From The Annals of Inscrutability…Robert Plant!
Sean MurphyAfter praising The Marshall Tucker Band I reckon it's time to break out the big guns. Everyone can list a handful --or more-- songs that have presented lyrical challenges. I can…
Heard ____ In A Love Song
Any questions? Kind of like a wine cooler fan's Lynyrd Skynyrd, you have to appreciate the Marshall Tucker Band for incorporating a flute (effectively! convincingly!) into their safe-for-radio country rock.…
Less Cowbell; More Cult (Blue Öyster, Naturally)
Your reaction to this image might reveal many things about yourself and your attitude toward, and awareness of, a certain sort of music. Quick: what is Blue Öyster Cult's most…
Ten Years Gone: Happy Birthday, George
Hard as it is (for me, anyway) to believe, this November will be the 10th anniversary of Harrison's untimely passing (of course it's devastating enough to consider that we've already…
Songs Of Freedom
On the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, I had a few things on my mind. Fortunately, I can take a nap because the ever-reliable and brilliant…
Ali Farka Touré’s Finished Business (Revisited)
Great news from Nonesuch Records (Via FB): Nonesuch Records Congratulations to Toumani Diabate and the late Ali Farka Toure, winners of the Grammy Award for Best Traditional World Music Album…
In Praise of Porn…Music: A Primer on Obscure Italian (and German) Soundtrack Bliss
This story begins, as so many of them do, with porn. Sort of. Back in 2004, my boy Serf came back from a trip to Thailand with a treasure trove…
Staring Over The Shoulders Of Giants: Overture
First off, super-sized kudos to Anthony Tommasini, the classical music critic for The New York Times. To even have the interest, much less the ability, to grapple with an ultimate ranking…
West Coast Seattle Boy: The Jimi Hendrix Anthology
All These Colors: Without Names, Without Sound Jimi Hendrix has been dead for a long time, and the only thing we have to reconcile the senselessness of how young he…
Top 50 Albums of the Decade, Part Five (Revisited)
10. The Fiery Furnaces, Bitter Tea (2006) It's a funny thing: as decidedly out there as this effort obviously is, compared to the album that preceded it, Bitter Tea is…