She was a legend before her 30th birthday, revolutionizing and modernizing an art. She was America’s ballet ambassador, for decades… and generations before the haunting “Killers Of The Flower Moon” re-introduced the Osage people to the public consciousness, Maria Tallchief was the Osage’s de facto ambassador to the world. In life and in death, Tallchief …
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In terms of non-photographic art, I love the commercial genre much more than anything else. There’s something about the almost-completely-lost profession of creating art on demand; producing amazing art on a deadline… often uncredited, and often, for astoundingly low pay (but nonetheless a living wage at the time, if one was prolific). I thought today, …
“Older, wiser and none the worse for wear – former Lotus Eaters frontman Peter Coyle once again comes up for air with a doubloon clenched in his teeth. As with recent singles by peers Tears For Fears, The Cure and Haircut 100, the new offering “Why Are You Hustling?” is immediate and fresh and relevant …
This new Leon Bridges single came on the radio in the car today, and for no reason at all I just lost it. A song that just sounds so damn good. Channeling a lot of Marvin here. I need a 9-minute version.
Great new music from Fontaines D.C. … or, rather, music that was recorded nearly 40 years ago – only to surface last month. This song is a bittersweet thrill for me… simultaneously makes me feel young again – and reminds me that those feeling happened a long time ago, now. In any case, I’ll be …
Pete Rose and Johnny Bench, 1971. “Charlie Hustle” played the game as it should be played, and played it better than almost any other figure in baseball history. He played every game as if his life depended on it. Charlie Hustle was an integral part of two National League dynasties. Of course, most people associate …
Kristofferson was so talented as an actor, later generations might not even know that he was a remarkable musician. He was so well-known as a singer, some people might’ve forgotten that he wrote some of the most important songs of the Sixties and Seventies. Kristofferson was so skilled as a songwriter, a lot of people …
If it wasn’t for that unmistakeable voice, you’d think that the new song “Take Me Back To The Party” was a debut from an artist barely out of her teens. A hi-energy disco throwback – complete with an irresistible fuzz-bassline, a Theremin tease and a great lyrical hook – it sounds like an incredibly adept …
I once went on a date with Charles R. Cross – often known as “Charley.” It was the first time we’d formally met – though he’d said hello to me in passing, maybe once. I was a regular contributor to The Rocket, coming by once a week or two to pitch assignments or drop some …
Tacoma’s Jerry Miller, who made his mark in music history as one of rock’s greatest guitarists almost 60 years ago, is dead at 81. Miller was one of the guitarists in Moby Grape, a band with an incredibly vivid, unusual and brief career that began in the mid-late 1960s. A wiki read is advisable if …
Eyes seeking cues from the other’s in a novel duet, they sing of ambitions someday realized – and hopes dashed by the weight of life, and by time. They sing of the humming wheels of an escape vehicle, and what promises may lie over the horizon. A black woman with so much in her rearview …
It was an odd song, really; sort of a bluesy dirge with an unusual structure – in fact, it was a cover of a Bessie Banks single. Young white men singing r&b was nothing new by 1964 – but The Moody Blues and then-frontman Denny Laine made it their own via authentic emotion. Man, what …
When Seattle’s music and arts festival, Bumbershoot, rolls around every Labor Day weekend… I feel bittersweet pangs of poignancy. As I now write of it from 2,400 miles away, I’ve realized that my fuzzy-warm memories have even more to do with the festival’s site – the Seattle Center. The magic, the always-pleasant atmosphere of that …
The best covers illustrate the songwriters’ talents, as simple and simultaneously complicated as that can be. Sinead O’Connor’s voice… her delivery, her phrasing… was a reminder, an illustration of Prince’s genius at a time when he was starting to get a little kookier, when some from my generation were starting to tune him out. The …
You have to be of a certain age – to be able to remember the year 1984 very clearly – to begin to understand the impact of Tina Turner’s famous “comeback.” To understand that her resurrection was multi-layered; to comprehend how important that was to countless women. Yes, there was the incredible music… but the …
He was a favorite “ice breaker,” or conversation starter, of mine during my career as a music journalist. Invoke this composer’s name, and I’d get a foot in the door. Thomas Dolby once told me the story that I’d long wanted to hear – how the two met, and ultimately collaborated. Peter Murphy recalled playing …
My late wife and I often dreamed of going to Hawaii; neither of us had ever been. Usually, because of a lack of funds; a struggling writer vacations close to home. When she realized that breast cancer was going to take her, we again talked of the islands Sit on the beach together, and never …
You’d have to be at least Generation X-age to fully appreciate the enormous impact that singer/songwriter/actress/producer Irene Cara had on pop culture in the 1980s. A gigantic meteor wouldn’t have made a deeper impact, really. The theme to Flashdance? Omnipresent for years; in the public consciousness for decades. But perhaps a bigger contribution, in the …
Elton John and Bernie Taupin are responsible for a lot of legendary compositions… to me, between 1971 and 1975 they created four of the most perfect, most amazing songs ever recorded. Not saying they’re better than others, just saying that they haven’t and never will be topped: “Levon,” “Tiny Dancer,” “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road,” and …
Your Majesty, The fact that you continued to serve the Realm almost until the day of your death was unsurprising; you could’ve retired your crown years ago, but felt that your subjects needed you. And they did. Say what some may about the idea of a royal family in modern times, but the truth is …
By most odds, the singer should’ve been dead over 40 years ago. Then quite obese – yet energetic on stage – part of the “Bat Out of Hell” phenomenon in the late 1970s were fans fearfully speculating that every concert would be his last. And Meat Loaf was a true phenomenon; his solo debut was …
In the Golden Age of 45’s, we would’ve called Rich Arithmetic’s latest single a Double-A side. On YOU ARE ALWAYS RIGHT, Rich opens one of his most vital arteries, and with his longtime singing partner Lance Morgan, they spill sweet harmonies on to a canvas of late ‘60s folk rock (by way of mid-’80s Athens jangle). Kansas guitar …
Echoing more sleepy Santo & Johnny than hard-charging Pyramids, Rich Arithmetic’s summer single, “Saving Sunset (Last Surf Of The Day)” is a refreshing digestif for quasi-post Covid sundowns. With a Shadows-ish lead melody overlapping a traditional staccato rhythm (both played by north-of-Seattle guitarist Rich Horton (Arithmetic) – plus Ruppi Barnickel’s idyllic percussion – the instrumental …
One oft-overlooked aspect of the residential schools in Canada – run mostly by the Catholic Church and the Church of England in Canada, in conjunction with the government – is that the perpetrators documented their activities. Documented experiments such as introducing a child with tuberculosis to a classroom, and seeing how many others would contract …
Seemingly influenced by the likes of Vangelis and Tangerine Dream, deep-steeped in Bryan Ferry’s uber-sexy atmospherics… Ferry/Roxy Music saxophonist/keyboardist Jorja Chalmers has forged an impressive and distinct solo career while she’s not stealing spotlights from her employer. “I’ll Be Waiting” – the second video/single from her second album on the Italians Do It Better label …
I burst into tears this morning, reading that another bit of my childhood was gone. It surprised me at first, my brief waterfall, but then I realized that I couldn’t be the only one. It has been said that you could tell that The Hammer (never to be confused with another iconic slugger, Hank “The …
Examining the emotional impact of Raymond Briggs’ “The Snowman” – and this song, in particular – could be an eternal endeavor. Like trying to decipher the magic of The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds. I mention the latter because the musical score is integral to “The Snowman,” which is otherwise a silent film. I can’t think …
Jesus, Eddie Van Halen is dead. The wind’s been knocked out of me. What? Eddie Van Halen is gone, and with him, one of the last crouton-crumbs of my salad days has been swept away. Arguably the most influential rock musician of my generation, definitely the most influential rock guitarist since Hendrix. As with Hendrix, …
This is a lost, post-Pet Sounds, turn-of-the-70s Beach Boys record – sans Mike Love. Almost like a Carl Wilson solo record. Which is a very good thing. In fact, Brian Wilson makes a spoken-word appearance on one track! It’s a small sample from a Pet Sounds outtake. Steve Stav
Paul Kelly has penned heartbreakers, ballads, tales of struggle and triumph… even songs for funerals. A lullaby, then, hardly raises one’s eyebrows when considering Australia’s preeminent singer/songwriter’s long career. What does grab attention is that his new single, as Kelly puts it, is “a lament in the form of a lullaby. A lullaby that sounds …