We were in New York City with Joni Mitchell, and Elliot Roberts [who managed both CSNY and Mitchell] decided that Joni shouldn’t go to Woodstock because she was also scheduled to do The Dick Cavett Show on TV. It’s one of the great credits to her as an artist that …
Read More »How Apple Music is Striking a Blow for Artist Independence – by Betting Big on This French Rap Duo
Thanks to Taylor Swift, the world is talking about recorded music “masters” – and the perils facing artists who give them away to record companies. If you’re not up to speed, Swift has been left in a situation where the recorded music rights to her first six albums are owned …
Read More »Prince's Unearthed 'Originals': Collaborators Look Back on the Hits He Passed Along
“Prince was like nobody I had ever worked with before,” says one of his longtime recording engineers, Peggy McCreary. “He never explained anything to me. You never knew who a song was for until somebody got called in to sing on it.” McCreary, whose credits also include monolithic albums like …
Read More »Song You Need To Know: Neil Young 'Alabama' (Live)
Neil Young had already decided to release Tuscaloosa — a primo live set documenting a hot February, 1973 gig with his then-current band the Stray Gators — when Alabama’s current governor signed a new anti-abortion law on May 15, and when GOP sleazebag Roy Moore threatened to re-up his Senate …
Read More »Pioneering Rock Writer Ellen Sander on the Joy and Terror of the Sixties Scene
Name an iconic Sixties rock moment and Ellen Sander was probably there. Dylan going electric at Newport, the Who destroying their gear at Monterey Pop, Hendrix reshaping the National Anthem at Woodstock, the Stones recording Beggars Banquet, John and Yoko talking peace and protest during their Canadian Bed-In visit, the …
Read More »'Old Town Road' and the History of Black Cowboys in America
When folk-singer Dom Flemons began delving into the cultural history of African-Americans in the West a few years ago, he conceived the subject as a quirky passion project. “At first it was just casual research,” he says. “But when I found out one in four cowboys in the West were …
Read More »How Black Lives Matter Mourned Nipsey Hussle in Los Angeles
You will probably not find the Underground Museum if you are looking for a museum. It has a black, nondescript storefront entrance on a wide berth of West Washington Boulevard, leading visitors through its gift shop and into the main gallery space. The family-owned collective and cultural hub is known …
Read More »Read Def Leppard's Celebratory Rock Hall Induction Speech
Since forming more than four decades ago, Def Leppard became one of the best-selling bands in the world on the strength of mega-platinum albums like Pyromania and Hysteria and hard-rocking anthems like “Photograph” and “Pour Some Sugar on Me.” Tonight, they were finally recognized for their contributions to rock & …
Read More »'Grunge' Photo Exhibit: See Vintage Pics of Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden and More
Jesse Frohman remembers the first time he met Kurt Cobain. “He said, ‘Do you have a bucket?’” It was July 1993, and the photographer had been waiting to shoot the Nirvana frontman for three hours at the Omni Hotel in New York. “I said, ‘What do you need a bucket …
Read More »The Anger Inside Gary Clark Jr.
It’s already past midnight, but Gary Clark Jr. wants to keep going. The guitarist is standing in the center of a darkened room at Arlyn Studios, an unmarked building hidden behind a housing development in South Austin. Clark has been hard at work all night teaching his band a new …
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