Music Reviews: Doc Pomus Demos, plus Lindsey Buckingham & Stevie Nicks, the Third Mind, and the Brothers Comatose Back in the so-called Brill Building era, before acts like Bob Dylan and the Beatles rewrote the rules and started penning their own material, a large percentage of the hits on Billboard’s charts were composed not by […]
Unless David Bowie returns to the land of the living (and anything’s possible where he’s concerned), a new box set will be the last in a series of massive compendiums devoted to phases of his career. The series began less than four months before his January 2016 death with Five Years [1969–1973]. Subsequently issued boxes […]
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The memorably named Peanut Butter Conspiracy remains a tiny footnote in rock history. The quintet doesn’t even qualify as a one-hit wonder, as its only charting single, 1967’s “It’s a Happening Thing,” climbed no higher on Billboard’s pop list than No. 93. Perhaps it’s time for a fresh assessment of this outfit, however. Formed from […]
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The late music producer Joe Meek has often been called England’s answer to Phil Spector, and the comparison is apt. Both men created their greatest work in the 1960s, and both viewed the recording studio as if it were as important as the singers or their instruments. The final chapters of their lives also included […]
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Tonight in Jungleland: The Making of Born to Run, plus Reggae from the Mighty Rootsmen and the Kingston Lions Several albums in Bruce Springsteen’s discography have proven particularly significant, including 1982’s Nebraska, which showcased a dramatic reversion to unadorned folk, and 1984’s Born in the U.S.A., which turned him into a global superstar. But the […]
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Like the Bee Gees, Fleetwood Mac, and a handful of other artists, the late Marianne Faithfull was lucky enough to have had more than one musical incarnation. The first began in 1964, when she scored a worldwide folk/pop hit with the lilting “As Tears Go By,” which was composed by her then-future boyfriend, Mick Jagger, […]
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Since Bob Dylan is arguably the best and most important songwriter of the entire rock era, it’s not surprising that his tunes show up on countless albums by other artists, including many that consist entirely of his compositions. This writer’s collection includes more than 800 Dylan covers, and while not all of them hit their […]
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At least in the States, hardly anyone knows the albums of the British rock band Shack and the subsequently issued CDs from its leader, Michael Head, at least some of which rank among the most underappreciated popular music releases of the last thousand years. Though not quite that good, but well worth attention and even […]
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Reviewers, including this one, have often yielded to the temptation to compare some of today’s artists to folk singer and songwriter Nick Drake, because you can hear his influence in their work. But the truth is, there’s no one quite like him. Drake’s music does hint at his own influences, such as Bert Jansch, the […]
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Music Reviews: Counting Crows’ Butter Miracle, The Complete Sweets! plus Freedy Johnston and Mike Henderson Counting Crows released nearly a dozen studio and live albums between 1993 and 2014, including six that reached the Top 10 on Billboard’s chart and four that sold at least a million copies each. Things quieted down considerably after that, […]
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