Phonograph Record
Phonograph Record was founded in Los Angeles, California, by Marty Cerf in September 1970, as an alternative to Creem and Rolling Stone. It was available on newsstands and also distributed free via radio stations across the USA. The magazine was subsequently edited by Greg Shaw and Ken Barnes and featured contributions from many of the best music writers of the time. It ceased publication in May 1978.
613 articles
List of articles in the library
Review by Ben Edmonds, Phonograph Record, May 1976
"We're the queens of noise/ The answer to your dreams." ...
David Bowie: Station to Station – A Report
Report by Ben Edmonds, Phonograph Record, January 1976
A YEAR AGO, David Bowie's public face was a mess. The Diamond Dogs tour he'd recently completed had certainly been successful enough, but it was ...
Fleetwood Mac: Fleetwood Mac (Reprise)
Review by Ben Edmonds, Phonograph Record, September 1975
If you’re one of those people like me who lost track of Fleetwood Mac in the post-Peter Green haze of erratic albums and perpetual personnel ...
Sweet: The Sweet: Give Us A Wink (Capitol)
Review by Ben Edmonds, Phonograph Record, March 1976
The question with The Sweet has always been one of validity. In England, it was the struggle to become something more than the string of ...
Elton John: Rock Of The Westies (MCA)
Review by Ben Edmonds, Phonograph Record, November 1975
It might seem ridiculous to contend that an artist was weakened by two albums which sold a higher number of copies than I can count ...
Profile by Simon Frith, Phonograph Record, August 1974
"Just ’cause I’ve got a couple of buns in front don’t mean I can’t play rock’n’roll." ...
The Beach Boys: Brian Is Back… Again!
Report and Interview by Harvey Kubernik, Phonograph Record, August 1977
"We're still happening. New people are picking up on us all the time. I don't really analyze why we're successful, but the main reason for ...
Raspberries: The Story of the Raspberries
Interview by Metal Mike Saunders, Phonograph Record, October 1972
"I couldn’t say what I wanted to say till she whispered 'I Love You', so please, baby, go all the way..." ...
Ronnie Wood: Now Look (Warner Bros.)
Review by Bud Scoppa, Phonograph Record, July 1975
Hey, this is good. Not good-despite-sloppiness like Wood’s earlier solo album, but unreservedly good. ...
Grateful Dead: Blues For Allah (United Artists / Grateful Dead Records)
Review by Bud Scoppa, Phonograph Record, September 1975
The first Dead album to be distributed by United Artists contains everything we’ve come to expect from the latter-day group and its offshoots: tuneless songs, ...
The Who: Tommy on the Silver Screen
Review by Bud Scoppa, Phonograph Record, April 1975
Pre-release skepticism was clearly in order. The handing over of Townshend’s likeable but jumbled spiritual parable to filmdom’s master of the Technicolor sick joke seemed ...
Van Morrison: A Period Of Transition
Review by Bud Scoppa, Phonograph Record, May 1977
"It’s just what it is – it says what it is and nobody is going to analyze it for secret meanings. It’s exactly what it ...
The Eagles: Hotel California (Asylum)
Review by Bud Scoppa, Phonograph Record, February 1977
To many rock connoisseurs, Eagles records are about as appetizing as a Jumbo Jack: heavy on the packaging, standardized for mass-consumption, with nothing but go ...
Boz Scaggs: Silk Degrees (Columbia)
Review by Bud Scoppa, Phonograph Record, April 1976
For eight years, Boz Scaggs has been making playable, durable albums (counting the new one, there are now six solo LPs, and before that Scaggs ...
Warren Zevon: Warren Zevon (Asylum)
Review by Bud Scoppa, Phonograph Record, June 1976
THEY'RE ALL HERE – various Eagles, an Everly Brother, Buckingham/Nicks, Bonnie Raitt, Carl Wilson, David Lindley, J.D. Souther, and Jackson Browne himself, acting as producer ...
Steve Miller Band: Fly Like An Eagle (Capitol)
Review by Bud Scoppa, Phonograph Record, June 1976
Steve Miller is a bright guy and a fine musician who can rock with the best of them. ...
The Rolling Stones: Black And Blue (COC)
Review by Bud Scoppa, Phonograph Record, May 1976
IN THE FOUR years that have passed since the release of Exile On Main Street, perhaps their greatest album, The Stones have managed to put ...
Dr. Feelgood: Dr Feelgood: Malpractice (Columbia)
Review by Bud Scoppa, Phonograph Record, January 1976
People who have seen this determinedly primitive English rock & roll combo on stage tell me Dr Feelgood is very exciting and great fun, qualities ...
Pink Floyd: Wish You Were Here (Columbia)
Review by Bud Scoppa, Phonograph Record, October 1975
Although Pink Floyd has always represented itself – through album graphics, song and album titles, and stage presentation – as working in the outer limits ...
Allman Brothers Band: Win, Lose or Draw
Review by Bud Scoppa, Phonograph Record, October 1975
The Allman Brothers haven't been behaving at all like one of the two or three biggest draws in rock & roll. From the lack of ...
Dwight Twilley: Twilley Don’t Mind
Review by Bud Scoppa, Phonograph Record, August 1977
EVERYBODY KNOWS that people who write record reviews are supposed to complain every so often about what a crummy year it’s been for music, and ...
Bad Company: Straight Shooter (Swan Song)
Review by Bud Scoppa, Phonograph Record, June 1975
Bad Company came in with a literal bang: Simon Kirke’s drum-shot opening to ‘Can’t Get Enough’ (the first track on the first album, and subsequently ...
The Eagles: One Of These Nights (Asylum)
Review and Interview by Bud Scoppa, Phonograph Record, June 1975
The Eagles’ new fourth album is at once the most musically adventurous and the most consistent work yet from this latter-day classic LA band. ...
Jackson Browne: Late for the Sky (Asylum)
Review by Bud Scoppa, Phonograph Record, December 1974
"IT’S ONLY a pop record – I know that," someone said to me about Late for the Sky. "So why does it affect me strongly?" ...
Elliott Murphy: Elliot Murphy: Night Lights (RCA)
Review by Bud Scoppa, Phonograph Record, March 1976
Lost Generation, the second album by this hero-obsessed New Yorker, made it clear that Murphy’s haughty, proper-noun-laden style could be undercut by unsympathetic or insensitive ...
Review by Bud Scoppa, Phonograph Record, March 1976
In the February Esquire, Douglas Davis discusses the new meaning the word "tough" has taken on in photographic circles: "It has come to mean (particularly ...
Neil Young: American Stars ’n Bars (Reprise)
Review by Bud Scoppa, Phonograph Record, June 1977
Superstar-turned-cult-attraction Young has thrown a change of pace by serving up a tasty platter of palatable musical morsels. Long considered the godfather of agony rock ...
801, Brian Eno, Phil Manzanera: Eno, Phil Manzanera et al.: 801 Live
Review by Bud Scoppa, Phonograph Record, June 1977
I'D WAGER that the market for import albums is sustained primarily by fanciers of various exotic genres (Kraut-rock, pub-rock, punk-rock, zen-rock, bla-bla-bla). Some of this ...
Eric Clapton: No Reason To Cry (RSO)
Review by Bud Scoppa, Phonograph Record, October 1976
When Clapton’s good, he’s as good as they get — Layla stays in the "play" pile in every collection I have access to, Disraeli Gears ...
The Rolling Stones: Cocksucker Blues: A Film by Robert Frank and Danny Seymour
Review by Bud Scoppa, Phonograph Record, December 1976
This unreleased – and suppressed – documentary of The Stones’ ’72 US tour is far and away the most revealingly powerful rock & roll movie ...
Utopia: Todd Rundgren’s Utopia: Another Live (Bearsville)
Review by Bud Scoppa, Phonograph Record, November 1975
With a running time of just 45 minutes and one entire side of highly accessible rock & roll, Todd Rundgren’s Another Live represents a return ...
Review by Bud Scoppa, Phonograph Record, August 1974
For an artist with distinct limitations – vocal, compositional, and stylistic – Elton John makes awfully good records. One of the reasons is his avowed ...
The Beach Boys: A California Saga
Essay by Gene Sculatti, Greg Shaw, Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, May 1973
The Revival of Coastal Consciousness featuring The Beach Boys, Dean Torrance, California, American Spring ...
Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, August 1974
Sometimes it takes so long for greatness to be recognized that when it finally happens, most people wonder how such a highly-developed ability sprang into ...
Profile by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, August 1974
I was sitting in my den, as I often do, playing records and making notes for an article, when something clicked unexpectedly in my mind. ...
Dave Edmunds: Subtle as a Flying Mallet
Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, December 1975
Perhaps you’re thinking it’s either premature or entirely unwarranted that a relative unknown whose sole claim to fame is a 1970 updating of Smiley Lewis’ ...
Barry Mann: Rock & Roll Survivor
Profile and Interview by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, July 1975
Who put the bomp in the bomp-a-bomp-a-bomp?Who put the ram in the rama-lama-ding-dong?Who put the bop in the bop-shoobop-shoobop?Who put the dit in the dit-didit-didit?Who ...
Elvis Presley: The Cobo Hall, Detroit, Michigan
Live Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, December 1972
I'M GETTING pretty sick of all this talk about what a gross Tom Jones imitation Elvis has become. Baby fat and other people’s songs, indeed. ...
The Sex Pistols: 100 Club, London
Live Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, June 1976
LONDON, THE TREND centre of last decade’s mod rebellion, has been running a poor second, if not third, this time around. ...
Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, May 1975
When it comes to making solo albums, it seems that some folks have it and others don't know the difference. ...
John Fogerty Looks At Rock In ‘76
Interview by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, April 1976
''Let's face it," John Fogerty was saying, "could I wear eye shadow and get away with it?" He was speaking of the sense of alienation ...
The Rolling Stones: It’s Only Rock ’N Roll
Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, December 1974
"The Best Party Album In Years" ...
The Who’s Mod Generation: Quadrophenia Through The Years
Overview by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, December 1973
If I could somehow live my teenage years over again, I think I would choose to live them as a Mod. What it must have ...
Michel Pagliaro: M’Lady/Pagliaro/Pag/Pagliaro Live
Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, 1973
ABOUT A year ago we reviewed a single called 'Some Sing, Some Dance' by one Pagliaro. Genuine pop-rock being so much scarcer in those days ...
David Johansen, Lou Reed: The Head Doll talks about Lou Reed's Berlin
Interview by Ron Ross, Phonograph Record, December 1973
Note: Marty Cerf and I conceived of a series of these for Phonograph Record: I think Iggy may have done Aladdin Sane for PRM. I ...
Todd Rundgren: Faithful: The Todd Rundgren You've Been Waiting For
Review by Ben Edmonds, Phonograph Record, April 1976
THIS IS THE Todd Rundgren album that a lot of people have been waiting for. The part of his audience that considered Something/Anything pop heaven ...
Review by Bud Scoppa, Phonograph Record, April 1977
I'M CONVINCED there's gonna be heavy bidding on the movie rights to this story. A legendary but unstable British rock band emigrates to L.A., ...
Raspberries: The Raspberries: Side Three (Capitol)
Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, October 1973
THEY SAY the third album is the crucial one for any group, and it’s particularly true for the Raspberries. Their first was good, but not ...
Rod Stewart: A Night On The Town
Review by Bud Scoppa, Phonograph Record, August 1976
AFTER HIS LAST great album, 1972's Never a Dull Moment, Rod Stewart began casting off much of what we'd come to love him for: the ...
Travis Wammack: Scratching in the Shoals: Travis Wammack
Interview by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, October 1972
THERE ARE SOME names you never forget. Names like Narvel Felts, Felton Jarvis, Elvis Presley...Good Southern names for self-styled Southern boys that made some of ...
Stephen Stills: Stephen Stills 2
Review by Jon Tiven, Phonograph Record, September 1971
DO YOU REALIZE that in the past eight months there have been two solo albums by Steve Stills, in addition to 4 Way Street (which ...
Review by John Mendelsohn, Phonograph Record, May 1975
ALLOW ME TO ventilate my prejudices up-front, just so you'll be hip as to where I'm coming from. I appreciate that being invited out for ...
Review by Bud Scoppa, Phonograph Record, March 1974
I HAVEN'T HEARD many albums in the last two years that I like as much as Big Star's first, Number One Record. Responsible for the ...
Ozark Mountain Daredevils: Ozark Mountain Daredevils
Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, January 1974
KANSAS CITY HAS never been what you'd call a major center for rock music. It's a fairly large city, with a sizeable and extremely devoted ...
Del Shannon: The Return of the 'Runaway' Man: Del Shannon
Report by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, January 1974
COMEBACKS ARE becoming as common as oldies these days. When you think about it, rock & roll has been around some twenty years now, with ...
Todd Rundgren: Todd: Rundgren Reviews Himself
Interview by Alan Betrock, Phonograph Record, March 1974
TODD WAS RECORDED mostly during July; actually July and August, 1973, and it was my usual hodgepodge approach to performance in the album. ...
Blue Ash: Can Blue Ash Sing The Whites?
Report by Metal Mike Saunders, Phonograph Record, January 1974
YOU REMEMBER Blue Ash. They put out an album last year that all the critics loved. It was sort of Beatle-Byrdsish, yet quite original in ...
Humble Pie, The Small Faces, Steve Marriott: Steve Marriott: Humble As Pie
Report and Interview by Jon Tiven, Phonograph Record, September 1971
AFTER A COMPLETELY satisfying set by Humble Pie at the Capitol Theatre, I went backstage for an interview with Steve Marriott, their trebly-talented lead singer, ...
Review by John Mendelsohn, Phonograph Record, May 1975
IF YOU'RE A regular reader of the Phonograph Record review section (and in this day and age who isn't?), you're probably beside yourself trying to ...
Abba: Belly to Belly, Butt to Butt, Sweden Sends Us Rock and Roll Smut
Report by Ron Ross, Phonograph Record, December 1975
A LOT OF PEOPLE didn't like Napoleon, but nobody doesn't like gurls. Which may account for the success with which Abba's top five smash of ...
Retrospective by Ben Edmonds, Phonograph Record, April 1973
I MADE INITIAL contact with Stevie Winwood in March of 1966, a weekend rebel still in the high school clutches of suburban Boston. As was ...
The Amboy Dukes, Ted Nugent: Ted Nugent and the Amboy Dukes: Call Of The Wild
Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, March 1974
LONG BEFORE the Midwest was overrun with groups who survived for years without hit records by playing interminable guitar solos to vacant-eyed kids at an ...
Blue Oyster Cult: Tyranny and Mutation
Review by Metal Mike Saunders, Phonograph Record, April 1973
YOU MIGHT remember my brief mention of Blue Oyster Cult's new album in the heavy metal piece. That was after only one listen, however, and ...
Jimmy Cliff and Various Artists: The Harder They Come
Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, April 1973
IT'S REGGAE, MON, sweet as cola wine and m'bopo supremo. No lectures, no history lessons, if ya don't know about that sound from Jamaica by ...
Review by Alan Betrock, Phonograph Record, December 1975
WHEN OLIVER Ulyses Adrian ('Roy') Wood joined the ranks of Birmingham's professional musicians back in 1964, few observers could have guessed that he would evolve ...
The Isley Brothers: Two Generations Of Innovation
Report and Interview by Joe McEwen, Phonograph Record, June 1976
A SHORT HOP across the George Washington Bridge, Teaneck, New Jersey is a crowded suburban community, dominated by upwardly mobile black families. In the past ...
David Bowie: Fleeting Moments In A Glamorous Career
Report by Ron Ross, Phonograph Record, October 1972
WITH NOT SO much as the Ed Sullivan Show, Shindig or Hullabaloo, a Winky Dink screen or a fifth-Spider like Murray the K to add ...
Genesis: The Future of Rock Theatre
Report and Interview by Ron Ross, Phonograph Record, February 1975
THE LAMB LIES DOWN ON BROADWAY is a short story that comprises no fewer than 48 different plot movements, and a stage show with 3000 ...
Review by Ben Edmonds, Phonograph Record, December 1975
ROXY MUSIC IS among the handful of very best bands in the world. You didn't know that? You're not exactly alone, but the number of ...
Sutherland Brothers and Quiver: Sutherland Bros & Quiver: They're Not An American Band
Interview by Alan Betrock, Phonograph Record, November 1973
THERE ARE numerous British groups who admire US units like the Byrds and the Band, but few, if any, have risen above the level of ...
New York Dolls: The New York Dolls: An Insider's View
Profile and Interview by Ron Ross, Phonograph Record, October 1973
THE NEW YORK DOLLS are going to prove to be the ultimate rock critics' band, because, along with David Bowie, Lou Reed, Alice Cooper, and ...
Nazareth: Pulling Into Nazareth
Retrospective by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, March 1976
IT'S ALMOST schizophrenic. On the one side there's Nazareth the loud, flashy, hard-rocking boogie band. That's more or less their reputation in England, where they've ...
Blue Oyster Cult at Hollywood Palladium
Live Review by Metal Mike Saunders, Phonograph Record, November 1973
FEW GROUPS in recent memory have had as successful a California debut performance as Blue Oyster Cult's here this September. Third-billed to Joe Walsh and ...
Roxy Music: 'Love Is The Drug' in Bi-centennial Year!
Essay by Ron Ross, Phonograph Record, March 1976
ROXY MUSIC, once scorned here as the last frontier of glitter'n'glam, may now become the one group capable of closing the two gaps which have ...
Nazareth: Close Enough For Rock & Roll
Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, March 1976
Close Enough For Rock & Roll, due for release in the near future, is more of the same for Nazareth. That is to say, out ...
Jackson Browne: in concert at McCabe's
Live Review by Richard Cromelin, Phonograph Record, September 1973
AT ONE POINT in his show, Jackson Browne told his audience in the packed but uncramped performance room of McCabe's Guitar Shop that he much ...
New York Dolls: The Legendary Mercer Concerts
Live Review by Alan Betrock, Phonograph Record, October 1973
THE HEADLINER was Satan the Eternal-Fire-Eater, and the place was the Mercer Arts Center. The room was the Kitchen —approximately 13' x 60' in size. ...
The Nazz, Todd Rundgren: The Inauguration of Todd Rundgren
Profile and Interview by Ron Ross, Phonograph Record, March 1973
NOO YAWK, NU YORK — Beneath the red fluorescence of Max's Kansas City, where the boys wear lipstick and the girls have nails, Alice Cooper, ...
The Left Banke, Stories: The Left Banke and Stories : The Michael Brown Story
Profile by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, May 1973
THE ALBUM DEBUT of Stories was one of the most exciting musical events of 1972. A number of excellent LP's in a new American lightweight ...
Creedence Clearwater Revival: Pendulum
Review by Bud Scoppa, Phonograph Record, February 1971
DON'T LET 'EM fool you. Pendulum is as distinctly Creedence as 'Proud Mary' or 'Lodi'. And that, I think, is good; Creedence music is one ...
Bruce Springsteen: The Roxy, Los Angeles
Live Review by Bud Scoppa, Phonograph Record, November 1975
PEOPLE WHO who were clearly not accustomed to standing in line formed a reluctant column along Sunset Boulevard; hordes of photographers snapped at the famous ...
Blue Oyster Cult: On Your Feet Or On Your Knees
Review by Steven Rosen, Phonograph Record, April 1975
THOUGH THIS record does not rank with the Beach Boys In Concert for sheer recording quality or the Who's Live at Leeds for spontaneous instrumentation, ...
The Beach Boys: At The Anaheim Convention Center, California
Live Review by Gene Sculatti, Phonograph Record, January 1974
WHERE ELSE could the Beach Boys preface a performance of 'Surfer Girl' with, "on our way down here tonight, we passed within two blocks of ...
Eric Carmen: Eric Carmen - Brian Wilson with Strings Attached
Review by Ron Ross, Phonograph Record, November 1975
ERIC CARMEN isn't sorry that he asked us to go all the way with the Raspberries, but real life has its own way of intruding ...
Review by Alan Betrock, Phonograph Record, March 1974
IT'S HAPPENED BEFORE — little known American rockers going over to England to be "discovered", and returning to their homeland as superstars. The most obvious ...
Review by Alan Betrock, Phonograph Record, January 1974
I DON'T CARE if your heart rests with country twang, surf harmonies, acid riffs, folk strums, commercial muzak, or Anglophile accents. There's one thing that ...
Big Star: At Overton Square, Memphis
Live Review by Metal Mike Saunders, Phonograph Record, July 1973
THIS REVIEW is primarily about Alex Chilton, formerly of the Box Tops and presently with Big Star. The occasions are few and far between that ...
Iggy Pop, The Stooges: Iggy and the Stooges: At the Whisky a Go Go, Hollywood
Live Review by Metal Mike Saunders, Phonograph Record, October 1973
The Stooges have made the Comeback of the Year, no doubt about it, and their energized stay at the Whisky sealed it. The night before ...
Raspberries: The Raspberries: At Carnegie Hall, September 26, 1973
Live Review by Alan Betrock, Phonograph Record, November 1973
FOR THE RASPBERRIES, this night was something special. They had been waiting almost a decade to play in New York, and this was their debut ...
Review by Metal Mike Saunders, Phonograph Record, August 1972
IF YOU DON'T THINK Alice Cooper are the Rolling Stones of 1972, think again. In innumerable aspects – from the foremost importance of image to ...
The Beach Boys: Spirit Of America
Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, May 1975
ANOTHER SUMMER, another Beach Boys anthology. It never ends, does it? All you kids who bought Endless Summer last year can now buy Spirit of ...
Review by Ron Ross, Phonograph Record, July 1974
RUFF-RUFF-BOW-BOW: Bowie's bewitched, bothered, bewildered and back to play – 25 eastern cities in an intense five week tour concluding mid-July with his single biggest ...
Hawkwind: Ford Theatre, Detroit
Live Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, January 1974
OF THE MERE six dates Hawkwind had chosen for their American debut tour, it seemed most appropriate to be seeing them in Detroit, the ancestral ...
The Moody Blues: Every Good Boy Deserves Favour
Review by Jon Tiven, Phonograph Record, September 1971
CLAD IN LUSH blue and scarlet robes, a monk descends from the sky. Raising his brow, and pointing his forearm at the heavens, he ...
Badfinger: Ass (Apple) and Badfinger (Warner Bros)
Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, January 1974
TWO BADFINGER albums in one month! What more could a fan ask for after a two year drought? If only it were so... actually, the ...
The Turtles, featuring Flo & Eddie
Profile and Interview by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, September 1973
FLO & EDDIE are well-known (if rather rotund) figures; their supporting role in the colossal Alice Cooper psychodrama alone assured them a massive national audience. ...
Raspberries: The Raspberries: Side Three
Review by Ben Edmonds, Phonograph Record, 1973
MENTION THE RASPBERRIES, and right away you're caught in a crossfire. In one corner are those (a few over-zealous rock critics and enough real kids ...
Black Sabbath: Black Sabbath Volume 4
Review by Metal Mike Saunders, Phonograph Record, November 1972
IT'S EARLY 1965. Suppose, just for once, that folk-rock never happens. Instead the English Invasion proceeds to its logical conclusions and rather than marking the ...
Rod Stewart: Never A Dull Moment
Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, September 1972
WELL, IT TOOK AWHILE, but Rod Stewart is back again with his fourth straight formula solo album. He's rounded up roughly the same crew of ...
Review by Alan Betrock, Phonograph Record, 1973
IT's DEFINITELY worth having, that's for sure, but the main problem with Ringo is that it's uneven. The Beatles rarely, if ever, made an uneven ...
Retrospective by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, September 1973
JOHN FOGERTY is many things, none of them ordinary. Besides his obvious musical ability, he is unique even among musicians. A loner, self-reliant and firmly ...
Retrospective by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, March 1973
IF THERE ARE still any doubts in your mind about the deterioration of AM radio (pop music's most immediate barometer) since, say, 1966, a glance ...
Genesis at Philharmonic Hall, New York
Live Review by Ron Ross, Phonograph Record, May 1973
IN A MUSICAL WORLD dominated by dueling banjos, pop boys, wimpoid artist and Soul Train, is there a place for a British group that writes ...
Jimmy Page, The Yardbirds: The Yardbirds: Live Yardbirds Featuring Jimmy Page
Review by John Morthland, Phonograph Record, November 1971
THE YARDBIRDS must be one of the most oft-recorded live groups. There's the 1963 set at the Marquee available on a British import (parts are ...
The Who: Meaty, Beaty, Big and Bouncy
Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, December 1971
WHO FANS have been saying it for years: "Those bastards at Decca! Why don't they put out an album of early singles?" For the Who ...
Profile and Interview by Mark Leviton, Phonograph Record, May 1972
ONE WOULD THINK that a group as successful as Badfinger, a group with their momentum (three top-selling singles, one LP million seller, association with Bangla ...
Argent, Colin Blunstone, The Zombies: The Zombies
Retrospective by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, June 1973
AS ONE of Britain's most undervalued and undeservedly unsuccessful groups, the Zombies have a lot of historical recompense coming. Furthermore, with two offshoots (Argent and ...
The Move: Everything You've Always Wanted to Know!
Profile by John Mendelsohn, Phonograph Record, December 1971
What Is The Move? The Move are one of the four or five most magnificent rock and roll bands in England, and therefore in the ...
Review by Bud Scoppa, Phonograph Record, July 1974
RY COODER has a corner of the rock & roll world all to himself. Like the folk traditionalists, he draws on dead or dying idioms ...
Ronnie Spector & The Ronettes at the Continental Baths
Live Review by Alan Betrock, Phonograph Record, May 1974
EVER SINCE Ronnie Spector and the Ronettes folded up shop in the late sixties, the music world has been awaiting their return. But despite one ...
Review by Ben Edmonds, Phonograph Record, March 1973
ONE OF MY EARLIEST and most special memories is of sitting in front of a big television on a very early weekend morning watching a ...
Led Zeppelin: Houses Of The Holy
Review by Metal Mike Saunders, Phonograph Record, May 1973
MERCY ME, it's time to bring out the Sominex again. If it weren't for Slade and the Stooges, God knows what sort of utter decay ...
Review by Ron Ross, Phonograph Record, September 1974
IT'S A TEEN-CLUB midsummer Saturday night at Papa Joe'sParlour-pizza, pinball, pretzels, and pop-available without I.D. Raspberries, with no fewer than three Top Forty hits in ...
Kiki Dee: I've Got the Music in Me
Review by Bud Scoppa, Phonograph Record, December 1974
In producer Gus Dudgeon and tourmate Elton John, Kiki Dee has the backing of the most successful team in Seventies pop music. If Elton and ...
New York Dolls: Too Much, Too Soon
Review by Ron Ross, Phonograph Record, April 1974
"WE DON'T PLAY too good, but we dance as bad as we want," Archie Bell once said by way of introduction to his fabulous Drells ...
Review by Robot A. Hull, Phonograph Record, June 1973
SEE THE FUNNY heavy metal group. For some time now they been on top of things; rock critics drooled in agreement that they'd become regular ...
Review by Metal Mike Saunders, Phonograph Record, June 1973
I WISH, I wish, I wish. There's this song, 'I Remember A Time', on Blue Ash's debut album. Not that the whole album isn't magnificent, ...
The Rolling Stones: Goat's Head Soup
Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, November 1973
THERE IS NOTHING GOOD about the new Rolling Stones album. No redeeming qualities whatsoever. Not even anything that can be turned around and stretched and ...
Review by Alan Betrock, Phonograph Record, September 1973
IT'S BEEN A LONG time coming, but I think the pop revival is finally upon us. This "pop revival" has been somewhat hyped in the ...
Slade: Stomp Your Hands And Clap Your Feet
Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, April 1974
I've been behind Slade's records 100% since I first heard them, but with this album the backing percentage has doubled. It's a terrific album, with ...
Roxy Music at the Rainbow Theatre, London
Live Review by Jonh Ingham, Phonograph Record, September 1973
KONO IS A a Japanese journalist, top of his class. One week he's flaming around New York, the next week in London, hip to all ...
Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, November 1973
IT'S NO SURPRISE that Chuck Berry has managed to slip gracefully into middle age without changing his music or his image to any great extent. ...
Review by Ron Ross, Phonograph Record, June 1973
FRESH FROM HIS second campaign in the American rock wars, our once and future pop boy fave David Bowie delivers Aladdin Sane as Phase III ...
Doobie Brothers: Toulouse Street
Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, October 1972
I DON'T KNOW about you, but it happens to me all the time. I get some album in the mail, listen to the whole thing ...
Review by Gene Sculatti, Phonograph Record, October 1973
I DON'T KNOW if there's any correlation between Brownsville Station's oddly misplaced power chords on parts of their new album and the band's misreading of ...
Mott The Hoople: The Complete History of Mott The Hoople
Profile by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, February 1973
IN THE WAKE of their first hit single, Mott The Hoople have begun to generate a publicity splash of sorts. It hasn't hurt that rock ...
Review by Mark Leviton, Phonograph Record, October 1973
I CONSIDER it unfair, even immoral, for Maria Muldaur to look and sing so well. I mean, a reviewer like myself can get pretty worked ...
Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, 1973
WITH THIS DEBUT ALBUM, 10cc are well on their way to becoming the true studio wizards of the seventies. It's a startling record, bursting with ...
Review by Gene Sculatti, Phonograph Record, July 1973
YOU CAN'T DEPEND on anybody these days. Once you make your mind up about some group or other, they change their act or audience response ...
Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, October 1973
IN ANY NORMAL TIME, Cat Stevens would be nothing more than an occasionally annoying inconsequentiality; but in an appalling era of innumerable idiot-savant singer/songwriters elevated ...
Electric Light Orchestra: The Electric Light Orchestra at St Louis
Live Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, September 1973
The mere fact of their actual appearance was probably sufficient for most diehard Move-ELO fans, but the Electric Light Orchestra turned in an adventurous, hard-rocking ...
Velvet Underground: 1969 — The Velvet Underground Live
Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, May 1974
THE LAST YEAR has seen sufficient scholarly exegeses on the subject of Lou Reed to see us through the decade; and the release of 1969, ...
Sutherland Brothers and Quiver: Sutherland Brothers & Quiver: Dream Kid
Review by Bud Scoppa, Phonograph Record, May 1974
WHEN Quiver and the Sutherland Brothers – two groups then practically unknown in the U.S. – joined forces to last year to accentuate the positive ...
Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, May 1974
THIS ALBUM has a subtitle, Contrasts, and it's a good word for Bob Seger. At times one of the most no-nonsense rockers the country has ...
The Zombies: Time Of The Zombies
Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, May 1974
THANKS TO THE SUCCESS of Argent, Colin Blunstone, and the 'Monster Mash', the long-neglected Zombies are again coming to light. London's fluke smash with the ...
Review by Bud Scoppa, Phonograph Record, July 1974
DUCKS DELUXE is the first of the Americanophilic British bands (including Bees Make Honey, Gypsy, the defunct Help Yourself, and the ever-delightful Brinsley Schwarz) to ...
The Move: The Best Of The Move
Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, May 1974
IF THER IS one band whose legendary attributes and entangled history need no longer be catalogued, that band is the Move. True, of all the ...
Guide by Metal Mike Saunders, Phonograph Record, October 1973
If you think you know what frustration is like, try this on for size: imagine you were a singer who had come up with Sun ...
Grand Funk Railroad: E Pluribus Funk (Capitol)
Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, 1 January 1972
It's time to admit we were wrong about Grand Funk. Oh, we were right too, but wrong just the same. Those three or four (I ...
The Faces: A Nod Is As Good As A Wink To A Blind Horse (Reprise)
Review by Jon Tiven, Phonograph Record, 1 January 1972
The original Small Faces were quite a band in their day, and although before this album I had my doubts, I have now answered the ...
Review by Metal Mike Saunders, Phonograph Record, May 1972
I was pretty pleased with the new Deep Purple album when it first came in the mail, since it was a good heavy metal album ...
David Bowie: Central London Polytechnic, London
Live Review by Jonh Ingham, Phonograph Record, 1 July 1972
"YES, I'M DAVID BOWIE. These are the Spiders from Mars. And we're the slickest show in town." ...
Interview by David G. Walley, Phonograph Record, 1 December 1971
DON WALKS INTO MY cluttered house, up four flights and to the left, arriving in a confusion of papers, cats, ashtrays. ...
The Who: Meaty Beaty Big And Bouncy (Decca)
Review by Jonh Ingham, Phonograph Record, December 1971
WELL, THEY'VE (and we all know who they are) finally gotten around to putting 'I Can't Explain', 'The Seeker', and 'Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere' onto an ...
Report and Interview by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, November 1972
WHEN A GROUP PUTS out five or more singles in their first year, hits the upper regions of the Top Ten with each of them, ...
Yoko Ono: Approximately Infinite Universe
Review by Metal Mike Saunders, Phonograph Record, April 1973
YEAH, WELL, believe it or not: this is a totally rock 'n' roll album. It's also so far and away the best Beatles-related effort to ...
Brinsley Schwarz' Amazing Twelve Inches
Profile and Interview by Metal Mike Saunders, Phonograph Record, November 1972
THE REAL ISSUE HERE is originality. How much does it matter? There are a lot of theories about the true nature of rock and roll, ...
The Beach Boys: Carl And The Passions – So Tough (Reprise)
Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, May 1972
It's become increasingly evident that the Beach Boys are dead serious about shedding their hedonistic California surf-cars-and-fun stand for a more "contemporary" image. Surf's Up ...
Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, May 1972
THIS IS one of those albums you have to have spent at least a year waiting breathlessly for to appreciate the full import of. This ...
The Beach Boys: Endless Summer (Capitol)
Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, 1 September 1974
NO SUMMER WOULD BE complete without a Beach Boys reissue. These last couple of years, with Warner Bros. working on the post-Pet Sounds material and ...
Interview by Jonh Ingham, Phonograph Record, 1 January 1972
AS FAR AS AMERICA is concerned, the Small Faces were notable for one single, 'Itchycoo Park', and one album, Ogden's Nut Gone Flake; the former ...
Retrospective by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, 1 August 1972
The Hollies Are Back Again ...
Review by Alan Betrock, Phonograph Record, 1 July 1974
ONE PROBLEM with 10cc's first album was that it hit you hard on first listening, but often failed to hold up to repeated playings. Perhaps ...
Grand Funk Railroad: 'I Know You'll Get To Like It If You Give It A Chance Now'
Profile and Interview by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, 1 April 1974
A BRISK, ICY WIND was blowing through the overcast skies of Flint, Michigan as the members of Grand Funk Railroad arrived at Whiting Auditorium for ...
Sparks, Sweet: Sparks vs. Sweet: The Battle for Britain
Review by Ron Ross, Phonograph Record, August 1974
The Sweet: Sweet Fanny AdamsSparks: Kimono My House ...
Review by Metal Mike Saunders, Phonograph Record, March 1973
IF YOU'RE A Nils Lofgren fan, the first thing you'll notice here is that the whole setup is wrong. The album flops open from the ...
Live Review by Lester Bangs, Phonograph Record, November 1973
I'VE SEEN WORSE towns than Masillon but not many. Gila Bend, Arizona is worse by dint of being the asshole of the world, and I ...
Olivia Newton-John: Let Me Be There
Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, 1 March 1974
THERE ARE A LOT of interesting things about this album. First, it features 'Let Me Be There', one of the most pleasant surprises of early ...
The Animals, Eric Burdon: Eric Discovers America
Profile and Interview by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, 1 March 1974
Eric Burdon Returns To The Musical Arena ...
Brownsville Station: School Punks
Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, 1 July 1974
THERE'S NEVER been a band that wanted to be teenage as desperately as Brownsville Station. They've tried everything, from '50s rock ('Rockin' Robin', 'Hello Mary ...
Tower of Power: Bump City (Warner Bros.)
Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, 1 August 1972
I CAN JUST see the perverse gleam in the editor's eye as he sent me this album to review. He sure knows how to bug ...
Creedence Clearwater Revival: Mardi Gras (Fantasy)
Review by Gene Sculatti, Phonograph Record, May 1972
CREEDENCE AGAIN. Their sixth or seventh LP, the first minus Tom Fogerty on rhythm, the first with Stu Cook and Doug Clifford contributing songs and ...
Jimmy Cliff: Struggling Man (Island)/ Music Maker (Reprise)
Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, August 1974
LAST YEAR, 'the word' was that reggae was all set to become the next big thing. Once radio program directors and listeners heard that irresistibly ...
The Guess Who: The Best of The Guess Who, Vol. II
Review by Gene Sculatti, Phonograph Record, 1 March 1974
HE PLAYS PIANO as well as Nicky Hopkins Jerry Lee, When he sang 'Running Bear' he sounded like a cross between the late great Jimboy ...
Roxy Music: Stranded (Atlantic)
Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, 1 April 1974
THOUGH I LIKED the first two Roxy Music albums reasonably well, Stranded is the first one that's immediately impressed me. ...
Dr. John: Dr John aka Mac Rebennack
Overview by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, 1 July 1973
THE STORY OF NEW ORLEANS ROCK 'N' ROLL ...
Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, 1 January 1972
DO YOU HAVE trouble thinking of Paul Anka as anything but a greasy Italian dork from Brooklyn who whined his way adeniodally through a series ...
America: Homecoming (Warner Bros.)
Review by Metal Mike Saunders, Phonograph Record, December 1972
IMAGINE IF YOU WILL, a kid that does a soul-wrenching ( I mean this literally) job of imitating Neil Young. The whiny little creep down ...
Comment by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, 1977
"ABBA IS the most exciting pop phenomenon of the ‘70s," claims their bio, and for once it’s no hype. My admiration for this group knows ...
Review by Alan Betrock, Phonograph Record, 1 December 1974
SPARKS IS ONE of those aggregations that people seem either to be attracted to or repulsed by. For the first few months of their 'comeback', ...
Bryan Ferry: These Foolish Things (Atco)
Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, 1 April 1974
FOR WEEKS I'd been hearing how bad this album was from people whose judgment is usually reliable. How pleasant then to discover an album so ...
Ian Whitcomb: The Ian Whitcomb Story
Profile by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, April 1973
IAN WHITCOMB WAS certainly one of the more obscure figures of that gloriously mythologized pop explosion known as the British Invasion. ...
Paul Anka: The Rebirth Of Paul Anka
Profile and Interview by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, 1 September 1974
'People need songs about real, human things...' ...
Flash Cadillac and the Continental Kids: Flash Cadillac: There's No Face Like Chrome (Epic)
Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, May 1974
OF ALL THE GROUPS to come out of the Fifties, Flash Cadillac has always shown the greatest promise, and that promise is fulfilled in this, ...
Pete Townshend: Peter Townshend Who Came First (Decca/Track)
Review by Metal Mike Saunders, Phonograph Record, December 1972
HERE WE HAVE the debut album of Peter Baba. Believe it or not, in his youth Baba fronted an incorrigible reds-popping teenage quartet responsible for ...
Blue Oyster Cult: Secret Treaties (Columbia)
Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, April 1974
BLUE OYSTER CULT was formed with a very definite idea in mind, and they haven't deviated from or enlarged that idea much in two years. ...
Raspberries: The Raspberries: Fresh (Capitol)
Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, July 1972
I ALWAYS HELD that the next revitalization of pop music would be heralded by a resurgence of interest in the mid-'60's, but I couldn't have ...
Rory Gallagher: Rory Gallagher (Atco)
Review by Lester Bangs, Phonograph Record, 1 January 1972
‘RORY GALLAGHER, formerly of Taste, is now on his own and happening.’ That's what the ads say, but what do they know? ...
Deep Purple: Who Do We Think We Are!
Review by Lester Bangs, Phonograph Record, March 1973
HOT DAMN, it's a new Deep Purple album! ...
Review by Bud Scoppa, Phonograph Record, 1975
AFTER AN EXCELLENT debut album (still unreleased in the U.S.) with backing by the underrated Brinsley Schwarz group, Scotish rock & roll singer Frankie Miller ...
Review by Metal Mike Saunders, Phonograph Record, 1 October 1972
SLADE HAVE BEEN responsible for some excellent singles, but as for this album, forget it. ...
Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, 1 October 1972
THIS IS ONE of the best live albums I’ve ever heard. Mike Saunders is out of his mind. ...
Review and Interview by Lester Bangs, Phonograph Record, April 1977
"I am 25, and I intend to keep playing my ass off when I'm 30 and way past that, too." ...
Review by Lester Bangs, Phonograph Record, 1 October 1972
GOOD FOR SLADE. They made it at last. These guys have been kicking around the Limey lard-tub for a little while now, garnering a fan ...
Valerie Carter: Just A Stones's Throw Away
Review by Lester Bangs, Phonograph Record, 1 April 1977
VALERIE IS A singer who happens to be very beautiful, with sulky lips and ethereal Emmylou Harris eyes. This bit of good fortune should not ...
T. Rex: "The Mania Never Stops"
Interview by Harold Bronson, Phonograph Record, April 1972
HUMILITY HAS never been one of man's virtues. Whether warranted or not, we tend to exaggerate our credibility. What we must never forget is why ...
Manfred Mann: An Exploration Of The Four Chapters Of Manfred Mann
Overview by Harold Bronson, Phonograph Record, November 1971
PREFACEMANFRED MANN in his pendulum-like exploration of the modem music scene has at given times emerged himself in more fully committed idioms than just about ...
Review by Lester Bangs, Phonograph Record, May 1978
Dear Patti, Start the Revolution Without Me ...
The Troggs: Troggs: Fond Rememberings And Frank Quotes From The World's First Punk Rockers
Retrospective and Interview by Harold Bronson, Phonograph Record, February 1973
WHATEVER HAPPENED to all those exciting, tuneful British rock acts who thrilled us during the mid-Sixties? ...
Report by Gene Sculatti, Phonograph Record, September 1974
"You know they're either out surfin' or they've got a party goin'..." ...
Thin Lizzy: Nightlife (Vertigo)
Review by John Mendelsohn, Phonograph Record, March 1975
WHEN, IN AN ill-disguised attempt to salvage what little was left of both his physical and psychic well-being after decades of arduous touring, lead guitarist ...
Stackridge: Pinafore Days (Sire)
Review by Ron Ross, Phonograph Record, December 1974
AS A DURABLE metaphor for teen enthusiasm and articulate emotion, the Beatles' musical vocabulary has proven itself time and time again, even as the Beatles ...
Mott the Hoople: Mott The Hoople Live (Columbia)
Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, January 1975
IF YOU HAVEN'T heard already, this album's a scorcher. Offhand I can't think of a live album that tops Mott's 50-minute opus here, but I'm ...
Roxy Music: Country Life (Atlantic)
Review by Ron Ross, Phonograph Record, January 1975
YULETIDE LAST, energy starved Britons accustomed to tacky displays of teen ostentation were wished a "Ferry Merry Christmas," as Bryan Ferry, Roxy Music's ubermensch, unveiled ...
Hot Chocolate: Cicero Park (Big Tree)
Review by Harold Bronson, Phonograph Record, January 1975
AS EVERYONE KNOWS, soul music is in now more than ever, but in the frenzy of cheerful accolades and mountainous monies embracing Barry White and ...
Nils Lofgren: Nils Lofgren (A&M)
Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, February 1975
WELL, THIS IS more like it. Nils Lofgren, in his first solo attempt, has come up with a smashing album that restores him to the ...
Overview by Ron Ross, Phonograph Record, March 1975
PICTURE YOURSELF in a seat in a stadium, with ten thousand teens going mad on all sides. Something's announced and you look up quite swiftly: ...
John Lennon: Rock 'N' Roll (Apple)
Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, March 1975
IN OCTOBER 1973 John Lennon was reported cutting an album of oldies with Phil Spector. After only four sides had been cut, Spector was seriously ...
John Denver: An Evening With John Denver (RCA)
Review by John Mendelsohn, Phonograph Record, March 1975
WITH THIS, the live album for which millions of Denver fans have been clamoring for a veritable eternity, John's election to the Playboy Jazz & ...
Fanny: Slaughter On Tenth Avenue
Profile and Interview by Metal Mike Saunders, Phonograph Record, August 1972
Cryptic Tales Of America’s Fanny ...
Brian Eno, Roxy Music: Eno Music: The Roxy Rebellion
Profile and Interview by Richard Cromelin, Phonograph Record, November 1974
"The reason I was attracted to the band in the first place was the contradiction of having someone like Eno and someone like Bryan in ...
Wilderness Road: Sold For Prevention Of Disease Only (Warner Bros.)
Review by Harold Bronson, Phonograph Record, March 1973
I USED TO THINK producer Jack Richardson was pretty sharp. After all, wasn't he the one responsible for the clean sound on Guess Who albums? ...
David Bowie: Young Americans (RCA)
Review by John Mendelsohn, Phonograph Record, April 1975
IN VIEW OF the fact that, in his first major American interview, Bowie assured us, "If I'm mediocre I'll get out of the business: there's ...
Review by Ira Robbins, Phonograph Record, February 1975
COCKNEY REBEL is a figment of Steve Harley's semi-sane mind. ...
Starry-Eyed and Laughing: Starry-Eyed and Laughing
Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, March 1975
THIS ALBUM was preceded by a year-long barrage of hype, emanating from England, revolving around the band's stylistic similarities to the early Byrds. ...
The Hudson Brothers: A Real Life Drama Starring The Hudson Brothers
Interview by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, January 1975
KEEP YOUR EYE on the Hudson Brothers. They're probably the most exciting new act of the year. Out of thin air, they've presented us with ...
A Brief Survey Of The State Of Metal Music Today
Comment by Metal Mike Saunders, Phonograph Record, April 1973
WHEN YOU get right down to it, the story of heavy metal rock has been the tale of Led Zeppelin. As indicated by its name, ...
Gladys Knight: In The Beginning
Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, February 1975
GLADYS KNIGHT'S rather sudden acceptance as America's reigning songstress not only caught many by surprise, it also created for her an audience that in all ...
Review by Bud Scoppa, Phonograph Record, February 1975
ALTHOUGH THEY survived the Sixties pretty much intact and with a substantial stack of notable hit records as their trophies, the Hollies never became the ...
Review by John Mendelsohn, Phonograph Record, March 1975
A WRITER SHOULD never admit as much, but I'm still not entirely confident that mere words can communicate the full extent to which I abhor ...
Review by John Mendelsohn, Phonograph Record, March 1975
HAVING BEEN duly, uh, blown away by the opening tracks on their previous two albums, I prepared to savor the first cut on Queen's Sheer ...
Review by Gary Sperrazza!, Phonograph Record, March 1975
LITTLE DID THE Henman brothers and Myles Goodwyn realize at the time that their Halifax-born band would fall prey to the ins-and-outs of record distribution ...
Review by Gary Sperrazza!, Phonograph Record, February 1975
FOR A BAND prophesied to be one of the major forces in pop in the Seventies, the Sweet still remain the most misunderstood band of ...
Bonnie Bramlett: The Bottom Line, NYC
Live Review by Mitchell Cohen, Phonograph Record, March 1975
THE PRESSURE is on Bonnie Bramlett now, in a way that it's never been before. As part of a group that served as a way-station ...
Hello People: The Handsome Devils
Review by John Mendelsohn, Phonograph Record, February 1975
I'M FAR FROM entirely convinced that I would trade everything I own to be in Hello People's shoes, or greasepaint, for it seems the sorry ...
Sutherland Brothers and Quiver: Sutherland Bros: Beat Of The Street
Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, February 1975
THEY OPEN WITH a knockout and close like gangbusters. ‘World in Action’ is an energy-overload rocker with a great bridge over doubled wattage, an electrifying ...
Iron Butterfly: Scorching Beauty
Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, February 1975
IT'S A WELL known axiom that one hit record is good for ten years of work. Just ask Fabian. ...
Review by Alan Betrock, Phonograph Record, February 1975
OUT OF THE ASHES of the New York rock scene came Kiss. They have clearly been elevated (symbolically echoing the ascent their drummer makes during ...
The Pretty Things: Pretty Things: Silk Torpedo
Review by Alan Betrock, Phonograph Record, January 1975
THE PRETTY THINGS are back, and this time, with a new label and expected tour, can realistically be expected to enter the American top-40 album ...
Roy Wood, Wizzard: Wizzard: Eddie & the Falcons
Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, November 1974
FOR A MUSICIAN of his acknowledged brilliance, Roy Wood has shown an inordinate interest in paying tribute to the past works of others. ...
New York Dolls: Little Hippodrome, NYC
Live Review by Alan Betrock, Phonograph Record, April 1975
AFTER EXAGGERATED reports heralding their impending demise, the New York Dolls returned in early March to the Hippodrome in mid-Manhattan. They were supposedly to sport ...
Review by John Mendelsohn, Phonograph Record, March 1975
WHAT A DISTRESSINGLY large percentage of the perfect strangers with whom I happen to chat while waiting in line for ball games, premieres of motion ...
Review by Gene Sculatti, Phonograph Record, March 1975
IF THERE'S A SINGLE behavioral pattern which has emerged over the last four years of pop music, it's the reinstatement of the song, not the ...
Review by Bud Scoppa, Phonograph Record, February 1975
DELANEY & BONNIE made a bunch of fine records in rapid succession around the turn of the decade – if anything, the music on such ...
Grand Funk Railroad: All The Girls In The World Beware!!
Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, January 1975
MEET THE 1975 Grand Funk. If you liked the 1974 model, you're gonna love this one. The all-new features include an elaborate new cover motif ...
Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, November 1974
BADFINGER HAVE finally made the album I always hoped they would – an album whose tracks all match the standards of their brilliant Apple singles. ...
Review by Alan Betrock, Phonograph Record, April 1975
LIVING IN NEW YORK has never been easy for the older generation, but it's even tougher for their offspring. ...
Dave Edmunds: The Classic Tracks 1968-72
Review by Gary Sperrazza!, Phonograph Record, March 1975
AH, DAVE EDMUNDS! The Welsh producer-songwriter-rock 'n' roller and guitarist extraordinaire. ...
Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, March 1975
THE PAST THREE years have seen comebacks by Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry, Rick Nelson, Neil Sedaka, Paul Anka and more. ...
Neil Sedaka: The Tra-La Days Are Back
Profile by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, December 1974
I DON'T NEED to refer to any books or charts to tell you that Neil Sedaka's ‘Breaking Up is Hard to Do’ was one of ...
John Entwistle: John Entwhistle: Mad Dog
Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, March 1975
Mad Dog is everything you'd expect from a John Entwhistle album – and more. It catches Entwhistle in rabid transit, combining his obsession with 50's/early ...
The Hudson Brothers: Hudson Brothers: Hollywood Situation (Casablanca)
Review by Alan Betrock, Phonograph Record, November 1974
I'VE ALWAYS BEEN a sucker for groups with brothers in them. I don't know why but all those brother groups seem to have a certain ...
Carole King: On This Side Of Goodbye
Retrospective by Mitchell Cohen, Phonograph Record, January 1976
HE COMES HOME from a night of petting heavily in the back row of the RKO Fordham. Aching from the pains of halted passion, he ...
Profile and Interview by Gene Sculatti, Phonograph Record, May 1975
EXTRAORDINARY OR just plain down to earth great, there's something about the name Ben E. King and his powerful voice that conjures up one hell ...
Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, July 1975
IT'S CERTAINLY LESS than revolutionary to admit you like the Carpenters these days (in ‘rock’ circles, if you recall, it formerly bordered on heresy). Everybody ...
The Rolling Stones: Metamorphosis
Review by Mitchell Cohen, Phonograph Record, July 1975
THE FASCINATION of Metamorphosis, basically a collection of outtakes, oddities and alternate versions, lies in what it adds to our experience and knowledge of the ...
Comment by Mitchell Cohen, Phonograph Record, July 1975
"THIS IS A SERIOUS surfing song," Mike Love announces from the stage of Madison Square Garden and the Beach Boys launch into a lively rendition ...
The Hudson Brothers: Totally Out of Control (Rocket)
Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, December 1974
NOW THAT ‘So You Are a Star’ is making stars out of the Hudson Brothers, their earlier recordings are coming out of the woodwork like ...
John McLaughlin: My Goal's Beyond
Review by Lester Bangs, Phonograph Record, November 1971
JOHN MCLAUGHLIN has been around: gigging with Graham Bond in 1966, Jack Bruce in ‘68 and intermittently with Miles Davis since then, he has cut ...
Spencer Davis Group: Spencer Davis
Interview by Harold Bronson, Phonograph Record, June 1971
SPENCER DAVIS was just disgusted with the whole London pop scene. He had hit records, yes, ‘Keep On Running’ and ‘Gimme Some Lovin'’ among them. ...
Live Review by Richard Cromelin, Phonograph Record, November 1972
DOES THE FACT that Faces were able to elicit a thunderous response from their Hollywood Bowl audience with what was definitely a sub-par performance say ...
Review by David Rensin, Phonograph Record, November 1972
THERE ARE TYPICALLY three schools of thought surrounding Captain Beefheart. The first love him and feel he can do no wrong. The second find him ...
Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, September 1971
WHENEVER I USED to say I liked the MC5, I would always preface the statement with some remark like "sure, I know they're a bunch ...
Seatrain: Marblehead Messenger (Capitol)
Review by Mark Leviton, Phonograph Record, November 1971
SEATRAIN WAS the first major splinter of the Blues project (now reformed in rather truncated version) and have consistantly been one of the best recording ...
Review by Ron Ross, Phonograph Record, November 1972
THE APPLE'S BEEN a teeming teen-town lately, what with the Dolls, Teenage Lust, Eric Emerson's Magic Tramps, and Ruby and the Rednecks shaking it down ...
Dave Edmunds: Subtle As A Flying Mallet
Review by Bud Scoppa, Phonograph Record, July 1975
THIS ALBUM is a less unified work by this individualistic Welsh musician-producer than a gathering of tracks in varying modes that Edmunds has recorded since ...
The Kinks: Kinks: Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut
Live Review by Jon Tiven, Phonograph Record, January 1972
POISON RING Records recording artists FANCY opened the show with their joy-evoking rock 'n' roll which is always something that I'm immediately susceptible to. ...
Jefferson Airplane: 30 Seconds Over Winterland (Grunt)
Review by Lester Bangs, Phonograph Record, June 1973
WHAT A BUNCHA duds. What a deadass disco. What a waste of space, Mace, grease, you name it. Time was when the Jefferson Airplane were ...
Review by Tom Nolan, Phonograph Record, November 1974
RANDY NEWMAN'S new record is all about the South, a concept album of sorts which stops short of operatic unity but which does exist in ...
Review by Lester Bangs, Phonograph Record, September 1972
NOBODY LIKES Savoy Brown except everybody. Why? What? Well, you know, you either like 'em or ya don't. If you do, you got no problems. ...
Memoir by uncredited writer, Phonograph Record, April 1974
Bobby Womack's latest hit is called ‘Lookin' For a Love’. By no coincidence, that was also the title of his first hit single, on Sam ...
The Rolling Stones: Rolling Stones: "Are They Too Rich To Rock?"
Report by Ron Ross, Phonograph Record, May 1974
The Rolling Stones: Ladies and Gentlemen: The Rolling Stones ...
Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, October 1973
YOU KNOW WHAT? People got me all wrong. They think I'm a fanatic for reissues, getting up on my soapbox each time a new one ...
Review by Jonh Ingham, Phonograph Record, November 1971
SUN RECORDS and Phil Spector's Philles Records were the two most important independent record companies in the history of rock and roll. ...
Crabby Appleton: Is Crabby Appleton The Supergroup Nobody's Heard?
Profile by Ben Edmonds, Phonograph Record, December 1971
"I heard an acetate of their first single 'Go Back'...I sat there with my jaw at knee-level and the top of my head blown off, ...
Them: Them.…Featuring Van Morrison
Review by Richard Cromelin, Phonograph Record, October 1972
JOHN BALDRY tells of the time in L.A. that he answered his phone. "Lester Bangs here," said the caller, to which Long John replied, "He ...
Review by Ron Ross, Phonograph Record, February 1973
WITHIN A DOUBLE-FOLD checkerboard of good natured psychedelia that would make sweet 1967 blush at her staying power, Peter Hammill, late of the morbidly super ...
Review by Lester Bangs, Phonograph Record, June 1973
SAN RA SURE is a good old dog to have around. He's been spooning out this same clank for years, and it's every bit as ...
Shiva’s Headband: Take Me To The Mountains
Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, September 1971
EVERY SO OFTEN a company will try the "shotgun" strategy – releasing large numbers of albums by new groups in hopes that a few will ...
Golden Earring: Cowtown Ballroom, Kansas City, Mo.
Live Review by Richard Cromelin, Phonograph Record, August 1974
IF THE BODY of their set hadn't already convinced you that Golden Earring was just fine and at least lots of fun, the encore left ...
Overview by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, March 1972
The dog days of rock are upon us. ...
Emmylou Harris, Maria Muldaur: Maria Muldaur & Emmylou Harris Live
Live Review by Mitchell Cohen, Phonograph Record, July 1975
Maria Muldaur: Carnegie Hall, New York Emmylou Harris: Schaefer Music Festival, Central park, New York ...
Queen: The New British Invasion
Interview by Mitchell Cohen, Phonograph Record, March 1976
"YOU'RE NOT going to ask me to interpret ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, are you?" ...
Lynyrd Skynyrd: Gimme Back My Bullets
Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, March 1976
LYNYRD SKYNYRD are fast becoming one of my favorite American bands, in part because they're starting to sound so British. ...
Brian Eno: Eno: Another Green World
Review by John Mendelsohn, Phonograph Record, April 1975
UP UNTIL THE moment the temporary editor of this august journal telephoned to apprise me that he'd just been in a terrible automobile accident in ...
Eric Clapton: There's One In Every Crowd
Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, May 1975
IT NEVER CEASES to amaze me – the sycophantic lengths so many "critics" go to in hyping the fashionable superstars' records. ...
The Rolling Stones, Ronnie Wood: Ron Wood Joins the Rolling Stones
Report by Ron Ross, Phonograph Record, June 1975
WITH THE SUDDEN decisiveness of an eagle that spots its unsuspecting prey from hundreds of feet away, the Rolling Stones are touring North and South ...
Bob Marley & the Wailers: Bob Marley et al: Jamaica
Overview by Mitchell Cohen, Phonograph Record, October 1975
FIRST DAY, RAIN. Thick clouds and then more rain. It is, I'm told, the wetter of Jamaica's two wet seasons. ...
Elton John: Captain Fantastic And The Brown Dirt Cowboy
Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, June 1975
THE TIME HAS come to acknowledge just how big Elton John has become. His preeminence has come to pass so gradually that the present magnitude ...
Linda Ronstadt: Prisoner In Disguise
Review by Ben Edmonds, Phonograph Record, October 1975
AN UNHEALTHY PORTION of the attention devoted to Linda Ronstadt over the years has dealt with her supposed physical attributes at the expense of her ...
Interview by Harold Bronson, Phonograph Record, August 1971
WITH THE SUCCESS of the Beatles came countless other English rock groups, among them the Zombies. This combo employed a very satisfying Beatle-ish approach that ...
Rock and Roll Revival: Richard Nader's Lament
Interview by Richard Cromelin, Phonograph Record, November 1972
UNLESS YOU'VE actually heard it, you just can't appreciate how strange phonetically and otherwise, it sounds to hear a nasal 'Mr. Didduly. Telephone for Mr. ...
Sweet: Glitter Relics In America
Overview by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, October 1975
"THAT WAS 'Ballroom Blitz' by the Sweet! Hard to believe that's the same group that did 'Little Willy' a couple years ago!" – Southern California ...
Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, October 1975
THE WHO'S sovereign elixir is only available about once every two years, and is held most effective when composed of simple, basic ingredients. The 1969 ...
Neil Young: Tonight's The Night
Review by Bud Scoppa, Phonograph Record, June 1975
...At the canyon bottom, four cruisers were spinning blue light; there was an ambulance and four civilian cars, all balanced on the sloping shoulder of ...
Dr. Feelgood: Dr Feelgood: Frighteningly Authentic Punk Posture
Profile and Interview by Ron Ross, Phonograph Record, June 1976
THEY'RE EASY-GOIN' guys, but they always gotta have their way: when they tell you it ain't right you know you got to agree. ...
Terry Melcher: A Beach Veteran Looks Back
Interview by Tom Nolan, Phonograph Record, September 1974
ONE OF THE most influential and talented Californians to prosper during the '60s sun-speed-surf period in pop was Terry Melcher. As producer and (teamed with ...
Grateful Dead: The Grateful Dead: Grateful Dead (Warner Bros.)
Review by Jon Tiven, Phonograph Record, November 1971
I APPROACHED THIS album with mixed feelings; one side of me saying "Well, you love the Dead don't you?" and the other half repeating "They ...
Randy Newman: The Troubadour, Los Angeles CA.
Live Review by Richard Cromelin, Phonograph Record, July 1972
THIS GUY GAVE me a ride once, back when I was going to UCLA. He was pretty laconic, but under my expert employment of hitchhiker's ...
Sly & the Family Stone: Sly Stone: Small Talk (Epic)
Review by Tom Nolan, Phonograph Record, August 1974
THIS RECORD IS more to be appreciated in the mind than enjoyed by the ears – at least when this particular mind and set of ...
Harry Nilsson: Son Of Schmilsson
Review by David Rensin, Phonograph Record, September 1972
WELL, WELL. Harry Nilsson has sure thrown a big pebble into the music puddle. There's not much to say about the things you hear in ...
Texas Rock & Roll Spectacular!
Overview by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, March 1974
WHILE THE AUSTIN scene is the current focus of national attention on Texas, we mustn't forget how truly vast that state is, both in size ...
Review by Jon Tiven, Phonograph Record, December 1971
WELL, IT'S DIFFERENT. ...
Joe Cocker: Roxy Theatre, L.A.
Live Review by Richard Cromelin, Phonograph Record, August 1974
IT MUST BE TOUGH to always be coming back instead of going ahead. Joe Cocker is always coming back, like flowers you'd forgotten had been ...
Overview by Lester Bangs, Phonograph Record, December 1972
DETROIT, FOUNDED in 1736 by a turncoat (to both sides) halfbreed Indian named Quazimodo from the Kuitee tribe which dwelled circa 1670-1777 on the shores ...
Elliott Murphy, New York Dolls: New York Dolls/Eliott Murphy: The Academy of Music, New York
Live Review by Alan Betrock, Phonograph Record, April 1974
VALENTINE GLITTER: DOLLS & ELLIOTT MURPHY, THE SWEETHEARTS OF NEW YAWK CITY ...
Review by John Morthland, Phonograph Record, April 1974
IT'S A SAD DAY indeed for guitar freaks when two of the best in the business turn out the spottiest albums of their careers. But ...
Jobriath: The Troubadour, Los Angeles
Live Review by Richard Cromelin, Phonograph Record, September 1974
JERRY BRANDT isn't noted for doing things in a small way, but Jobriath, his latest project, might prove to be merely mildly successful. ...
Kokomo: Wollman Rink, New York NY
Live Review by Mitchell Cohen, Phonograph Record, October 1975
IF THERE'S ONE thing we don't need it's a group composed of exiles from second-line British boogie bands that has a tendency toward disco-oriented soul. ...
The Band, Bob Dylan: Bob Dylan & The Band: The Basement Tapes
Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, September 1975
WHAT WE HAVE here is the most enjoyable Dylan album yet released. ...
John Sebastian: Welcome Back Hits
Profile and Interview by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, May 1976
"I DID DOZE OFF for a long while." John Sebastian speaking, summing up his last few years. Up until a few weeks ago, that's ...
Bryan Ferry: Let's Stick Together
Review by Ron Ross, Phonograph Record, October 1976
WHILE THE POLITICS of self-exposure are evident in every album Bryan Ferry has made, with or without Roxy Music, his solo albums have consistently been ...
Review by Bud Scoppa, Phonograph Record, April 1974
LOU REED'S LAST album, Berlin, vividly demonstrated how his talent can be misrepresented and abused. Berlin failed not because of its theme or its viewpoint, ...
Bernie Taupin: Bernie Taupin (Elektra)
Review by Lester Bangs, Phonograph Record, March 1972
ON NEW YEAR'S EVE of 1972 I attended a great party thrown by someone I didn't know and inadvertently fell into a protracted conversation with ...
Live Review by Jon Tiven, Phonograph Record, October 1972
BLUE OYSTER CULT had a real bad time at the big park and oh boy did they know it...one of the guys backstage connected wit ...
Alan Price: O Lucky Man! and This Price Is Right
Review by John Morthland, Phonograph Record, October 1973
ABOUT THE ONLY thing these two albums have in common is that they show a remarkable number of influences absorbed by Alan Price. After that, ...
Sonny & Cher: Growing Up With Sonny & Cher
Retrospective by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, November 1973
RECENTLY, THE SONNY & Cher Comedy Hour devoted a special show to what they called "The Sonny & Cher Years". ...
Michael Nesmith: Mike Nesmith: Nevada Fighter
Review by Mark Leviton, Phonograph Record, September 1971
MIKE NESMITH is about as noncommital as a person can be. Ask him about his music's derivation and he's likely to say that no, he ...
David Bowie: The Darling of the Avant Garde
Profile and Interview by Richard Cromelin, Phonograph Record, January 1972
IS THIS FRAIL-LOOKING young Englishman with the delicate, birdlike features, arresting Capricorn eyes and page boy waves of sandy blonde hair indeed destined to become ...
Review by Richard Cromelin, Phonograph Record, March 1972
IN THEIR FOURTH bid to make a lasting impression on the fickle folk who buy America's records, the usually-underrated, intriguingly-monickered Mott the Hoople have opted ...
Koko Taylor: I Got What It Takes
Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, June 1975
ANYONE WHO maintains that blues is a dead or dying form must not be aware of Alligator Records. This tiny, dedicated company has been operating ...
Bob Marley & the Wailers: Bob Marley: Wollman Skating Rink, New York NY
Live Review by Mitchell Cohen, Phonograph Record, July 1975
IT WAS THE first one of those muggy nights this season, when the air is so close it cuts down your breathing, that Bob Marley ...
Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, December 1975
Now I remember why I used to rave about Neil Young... ...
KC & the Sunshine Band: KC and Sunshine Band
Interview by Richard Cromelin, Phonograph Record, October 1975
"I'd just put out the George McCrae album, and I kept hearing one of my tunes come busting through the wall up there." H.W. Casey ...
The Tubes: Tubes: The Roxy, Los Angeles CA
Live Review by Richard Cromelin, Phonograph Record, July 1975
A WARNING TO PARENTS: HERE COME THE VILE, THE HORRIFYING, THE AMAZING, THE FABULOUS TUBES ...
Dwight Twilley: The Dwight Twilley Band
Interview by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, September 1975
ONCE IN A WHILE a single hits the radio and hooks you immediately. They come out of nowhere, seemingly – happens to me every so ...
Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, April 1975
FUMBLE'S FIRST album presented them as a typically stylized (if above average) Fifties revival group on the order of Flash Cadillac – and with a ...
The Beatles, Wings: Wings: The Band On The Road
Report by Mitchell Cohen, Phonograph Record, May 1976
THE WINGS LIVE show has been evolving over the past three years, and McCartney deliberately kept a low profile during its earliest stages, a university ...
Interview by Mitchell Cohen, Phonograph Record, November 1976
JACKSON BROWNE sat in a locker room beneath a domed hall at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. It had been a particularly successful college ...
Al Kooper: Act Like Nothing's Wrong
Review by Ben Edmonds, Phonograph Record, November 1976
TO PRESERVE WHAT little remains of a once-great dignity, I'm obligated to confess to a blatant conflict of interest in the following evaluation of Al ...
The Kinks: Ray Davies & The Kinks at 13
Interview by Barbara Charone, Phonograph Record, December 1976
LONDON – Ray Davies' tired eyes incredulously surveyed the scene before him. The view from the top was a familiar one. The sprawling greenery of ...
The Persuasions: Streetcorner Music
Profile by Richard Cromelin, Phonograph Record, March 1972
THE MUSIC-BUYING public (which has something – how much or how little is a matter of opinion – to do with determining the trends) can ...
Harry Nilsson: A Little Touch Of Schmilsson In The Night
Review by Tom Nolan, Phonograph Record, September 1973
HERE IS AN IDEA whose time should never have come. Harry Nilsson's newest album, produced by Derek Taylor and arranged by Gordon Jenkins, is a ...
Live Review by Jon Tiven, Phonograph Record, May 1972
ASHMUN & REYNOLDS, two singers (one of whom also plays bass) with the Baldry band, opened the show with a couple of numbers of their ...
Elton John: The Elton John Career
Profile and Interview by Richard Cromelin, Phonograph Record, November 1973
AMERICA IS BEGINNING to recover now. The damage has been assessed, the injured have been treated, and the jangled buzzing has started to fade from ...
Live Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, December 1974
THAT'S WHAT THEY called it, and if one were to believe the advance publicity, which spread by word of mouth through the Hollywood environs like ...
Del Shannon: Rock's Runaway Returns
Profile and Interview by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, April 1975
THEY'RE ALL COMING back. Sedaka, Anka and Vinton hit the top of the charts again, but you all know that story backwards and forwards. Almost ...
Johnny Rivers: The Folks Dancin' There Were All Shook Up
Profile by Gene Sculatti, Phonograph Record, October 1972
IF THE SEVENTIES are starting out, as they appear to be, making good on the debts incurred against all the various minorities over the years, ...
Spirit: The Whisky, Los Angeles
Live Review by Richard Cromelin, Phonograph Record, April 1972
THERE'S NOT MUCH Spirit left. That doesn't refer only to the departure of Jay Ferguson and Mark Andes and the retirement of Randy California. The ...
Brian Eno, Bryan Ferry: Bryan Ferry: Another Time, Another Place; Eno: Here Come The Warm Jets
Review by Richard Cromelin, Phonograph Record, August 1974
AS EXPECTED, Eno's first solo album is a sonically innovative and adventurous thing, boldly experimental in its employment of phasing, drones, repetition, shifting of layers, ...
Review by Alan Betrock, Phonograph Record, November 1973
KEVIN AYERS has never been known for his musical steadiness. This is Kevin's fourth solo album (second U.S. release), and it continues to present him ...
Interview by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, August 1974
WHEN WE LAST left our heroes Flo and Eddie (PRM September '73), they were poised on the brink of substantial obscurity. ...
Utopia: Todd Rundgren’s Utopia
Review by Ron Ross, Phonograph Record, November 1974
1974 WAS A year that saw many artists grow up to the reality of a soft music market and a seemingly softer teenage head. While ...
John Prine: The Troubadour, Los Angeles CA
Live Review by Lester Bangs, Phonograph Record, January 1972
EVERYBODY'D BEEN talking about this guy Prine, how he was Kris Kristofferson's boozin' buddy or something, and since I like Kristofferson's Kerouacian American romanticism I ...
Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, June 1975
FOR ALL THAT we thought we knew the Beatles, I don't think there's one of us that hasn't been surprised at the course their individual ...
The Beach Boys: America Celebrates
Report by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, June 1976
"This is gonna be the most outrageous summer story of all"– Mike Love ...
Review by Bud Scoppa, Phonograph Record, November 1976
THIS ISN'T SO much a review as it is a personally conducted poll. You see, I've been traveling around with Elton (the new album, that ...
Silverhead: Whisky a Go Go, Los Angeles
Live Review by Richard Cromelin, Phonograph Record, April 1973
IF YOU HAVEN'T seen them, you might feel like cramming Silverhead into the flash-in-the-pan bin. Their albums haven't been monumentally impressive, and their publicity veers ...
Review by David Rensin, Phonograph Record, June 1973
THE BACK COVER photo may depict the Eagles as dead losers, but with DESPERADO it is clear that nothing is further from the truth. ...
Jesse Colin Young, The Youngbloods: Youngbloods: Good And Dusty; Jesse Colin Young: Together
Review by Metal Mike Saunders, Phonograph Record, April 1972
THERE'S REALLY no way around it. The Youngbloods' career divides quite clearly into three distinct periods: (1) The Youngbloods with Jerry Corbitt (2) Elephant Mountain ...
Andy Fraser, Free: Andy Fraser
Interview by Don Snowden, Phonograph Record, April 1977
THE SOUND OF Traffic's first album reverberates against barren, functional walls as gray as the overcast L.A. day outside. ...
Review by Ritchie Yorke, Phonograph Record, November 1973
THE CANADIAN group Lighthouse had the potential to become one of the biggest bands in the world. They may well do it yet. ...
Review by Richard Cromelin, Phonograph Record, September 1974
LINES. A LINE here, a line there. Sometimes it seems that the best songwriters are the ones who are sure to pop up with a ...
Amon Düül (I & II), Hawkwind, Pink Floyd: The Future Will Happen This Year: Space Rock
Overview by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, March 1973
RIGHT NOW we're gonna go back, way back, back before there was FM radio, quadrasonic sound, mellotrons, or any of the other futuristic trappings that ...
Interview by Richard Cromelin, Phonograph Record, August 1974
SUZI QUATRO was thrown out of kindergarten, she never had a birthday party, and she used to steal money from a coin box in the ...
Linda Ronstadt: The Linda Ronstadt Coverup!
Interview by Tom Nolan, Phonograph Record, November 1974
IN 1970 DAN Wakefield, who had just published his first novel, Going All the Way (a heartbreakingly hilarious chronicle of America's dismal sex life in ...
The Bay City Rollers: Bay City Rollers: Once Upon A Star
Review by Mitchell Cohen, Phonograph Record, September 1975
THE BAY CITY Rollers campaign is underway, and its components are familiar: screaming female fans in Great Britain, Sid Bernstein masterminding tour plans, back-to-back appearances ...
Review by Tom Nolan, Phonograph Record, January 1976
AFTER FOUR ALBUMS with Grin, guest-work with Crazy Horse and Neil Young, and one solo album, Nils Lofgren – creator of a body of songs ...
Review by Richard Cromelin, Phonograph Record, October 1976
CHARACTERS, REAL honest-to-goodness characters, are hard to come by these days, so right off the bat Tom Waits, with his wino outfits and broken-soul slouch, ...
Abba: Mamas & Papas of the '70's
Profile and Interview by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, November 1976
LOS ANGELES – The hottest group in the world recently flew into town, but only a scattered few knew they were even here. ...
Review by Bud Scoppa, Phonograph Record, February 1977
THE NEW BOWIE album doesn't make much sense. While practically everybody else in rock is striving for cleaner and more accurately recorded sound, Bowie's Low ...
Alex Chilton: The Big Star of New York's Underground
Report by Mitchell Cohen, Phonograph Record, June 1977
CHAPTER THREE in the adventures of a bona-fide, under-acknowledged rock hero is currently in progress. At the moment, the story is mostly taking place in ...
Steely Dan: Excerpts from a Teenage Opera
Interview by Richard Cromelin, Phonograph Record, June 1977
EVEN IN THE DAYS when Steely Dan was a finite rock band of relatively normal constitution, leaders Walter Becker and Donald Fagen insisted that it ...
The Carpenters: Anaheim Convention Center, Anaheim, California
Live Review by Richard Cromelin, Phonograph Record, March 1973
IT'S 1973 ALREADY, and still we're trying to figure out who the Big Star of this young decade will be. Many opt for David Bowie, ...
Fairport Convention: Babbacombe Lee
Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, April 1972
FOR THEIR SEVENTH album, Fairport Convention has presented us with a "concept" or "unified theme" LP (avoiding the oppro-briously-connotated term "rock opera"). ...
Van Morrison: Hard Nose The Highway
Review by Tom Nolan, Phonograph Record, October 1973
THE TEMPTATION is simply to quote huge chunks of lyrics, but allow me instead the indulgence of a passage from Kierkegaard, cited by A. Alvarez ...
Badfinger, The Kinks: Badfinger/The Kinks: Berkeley Community Theatre
Live Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, April 1972
IT WASN'T YOUR usual Berkeley concert, the type you'd hear, say, Joy of Cooking at. I can't imagine where they came from, but sprinkled liberally ...
Alice Cooper: The Spectrum, Philadelphia
Live Review by Ron Ross, Phonograph Record, April 1973
DIDN'T IT STRIKE you as strange, even back then before Peter and Gordon or the color series of Beatle cards, that they could call a ...
Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, July 1972
ARGENT (THE BAND) is an emphatically annoying enigma. ...
Rick Wakeman: The Myths And Legends Of King Arthur And The Knights Of The Round Table
Review by Tom Nolan, Phonograph Record, May 1975
I ONCE VAGUELY planned a toney essay, to be modeled on Susan Sontag's ground-breaker, on the grotesque changes rung on the concept of Camp once ...
Heart: Seattle's Hard Rock Girls
Interview by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, October 1976
WITNESSING A ROCK band, Heart, genuinely excited about things – they mention how much they love to hear their records on the radio – is ...
Average White Band: Winterland, San Francisco
Live Review by Mitchell Cohen, Phonograph Record, June 1975
THERE ARE THOSE who have had Average White Band pegged from the start as the best blue-eyed soul band since the Young Rascals, and these ...
Patti Smith: Avery Fisher Hall, NYC
Live Review by Mitchell Cohen, Phonograph Record, May 1976
FOR SOME OF US, Patti Smith is the girl of our rock and roll dreams. As a performer she doesn't merely flirt with danger, she ...
Joni Mitchell: Miles Of Aisles
Review by Tom Nolan, Phonograph Record, January 1975
THE TWO MOST annoying things (to me) about Joni Mitchell in the early years of her career were her songs, which often seemed impersonal, shallow ...
Ian Hunter: Reflections Of A Rock Star
Review by Lester Bangs, Phonograph Record, September 1976
Ian Hunter: Coping With Modern Day Rock Stardom ...
Interview by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, August 1976
MIAMI, FLA. – "Frankie Valii turned my head around. I was in Westbury (Conn.), where he was playing, and he said, 'Watch, this.' He introduced ...
Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, September 1973
DESPITE THEIR apparent failure to storm the States, Slade's influence has been felt here – chiefly at, of all places, MGM Records. ...
Review by Gene Sculatti, Phonograph Record, April 1974
I SUPPOSE YOU could call Terry Melcher's long awaited solo debut an extension of California rock and the "West Coast Sound." After all, he was ...
Alice Cooper: Billion Dollar Babies
Review by Robot A. Hull, Phonograph Record, May 1973
"One of these days somebody's gonna have enough guts to take a machine gun and fire into all the sicko creeps we got running loose ...
Tommy James & the Shondells: Tommy James: The Troubadour, Los Angeles
Live Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, August 1976
IT WAS INCREDIBLY good and it was incredibly frustrating. Tommy James was stunning. As a terminally addicted Top 40 fetishist I've come to expect the ...
Rick Derringer, Cynthia Weil: The New Derringer: Rick Derringer & Cynthia Weil
Interview by Mitchell Cohen, Phonograph Record, June 1976
DERRINGER: ANOTHER PUNK INCORPORATES ...
Jefferson Starship: Central Park, NYC
Live Review by Mitchell Cohen, Phonograph Record, June 1975
THEY MAY HAVE changed their surname, but Jefferson Starship have arrived at a conciliatory relationship with their past, and with mixed results. With Marty Balin ...
The Eagles: California Dreamin’
Interview by Tom Nolan, Phonograph Record, June 1975
"I WANT TO SLEEP with you in some chocolate tonight," Glenn Frey sings in impromptu addition to the lyric of ‘Peaceful Easy Feelin’, and the ...
Suzi Quatro: Your Mama Won't Like Me
Review by John Mendelsohn, Phonograph Record, April 1975
THERE'S NOTHING like a new Suzi Quatro album to knock one's hormonal balance all out of whack. Were there but the most nebulous suggestion of ...
Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, July 1975
INITIATION IS A RECORD in two senses of the word. That is to say, it's a world record, as Todd Rundgren has been at pains ...
Review by Richard Cromelin, Phonograph Record, May 1976
ON HUNKY DORY and Crisis, What Crisis?, producer Ken Scott proved himself a master of soft-core avant-garde rock. Resourceful, imaginative, tasteful, able to clean and ...
The Dudes: The Moustache, Montreal
Live Review by Gary Sperrazza!, Phonograph Record, December 1974
WHILE THE FREE world lies in wait for the "next big thing," Montreal is living and growing to the status of musical hot-bed of the ...
Billy Preston: The Troubadour, Los Angeles
Live Review by Richard Cromelin, Phonograph Record, January 1972
IT'S NOT EASY to be uncompromisingly religious in a den of drugs, drink and iniquity like the Troubadour, but Billy Preston has both the Power ...
Stories: The Warehouse, New Orleans
Live Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, October 1973
STORIES MADE their first New Orleans concert appearance recently in the incongruous company of yet another Southern Allmanesque boogie band, the Marshall Tucker aggregation, and ...
Review by Alan Betrock, Phonograph Record, August 1974
ON I'LL BE THERE, Matthew Fisher proves not only to be a gifted songwriter and vocalist, but a dazzling producer as well. ...
Review by Metal Mike Saunders, Phonograph Record, July 1972
SPRING CONSISTS of Marilyn Wilson and Diane Rovell, formerly known as The Honeys (along with original member Ginger Rovell) back in the mid-Sixties. ...
Albert Hammond: The Free Electric Band
Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, July 1973
ALBERT HAMMOND, despite his recent ascension to the pop limelight, is no overnight phenom. ...
Sonny Til & the Orioles: Sonny Til and the Orioles: Sonny Til and the Orioles (RCA)
Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, September 1971
BACK IN THE FIFTIES there was something called The New York Sound. It was classed as R&B, but unlike the tough, electrified R&B of Ike ...
The Rowan Brothers: Rowan Brothers: Somewhat Glam And Slightly Teenage
Interview by Richard Cromelin, Phonograph Record, March 1973
"THE BROTHERLY Loverlies" – kind of catchy, isn't it? That's what one of the teen mags called the Rowan Brothers when it tossed them to ...
Cat Stevens: Buddha And The Chocolate Box
Review by Tom Nolan, Phonograph Record, May 1974
ON THE COVER of Cat Stevens' new album is a Japanese buddha of the Heian Period. On the back is a koan or parable depicted ...
Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, November 1971
CLYDE MCPHATTER is one of the best singers to come out of the early 50s vocal group tradition. After a stint with Billy Ward and ...
Robin Trower: Twice Removed From Yesterday
Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, May 1973
ROBIN TROWER left Procol Harum well over a year ago, after their BROKEN BARRICADES LP, and has now surfaced with an album and a group ...
Interview by Tom Nolan, Phonograph Record, May 1975
THE HOUSE WAS set back behind a stone wall, at the end of a cul-de-sac off Coldwater Canyon between Beverly Hills and the San Fernando ...
Creedence Clearwater Revival, The Golliwogs: The Golliwogs: Pre-Creedence
Review by Tom Nolan, Phonograph Record, April 1975
BLUESY ROCKIN' quartet from El Cerrito makes debut with this derivative but infectious disc of baker's-dozen-plus-one tunes. Opener, ‘Don't Tell Me No Lies’, will appeal ...
Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, June 1977
IF ANY DOUBT still existed about Heart's big-league credentials, the first notes of ‘Barracuda’ should dispel them forever. Roger Fisher slams into a bonecrunching guitar ...
The Who Tour: Random Flashes Of Brilliance
Live Review by Richard Cromelin, Phonograph Record, December 1975
The Who: The Summit, Houston Tx. ...
Flo & Eddie: The Roxy, Los Angeles
Live Review by Richard Cromelin, Phonograph Record, May 1975
PERHAPS THE MOST absolutely heart-rending of the many touching moments provided by Flo & Eddie during their show at the Roxy came early in the ...
Review by Tom Nolan, Phonograph Record, May 1975
FLESHED OUT WITH such guest performers as Jackson Browne, J.D. Souther, Glenn Frey and Steve Goodman, Common Sense comes on like Prine's ultimate supersession production; ...
Blue Oyster Cult: Agents Of Fortune
Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, June 1976
NO MATTER HOW predictable rock seems to become, it can still surprise you, and I've got to admit to being surprised as hell by the ...
Earl Slick: The Earl Slick Band: Razor Sharp
Review by Richard Cromelin, Phonograph Record, September 1976
THE EARL SLICK Band's second album stops just when it gets going. Its ninth and final cut, ‘Games’, is what one hoped would happen when ...
Review by Tom Nolan, Phonograph Record, May 1975
WHILE NOT A debut album, Suicide Sal is the LP that signals Maggie Bell's arrival as the fine, powerful singer we had been touted to ...
Electric Light Orchestra: A New World Record
Review by Richard Cromelin, Phonograph Record, November 1976
THE ELECTRIC LIGHT Orchestra was conceived and dedicated toward the fulfillment of a specific musical blueprint, but it's become clear – mainly from the live ...
Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, May 1977
THE RUBINOOS, Beserkley Records' hot new quartet of Bay Area teenagers, lead off their debut album with a new version of Tommy James' 1967 classic ...
The Souther-Hillman-Furay Band: The Souther-Hillman-Furay Band
Review by Tom Nolan, Phonograph Record, July 1974
"HERE I GO AGAIN," Richie Furay sings the opening words of this album, "it's all right." Certainly, especially when the singer is good ol' Richie ...
Review by Mark Leviton, Phonograph Record, February 1973
...AND I WAS STILL raving about it the next week: And they had this piano player (assulter more like it) named Pianos Demolished who pounded ...
Long John Baldry: It Ain't Easy
Review by Jon Tiven, Phonograph Record, August 1971
IT REALLY DOESN'T matter whether you like Long John Baldry or not, if you like Elton John and Rod Stewart that's good enough. The chances ...
Buddy Holly: A Rock & Roll Collection
Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, September 1972
I DON'T LIKE to be made a fool of. Last January the folks at Decca told me of their plans for an elaborate Buddy Holly ...
Review by Richard Cromelin, Phonograph Record, February 1975
NEKTAR'S SMOOTH move from cosmic progressivism (though it was more genuinely rocky than that of past practitioners of the style) to a more straightforward rock ...
Review by Bud Scoppa, Phonograph Record, April 1975
WHILE IT'S TEMPTING at first listening to lump Ace's first album with the Average White Band's AWB and then to make broad statements about the ...
Hunter-Ronson, Ian Hunter, Mick Ronson: Hunter-Ronson: The Ashes Of Mott Comes The Phoenix Rise
Report and Interview by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, June 1975
"SINCE YOU'VE BEEN such a quiet, well-behaved audience tonight, we'd like to send you off a nice, soothing lullaby..." ...
Review by Tom Nolan, Phonograph Record, March 1976
NOT AS, NOT AT all as, not nearly as, doesn't even come close to being anything at all as good as their last one, Silk ...
Fleetwood Mac: Universal Amphitheatre, L.A./Sunday Break II, Austin, Texas
Live Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, October 1976
FOR FLEETWOOD MAC success is in the bag, and the bag is soft-rock. Progressive MOR, MOR/progressive, whatever your preference, it's the new formula for wide-acceptance ...
The Heavy Metal Kids: Heavy Metal Kids: Heavy Metal Kids
Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, November 1974
CONCEPT GROUPS hardly ever come off. Unless they have exceptional inspiration and musical ability, like the Raspberries, they find themselves weighed under by the pretension ...
Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, September 1973
WHILE AMERICA continues to wallow in endless overblown funk, monotonous middle-of-the-rodomontade, and the unceasing soporifics of multitudinous mellow fellows and laid-back lasses, they've really been ...
Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, December 1971
THE APPEARANCE on the display wall of my favorite local record merchant of Pentangle's fifth album, Reflections, triggered a lightning search of my wallet, pockets, ...
Blondie Chaplin: Blondie Chaplin
Review by Bud Scoppa, Phonograph Record, April 1977
IF YOU CAN RESIST Blondie Chaplin's spine-tingling lead vocal on the Beach Boys' anthem, 'Sail on, Sailor', there must be something wrong with you. Blondie's ...
String Driven Thing: String Driven Thing (Buddah)
Review by Metal Mike Saunders, Phonograph Record, February 1973
THIS HAS GOT TO be one of the strangest albums I've heard all year. String Driven Thing (some name, huh?) are a Fairport Convention-ish British ...
Various Artists: Mersey Beat ’62-‘64
Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, December 1974
IN THE LITANY of wondrous 1974 reissues which led off my review of Odds & Sods/Backtrackin' last issue, I neglected to shower proper praises on ...
Review by Ben Edmonds, Phonograph Record, August 1976
SO WHAT WOULD you do if you were Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman? ...
Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, January 1976
LYNSEY DE PAUL'S new Aimed-at-America image seems to be Sex & Sleaze – with class. Visually, as any potential consumer can see by directing an ...
The Tremeloes: Tremeloes: Even the Bad Times are Good
Report by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, May 1976
THE TREMELOES have a problem – they've been too successful. 15 years together (the first five, backing Brian Poole) and upwards of a dozen pop ...
Review by Richard Cromelin, Phonograph Record, November 1975
INDISCREET, THANKS to a production approach which digs a wide gulf between it and previous Sparks albums, could well win over some new fans for ...
Flo & Eddie: Illegal, Immoral & Fattening
Review by Richard Cromelin, Phonograph Record, September 1975
IN THE SPIRIT of fair play which should be utmost in our minds this Bicentennial year, PRM sent invitations to a wide spectrum of rock ...
Johnny Rivers: Blue Suede Shoes
Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, July 1973
SIDE ONE OF Johnny Rivers' BLUE SUEDE SHOES album is the best work he's recorded in a long and often illustrious career. ...
Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, August 1971
CROWBAR IS THE most interesting group to come out of Canada in a long time. Their first LP with King Biscuit Boy was a blessed ...
Review by Metal Mike Saunders, Phonograph Record, June 1973
I REALLY LIKE THE Grassroots. They've had a lengthy string of good singles over the years, the current bogus Grassroots kicking their career off with ...
Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, July 1974
GOOD NEW rock & roll bands, without frills, excesses, or hyphenated stylistic cross-pollenizations are getting scarcer all the time. That's why discovering the Outlaws is ...
The Sensational Alex Harvey Band: Alex Harvey: It Pays To Hang Tough
Interview by Richard Cromelin, Phonograph Record, January 1975
"MAYBE I'M GETTING old," says Alex Harvey, sounding a bit puzzled. "It may be that simple." It's a bit of a laugh, after listening to ...
Charlie Feathers: The Minit-Stop
Report by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, July 1973
SO THERE WE were in Memphis, at the rock writers' convention. First morning there I was awakened by a phone call, "Hey, Charlie Feathers is ...
Sutherland Brothers and Quiver: Sutherland Bros: Starting Over Again
Profile and Interview by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, May 1976
A LITTLE HISTORY first. Not too much, don't worry; this isn't one of my retrospective tomes. The group is called the Sutherland Bros. & Quiver ...
The Alpha Band: The Alpha Band
Review by Bud Scoppa, Phonograph Record, November 1976
STEPHEN SOLES is a singer/writer/guitar-picker from NYC; he's the one Dylan kept whispering jokes to during the Hard Rain special. T-Bone Burnett is a Texan ...
Alice Cooper: The Forum, Los Angeles
Live Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, July 1975
WHEN ALICE CAME back to the Forum, it was an owning-up of sorts. This time there were no pretenses of Rock Band Identity (the backing ...
Interview by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, July 1975
CAN YOU BELIEVE IT? Third year in a row Phonograph's run a surf revival story, as if it were a current event. Looks pretty suspicious ...
Mogan David and His Winos: Savage Young Winos
Review by Metal Mike Saunders, Phonograph Record, 1 November 1972
HATED. DESPISED. SCORNED. That's Mogan David & His Winos. Columbia Records won't touch them, and The Duke (of American Rock Critics) won't let them near ...
Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, December 1974
MY FAVORITE ALBUMS are the ones that have eight or more tracks, each sounding as though it was intended to be a single, if only ...
Them, The Who: The Who: Odds & Sods/Them: Backtrackin'
Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, November 1974
1974 HAS CERTAINLY been a good year for reissues, even if UA's Jan & Dean set didn't quite make it to the starting gate. Four ...
Sutherland Brothers and Quiver: Sutherland Brothers: Reach For The Sky
Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, March 1976
POSITIVE NOTES FIRST. Of the four Sutherland Bros. & Quiver albums, Reach For the Sky is definitely the most consistent, the strongest yet. ...
Burton Cummings: My Own Way To Rock
Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, June 1977
BURTON CUMMINGS is destined to be a solo star, if he isn't classifiable as one already. His first single apart from the Guess Who, 'Stand ...
Review by Alan Betrock, Phonograph Record, March 1975
SOME OF MY friends keep telling me that it's never coming back, but I'm an incurable optimist and despite the dismal last few years of ...
Burton Cummings, The Guess Who: Burton Cummings, Legitimate
Profile and Interview by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, December 1976
VANCOUVER – For perhaps the fifth time in 20 minutes, the phone in Burton Cummings' Vancouver hotel suite rings, cutting the artist off in mid-answer. ...
Review by Bud Scoppa, Phonograph Record, August 1977
BEFORE I RECEIVED a test pressing of the new Rick Nelson album, I was informed that this elpee marked a big change in direction for ...
Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, March 1973
GRIN HAS DONE it again. Following up 1+1, one of the most exciting album of '72, the new opus from Nils Lofgren & Co., ALL ...
The Bee Gees: Bee Gees: Main Course
Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, July 1975
FOR THE BEE GEES, "change is now," as the Byrds expressed it on the backside of their 1967 mid-charter 'Goin' Back' (Columbia 44362). ...
The Kinks: Schoolboys In Disgrace
Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, December 1975
RAY DAVIES' NEWEST philosophical treatise directs itself to the topic of education and schooldays nostalgia. While a plot of sorts is undraped at the beginning ...
David Bowie: The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars (RCA)
Review by Jon Tiven, Phonograph Record, July 1972
DAVID BOWIE, England’s Answer-To-Alice-Cooper-But-He’s-For-Real, has finally made an album with positive commercial potential and consistent strength. Ziggy Stardust is the Aftermath of the Seventies, where ...
Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, May 1975
THIS MONTH'S import special features a group with a dumb name that sounds like a cross between a marine crustacean and a Hostess snack cake ...
Flash Cadillac and the Continental Kids: Flash Cadillac: Sons Of The Beaches
Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, September 1975
THEY'VE DONE IT again, and it's starting to get annoying. OK, Flash Cadillac & the Continental Kids are great – leagues ahead of any other ...
Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, September 1974
ALTHOUGH SUZI QUATRO exploded in Britain and to an extent in the States with all the sociomusical force of a full-fledged phenomenon, album No. 2 ...
Nils Lofgren: Can He Beat The Press
Profile and Interview by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, March 1976
NILS LOFGREN, AS SHAMEFULLY under-appreciated a top-flight rock & roller as America has ever spawned, now finds himself suffering, ironically, from overappreciation from certain sectors ...
Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, March 1973
THE HOLLIES ARE nothing if not resilient. When Graham Nash (long regarded as the key member of the group) left, Allan Clarke and Tony Hicks ...
Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, August 1974
There's something intriguing about a new group that manages to make a powerful impression without falling into any easily defined category. That's how I feel ...
Review by Jeff Walker, Phonograph Record, May 1972
IT'S BEEN an eternity since I've writhed to a record on a physical level, but I still recall fondly those stoned hours spent engrossed in ...
Jackson Browne: Jackson Browne (Asylum)
Review by Jeff Walker, Phonograph Record, April 1972
IT HAS TAKEN a long time for a whole album of Jackson Browne's music, actually sung and played by Jackson Browne, to be made and ...
The Movies (US): The Movies: The Movies
Review by Richard Cromelin, Phonograph Record, August 1976
THE MOVIES' debut release is a rather spotty, nondescript affair, more likely due to prematurity than to sheer lack of talent. The album reflects the ...
Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, July 1972
ONCE MICHAEL BROWN led a group called the Left Banke, who produced two of the most memorable singles of the mid-sixties, 'Walk Away Renee' and ...
Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, August 1977
BY THE TIME the first two cuts on Piper's second album had finished, I thought they'd really done it. 'Can't Wait' and especially 'Drop By ...
The Beatles: 1962-1966, 1967-1970 (Apple)
Review by Richard Riegel, Phonograph Record, July 1973
Author's Note, 2009: This review of "the red and blue albums" generated the first-ever hate mail from a reader in my rock-critical career. He wasn't ...
The Incredible String Band: Liquid Acrobat As Regards The Air (Elektra)
Review by Steven X Rea, Phonograph Record, April 1972
THIS IS THE Incredible String Band's ninth album (tenth, if you include the soundtrack to their film BE GLAD...), and their first in over a ...
Artful Dodger (1970s): Artful Dodger: Artful Dodger
Comment by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, December 1975
PLAYING straight uncomplicated hard rock, without a unified theme or specific image, without fantastic flights of lyrical invention or instrumental improvisation, and without pandering to ...
David Ackles: Oh Lord, Please Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood: The Overrating of David Ackles
Essay by Jeff Walker, Phonograph Record, October 1972
A FEW MONTHS ago a sometimes pleasant, sometimes depressing, sometimes intriguing, sometimes boring album by David Ackles, called American Gothic, was released by Elektra Records. ...
Rick Nelson: You're Not A Kid Anymore!
Retrospective and Interview by Todd Everett, Phonograph Record, December 1972
ROCK AND ROLL was here to stay. We knew it in 1957, and Danny and the Juniors put it into song in 1958. But what ...
Raspberries: The Raspberries: Fresh (Capitol)
Review by Mark Shipper, Phonograph Record, December 1972
THEY'RE A monument to youthful exuberance, a triumph of pure adolescent joyousness over post-teen disillusionment, and maybe just the last straw it's gonna take to ...
Townes Van Zandt: The Late Great Townes Van Zandt (Poppy)
Review by Jeff Walker, Phonograph Record, May 1973
TOWNES VAN ZANDT is so much more than just another singer/songwriter. He's a storyteller; a mood-maker. ...
Profile and Interview by Alan Betrock, Phonograph Record, July 1973
...with Hedgehoppers Anonymous, Simon Turner, 10cc, Ricky Wilde and the UK Gang ...
Flo & Eddie, J. Geils Band, T. Rex, Wings: Pipeline
Column by Mark Shipper, Phonograph Record, June 1973
EDITOR'S NOTE: After many months of intensive negotiations with his career advisors and financial counselors, Phonograph Record Magazine is pleased to announce the acquisition of ...
George Harrison, Jefferson Airplane, Joan Baez: Pipeline
Column by Mark Shipper, Phonograph Record, July 1973
AS THE DUKE of American Rock Critics, I am afforded privileges and favors undreamed of by others in my profession. ...
Grateful Dead, Steely Dan: Pipeline
Column by Mark Shipper, Phonograph Record, September 1973
"GREAT ALBUMS are hard to find these days," I once wrote in my definitive book on the subject, Great Albums Are Hard To Find These ...
Leon Russell, New York Dolls: Pipeline
Column by Mark Shipper, Phonograph Record, October 1973
ONE OF ROCK'S great unanswered questions (due to the fact that nobody cares enough to ask it) is this one: exactly what is bugging Leon ...
Leon Russell, The Rolling Stones: Pipeline
Column by Mark Shipper, Phonograph Record, November 1973
IT WAS AN unusually hot week in Kingston, Jamaica. Early spring this year. I was having lunch at an outdoor cafe with an up and ...
Bette Midler, Bob Dylan, Linda Ronstadt, Wings: Pipeline
Column by Mark Shipper, Phonograph Record, December 1973
WELL, 1973 IS gone and a new year is upon us. The only reason I mention that is because some of you are so dunced-out ...
Sylvester and the Hot Band: Bazaar (Blue Thumb)
Review by Richard Cromelin, Phonograph Record, December 1973
WHEN SYLVESTER'S first album came out, his supporters' only defense was to say, "Well, he's a great live act." Now, in his second one, he's ...
Jimmy Webb: Ten Years After 'Phoenix' He's Still Looking For Hit City
Profile and Interview by Todd Everett, Phonograph Record, June 1977
JIMMY WEBB is the still-under-30 composer who appeared from nowhere nine years ago with a spate of pop hits including 'By the Time I Get ...
Dennis Wilson: Pacific Ocean Blue (Caribou)
Review by Mitchell Cohen, Phonograph Record, August 1977
"WE DO SOLO projects for ourselves," Dennis Wilson said during an interview eighteen months ago. "There are hundreds of tunes that we've recorded, a tremendous ...
Jefferson Starship: Marty Balin Returns To The Fold
Interview by Todd Everett, Phonograph Record, May 1975
THE EXCITEMENT around the Airplane Mansion is real. It's in the very woodwork of this huge home in a once-fashionable section of San Francisco, where ...
Brian Eno: Eno: Another Green World (Island)
Review by John Mendelsohn, Phonograph Record, November 1975
UP UNTIL THE moment the temporary editor of this august journal telephoned to apprise me that he'd just been in a terrible automobile accident in ...
Colin Blunstone: One Year (Epic)
Review by Mark Leviton, Phonograph Record, April 1972
AFTER the Zombies hit about two years ago with 'Time of the Season' they broke up for good. ...
Colin Blunstone: One Year (Epic)
Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, April 1972
COLIN BLUNSTONE sang all those unforgettable Zombies hits, made a couple fairly successful solo singles, and disappeared for about three years before finally re-emerging with ...
The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band: Nitty Gritty Dirt Band: The Troubadour, Los Angeles
Live Review by Todd Everett, Phonograph Record, October 1970
FOR several years, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band has been a steady fixture in such local L.A. clubs as the Troubadour. ...
Led Zeppelin: The Forum, Inglewood, California
Live Review by Todd Everett, Phonograph Record, August 1972
WHAT BETTER WAY for Led Zeppelin to begin their three-and-a-half hour onslaught on the eardrums than with a crash of the drums? Not a "Hi, ...
The Standells: The Blue Max, Van Nuys, California
Live Review by Mark Shipper, Phonograph Record, November 1972
IT WAS the best kept secret in town, but yessir, the Standells came through here a couple of weeks ago to play their tough-as-nails brand ...
Blondie: Blondie (Private Stock)
Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, February 1977
THE FIRST TIME I saw Blondie she was incredible. ...
Ann Peebles...and the Hi Records Story
Interview by Todd Everett, Phonograph Record, December 1975
THOUGH NASHVILLE, Tennessee, has proclaimed itself "Music City U.S.A.," the traditional center of musical activity in that area of the country, and the city from ...
Grateful Dead, Jefferson Starship: Golden Gate Park, San Francisco
Live Review by Todd Everett, Phonograph Record, November 1975
Reunion in the Park: The Dead & The Starship Back To Basics ...
Overview by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, October 1973
The N.Y. Dolls & Blue Oyster Cult Revive Manhattan ...
Interview by Ian Dove, Phonograph Record, April 1977
MUDDY WATERS, the blues singer, relaxed in the kitchen of his home in the Chicago suburbs. He likes Chicago although rarely goes into the city ...
Iggy Pop: From Russia with Love: Bowie's Iggy
Profile and Interview by Stephen Demorest, Phonograph Record, April 1977
"You got a personality crisis,You got it while it was hot But now frustration and heartache is what you got... Personality, when your mind starts to ...
David Bowie: Aladdin Sane (RCA)
Review by Kim Fowley, Phonograph Record, June 1973
DAVID BOWIE is not a gay act. David Bowie can't dance. David Bowie has no sense of humor. David Bowie cannot write constantly familiar songs. ...
The Sonics: Explosives (BuckShot Records)
Review by Mark Shipper, Phonograph Record, June 1973
SUPPOSE I TOLD you there actually existed a band at one time (say around 1965) who sounded like (but better than) the Kinks on 'All ...
Tanya Tucker: Delta Dawn, What's Your Mama's Name (Columbia)
Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, November 1973
TANYA TUCKER just turned fifteen years old and, as they say, she's taken the country music world by storm. Her first hit, 'Delta Dawn', went ...
Live Review by Stephen M H Braitman, Phonograph Record, December 1976
WHEN THE announcement came, 5,000 tickets at $25 each were sold out almost immediately. This was the final show, "The Last Waltz." The Band — ...
Thom Bell, The Spinners: Thom Bell & The Spinners: Looking For 'Hudson Bros.' Acceptance
Interview by Ian Dove, Phonograph Record, March 1976
WHEN THE SPINNERS recently celebrated 25 years together as a group, amid all the celebrations the soul quintet were quick to point out the part ...
Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, May 1977
A monthly blindfold test by those masters of Slander Rock, Mark Volman & Howard Kaylan ...
Overview by Kim Fowley, Phonograph Record, May 1977
ONE DOESN'T need to write any introduction on the general rock history and geographical relevance of Hollywood. Hollywood is Los Angeles, Los Angeles is California ...
Emmylou Harris: Elite Hotel (Reprise MS2236)
Review by Todd Everett, Phonograph Record, January 1976
EMMYLOU HARRIS understands the idiom in which she chooses to work, and respects it: this separates Harris from the country-rock crowd, and makes her virtually ...
Bad Company: Revolt Into Style
Interview by Robin Katz, Phonograph Record, April 1977
LONDON — With Bad Company's four-month American tour set to kick off in Denver on April 25th, the group's personal assistants are taking bets on whether or ...
Betty Davis: The Bottom Line, New York, NY
Live Review by Vernon Gibbs, Phonograph Record, August 1974
THE FEEBLE-minded walk out in disgust when Betty Davis wiggles her tush at them, the weakhearted go limp with despair while the lusty ready their ...
Interview by Joe Nick Patoski, Phonograph Record, December 1976
NEW ORLEANS — Maintaining two separate personalities and record labels for his band Parliament/Funkadelic has been an act of schizophrenic genius on the part of ...
Albert King Delineates the Blues...
Interview by Lita Eliscu, Phonograph Record, August 1976
Lita Eliscu Listens! ...
Laura Nyro: Five Years of Silence
Essay by Lita Eliscu, Phonograph Record, January 1976
BORN LAURA Nigro, she was fated to sing the blues. Though her solitary visions weren't attuned to the pop pulse of the movement-minded sixties, she ...
David Bowie in The Man Who Fell To Earth
Film/DVD/TV Review by Lita Eliscu, Phonograph Record, August 1976
THIS FILM stars David Bowie — a logical choice — as a space visitor who comes to Earth in an attempt to find a way ...
Aretha Franklin: You (Atlantic SD18151)
Review by Lita Eliscu, Phonograph Record, November 1975
Aretha's Latest is a Blend of All that has Made Black Music, American Music ...
Rodney Bingenheimer: The Patron Saint of Teenage
Profile and Interview by John Mendelsohn, Phonograph Record, March 1975
FORGET THE hillside enclaves of those who either can not yet or no longer afford Beverly Hills, and what's left of the San Fernando Valley ...
Jackie DeShannon: Century Plaza Hotel, Los Angeles CA
Live Review by Anne Moore, Phonograph Record, September 1970
DeShannon Shines ...
The Isley Brothers: Felt Forum, New York, NY
Live Review by Vernon Gibbs, Phonograph Record, December 1974
THE ISLEY Brothers have demonstrated a level of tenacity that can only be considered remarkable in a business marked by overnight successes and instant failures. ...
Little Feat: Dixie Chicken (Warner Bros.)
Review by Colman Andrews, Phonograph Record, April 1973
LOWELL GEORGE is probably the best ear-to-the-earth, eye-on-the-bar-line writer of folk-themed rock and roll this side of Robbie Robertson, and Dixie Chicken by Little Feat ...
Overview by Joe Nick Patoski, Phonograph Record, May 1977
THANKS TO the migration of musicians who actually believed Austin's blind boast that it was the new country music capital of the world, the central ...
J. Geils Band: The Morning After (Atlantic)
Review by Nick Tosches, Phonograph Record, January 1972
GOOD HARD fast kool kat musick is the best kind. Anything without any metaphysical pretentions and with a lot of rebop raunch. ...
Doobie Brothers: The Doobie Brothers: The Doobie Brothers (Warners)
Review by Colman Andrews, Phonograph Record, August 1971
THE DOOBIE Brothers may turn out to be, it has been subtly hinted by the Warner Brothers promo department, the world's first successful "over-the-transom" recording ...
Live Review by Colman Andrews, Phonograph Record, March 1972
CRAZY HORSE, which was once Neil Young's sometimes back-up group and which also used to have Jack Nitzsche sitting on the piano bench, is currently ...
Bobby Womack: The Stark Soul of Bobby Womack
Essay by Colman Andrews, Phonograph Record, April 1972
A NEW WOMACK record is at hand. So what? the more unenlightened among you might ask. So plenty, now that you mention it. Plenty and then ...
Bill Wyman Solo: "Happier in The Stones Because I Have This Outside Freedom"
Interview by Lita Eliscu, Phonograph Record, March 1976
"I'VE BEEN in this band so long that if I haven't sung for a long time, I can't sing. If I haven't written a song ...
Captain Beefheart: The Spotlight Kid (Reprise)
Review by Colman Andrews, Phonograph Record, March 1972
WHO'S THE greatest white blues singer in America today? Shame on you if you said John Hammond or Dave Van Ronk or maybe Kate Taylor. ...
Joni Mitchell: Hejira (Asylum 7E-1087)
Review by Colman Andrews, Phonograph Record, December 1976
VERY FEW of Joni Mitchell's songs since the Ladies of the Canyon LP have been recorded by other artists, and I suppose that must be ...
The Byrds: I Love The Byrds But...
Comment by Kim Fowley, Phonograph Record, January 1972
IN ALMOST 1972, the Beatles have broken up, the Stones are husbands and fathers, Sonny and Cher are famous again, Jimi Hendrix is dead, and ...
Bobby Womack: Communication (United Artists)
Review by Colman Andrews, Phonograph Record, January 1972
I'VE MET Bobby Womack a couple of times, more or less interviewed him, written things about him, etc. He's so strong and sure that he ...
Ike Turner, Ike & Tina Turner: The Roots of Ike Turner
Essay by Colman Andrews, Phonograph Record, July 1972
IKE TURNER'S roots are blues roots. That's obvious, right? You hardly need some wise-ass young punk kid writer in good old PRM to lay that ...
Report by Richard Cromelin, Phonograph Record, May 1974
DESPITE (OR maybe because of) its position as a center of the entertainment industry and one of the Big Gigs on any artist's tour, Los ...
Miles Davis: Big Fun (Columbia)
Review by Vernon Gibbs, Phonograph Record, July 1974
SO MANY expletives have been deleted in praise of this honorable sage, that I feel it necessary to set the record straight. Miles Davis is ...
Dada: Whisky a Go Go, Los Angeles CA
Live Review by Colman Andrews, Phonograph Record, June 1971
DADA, A group from England which, so far as I could tell, exercises none of the grand illogicity or intellectual impudence their name would imply, ...
Junior Walker & the All Stars: Jr. Walker: 'Everybody's Just Ready For Me To Blow.'
Interview by Colman Andrews, Phonograph Record, October 1976
JR. WALKER is the man who, it might be said, invented disco-jazz. Ten years ago or more, he was creating a kind of music Ramsey ...
Toots & The Maytals: Armadillo World Headquarters, Austin, Texas
Live Review by Joe Nick Patoski, Phonograph Record, January 1976
DESPITE THIS city's reputation as a comfy little haven for country and progressive-country backwoods folksiness, its music audiences — at least in relation to the ...
Sandy Denny, Marian Segal: Sandy Denny and Marian Segal
Profile and Interview by Colman Andrews, Phonograph Record, September 1972
AN ARTICLE on Sandy Denny and Marian Segal, huh? O.K. Now who's Marian Segal? ...
Profile by Colman Andrews, Phonograph Record, November 1974
ALL OF A sudden you wake up one morning and find that Herbie Hancock has three albums on the charts. Herbie Hancock, one-time enfant terrible ...
Interview by Todd Everett, Phonograph Record, March 1976
KANSAS CITY — The way Kansas see it, their main problem these days is that of their image. Which has to do with their having ...
Gary Burton, Keith Jarrett: Keith Jarrett, Gary Burton: Royce Hall, UCLA, Los Angeles, California
Live Review by Colman Andrews, Phonograph Record, May 1975
ONE OF A series of recent jazz concerts at UCLA was to have featured Keith Jarrett on solo piano followed by the Gato Barbieri group. ...
Alice Cooper: Muscle of Love (Warner Brothers)
Review by Kim Fowley, Phonograph Record, January 1974
ALICE COOPER is an American International movie 10 years later set to music. But where is the director, Bob Ezrin? He directed such wow scenes ...
Profile by Todd Everett, Phonograph Record, March 1976
DOBIE GRAY'S making something like his third comeback, and seems reasonably pleased with the prospect. ...
Grand Funk Railroad: Survival (Capitol)
Review by Colman Andrews, Phonograph Record, August 1971
GRAND FUNK are a real good group. A lot of media critics don't like them, they say they're not real artists and that they just ...
New York Dolls, Television: The New York Club Scene
Report by Alan Betrock, Phonograph Record, May 1974
THE NEW York club scene had its heyday during the mid-sixties. On Long Island, the Action House ruled over the suburban scene featuring house bands ...
Labelle, Dusty Springfield: Vicki Wickham: The Secretary That Roared
Interview by Toby Mamis, Phonograph Record, December 1971
I'D CONSIDERED doing this piece since mid-June. So, frankly, when the time came, I was thoroughly prepared. Prior to my interview with Vicki Wickham, I'd ...
Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks: Striking It Rich (Blue Thumb)
Review by Jeff Walker, Phonograph Record, May 1972
IT IS BOTH a relief and a pleasure that STRIKING IT RICH is as good as it is; as long as I've been familiar with ...
Ohio Knox, Seals and Crofts: Seals and Crofts, Ohio Knox: The Troubadour, Los Angeles CA
Live Review by Colman Andrews, Phonograph Record, June 1971
JIM SEALS and Dash Crofts exercise a rare and nearly faultless contextual hegemony over the musical province they have staked out for themselves. I don't ...
Bobby "Blue" Bland: Spotlighting the Man: Bobby Blue Bland
Comment by Colman Andrews, Phonograph Record, September 1972
THERE'S A new Bobby Bland single out ('I'm So Tired') that is both typically fine and frustrating: fine in that it is another two and ...
Joni Mitchell: Ellis Auditorium, Memphis, Tennessee
Live Review by Steven X Rea, Phonograph Record, May 1974
JONI MITCHELL has finally accepted stardom and all the craziness that goes with it. During her Memphis appearance she still revealed her female submissiveness on ...
America: The Whisky, Los Angeles CA
Live Review by Jeff Walker, Phonograph Record, April 1972
THE WHISKY is not the ideal club for the debut of an acoustic band; one whose demands on its audience are more cerebral than physical. ...
Herbie Hancock's V.S.O.P.: Greek Theatre, Los Angeles CA
Live Review by Colman Andrews, Phonograph Record, August 1977
"V.S.O.P." — Herbie Hancock's Reunion ...
Comment by John Mendelsohn, Phonograph Record, February 1971
(This article was a response to an article in Jazz & Pop highly critical of rock criticism in general, and John Mendelsohn in particlular, by rock writer ...
Jefferson Airplane: Grunt Records: What A Lovely Sound
Report by Ben Edmonds, Phonograph Record, November 1971
IT WAS going to be, if you believed the hype and hung on to your hopes, the event on an otherwise lackluster social calendar for ...
Redwing, Seatrain: Seatrain, Redwing: The Whisky, Los Angeles, CA
Live Review by Jeff Walker, Phonograph Record, September 1972
I WISH there were something really great to say about Redwing; I mean, they've been playing together for a lot of years now, they happen ...
Stanley Clarke: Return to Love (Nemperor Records)
Review by Lita Eliscu, Phonograph Record, October 1975
BASS PLAYERS are not really famous for standing out in the world of rock. McCartney, of course...Jack Bruce...Bill Wyman sometimes. In Jazz, however, where the ...
Ian Matthews, Randy Newman: Randy Newman, Ian Matthews: The Troubadour, Los Angeles CA
Live Review by Colman Andrews, Phonograph Record, November 1971
RANDY NEWMAN looks like a kid you used to know in high school — the one who always read Scientific American and got A's in trig. Which ...
Keith Jarrett: America's #1 Keyboard Star
Overview by Colman Andrews, Phonograph Record, August 1976
KEITH JARRETT is the first genuine keyboard star of the seventies. Zawinul, Herbie Hancock, and Chick Corea are stars of a sort, and can certainly ...
Traffic: The Low Marks of Well Heeled Boys
Comment by Colman Andrews, Phonograph Record, January 1972
SOME NOTES ABOUT THE SLOWING DOWN OF TRAFFIC ...
Live Review by Todd Everett, Phonograph Record, February 1971
THE WORLD debut of Dave Mason's new group, featuring Cass Elliot, was a noteworthy occasion in more ways than one. For second billed was Ballin' ...
Live Review by Todd Everett, Phonograph Record, February 1971
MAKING HIS first Southern California appearance as a single after three previous attempts, Al Kooper proved that the wait wasn't worthwhile. Whatever his stature is ...
Cecil Taylor: Five Spot, New York, NY
Live Review by Lita Eliscu, Phonograph Record, May 1975
QUINTESSENTIAL JAZZ club, even has patina of history: the perfect place for Cecil Taylor to express his music after a long hiatus. The small stage ...
The Band: Islands (Capitol SO-11602)
Review by Mark Shipper, Phonograph Record, April 1977
A FRIEND OF mine called me one night last summer and told me he had an extra ticket to the Band concert that night and ...
Slade: Santa Monica Civic, Santa Monica CA
Live Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, June 1973
SLADE'S PREMIER headlining appearance, coming on the crest of the most explosive streak of singles since the 1965-7 Who, and the equally earthshaking SLAYED album, was as ...
Kool and the Gang, Nancy Wilson: Nancy Wilson, Kool and The Gang: The Apollo Theater, New York NY
Live Review by Vernon Gibbs, Phonograph Record, September 1974
"SING BLACK!," one dissenter shouted at Nancy Wilson who was the headliner at an Apollo show which included the comedy of Dick Gregory and was ...
Ozark Mountain Daredevils: The Ozark Mountain Daredevils: Kansas City Stars
Profile and Interview by Todd Everett, Phonograph Record, December 1975
THE SIGN AT the Springfield, Missouri, airport reads "Gateway to the Ozarks." Twenty minutes away is the rehearsal site of the Ozark Mountain Daredevils, two ...
Lou Reed: Coney Island Baby (RCA APL1-0915-B)
Review by Kim Fowley, Phonograph Record, March 1976
LOU REED is back. Coney Island Baby is the new wimp non-rock of the New Year. 'Crazy Feeling' is George Harrison Meets Buddy Holly's 'Everyday'. ...
David Ackles: The Troubadour, Los Angeles CA
Live Review by Anne Moore, Phonograph Record, September 1970
Ackles Intellectual ...
Bobby Womack: A Documented History of Bobby Womack
Memoir by uncredited writer, Phonograph Record, November 1975
HE'S WRITTEN hits for Rod Stewart, the Rolling Stones, Wilson Pickett and the J. Geils Band. He's played on countless sessions from Aretha Franklin to ...
J. Geils Band: The J. Geils Band: The J. Geils Band (Atlantic)
Review by Todd Everett, Phonograph Record, February 1971
VARIOUS MEMBERS of the J. Geils Band have been playing around, separately or together, in the Boston area for a number of years. It's rumored ...
Jackie DeShannon: Your Baby Is A Lady (Atlantic SD 7303)
Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, August 1974
JACKIE DeSHANNON is one of the greats. Writing memorable hits for Brenda Lee and the Fleetwoods ('Dum Dum', 'Heart in Hand', 'The Great Impostor'), then ...
Interview by Marty Cerf, Phonograph Record, October 1975
"IT SEEMS that I've always been ahead of my time — or 'about to happen' ever since I started in the early '60s," says Jackie ...
Big Star: 'September Gurls' (Privilege 1002)
Review by Marty Cerf, Phonograph Record, November 1974
Alex Chilton & Big Star: Innocent, But Deadly ...
Dwight Twilley Band: 'I'm On Fire' (Shelter SR 40380)
Review by Marty Cerf, Phonograph Record, May 1975
FOR THE moment there are but two titles that have any meaning for me. One is 'Tell Her No' by Del Shannon. The other is ...
Mott The Hoople: Top Rank Suite, Birmingham, England
Live Review by Mark Leviton, Phonograph Record, November 1972
YOU'D THINK that a group with a top ten record in Britain ('All The Young Dudes'), associated with David Bowie to boot, would have no ...
Interview by Colman Andrews, Marty Cerf, Phonograph Record, August 1977
As told to Marty Cerf and Colman Andrews... ...
Freddie Hubbard, Stanley Turrentine: Freddie Hubbard and Stanley Turrentine: In Concert (CTI 6044)
Review by Vernon Gibbs, Phonograph Record, August 1974
THERE IS something I don't like about Side One of this album and it's hard to say what it is. One thing I do know ...
Carole King: Simple Things (Capitol SMAS11667)
Review by Lita Eliscu, Phonograph Record, August 1977
THIS ISN'T simple, it's simplistic. An album full of observations on life and living — none of which comes off without an unbelievable amount of ...
English Trends in L.A.: Rodney Bingenheimer Makes Good
Report and Interview by Marty Cerf, Phonograph Record, December 1972
HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA — Just when we all expected it least, it happened. With our pants down, mouths wide open, Rodney Bingenheimer fulfilled the unknown pledge ...
Leon Ware: LA's Most Important New Writer/Producer/Performer
Interview by Colman Andrews, Phonograph Record, November 1976
LEON WARE'S songs have been recorded by an almost bewildering array of performers — including Ike and Tina Turner, Bobby Womack, the Righteous Brothers, Kim ...
Black Sabbath: Sabbath Bloody Sabbath (Warner Bros.)
Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, March 1974
SABBATH BLOODY Sabbath was an album I was eagerly anticipating. I'd become convinced that Master Of Reality was deserving of the heavy medal for highest ...
Don Cherry, Richard Davis, Billy Taylor: Jazz In The Seventies
Report and Interview by Lita Eliscu, Phonograph Record, November 1976
OVER THE last few years, iazz has re-achieved, to use an inelegant word, the enthusiastic encouragement of a new and important audience: people with money ...
Allman Brothers Band, Wet Willie: Allman Brothers, Wet Willie: Cincinnati Gardens, Cincinnati, Ohio
Live Review by Richard Riegel, Phonograph Record, March 1973
DON'T KNOW how it is up in those choice stageside seats you pro critics reputedly get your asses greased with, but auditing a rock concert ...
The Wackers: Bodega Club, San Jose, California
Live Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, September 1972
ROCK 'N' ROLL returned to the Pit recently and scored a technical knockout, as the Wackers invaded the Boogie Capital of San Jose, the Bodega ...
Bob Marley & the Wailers: The Wailers: Catch A Fire (Island)
Review by Colman Andrews, Phonograph Record, March 1973
THE WAILERS is/are a sort of senior, "safe" reggae group, in the same way that the Roiling Stones are a sort of senior, "safe" perverto-bizarro ...
Review by Marty Cerf, Phonograph Record, September 1970
URIAH HEEP may sound like a skin disease of some kind of animal manure, but in actuality it's the name of a fictional character. Uriah ...
Carly Simon: Hotcakes (Elektra)
Review by Kim Fowley, Phonograph Record, March 1974
IT USED TO be said in the late '60s that if you wanted to give your kid sister an LP the choice would be the ...
Judy Collins: True Stories And Other Dreams (Elektra)
Review by Mark Shipper, Phonograph Record, April 1973
LIKE AIR pollution or a sore that won't heal, Judy Collins will not go away. She is godlike only in that she's been around forever. ...
Quick, The (U.S.), The Runaways: The Sound of the Cities, 1976: Los Angeles
Overview by Kim Fowley, Phonograph Record, May 1976
LOS ANGELES — Local talent is never taken seriously in England; a yesteryear example is the phenomena of Love being worshiped in London and Savoy ...
Electric Light Orchestra: Town Hall, Birmingham (England)
Live Review by Mark Leviton, Phonograph Record, April 1973
THE TONE OF the evening was set when I spotted Jeff Lynne's electric guitar in the dressing room, leaning up against a sheaf of music ...
Various Artists: Nuggets (Elektra)
Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, October 1972
1965 Revisited: Lenny Kaye meets the Seeds ...
Elvis Presley: Jerry Hopkins: Elvis – The Biography
Book Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, January 1972
THERE HAS never been an entertainer quite like Elvis Presley. His life and his contribution to rock 'n' roll have assumed such legendary proportions, which ...
The Beatles: Paperback Writer: A New History Of The Beatles by Mark Shipper (Marship Publications)
Book Review by Marty Cerf, Phonograph Record, June 1977
BEATLEFICTION. It's so simple so obvious, it's amazing no one's thought of it till now. What, short of the re-grouped Beatles, could be more logical ...
The Groundhogs: Who Will Save The Groundhogs?
Profile and Interview by Colman Andrews, Phonograph Record, August 1972
IT MAY HAVE been The Last Pop Festival. I mean, they didn't even call it a pop festival, but that's clearly what it was — ...
Earth Quake: The Long Branch, Berkeley, CA
Live Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, December 1972
IT WAS Halloween in Berkeley, and consequently time for the mildly legendary annual costume contest at the Long Branch, to the musical accompaniment of Earth ...
Daryl Hall & John Oates: Hall & Oates: Blue-eyed Soul For The Masses
Interview by Lita Eliscu, Phonograph Record, September 1976
NEW YORK — In this world cluttered with singer-songwriter-performers and other hyphenated musical creations, into this electronic, technologic, upheaving miasma of pure and impure sounds ...
Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, September 1974
BRITAIN'S FACELESS HEROES UNMASKED ...
David Bowie: The Man Who Sold the World (Mercury)
Review by Colman Andrews, Phonograph Record, March 1971
THE MAN Who Sold the World is a vaguely-sophomoric, vaguely-mystical, thoroughly logical extension of the Music Hall tradition in British pop music. This is a ...
Ike & Tina Turner: Workin' Together (Liberty)
Review by Colman Andrews, Phonograph Record, March 1971
TINA TURNER ought to be ashamed of her fine self, screaming and shouting and carrying on the way she does. If she isn't the sexiest ...
Canned Heat: Future Blues (Liberty)
Review by Anne Moore, Phonograph Record, September 1970
CANNED HEAT is back with the familiar boogie blues with their new Liberty album, Future Blues. ...
Rahsaan Roland Kirk & the Vibration Society: Rahsaan Rahsaan (Atlantic)
Review by Colman Andrews, Phonograph Record, March 1971
RAHSAAN ROLAND Kirk is an irrepressible wit, musically and verbally; he's also a fine, funky philosopher, an exhilarating entertainer, and one of the best damn ...
Roxy Music: Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, Ca.
Live Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, April 1975
ROXY MUSIC'S sellout Santa Monica appearance was a carefully executed triumph. They seemed minded to consolidate their newly-won American audience, and played it conservative all ...
Live Review by Jonh Ingham, Phonograph Record, April 1975
THE SECOND wave of '70s bands to emerge from England is an entirely opposite affair from the glitter/glam of the Mark I model. It's centred ...
Colin Blunstone, Good Habit: Civic Hall, Guildford, England
Live Review by Harold Bronson, Phonograph Record, October 1972
IT WAS MIDNIGHT, and as my nose was dripping, I was freezing on the last train to London. Colin Blunstone, ex-lead vocalist of the Zombies, ...
The Incredible String Band: U (Elektra)
Review by Anne Moore, Phonograph Record, March 1971
U IS A creative concept by the Incredible String Band and Stone Monkey (a musical dance troupe) — in reality it is a new double ...
Ronnie Spector: Cleveland International Records: Ronnie Spector Breaks Cleveland!
Report and Interview by Marty Cerf, Phonograph Record, April 1977
CLEVELAND — It's a freezing night in mid-February for this city that knows no excess in terms of its insatiable hunger for pop. Indisputably, this ...
Weather Report: Black Market: Wayne Shorter & Weather Report #6
Profile and Interview by Colman Andrews, Phonograph Record, April 1976
WEATHER REPORT — the adventuresome, electronically-spiced neo-jazz group founded five years ago by Josef Zawinul, Wayne Shorter, and Mirsolav Vitous, and still co-led by the ...
Aerosmith: "We're the Hottest Band in America"
Profile by Mitchell Cohen, Phonograph Record, April 1976
NEW YORK — Photo sessions are a pain in the ass. 8 x 10 glossies are made, not born; press kits aren't built in a ...
Nils Lofgren: Cry Tough (A&M SP 4573)
Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, April 1976
DEFINITELY A star cover. Great guitar hero pose of Lofgren coolly firing away, shrouded in a purple haze — by far his most sympathetic cover ...
Manu Dibango: Soul Makossa (Atlantic)
Review by Dan Nooger, Phonograph Record, September 1973
THIS IS the best soul dance record in years. It cuts directly against the grain of most black music today, which strives for that sophisticated, ...
Patti Smith: Art for Art's Sake
Profile by Gary Kenton, Phonograph Record, December 1975
I WAS ON the telephone to one of New York's successful management firms last week and, like all successful New York firms, they put me ...
Patti Smith: Horses (Arista AL 4060)
Review by Gary Kenton, Phonograph Record, December 1975
WALKING THE NEW JERSEY-MERSEY BEAT WITH PATTI SMITH & THE KAYE STREET BAND ...
Van Morrison: It's Too Late to Stop Now (Warner Brothers)
Review by Todd Everett, Phonograph Record, April 1974
IT'S TOO Late is the perfect album if you're going to have only one by Van Morrison. Everything you'll need to know about the Belfast ...
Mick Ronson: Slaughter On 10th Avenue (RCA APL 1-0353)
Review by Gary Kenton, Phonograph Record, April 1974
ANOTHER MAINMAN artiste bites the dust. Not to pass the buck — Ronson has to be entirely responsible for the failure of this album, insofar ...
Review by Tom Nolan, Phonograph Record, March 1975
THIS EXCITING album by a veteran group (so experienced in working together they seem to anticipate each other's moves) is characterized by masterful use of ...
Allman Brothers Band, KISS: Music on TV
Report by Marty Cerf, Phonograph Record, April 1974
IN CONCERT, Midnight Special and Rock Concert will herald mutations, they'll create new music concepts after they themselves are long retired. Dick Clark foresees pop ...
David Bowie, Marianne Faithfull: The TV Monsters: The Bowie Special
Report by Marty Cerf, Phonograph Record, April 1974
AS THE first network music special produced by the featured rock star, the David Bowie Midnight Special bears closer examination. ...
Aretha Franklin: Apollo Theatre, New York, NY
Live Review by Dan Nooger, Phonograph Record, April 1974
MUSIC HAS taken its place with dope and women as a reason for coming to Harlem. Especially these bleak days, it's an emotionally regenerative experience ...
Average White Band: Show Your Hand (MCA)
Review by Dan Nooger, Phonograph Record, November 1973
A LOT OF British heavies on the order of Led Zeppelin, Humble Pie, and even Elton John came out of the soul club tradition, learning ...
The Outlaws: Lady In Waiting (Arista AL 4070)
Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, April 1976
LADY IN Waiting improves on the Outlaws' fine debut set in many ways. The vocals are airtight, the equal of any L.A. country-rock outfit going. ...
The Bee Gees: What Comes After Main Course: Barry Gibb & The Bee Gees on Top Again
Interview by Ian Dove, Phonograph Record, April 1976
BARRY GIBB considers Arif Mardin the main ingredient for Main Course's success. He adds: "Quite simply he's the best producer in the world for us. ...
Profile and Interview by Dan Nooger, Phonograph Record, 11 April 1974
BOBBY BLUE Bland is a big, genial man, born 1931 in Rosemark, Tenn., former vocalist of the legendary Memphis "Beale Street Blues Boys," (along with ...
Buffy Sainte-Marie: Buffy (MCA)
Review by Colman Andrews, Phonograph Record, 1974
TINA TURNER apparently has some new competition in the ethnic carnality sweepstakes. In the quickest turn of plume since Sacheen Littlefeather showed up in Playboy, ...
Elliott Murphy: Aquashow (Polydor PD-5061)
Review by Gary Kenton, Phonograph Record, 3 January 1974
DON'T YOU just hate to pick up a music magazine (or megapaper, as the case may be) and see a review in which some snot-nosed ...
Retrospective by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, April 1976
THE BEE Gees endure. Through changing musical fashions and their own self-induced periods of inspiration and stagnation, they've muddled through. They were an original "next-Beatles" ...
Kiss: Destroyer (Casablanca NBLP 7025)
Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, 1976
KISS CAME into prominence, to put it simplistically, by combining Alice Cooper's horrific visuals and theatrics with Grand Funk's heavy-rock simplicity and lyrical solidarity with ...
Earl Slick: The Earl Slick Band: Earl Slick (Capitol)
Review by Richard Cromelin, Phonograph Record, April 1976
THE DEBUT of the Slick white Earl is promising, but the album's preoccupation with precision, correctness and conformity to prevailing hard-rock standards all but eliminate ...
The Outlaws: The Hottest New Guitar Band In The Country
Interview by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, April 1976
IT'S A STRANGE-looking crowd at the Hollywood Palladium. Not since surfer days have there been so many wool shirts in one place, and not your ...
Billy Paul: Got My Head On Straight (Philadelphia International KZ 33157)
Review by Tom Nolan, Phonograph Record, 1975
TYPICALLY SMOOTH and lavish Gamble-Huff production highlights this very commercial collection by the 'Me and Mrs. Jones' man. ...
Bob Marley & The Wailers: Rastaman Vibration (Island ILPS 9383)
Review by Sam Sutherland, Phonograph Record, May 1976
Top 40 Rasta: Marley at his most Mischievous ...
Steely Dan: Katy Lied (ABC ABCD-846)
Review by Sam Sutherland, Phonograph Record, April 1975
STEELY DAN is a feisty little outfit. Their songs insinuate themselves onto Top 40 playlists, to blare from car radios and transmute vinylite into gold, ...
Profile and Interview by Sam Sutherland, Phonograph Record, December 1975
LOWELL GEORGE is ravaged, eyes wired with fatigue beneath the peak of a floppy leather poorboy cap, face pallid against the dark beard. He smiles ...
Jackson Browne: The Pretender (Asylum 7E-1079)
Review by Sam Sutherland, Phonograph Record, November 1976
JACKSON BROWNE'S fourth and best album draws its power from a stunning tension of opposites: he continues to revise and refine many of the same ...
Steely Dan: Royal Scam (ABC ABCD-931)
Review by Sam Sutherland, Phonograph Record, May 1976
SO YOU wanna dance? Steely Dan will oblige you, punching up their fast songs with hot guitars and bubbling rhythms. You say you like spectacle, ...
Little Feat: The Last Record Album (Warner Bros. BS2882)
Review by Sam Sutherland, Phonograph Record, November 1975
DESPITE ITS grim title, Little Feat's fifth album is the work of a band very much alive, its best songs charged with strong ideas, exciting ...
Robert Palmer: Sneakin' Sally Through The Alley (Island ILPS 9294)
Review by Sam Sutherland, Phonograph Record, July 1975
ENGLISH REVERENCE for rhythm & blues hasn't stopped with urban and country models of past decades, and as increasing numbers of Britons emulate contemporary R&B ...
The Band: Northern Lights — Southern Cross (Capitol ST-11440)
Review by Sam Sutherland, Phonograph Record, December 1975
THE BAND'S NORTHERN LIGHTS: AN UNEVEN EXPERIMENT IN EVOLUTION ...
John Cale: Slow Dazzle (Island ILPS 9317)
Review by Sam Sutherland, Phonograph Record, September 1975
EACH NEW instalment in John Cale's quixotic solo career has invited the sort of critical involvement and public indifference that have earmarked him as a ...
Review by Sam Sutherland, Phonograph Record, March 1975
SINCE DEPARTING Fairport Convention, Richard Thompson has risked increasing obscurity to pursue a personal style in direct variance with his most obvious commercial skills. Sinewy, ...
Loudon Wainwright III: Album II (Atlantic)
Review by Colman Andrews, Phonograph Record, September 1971
LOUDON WAINWRIGHT II was (still is, for that matter) one of the best, most readable of the bleeding-heart-liberal slick-paper journalists; his son, Loudon Wainwright III, ...
Hot Tuna: First Pull Up, Then Pull Down (RCA)
Review by Jonh Ingham, Phonograph Record, September 1971
I FIRST HEARD Hot Tuna at a free concert in late 1969. It consisted of Jack and Jorma on guitars, Joey Covington on drums (Spencer ...
Syreeta Wright: One To One (Motown t6-349ST)
Review by Tom Vickers, Phonograph Record, April 1977
MOST FEMALE singer-songwriters are prisoners of producers, and Syreeta Wright is no exception. Her most popular release, Stevie Wonder Presents Syreeta Wright, came out in ...
Interview by Tom Vickers, Phonograph Record, June 1977
COMPLEX, MYSTERIOUS, INSPIRED & STUBBORN KIND OF FELLOW ...
Nick Drake: Nick Drake (Island)
Review by Colman Andrews, Phonograph Record, November 1971
NICK DRAKE — who is, despite his name, a singer/songwriter and not a prototypical 1942- vintage private detective radio hero — has made a first ...
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