Gene Clark is best-known as an original member of The Byrds. He was the first to leave the group – with a fear of flying he disliked touring, while the other members resented his song-writing royalties. The most accomplished songwriter…
Hüsker Dü are among the embarrassment of riches to emerge from Minnesota in the 1980s – their state’s contemporaries include Prince, The Replacements, and Soul Asylum. The three-piece band played energetic and emotive music – they started playing hardcore punk,…
A quirky alternative rock band from Boston, Massachusetts, the Pixies effectively bridged two eras in guitar rock; the underground bands of the 1980s like Hüsker Dü and the mega-selling 1990s alt-rock bands like Nirvana and Radiohead. The four-piece guitar band…
Despite his talent, it took Billy Joel a long time to find success. He played piano on the Shangri-Las’ ‘Remember (Walking in the Sand)’ in 1964 as a teenager – although it’s unclear whether he appeared on a demo or…
It took me a while to warm up to the sophisticated LA grooves of Steely Dan. Growing up, classic hits radio played precisely five Steely Dan songs; ‘Do It Again’, ‘Reelin’ In The Years’, ‘Rikki, Don’t Lose That Number’, ‘Hey…
Alex Chilton was already a star when he joined forces with the band Icewater. Icewater’s members – singer/guitarist Chris Bell, bassist Andy Hummel, and drummer Jody Stephens – had been playing in Memphis garage-rock bands. Despite the city’s heritage of…
Neil Leslie Diamond is adored by mature women and ironically enjoyed by sports crowds singing ‘Sweet Caroline’. Indoctrinated at an early age, however, I appreciate him as a fascinating character. Diamond is part sequined stadium-filling entertainer and part introverted singer-songwriter.…
My first encounter with the music of Paul Westerberg was my sister’s copy of the Friends soundtrack. I wasn’t impressed – his rough-hewn vocals were out of place among slick alt-rock tracks from Hootie and the Blowfish, The Rembrandts, and…
Even before she released her first solo album, New York’s Carole King had already enjoyed a prolific music career. She’d inspired Neil Sedaka’s ‘Oh! Carol’ and written a hit song for her daughters’ babysitter (Little Eva’s ‘Loco-motion’). The 1960s hits…
If you’re not from Australasia, chances are that you’re not familiar with Dave Dobbyn – he’s ubiquitous in New Zealand, but obscure everywhere else. When a panel selected the New Zealand’s best ever popular songs in 2001, five Dave Dobbyn…
The Byrds were one of the most significant American bands of the 1960s. They emerged out of the L.A. folk scene, featuring three singer-guitarists; James Roger McGuinn, Gene Clark, and David Crosby. Their first single as The Byrds was their…
In the 1980s hair-metal and synth-infusions represented the mainstream of rock, and a scrappy rock ‘n roll band from Minneapolis was relegated to cult status. Shortly after The Replacements broke up, Nirvana took aspects of their sound to the mainstream,…
