B-Boys To Men: Check Your Head at 25
Sean MurphyAt first the Beastie Boys were brats, then they were bratty; with their third album Check Your Head they dropped an ebullient bomb that is both heartfelt and soulful. Any…
Beauty is a Rare Thing: Celebrating International Jazz Day (Revisited)
All hope is not lost. At least enough people are still making –and listening to– jazz that we can even attempt to initiate what hopefully becomes an ongoing occasion. In…
Levon Helm: Five Years Gone
There are probably countless ways to talk about what makes a particular artist compelling, and all of them are true. There are not that many ways to articulate how or…
The 100 Best Classic Progressive Rock Songs Part 5: 20-1
Yes: “Awaken” (from Going for the One) 1977 was not only about clothespins and green-toothed sneers: just as punk was gaining steam, Yes, the band that represented everything everyone hated…
So It Goes: Reflections on Kurt Vonnegut (Ten Years Later)
Kurt Vonnegut would say in speeches that a plausible mission of artists is to make people appreciate being alive at least a little bit. Often, he was asked: Have any…
The 100 Best Classic Progressive Rock Songs Part 4: 40-21
Jethro Tull: “Heavy Horses” (from Heavy Horses) Meanwhile back in the year… 1978? It’s an embarrassing commentary on how close-minded so many folks are that they’ve probably never even heard…
The 100 Best Classic Progressive Rock Songs: Part 3, 60-41
Rush: “Cygnus X-1 Book One: The Voyage” (from A Farewell to Kings) Rush is now, rightly, in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (not that this dubious honor from…
The 100 Best Classic Progressive Rock Songs: Part 2, 80-61
King Crimson “Red” (from Red) The progenitors of math rock on their last album of the ‘70s. <i>Red</i> is the paradigm that every pointy-headed prog rock band worships at the…
The 100 Best Classic Progressive Rock Songs: Part 1, 100-81
Welcome back, my friends to the show that never ends. After gamely, if humbly attempting to track the 25 best old-school progressive albums of all time, it’s inevitable to turn…
All Hail the King: Chuck Berry Reinvented Music, and America
It’s not important whether or not Chuck Berry “invented” rock ‘n’ roll, and the crucial thing isn’t that he perfected it. It’s that we call rock ‘n’ roll would sound…