Howdy running through his mind. "I remember ...

The Long Ryders: Bye Bye Byrdie

Interview by Jeff Tamarkin, Creem, October 1987

LET'S JUST get this part out of the way, since it's gonna come up anyway and maybe you're one of the ones who got pissed ...

Dick Clark: The Beat Goes On

Interview by Jeff Tamarkin, Goldmine, 28 December 1990

THE MOST AMAZING thing about Dick Clark is not that "America's Oldest Living Teenager" still fits that role at age 61. It's not that he's ...

Pat Boone: Boone In The USA

Profile and Interview by Jeff Tamarkin, Goldmine, 19 February 1991

LET'S PLAY the numbers game. According to Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Singles 1955-1986, Pat Boone is the fifth highest-ranking artist in the history of the ...

Bill Haley & His Comets: The Decca Years And More

Review by Jeff Tamarkin, Goldmine, 19 April 1991

TO A CONTEMPORARY listener already mystified by '50s rock 'n' roll. Bill Haley might be the greatest mystery of all. Elvis's success is easy to ...

The Band: Life Is A Carnival

Essay by Jeff Tamarkin, Goldmine, 26 July 1991

THE QUINTET KNOWN as the Band never did get back together in that same, familiar aggregation. To this day, however, there is a band called ...

Frankie Lymon and The Teenagers

Retrospective by Jeff Tamarkin, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, 1993

RONNIE SPECTOR, in her autobiography, Be My Baby, wrote, "A lot of entertainers can't or won't tell you where they got their style from. But ...

Jefferson Airplane: The Jefferson Airplane Chronicles: Marty Balin

Interview by Jeff Tamarkin, Relix, April 1993

READING THE following interview, one might get a sense that there are two Marty Balins. ...

Al Kooper, Blood Sweat & Tears: Al Kooper: The Adventures Of Kooperman

Retrospective and Interview by Jeff Tamarkin, Goldmine, 18 February 1994

THE COVER of Rekooperation, Al Kooper's new album, his first in 12 years, is divided into 16 postage stamp-sized photographic portraits of the artist as ...

Darlene Love, The Righteous Brothers: Bill Medley and Darlene Love: Righteous Brother and Sister

Retrospective and Interview by Jeff Tamarkin, Goldmine, 4 March 1994

THERE'S A point during Darlene Love's one-woman show, Portrait Of A Singer, where she's talking about singing background vocals on the Righteous Brothers' 1966 #1 ...

Jefferson Airplane's Joey Covington

Retrospective and Interview by Jeff Tamarkin, Goldmine, 22 December 1995

BORN IN EAST Conemaugh, Pennsylvania, Covington moved to Los Angeles, where he played in a band called Tsong before meeting the Airplane's male lead singer, ...

Jackie Wilson: The Best of Jackie Wilson (Metro) ***½

Review by Jeff Tamarkin, AllMusic.com, 2002

COMPILING A Jackie Wilson best-of set should be a no-brainer. From the beginning of his solo career in the late '50s until the end of ...

Petula Clark: The Essential Petula Clark ***

Review by Jeff Tamarkin, AllMusic.com, 2003

PETULA CLARK had already logged seven Top Ten singles in her native Britain by the time she hitched a ride on the British Invasion in ...

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 ...

Jefferson Airplane: The Summer Of Haight

Retrospective and Interview by Jeff Tamarkin, MOJO, April 2003

In January 1967, Jefferson Airplane were all set for take-off. But within months their dream was crumbling. Jeff Tamarkin on the destructive undercurrent to the ...

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 ...

Yoko Ono: The Outsider Peeks Inside

Profile and Interview by Jeff Tamarkin, Global Rhythm, January 2004

THE WOMAN'S clothing is being snipped from her body. Systematically, one by one, 200 scissors-wielding strangers – and the woman's son – silently have a ...

The Mamas and The Papas: The Mamas & the Papas: Anthology (Universal)

Review by Jeff Tamarkin, MOJO, October 2004

Following their meteoric rise, the band that built the California dream would never sleep soundly again. ...

Buddy Guy: Can't Quit The Blues **** ½

Review by Jeff Tamarkin, AllMusic.com, 2006

LEGEND STATUS CAME LATE to Buddy Guy, so it shouldn't be surprising that this is the first box set devoted to the blues giant's work. ...

Tangerine Dream: The Essential Collection (Metro Doubles) ****

Review by Jeff Tamarkin, AllMusic.com, 2006

DISTILLING the essence of a force as monumentally influential and prolific as the German electronic music pioneers Tangerine Dream to a two-CD checklist of essentials ...

Taylor Swift: Taylor Swift (Big Machine) **** ½

Review by Jeff Tamarkin, AllMusic.com, 2006

ALL OF 16 when she recorded this debut album, country-pop singer Taylor Swift's considerably strong voice straddles that precarious edge that both suggests experience far ...

Ziggy Marley: Love Is My Religion **½

Review by Jeff Tamarkin, AllMusic.com, 2006

MORE THAN two decades into his successful career — yes, he has now been recording for more years than his dad Bob did — Ziggy ...

P. F. Sloan: P.F. Sloan

Interview by Jeff Tamarkin, Harp, September 2006

PF SLOAN was a 19-year-old bearing the weight of the world on his shoulders when he wrote the protest classic 'Eve of Destruction' back in ...

Diana Ross: I Love You **

Review by Jeff Tamarkin, AllMusic.com, 2007

IN WHAT MIGHT BE the least inspired album of her career, iconic diva Diana Ross sleepwalks through a mish-mash of seemingly randomly chosen love songs, ...

Joan Armatrading: Into The Blues (429 Records)

Review by Jeff Tamarkin, AllMusic.com, 2007

RECORDING Into The Blues, writes Joan Armatrading on the back sleeve of her first-ever blues album, "has given me so much pleasure," and that pleasure ...

The Skatalites: On The Right Track *** ½

Review by Jeff Tamarkin, AllMusic.com, 2007

THE SKATALITES' lineup on this new recording, cut in Australia in 2006 during their first tour there, consists of just two original members of the ...

Ry Cooder: His Name is Cooder

Interview by Jeff Tamarkin, Harp, March 2007

WHEN RY Cooder received a doctored photo in the mail, of a red cat in the guise of Leadbelly, he knew he had found a ...

Grateful Dead: The Grateful Dead: Three from the Vault

Review by Jeff Tamarkin, AllMusic.com, 26 June 2007

THE GRATEFUL DEAD were literally at a crossroads when they took the stage at the Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, NY, on February 19, 1971.  ...

Judee Sill: Live in London: The BBC Recordings 1972-1973

Review by Jeff Tamarkin, The Boston Phoenix, 7 August 2007

IF JUDEE SILL'S story isn't fodder for a Lifetime TV movie, then nothing is: the early deaths of her father and brother; an alcoholic mother ...

Manu Chao: Manu, That’s Who

Interview by Jeff Tamarkin, Harp, September 2007

"THERE IS only one thing I still don’t understand," Manu Chao says the day after his triumphant Bonnaroo set and not long after an equally ...

Various Artists: Flower Power

Review by Jeff Tamarkin, AllMusic.com, 13 November 2007

WHAT'S THAT YOU say? ...

Queen Latifah: Trav'lin' Light (Verve) ***

Review by Jeff Tamarkin, The Boston Phoenix, 31 December 2007

QUEEN LATIFAH is never going to be Billie Holiday or even Macy Gray, but 2004's surprise hit, The Dana Owens Album, proved she had a ...

Steve Knopper: Appetite for Self-Destruction: The Spectacular Crash of the Record Industry in the Digital Age

Book Review by Jeff Tamarkin, The Boston Phoenix, 13 January 2009

LIKE ANY GOOD murder mystery, Steve Knopper's Appetite for Self-Destruction keeps the tension high and the action swift as the search for a culprit drags ...

New York Dolls: Cause I Sez So (Atco) ****

Review by Jeff Tamarkin, The Boston Phoenix, 28 April 2009

THE BIG NEWS regarding the New York Dolls' second album since their reactivation five years ago is the return of Todd Rundgren as producer.  ...

Green Day: 21st Century Breakdown (Reprise) ***½

Review by Jeff Tamarkin, The Boston Phoenix, 1 June 2009

IF ANYONE HAD suggested, circa Dookie 15 years ago, that Green Day would one day carry the torch for the classic rock opera… well, no ...

Buffalo Springfield, The Byrds, The Doors, The Electric Prunes, The Leaves, Love, Thee Midniters, The Monkees, The Seeds, The Standells: Various Artists: Where The Action Is! – Los Angeles Nuggets 1965-1968 (Rhino)

Review by Jeff Tamarkin, MOJO, October 2009

The latest in the Nuggets franchise documents the most fertile few years in southern Californian music history, taking in curios, weirdos, hipsters, freaks and a ...

KT Tunstall: Tiger Suit (Virgin) **½

Review by Jeff Tamarkin, The Boston Phoenix, 22 September 2010

THE KT TUNSTALL of Tiger Suit is tougher, louder, and more electronically endowed than the KT Tunstall of its poppy predecessor, 2007's Drastic Fantastic, and ...

Jimmy Scott: Singer Jimmy Scott Dies at 88

Obituary by Jeff Tamarkin, JazzTimes, 13 June 2014

JIMMY SCOTT, whose distinctively high contralto voice — caused by a rare genetic condition called Kallmann's syndrome — gave his music a purity and youthfulness ...

Grateful Dead: Deadicated: Tom Constanten

Interview by Jeff Tamarkin, Relix, 2 September 2014

OF THE DOZEN musicians who passed through the ranks of the Grateful Dead during their three-decade run, only one full-time keyboardist survives. Yet Tom Constanten, ...

Kamasi Washington: Swing Time: Kamasi Washington

Interview by Jeff Tamarkin, Reflex, 2 March 2021

AS A high profile jazz musician, Kamasi Washington is accustomed to improvising, just not in the ways that he's been forced to over the past ...

Patrick Sky, Singer-Songwriter Popular in the '60s, Dead at 77

Obituary by Jeff Tamarkin, Best Classic Bands, May 2021

SINGER-SONGWRITER Patrick Sky, a mainstay of the Greenwich Village folk music community in the mid-'60s, died May 27, 2021, in Asheville, N.C. His death was ...

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