The Lovin’ Spoonful cofounder, who composed some of the greatest hit singles of the 1960s, talks about his childhood, his songwriting, the Woodstock festival, his new album, and more. Bright spots permeated AM radio in the late 1960s, but none shone brighter than the songs of John Sebastian and the group he co-founded, the […]
Continue Reading
Music Reviews: Alan Freed’s Radio Shows, Eliza Gilkyson, Mickey & Sylvia, and Grant Dermody & Frank Fotusky A Musical Time Machine Imagine being able to go back in time and listen in on legendary disc jockey Alan Freed’s early- and mid-fifties rock and roll radio shows on Cleveland’s WJW and New York’s WINS. That’s essentially […]
Continue Reading
Music Reviews: A 50th-Anniversary Edition of Frank Zappa’s ‘200 Motels’ plus Jeff Tweedy’s ‘Chelsea Walls’ soundtrack and Josh Caterer’s ‘Space Sessions’ Lots of craziness went down in the arts in the late 1960s and early 1970s, but it’s hard to think of anything much crazier than Frank Zappa’s 200 Motels, a film that first […]
Continue Reading
Music Reviews: A Deluxe Edition of the Band’s ‘Cahoots,’ plus ABBA and Paul Kelly Though many rock groups with successful first records experience a sophomore slump, the Band came roaring back from their outstanding Music from Big Pink debut in 1968 with a superb eponymous second album in 1969. Their third release, […]
Continue Reading
Music Reviews: The Doors’ ‘L.A. Woman’ (50th-Anniversary Edition) plus Rod Stewart and a Holiday-themed Anthology ‘L.A. Woman’ Shines at Fifty Like all its predecessors, April 1971’s L.A. Woman—the sixth and final studio album by the original Doors—achieved Top 10 sales chart status and has now become the subject of a 50th-anniversary deluxe edition. The numbered, […]
Continue Reading
Music Reviews: Pretenders Classics Expanded, Plus Dion, Carole King, James Taylor, and More The Pretenders’ eponymous 1980 first album ranks among the best debut LPs in modern rock. Pretenders II, their 1981 sophomore effort, is somewhat less impressive but contains enough winners to suggest that its predecessor was no fluke. On the debut, which overflows […]
Continue Reading
Music Reviews: Bruce Springsteen ’s ‘No Nukes’ Concert, plus Eric Clapton, a Fred Neil Tribute, and More The Boss Proves It All Night Though the 1979 recording that resulted from that September’s No Nukes benefit concert filled three LPs, it barely scratched the surface of the performances at that event by Bruce Springsteen and the […]
Continue Reading
Music Reviews: Cat Stevens, Lucinda Williams, and Joe Grushecky A 50th-Anniversary Edition of Cat Stevens’s ‘Teaser and the Firecat’ Last year’s holiday season witnessed the release of massive 50th-anniversary editions of Cat Stevens’s Mona Bone Jakon and Tea for the Tillerman, both of which originally appeared in 1970. Now comes an equally hefty […]
Continue Reading
Joni Mitchell’s ‘Archives Vol. 2’ plus the Wandering Hearts & the Accidentals Once in a blue moon, a music artist or group evidences a growth spurt that’s so quick and impressive it can only be called astonishing. One example is the Beatles, who traveled the distance from “I Want to Hold Your Hand” to “Strawberry […]
Continue Reading
Music Reviews: Velvet Underground Tribute & Soundtrack Albums, plus Johnny Cash The Velvet Underground broke up about half a century ago, having never had anything close to a hit album or single. Yet they made some of rock’s best, most innovative, and most influential music. An often-quoted line, generally attributed to Brian Eno, is […]
Continue Reading