7 + 1 From McCoy Tyner For His 76th
Sean MurphyMcCoy Tyner turns 76 years young today. In a saner and more soulful world, Tyner would be a household name. As it is, he remains an American treasure, a remarkable…
The Cream of Cream: Their 10 Best Songs
In honor of Jack Bruce’s recent passing, and as a companion piece to my tribute to the late bassist, here’s my take on the ten best Cream songs. This list…
Life in the Key of Song: Strawberry Fields Forever
Living is easy with eyes closed/Misunderstanding all you see, It's getting hard to be someone but it all works out/It doesn't matter much to me. Those aren't just defining lines…
The Day The Music Died, Redux (Revisited)
(12/9/2010) It was thirty years ago today... Where were you? I was in my mother's bedroom, kissing her goodbye before I caught the school bus, and I heard the horrible…
Five From Frank Zappa
December 4, 1993: impossible as it is (at least for me) to believe, Frank Zappa passed away (yet another casualty of the Big C.) twent-one years ago, today. Zappa, to…
The Moody Blues: Masters of the Mini Epic
The Moody Blues have not aged particularly well. And that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. To be sure, more than a handful of their songs are as timeless as any…
Let Us Give Thanks for the Guitar Solo (Revisited)
Let us give thanks for the guitar solo. This excercise is equal parts pointless and onanistic, which, of course, is the entire point. (Quick: what was your favorite orgasm? Thought…
The Whiteness of the Whale: Remembering The White Album (Revisited)
Therefore, in his other moods, symbolize whatever grand or gracious thing he will by whiteness, no man can deny that in its profoundest idealized significance it calls up a peculiar…
Pete La Roca, R.I.P. (Two Years Later)
It will be an ongoing, and very somber, progression, watching so many old-school jazz musicians (many of whom recorded on the epic Blue Note label during the glory years of…
The Holy Trinity, Part Two: Jethro Tull (Revisited)
I, like too many prog-rock fanatics to count, was delighted when Rush received their overdue induction into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame. I still hold out hope that…