One of my favourite books is The Rolling Stone Rock ‘n’ Roll Reader, a collection of Rolling Stone articles and interviews from the late 1960s and early 1970s. It captures a point when the magazine, and rock music as a…
Between 1967 and 1972, Birmingham’s The Moody Blues released seven studio albums, commonly referred to as the core seven. They stayed in step with the times, transitioning from richly orchestrated psychedelic pop to more stripped-down albums in the 1970s. At…
The Moody Blues started their career as an R&B band, enjoying a hit with ‘Go Now’, fronted by future Wings member Denny Laine, in 1965. But after Laine left and Justin Hayward and John Lodge joined, the band found a…
For all the great music that The Beatles made, my favourite two albums from the Liverpool quartet are their mid career peaks of Revolver and Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Both capture the band at a point where they’d…
Bob Dylan’s a major musical figure who I haven’t covered on this blog yet. He has a huge discography, brimming with greatness – and I’ll tackle his 1960s albums and later highlights sometime. But I wanted to participate in blog dylan, a…
King Crimson aren’t so much a band as a series of bands, all featuring idiosyncratic guitarist Robert Fripp. With a demeanour that resembles a University professor more than a rock star, Fripp’s plotted an erratic course for his band. The…
After years of playing live, The Band recorded the Basement Tapes with Bob Dylan, where they developed their unique melding of rock with traditional folk, country and blues forms. The organic harmonies, the virtuoso but unassuming musicianship, and songs that seemed to…
Dusty Springfield began her career in a folk-pop trio The Springfields with her brother Tom. When The Springfields broke up, she went on to solo success in the early 1960s with ‘I Only Wanna Be With You’ and ‘I Don’t…
Obviously The Beatles are the most celebrated and analysed pop band in the history of music, and I don’t have anything especial to add to the conversation. The main reasons that I’m covering them is that I like them –…
Album reviews of 1950s and 1960s artists who don’t qualify for their own page. Johnny Cash At Folsom Prison 1968, 6/10Johnny Cash always had a bulletproof reputation, as a respected elder statesman of country music and anti-authoritarian hero. His baritone…
