Lou Reed: Rock and Roll’s Dark, Beautiful Heart: One Year Later
Sean MurphyEVERYONE WHO JOINS A ROCK BAND WANTS TO BE HEARD. The good ones want to be unique, while the pretenders tend to imitate what has already been done. The soulless…
A Week of Americana. Part Three: The Doors
If the discussion is going to turn to American rock bands, it would be impossible to avoid R.E.M. Fortunately, I already dealt with their legacy and am on record declaring…
Ray Manzarek: The Key to the Doors (Revisited)
When it comes to this great American band’s legacy, the best thing about the Doors is also the worst thing about the Doors: Jim Morrison. Blessed with one of the…
Howard Sounes’ ’27’ Has That Train Wreck Kind of Appeal
“You’re drinking with number three,” Jim Morrison allegedly declared, equal parts sardonic and prescient, following the successive deaths of Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix in 1970. As it happened, he…
1967 and the Prog-Rock Progenitors* (Revisited)
Progressive rock reached its full potential in the ‘70s, but its roots trace back to the previous decade. While an attempt to determine when and with whom prog-rock formally originated…
Lou Reed: Rock and Roll’s Dark, Beautiful Heart
EVERYONE WHO JOINS A ROCK BAND WANTS TO BE HEARD. The good ones want to be unique, while the pretenders tend to imitate what has already been done. The soulless…
A Week of Americana. Part Three: The Doors
If the discussion is going to turn to American rock bands, it would be impossible to avoid R.E.M. Fortunately, I already dealt with their legacy and am on record declaring…
Ray Manzarek: The Key to the Doors
When it comes to this great American band’s legacy, the best thing about the Doors is also the worst thing about the Doors: Jim Morrison. Blessed with one of the…
1967 and the Prog-Rock Progenitors*
Progressive rock reached its full potential in the ‘70s, but its roots trace back to the previous decade. While an attempt to determine when and with whom prog-rock formally originated…
They Will Rock You, They Are The Champions: The Consummate American Bands (Revisited)
October ’08. In the spirit of two quintessentially American inventions (obsessions, really), baseball and rock and roll, it seemed like a swell idea to merge the two in a lighthearted…