What do I know about… Punk Rock
Got into punk via pirate radio, pure and simple. A bad transistor radio couldn’t mute the thunderous drumming and the wide open chords of New Rose, debut single by The Damned. Continue Reading
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What do I know about… Southern Rock
My the first encounter with Southern Rock fans was Knebworth in ’76. REO Speedwagon fans throwing bottles of piss at Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Now I know that these beery REO fans just looked like the scruffy bedenimed lazy-arses who listened to Freebird on their 8-tracks. Continue Reading
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Lonesome Jubilee
If I’m going to write this blog I have to start somewhere and it might as well be in the back of a beat up Thunderbird throwing up dust along some Indiana highway, the Fork White River down there somewhere. Continue Reading
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Bitchin’ Camaro
Now if there’s one thing I’ll never get is American college humor.
In the years I spent on campus in Manchester, England, I came across one or two wasters and scoundrels beside myself but not whole houses full. In the US being a frathouse asshole is an art in itself. Continue Reading
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Iggy’s Lust for Life
I fell for Iggy Pop not because of his music, but because of a photograph.
Let me explain.
As a kid I loved the glam rock stylings of David Bowie and specifically a larger than life theatrical character Bowie created called Ziggy Stardust. Continue Reading
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Just Fearless
I first saw Taylor Swift on some You Tube video a buddy sent me.
“You gotta see this young chick…” Continue Reading
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The Cramps – Poison Ivy’s Rockin’ Sound.
The first I heard of The Cramps was on late night radio.
The DJ on some fading pirate station was playing a massive reverb filled swamp punk number called Under The Wire, a paean to dirty phone calls. It was simultaneously subversive and hilarious. Continue Reading
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Appreciating Richard Hawley’s Cole’s Corner
My grandma Lily loved those velvet voices.
Visits to gran’s house were so often soundtracked by her favorite crooners from the late 50s. Nat King Cole, Harry Belafonte, Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra were the cornerstones of her musical appreciation and of course this rubbed off on my mother who carried the torch (song) into the sixties with her own Roy Orbison and Shirley Bassey LPs. Continue Reading
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A New York Conversation
Written October 27th 2013
I learned, just now, that Lou died today.
I never met him or even saw him perform. But in so many small ways he made my life bigger and brighter and sharper and more inspirational. Continue Reading
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Rico – Ska’s Trombone Legend
Jamaican trombonist Rico Rodriguez’s musical career spans five decades. From the earliest days of indiginous Jamaican music – mento, bluebeat, ska and rock steady right up to present-day big band ska Rico is a Jamaican living legend.
Here’s my tribute to a musical hero. Continue Reading
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