Empty Mirror

a literary magazine

Paul McCartney: The Biography by Philip Norman – Book Review

Paul McCartney: The Life (US) by Philip Norman / Little, Brown and Company / 2016 / 978-0316327961 Paul McCartney: The Biography (UK) / Weidenfeld & Nicolson / 2016 / 978-0297870760 Soufflé-speak. I don’t know if Philip Norman coined that expression himself, but it crops up countless times in his latest book, Paul McCartney: The Biography. It refers to Paul McCartney’s … [Read more...]

Man of the World: Meeting Peter Green Before and After Fleetwood Mac

The British blues boom. There’s a tendency to dismiss it as little more than a bunch of lank-haired white boys from the home counties misappropriating the music of black America. And not in a good way. There may be some truth in that, but it’s not the full picture. The British blues boom was, in its late 60s heyday, a vibrant cultural movement directly linking the beat/R&B … [Read more...]

“Tiny Purple Fishes Run Laughing Through Your Fingers” — Cream’s Disraeli Gears turns 50

Nineteen-sixty-seven was an exciting time to be a record buyer. It was a year when LP sales began to overtake singles for the first time as the rock album established itself as a legitimate art form within a youth-driven cultural revolution. Psychedelia reached its peak as electric blues moved from the clubs into the mainstream where it met the first stirrings of progressive … [Read more...]

She Said She’d Always Been a Dancer: London’s Soho in the 1960s

In late 1966, I arrived in London with little more than a guitar and a change of clothes. The summer of love was just around the corner and, to paraphrase Dylan, there was music in the cafés at night and cultural revolution in the air. Almost immediately I landed a job at W. Paxton, an old established music publisher on Old Compton Street deep in the heart of Soho. To … [Read more...]

Ringo Starr: The Father of Modern Rock Drumming

Things are looking good for Ringo Starr at the moment. In the last 18 months he's released the album Postcards From Paradise, been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist, completed a 21-date American tour, is about to begin another in Asia. Despite his accomplishments over the decades, Ringo's drumming has been the subject of much controversy. To some, … [Read more...]

Confessions of a Donovan Fan

Imagine a world where recorded music is both expensive and hard to find. No easily accessible CDs or tapes and certainly none of your new-fangled streaming or downloadable MP3s. That was the world we record buyers inhabited back in the 60s. No megastores, Amazon, internet shopping or Spotify for us. No eBay, record fairs or car boot sales/swap meets either. LPs were a major … [Read more...]

For Independence Day: Jimi plays the Star-Spangled Banner!

Here's Jimi Hendrix playing "The Star-Spangled Banner" at Woodstock, 1969. And if that's not enough for you, check him performing it on the 4th of July in Atlanta! Jimi Hendrix - Star-Spangled Banner, Woodstock Festival, August 17, 1969 Jimi Hendrix - Star-Spangled Banner, Atlanta, July 4, 1970 Have a happy and safe 4th of July, everyone! - Denise … [Read more...]

(Music Review) IR 29.1: New Generation Dub

One of the biggest crimes committed by the music industry has been their ability to co-opt, dilute and turn even the most radical of genres into something safe for mass consumption. Disco, punk and rap have all been taken and watered down so they would sell in Peoria. Even worse is how the industry corrupts these forms, turning them inside out, so instead of preaching against … [Read more...]

(Music Review) Music of the Sahara: Tinariwen’s new album Emmaar

In the early 1960s the creation of artificial borders in the trackless wastes of the Sahara desert might have been cause for celebration among the inhabitants of the newly created countries. However, the throwing off of colonial masters in Niger, Mali, Algeria, Morocco and others, also resulted in turmoil for the nomadic people who had called the region home for close to a … [Read more...]

Book Review – IR 30: Indigenous Visions In Dub

I guess it's appropriate that blockades have gone up again on the Tyndengia Mohawk reservation in South Eastern Ontario Canada as I begin to write this review. Here in Canada the First Nations people are usually out of sight and out of mind unless they manage to capture the media's attention with some event which inconvenience the population at large. While the fact that the … [Read more...]

Review: The Doors Examined by Jim Cherry

The Doors Examined by Jim Cherry / Bennion Kearny Limited / paperback / 978-1909125124 / 240 pages Journalist and author Jim Cherry has a long history with rock 'n' roll journalism, and currently writes the column, "The Doors Examiner." The Doors Examined includes some of those columns, along with material seen here for the first time. A huge amount of information is … [Read more...]

(Music Review) Soutak by Aziza Brahim

At first glance the Sahara Desert of North West Africa seems like one of the most inhospitable places on the face of the earth. Movies, and other Western media, usually show us images of trackless wastes, endless miles of sand dunes dotted with the occasional oasis and scrubby plants. However, this supposed barren land has been home to various nomadic people for centuries. … [Read more...]

(Music Review) Adrian Raso and Fanfare Ciocarlia – Devil’s Tale

When the Ottoman Empire invaded Eastern Europe they brought more than just their armies with them. Even today evidence of their occupation can still be found. Muslim communities in Serbia are only the most obvious reminder of their one time rule as traces of their cultural influence can still also be seen in other, more subtle forms, including musical influences. The invading … [Read more...]

(Music Review) Acá: Viggo and Friends

Some people say, "Politics make strange bedfellows" (Don't say it to Putin - he might take it the wrong way and have you thrown in jail) but the first time I heard Viggo Mortensen had collaborated on an album with the notorious, infamous, riotous, speed metal, punk, over the top guitar player Buckethead, I thought politics has nothing on music. The idea that the actor, poet and … [Read more...]

Review – How Music Works by David Byrne

We all listen to music. Maybe we only have it playing in the background, use it to help us sleep or meditate, or perhaps you sit and listen to it carefully. However, no matter how or why you listen, it can't help but have an effect on you. The majority of us just take it for granted that we enjoy the music we listen to and never really stop to think why. While we can talk about … [Read more...]

Music Review – David Broza: East Jerusalem West Jerusalem

There are some subjects I know not to talk to most people about, because they probably won't like what I have to say on the matter. Always having been slightly left of most anarchists I'm supposed to hold to certain opinions in order to not let the side down. Yet, I've always been of the opinion that being an anarchist means you can have whatever opinion you want and not have … [Read more...]

Review – The Clash Special Edition Releases

I remember a conversation I had with my brother when I was a teenager. He asked me if I thought I would still be listening to any of the music I liked then when I was 50. At the time it seemed like it was an eternity in the future, our parents weren't even that age. However, it did make me think. What would happen to my tastes in music as I aged? Looking at my parents record … [Read more...]

Music Review – An Evening With Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer

There have been many great artistic couples down through the ages. Now a days there seems to be more celebrity couplings than any real co-joining of artistic talents. So when I first began to hear rumours writer Neil Gaiman and musician Amanda Palmer (also known as AFP) were romantically involved I was intrigued. It felt a little odd to be interested in the love life of two … [Read more...]

Review – Nashville 2.0: The Rise of Americana

Once upon a time there was pop music. You either liked what you heard or you didn't, and you didn't particularly care about anything else. There were other types of music other people listened to, but that wasn't pop music. There was country and western music which was played by people who dressed funny and whose audience seemed to made up of senior citizens and people with … [Read more...]

Sly as a Vox

They’re back! The often-awful eighties with the pre-school neon colors and the radio infested with neo-synth-pop bubblegum bands. Although a few groups like Phoenix, the Killers and the recent stellar release from Empire of the Sun have picked up where the best of the eighties left off, the majority of time I’m left looking for who to blame for the atrocities I’m forced to … [Read more...]

Music Review – Tartit With Imharhan – Live from the Sahara

When the annual Festival Au Desert in Northern Mali was cancelled in 2013 due to the territory's occupation by terrorist organizations intent on imposing a very narrow definition of Islamic rule, organizers of the Festival were determined, if the world couldn't come to them, to bring the music of the Festival to the world. Formed in 2001 the Festival takes place during the … [Read more...]

Jim Morrison and Jack Kerouac

“If he (Jack Kerouac) hadn’t written On The Road, The Doors never would have existed.” — Ray Manzarek Manzarek might have added that if Jack Kerouac hadn’t written On The Road, none of the late 60’s might have happened the way they did, with kids hitting the road in search of themselves and the transcendental experiences that Kerouac had described in his novels. … [Read more...]

The Naked Beat

The Love Electric's new video was filmed in New York City, Lisbon, Berlin, and Woodstock. You can get "The Naked Beat" here. About A Love Electric The Love Electric is a band that does things differently. An art rock trio of three nationalities, A Love Electric, hailed as the tomorrow of creative rock by Mexico City's leading newspaper La Jornada, performs at some … [Read more...]

Book Review – Roger Waters: The Man Behind The Wall

Roger Waters: The Man Behind The Wall by Dave Thompson / Backbeat Books / 978-1-61713-564-4 271 pages Music journalist Dave Thompson's new book Roger Waters: The Man Behind The Wall is an entertaining intro to the music of the former Pink Floyd front man. Thompson takes an interesting circular route starting out with "The Wall," ostensibly another Floyd album but a vision so … [Read more...]

Review – Les Paul: The Lost Interviews by Jim O’Donnell

Les Paul: The Lost Interviews: Five Never-Before-Published Talks With a Guitar Genius by Jim O'Donnell / 978-1492218913 / 152 pages What comes to mind when you hear the name "Les Paul"? Maybe the iconic guitar, launched at the dawn of rock and roll and played by many of music's most talented guitarists. Or perhaps you think of the musician, the performer, the songwriter - or … [Read more...]

Review – I Dreamed I Was a Very Clean Tramp by Richard Hell

I Dreamed I Was a Very Clean Tramp: An Autobiography by Richard Hell / Ecco / 978-0062190833 / 304 pages Where do ideas come from? How does an individual up with an idea that starts a whole movement? Does he or she think it up in a momentary flash of brilliance which causes them to have some sort of magical insight? Or is their insight born of a natural progression of … [Read more...]

On The Road Again With John Renbourn

Back when the M1 motorway was first built, journeying to London from anywhere north of the Midlands was a tiresome, all-day exercise, especially if you were hitch-hiking. This story takes place in 1968 and although by then the motorway had pushed a little further north, almost as far as Leicester in fact, it still required a trek across country to reach the miraculous New Road … [Read more...]

Bob Dylan, John Tams, and the Commissionaire

Whenever Bob Dylan’s 1966 UK Tour is discussed, all we ever hear about is the infamous “Judas” incident from the Free Trade Hall, Manchester. But there were several other dates on the tour and on May 16 (just one day before the Manchester show) Dylan played a concert 30-odd miles away across the Pennines in Sheffield and I was there. Our story begins some weeks earlier … [Read more...]

Ray Manzarek

I turned my laptop on just after dawn this morning, as I usually do, and sat down with a cup of strong black coffee to see what was happening in the world. Two stories caught me like punches to the stomach and I woke up without any need for caffeine: a tornado killing scores of people in Oklahoma, and Ray Manzarek of the Doors dying at 74 of bile duct cancer. Jesus, is there … [Read more...]

Music Review – Bee Thousand by Guided By Voices

"I love the sound of background noise I wanna hear the crack in the singer's voice Fingers moving on the fret board Every time he plays a new chord" (Art Brut, "Slap Dash For No Cash") When most people think about the best records of the 90’s they recall classics such as Radiohead’s OK Computer, Nirvana’s Nevermind or maybe REM’s Automatic for People. The name Guided … [Read more...]

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Empty Mirror

Established in 2000 and edited by Denise Enck, Empty Mirror is an online literary magazine which publishes new work each Friday.

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