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 … [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 … [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 … [Read more...]
(Music Review) Bob Dylan: The 1966 Live Recordings – The Sheffield Discs
Bob Dylan: The 1966 Live Recordings Disc 17 – Sheffield, May 16, 1966 (CBS Records recording) Disc 18 – Sheffield, May 16, 1966 (Soundboard recording) How do you review a thirty-six-CD box set containing every known recording of Dylan’s pivotal 1966 … [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 … [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 … [Read more...]
Floor Singers Welcome! Memories of Les Cousins and the Soho Folk Music Scene
In the recent Elvis Costello autobiography Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink (pub. Viking) there’s a fascinating chapter dedicated to the young Declan’s first faltering steps as a live performer. In touching detail, Elvis describes the clubs and pubs … [Read more...]
The night a new band called Led Zeppelin played Sheffield University in 1968
It must have been around May of 1968 that I heard the Yardbirds in session on John Peel’s BBC radio show. This late version of the band played a loud and heavy set which sounded nothing like the most blueswailing R&B outfit of yore and I made a mental … [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, … [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 … [Read more...]
Book Review — Ticket to Ride: Inside the Beatles’ 1964 Tour That Changed the World
Ticket to Ride: Inside the Beatles 1964 Tour That Changed the World by Larry Kane Backbeat Books / October 28, 2014 / 978-1480393042 / 272 pages In conjunction with the 50th anniversary of the Beatles' 1964 tour of America, Backbeat Books has … [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 … [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, … [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 … [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 … [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 … [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 … [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 … [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 … [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 … [Read more...]
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