Ten Songs From 1967 That Shaped Prog-Rock (Revisited)
Sean Murphy1. "Heroes and Villains", The Beach Boys What has tended to get lost or forgotten in the shuffle of sensationalistic trivia (of the infamously aborted SMiLE sessions) is that Wilson…
They’ll Never Put Me in Their Bag: The Continuing Story of Syd Barrett
(REVISITED FROM 11/10): When he died in 2006, after decades of cult-figure status and willful anonymity, Syd Barrett was arguably better known as the person who inspired one of Pink…
The Once and Future King: ‘SMiLE’ and Brian Wilson’s Very American Dream
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. Icarus soars too close to the sun. Othello, vulnerable and halfway crazy, mistakenly trusts the evil Iago. The product of a celebrated…
A Week of Americana. Part Two: Captain Beefheart
Don Van Vliet (R.I.P.), with his idiosyncracies, individuality and iconoclasm, represents virtually everything that is profoundly beautiful about America both as a concept and actuality. Like his compatriots Syd Barrett…
Weird Scenes Inside the Goldmine, Redux (Revisited)
Talk about better living through chemistry! Albert Hofmann, the chemist who invented/discovered LSD, has passed away at the dignified, enviable age of 102. On April 16, 1943, he made history.…
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…
They’ll Never Put Me in Their Bag: The Continuing Story of Syd Barrett
(REVISITED FROM 11/10): When he died in 2006, after decades of cult-figure status and willful anonymity, Syd Barrett was arguably better known as the person who inspired one of Pink…
The Once and Future King: ‘SMiLE’ and Brian Wilson’s Very American Dream
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. Icarus soars too close to the sun. Othello, vulnerable and halfway crazy, mistakenly trusts the evil Iago. The product of a celebrated…
A Week of Americana. Part Two: Captain Beefheart
Don Van Vliet (R.I.P.), with his idiosyncracies, individuality and iconoclasm, represents virtually everything that is profoundly beautiful about America both as a concept and actuality. Like his compatriots Syd Barrett…
Pink Floyd: The Prog Rock Archetype
It isn’t that Pink Floyd made some of the best albums of the ‘70s (they did), or that Pink Floyd moved the art form forward (they did); it’s that Pink…