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Richard Williams

Richard Williams

An editor of Melody Maker in the 1970s and a former writer on music and sport for The Times, The Independent and The Guardian, Williams is among the most respected music writers of the past 50 years. His books include Out of His Head, about Phil Spector, and The Blue Moment: Miles Daviss Kind of Blue and the Remaking of Modern Music. He has a music blog: thebluemoment.com

Simon Warner's rockcritics.com interview with Richard Williams

Richard Williams on the RBP podcast

356 articles

List of articles in the library

By date | By artist | Most recently added

Led Zeppelin And How They Made 37,000 Dollars In One Night

Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 13 September 1969

LED ZEPPELIN and the adjective "heavy" are practically synonymous. They were made for each other, and it's difficult to think of one without immediately associating ...

John Lennon, Yoko Ono: An Evening with John and Yoko: Institute of Contemporary Arts, London

Film/DVD/TV Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 20 September 1969

John Lennon — Genius or Just a Bore ...

The Beatles, John Lennon, Yoko Ono: John Lennon: "The Beatles' Wealth is a Myth"

Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 20 September 1969

JOHN LENNON hasn't had a royalty cheque for two years. And, believe it or not, he's feeling the pinch. ...

The Deviants: 'The Function of Rock is to Have a Good Times, not to Stand Marvelling at the Guitarist's Technique'

Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 20 September 1969

RICHARD WILLIAMS TALKS TO THE DEVIANTS ...

Amon Düül, Deep Purple, Alexis Korner, The Nice, Taste: The Nice: Tear Gas, Stones and Broken Heads...

Live Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 18 October 1969

A NICE WEEKEND BY RICHARD WILLIAMS! ...

Graham Bond, Pete Brown's Piblokto: Graham Bond/Pete Brown's Piblokto: Royal Albert Hall, London

Live Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 25 October 1969

BOND NEARLY blew it. The extravagant return of the Great Graham almost turned into a fiasco – but happily everything came out all right. ...

Family, Steppenwolf: Steppenwolf, Family: Lyceum, London

Live Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 25 October 1969

ONE'S ATTITUDE to much of Steppenwolf's current material depends to a great extent on how one reacts to the rather simplistic propaganda and sloganising of ...

Frank Zappa: The Mothers Are Dead, But Zappa's Still Very Much Alive

Report and Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 25 October 1969

THE MOTHERS are dead. Killed by a public apathy towards a style of music which the rest of the world will catch up with maybe ...

The Velvet Underground: It's a Shame that Nobody Listens

Overview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 25 October 1969

THE VELVET Underground have made just three albums, none of which have sold particularly well in Britain. But that trio of albums constitutes a body ...

Pink Floyd: Exclusive interview by Richard Williams

Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 1 November 1969

PINK FLOYD are a visionary group of creators. Their music flies so high and wild that it can bring a kaleidoscope of images to your ...

Aretha Franklin, Arif Mardin: Arif Mardin: The Turkish Tycoon of Soul

Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 8 November 1969

HOW DOES a Turkish bebop pianist become one of the world's leading producers of soul music? ...

Thelonious Monk, Cecil Taylor: Cecil Taylor, Thelonious Monk: Hammersmith Odeon, London

Live Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 8 November 1969

CECIL TAYLOR'S appearance on Friday was reminiscent of nothing as much as Ornette Coleman's Croydon concert four years ago. ...

Cecil Taylor: For Cecil Taylor, It's Just Beginning...

Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 8 November 1969

EMERGING FROM the stage door of the Odeon, Hammersmith after his triumphal Jazz Expo concert on Friday night, the diminutive figure of pianist Cecil Taylor ...

LeRoi Jones: Black Music (MacGibbon and Kee 36 shillings).

Book Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 8 November 1969

IN HIS writings for Downbeat and Kulchur magazines, LeRoi Jones — poet, playwright, essayist, critic and revolutionary — provided many of the first signposts to ...

Captain Beefheart, Frank Zappa: The Beefheart-Zappa Talk-in

Report and Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 8 November 1969

Frank Zappa breezed into London last week in an orange tee-shirt. His aim was to launch the British end of his record label, Straight, who ...

Quintessence: Community Band

Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 22 November 1969

OXFORD GARDENS, just off Ladbroke Grove in deepest West Eleven, is currently the focal point of a community of artists (musicians, painters, poets) who will ...

Area Code 615: Now — Funky Country!

Profile and Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 29 November 1969

That's the sound on Area Code 615, a new album by Nashville musicians who have backed Dylan. It could be as significant as Music From ...

The Beatles, John Lennon, Yoko Ono: John & Yoko (part 1)

Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 6 December 1969

"We had to do a lot of selling out. Taking the MBE was a sell-out for me". Part 1 of a new series by RICHARD ...

John Lennon, Yoko Ono: John & Yoko (part 2)

Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 13 December 1969

"People prefer a dead saint to a living annoyance like John and Yoko. But we don't intend to be dead Saints for people's convenience". Part ...

The Who: Hippodrome, Bristol

Live Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 13 December 1969

Smoke bombs and a bare bottom at the Hippodrome Richard Williams reports on the Who's incident-packed concert in Bristol ...

Deep Purple: In Live Concert At The Royal Albert Hall (Harvest)

Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 20 December 1969

THIS IS A live recording of the widely reported concert which took place recently when Deep Purple joined Malcolm Arnold and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra ...

John Lennon, Yoko Ono: John & Yoko (part 3)

Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 20 December 1969

"We're always together, like 24 hours a day. We're never apart by more than a 100 yards". RICHARD WILLIAMS concludes his exclusive series ...

Area Code 615: Area Code 615 (Polydor)

Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 3 January 1970

AREA CODE 615. 'Southern Comfort'; 'I've Been Loving You Too Long'; 'Hey Jude'; 'Nashville 9-N.Y.1'; 'Lady Madonna'; 'Ruby'; 'Crazy Arms'/'Get Back'; 'Why Ask Why'; 'Li'l ...

Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Nucleus: Ronnie Scott's Club, London

Live Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 10 January 1970

Rahsaan Roland Kirk at London's Ronnie Scott's Club ...

Soft Machine: Fairfield Hall, Croydon

Live Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 10 January 1970

IT SEEMS to me that this just might be Soft Machine's year. Having done things the unconventional way by finding first fame on the Continent, ...

Crosby Stills Nash & Young, Neil Young: Stills and Young

Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 10 January 1970

"DON'T BUILD me up into a pop star. I'm no different from you or anybody else. It's just that, because I'm a musician, I can ...

Sun Ra and his Solar Arkestra: The Heliocentric Worlds of Sun Ra. Vol. 1. (Fontana)

Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 10 January 1970

'Heliocentric'; 'Outer Nothingness'; 'Other Worlds'; 'The Cosmos'; 'Of Heavenly Things'; 'Nebulae'; 'Dancing In The Sun'. ...

John McLaughlin, Tony Williams: After Miles comes Tony's Lifetime

Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 17 January 1970

THE IMPORTANCE of the use of rock rhythms by the Miles Davis Quintet is only now beginning to be realised. Like everything Miles does, it ...

East of Eden, Keef Hartley, Richie Havens, Yes: The Keef Hartley Band, Richie Havens, East of Eden, Yes: Olympia, Paris

Live Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 17 January 1970

Handling the French ...

Nico: Desertshore (Reprise)

Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 31 January 1970

IT'S FUNNY, isn't it: this time last year Nico arrived in London, played two quiet gigs at the Roundhouse, and a bare handful of people ...

Richie Havens: Royal Albert Hall, London

Live Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 31 January 1970

CHARISMA: a rare kind of animal magnetism, frequently wrongly attributed to popular artists who don't possess it. ...

Derek Bailey, Tony Oxley, Evan Parker: Derek Bailey's Music Improvisation Company: Purcell Room, London

Live Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 7 February 1970

YOU MAY not always be able to wait for a composer to write the music you want to play, to paraphrase the ads for the ...

John Surman: Purcell Room, London

Live Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 7 February 1970

PART OF the joy of hearing "live" jazz is in the listener's knowledge that the music he has heard will never be played in the ...

Simon & Garfunkel: Simon And Garfunkel: Bridge Over Troubled Waters (CBS)

Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 7 February 1970

IT'S BEEN 18 months since the release of Simon and Garfunkel's last album, and for much of its length Bridge Over Troubled Waters makes the ...

Spirit

Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 7 February 1970

SPIRIT IS one of those fine American groups which came to light following the Indian summer of 1967, and which have never really gained the ...

Pink Floyd: Royal Albert Hall, London

Live Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 14 February 1970

AT THEIR best, Pink Floyd get as close to anybody I know to playing the Music of the Spheres. They are, through skilful manipulation of ...

Soft Machine: Robert Wyatt: A Child of the Pop Scene

Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 14 February 1970

ROBERT WYATT is the member of the Soft Machine you're most likely to be watching while you listen to their music. Tousle-haired and athletic behind ...

Rod Stewart: An Old Raincoat Won't Ever Let You Down (Vertigo)

Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 14 February 1970

AT LAST Rod The Mod has his chance! ...

The Deviants, Mick Farren, Shagrat: Mick Farren: Fun Is The Key Word

Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 21 February 1970

WATCH OUT, world — Mick Farren is out to accomplish with Shagrat what he couldn't quite get together with the Deviants. ...

Crosby Stills Nash & Young, Stephen Stills: Genius, Hard Work and Steve Stills

Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 28 February 1970

GENIUS, SAYS the old adage, is an infinite capacity for taking pains. If that's so, then Stephen Stills must be pretty close to it. ...

Steve Miller Band:Your Saving Grace (Capitol).

Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 28 February 1970

SOMEHOW, STEVE Miller manages to touch the pulse of a great number of people, through the kind of subconscious contact which is what rock's all ...

Van Der Graaf Generator: The Least We Can Do Is Wave To Each Other (Charisma)

Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 28 February 1970

THIS IS one of those rare and precious albums which occasionally arrive to knock you flat on your back and make you think really hard, ...

Doris Troy and the Marriage of Music

Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 7 March 1970

DORIS TROY is ready. After ten months of plotting and planning and working and having a ball in the depths of Apple's Savile Row Studios, ...

Jefferson Airplane: Volunteers (RCA SF 8076)

Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 7 March 1970

Up the Volunteers! ...

Tony Oxley: Forget the thick drummer myth

Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 7 March 1970

TONY OXLEY, top British drummer according to last week's MM Readers' Poll, is a pretty fair example of just how far jazz has moved in ...

Grateful Dead: Live Dead (Warner Bros.)

Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 14 March 1970

I WASN'T expecting too much from this, having been bored silly by the Dead on their previous three albums. But all the fuss is clarified ...

Han Bennink, John Stevens: It All Began With Chick Webb

Report by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 14 March 1970

SINCE THE days when Chick Webb arrived at a gig armed with gongs, tubular bells, Chinese temple blocks, and an African sunset painted on the ...

Van Der Graaf Generator: Van Der Graaf... Generating Good Music

Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 14 March 1970

VAN DER Graaf Generator is a name that will probably be familiar to you, even if their music isn't. Through many trials and tribulations, they've ...

Amon Düül (I & II): Amon Duul II: Phallus Dei (Liberty).

Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 21 March 1970

JUST TO prove that the Continent is taking some of the initiative, here comes a really interesting German band who appeared with the Nice and ...

Nico, the Lonely Chanteuse

Profile and Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 21 March 1970

THE SLEEVE of the Velvet Underground's first album was dead right when it read "Nico: chanteuse." Not just "singer," because Nico is more than that, ...

Sun Ra And The Arkestra: Sound Of Joy (Delmark DS-414)

Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 21 March 1970

'El Is A Sound Of Joy'; 'Overtones Of China'; 'Two Tones'; 'Paradise'; 'Planet Earth'; 'Ankh'; 'Saturn'; 'Reflections In Blue'; 'El Viktor'. ...

Kevin Ayers and the Whole World: Country Club, London

Live Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 18 April 1970

KEVIN AYERS' new band The Whole World, derives much of its considerable appeal from the disparity of approaches which it encapsulates. ...

Kevin Ayers: Ayers Apparent

Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 25 April 1970

KEVIN AYERS says that he wants to involve people in his music, and to make every gig more of a party than an ordinary job. ...

Elton John: Elton John (DJM)

Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 25 April 1970

IT'S NICE TO see Cat Stevens and Elton John providing the British answer to Neil Young, and Van Morrison. And make no mistake, Elton is ...

It's a Beautiful Day: The Best Kept Secret Is Out At Last

Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 25 April 1970

UNTIL VERY recently, It's A Beautiful Day was one of the best-kept secrets in the music business — on this side of the Atlantic, at ...

Soft Machine: Ronnie Scott's, London

Live Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 25 April 1970

THOSE WHO imagine that Ronnie Scott is selling out by inviting the Soft Machine to play for a week at his club are in for ...

The Who: Live At Leeds

Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 18 May 1970

THE IMPORTANCE of The Who lies not only in their excellence, but in the crucial attitude of their leader, Pete Townshend. ...

Can: The Can: Monster Movie (United Artists)

Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 30 May 1970

THINGS ARE certainly beginning to happen in Germany. ...

Grateful Dead: The Grateful Dead: Dead on Arrival

Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 30 May 1970

The Grateful Dead fly into Britain ...

Alrune Rod, Amon Düül, Burnin' Red Ivanhoe, Can, Xhol Caravan: Burnin' Red Ivanhoe, Can, Amon Düül et al: Is It Euro-Rock Next?

Overview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 13 June 1970

Richard Williams takes a Common Market-minded guess at a future trend in pop... ...

Miles Davis: What Made Miles Davis Go Pop?

Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 13 June 1970

Richard Williams talks to bassist Dave Holland in New York. ...

Booker T & The MGs: McLemore Avenue (Stax)

Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 20 June 1970

NICE IDEA – they play all the tunes from Abbey Road, and imitate the sleeve of that album by picturing the four MGs crossing McLemore ...

Delaney & Bonnie, Flying Burrito Brothers, John Phillips: Delaney & Bonnie & Friends: On Tour; Flying Burrito Brothers: Burrito Deluxe; John Phillips: Wolfking of LA

Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 20 June 1970

THAT DELANEY AND BONNIE have been instrumental in reshaping a considerable part of the ethos of modem pop music is indisputable. Eric Clapton, the charismatic ...

John Phillips: John The Wolfking of L.A. (Stateside)

Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 20 June 1970

INSIDE THE Mama's and the Papa's, something better was waiting to get out – and this is it. ...

The Temptations: Psychedelic Shack (Tamla Motown)

Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 20 June 1970

SHAME, SHAME, shame... Motown's sold its soul for a spoonful of wah-wah guitar. Actually that's not quite true, because you can't totally obliterate the true ...

Miles Davis: Bitches Brew (CBS 66236)

Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 27 June 1970

Bitches Brew an aural acid trip from Miles ...

Sonny Sharrock: Like No Other Guitarist Ever Born

Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 27 June 1970

WARREN "Sonny" Sharrock created one of 1969's most extraordinary musical moments, during a track called 'Chain Of Fools' on Herbie Mann's big-selling Memphis Underground album. ...

Quintessence: Quintessence (Island)

Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 11 July 1970

A BRILLIANT group in many respects, Quintessence unfortunately manage to alienate many potential enthusiasts through the expression of their religious and spiritual sentiments. ...

Taste: Marquee Club, London

Live Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 1 August 1970

RORY GALLAGHER is King, days Mailbag most weeks, and Taste are the new Zeppelin/Cream/Beatles/Shadows. The queue around the Marquee one night last week, where the ...

MC5 — Still The Bad Boys Of Rock

Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 8 August 1970

ONE THING that American rock bands can generally do better than their British counterparts is to channel their energy into the notes. ...

Osibisa: Beat The (African) Drums For Osibisa

Profile by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 22 August 1970

IT MAY BE that, having endured the painfully stilted and emotionally lukewarm playing of most rock drummers for the last decade, audiences are waking up ...

The Voices of East Harlem: The Black Pride Of 13 Hip Kids

Profile and Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 22 August 1970

BLACK PRIDE, as a kind of more inner-directed companion to Black Power, is rapidly becoming a force in our musical world. "Black Is Beautiful" was ...

Chicago, Leonard Cohen, Miles Davis, The Doors, Emerson Lake & Palmer, Richie Havens, Jimi Hendrix, Joni Mitchell, The Moody Blues, Pentangle, Procol Harum, John Sebastian, Taste, Ten Years After, Tiny Tim, The Who: The Isle of Wight Festival: Five Days That Rocked Britain

Report by Mark Plummer, Michael Watts, Chris Welch, Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 5 September 1970

MM's Richard Williams, Chris Welch, Michael Watts and Mark Plummer present a five-page report on an amazing weekend of music and other scenes... ...

Soft Machine, Robert Wyatt: The Softs, the Proms and drummer Wyatt

Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 5 September 1970

IT'S NOT long since Robert Wyatt announced that he was vacating the drum stool with Soft Machine in order to pursue a career with Kevin ...

Eric Clapton, The Everly Brothers, Grateful Dead: New Albums from the Grateful Dead, Eric Clapton and the Everly Brothers

Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 12 September 1970

Myth and music ...

Led Zeppelin, Robert Plant: Robert Plant: Down To The Roots

Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 12 September 1970

ROBERT PLANT lives in an old, rambling farmhouse near Kidderminster, on the edge of the Black Country, with his wife Maureen, baby daughter Carmen, dog ...

Elton John: Elton Storms The States

Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 26 September 1970

AL KOOPER, talking about Elton John's last album: "That album's really got me screwed up. It's just the perfect album, and I carry it around ...

Jimi Hendrix: The Music

Essay by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 26 September 1970

THE IMPORTANCE of Jimi Hendrix as a musician was sometimes forgotten behind the man's sexuality and the flamboyance of his act and appearance. ...

East of Eden: A Good Time East of Eden

Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 17 October 1970

"IF I HAD a choice of playing a technically perfect set or giving people a good time," says Dave Arbus, "I'd definitely give them a ...

Merle Haggard: The Fightin' Side Of Me (Capitol)

Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 17 October 1970

MERLE HAGGARD is a tough ol' boy. While Johnny Cash broods about it, you have the feeling that Haggard might just get it done. ...

Sun Ra: Queen Elizabeth Hall, London

Live Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 11 November 1970

THE VISUAL element of jazz has always been notoriously conservative, ever since Chick Webb stopped painting jungle sunsets on his bass drum. At the Queen ...

Tim Buckley: Lorca (Elektra)

Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 14 November 1970

THIS IS presumably Buckley's last album for Elektra, being recorded (so I'm told) at the same time as Happy/Sad and before his first Straight album, ...

McDonald and Giles: McDonald & Giles: Outside The Court Of The Crimson King

Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 21 November 1970

THERE ARE, YOU understand, these two musicians, both having played in one of our very best bands, who're sitting at home doing virtually nothing at ...

King Crimson: Reincarnation of King Crimson

Report by Richard Williams, The Times, 2 December 1970

IN THE PAST, pop music has taken it for granted that its groups would stay together; when a musician has left a band, or the ...

The Mothers Of Invention: Mother's Union

Report and Interview by Michael Watts, Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 5 December 1970

TELL ME, Mr. Zappa, what do you think of the critical reaction to your work over the past five years?  ...

Albert Ayler: Beyond This World

Obituary by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 12 December 1970

Richard Williams pays tribute to Albert Ayler ...

Burning Red Ivanhoe, The Byrds, MC5: The Byrds: (Untitled); MC5: Back in the U.S.A.; Burning Red Ivanhoe

Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 12 December 1970

BESIDES BEING ONE of the seminal rock and roll bands, the Byrds also possess perhaps the music's oldest case-history. Of the group which came out ...

Paul McCartney: The Paul Perplex: A British Commentary

Book Excerpt by Richard Williams, Giants of Rock Music, 1971

And here’s another clue for you allThe Walrus was Paul. ...

Captain Beefheart: Lick My Decals Off Baby

Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 2 January 1971

ALREADY, I'M THINKING that this is the Captain's most satisfying album to date. ...

Laura Nyro

Profile by Richard Williams, The Times, 5 January 1971

THE CURRENT STATE of pop music allows its performers to make the most naked personal statements. Only an artist with considerable character, though, can keep ...

Butterscotch Caboose, Rufus Thomas: Memphis

Report by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 23 January 1971

Richard Williams in the Soul capital of America ...

Booker T & The MGs, Steve Cropper: MM in Memphis: Cropper Soul Picker Supreme

Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 30 January 1971

Richard Williams with the first of a series of profiles from America's soul centre... ...

Amon Düül (I & II), Burnin' Red Ivanhoe, Floh de Cologne, Guru Guru, The Maxwells, Pan (Denmark): Amon Düül II et al: Eurorock

Overview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 30 January 1971

Richard Williams on the European bands who are rejecting the traditions of Anglo-American rock. ...

Grateful Dead: American Beauty (Warner Bros)

Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 30 January 1971

THE BEST adjective I can think of to describe the Grateful Dead is "disarming." They're beautiful because, unlike so many bands, they never overwhelm you. ...

Laura Nyro: Christmas And The Beads of Sweat

Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 30 January 1971

EACH OF LAURA Nyro's four albums has had its own distinct personality. ...

Van Morrison: His Band And The Street Choir (Warner Bros.)

Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 30 January 1971

Has Van Morrison eased up? ...

Laura Nyro: Royal Festival Hall, London

Live Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 8 February 1971

LAURA NYRO treads a path the width of a knife edge, between stark reality and empty histrionics. Placing herself at a distance from her audience, ...

Jackson Browne, Laura Nyro: Laura Nyro: Laura's London Triumph

Live Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 13 February 1971

Laura Nyro/Jackson Browne: Royal Festival Hall, London ...

Neil Young: Neil Gave Everything — And They Asked For More

Live Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 6 March 1971

Neil Young: Royal Festival Hall, London ...

Alice Coltrane: Ptah, The El Daoud (Impulse AS-9196 — import)

Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 13 March 1971

Mrs Coltrane (piano, harp). Joe Henderson, Pharoah Sanders (tenors, alto flutes), Ron Carter (bass), Ben Riley (drums) New York, 26/1/70. ...

Burt Bacharach: Portrait In Music (A&M)

Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 13 March 1971

REMEMBER HOW far-out 'Anyone Who Had A Heart' sounded in '63? All those cliff-hanging stops and starts, and that incredible arrangement... almost as weird as ...

Tim Buckley, The Faces: The Faces: Long Player (Warner WS 3011, £2.15); Tim Buckley: Starsailor (Straight STS 1064. £2.19)

Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 13 March 1971

Hot strong rock in the mod tradition ...

King Crimson: Zoom Club, Frankfurt

Live Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 24 April 1971

AFTER MORE than a year off the road, King Crimson slid quietly back into public performance last week with a hush-hush four-day stint in Germany. ...

Love Story

Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 24 April 1971

Richard Williams talks to ex-Love drummer Snoopy Pfisterer ...

Osibisa

Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 24 April 1971

PEACE AND brotherhood, truth and happiness. These are words which crop up constantly in conversations with Osibisa, the creeds by which they attempt to live ...

George Harrison, The Ronettes, Phil Spector, Ronnie Spector: Ronnie — the voice that brought Spector back

Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 1 May 1971

BACK in 1963, the Ronettes were three highly-coiffeured teenage girls who swept up the charts on a furious wave of Spector sound. Their lead singer, ...

The Byrds, The Kentucky Colonels: The Byrds: Byrd Watching (part 2)

Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 8 May 1971

THE COUNTRY consonants of Clarence White's guitar have fooled a lot of people — me included — into thinking that the man must have come ...

Laura Nyro: Lady Laura

Report by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 15 May 1971

"LAURA WANTS the monitor turned up please." ...

The Beach Boys: Beach Boys: A Reappraisal

Retrospective by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 22 May 1971

IT'S PROBABLY pouring with rain by now, but the sunny days we were vouchsafed by the Almighty last week prompted me – and almost certainly ...

Carol Hall, Carole King, Carly Simon, Ronnie Spector: New Albums from Carole King, Carly Simon et al

Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 29 May 1971

King and friends Carole King: Tapestry (A&M AMLS 2025); Carly Simon: Carly Simon (Elektra EKS-74082); Carol Hall: If I Be Your Lady (Elektra EKS-7407R); Ronnie Spector: ...

The Band: A Melody Maker Band Breakdown

Profile and Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 29 May 1971

FEW ROCK AND ROLL concerts can have been so eagerly awaited as those which The Band are due to play at London's Royal Albert Hall ...

Roxy Music: Roxy in the Rock Stakes

Profile by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 7 August 1971

A CURIOUS FEATURE of modern rock music is the way it's taken potential artists away from other spheres. Men who might have become poets, painters, ...

The Beatles, George Martin: The Beatles: Produced By George Martin

Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 21 August 1971

GEORGE MARTIN is probably the most shadowy character in rock and roll history. His influence has been immense, yet few people outside the immediate circle ...

Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry: What Have They Done To My Roots, Ma? Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley

Comment by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 30 October 1971

WHEN JOHN LENNON ended a recent epistle to Mailbag with a line saying "LP Winner: I’d like Chuck Berry, please," he wasn’t joking. Modern rock ...

The Beach Boys: Surf's Up (Stateside SSL 10313, £2.15.)

Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 2 November 1971

Old heroes are best ...

The Beach Boys: Surf's Up

Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 1972

HERE'S ONE that won't disappoint anybody at all. Suddenly the Beach Boys are back in fashionable favour, and they've produced an album which fully backs ...

George Harrison: The Concert For Bangla Desh

Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 1 January 1972

If you buy only one LP in 1972, make it this one ...

Smokey Robinson: The Way You Do The Things You Do

Essay by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 1 January 1972

THERE’s a new Smokey Robinson album out in the States, called One Dozen Roses. The natural reaction is to ring E.M.I. and ask them when ...

Captain Beefheart: The Spotlight Kid (Reprise)

Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 29 January 1972

THE FURTHER adventures or the Captain, Zoot Horn Rollo, Rockette Morton, Drumbo, and their new friends Ed Marimba and Winged Eel Fingerling are, somewhat surprisingly, ...

Isaac Hayes: Black Moses (Stax — 2 LPs)

Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 29 January 1972

Hayes: Doggone Good ...

Velvet Underground: Gerard Malanga: Screen Test

Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 12 February 1972

Interview with poet GERARD MALANGA, former associate of Andy Warhol and the Velvet Underground ...

Jerry Garcia: Garcia (Warner Bros.)

Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 12 February 1972

I HAD, I CONFESS, expected something different. Two sides of 'Dark Star Revisited' would have perhaps been a predictable dosage. Instead, we get several very ...

Roxy Music

Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 12 February 1972

BINGO IS THE SCENE most nights at the Granada, Wandsworth Road, London SW8. Fruit machines line the foyer and there's a big sign with lots ...

Ry Cooder: Into The Purple Valley (Reprise)

Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 12 February 1972

THE COVER of Ry Cooder's second album features the guitarist and his lady posed in and out of a mid-Forties model Dodge convertible. It's straight ...

Kevin Ayers: Fresh Ayers

Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 4 March 1972

KEVIN AYERS says that there's only one thing preventing the old Soft Machine, St Tropez-style, getting back together. ...

Steve Lacy: Moon (BYG Actual 52)

Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 4 March 1972

Lacy (soprano), Italo Toni (trombone), Claudio Volente (Clarinet), Irene Aebi (cello), Marcello Melis (bass), Jacques Thollot (drums), Rome, September 1969 ...

Sun Ra & His Solar-Myth Arkestra: The Solar-Myth Approach, Volume 1 (BYG Actuel 40); The Solar-Myth Approach, Volume 2 (BYG Actuel 41)

Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 4 March 1972

Ra's solar myth ...

Tonto's Expanding Head Band

Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 4 March 1972

ONE OF that tiny but slowly-expanding number of albums which points out a genuine new direction for the future is Zero Time, by Tonto's Expanding ...

Dr. John: The Dr. John Story, Part One: Talking 'bout New Orleans

Retrospective and Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 20 May 1972

DOCTOR JOHN is The Night Tripper, purveyor of Gris-Gris and Voodoo since 1967. ...

The Rolling Stones: Exile on Main Street

Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 25 May 1972

IN A VERY few days from now, the Rolling Stones begin their massive tour of America. And with the tour comes a new album, Exile ...

Roxy Music: Roxy Music (Island)

Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 24 June 1972

KARI-ANN STARES, with lustful expectancy, teeth bared and surrounded by frosted deep pink lips. She reclines on a counterpane of silvery satin in a halternecked ...

Roxy Music: The Sound Of Surprise

Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 1 July 1972

PAUL THOMPSON's tom-toms ground slowly to a shuddering halt as Eno's synthesiser simulated the sound of Firestone Wide Ovals being pushed past their limit around ...

Roxy Music

Profile and Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 29 July 1972

ALMOST a year ago to the week, Bryan Ferry sat in a council flat in Shepherds Bush and explained his timetable for the next year. ...

David Bowie, Roxy Music, Rod Stewart, T. Rex: Albums from David Bowie, T. Rex, Rod Stewart and Roxy Music

Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 2 September 1972

Stars of rock: T. Rex: The Slider; Rod Stewart: Never A Dull Moment; David Bowie: The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders From Mars; Roxy Music: Roxy ...

Bob Marley & the Wailers, Toots & The Maytals: Reggae: Black Gold of Jamaica

Report by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 30 September 1972

Reggae – in its more commercial form – has won the battle for mass acceptance, and has gone on to influence rock and soul musicians ...

Phil Spector

Profile by Richard Williams, Let It Rock, October 1972

ONE OF THE MOST CELEBRATED MOMENTS IN late-Sixties rock comes at the beginning of 'To Be Alone With You' on Bob Dylan’s Nashville Skyline album. ...

Duncan Browne, Lou Reed: Broken Reed? Lou Reed, Duncan Browne: Sundown Theatre, Edmonton, London

Live Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 7 October 1972

THE FACT is that his association with David Bowie has done Lou Reed no good at all. Despite the adulation from the audience at Edmonton's ...

Return to Forever: Chick Corea: Forever Changes

Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 7 October 1972

...

Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks: Dan Hicks Strikes it Rich

Profile and Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 7 October 1972

ROBERT PLANT was the first Dan Hicks fan I ever knew. A couple of years ago he broke up an interview session by playing a ...

Jackie Wilson Said...

Profile and Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 7 October 1972

"JACKIE WILSON said… it was reet petite." Now as it happens, Jackie Wilson doesn't really need Van Morrison's approbation. But he's flattered by it all ...

John Lennon, Yoko Ono: John & Yoko/Plastic Ono Band: Some Time In New York City/Live Jam (Apple)

Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 7 October 1972

INEVITABLY, SOME Time is another giant step in the rapid polarisation of opinions concerning the moral and musical stance of John Lennon. ...

Tim Buckley: Greetings From L.A. (Warner Bros/Straight)

Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 21 October 1972

AFTER THE gradual progression through Lorca, Blue Afternoon, and Starsailor, one might have expected Buckley to continue with such a startlingly fresh line of development ...

Island Records: Reggae to Riches

Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 25 November 1972

IF YOU WORK for Island Records, nobody minds if you take your dog into the office every day – or even if it misbehaves on ...

B. Bumble & The Stingers, Kim Fowley, The Hollywood Argyles, The Mothers Of Invention: Kim Fowley: I'm The Most Phenomenal Man In Records!

Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 25 November 1972

KIM FOWLEY'S looking for love. "Well," he says, snuffling into a wad of Kleenex, "I'm real entertaining and I have some nice human qualities...and I'm ...

Joni Mitchell: For The Roses

Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 9 December 1972

MORE SONGS OF transient euphoria and stabbing loss, played out against an ambiguous background of relentless fatalism and constant hope, mingled in approximately equal proportions, ...

Millie Jackson: Millie Jackson (Mojo)

Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 9 December 1972

NO 45 HAS hit me with more power in the last year than Miss Jackson's 'A Child Of God'. An unambiguous exposé of everyday immorality, ...

Vinegar Joe: Rock 'n' Roll Gypsies (Island)

Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 9 December 1972

THERE AREN'T many British groups I'd rather go and see live than Vinegar Joe. That's because they're one of the very few non-cerebral club bands, ...

The Beach Boys: Holland (Brother/Reprise)

Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 1973

YOU HAVE JUST a fortnight to save up before this record hits the stores – and buy it you should, for it contains more fun ...

Philly Days: Cameo-Parkway

Retrospective by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 13 January 1973

Richard Williams reviews the Cameo recordings, recently reissued on two double albums, which made Philadelphia the 'Crap Capital of America' ...

Rance Allen, The Bar-Kays, Isaac Hayes, Luther Ingram, Albert King, The Staple Singers, Little Johnny Taylor, Carla Thomas, Rufus Thomas: Wattstax (dir. Mel Stuart, Stax)

Film/DVD/TV Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 10 February 1973

ISAAC HAYES, ROD STEWART and assorted FACES were at the preview of a new soul film. So was MM's RICHARD WILLIAMS... ...

Mahavishnu Orchestra: Birds of Fire (America Columbia — import)

Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 10 February 1973

McLaughlin: the inner flame leaps higher ...

O'Jays are Okay

Profile and Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 10 February 1973

A GROUP like the O'Jays is, to be honest, only as good as the producers and writers it works with. It may have a lead ...

Billy Paul: The Jazz Soul of Billy Paul

Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 10 February 1973

IT'S ODD to hear a black singer from North Philadelphia, who topped the US soul and pop charts a few weeks ago, admit that it ...

Martha Reeves & The Vandellas: Martha Reeves: Martha's Moving On

Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 17 February 1973

A FEW WEEKS AGO Martha Reeves cleared out her apartment in Detroit, piled her possessions into a U-Haul trailer, and set off along Route 66 ...

Bob Marley & the Wailers: Bob Marley: The First Genius of Reggae?

Profile and Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 24 February 1973

BOB MARLEY, slightly-built and quiet to the point of diffidence, is a leader. He's the master of Reggae, the man who's about to give it ...

Timmy Thomas: Tomorrow's Golden Oldie

Profile and Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 24 February 1973

IT REMINDED me of hearing Booker T's 'Green Onions' for the first time, all those years ago. You know: that fantastic feeling of listening to ...

Bob Marley & the Wailers, The Wailers: The Wailers: Catch A Fire (Island)

Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 29 March 1973

SOME TIME during the coming summer, Reggae will become a vital force in pop music — perhaps, for a while at least, the force. For those who ...

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

Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 14 April 1973

Springsteen is special ...

Roxy Music In Paris

Report by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 12 May 1973

STAYING AT THE George V is one of life's great experiences, at least to a traveller who savours his changing environments. ...

10cc: Rubber Bulletin

Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 23 June 1973

UNTIL a year ago, Graham Gouldman was going through what he calls his "why not?" period. ...

Bob Marley & the Wailers: Bob Marley: In The Studio With The Wailers

Report by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 23 June 1973

THE ROLLING STONES are upstairs in Studio 1, where they've been for the past five weeks. ...

Boz Scaggs: Big Boz Man: Boz Scaggs

Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 30 June 1973

BOZ SCAGGS is the cult hero with the strongest claim to wider fame. He’s in Britain all summer to play and record...he talks to MM’s ...

John McLaughlin, Santana: Carlos Santana & Mahavishnu John McLaughlin: Love Devotion Surrender

Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 30 June 1973

Jamming in the spirit of Coltrane ...

Sly & The Family Stone: Fresh (Epic)

Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 30 June 1973

I LIKE A little mystery, don't you? 'Course you do. So here's one: the finished version of Sly's new album, in the shops at last, ...

Iggy Pop, The Stooges: Iggy & the Stooges: Raw Power (CBS)

Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 2 July 1973

Teenage insanity ...

Weather Report: Sweetnighter (CBS 65532)

Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 7 July 1973

WEATHER REPORT seems simply to represent a rather elegant waste of the well-known talents of Wayne Shorter. ...

Chet Baker: The Man Who Came Back From The Dead

Report and Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 21 July 1973

The Return of Chet Baker ...

10cc: 10cc (UK)

Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 28 July 1973

There's a rumour going round Death Row... ...

Big Youth: Screaming Target (Trojan).

Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 28 July 1973

BIG YOUTH is the latest sensation in the Jamaican market for disc-jockeys who improvise spoken lyrics (rhymes, exhortations, etc) over backings tracks. Taking over from ...

Diana Ross: Touch Me In The Morning (Motown — import)

Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 28 July 1973

Diana and that touch of drama ...

The Everly Brothers: Everly Brothers: Bye Bye Love

Report by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 28 July 1973

IT'S ALMOST eleven years since the first serious rumours suggesting the breakup of the Everly Brothers appeared. What with that, and a much-noted coolness between ...

Gil Evans: The Vision of Evans

Report and Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 28 July 1973

NO, SAID Gil Evans, he didn't really want to be interviewed. Not until his new album was ready. But why not come round anyway, just ...

Brian Eno, Roxy Music: Roxy Split...

Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 28 July 1973

"I was cramping Eno's style. Two non-musicians in a band is one too many. I think he'll do very well by himself" — BRYAN FERRY ...

Smokey Robinson: Smokey (Tamla import)

Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 28 July 1973

Smokey: a solo set to cherish ...

Van Morrison: Gonna Rock Your Gypsy Soul

Report and Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 28 July 1973

"IT'S SHOWTIME, ladies and gentlemen! And here's the one you've been waiting for – the Caledonia Soul Orchestra with ... VAN MORRISON!" ...

King Crimson: Robert Fripp…Super Stud?

Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 18 August 1973

"I AM," MUSES Robert Fripp, "already a living legend."The light breeze ruffles his curly locks. He settles back in the plastic garden chair, sips his ...

New York Dolls: The New York Dolls: The New York Dolls (Mercury — import)

Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 18 August 1973

Dolls: Junior Stones ...

Frank Zappa: Past Flops And Future Shocks

Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 25 August 1973

HIS ARMS AROUND a red-haired girl whose ample chest was covered with a Mighty Thor t-shirt, debonair Frank Zappa (32) sank deeper into the couch, ...

Joe Walsh: The Smoker You Drink, The Player You Get

Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 1 September 1973

MAY I TAKE just a couple of seconds to make my position clear? I thought, and still do, that the James Gang were a very ...

Brian Wilson: From Surf To Symphony

Profile by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 15 June 1974

BRIAN WILSON was 19 years old when, in 1961, the Beach Boys committed his first song, 'Surfin'', to tape. ...

Stevie Wonder: Motown the Uptight

Essay by Richard Williams, Let It Rock, July 1974

We’ve got love a’ go-go nowLet’s not wonder whyLove-a, love a’ go-go nowTomorrow that love may die– Stevie Wonder, 1966 Sing it loud for your ...

Kool and the Gang, The Ohio Players: Kool and the Gang: Spirit Of The Boogie; Ohio Players: Honey

Review by Richard Williams, Let It Rock, 1 December 1975

OCCUPYING ROUGHLY the same area in the impressively wide spectrum of contemporary Black music, these two orchestras both play for dancers but nevertheless perform entirely ...

Ray Barretto, Willie Colon, The Fania All Stars, Larry Harlow, Johnny Pacheco, Eddie Palmieri, Mongo Santamaria: Salsa Spoken Here

Overview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 24 January 1976

Richard Williams introduces the Latin sound that comes into London this week ...

Kate & Anna McGarrigle: Kate and Anna McGarrigle: Victoria Palace, London

Live Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 26 July 1976

BY THE manner in which they presented their London debut last night, one imagines that Kate and Anna McGarrigle spent much of their childhood around ...

Joan Armatrading: Joan Armatrading (A&M)

Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 14 August 1976

REPUTABLE SOURCES assure me that this new record album is, in fact, by the same Joan Armatrading who almost died of fright during her London ...

Brand X: Ronnie Scott's Club, London

Live Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 3 September 1976

UNTIL SEPTEMBER 11th, there is a chance to see, nightly, a man who is arguably the most interesting electric bassist working in popular music. His ...

Sun Ra

Guide by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 4 September 1976

WHEN IT comes to buying records, what's a bargain? Probably the best value I ever had was paying a princely 75 pence for a mint ...

Kool and the Gang: Hammersmith Odeon, London

Live Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 18 September 1976

THE PAST couple of years have seen the needs of the discotheque exerting ever greater influence on the prevailing direction of much popular music. The ...

Penguin Café Orchestra: an English Art Ensemble of Chicago

Profile and Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 16 October 1976

ONE OF the constant pleasures of hearing new music for the first time is the range of emotions it can evoke: surprise, euphoria, disgust, enlightenment, ...

Jonathan Richman: Rock Poet Of Lower Middle-Class Suburbia

Live Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 23 October 1976

I'm in touch with the modern worldI'm in love with the modern worldI got the radio on(Radio on) ...

James Booker: 100 Club, London

Live Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 27 October 1976

IT CAN BE argued, with, some conviction, that popular music of this century has had no true main stream, simply a complex network of tributaries ...

Phil Spector

Comment by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 27 November 1976

BY NOW we must all, surely, regard the coming of rock's New Wave as beneficial. Whether the currently fashionable bands prove to be the real ...

Dionne Warwick is never less than perfect... always incapable of awkwardness

Profile by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 15 January 1977

MANY'S THE time that contemporary pop record producers have been compared, in function and power, to film directors. There are, of course, many different kinds ...

"Brother" Jack McDuff, Jimmy McGriff, 'Big' John Patton, Jimmy Smith: Record Shops and Hammond B3s

Memoir by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 5 February 1977

RICHARD WILLIAMS Writing every week in the MM ...

Brick, Bootsy Collins, Funkadelic, Parliament, Rose Royce: Underneath Apparent Mindlessness Lurks Astonishing Musicianship

Comment by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 19 February 1977

LOUIS JOHNSON, bass-playing Brother of that ilk, was quoted in a recent Downbeat on the subject of his favourite bassists: "Stanley Clarke... is the baddest ...

The Band: Islands (Capitol)

Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, April 1977

WHEN Isaac Hayes was at the peak of his success, some five or six years ago, he told me of his great ambition to write ...

John Coltrane:The Other Village Vanguard Tapes

Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 9 April 1977

The combination of affection, respect and awe in which his fans held the late John Coltrane is given to few people in any walk of ...

Talking Heads: Rock Garden, London

Live Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 16 May 1977

TWO ROCK bands from New York, both conveniently accepted as constituents of the current New Wave, are actually proposing a fresh and promising direction for ...

Suicide: Suicide (Red Star RS1, import)

Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 21 January 1978

Suicide is a solution ...

Miles Davis: Dark Magus (CBS/Sony 40AP 741-2, 2 LPs, Japanese import)

Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 28 January 1978

Dark side of Miles ...

George Benson: Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London

Live Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 30 January 1978

A BLACK AMERICAN musician, the leader of a band which sold several million records in 1977, told me last week that the blues are dead. ...

Millie Jackson: Hammersmith Odeon, London

Live Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 1 February 1978

ONE IS SO accustomed to the sexual boastfulness of male rock and soul singers that it comes as an instructive change to witness the same ...

Earth Wind and Fire: Earth, Wind & Fire: Flying Sorcerers

Report and Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 25 February 1978

Earth, Wind & Fire are the biggest soul group in the world – their albums now go platinum. But Britain will have to wait until ...

Miles Davis, Gil Evans: Gil Evans: Sketches of Gil

Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 4 March 1978

At the end of his first-ever British tour, Gil Evans, jazz arranger extraordinary and mentor of Miles Davis, talks to Richard Williams ...

Television: Hammersmith Odeon, London

Live Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 17 April 1978

TELEVISION, THE New York rock group that scored notable triumphs a year ago with records and concerts which mixed ferocity and charm in unusually well-balanced ...

Third World: Journey To Addis

Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 30 September 1978

SINCE THEIR appearance in 1975, Third World have always seemed the most likely candidates to follow Bob Marley through the gates marked Reggae/Pop Crossover. ...

Cabaret Voltaire, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Nico, The Pop Group: The Pop Group/LKJ/Nico/Cab Voltaire

Live Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 21 October 1978

Disorder by juxtaposition. Subversion by paradox. Nothing is as simple as we're told. New feelings. ...

Graham Parker: The Venue, London

Live Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 11 November 1978

GRAHAM PARKER was the perfect choice to open The Venue, Virgin boss Richard Branson's new club in the shell of the old Metropole Cinema hard ...

Giorgio Moroder, The Three Degrees: The Three Degrees: New Dimensions (Ariola); Giorgio Moroder: The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack Of Midnight Express (Casablanca)

Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 11 November 1978

TEN YEARS from now, some Nick Lowe with perfect recall will mimic the sound of Giorgio Moroder; for it defines and will come to represent ...

Albert Ayler: The Village Concerts (Impulse IA-9336/2, two LPs, US import.)

Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 9 December 1978

The beauty of Ayler ...

Chic: C'est Chic

Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 9 December 1978

DISCO, THE People's Music, is the modern blues: the truest expression of a generation's thoughts, bitter sweetness with a backbeat. The old blues celebrated the ...

John Cooper Clarke, Elvis Costello, Richard Hell: Elvis Costello, Richard Hell, John Cooper Clarke: Dominion, London

Live Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 23 December 1978

WHAT IS it about Elvis Costello that makes us want to know about his home life? And what is it that makes him cover his ...

Dennis Brown: Words Of Wisdom (Laser)

Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 1979

THE WHITE listener who came to reggae through Bob Marley may have been puzzled by the emergence of Dennis Brown, who at first seems to ...

Charlie Mingus: Charles Mingus's Sound of Love

Obituary by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 20 January 1979

Charles Mingus died in Mexico on January 5, of amytrophic lateral sclerosis, a condition also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease. He had been in Mexico ...

The Pretenders: Moonlight Club, London

Live Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 10 February 1979

NO APOLOGIES for following Mark Williams' review of the Pretenders at the Moonlight last week with an instant replay. Now is the time to catch ...

Santana: Carlos Santana: Oneness: Silver Dreams/Golden Reality (CBS)

Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 3 March 1979

AS THE sleeve makes abundantly clear, this is Carlos Santana's equivalent of Pete Townshend's Meher Baba solo album: a dedication to Sri Chinmoy, the guru ...

Sister Sledge: We Are Family (Cotillion U.S. import)

Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 3 March 1979

I WAIT for new work by Chic's Bernard Edwards and Nile Rodgers in the way that I once waited for the latest items from Phil ...

Roxy Music: Manifesto (Polydor)

Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 10 March 1979

AN INAUSPICIOUS time for the old heavy-weight to take the gloves off the shelf and clamber back into the ring? ...

The Beach Boys, Christine Perfect/McVie, Dennis Wilson: Dennis Wilson Loves Christine McVie

Report and Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 24 March 1979

The Beach Boys love good karma ...

The Pop Group: First Steps In The Primal Skank

Report and Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 24 March 1979

Tribal customs live on, even in the era of Afterpunk. RICHARD WILLIAMS investigates The Pop Group. ...

Sylvester: Stars (Fantasy, U.S. import)

Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 28 April 1979

AS A POP 45, Sylvester's symphonic recasting of 'I (Who Have Nothing)' has been a slow starter. Even coming off the massive crossover success of ...

Dire Straits: Hammersmith Odeon, London

Live Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 23 June 1979

The end of innocence ...

Dire Straits: Communiqué From a Washeteria

Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 30 June 1979

A million quid from record sales can buy you the love of a multinational, but can it pay for the freedom to wander up the ...

Little Feat, Lowell George: Lowell George: The Rock'n'Roll Doctor

Obituary by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 7 July 1979

Of all the hundreds of white boys who fell in love with the blues, few used the idiom with such brilliance as Lowell George. Singer, ...

Shakin' Stevens: Legend (EMI)

Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 22 September 1979

ROGER SCOTT, Britain's only disc-jockey (no, that's not a misprint – it's a fact) put this into what they call "heavy rotation" last week. It ...

Elvis Costello: Costello Beats Anaesthesia

Comment by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 29 September 1979

ELVIS COSTELLO spun the discs for a couple of hours on Radio One's Star Special last week, and the result was the kind of radio ...

Little Feat: Down On The Farm (Warner Brothers K56667)

Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 24 November 1979

LITTLE FEAT'S final agonies were so prolonged and so well publicised that it's a surprise to discover in Down On The Farm a comparatively coherent ...

Brian Eno, Talking Heads: Brian Eno: Energy Fails The Magician

Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 12 January 1980

After spending the last decade redefining rock music, all Brian Eno wants now is an honest job of work and a place to lay his ...

James Blood Ulmer: Tales Of Captain Black (Artists House)

Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 26 January 1980

IT WON'T be long, I guess, before someone describes James "Blood" Ulmer as "the new Hendrix", so you might as well be forewarned. ...

Don Armando's Second Avenue Rhumba Band, Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band: Dr Buzzard's Original Savannah Band: ...Goes To Washington (Elektra); Don Armando's Second Avenue Rhumba Band (ZE)

Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 16 February 1980

Recherchez le chic ...

Pete Townshend: Empty Glass (Atco)

Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 26 April 1980

TO MOST people, it's probably always been obvious that Roger Daltrey was simply Pete Townshend's mouthpiece, the hired vocalist who put the professional gloss on ...

Marvin Gaye: Royal Albert Hall, London

Live Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 16 June 1980

MARVIN GAYE'S music, which in his early days epitomized the high-octane energy so consistently produced by that greatest of all pop factories, Motown Records, moved ...

Art Pepper: Ronnie Scott's, London

Live Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 19 June 1980

The jazzman personified ...

Pink Floyd: Earl's Court, London

Live Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 5 August 1980

PINK FLOYD'S The Wall, which has already achieved enormous success as a set of two long-playing records, is first and finally an elaborate vehicle for ...

The Stray Cats: Stray Cats: Dingwall's, London

Live Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 9 August 1980

SOMETIMES IT seems a shame that pop promoters long ago abandoned the old-fashioned style of rapid-fire package shows, in which seven or eight singers or ...

Ultravox: Lyceum, London

Live Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 18 August 1980

IN THE SEARCH to perfect a commodity which is being touted as White European Dance Music, Ultravox now occupy the ground between Gary Numan, who ...

Aswad: Dingwall's, London

Live Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 22 August 1980

FOR ALL its enjoyable effects, the ska-punk blend of 2-Tone music may have done lasting damage to another, potentially even more valuable fusion: local reggae, ...

Gary Numan: Hammersmith Odeon, London

Live Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 18 September 1980

IF YOU choose to sow in the field of fashion, you must expect to reap a brief harvest. There were empty seats at Gary Numan's ...

Brothers Johnson: Dominion, London

Live Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 26 September 1980

"JAZZ IS the teacher", runs an aphorism recently coined by the avant-garde guitarist James Ulmer, "and funk is the preacher". What he meant was that ...

Cliff Richard: Apollo, Victoria, London

Live Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 2 October 1980

THE LAST time I went to see the principle boy of the British music industry, some pop-crazed teddygirl poked her umbrella in my eye. That ...

Kid Creole & the Coconuts: Le Palace, Paris

Live Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 23 October 1980

POP MUSIC may have been born free, but it was quickly enslaved by commercial interests; perhaps we should not be surprised that genuinely original vision ...

Chico Freeman, James "Blood" Ulmer: James "Blood" Ulmer, Chico Freeman: Camden Jazz Week, the Roundhouse, London

Live Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 3 November 1980

JAMES "BLOOD" Ulmer put the cat among the pigeons with gratifying forthrightness at the Camden Jazz Week on Friday evening. An American guitarist who appeared ...

Sheena Easton, Gerard Kenny, Dennis Waterman: Sheena Easton, Dennis Waterman, Gerard Kemmy: Dominion, London

Live Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 3 November 1980

SHEENA EASTON'S present success might be seen as reassurance that, even in this post-Sex Pistols age, the British mainstream pop audience refuses to give up ...

Talking Heads: Hammersmith Palais, London

Live Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 3 December 1980

TALKING HEADS opened with 'Psychokiller', their early anthem which contains the line: "Say something once, why say it again?" One may justifiably express certain reservations ...

Spandau Ballet: Heaven, London

Live Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 31 December 1980

SPANDAU BALLET are the house band of the Blitz Kids, a collection of young peacocks who fancy themselves as this month's leaders of London's post-punk ...

Crystal Gayle: Apollo, Victoria, London

Live Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 6 March 1981

EVER SENSITIVE to shifting tastes, and spurred on by furious competition for the advertising dollar, American pop radio stations change their formats with disconcerting frequency. ...

John Martyn: Dominion, London

Live Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 26 May 1981

WITH A NEW four-piece band and a new record contract behind him, John Martyn is clearly hoping to translate his loyal cult following into something ...

Bruce Springsteen: A responsible rocker

Profile and Interview by Richard Williams, The Sunday Times, 31 May 1981

Bob Dylan arrives in Britain next month hoping to repeat his triumphant series of concerts of three years ago. Many observers feel that his timing ...

Bob Marley & the Wailers: Bob Marley: Death of a Prophet

Report by Richard Williams, Rock & Folk, June 1981

  THEY BURIED Bob Marley on 21 May 1981 at Nine Mile, the Jamaican hamlet where, 36 years earlier, he had been born. His heavy bronze ...

Grace Jones: Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London

Live Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 9 October 1981

AN AMAZONIAN former mannequin of Jamaican extraction, Grace Jones has become the toast of the jeunesse dorée lately arisen from the ashes of late-Seventies punk ...

Randy Crawford: A soul saved from the church

Profile and Interview by Richard Williams, The Times, 19 October 1981

IN A POP music market fuelled more obviously than ever by fad and fashion, the recent British success of Randy Crawford has been taken in ...

Aswad, Linx: Linx and Aswad: Shades of Black

Profile and Interview by Richard Williams, The Times, 26 November 1981

THERE IS A special role in British life for young black pop musicians, involving a task more serious than could ever be demanded of their ...

The Pointer Sisters: Pointer Sisters: Dominion, London

Live Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 26 November 1981

AS DELIVERED by the Pointer Sisters, 'Slow Hand' is not merely a memorable recent hit single but perhaps the best women's song written by men ...

The Beatles, Paul McCartney: The Times Profile: Paul McCartney

Profile and Interview by Richard Williams, The Times, 4 January 1982

In the year of his 40th birthday Paul McCartney, the world's most successful pop musician, adjusts the record ...

Barry Manilow: Royal Albert Hall, London

Live Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 12 January 1982

The pink panther ...

Machito: The Venue, London

Live Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 3 February 1982

IF THE utterly spurious salsa boom has achieved nothing else, at least it brought Machito to London for a performance on Monday night which presented ...

A Certain Ratio, Pinski Zoo: A Certain Ratio: Lyceum, London; Pinski Zoo: The Venue, London

Live Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 19 February 1982

WHO WOULD have thought, after it had been received into the White House and on to the Parkinson show, that jazz could ever again become ...

Art Ensemble of Chicago: Roundhouse, London

Live Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 17 March 1982

IT MAY BE impossible for the outsider to decode the arcane rituals which accompany a performance by the Art Ensemble of Chicago, and which the ...

Maze featuring Frankie Beverly: Hammersmith Odeon, London

Live Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 25 March 1982

ONE COOL dude, in shiny black from boots to leather baseball cap, Frankie Beverly was plainly the most surprised man in Hammersmith this week. Without ...

Haircut 100: Hammersmith Odeon, London

Live Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 2 April 1982

ALREADY THERE are plastic combs, button badges, scarves, key fobs and sweat shirts, available via an order form stapled to their concert programme. Haircut 100, ...

Tom Browne: Hammersmith Odeon, London

Live Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 5 April 1982

TOM BROWN proves on his most recent album, with treatments of two tunes by John Coltrane, that he has the equipment to be an above-average ...

Gil Scott-Heron: The Venue, London

Live Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 12 April 1982

Cause for concern ...

Slim Gaillard: The Canteen, London

Live Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 6 October 1982

SLIM GAILLARD'S season in Covent Garden, and his subsequent appearances around the country, will attract not only those nostalgic lor the 32nd Street era but ...

Kool and the Gang: Kool & The Gang: Apollo, Victoria

Live Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 16 October 1982

SINCE THEY possess in general less of an all-consuming respect for their own genius than their contemporaries in white rock music, black soul groups often ...

Ronald Shannon Jackson's Decoding Society: Roundhouse, London

Live Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 18 March 1983

AS THE ONLY drummer to have appeared on record with Albert Ayler, Cecil Taylor and Ornette Coleman, three of the grand masters of the jazz ...

Robert Palmer: Dominion, London

Live Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 1 June 1983

Shaken not stirred ...

Curtis Mayfield: Commonwealth Institute, London

Live Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 27 June 1983

A TRIUMPH OF experience over environment, Curtis Mayfield's return to London on Friday night was a tribute to the enduring worth of the generation of ...

Dire Straits: Hammersmith Odeon, London

Live Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 25 July 1983

FEW ROCK GROUPS depend as heavily for success on an intimate engagement with the emotions of the listener as Dire Straits, so it is a ...

Carmen McRae, George Shearing, Mel Tormé: Mel Tormé, George Shearing, Carmen McRae: Royal Festival Hall, London

Live Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 13 September 1983

IT SEEMS probable that not many of those who gathered last night to hear Mel Tormé and George Shearing at the first of their five ...

The Everly Brothers: Royal Albert Hall, London

Live Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 23 September 1983

You had to half-close your eyes, but then it all came back: 1958, The Perry Como Show, two boys with strange faces, perfectly greased quiffs ...

Tom Jones: Royal Albert Hall, London

Live Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 27 September 1983

The Cojones Boy ...

Clarence Clemons, Billy Joel, Tom Waits: Tom Waits: Swordfishtrombones (Island ILPS 9762); Billy Joel: An Innocent Man (CBS 25554); Clarence Clemons: Rescue (CBS 25699)

Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 1 October 1983

Piercing fragments from the gutter ...

Clarence Clemons, Billy Joel, Tom Waits: Tom Waits: Swordfishtrombones (Island); Billy Joel: An Innocent Man (CBS); Clarence Clemons: Rescue (CBS)

Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 1 October 1983

Piercing fragments from the gutter ...

Imagination: Hammersmith Odeon, London

Live Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 13 December 1983

THE FIRST surprise was the discovery that, although the members of Imagination may have black skins, they are not what is crudely known in the ...

Dire Straits: Graceful Strengths

Interview by Richard Williams, The Times, 26 April 1984

By most of the yardsticks of pop music in 1984, Dire Straits are so conventional as to be practically invisible. No exotic dancing, no men ...

Elvis Presley, Bruce Springsteen: Bruce Springsteen: Born in the USA (CBS 38653); Elvis Presley: 'I Can Tell' and Other Great Hits (RCA PL 89287)

Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 2 June 1984

Green grass and parables of the badlands ...

Billy Joel: Wembley Arena, London

Live Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 7 June 1984

IT IS, OF course, too easy to say that once you've seen the video, the real thing can only be a disappointment. Indeed, there were ...

Bob Dylan: On Common Ground: Bob Dylan live in Rome

Live Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 23 June 1984

Richard Williams gets a taste of Dylan as his tour makes its way towards Britain ...

Stevie Wonder: London

Live Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 2 July 1984

PERHAPS ONE DAY Stevie Wonder will recognize that inviting a British audience to sing along with him does not evoke the kind of ready response ...

Bobby Womack: Apollo, Oxford

Live Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 21 September 1984

AS A PROMINENT member of soul music's most impressive dynasty, and with a performing career stretching back more than 20 years, it would be surprising ...

Ashford & Simpson: Hammersmith Odeon, London

Live Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 22 May 1985

SINCE THE SONGS they wrote in the 1960s for Marvin Gave and Tammi Terrell put a patent on the genre, it was not surprising that ...

Bruce Springsteen: A Promise Fulfilled — But What Next?

Live Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 5 July 1985

Bruce Springsteen: Wembley Stadium, London ...

Daniel Ponce: Shaw Theatre, London

Live Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 11 July 1985

SALSA, THE modern form of what was once know as Afro-Cuban music, has been threatening to catch on with a wider audience since the middle ...

Tom Waits: Dominion, London

Live Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 18 October 1985

Saloon bar ballads ...

The Neville Brothers: Neville Brothers: Shaw Theatre, London

Live Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 5 November 1985

NEW ORLEANS has Nevilles like Washington has Kennedys and Kent has Cowdreys. Notwithstanding claims on behalf of the Marsalis clan, the four brothers Neville represent ...

Anthony Braxton: Bloomsbury Theatre, London

Live Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 15 November 1985

Ironic improvisations ...

Charlie Watts: The Charlie Watts Orchestra: Ronnie Scott's, London

Live Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 20 November 1985

YOU AND I probably dreamt of opening the batting for England or commanding the footplate of the Flying Scotsman. Charlie Watts yearned for the driving-seat ...

Chet Baker: Ronnie Scott's, London

Live Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 27 November 1985

Languid invention ...

Sade: Royal Albert Hall, London

Live Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 3 December 1985

FOR ALMOST an hour, Sade Adu and her musicians reproduced the chic minimalism of their records with such detached precision and consistency that the songs ...

Bob Dylan, Sandy Denny: Bob Dylan: Biograph; Sandy Denny: Who Knows Where The Time Goes

Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 28 December 1985

NOTHING AS simple as a "greatest hits" collection from the Bob Dylan of 1985, of course. ...

Sting: Royal Albert Hall, London

Live Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 22 January 1986

WHEN A million-seller rock singer breaks away from his usual band and hires instead a bunch of hot-shot American jazz musicians, what is he trying ...

Drum Theatre, Nik Kershaw, Belouis Some, Kim Wilde: Nik Kershaw, Kim Wilde, Belouis Some, Drum Theatre: Royal Albert Hall, London

Live Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 23 April 1986

Yielding to the star machine ...

The SOS Band: SOS Band: Hammersmith Odeon, London

Live Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 26 April 1986

Squelchy sensuality ...

Chet Baker: Ronnie Scott's, London

Live Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 13 August 1986

LOOKING A good deal more fragile than on his last visit to Frith Street, when for an entire week he played what sounded like the ...

Stevie Ray Vaughan: Hammersmith Palais, London

Live Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 4 October 1986

A COUPLE OF minutes before the lights came on were almost worth the price of admission. Already steaming with the sweat of an audience that ...

Loose Tubes, McCoy Tyner: McCoy Tyner: Ronnie Scott's; Loose Tubes: Logan Hall, London

Live Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 17 October 1986

NO ONE who ventured abroad in London on Wednesday night could have been in much doubt about the current health of the jazz scene. At ...

Miles Davis: Wembley Conference Centre, London

Live Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 19 November 1986

Struggling to turn the clock back ...

Bruce Springsteen: Tunnel of Love (CBS)

Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 5 October 1987

Simple gains: Richard Williams on Bruce Springsteen's new album Tunnel of Love, released today ...

Aretha Franklin: Power from the pulpit — Aretha Franklin: One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism (Arista 303178, 2 discs)

Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 12 December 1987

Aretha Franklin has returned to her gospel roots. Richard Williams hears the result ...

Bruce Springsteen: All Or Nothing

Retrospective by Richard Williams, Q, December 1989

"FILMS ABOUT America should be composed entirely of long and wide shots, as music about America already is," the German film director Wim Wenders wrote ...

Jimi Hendrix: Far Out

Book Review by Richard Williams, Q, December 1989

Charles Shaar Murray: Crosstown Traffic: Jimi Hendrix And Post-War Pop (Faber) ...

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers: Tom Petty — an interview

Interview by Richard Williams, Independent on Sunday, 13 November 1994

HE REMEMBERS the day Elvis Presley came to town: the day his life was saved by rock'n'roll. He was 11 years old. ...

The Beatles: Derek Taylor: Obituary

Obituary by Richard Williams, MOJO, November 1997

IN 1963, WHEN BRIAN EPSTEIN INVITED HIM TO HANDLE the Beatles' PR, Derek Taylor was a 31-year-old national newspaper reporter with a suit and tie. ...

John Lennon, Yoko Ono: John Lennon: So This Is Christmas…

Retrospective by Richard Williams, Uncut, January 1998

UP ON THE 17TH FLOOR OF THE St Regis Hotel in New York City, John Lennon is learning to type. P...I...M...P, he types. I AM ...

The Walker Brothers:Take It Easy/Portrait/Images

Review by Richard Williams, MOJO, October 1998

Their first three albums, remastered for CD, each almost doubled with extra tracks. ...

Bob Dylan: Live 1966 - The "Royal Albert Hall" Concert

Review by Richard Williams, MOJO, November 1998

SO HERE it is, the Holy Grail of rock'n'roll, famed in song and story for a generation, finally on sale at your local record store. ...

Bob B. Soxx & The Blue Jeans: Bobby Sheen

Obituary by Richard Williams, The Guardian, 2000

WHENEVER HE MADE records under his own name, Bobby Sheen, who has died aged 57, was out of luck. But as Bob B Soxx, the ...

Bill Frisell: Let your fingers do the talking

Interview by Richard Williams, The Guardian, 2001

Jazz guitarist Bill Frisell has worked with everyone from Chet Baker to Marianne Faithful. So why start taking lessons now? Richard Williams met him ...

Johnnie Taylor: Lifetime: A Retrospective Of Soul, Blues And Gospel 1956-1999

Review by Richard Williams, MOJO, February 2001

LIKE MANY soul singers, Johnnie Taylor was only as good as the songs he was given. But when those songs were good – and most ...

Laura Nyro: Songs in the Key of Life: Laura Nyro's Angel in the Dark

Review by Richard Williams, The Guardian, 6 April 2001

THIS ALBUM IS incomplete, but so was Laura Nyro's life. It is the project on which she was working when she died of ovarian cancer ...

Bob Dylan, Grateful Dead: Bob Dylan: Life Among The Dead

Comment by Richard Williams, MOJO, June 2001

I SUPPOSE you would have to say that 1987 was not a great year for Bob Dylan, or for Bob Dylan's fans. He played harmonica ...

Roy Hollingworth, 1949-2002

Obituary by Richard Williams, The Guardian, 22 March 2002

Colourful critic who embarked on a mission to become a rock star. ...

Rhythm Kings: The Musicians of Motown

Essay by Richard Williams, The Guardian, 14 November 2002

So many things made the Motown sound special – the singers, the songs, even the food. But what about the musicians? ...

Penny Valentine 1943 - 2003

Obituary by Richard Williams, The Guardian, 13 January 2003

Richard Williams mourns "probably the first woman to write about pop music as though it really mattered". Below, some examples of what made Valentine such ...

Lou Reed: The Raven

Review by Richard Williams, The Guardian, 17 January 2003

IF ANYONE IS still wondering, more than a quarter of a century later, what Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music was all about, they need look ...

Steely Dan: Everything Must Go

Review by Richard Williams, The Guardian, 13 June 2003

UNIQUE AMONG contemporary musicians, the post-comeback Steely Dan make records that are more fun to read than to listen to. ...

Ian MacDonald, 1948-2003

Obituary by Richard Williams, The Guardian, 8 September 2003

PROBABLY NO other critic – not even the late William Mann of The Times, with his famous mention of pandiatonic clusters – contributed more to ...

Robert Palmer, 1949-2003

Obituary by Richard Williams, The Guardian, 27 September 2003

BORN IN BATLEY, Yorkshire, and raised in Malta (his father was a naval officer), Palmer had a voice that could be suave and gritty by ...

Brian Wilson: Royal Festival Hall, London

Live Review by Richard Williams, The Guardian, 23 February 2004

SO HOW GOOD, finally, is Smile, the great lost song cycle that Brian Wilson kept the world waiting 37 years to hear? The only possible ...

Dave Godin: Champion of Black Music who coined the term "Northern Soul"

Obituary by Richard Williams, The Guardian, 20 October 2004

WHEN THE MUSICIANS and singers of the first Motown Revue – the Miracles, the Supremes, Martha and the Vandellas, "Little" Stevie Wonder and Earl Van ...

Laura Nyro: Lady Lightning: Laura Nyro

Retrospective by Richard Williams, The Guardian, 2 April 2005

"EXPERIENCED A catastrophe so profound that its effects would never quite fade" (Laura Nyro) ...

Jorge Ben, Gilberto Gil, Os Mutantes, Caetano Veloso, Tom Ze: Gilberto Gil, Caetano Veloso, Gal Costa, Jorge Ben, Os Mutantes and Tom Ze: Tropicalia/A Brazilian Revolution in Sound

Retrospective by Richard Williams, The Guardian, 10 February 2006

"THEY LOOKED LIKE three angels," the singer and composer Caetano Veloso wrote of his first sight of the members of Os Mutantes, a young rock ...

Ahmet Ertegun

Obituary by Adam Sweeting, Richard Williams, The Guardian, 16 December 2006

A mogul who nurtured the careers of stars such as Ray Charles, Led Zeppelin, Aretha Franklin and Dusty Springfield ...

Buddy Holly: The Angel with the Devil's Music: Buddy Holly

Retrospective by Richard Williams, The Guardian, 30 January 2009

Fifty years ago, Buddy Holly's life was sadly cut short. Richard Williams salutes the clean-cut 22-year-old who came to Britain and showed a whole generation ...

Ellie Greenwich, 1940-2009

Obituary by Richard Williams, The Guardian, August 2009

NOT LONG AFTER Ellie Greenwich, who has died at the age of 68, met her future husband and songwriting partner Jeff Barry at a Thanksgiving ...

Elvis Presley: The Return of the King

Retrospective by Richard Williams, The Guardian, 4 March 2010

Elvis Presley left the army 50 years ago this week, to suggestions that the music he pioneered had died in his absence. The truth turned ...

Bill Frisell, Jan Garbarek, Keith Jarrett, Pat Metheny: Manfred Eicher: The Sound Man

Profile and Interview by Richard Williams, The Guardian, 17 July 2010

Admired by Radiohead, friend of Godard, Manfred Eicher is the founder of ECM, one of the most successful jazz labels in the world. He tells ...

Bobby Hebb, 1938-2010

Obituary by Richard Williams, The Guardian, 5 August 2010

US singer-songwriter whose greatest hit – much recorded by others – was 'Sunny'. ...

Leadbelly: John Szwed: The Man Who Recorded the World – A Biography of Alan Lomax

Book Review by Richard Williams, The Guardian, 8 January 2011

Richard Williams hails the man who devoted his life to recording the songs and soundscapes of America and beyond. ...

Woody Guthrie, Burl Ives, Leadbelly, Mississippi Fred McDowell, Muddy Waters: John Szwed: The Man Who Recorded the World – A Biography of Alan Lomax

Book Review by Richard Williams, The Guardian, 8 January 2011

Richard Williams hails the man who devoted his life to recording the songs and soundscapes of America and beyond. ...

Cornell Dupree obituary

Obituary by Richard Williams, The Guardian, 23 May 2011

FOR A TIME in the mid-1960s, the band of the great rhythm and blues tenor saxophonist King Curtis contained two guitarists. The first, Jimi Hendrix, ...

Hank Ballard and the Midnighters, Chubby Checker, Joey Dee & the Starliters: Let's Twist again

Retrospective by Richard Williams, The Guardian, 4 June 2011

Fifty years ago, a new dance craze swept the world and changed for ever the way people move. Richard Williams, up on his feet when it ...

Gene McDaniels obituary

Obituary by Richard Williams, The Guardian, 15 August 2011

GENE MCDANIELS, the American singer and songwriter, who has died aged 76, began and ended his career as the smoothest of vocal stylists. His hits ...

The Dixie Cups, Jean Knight, Leiber and Stoller, The Neville Brothers, Robert Parker, Robbie Robertson: Wardell Quezergue, 1930-2011

Obituary by Richard Williams, The Guardian, 14 September 2011

Distinguished and subtle New Orleans arranger and musician ...

Pete Rugolo, 1915-2011

Obituary by Richard Williams, The Guardian, 21 October 2011

Controversial jazz composer and arranger best known for his work with Stan Kenton ...

Dobie Gray, 1940-2011

Obituary by Richard Williams, The Guardian, 11 December 2011

American singer and songwriter held in special affection by Northern Soul fans ...

Van Dyke Parks: Return of a Musical Maverick

Profile by Richard Williams, The Guardian, 15 June 2012

AS THE SMALL, white-haired, bespectacled man in a sleeveless cardigan took his seat a few rows from the front of the stalls in London's Royal ...

Joe South, 1940-2012

Obituary by Richard Williams, The Guardian, 12 September 2012

American singer and songwriter best known for 'Games People Play' ...

Gil Evans: Purple Hazer: The Many Lives of Gil Evans

Retrospective by Richard Williams, The Guardian, 7 November 2012

His cool, luminous sound redefined jazz. Then he threw it all in for Jimi Hendrix. Richard Williams on the brilliant and mercurial Gil Evans. ...

The Penguins: Cleve Duncan, 1935-2012

Obituary by Richard Williams, The Guardian, 15 November 2012

Singer and founder member of the Penguins, noted for their hit 'Earth Angel' ...

Jackie Lomax, 1944-2013

Obituary by Richard Williams, The Guardian, 17 September 2013

THE CAREER OF the Liverpool-born singer and songwriter Jackie Lomax, who has died aged 69, seemed set on a golden path when he became one ...

Lou Reed, 1942-2013

Obituary by Richard Williams, The Guardian, 28 October 2013

Velvet Underground frontman and solo artist whose hymns to transgressive behaviour created an audience of outsiders. ...

Pete Seeger: The road goes on for ever

Obituary by Richard Williams, The Guardian, 28 January 2014

The folk singer believed in handing on the traditions he had done so much to save, so that others could carry them forward. It was ...

Bruce Springsteen: High Hopes

Review and Interview by Richard Williams, Uncut, February 2014

Good-time title, sombre message on The Boss' 18th studio album proper. ...

Duke Ellington, Bill Evans, Jimi Hendrix, The Last Poets, John McLaughlin, Cecil Taylor: Alan Douglas, 1931-2014

Obituary by Richard Williams, The Guardian, 18 June 2014

Record producer best known for his controversial posthumous releases of Jimi Hendrix recordings ...

Kim Fowley, 1939-2015

Obituary by Richard Williams, The Guardian, 18 January 2015

FEW PEOPLE IN pop music spanned such a range as Kim Fowley, the record producer, songwriter and Sunset Strip svengali who has died aged 75. ...

Don Covay, 1938-2015

Obituary by Richard Williams, The Guardian, 4 February 2015

Songwriter, singer and record producer whose compositions became hits for stars including Chubby Checker and Aretha Franklin. ...

Sister Rosetta Tharpe: The Godmother of Rock'n'Roll

Retrospective by Richard Williams, The Guardian, 18 March 2015

She could outplay Chuck. She could outsing Aretha. And she influenced everyone from Elvis to Rod. Richard Williams revisits the songs and sufferings of the ...

Johnny Cash, Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, Simon & Garfunkel: Bob Johnston, 1932-2015

Obituary by Richard Williams, The Guardian, 18 August 2015

Record producer who played a significant role in the recording career of Bob Dylan. ...

Julia Holter: Islington Assembly Rooms, London

Live Review by Richard Williams, The Blue Moment, 13 November 2015

WHEN I TOLD my friend Howard Thompson that I was going to see Julia Holter at the Islington Assembly Hall last night, he said: "You ...

James Carr, Aretha Franklin, Elvis Presley: Chips Moman, 1937-2016

Obituary by Richard Williams, The Guardian, 15 June 2016

Guitarist, record producer and songwriter who co-wrote 'The Dark End of the Street' and worked with Elvis Presley, Aretha Franklin and Tammy Wynette. ...

The Faces, Michael Jackson, The Police, Slade: John Pidgeon, 1947-2016

Obituary by Richard Williams, The Guardian, 21 July 2016

Rock writer turned broadcasting executive who did much to reinvigorate BBC radio comedy. ...

Nina Simone: What happened, Miss Simone?

Film/DVD/TV Review by Richard Williams, Uncut, November 2016

The often harrowing life and times of a musical and political force. ...

P.J. Proby, Cliff Richard, Gene Vincent: Jack Good, 1931-2017

Obituary by Richard Williams, The Guardian, 29 September 2017

Music pioneer who led a revolution in television coverage of pop ...

Aretha Franklin, 1942–2018

Obituary by Richard Williams, The Guardian, 16 August 2018

Queen of soul whose voice could scald or soothe, and whose talent drew on both sacred and secular traditions ...

Nick Tosches, 1949-2019

Obituary by Richard Williams, The Guardian, 23 October 2019

American writer who epitomised the rackety world of the 1960s rock press and went on to become a successful biographer ...

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