Author: Jeff Burger

Once Beatles fans had digested the news of their breakup, which became official in April of 1970, attention turned to what would come next. Would John Lennon produce the first blockbuster solo album, or would that come from Paul McCartney, the group’s other principal songwriter? The answer turned out to be neither of the above. […]

Music Reviews: Rolling Stones’ ‘Live on Copacabana Beach,’ Plus Steve Dawson and John R. Miller The 1969 Woodstock festival attracted a small crowd by comparison with the Rolling Stones’ Feb. 8, 2006, performance at Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, which aired on TV throughout North America. Though estimates varied, the consensus seems to be […]

Music Reviews: Van Morrison’s ‘Latest Record Project,’ Plus Our Band and Laura Nyro  Van Morrison’s new album—his 42nd studio LP and his eighth record in the last five years—includes a song called “Where Have All the Rebels Gone?” A more pertinent question might be, “Where has Van Morrison gone?” The answer, it seems, is to […]

An Anniversary Edition of the Dead’s Second Live Album Like the Beatles’ so-called White Album, the Grateful Dead’s eponymous second concert LP (following 1969’s well-named Live/Dead) has come to be known by a description of its cover art: Skull & Roses. The record, which appeared in October 1971, contains performances from March and April of […]

  A Sterling Anthology Marks Alligator Records’ 50th Birthday It’s probably safe to say that most record labels exist first and foremost to make money. Over the years, however, there have been a handful of small, independent ones that have seemed at least as dedicated to preserving and popularizing great music as they have been […]

  Frank Zappa was as prolific as he was idiosyncratic. He checked out of this life early—a victim of cancer at age 52—but before he did, he released some five-dozen albums. Another 40 or so have followed posthumously and there’s no end in sight. The latest entry is a two-CD set that preserves most of […]

The Merseybeats—a rock group that formed in Liverpool, England, in the early 1960s—were very much a part of the scene that led to the British Invasion, but for whatever reason, they weren’t part of the Invasion itself. While such contemporaries as the Searchers, Gerry and the Pacemakers, the Troggs, and of course the Beatles took […]

In the U.S., Lulu was pretty much a one-hit wonder. She topped American charts for five weeks with the terrific “To Sir with Love,” one of the most likable mainstream hits of 1967 (and one of the best-orchestrated pop records of its era, right up there with the Temptations’ “Just My Imagination (Running Away with […]