I woke up this morning to a burnt orange sky and thoughts of a slow apocalypse. What better time to listen to Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here for the first time? This isn’t my Pink Floyd introduction. At seven years old, when I was obsessed with The Wizard of Oz, my mom sat me […]
I have gotten more and more negative as the year has dragged on. I just want it to be Christmas, so we can all have something to look forward to, then draw a line under this bizarre, challenging, and, in many ways, depressing year. I was in this foul funk where I seemed to be […]
Mighty as a dinosaur with the sensual power of a panther and colorful like a cartoon, Marc Bolan was inarguably one of rock n’ roll’s greatest wonders. Glam rock’s founding father danced and dazzled his way into the hearts of teenagers from London to Los Angeles to Tokyo. Even before that, he won the world […]
Judas Priest’s Painkiller was more than just a comeback album for the iconic British group. It was a bold new statement of intent and a record that would prove to be highly influential on the European metal scene in the early 1990s. The quintet showed that they still had plenty of fire left and could […]
Rock and roll was already having a spectacular 1975 when Bruce Springsteen’s Born to Run came along on August 25. We had so far been graced by Physical Graffiti, Toys in the Attic, and Katy Lied, albums so beloved they don’t even require the bands’ names to be attached. While there were certainly moments of celebration, […]
The Doobie Brothers, like so many classic rock acts, are easy to take for granted. For the past 50 years, the band has always seemed to be there. They’re a mainstay of the summer concert schedule and should be on the road right now to celebrate their golden anniversary if not for the pandemic. Too, […]
One of my earliest memories of MTV was seeing Joe Lynn Turner fronting Rainbow for the video of “Stone Cold.” Clad in a leather jacket, sporting a dark mane, and staring down the camera with confidence, he sang an atmospheric ballad of faded love and disillusionment while masked women circled him in front of a […]
When Fleetwood Mac proclaimed in 1977 that they’d “never break the chain,” one of their links was stranded in the past: Peter Green. His absence still haunts the band. “I’d always get people in the hotel room on tour and say, ‘Now I want you to hear Peter Green,’” their drummer Mick Fleetwood said in […]
One Saturday when I was a kid, my mom dragged me to a department store. She probably promised me a new comic book. As she shopped in the Exasperated Single Mothers section, I wandered away and started crawling through racks of clothes. I didn’t realize we were near the record department, which had an old-school […]
Death has cast a long shadow over rock and roll. Many famous bands disbanded for years or permanently after an iconic member passed away. Some reunited but rarely if ever recorded new music. Following the death of their exuberant frontman Bon Scott in early 1980, the shocked and saddened members of AC/DC were unsure of […]
