Category: Music

I can’t listen to Fleetwood Mac’s eponymous 1975 album without thinking of a lunch meeting I had in New York City early in the year before its release. I had arranged an interview with a folk duo called Carlson and Gailmor, whose debut LP was about to come out, and a publicist at their record...

If you’re not at least a bit older than the concert featured on One for All Tour: Live in Australia 1989, you might not realize just how big a group the Bee Gees were. Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb (the brothers Gibb, hence the name Bee Gees) sold tens of millions of records—hundreds of millions...

Though live material from Arthur Lee’s brilliant rock band Love was in short supply for decades, the situation has changed in recent years. You’ll still have trouble finding much from the lineup that issued Love’s classic quartet of early albums between 1966 and 1969; but the good news is that group prime mover Arthur Lee—who...

Jeff Beck’s new Live at the Hollywood Bowl is a straightforward, no-frills concert movie that offers the opportunity to see the guitar master do what he’s been doing for over 50 years. Joined by a number of guest vocalists, Beck runs his impeccable band through 21 tunes spanning his entire career. The film keeps the...

Wars don’t produce a heck of a lot of good but one positive thing they have delivered is music. Conflicts ranging from the American Civil War to World War II have resulted in a ton of memorable songs; even the Vietnam disaster gave us Country Joe’s “I Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-to-Die Rag.”  And then there was the Spanish...

From Eagle Vision comes a must for Madonna fans, Rebel Heart Tour—a live concert film documenting the controversial 2015-2016 tour seen by over a million attendees. The show features most of the songs found on Madonna’s most recent album, Rebel Heart, so don’t expect a ‘greatest hits’-style show. That said, don’t fret if you’re not...

Though never on a par with the Beach Boys, Jan & Dean had their moments. This wasn’t one of them. In fact, my first reaction when I heard Filet of Soul Redux echoed the famous opening line of Greil Marcus’s review of Bob Dylan’s Self-Portrait: “What is this shit?” Then I noticed that the CD...

Yes! Finally, the 2009 Change Begins Within: A Benefit Concert for the David Lynch Foundation arrives on DVD via Eagle Rock Entertainment on September 1, 2017. It’s not the complete show, which was a fundraiser intended to benefit (as the DVD’s title makes plain) the David Lynch Foundation. This 86-minute programs omits some key moments...

In an interview cited in my book Lennon on Lennon: Conversations with John Lennon, he comments that Ringo “wasn’t known for writing his own material, and there was a bit of a worry [among the other Beatles when the group broke up]…how is his recording career gonna be? And in general, it’s probably better than...

The Grateful Dead or perhaps Bob Dylan may hold the record for most releases from the vaults, but the Beach Boys aren’t far behind. Over the years, we’ve seen the group’s studio albums reissued as twofers, with a wealth of bonus tracks. Greatly expanded versions of Beach Boys Party and the Beach Boys’ Christmas Album...