Rolling Stone
Founded in San Francisco, California in 1967, Rolling Stone is a bi-weekly magazine focuses on music, popular culture and politics, now published in New York. It has featured work by many of the best known political and music writers.
1,834 articles
List of articles in the library
Where’s the Money from Monterey Pop?
Report by Michael Lydon, Rolling Stone, 9 November 1967
For the first issue of Rolling Stone in November, 1967, editor Jann Wenner asked me to do an investigative piece on what had happened to ...
Report and Interview by Michael Lydon, Rolling Stone, 9 November 1967
THERE HE WAS, Wild Bill Haley, fifteen years older but not showing a day of it, his spit curl firmly in place on the forehead ...
Jefferson Airplane: After Bathing At Baxter’s
Review and Interview by Michael Lydon, Rolling Stone, 23 November 1967
Jefferson Airplane finally finished their third LP Halloween week after two months of off-and-on recording in Los Angeles. It’s called After Bathing at Baxter’s, has ...
Curtis Knight, Jimi Hendrix: Jimi Hendrix: A Shoddy Hendrix Record?
Report by Michael Lydon, Rolling Stone, 20 January 1968
THE NEW Capitol LP, Got that Feeling: Jimi Hendrix Plays, Curtis Knight Sings, is not what it appears: Hendrix's latest release. The cover, with no ...
The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, The Moody Blues: London: Beatles Clip Banned
Column by Nick Jones, Rolling Stone, 20 January 1968
THERE ARE a few gloomy faces in England these days since our pound has devalued (what?) but it's mainly the profiteers who can't bear the ...
Grateful Dead: The First European International Pop Festival: Pigpen To Meet Pope?
Report by Michael Lydon, Rolling Stone, 10 February 1968
THE FIRST EUROPEAN International Pop Festival, a resounding name for a still rather mysterious event, is being planned for Rome's huge Palazzo dello Sport February ...
Charlatans, The (US): The Charlatans: Pioneer San Francisco Rock Group
Profile and Interview by Michael Lydon, Rolling Stone, 9 March 1968
While record companies and poster dealers are pouring hundreds of thousands of dollars into San Francisco to capture some of that real old authentic hip ...
Traffic, Steve Winwood: Traffic: Stevie Winwood, A Calm, Shy Superfreak
Report and Interview by Al Kooper, Rolling Stone, 27 April 1968
IT WAS LATE 1965 and Mike Bloomfield was with Butterfield and I was with the Project. We were sitting in my apartment listening to a ...
Merle Haggard: Home-fried Humor and Cowboy Soul
Profile and Interview by Al Aronowitz, Rolling Stone, 10 August 1968
COUNTRY MUSIC is blowing in like a fresh wind from the West. America can't be defined by its pay-toilets and its smog. Merle Haggard never ...
Review by Al Kooper, Rolling Stone, 10 August 1968
EVERY YEAR since 1963 we have all singled out one album to sum up what happened that year. It was usually the Beatles with their ...
The Band: Friends and Neighbours Just Call Us The Band
Profile and Interview by Al Aronowitz, Rolling Stone, 24 August 1968
NEW YORK: Big Pink is one of those middle class ranch houses of the type that you would expect to find in development row in ...
Mason Williams: The Mason Williams Phonograph Record
Review by Gene Sculatti, Rolling Stone, 14 September 1968
THE RECORDING DEBUT of Mason Williams is an intriguing affair. The Mason Williams Phonograph Record was released many months ago but only recently has it ...
Smokey Robinson, Smokey Robinson & The Miracles: Smokey Robinson
Profile and Interview by Michael Lydon, Rolling Stone, 28 September 1968
SMOKEY ROBINSON is the reigning genius of Top-40. Since the Beatles and the Beach Boys dropped out of the single-then-follow-up-album pattern aimed at the AM ...
Interview by Michael Lydon, Rolling Stone, 7 December 1968
"IF IT WEREN'T FOR the rocks in its bed, the stream would have no song," said Carl Perkins with a comic dolefulness. He had just ...
John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers: A Hard Road (London)
Review by Metal Mike Saunders, Rolling Stone, 7 December 1968
This record has some great blues for blues freaks, whether you happen to prefer blues played by whites, blacks, or homosexual Chinese emigrants to the ...
Dion: Today I Think I Got A Chance
Interview by Ritchie Yorke, Rolling Stone, 21 December 1968
NORTH MIAMI – After a six year battle with drugs, singer Dion DiMucchi has his pointed Italian shoes firmly planted on the comeback trail. His ...
Jose Feliciano Sings the Star-Spangled Banner
Report and Interview by Ritchie Yorke, Rolling Stone, 4 January 1969
JOSE FELICIANO sat stiffly on a wooden stool in the middle of sun-bathed Detroit Stadium, his burgundy suit almost gaudy below the glint of his ...
Interview by Tom Nolan, Rolling Stone, 4 January 1969
"WHAT I'M AFRAID of," says Taj Mahal, watching the sun set on Sunset, "are these closet fascists, the guy workin' unloadin' trucks scared to death ...
Overview by John Sinclair, Rolling Stone, 4 January 1969
Here is a typical MC5 program, as performed at the Grande Ballroom in Detroit. As well as serving as notes for "an evening recital of ...
Report and Interview by Ritchie Yorke, Rolling Stone, 4 January 1969
TRAFFIC has broken up. The announcement, made in London this week, came at a time when Traffic had finally broken through in the United States. ...
Joe Cocker: 'U.S.'s Only Culture is Black'
Profile and Interview by Ritchie Yorke, Rolling Stone, 1 March 1969
LONDON – Joe Cocker, the frizzy-haired new idol of the English pop scene, lives modestly in a first floor bed sitter in South Kensington. You ...
Review by John Mendelssohn, Rolling Stone, 15 March 1969
THE POPULAR FORMULA in England in this, the aftermath era of such successful British bluesmen as Cream and John Mayall, seems to be: add to ...
Foreword to Outlaw Blues by Paul Williams
Book Excerpt by Michael Lydon, Rolling Stone, April 1969
[For the 21st-century edition of this book, Michael Lydon, a founding editor of Rolling Stone magazine and the author of Rock Folk, Boogie Lightning and ...
Review by Lester Bangs, Rolling Stone, 5 April 1969
WHOEVER THOUGHT when that dirty little quickie Wild In The Streets came out that it would leave such an imprint on the culture? First the ...
The Doors, Tim Hardin: Tim Hardin: Hobnobbin' With The Superstars
Report by Tom Nolan, Rolling Stone, 19 April 1969
LOS ANGELES – The Chateau Marmont is one of the nicest places and reasons to stay in Los Angles. It retains the charm of old ...
Lothar and the Hand People: Lothar and the Hand People (Capitol)
Review by Lenny Kaye, Rolling Stone, 3 May 1969
THERE WAS a strange New York scene a few years ago, when much the same sort of thing was taking place across a continent in ...
The Incredible String Band: The Big Huge (Elektra 74037); Wee Tam (Elektra 74036)
Review by Dan Nooger, Rolling Stone, 3 May 1969
AFTER THE crystal excellence of The 5000 Spirits, the Incredible String Band lost direction on their next album, dabbling in diffuse, overlush ballads. Now, the ...
Traffic at Berkshire Cottage: Just Playing Together was a Fantasy
Report and Interview by David Dalton, Rolling Stone, 3 May 1969
THE COTTAGE is an hour and a half from London, but it's thousand light years from Soho Square. Henley is like driving through a postcard, ...
Review by Greil Marcus, Rolling Stone, 17 May 1969
IKE AND TINA TURNER have been packing suitcases and riding buses for years, playing the Sportmen's Clubs and the Showcase Lounges, sometimes making it into ...
Profile and Interview by Ben Fong-Torres, Rolling Stone, 17 May 1969
FOLK MUSIC, which pushed rock and roll into the arena of the serious with protest lyrics and blendings of Dylan and the Byrds back in ...
Mary Hopkin, Paul McCartney: Mary Hopkin: Postcard
Review by John Mendelsohn, Rolling Stone, 17 May 1969
POSTCARD IS AS much Paul McCartney's as it is Mary Hopkin's, which is to say that it is one of those albums on which the ...
Review by Ed Ward, Rolling Stone, 17 May 1969
TAJ MAHAL may not be the most authentic, the most technically proficient, or the most emotionally cathartic practitioner of the blues today, but he certainly ...
Essay by Happy Traum, Rolling Stone, 17 May 1969
"FOLK MUSIC is dead." We've been hearing that for some time now. The clubs and coffee houses that sprang up all over the country in ...
Review by John Mendelsohn, Rolling Stone, 31 May 1969
A Salty Dog is a confusing album. At its best it represents the group's greatest success to date with the brand of rock for which ...
Roy Harper: Waiting for the Bullets to Fly
Profile and Interview by Mark Williams, Rolling Stone, 14 June 1969
"I'M NEVER going to be a music industry hype. If they ever tried to make me into that I'd go round to what are considered ...
The Kinks: The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society
Comment by Paul Williams, Rolling Stone, 14 June 1969
I CERTAINLY LOVE the Kinks; it's been fifteen months since I've had a new Kinks album in my hourse, and though I've been listening to ...
The Nice: Ars Longa Vita Brevis (Immediate)
Review by John Mendelsohn, Rolling Stone, 14 June 1969
WHAT MAY HAVE turned potential Nice freaks off last year was the group's decision to precede their ritual cataclysm 'Rondo' with a set that consisted ...
John Lennon, Yoko Ono: Bedding In For Peace: John and Yoko in Canada
Report and Interview by Ritchie Yorke, Rolling Stone, 28 June 1969
TORONTO – It started like a pretty normal Sunday. The churches were filled, the radio news bulletins beamed out the latest on wars and starving ...
Alice Cooper: Pretties for You
Review by Lester Bangs, Rolling Stone, 12 July 1969
ALICE COOPER IS A West Coast Zappa-sponsored group: two guitars, bass, drums and a vocalist who doubles on harmonica. Echoes of 1967 psychedelia in the ...
Blossom Toes: If Only For A Moment (Marmalade 608 010)
Review by Mark Williams, Rolling Stone, 26 July 1969
IN THESE days of repressive mass media and a pop press that still bases the bulk of its criticism and coverage on what is happening ...
The Nice: Nice Work If You Can Get It
Profile by Mark Williams, Rolling Stone, 26 July 1969
THE NICE are the most successful British group to have achieved fame without a single in the top ten. The future is surer for them, ...
Steve Miller: The Steve Miller Band: Brave New World (Capitol)
Review by John Morthland, Rolling Stone, 26 July 1969
IF YOU WERE hoping for some new music from the new Steve Miller Band – organist Jim Peterman and guitarist Boz Scaggs have left, and ...
Review by Mark Williams, Rolling Stone, 26 July 1969
THE BRITISH END of the Atlantic Recording Company's operations rarely signs up this country's groups and when it does, they have to be exceedingly good ...
Chuck Willis: I Remember Chuck Willis
Review by Greil Marcus, Rolling Stone, 9 August 1969
EVERY ONCE IN a while something happens that reminds one of the incalculable contribution Atlantic Records has made to rock and roll and rhythm and ...
Country Joe & The Fish: Here We Are Again
Review by John Morthland, Rolling Stone, 9 August 1969
BERKELEY HAS ALWAYS BEEN the Freak Capital of the Western world. The university of California has long been noted for its political militants, and the ...
The Incredible String Band: Incredible String Band: York University, York
Live Review by Michael Gray, Rolling Stone, 9 August 1969
YORK IS A WALLED medieval city that belongs to Rowntrees Chocolate. You step off the train on some evenings and the scent of After Eight ...
Brian Jones, The Rolling Stones: Obituary: Brian Jones
Obituary by Greil Marcus, Rolling Stone, 9 August 1969
Not just a guitarist for the Rolling Stones, but an embodiment of the music itself. ...
Interview by Ritchie Yorke, Rolling Stone, 9 August 1969
IT'S A TYPICAL Toronto Friday night. Hoods with greasy ducktail haircuts are dragging up and down Yonge Street, the city's main thoroughfare and girl-watching area. ...
Ronnie Hawkins: Ronnie Hawkins and Mr. Dynamo
Review by Greil Marcus, Rolling Stone, 9 August 1969
RONNIE HAWKINS came down out of the Ozarks, and after gigging with Carl Perkins and Harold Jenkins (later Conway Twitty), he decided he wanted to ...
Joe Cocker: With A Little Help From My Friends
Review by John Mendelsohn, Rolling Stone, 23 August 1969
Joe Cocker and the Grease Band were ending a performance they gave recently at the Whiskey in Los Angeles. As they went into their explosive ...
Review by John Morthland, Rolling Stone, 23 August 1969
LOOK AT THE picture of Steve Cropper on his new album cover and you see what appears to be a quiet, reserved, young man – ...
Grateful Dead: The Grateful Dead: Burnout Sets In
Special Feature by Michael Lydon, Rolling Stone, 23 August 1969
But I reckon l got to light out for the Territory ahead of the rest, because Aunt Sally she's going to adopt me and sivilise ...
Interview by Ritchie Yorke, Rolling Stone, 6 September 1969
The four members of Blind Faith – the instant super group whipped up with two-thirds of the soured Cream – were entrenched in a plush ...
Blind Faith: Blind Faith (Atco)
Review by John Morthland, Rolling Stone, 6 September 1969
THE YEAR 1969 has not been a very good one for rock and roll. Outside of Tommy and the Band's decision to go on tour, ...
Fairport Convention: What We Did On Our Holidays
Review by John Mendelsohn, Rolling Stone, 6 September 1969
THE FIRST thing I did on receiving this album in the mail was stick it in my cardboard album box – with a good mind ...
The Band, Ronnie Hawkins: From Stud to Star: Ronnie Hawkins
Interview by Ritchie Yorke, Rolling Stone, 20 September 1969
TORONTO — Ronnie Hawkins, the Arkansas rock and roller now living on a farm near Toronto, has signed a long-term contract with Atlantic Records. Hawkins, ...
Interview by Ritchie Yorke, Rolling Stone, 20 September 1969
LOS ANGELES — Kim Fowley, the rock and roll missionary and visionary, lives in a room above a garage in Laguna, Calif., with no sheets ...
John Lennon: John, Yoko, And Eric Clapton Kick Up Their Blue Suede Shoes
Report and Interview by Ritchie Yorke, Rolling Stone, 18 October 1969
LONDON – John Lennon and Yoko Ono were beaming when they arrived at their plush white office in Apple's Savile Row headquarters in London on ...
Review by John Mendelsohn, Rolling Stone, 18 October 1969
MY FELLOW devotees of what is frequently referred to as rock and roll's English sound should, on finishing this sentence, rush out willy-nilly in excited ...
Big Mama Thornton: Stronger Than Dirt (Mercury)
Review by John Morthland, Rolling Stone, 1 November 1969
ANYBODY WHO has ever seen Big Mama Thornton perform will vouch for the fact that she is a consummate entertainer. So good, in fact, that ...
Dusty Springfield: Dusty In Memphis
Review by Greil Marcus, Rolling Stone, 1 November 1969
A FEW MONTHS AGO I walked into the Rolling Stone office and palely inquired if the journal might possibly be interested in a review of ...
The Hollies: Words and Music by Bob Dylan (Epic)
Review by John Mendelsohn, Rolling Stone, 1 November 1969
THE HOLLIES, an institution in British rock since the very early Beatle days, have always been among the most conservative of English groups. They were, ...
Jimi Hendrix: I Don't Want to be a Clown Any More
Interview by Sheila Weller, Rolling Stone, 15 November 1969
LIBERTY, NEW YORK – Records, film, press and gossip are collectively ambitious in creating the image of a rock superstar. With Jimi Hendrix – as ...
The Rolling Stones: Keith Richards
Interview by Ritchie Yorke, Rolling Stone, 15 November 1969
THE NEWS that the Rolling Stones are to resume personal appearances is likely to gladden hearts everywhere. The Stones always were the most important performing ...
Fat Mattress, Jimi Hendrix, Noel Redding: Redding On Jimi: "I Said Stuff It"
Interview by Ritchie Yorke, Rolling Stone, 15 November 1969
LONDON — It was an experience, yes, but it was no picnic to have been Jimi Hendrix' bass player for three years. In the end, ...
Screamin' Jay Hawkins: What That Is! (Phillips)
Review by John Mendelsohn, Rolling Stone, 15 November 1969
THE KEY TO this album is its honesty. Producer Milan Melvin has been faithful to Screamin' Jay and his music right down to the picture ...
Review by John Mendelsohn, Rolling Stone, 15 November 1969
BOUND AS he is to producer Mickie Most, who's good when he's interested and unthinkably horrid when he's not, as is obviously the case here, ...
The Beatles: Abbey Road (Apple)
Review by John Mendelssohn, Rolling Stone, 15 November 1969
SIMPLY, SIDE TWO does more for me than the whole of Sgt. Pepper, and I'll trade you The Beatles and Magical Mystery Tour and a ...
The Zombies: Early Days (London)
Review by John Mendelsohn, Rolling Stone, 15 November 1969
I PERSONALLY used to spend a lot of time in school carving "What's become of the Zombies" on desks. Which is to say that I ...
Bonzo Dog Band: Bonzo Dog Runs, Fucks Itself
Report and Interview by Loraine Alterman, Rolling Stone, 29 November 1969
NEW YORK — The Bonzo Dog Band, bitter over what they felt was shoddy treatment by their American record company, cut their second U.S. tour ...
Fleetwood Mac: Then Play On (Reprise)
Review by John Morthland, Rolling Stone, 13 December 1969
Nowadays Fleetwood Mac is stepping out on its own. Tired of being another British blues band, the group has said goodbye to Elmore James and ...
Led Zeppelin: Led Zeppelin II (Atlantic)
Review by John Mendelsohn, Rolling Stone, 13 December 1969
Hey, man, I take it all back! This is one fucking heavyweight of an album! OK – I'll concede that until you've listened to the ...
Charlie Rich: Life's Little Ups And Downs
Review by Greil Marcus, Rolling Stone, 27 December 1969
BOB DYLAN HAS SAID more than once that Charlie Rich is one of his favorite musicians – as a songwriter and as a singer. Nik ...
King Crimson: In the Court of the Crimson King
Review by John Morthland, Rolling Stone, 27 December 1969
THERE ARE CERTAIN problems to be encountered by any band that is consciously avant-garde. In attempting to sound "farout" the musicians inevitably impose on themselves ...
The Box Tops: Dimensions, Nonstop, Super Hits
Review by Lester Bangs, Rolling Stone, 27 December 1969
THE BOX TOPS? Are you serious? Those yokel hacks grinding out rattly pop for the tyrannical Top 40? Those squeaky-clean goons in paisley scarves and ...
Review by Lenny Kaye, Rolling Stone, 7 February 1970
Live Dead explains why the Dead are one of the best performing bands in America, why their music touches on ground that most other groups ...
Live Review by Loraine Alterman, Rolling Stone, 7 February 1970
It's a new year, and a new thing for Jimi — as we saw at the Fillmore East ...
The Beatles, John Lennon, Yoko Ono: John Lennon: A Private Talk With John
Interview by Ritchie Yorke, Rolling Stone, 7 February 1970
YOU'VE BEEN talking lately about the fact that the Beatles aren't the musical group they were two or three years ago — that you are ...
The Beatles, Ronnie Hawkins, John Lennon, Yoko Ono: John, Yoko & Year One
Report by Ritchie Yorke, Rolling Stone, 7 February 1970
TORONTO — The scene couldn't have been more appropriately peaceful if it had been staged by a film director. A color TV set flickered soundlessly ...
Review by John Morthland, Rolling Stone, 7 February 1970
ON THE surface, Lorraine Ellison and Cold Blood's lead singer Lydia Pense seem to have a lot in common. Both have fine, soulful voices, and ...
Report by Loraine Alterman, Rolling Stone, 7 February 1970
NEW YORK — "The picture is not as bad as it was," John Roberts, toothpaste heir head of the Woodstock Group (nee Ventures) says. "We've ...
Review by Charlie Gillett, Rolling Stone, 18 February 1970
BOTH PIANO-PLAYING singers who started out singing rock and roll with Sam Phillips in Memphis and who have since moved into country and western, Jerry ...
Elvis Presley: Wagging His Tail In Las Vegas
Live Review by David Dalton, Rolling Stone, 21 February 1970
ELVIS WAS SUPERNATURAL, his own resurrection, at the Showroom Internationale in Las Vegas last August. ...
John Lennon, Yoko Ono: John, Yoko, Kyoko Get Trimmed
Report by Ritchie Yorke, Rolling Stone, 21 February 1970
AARLBORG, DENMARK — Tuesday, January 13th, had been a normal winter's day in this small city in the northern Jutland province of Denmark. It had ...
Savoy Brown: 'Train to Nowhere' (Parrot 45-40039); 'I'm Tired' (Parrot 45-40042)
Review by John Mendelssohn, Rolling Stone, 21 February 1970
SAY WHAT you will about Savoy Brown, they've bestowed upon us two monstrously good singles in the last six months. ...
Gene Vincent: Gene Vincent’s Greatest (Capitol); I’m Back And I’m Proud (Dandelion) and more
Review by Simon Frith, Rolling Stone, 7 March 1970
GENE VINCENT was the most tortured of the Fifties rock stars. I only saw him in concert once and that was weird. He was in ...
Charlie Rich: The Many Sides Of Charlie Rich and The Best Years
Review by Metal Mike Saunders, Rolling Stone, 7 March 1970
IN THESE DAYS of ten new bands each week, there is even another 'new' discovery: Charlie Rich albums for 33c each in a mono record ...
Delaney & Bonnie Homecoming Knocks 'Em Dead
Report and Interview by Lenny Kaye, Rolling Stone, 7 March 1970
NEW YORK – They weren't welcomed at the airport by hordes of screaming, pushing teenagers. They didn't receive a standing ovation at the Fillmore East ...
Captain Beefheart, Frank Zappa: Frank Zappa: Hot Rats
Review by Lester Bangs, Rolling Stone, 7 March 1970
THIS RECORDING brings together a set of mostly little-known talents that whale the tar out of every other informal "jam" album released in rock and ...
The Small Faces: Small Faces: The Autumn Stone
Review by Simon Frith, Rolling Stone, 7 March 1970
BEHIND THE KINGS of rock and roll stand the workers who make up the boredom and blarney, the fervour and humbug of pop. They are ...
The Voices of East Harlem: At Play With the Voices of E. Harlem
Profile and Interview by Lenny Kaye, Rolling Stone, 19 March 1970
NEW YORK — It was just an old red and white striped stuffed dog, but at least for now, it held the center of attention. ...
Review by Lenny Kaye, Rolling Stone, 19 March 1970
SOMETIMES ONE wonders if the (Young) Rascals wouldn't be better off just making hit singles. ...
Report by David Dalton, Rolling Stone, 19 March 1970
The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus was an entertainment extravaganza planned and put on by the Rolling Stones in December 1968. Originally done as ...
Eddie Holland Is 300% Happier Now
Interview by Loraine Alterman, Rolling Stone, 2 April 1970
DETROIT — Edward Holland learned a lot at Motown besides how to make hit records. Edward Holland learned the art of the controlled interview, an ...
Interview by John Morthland, Rolling Stone, 2 April 1970
SAN FRANCISCO – When Mountain plays, the walls shake and the audience goes crazy. The band born in a recording studio when Felix Pappalardi produced ...
Electric Flag: Intimations of the Electric Flag
Interview by John Morthland, Rolling Stone, 16 April 1970
SAN FRANCISCO: The Electric Flag is back – sometimes. The rest of the time, they go by the name "Mike Bloomfield and Friends". ...
Neil Young: Contra Costa Junior College, San Francisco
Live Review by John Morthland, Rolling Stone, 30 April 1970
EVERYTHING about Neil Young’s approach to music has become so highly personalized that when he performs, he seems at first to be oblivious of his ...
Review by Metal Mike Saunders, Rolling Stone, 2 May 1970
In early 1965, Jesse Colin Young recorded an excellent solo album on Mercury (now out-of-print) called Young Blood. Truckin' along in relative obscurity in the ...
The Rolling Stones: King Hash Is Sure To Come
Report and Interview by Sheila Weller, Rolling Stone, 14 May 1970
TANGIER – He shakes another pebble oul of the foot-long, coral-and silver-encrusted stash pouch, pokes an amber-ringed forefinger under the schlockedelic fake-silk ascot he has ...
Review by Greil Marcus, Rolling Stone, 14 May 1970
WOP-BOP-A-LU-BOP-A-LOP-BAM-BOOM. Thud. 'Tutti Frutti', which opens the partly excellent MC5 album, is easily the worst cut on it, and in a way a clue to ...
Interview by Ritchie Yorke, Rolling Stone, 28 May 1970
LONDON – Even after Cream, Blind Faith, the Plastic Ono Band, and Delaney and Bonnie, after doing backup on the solo albums of George Harrison ...
The Sir Douglas Quintet, Gene Vincent: Gene Vincent: He Sounded Like Maybe He Was Testifying
Report by Todd Everett, Rolling Stone, 28 May 1970
THE MUSICIANS had all arrived and were standing patiently by the door at two o'clock, Sunday afternoon, March 8th. Three were official members of the ...
Interview by David Dalton, Rolling Stone, 28 May 1970
I DIDN'T GET to see Little Richard at the Atlantic City Pop Festival where he followed Janis Joplin and revived his own legend, but when ...
Paul Simon, Simon & Garfunkel: Paul Simon
Interview by Loraine Alterman, Rolling Stone, 28 May 1970
PAUL SIMON arrived wearing a blue loden coat with the hood pulled up. Beneath it he had on black trousers and a black shirt. He ...
The Faces, The Small Faces: The Small Faces: First Step
Review by Joel Selvin, Rolling Stone, 28 May 1970
THE SMALL FACES are now into a more sophisticated and mature commerciality. The addition of Rod Stewart as vocalist and Ron Wood on lead guitar ...
Fairport Convention: Unhalfbricking/Liege and Lief
Review by John Mendelssohn, Rolling Stone, 11 June 1970
UNHALFBRICKING AND Liege and Lief are the two last albums by the Fairport Convention with Sandy Denny. ...
The Beatles, George Harrison: George Harrison: Why Is George In New York?
Report and Interview by Al Aronowitz, Rolling Stone, 11 June 1970
Sunrise doesn't last all morning The cloudburst doesn't last all day Seems my love is up and has left with no warning But it's not ...
The Beatles: Let It Be (Apple)
Review by John Mendelsohn, Rolling Stone, 11 June 1970
TO THOSE WHO found their work since the White Album as emotionally vapid as it was technically breathtaking, the news that the Beatles were about ...
Hair Is Making $310,000 a Week
Report by Al Aronowitz, Rolling Stone, 25 June 1970
NEW YORK — Oh happy day, when you could finally walk out of the cramped misery that this city gives you for a home and ...
Freda Payne: 'Band of Gold' (Invictus 20201)
Review by Paul Gambaccini, Rolling Stone, 25 June 1970
Thumpthumpthumphumpthumpthumpthumpthump. A drummer practices his part in a Holland-Dozier-Holland song. ...
Country Joe & The Fish, Jefferson Airplane: Kent Aftermath: Teen Turmoil Poison At B.O.
Report and Interview by John Morthland, Rolling Stone, 25 June 1970
SAN FRANCISCO — Lou Rhode, a student at San Francisco City College, is a clerk at Tower Records, and wears an "Out Now" peace button ...
Merry Clayton, The Rolling Stones: Merry Clayton: She Was Born on Christmas Day
Interview by Todd Everett, Rolling Stone, 25 June 1970
LOS ANGELES — There is a world of confusion in the music press — not to mention that among record companies — about the identity ...
Miles Davis & Louis Armstrong: You Learn How to Defend Your Style
Essay by Al Aronowitz, Rolling Stone, 9 July 1970
NEW YORK — There was something sad about it, this party thrown by old men for someone older still, and yet you had to have ...
The Who: At The Metropolitan Opera House
Live Review by Al Aronowitz, Rolling Stone, 9 July 1970
THE WHO is a group that was nurtured in gimmickry. I remember five years ago Brian Jones calling me up on the trans-Atlantic phone to ...
Interview by Happy Traum, Rolling Stone, 9 July 1970
VAN MORRISON sits on the edge of the bed and absently picks an old Gibson. He is moody, his eyes intense and his smile sudden; ...
Janis Joplin’s Full-tilt Boogie Ride
Report and Interview by David Dalton, Rolling Stone, 6 August 1970
LOUISVILLE, Kentucky – Janis Joplin and her newly-formed band, Janis Joplin Full-Tilt Boogie, debuted here June 12th, their first gig since they started rehearsing together ...
Steve Miller: Grand Designs For The Future
Interview by John Morthland, Rolling Stone, 3 September 1970
STEVE MILLER sits at his kitchen table, bent over a series of diagrams and flow charts he's drawing that outline the business side of a ...
Dave Mason, Dave Mason & Cass Elliot, Traffic: Alone Together: Mason and Cass
Interview by Andrew Bailey, Rolling Stone, 17 September 1970
LONDON — Dave Mason was sitting about 6,000 miles away from the action. While his album, Alone Together, was booming in America, with a first ...
Grateful Dead: An Evening with the Grateful Dead
Report and Interview by Michael Lydon, Rolling Stone, 17 September 1970
WE CHANGE and our changings change, a friend said once. It sounded true, but it seems too that through it all we stay the same. ...
Little Richard: The Rill Thing
Review by Joel Selvin, Rolling Stone, 17 September 1970
AS INCREDIBLE AS IT may seem, Little Richard is as great as he says he is. His new album, the first in three years, is ...
Swamp Dogg: "Whistle Dixie Out Your Ass": Swamp Dogg
Report and Interview by John Morthland, Rolling Stone, 15 October 1970
SAN FRANCISCO – Swamp Dogg had just finished taping a four-song set for a quadraphonic television show, and now everyone was up in the control ...
Book Review by John Morthland, Rolling Stone, 15 October 1970
CHARLIE GILLETT is a very likeable Englishman who recently released the most exhaustive study yet of rock and roll and the music industry. He's 28, ...
Johnny Winter, Rick Derringer: Johnny Winter: On Music, Hype and Happiness
Interview by John Morthland, Rolling Stone, 15 October 1970
FOR TOO long there, it seemed to Johnny Winter like he would never be known for his music as much as he would be known ...
Report by Robert Greenfield, Rolling Stone, 29 October 1970
LONDON — Rain is sloshing down all the streets and windows, and when Bob Hite of Canned Heat wakes up in his hotel room in ...
Jimi Hendrix: A Funeral In His Home Town
Report by John Morthland, Rolling Stone, 29 October 1970
Seattle, Washington – It had been very hot and sunny the last few days in Seattle, most unusual for this time of year. But on ...
Report and Interview by Robert Greenfield, Rolling Stone, 12 November 1970
LONDON – "If this is the revolution, why are the drinks so fucking expensive," someone has written on the wall in the toilet of London's ...
Review by John Mendelsohn, Rolling Stone, 12 November 1970
GIVEN THAT HIS voice combines the nasal sonority of James Taylor with the rasp of Van Morrison with the slurry intonation of M. Jagger with ...
Humble Pie: Town and Country; As Safe As Yesterday Is; Humble Pie
Review by Metal Mike Saunders, Rolling Stone, 12 November 1970
HUMBLE PIE'S debut album was released only in England. It was called Town and Country and was, for the most part, quiet and basically acoustic ...
The Moody Blues: Moody Blues: A Question Of Balance
Review by John Mendelsohn, Rolling Stone, 12 November 1970
RECENTLY SOMETHING of unexaggerable beauty came into my life, something that was to enthrall me musically and elevate me spiritually, to pour oil on the ...
Jackie Lomax is Leaving London
Interview by Robert Greenfield, Rolling Stone, 26 November 1970
LONDON – Jackie Lomax is from Liverpool. He's 26 and he writes songs and sings them. ...
Review by Metal Mike Saunders, Rolling Stone, 2 December 1970
With their new album No Dice, Badfinger has to their credit one of the best records of the year. This album is literally a quantum ...
Jethro Tull: Ian Anderson, in it for the Birds
Interview by Andrew Bailey, Rolling Stone, 2 December 1970
LONDON — "The name? Well, we hadn't got one and we were asking around and this university-educated agent suggested Jethro Tull. I'd never heard it ...
Captain Beefheart: Lick My Decals Off, Baby
Review by Ed Ward, Rolling Stone, 10 December 1970
WHEN I FIRST heard Trout Mask Replica, I about puked. What is this shit, I thought. People I met talked about it in glowing terms ...
Tim Leary: or, Bomb for Buddha
Interview by Robert Greenfield, Rolling Stone, 10 December 1970
JUST OUTSIDE Algiers, on the balcony of a white stone hotel by the sea, Timothy Leary sits in the sunlight. Aquiline nose, high cheekbones, eyes ...
Creedence Clearwater Revival: Pendulum: Creedence Got a New Kind of Bag
Report and Interview by Joel Selvin, Rolling Stone, 24 December 1970
BERKELEY — Creedence Clearwater Revival is rolling again, and in several directions, with their upcoming new album, Pendulum. ...
The Faces, Rod Stewart: Rod Stewart: In Conversation
Interview by John Morthland, Rolling Stone, 24 December 1970
"I was very pleased with it when we finished, and I still am," Rod Stewart said of his first solo LP. With good reason. ...
The Velvet Underground: Loaded
Review by Lenny Kaye, Rolling Stone, 24 December 1970
LOU REED HAS always steadfastly maintained that the Velvet Underground were just another Long Island rock 'n' roll band. But in the past he really ...
Review by Metal Mike Saunders, Rolling Stone, 1971
‘SISTER ANNE,’ ‘Over And Over,’ and ‘Gotta Keep Movin’’ on the new MC5 album are without doubt among the best hard rock performances of the ...
Review by Metal Mike Saunders, Rolling Stone, 7 January 1971
AH! QUITE simply, Doris Troy is a gas. A moderate one, to be sure, but she carries a lot of nostalgia. Her initial big hit ...
Review by Metal Mike Saunders, Rolling Stone, 7 January 1971
BILLY PRESTON'S first album, That's the Way God Planned It, was almost all gospel-oriented, and the second side was generally good. But the material that ...
Brinsley Schwarz: A Legend Before Their Own Time
Profile and Interview by Andrew Bailey, Rolling Stone, 7 January 1971
LONDON — Eyes moist with tears of humility but with handshakes firm and sincere the publicist and the lawyer and the agent and their coiffured ...
Germaine Greer: A Groupie in Women's Lib
Report and Interview by Robert Greenfield, Rolling Stone, 7 January 1971
LONDON — ON a crazy Sunday afternoon in London, Germaine Greer lolls in the corner of a crowded room with a silver knit flapper's hat ...
Grand Funk Railroad: Live Album
Review by Lenny Kaye, Rolling Stone, 7 January 1971
"IT'S GOOD... ’cause, like, their music is getting better and better all the time, it’s like, you know, what people want to hear." ...
Interview by Robert Greenfield, Rolling Stone, 7 January 1971
LONDON – It's the universal riff. When some kid in Laguna Beach finally stops driving all the neighbors crazy with it, a kid sitting by ...
Bob Seger: The Bob Seger System: Mongrel (Capitol SKAO-49Q)
Review by Ben Edmonds, Rolling Stone, 7 January 1971
WHEN VIEWED in the context of his two previous albums, Bob Seger's Mongrel fares very favorably. It's easily his best overall work to date, but ...
The Kinks: Lola Vs. Powerman And The Moneygoround (Part One)
Review by John Mendelsohn, Rolling Stone, 7 January 1971
SO, APPARENTLY having forgotten the Byrds' words of caution, you wanna be a rock and roll star, eh? Before you trade in your stereo components ...
The Rationals: The Rationals (Crewe CR-1334)
Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 7 January 1971
ALL THAT killer, bizarre, get-down music that constantly pumps out of the Motor City had to come from somewhere, right? Here's where. The Rational are ...
Review by Ben Edmonds, Rolling Stone, 21 January 1971
When viewed in the context of his two previous albums, Bob Seger's Mongrel fares very favorably. It's easily his best over-all work to date, but ...
Love: False Start (Blue Thumb BTS8822)
Review by Metal Mike Saunders, Rolling Stone, 4 February 1971
SURPRISE! THIS is a fine album. Particularly so for this depressing year in rock, because if you've wished that for once you could hear a ...
David Bowie: The Man Who Sold The World
Review by John Mendelsohn, Rolling Stone, 18 February 1971
"Some say the view is crazy/But you may adopt another point of view. So if it's much too hazy/You can leave my friend and me ...
Quicksilver Messenger Service: What About Me (Capitol)
Review by Ben Edmonds, Rolling Stone, 18 February 1971
QUICKSILVER displayed acute weaknesses on their previous album and they remain very much in evidence on What About Me. Though the group has polished up ...
John Cale, Nico, The Velvet Underground: Shards of Velvet Afloat in London: Nico and John Cale
Report and Interview by Robert Greenfield, Rolling Stone, 18 February 1971
JOHN CALE REACHES too hard for the pay phone in the lobby of his hotel. Bang. It explodes into the soft corner of his forehead, ...
Joni Mitchell: Joni Takes a Break
Interview by Larry LeBlanc, Rolling Stone, 4 March 1971
CANADIANS are stunned by the vague, awesome level that Joni Mitchell has reached. She was the least-known of the Toronto group of folksingers of the ...
Report by Robert Greenfield, Rolling Stone, 4 March 1971
LONDON — With any kind of luck, you could sleep long enough to save two hits. Take them down to Piccadilly and sell one, then ...
The James Gang, Little Richard: Little Richard Takes El's Advice
Report by David Dalton, Rolling Stone, 4 March 1971
CLEVELAND – "I'm going to tell Elvis what you did for me, hear?" Richard whispers to the stewardess as she leans over to deposit two ...
Spirit: 12 Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus
Review by Nick Tosches, Rolling Stone, 4 March 1971
ANY ILLUSIONS that might still be clung to along the order of Spirit's being an Epic house organ anthropomorphization-of-eclecticism shuck, complete with baldpated, cerebral – ...
King Crimson, McDonald and Giles: Mcdonald & Giles (Cotillion)
Review by John Mendelsohn, Rolling Stone, 18 March 1971
IGNORING THE TINY VOICE from within that insisted that, having cared for King Crimson not one iota, I would probably not find the work of ...
The Faces: Faces: Long Player (Warner Bros.)
Review by John Mendelsohn, Rolling Stone, 18 March 1971
BEING ONE OF the few English bands left willing (nay, all too happy) to flaunt their Englishness, and moreover ranking no lower than third on ...
Various: British Blues Archive Series Vols. 1 And 2
Review by Loyd Grossman, Rolling Stone, 18 March 1971
IT ALL SEEMED TO happen quite suddenly when in late 1966 and 1967 the United States’ record stores were deluged with a staggering number of ...
Report and Interview by John Mendelssohn, Rolling Stone, 1 April 1971
LOS ANGELES: In his floral-patterned velvet midi-gown and cosmetically enhanced eyes, in his fine chest-length blonde hair and mod nutty engineer’s cap that he bought ...
Review by Lenny Kaye, Rolling Stone, 1 April 1971
MAYBE IT’S JUST my imagination, but the Jimi Hendrix section of my local record bin seems to have been growing at an astonishing pace lately. ...
Leon Russell: Working Hard At the Lyceum
Live Review by Robert Greenfield, Rolling Stone, 1 April 1971
LONDON – "Aw...bet you thought I couldn't rock and roll," the piano player says, plunging into the music. ...
Alice Cooper: Love It To Death
Review by John Mendelsohn, Rolling Stone, 15 April 1971
IT CAME ON the radio in the late afternoon and from the first note it was right: Alice Cooper bringing it all back home again. ...
Baby Huey: The Baby Huey Story: The Living Legend
Review by Lenny Kaye, Rolling Stone, 15 April 1971
BABY HUEY never made it; not really. At his peak, when he was the stellar attraction of a rhythm and blues circuit that stretched from ...
Black Sabbath: Paranoid (Warner Bros. WS1887)
Review by Nick Tosches, Rolling Stone, 15 April 1971
A YOUNG girl's voice. She is dressed in a nun's habit. The boy turns and faces her. She proffers a chalice of cervical exudate and ...
Emerson Lake And Palmer: Emerson, Lake & Palmer: Emerson, Lake & Palmer
Review by Loyd Grossman, Rolling Stone, 15 April 1971
WE WERE FOREWARNED by the British music press that Emerson, Lake & Palmer would be a "super-group," and indeed it was hard to see how ...
The Rolling Stones: Goodbye Great Britain: The Rolling Stones On Tour
Report and Interview by Robert Greenfield, Rolling Stone, 15 April 1971
LONDON – "Boogie, Bobby, boogie," Marshall Chess is saying over and over to Bobby Keys in the seat next to him, slamming out the phrase ...
Matthews' Southern Comfort: Matthews Southern Comfort: Later That Same Year
Review by John Mendelsohn, Rolling Stone, 15 April 1971
AS HAS been suggested before in these pages, if mellow tuneful close-harmony country-tinged polite-rock of the sort that is considered indispensable by those who own ...
Review by Greg Shaw, Rolling Stone, 15 April 1971
THESE TWO ALBUMS have quite a bit in common; both consist of early material released now to cash in on the popularity of the groups ...
Loudon Wainwright III: A Tale of Loudon Wainwright III
Interview by Lenny Kaye, Rolling Stone, 29 April 1971
NEW YORK – The word was out, carried by the wind and a few strategic newspaper clippings, and everybody, everybody was making it on down ...
Review by John Mendelsohn, Rolling Stone, 29 April 1971
FROM THE VERY start, friends, I've always wished I could enjoy Creedence Clearwater as much as I admire them for their unremitting tunefulness and refreshing ...
Review by Loyd Grossman, Rolling Stone, 13 May 1971
It seems that Humble Pie didn't quite hit the US the right way. ...
Christopher Milk: John Mendelsohn: Superstardom is my Destiny
Memoir by John Mendelssohn, Rolling Stone, 13 May 1971
EVEN AT 15, when I abandoned my childhood dreams of one day becoming the slugging second-baseman for the Los Angeles Dodgers, I knew somehow that ...
Black Oak Arkansas: Black Oak Arkansas (Atco)
Review by John Mendelsohn, Rolling Stone, 27 May 1971
IT IS SAID that before they became a rock and roll band Black Oak Arkansas were a teenage gang the mere mention of whose name ...
Interview by Joel Selvin, Rolling Stone, 27 May 1971
SAN FRANCISCO — Otis Rush is tired. After finishing four weeks recording a new album, that's no surprise. But Otis has been tired for a ...
Phil Ochs: God Help The Troubadour
Profile and Interview by Tom Nolan, Rolling Stone, 27 May 1971
Who was that foolThrew the basket in the pool? ...
The Chambers Brothers: New Generation
Review by Ben Edmonds, Rolling Stone, 27 May 1971
AT THE OUTSET, the Chambers Brothers were a warmly exciting gospel act (catalogued on a series of fine albums released by Vault), but they apparently ...
The Flamin' Groovies: The Flamin’ Groovies: Teenage Head (Kama Sutra)
Review by Greg Shaw, Rolling Stone, 27 May 1971
I’VE BEEN betting on the Flamin’ Groovies a long time. When they used to come on stage at Golden Gate Park love-ins and all the ...
Badfinger: Woo, Liverpool Accents
Profile and Interview by Harold Bronson, Rolling Stone, 10 June 1971
LOS ANGELES – Badfinger started out five years ago as the Ivys, who soft-rocked around small clubs in London and recorded about 100 of their ...
The Rascals: Five Years Of The Rascals
Retrospective by Lenny Kaye, Rolling Stone, 10 June 1971
I KNOW THIS may be sound a little overboard, but there once was a time when the Young Rascals were the greatest rock & roll ...
Review by Ben Edmonds, Rolling Stone, 10 June 1971
THE OUTCOME of the battle has yet to be conclusively determined, but my scorecard gives the race for "The Most Beloved Rock And Roll Band ...
Procol Harum and Facts of Life
Interview by Andrew Bailey, Rolling Stone, 10 June 1971
The band behind 'A Whiter Shade of Pale' sets the record straight on its massive hit ...
Procol Harum: Broken Barricades
Review by Metal Mike Saunders, Rolling Stone, 10 June 1971
TO FANS OF the group, Procol Harum's history has been like this: an excellent first album, Procol Harum, a shaky and very uneven second album, ...
The Holy Modal Rounders: Good Taste Is Timeless
Review by Nick Tosches, Rolling Stone, 10 June 1971
PETER STAMPFEL, who, with Steve Weber, was, and remains, half of the driving force behind the Rounders, later paid off a debt he owed me ...
The Rascals: The Young Rascals: Five years of the Rascals
Profile by Lenny Kaye, Rolling Stone, 10 June 1971
I KNOW THIS may sound a little overboard, but there once was a time when the Young Rascals were the greatest rock & roll band ...
Jackie Lomax: Home Is In My Head
Review by Ben Edmonds, Rolling Stone, 24 June 1971
JACKIE LOMAX' FIRST album, released in 1969 on Apple, was produced by George Harrison, contained an excellent single ('The Eagle Laughs At You' b/w 'Sour ...
Interview by Andrew Bailey, Rolling Stone, 24 June 1971
LONDON — For some time, Jeff Beck had the reputation for being the epitome of English white-blues smartie-pants guitarists. A breed of questionable ethics, it ...
The Guess Who: The Best of The Guess Who
Review by Lenny Kaye, Rolling Stone, 24 June 1971
THE GUESS WHO, despite their good intentions, have never seemed like natural candidates for superstardom. With a collective personality that could be described as lumpy ...
Dan Hicks And His Hot Licks: Where’s The Money
Review by John Mendelsohn, Rolling Stone, 3 July 1971
DAN HICKS is a person of no mean strangeness, a genuine original, and one of the greatest superheroes in all of 20th century popular music. ...
Alexis Korner, Father of Us All
Interview by Andrew Bailey, Rolling Stone, 8 July 1971
The man who has influenced a universe of British musicians and movements ...
Rod Stewart: Every Picture Tells A Story
Review by John Mendelsohn, Rolling Stone, 8 July 1971
HE HAS IT IN him, has Rod Stewart, to save a lot of souls, to rescue those of us who are too old for Grand ...
Graham Nash: Songs for Beginners
Review by Lenny Kaye, Rolling Stone, 22 July 1971
IF YOU ACCEPT Graham Nash on his own terms, which is simply as a nice guy who somehow wound up a musician, then you probably ...
Karen Dalton: In My Own Time (Just Sunshine/Paramount)
Review by Danny Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 22 July 1971
KAREN DALTON is a folk legend whose name is spoken with reverence on MacDougal St., in Woodstock, in Texas, or anyplace else where she has ...
T. Rex: T. Rex (Reprise RS 6440)
Review by Todd Everett, Rolling Stone, 22 July 1971
AMAZINGLY, IT all comes out rock and roll; there's no questioning it. But rock and roll with lyrics dealing with such subjects as wizards, Druids, ...
Review by John Mendelsohn, Rolling Stone, 22 July 1971
By no exertion of the imagination are James Gang the greatest rock and roll band ever to walk the face of the earth or anything ...
Clarence Carter: Slippin' Away With Clarence Carter
Interview by Joel Selvin, Rolling Stone, 5 August 1971
SAN FRANCISCO – Clarence Carter leaves his Holiday Inn room on the arm of his road manager, who looks familiar. It's Rodgers Redding, and it's ...
Ian Matthews: If You Saw Thro' My Eyes (Vertigo)
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 19 August 1971
AFTER A TWO-ALBUM stint with Fairport Convention, Ian Matthews made a solo LP, Matthews Southern Comfort, formed a band called Matthews Southern Comfort, and proceeded ...
Stephen Stills: Stephen Stills 2
Review by John Mendelsohn, Rolling Stone, 19 August 1971
WHAT WE HAVE HERE, friends, is a fifth-rate album by a solid second-rate artist who so many lower-middlebrows insist on believing is actually first-rate, even ...
Keith Richards, The Rolling Stones: The Rolling Stone Interview: Keith Richards
Interview by Robert Greenfield, Rolling Stone, 19 August 1971
KEITH PLAYS in a rock & roll band. Anita is a movie star queen. They currently reside in a large white marble house that everyone ...
Review by Nick Tosches, Rolling Stone, 2 September 1971
THIRTY-THREE year-old Alice Coltrane met her late husband in 1963. They were married shortly thereafter and, in late 1966, she replaced McCoy Tyner on the ...
Jimmy Webb: And So: On (Reprise RS-6448)
Review by Ben Edmonds, Rolling Stone, 2 September 1971
ARRIVING IN nearly the same breath as the magnificent Words And Music, this second album by Jimmy Webb is another impressive step in the conspiracy ...
Review by Lenny Kaye, Rolling Stone, 2 September 1971
IT SEEMS almost too perfectly ironic that now, at a time in their career when most people have written them off as either dead or ...
The Oz Obscenity Trial: Guilty
Report by Robert Greenfield, Rolling Stone, 2 September 1971
LONDON — Great Britain no longer need envy America its Chicago Conspiracy Trial. They've come up with a pretty good one of their own and ...
The Who: Who's Next (Decca DL 79182)
Review by John Mendelssohn, Rolling Stone, 2 September 1971
WHO'S NEXT, regardless of what you may have been led to believe to the contrary, is neither the soundtrack to the realization of Pete Townshend's ...
Fairport Convention: Angel Delight
Review by Richard Cromelin, Rolling Stone, 16 September 1971
Angel Delight is a happy event, for it sharpens and solidifies the tentative steps the Fairport Convention took in Full House, their first post-Sandy Denny ...
Flo & Eddie, Frank Zappa, The Turtles: Howard Kaylan: Mother Was A Turtle
Interview by Harold Bronson, Rolling Stone, 16 September 1971
LOS ANGELES – Working in the Turtles, working in the Mothers, it's all the same, Harold Kaylan says. But he has undergone a transition nevertheless. ...
Review by Loyd Grossman, Rolling Stone, 16 September 1971
JACK BRUCE GOT a bad deal. Following the break-up of Cream Bruce was the only member of the band to emerge with less than "superstar" ...
Big Brother & The Holding Company: Big Brother : How Hard It Is
Review by Ben Edmonds, Rolling Stone, 30 September 1971
IT HAS RIGHTEOUSLY ranked my ass to see the shabby treatment accorded Big Brother and the Holding Company over the course of the past four ...
Review by Lenny Kaye, Rolling Stone, 14 October 1971
WELL, LET'S SEE...first there was Goldie and the Gingerbreads and the UFO's. Then Cake, who were merely New York's answer to the Ronettes, and the ...
Rick Derringer, Johnny Winter: Johnny Winter: Behind the Scene With Steve Paul
Report and Interview by Ed McCormack, Rolling Stone, 14 October 1971
THE BIG dusty black Cadillac limousine comes rolling around the comer at Twenty-First Street, turns into the dimly-lighted stage-set stillness of Gramercy Park East, and ...
The Move: Looking On/Message From the Country
Review by John Mendelsohn, Rolling Stone, 14 October 1971
WHEN LAST we glimpsed The Move in these pages they had recently completed what was without the slightest glimmer of doubt the finest English rock ...
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 14 October 1971
WET WILLIE is young five-man group originally from Mobile, Alabama, that's been touring with the Allman Brothers Band lately, and winning a bunch of new ...
Gilbert O'Sullivan: What Rhymes With O'Sullivan?
Profile and Interview by Andrew Bailey, Rolling Stone, 14 October 1971
The strange case of the pop star with the pudding basin haircut ...
McGuinness Flint: Happy Birthday, Ruthy Baby
Review by Metal Mike Saunders, Rolling Stone, 28 October 1971
ON THEIR SECOND album, McGuinness Flint have sunk into a mire of vapid eclecticism rather than develop a unified style. Meaning this: rather than be ...
The Beach Boys, Van Dyke Parks, Brian Wilson: The Beach Boys: A California Saga
Special Feature by Tom Nolan, Rolling Stone, 28 October 1971
Part One: Mr. Everything ...
Special Feature by Tom Nolan, Rolling Stone, 11 November 1971
There is the tale, told by an anonymous Beach Boy, about an outrageous instance of Brian Wilson's creative humor. Brian was about 18. The family ...
Grateful Dead: The Grateful Dead: Grateful Dead (Warners)
Review by Lenny Kaye, Rolling Stone, 11 November 1971
To avoid any possible disappointments for those who once had visions of saving the world through the music on Anthem of the Sun and any ...
J. Geils Band: The J. Geils Band: The Morning After (Atlantic)
Review by Lenny Kaye, Rolling Stone, 11 November 1971
Call ‘em the best new band of 1971, if you will, ‘cause that’s what they are, and here’s the goods to prove it: The Morning ...
Black Oak Arkansas: Turkey Talking to Arkansas
Interview by John Mendelssohn, Rolling Stone, 25 November 1971
LOS ANGELES – On stage, almost scary, are Black Oak Arkansas. ...
The Strawbs: From The Witchwood (A&M)
Review by Jonh Ingham, Rolling Stone, 25 November 1971
THE STRAWBS started out as a bluegrass duo, went through incarnations with Sandy Denny in her pre-Fairport days and a cellist from Sadler's Wells Opera ...
Dexter Gordon, Ben Webster: A Lonely Trumpet Wail in Denmark
Report by Robert Greenfield, Rolling Stone, 9 December 1971
COPENHAGEN — The old black man was sitting in The Montmartre, bobbing his head to the music, snapping his fingers and diggin' on the sounds, ...
Review by Lenny Kaye, Rolling Stone, 9 December 1971
HAVE NO FEAR. Mitch Ryder is back. and for those whose last recollection of him centers around a grotesquely Las Vegas type of showboat soul ...
Review by Loyd Grossman, Rolling Stone, 9 December 1971
BACK IN the Bar-Mitzvah days of the drug culture the British music scene was shaken by what came to be known as The Blues Boom. ...
Review by Greg Shaw, Rolling Stone, 9 December 1971
IT'S A WELL-KEPT SECRET, but this album tossed off with ten others in a recent release by the Shelby Singleton Corp., is one of the ...
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 9 December 1971
FOR THREE YEARS now, the critics have been laying into Three Dog Night for a variety of mostly hard-to-fathom reasons. But nobody, evidently, has been ...
Review by Lenny Kaye, Rolling Stone, 23 December 1971
IT MIGHT SEEM a bit incongruous to say that Led Zeppelin — a band never particularly known for its tendency to understate matters — has ...
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 23 December 1971
STEPPENWOLF IS LIKE the football club that always wins more than it loses, and perennially finishes second or third in its conference – something like ...
The Truth About Truth of Truths
Report by John Mendelssohn, Rolling Stone, 23 December 1971
A FEW WEEKS ago, because Robert Hilburn of the Los Angeles Times was unavailable, yours truly was invited to be the token rock critic on a local ...
Stone The Crows: Brash Tales of Stone The Crows
Profile and Interview by Robert Greenfield, Rolling Stone, 6 January 1972
ALL ALONG the super ye-ye, tres decadent beaches of St. Tropez this summer, the absolute super coolest most single chic garment one could be seen ...
Review by John Mendelsohn, Rolling Stone, 6 January 1972
DAVID BOWIE, the swinging/mod Garbo, male femme fatale, confidante to and darling of the avant-garde on both sides of the Atlantic, and shameless outrage, is ...
Grand Funk Railroad: E Pluribus Funk
Review by Metal Mike Saunders, Rolling Stone, 6 January 1972
HAD GRAND FUNK listened more to the Standells and less to Cream, they might have turned out to be a really great group. The background ...
Tom T. Hall: In Search of a Song
Review by Richard Cromelin, Rolling Stone, 6 January 1972
FACT IS, In Search of a Song doesn't quite match the quality of any of Hall's three previous Mercury albums. Meaning only that a couple ...
Review by Metal Mike Saunders, Rolling Stone, 20 January 1972
STRAIGHT UP is a big disappointment coming after Badfinger's previous superb album, No Dice. I remember reading a quote by drummer Mike Gibbons saying that ...
Labelle, Laura Nyro: Laura Nyro and Labelle: Gonna Take a Miracle (Columbia)
Review by Lenny Kaye, Rolling Stone, 20 January 1972
THIS ALBUM comes at the nicest time within Laura Nyro's career, for like most of the other performers that have cut a swath through pop ...
Neil Diamond: Stones (UNI 93106)
Review by Paul Gambaccini, Rolling Stone, 20 January 1972
REMEMBER HOW embarrassed you felt on first listening to Neil Diamond destroy 'He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother' only to decide on the tenth hearing ...
Review by John Mendelsohn, Rolling Stone, 20 January 1972
LIKE PAUL MCCARTNEY'S first two post-Beatles albums, Wild Life is largely high on sentiment but rather flaccid musically and impotent lyrically, trivial and unaffecting. ...
Review by John Mendelsohn, Rolling Stone, 3 February 1972
DON'T BE MISLED: however extraordinary Gilbert O'Sullivan may look in his imbecile haircut, knickers, and other things Thirties Irish schoolboy, he sounds sufficiently like your ...
Review by Charlie Gillett, Rolling Stone, 3 February 1972
IN 1967, ARETHA Franklin moved from Columbia to Atlantic – in what soon proved to be one of the most important moments in the history ...
Review by John Mendelsohn, Rolling Stone, 3 February 1972
I'M SURE I'LL never understand why it's become so fashionable to belittle Sonny & Cher, to blame everything from the dissolution of the Beatles to ...
The Kinks: Muswell Hillbillies
Review by Metal Mike Saunders, Rolling Stone, 3 February 1972
CAN YOU TELL the Kinks apart in the picture on the cover of their new album? No, of course. Except for Ray, they all look ...
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 17 February 1972
THE DEBUT ALBUM of Nils Lofgren's trio, Grin, brilliantly closed the quartet of albums that had begun with the Neil Young/Crazy Horse collaboration, Everybody Knows ...
Ian Matthews: Tigers Will Survive
Review by Metal Mike Saunders, Rolling Stone, 17 February 1972
ONCE UPON A time Ian Matthews was a member of Fairport Convention. Fairport Convention then decided they wanted to head in the direction of traditional ...
Interview by David Dalton, Rolling Stone, 17 February 1972
"I’M GOING to write a book about you," David Dalton told Janis Joplin when she was beginning her first tour with her Full Tilt Boogie ...
Harry Nilsson: Nilsson: Nilsson Schmilsson (RCA)
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 17 February 1972
IS NILSSON just an old-school crooner in modern dress? Is he a writer of children's songs who wants to broaden his appeal? And why does ...
Review by Lester Bangs, Rolling Stone, 17 February 1972
IT WOULD be nice to be able to call it something like The Rolling Stones' Golden Decade, for the Stones have been the most enduringly ...
Tom Rapp: Beautiful Lies You Could Live In
Review by Richard Cromelin, Rolling Stone, 17 February 1972
IT'S PAINFULLY OBVIOUS that Tom Rapp has some serious obstacles littering his path to musical/ poetic fulfillment. ...
David Blue: Stories (Asylum SD-5052)
Review by Ben Edmonds, Rolling Stone, 2 March 1972
FORGET ANYTHING, good or bad, which you might ever have associated with the name David Blue. Stories might as well be considered as David Blue's ...
Jackson Browne: Jackson Browne
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 2 March 1972
IT'S NOT OFTEN that a single album is sufficient to place a new performer among the first rank of recording artists. Jackson Browne's long-awaited debut ...
Loggins & Messina: Kenny Loggins with Jim Messina "Sittin' In"
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 16 March 1972
THIS ALBUM answers the "whatever happened to Jim Messina?" question resoundingly. Although singer-songwriter Kenny Loggins is very much in the forefront throughout the album, Messina's ...
Review by Richard Cromelin, Rolling Stone, 16 March 1972
THE SURE AND STEADY pace at which Yes has progressed through their four albums seems to suit them just fine, and in Fragile the fruit ...
Review by Charlie Gillett, Rolling Stone, 30 March 1972
Fats goes to college, all his big hits and more, decked out in a double album that has a 12-page insert of pictures, information, analysis, ...
Jan & Dean: Legendary Masters Series
Review by Metal Mike Saunders, Rolling Stone, 30 March 1972
JAN AND DEAN were real clowns. I saw 'em on the TAMI Show back in 1965 and they were the only downer part in the ...
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 30 March 1972
NOW, HERE'S A BAND with a mission. Little Feat is hewn from the same piece of oak as the Byrds, the Band, and the Flying ...
Manfred Mann: Manfred Mann's Earth Band
Review by Metal Mike Saunders, Rolling Stone, 30 March 1972
SO MANFRED MANN are back doing rock and roll, and Paul Jones (the original Manfred's lead singer and premier star) has come out with an ...
Review by John Mendelsohn, Rolling Stone, 30 March 1972
At the end of this, five'll getcha ten, most of you are going to be exclaiming lividly, "O what vile geeks are rock critics! How ...
Yes: The Great Yes Technique Debate
Profile and Interview by Steve Turner, Rolling Stone, 30 March 1972
London — "I tell you this much," said the studio doorman, "it’s been a real eye-opener working here. See, my generation don’t really appreciate how ...
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 13 April 1972
A YEAR AGO, Englishman Dave Edmunds introduced himself to the rock audience through a scrupulously crafted recording of 'I Hear You Knockin'', once a Fats ...
Fairport Convention: Babbacombe Lee
Review by Richard Cromelin, Rolling Stone, 13 April 1972
"JOHN LEE, the jury has found you guilty of willful murder, and the sentence of the court upon you is that you be taken from ...
Fanny: Fanny Hill (Reprise 2058)
Review by Metal Mike Saunders, Rolling Stone, 13 April 1972
FANNY HAVE finally made it: their new album is full of the best mainstream rock and roll I've heard so far this year. As well ...
Special Feature by Ed McCormack, Rolling Stone, 13 April 1972
WORD HAS filtered down to Allen Klein's New York office that George Harrison wants to get in touch with Todd Rundgren, the all-around rock and ...
Review by John Mendelsohn, Rolling Stone, 27 April 1972
WHAT HAVE WE HERE, O my sisters and brothers, but an album that serves as living proof that if you release 88 albums every month, ...
Review by Metal Mike Saunders, Rolling Stone, 27 April 1972
IN THEIR GLORY DAYS of 1967-8, Cream singlehandedly spawned the whole genre of aloof heavy rock egomania, not to mention a whole school of insufferably ...
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 27 April 1972
Savoy Brown was once a resolutely typical British blues band. They could boogy an audience into submission in no time at all, and then keep ...
Steve Miller Band: Recall The Beginning…
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 27 April 1972
WAY BACK in the Sixties, three bands in particular were responsible for recharging my rock fanaticism – Procol Harum, the Byrds, and the Steve Miller ...
The Rolling Stones: The Stones in LA: Main St. Exiles
Report and Interview by Robert Greenfield, Rolling Stone, 27 April 1972
LOS ANGELES – One year, to the weekend, after the Rolling Stones played the final concert of their "farewell" tour of England, Mick Jagger is ...
Brinsley Schwarz: Silver Pistol
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 11 May 1972
SHADES OF Highway 61 Revisited, Sweetheart of the Rodeo, The Band, The Gilded Palace of Sin, Workingman's Dead were so integral a part of Brinsley ...
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 11 May 1972
WHEN THE members of Cat Mother had a house on East Tenth Street, the group got together with Jimi Hendrix, who was in a producing ...
Humble Pie: Here They Are — Nasty Humble Pie
Report by Ed McCormack, Rolling Stone, 11 May 1972
NEW YORK — "Spittin', arse kickin' rock and rool, man," Steve Marriott is saying, fiddling with the switch of the cassette player on the dressertop. ...
Review by Metal Mike Saunders, Rolling Stone, 11 May 1972
HUMBLE PIE have persevered. Their first record company (Immediate) went out of business, vile-tempered record reviewers slandered their early albums from here to Zanzibar, and ...
Savoy Brown: Shadow Boxing with Savoy Brown's Mgr.
Interview by Andrew Bailey, Rolling Stone, 11 May 1972
LONDON — HARRY rose from the chair and his mouth went slack. His eyes rolled around and his tongue slid out like an epileptic's. He ...
Black Oak Arkansas: Keep The Faith
Review by Metal Mike Saunders, Rolling Stone, 25 May 1972
LESTER BANGS tells the Black Oak Arkansas story in his own words: ...
Delaney & Bonnie: Delaney & Bonnie Together (Columbia)
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 25 May 1972
SOME PERFORMERS strain through prolonged public growing pains on their way to artistic maturity. Others simply appear with all their faculties fully intact. ...
Long John Baldry: John Baldry: Everything Stops For Tea
Review by Greg Shaw, Rolling Stone, 25 May 1972
WHEN IS someone going to come out and say that, despite all the hype and hoopla, John Baldry is a non-talent poseur that would never ...
Crosby Stills and Nash, Stephen Stills: Stephen Stills,Graham Nash and David Crosby Albums
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 25 May 1972
Stephen Stills: ManassasGraham Nash/David Crosby: Graham Nash/David Crosby ...
Review by Metal Mike Saunders, Rolling Stone, 25 May 1972
IN THE VERY first paragraph of his liner notes to The Kink Kronikles, John Mendelssohn emphasizes the Kinks' position as an underdog band. Perhaps even ...
The Wackers: Wackers: Hot Wacks
Review by Greg Shaw, Rolling Stone, 25 May 1972
IN THE EARLY part of 1966, a group called the Family Tree used to play at the old Fillmore a lot. They did Beatles songs ...
Review by Charlie Gillett, Rolling Stone, 8 June 1972
WIPE YOUR MIND clean of all you have ever heard and read about Dr. John the Night Tripper. If you knew that once he was ...
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 8 June 1972
FLEETWOOD MAC'S last two records, Kiln House and Future Games, have between them provided me with perhaps a hundred hours of enjoyment. And that's the ...
Review by John Mendelsohn, Rolling Stone, 8 June 1972
Should you ever find yourself in the mood to be bored comatose, simply hop on the next jet to Hollywood, where this writer will gladly ...
Jerry Lee Lewis: The Killer Rocks On
Review by Lester Bangs, Rolling Stone, 8 June 1972
THERE'S NOT TOO MANY of those greasy rockers still hanging around from their '50s heydaze good for much more than playing 50 tank towns a ...
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 8 June 1972
FOG ON the Tyne has been just about the biggest album in Great Britain this year. The single off the album, 'Meet Me on the ...
Procol Harum: Live with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra
Review by Richard Cromelin, Rolling Stone, 8 June 1972
If you're put off by pretensions of grandiosity in music, if all you want to do is get funky and boogie around, you've probably never ...
Quicksilver Messenger service: Comin' Thru
Review by Metal Mike Saunders, Rolling Stone, 8 June 1972
DINO VALENTI had a pretty good niche in history carved out for a while: he wrote (or at least claimed to have written) 'Hey Joe', ...
Mother Earth, Tracy Nelson: Tracy Nelson/Mother Earth: Tracy Nelson/Mother Earth
Review by Metal Mike Saunders, Rolling Stone, 8 June 1972
MUZAK ROCK is a difficult art. Because the line between soulfulness and boredom is often a thin one, few artists can pull it off. Van ...
Grand Funk Railroad: Mark, Don & Mel
Review by John Mendelsohn, Rolling Stone, 22 June 1972
VIRTUALLY EVERY practicing rock critic worth his sneer, of course, has sought to explicate Grand Funk's ascent to commercial ultra-gargantuanity over countless identically horrible Cream ...
Grand Funk Railroad: Track On! The Best of Mark Farner, Terry Knight & Donnie Brewer
Review by Greg Shaw, Rolling Stone, 22 June 1972
WOW, TALK ABOUT obscure rock history! Do you care that Mark Farner was once in a group called the Bossmen? Do you think the average ...
Review by Lenny Kaye, Rolling Stone, 22 June 1972
THE QUESTION OF whether a white man can sing the deltoid blues has long been answered by John Hammond in the only way possible: that ...
Mountain: The Road Goes On Forever
Review by Jon Tiven, Rolling Stone, 22 June 1972
MOUNTAIN, A BAND now departed for the great Fillmore in the Sky, was a standby whipping boy for practically any rock critic, regardless of taste. ...
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 22 June 1972
THE EAGLES' 'Take It Easy' is simply the best sounding rock single to come out so far this year. The first time through, you could ...
Flying Burrito Brothers: The Flying Burrito Brothers : Last of the Red Hot Burritos
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 22 June 1972
The fourth – and presumably last – album of the Flying Burrito Bros. is, as it were, a departure. Not only is this album live, ...
Review by Jon Tiven, Rolling Stone, 6 July 1972
RESURRECTED FROM what seemed a permanent split, Free is making a second bid at capturing the American public's heart. ...
Harry Chapin Takes 'Taxi' Wherever He Can
Interview by David Rensin, Rolling Stone, 6 July 1972
"I NEVER REALLY drove a cab," said Harry Chapin, the filmmaker-turned folkstar, "But I do have a hack license in case of emergencies – like ...
Report by Andrew Bailey, Rolling Stone, 6 July 1972
LONDON — "Somebody leaped out at her from behind some bushes in our driveway," explained a seething Lieut-Col. Michael Underwood, "and gave her a black ...
The Everly Brothers: Stories We Could Tell
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 6 July 1972
THE EVERLY BROTHERS brought harmony to rock and roll. They also brought sensitivity, the result of their having been weaned on old-time country music. They ...
Raspberries: The Raspberries: Fresh
Review by Metal Mike Saunders, Rolling Stone, 6 July 1972
IT STARTS OFF with that unforgettable drum fill from 'Loco-Motion', now over a decade old, and then right into the opening chords from 'One Fine ...
Raspberries: The Raspberries: Raspberries
Review by Metal Mike Saunders, Rolling Stone, 6 July 1972
RASPBERRIES opens with the finest burst of lightweight English rock I've heard all year, a raunchy 16-bar guitar intro, and followed by a verse that ...
The Rolling Stones Tour: Rock & Roll On The Road Again
Report by Robert Greenfield, Rolling Stone, 6 July 1972
LOS ANGELES – Danny has no shirt, no shoes, no wallet, no keys. The shirt went when he took it off and stuck it in ...
The Rolling Stones: Exile On Main St. (Rolling Stones)
Review by Lenny Kaye, Rolling Stone, 6 July 1972
THERE ARE SONGS that are better, there are songs that are worse, there are songs that'll become your favourites and others you'll probably lift the ...
Review by Jon Tiven, Rolling Stone, 20 July 1972
THE ZOMBIES/ARGENT relationship is very close, much like that of the Small Faces/Humble Pie or the Yardbirds/Led Zeppelin. In each case a group splits due ...
Black Oak Arkansas: If An Angel Came To See You, Would You Make Her Feel At Home? (Atlantic SD-7008)
Review by Metal Mike Saunders, Rolling Stone, 20 July 1972
BLACK OAK Arkansas have now blown off three first sides in a row, and that's not even counting their undistinguished album on Stax hack in ...
David Bowie: The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars
Review by Richard Cromelin, Rolling Stone, 20 July 1972
UPON THE RELEASE of David Bowie's most thematically ambitious, musically coherent album to date, the record in which he unites the major strengths of his ...
Memoir by Jerry Wexler, Rolling Stone, 20 July 1972
(Jerry Wexler is Executive Vice-President at Atlantic Records, the most significant of the early independent labels that recorded R&B. He and Ahmet Ertegun produced the ...
The Rolling Stones: Jumpin' Gas Flash Bops In Heartland
Report by Robert Greenfield, Rolling Stone, 20 July 1972
IN TRANSIT – Underway at last. In flight and moving. Denver, Minneapolis, and Chicago in one Sunday, the limo to the plane to the limo ...
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 20 July 1972
WHEN DAVE COUSINS got together with Tony Hooper to form the Strawbs, he was writing songs strongly influenced by British and American traditional music. ...
Report by Robert Greenfield, Rolling Stone, 3 August 1972
IN CHICAGO, in the house that Playboy built, an anonymous brownstone on a quiet leafy street that Hugh Hefner calls home, the scene is a ...
Van Dyke Parks: Discover America
Review by John Mendelsohn, Rolling Stone, 3 August 1972
VAN DYKE PARKS' first album, Song Cycle, released in 1968, was a dizzyingly eclexoteric work that had the critics alternately gushing, "The emergence of a ...
Review by Lenny Kaye, Rolling Stone, 17 August 1972
ERIC ANDERSEN is not one who has been graced with the best of luck. ...
Profile and Interview by Judith Sims, Rolling Stone, 17 August 1972
LOS ANGELES — The four Eagles — Bernie Leadon, Glenn Frey, Randy Meisner and Don Henley — had barely been introduced to each other when ...
Peter Frampton: Wind of Change
Review by Jon Tiven, Rolling Stone, 17 August 1972
MR. FRAMPTON IS, as the pages of rock history tell us, a young lad who has gone through many a musical change, which could be ...
Review by Tom Nolan, Rolling Stone, 17 August 1972
SPRING IS MARILYN and Diane Rovell who, as the Honeys, recorded such 45s as 'Surfin' Down the Swanee River', and urged: "Push 'em back! Push ...
Review by Richard Cromelin, Rolling Stone, 17 August 1972
OF THE SCADS of similarities between Wishbone Ash and Yes, the most trivial and accidental (and so most interesting) is the fact that both groups ...
Wings: Beatle Wanderings: Paul On Tour; No Wingsmania Yet
Report and Interview by Andrew Bailey, Rolling Stone, 31 August 1972
PARIS — THE last time Paul McCartney had played the Olympia was 1964. Trini Lopez was headlining; the Beatles overshadowed him. Backstage scuffles. The swarming ...
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 31 August 1972
REVIEWS OF GRATEFUL Dead records are invariably written by those who've been touched by that mysterious and to me incomprehensible power-to-enchant that exists somewhere in ...
Review by Greg Shaw, Rolling Stone, 31 August 1972
PEOPLE ALWAYS ask why Ike Turner is content to stand in the background, playing those fine guitar riffs to an audience totally oblivious to him ...
Procol Harum and The Amateur Ork
Interview by Richard Cromelin, Rolling Stone, 31 August 1972
LOS ANGELES – "Well, we're only in our first year here at the magicians' college," Dave Ball, Procol Harum guitarist, advised the gentleman who has ...
Bonzo Dog Band: Let's Make Up and Be Friendly
Review by Richard Cromelin, Rolling Stone, 14 September 1972
Pity.For a brief span of time that segment of the population who dwell happily in out-of-the-way corners of human consciousness had their ideal musical spokesmen ...
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 14 September 1972
THAT'S FOGHAT, not Hogfat. And not Savoy Brown either, although with Lonesome Dave Peverett and Roger Earl in the lineup, one might see Hog – ...
Professor Longhair: New Orleans Piano (Atlantic)
Review by Charlie Gillett, Rolling Stone, 28 September 1972
ALL RIGHT, ALL RIGHT. Gather round, all you fans of the Shuffling Hungarians, the Four Hairs, the Blues Scholars, and the Blues Jumpers, 'cause 'Fess ...
Three Dog Night: Seven Separate Fools
Review by Lenny Kaye, Rolling Stone, 28 September 1972
ACCORDING TO AN ever-increasing pile of Levinson-Ross press releases at my right elbow, this has been quite a summer for Three Dog Night. Their heralded ...
Herb Alpert, Joe Cocker, Carole King, Sergio Mendes: A&M Records: Two Lonely Bulls & How They Grew
Interview by Judith Sims, Rolling Stone, 12 October 1972
LOS ANGELES — Ten years ago this month Jerry Moss and Herb Alpert put their initials together and formed a record company that has since ...
Johnny Nash: I Can See Clearly Now
Review by Charlie Gillett, Rolling Stone, 12 October 1972
AT LAST, REGGAE as all-around entertainment, whose rhythms will still generate movement in a crowded basement discotheque but whose arrangements and moods shift often enough ...
Review by Jon Tiven, Rolling Stone, 12 October 1972
DESPITE WHAT you may have heard of "skinhead rock" or "Seventies teddies", Slade is exactly the opposite of a gimmick band. You’ll not find synthesizers, ...
Review by Jon Tiven, Rolling Stone, 12 October 1972
STORIES IS a New York-based quartet which plays music with a strong kinship to British rock, yet lacks the ‘rank imitator’ brand of many a ...
Bob Dylan, John Prine: Troubadours: Who Was That Harp With Johnny Prine?
Report and Interview by Ed McCormack, Rolling Stone, 12 October 1972
NEW YORK — Last night John Prine squinted out into the audience at the Bitter End and drawled, "Whar's that harmonica player?" ...
Ed Sanders, The Fugs: Ed Sanders: Beer Cans on the Moon
Review by Lenny Kaye, Rolling Stone, 26 October 1972
It could be that I’ve been spending too much time lost within the darkened pages of The Family lately, but more than anything else, this ...
Review by Richard Cromelin, Rolling Stone, 26 October 1972
THE COUNTRYSIDE COTTAGE in which (it says here) Genesis regrouped their creative energies must have had a lot of strange stuff coming out of the ...
John Denver: Rocky Mountain High
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 26 October 1972
THERE HE IS on the screen of your color TV: blond, bespectacled, and peach-faced – the sight of him makes you want to adjust the ...
New York Dolls: Subterranean satyricon: New York City's Ultra-Living Dolls
Report and Interview by Ed McCormack, Rolling Stone, 26 October 1972
NEW YORK — David Bowie, a brittle, powdered flake of hermaphroditic humanity, is watching the bodies writhing to the music of the New York Dolls ...
Review by Danny Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 26 October 1972
KENNETH GAMBLE and Leon Huff are the current grandmasters of R&B production, having delivered not only dozens of hit singles during the last several years ...
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 9 November 1972
BOZ SCAGGS has one of the sweetest, most engaging voices around, and his recent albums have been on the sweet and friendly side, too. Records ...
Bonnie Raitt: Troubadours: Why Bonnie Raitt Wants a Break
Interview by Judith Sims, Rolling Stone, 9 November 1972
LOS ANGELES — "Freebo, my bass player, he's a jock, he sits in his hotel room watching football games on television." Bonnie Raitt gestured in ...
Review by Tom Nolan, Rolling Stone, 9 November 1972
HIS SPIRIT is omnipresent in this elaborate package. He has written extensive program notes to the handsome booklet. He is there suddenly at the beginning ...
Review by Richard Cromelin, Rolling Stone, 9 November 1972
WITH Close to the Edge, their fifth album, Yes have formed a coherent musical language from the elements that have been kicked around by progressive ...
Bobby Charles: Bobby Charles (Bearsville)
Review by Charlie Gillett, Rolling Stone, 23 November 1972
BOBBY MADE THIS RECORD lying flat on his back, with his eyes closed and his dog licking his feet. He was tired, it had been ...
Patto: Roll 'em Smoke 'em, Put Another Line Out
Review by Jon Tiven, Rolling Stone, 23 November 1972
ALTHOUGH Patto has exhibited a penchant for eccentricity in their previous efforts, not even from a bunch of loonies such as they could one expect ...
James Taylor: Sessions: James Taylor's One Man Dog
Report and Interview by Judith Sims, Rolling Stone, 23 November 1972
LOS ANGELES — James Taylor is a very slow songwriter. It takes him months to write enough to justify a session, but once he's in ...
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 23 November 1972
TIM HARDIN GOT so close to the top of the heap that it's hard to imagine how he could've blown it. ...
Uriah Heep: Demons and Wizards
Review by Metal Mike Saunders, Rolling Stone, 23 November 1972
IT'S A STRANGE TIME. Formerly exciting rock groups have gone musically soft, if not well on the road to outright senility, making the moniker of ...
Mott the Hoople: All the Young Dudes
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 7 December 1972
Taking what does not belong to you is a crucial part of the process of creating rock & roll: Exploiting proven riffs, phrases and hooks, ...
Roy Harper: Stormcock in Heat, That's Roy Harper
Report and Interview by Jonh Ingham, Rolling Stone, 7 December 1972
ROY HARPER WAS holidaying in Norway when word of the movie reached his management. It was his first holiday in three years, and all they ...
Jefferson Airplane: The Master's Grunt: Jefferson Airplane Tries Shock Rock
Report and Interview by Judith Sims, Rolling Stone, 7 December 1972
NEW YORK — At a rainy concert in Gaelic Park, a girl on stage stripped off her blouse and urged the audience to do the ...
Interview by Harold Bronson, Rolling Stone, 21 December 1972
Mickey Mouse? What can I say about him? When making an album with the band laying down a track in the studio, Mickey is always ...
John Entwistle: John Entwhistle: Whistle Rymes
Review by Tom Nolan, Rolling Stone, 21 December 1972
"Thank you Mother Nature/ For the way you got things planned/ Don't ever change a thing/ I'm happy as I am." ...
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 21 December 1972
I'VE JUST come home from seeing Poco play. They were terrific, significantly better than the last few times I heard them in concert. ...
Review by Greg Shaw, Rolling Stone, 4 January 1973
Punk Rock: the arrogant underbelly of '60s pop ...
Captain Beefheart Sings For Women
Interview by David Rensin, Rolling Stone, 4 January 1973
NORTH HOLLYWOOD – Striding into the small but copiously equipped Warner Brothers recording studio like a bull dressed for a Chinatown parade, Captain Beefheart extends ...
Christopher Milk: Some People Will Drink Anything (Warner Bros. MS 2111)
Review by Nick Tosches, Rolling Stone, 4 January 1973
CHRISTOPHER MILK are poseurs, part of the great American tradition of standing in front of the mirror and pretending you're Mick Jagger. ...
Review by Nick Tosches, Rolling Stone, 4 January 1973
A REAL COCKTEASER, this album. That great cover: Lou and those burned-out eyes staring out in grim black and white beneath a haze of gold ...
The Byrds, Gene Clark, David Crosby: Reunion Of Old Byrds: A Time For Peace
Report and Interview by Judith Sims, Rolling Stone, 4 January 1973
LOS ANGELES — The five original Byrds are together again and not for the last time. They've made their first album together since Turn! Turn! ...
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 18 January 1973
Plainsong: In Search of Amelia Earhart (Elektra)Richard Thompson: Henry, the Human Fly (Warner Bros.)Steeleye Span: Below the Salt (Chrysalis)Incredible String Band: Earthspan (Reprise)Pentangle: Solomon's Seal ...
Sir Doug Weston's Troubadour: They Hate it, but They Play it
Report and Interview by Judith Sims, Rolling Stone, 18 January 1973
LOS ANGELES — Why was Joni Mitchell recently playing the Troubadour folk club for several nights when she could play for as many people (and ...
The Hollies: No Room For Solo Stars
Profile and Interview by Harold Bronson, Rolling Stone, 18 January 1973
SANTA MONICA, Calif. – The Hollies, one of the original British invaders of the 1960s, are at yet another crossroads. Allan Clarke – one of ...
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 1 February 1973
In the late Sixties, a Memphis teenager named Alex Chilton won moderate fame and fortune as the lead singer for a sometimes inspired, sometimes insipid ...
Little Jimmy Osmond: Killer Joe (MGM SE 4855)
Review by Greg Shaw, Rolling Stone, 1 February 1973
WHO SAYS rock & roll is dead? Certainly not Mike Curb. Not only is he recycling his own career, signing up everybody he can find ...
The Pretty Things: Pretty Things: Decade Of Dues Now Pays Off
Interview by Jonh Ingham, Rolling Stone, 1 February 1973
THE ENGLISH BANDS that have survived since the first days of the British Invasion can be counted on the fingers of one hand. The Stones, ...
Slade: Steamroller Rock Knocks 'Em Flat
Profile and Interview by Jonh Ingham, Rolling Stone, 1 February 1973
LONDON – Noddy gets the fans shouting, clapping, stomping, throwing their bras and knickers up on stage. Dave looks inhuman, silver from head to toe, ...
Review by Ben Edmonds, Rolling Stone, 1 February 1973
"Dylan is old/The Stones are cold/The Beatles are gone/ And it's making me yawn..." ...
Review by Ben Edmonds, Rolling Stone, 15 February 1973
The question of motion has developed into a trap of sorts since our entertainers became artists. Artists must continually grow and evolve, but invariably draw ...
Stone The Crows: Ontinuous Performance
Review by Loyd Grossman, Rolling Stone, 15 February 1973
STONE THE CROWS are hardly a well-known band here. Whether this is due to the hard heart, but quite undeservedly so, of radio programmers or ...
Barry Manilow, Bette Midler: The Gold Lamé Dream of Bette Midler
Profile and Interview by Ed McCormack, Rolling Stone, 15 February 1973
"Puh-leez, Honey" ...
Review by Charlie Gillett, Rolling Stone, 1 March 1973
THEY DON'T SAY so on the jacket, but this is The Doug Sahm Showcase, featuring the former leader of the Sir Douglas Quintet paying homage ...
Interview by Judith (Judy) Sims, Rolling Stone, 1 March 1973
LOS ANGELES — Back in 1969 Gram Parsons, rhythm guitarist, keyboard player and vocalist, and Chris Ethridge, bassist, decided to form a country rock band ...
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 1 March 1973
FREE IS AN ENGLISH quartet that toured with Blind Faith, had a big hit single, was hailed by the British press as the new Rolling ...
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 1 March 1973
GRAM PARSONS is an artist with a vision as unique and personal as those of Jagger-Richard, Ray Davies, or any of the other celebrated figures. ...
Lou Reed: Scotch & Sympathy At Tully Hall
Report by Ed McCormack, Rolling Stone, 1 March 1973
NEW YORK — For weeks, the sinister-looking poster haunted the subway stations. Taken from the cover of Lou Reed's latest album, Transformer, it showed an ...
Review by Lenny Kaye, Rolling Stone, 1 March 1973
ON THEIR HOME continent, Slade are virtually indestructible: singles launched like tank mortars into the Euro-Top Ten at selected intervals, live appearances turned to massive ...
Yoko Ono: Approximately Infinite Universe (Apple SVBB-3399)
Review by Nick Tosches, Rolling Stone, 15 March 1973
Then suddenly we realized that this time we were both drifting out in a cosmos somewhere together, like God's two little dandruffs floating in the ...
Joe South: A New, Un-Slick Joe South: A Look Inside
Review by Charlie Gillett, Rolling Stone, 29 March 1973
AT ONE OF Joe South’s infrequent live shows, in some small place in Georgia a year or so back, he wasn’t getting the response he ...
Sharks, Chris Spedding: Chris Spedding: Confessions Of a Top UK Session Guitarist
Interview by Andrew Bailey, Rolling Stone, 29 March 1973
LONDON — Chris Spedding flicked his eyes anxiously down to his wrist-watch. It was coming up to 10 PM. The three-hour session, Chris' second of ...
Review by Greg Shaw, Rolling Stone, 29 March 1973
DION WAS the original punk. Stand him up next to his contemporary male teen idols – Frankie Avalon, Fabian, Bobby Vee, Brian Hyland, Bobby Rydell, ...
Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show: Dr. Hook: Sloppy Seconds
Review by Charlie Gillett, Rolling Stone, 29 March 1973
IF YOU LOOK at the pictures and read the stories, you’ll have guessed that Dr. Hook is a bunch of lascivious layabouts dedicated to carrying ...
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 29 March 1973
IN HIS WRITING, Grin leader Nils Lofgren shows a special affection for cowboy songs (not the actual music of the old West, but original tunes ...
The Ronettes Return to the Stage: Teenage Girls Forever
Profile and Interview by Lenny Kaye, Rolling Stone, 29 March 1973
FABIEN IS nervous. Not quite shaking in his boots, but enough so that his timing is off, lost in phrases that go nowhere despite the ...
Grateful Dead: 'Pigpen' McKernan Dead at 27
Obituary by uncredited writer, Rolling Stone, 12 April 1973
CORTE MADERA, Calif. — Ron McKernan — better known as Pigpen — was found dead in his apartment here March 8th. The organist and singer, ...
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 12 April 1973
LIKE THEIR much more famous cousins, the Rolling Stones and Van Morrison, Little Feat are eclectic in a vertical rather than a horizontal way. They ...
Marianne Faithfull: Somewhere in Her Soul...
Interview by Andrew Bailey, Rolling Stone, 12 April 1973
LONDON — She once said: "It's like there's this chant — 'Poor, tragic Marianne, poor, tragic Marianne.'" Tragic is a word that has cropped up ...
The Byrds: The Best of the Byrds (Greatest Hits, Volume II)
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 12 April 1973
IF YOU WERE asked to put together an anthology album of one of the longest-lived, most productive rock groups ever, and you had the total ...
Jimmy Cliff et al: The Harder They Come
Review by Lenny Kaye, Rolling Stone, 26 April 1973
THE REGGAE GROUNDSWELL that cups Jamaica's potential as a pop force has been heralded for many moons now, yet despite several breech-opening successes from a ...
Roger Daltrey: A Who Sings His Heart Out in the Country
Profile and Interview by Andrew Bailey, Rolling Stone, 26 April 1973
The frontman discusses his solo record. ...
Dobie Gray: Singles: Dobie Gray — 'Drift Away' (Mentor Williams), (Decca 33057 MCA)
Interview by Judith Sims, Rolling Stone, 26 April 1973
DOBIE GRAY, a member of 'The In Crowd' eight years ago, has returned to the airwaves with 'Drift Away', on a new label, MCA, with ...
Steely Dan: Ultimate Spinach Meets Naked Lunch's Dildo
Profile and Interview by Judith Sims, Rolling Stone, 26 April 1973
LOS ANGELES — Steely Dan named itself after William Burroughs' mighty dildo in Naked Lunch. "We just wanted to give the band a little more ...
Tammy Wynette, Toni and Terry: Tammy Wynette/Toni & Terry albums
Review by Charlie Gillett, Rolling Stone, 26 April 1973
Toni and Terry: Cross CountryTammy Wynette: My Man ...
Grateful Dead: The Grateful Dead on Long Island
Live Review by Lenny Kaye, Rolling Stone, 26 April 1973
IT HAD TO HAPPEN: even the Dead have gone glitter. Resplendently suave in Nudie-type sequined suits, the group appeared on the stage of this comfortably-sized ...
Review by Greg Shaw, Rolling Stone, 26 April 1973
OF THE FEW groups who have survived since 1963, the Hollies sound fresher and more up-to-date than anyone, with the possible exception of the Beach ...
Review by Jon Tiven, Rolling Stone, 10 May 1973
ANDY BOWN is a very clever fellow capable of producing much musical bliss, but seems to have fallen victim to many of the ills that ...
Beck, Bogert and Appice: The Felt Forum, NY
Live Review by Lenny Kaye, Rolling Stone, 10 May 1973
JEFF BECK HAS had his ups and downs over the past several years, not the least of which was a disastrous appearance last summer on ...
Review by Jon Tiven, Rolling Stone, 10 May 1973
HUMBLE PIE have always been a changing band, mutating from a Great Hardrocker (As Safe As Yesterday Is) to soft rock (Town & Country), and ...
Iggy Pop, The Stooges: Iggy Pop: Raw Power
Review by Lenny Kaye, Rolling Stone, 10 May 1973
THE IG. Nobody does it better, nobody does it worse, nobody does it, period. Others tiptoe around the edges, make little running starts and half-hearted ...
Gladys Knight and the Pips: 'Neither One of Us': Gladys Knight and the Pips
Interview by Paul Gambaccini, Rolling Stone, 10 May 1973
GLADYS KNIGHT and the Pips have left Motown the same way Ted Williams left the Red Sox, with a home run. 'Neither One of Us' ...
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 10 May 1973
YOU CAN'T DENY Procol Harum their important place in rock's scheme of things. They were the first to bring together the energy and mood of ...
Doobie Brothers: The Doobie Brothers: The Captain And Me
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 10 May 1973
THE DOOBIE BROTHERS are a mainstream rock band with a few crucial limitations and a knack of making good records despite their flaws. Their big ...
The Eagles: Desperado (Asylum)
Review by Paul Gambaccini, Rolling Stone, 10 May 1973
IF THEY gave a Grammy for the best interior gatefold cover, this one should be nominated. It is the best since For The Roses, but ...
Review by Jon Tiven, Rolling Stone, 24 May 1973
DEEP PURPLE have had a rough time gaining and retaining the status of being Kings of the Heavy Metal Set, and with the release of ...
Focus: How to Make It Without Playing Top 40
Interview by Harold Bronson, Rolling Stone, 24 May 1973
LOS ANGELES – "'Hocus Pocus' was done as a parody of rock," said Thijs van Leer, founder of Focus, commenting on his group's hit record. ...
Link Wray: Be What You Want To
Review by Wayne Robins, Rolling Stone, 24 May 1973
LINK WRAY, father of chicken-shack recording, is back with his second album since emerging from the dim glint of rock history. Be What You Want ...
Pink Floyd: The Dark Side Of The Moon
Review by Loyd Grossman, Rolling Stone, 24 May 1973
ONE OF BRITAIN'S most successful and long lived avant-garde rock bands, Pink Floyd emerged relatively unsullied from the mire of mid-'60s British psychedelic music as ...
Stealers Wheel: Stealers Wheel
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 24 May 1973
YOU'VE PROBABLY discovered by now that ‘Stuck in the Middle with You’, the single you thought was the best Dylan record since 1966, is actually ...
Review by Charlie Gillett, Rolling Stone, 7 June 1973
THE MORE I listen, the less I understand. A year ago Bloodstone was just one of any number of black groups who could excite a ...
Flo & Eddie: Flo and Eddie: Flo and Eddie
Review by Ken Barnes, Rolling Stone, 7 June 1973
Flo & Eddie's second album is a much more complex undertaking than their first and for the most part it succeeds admirably. Where Kaylan and ...
Nicky Hopkins: The Tin Man Was a Dreamer
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 7 June 1973
NICKY HOPKINS has gone into his first solo project in as careful and organized a manner as he goes into the studio to work on ...
Review by Jon Tiven, Rolling Stone, 7 June 1973
YES SUFFERS from having too many diverse talents for one group to handle. The differing musical styles of the five musicians cannot easily be integrated ...
Tim Rice: Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice: Bible Rockers Talking Shop
Interview by Paul Gambaccini, Rolling Stone, 21 June 1973
(PLEASE ALLOW the writers of Jesus Christ, Superstar and Joseph and The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat to introduce themselves). ...
J. Geils Band: J Geils Band: Bloodshot
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 21 June 1973
During the last two years, Boston's J. Geils Band has built itself a national reputation as a tight, energetic, popular and extremely good-humored touring band. ...
Wings: McCartneys Meet Press: Starting All Over Again
Report by Paul Gambaccini, Rolling Stone, 21 June 1973
OXFORD, ENGLAND — "Yes, I'm satisfied with how we are now," said Paul McCartney. "I think I'm good. I like me, I'm good. I can ...
Wings: Paul McCartney & Wings: New Theatre, Oxford
Live Review by Paul Gambaccini, Rolling Stone, 21 June 1973
"LOOK, THERE goes someone with black hair! Is that a Wing?" asked one of the four 12-year-olds camped at the New Theatre six hours before ...
Profile and Interview by Paul Gambaccini, Rolling Stone, 21 June 1973
"EVERY DAY for the past 16 years somebody has asked me how I call my lover boy," Sylvia Robinson marveled, referring to the public's memory ...
Spooky Tooth: You Broke My Heart So I Busted Your Jaw
Review by Jon Tiven, Rolling Stone, 21 June 1973
SPOOKY TOOTH HAS suffered from every misfortune that can cross the path of a rock & roll band — among them, changing record labels, arrested ...
Manassas: Stephen Stills and Manassas: Down The Road
Review by Tom Nolan, Rolling Stone, 21 June 1973
THE PACKAGING of a person's pain is a sticky subject for criticism. It feels uncouth to suggest the suffering should be more graceful. ...
Review by Ken Barnes, Rolling Stone, 21 June 1973
IT'S BEEN three-and-a-half years since Terry Reid released his last album. At the time he looked like an emerging talent, with extraordinary voice, wild and ...
Dr. John: 'Right Place, Wrong Time' (Atco 6914)
Interview by Paul Gambaccini, Rolling Stone, 5 July 1973
"I HAD THAT line in my songbook since about 1959, but I could never get anything together for it," Mac Rebennack remembered in his Los ...
Ellie Greenwich: Let It Be Written Let It Be Sung
Review by Ken Barnes, Rolling Stone, 5 July 1973
A NEW ELLIE GREENWICH album won't provoke Pavlovian ecstasy among the masses, but the news will intrigue a certain hard corps of faithful girl-group fanatics. ...
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 5 July 1973
FROM THE VANTAGE point of 1968, that new tough-guy band called Steppenwolf had great prospects. ...
New York Dolls, Todd Rundgren: New York Confidential: the New York Dolls
Report by Ed McCormack, Rolling Stone, 5 July 1973
TIMES SQUARE, teeming with amazed tourists by day, becomes the city's funky armpit after midnight. So we step fast under the flaming marquees peddling fake ...
Paul McCartney: Red Rose Speedway
Review by Lenny Kaye, Rolling Stone, 5 July 1973
WHEN PAUL MCCARTNEY's television special was aired several weeks ago, one of the ostensible aims was to provide a semi-biographical glimpse of the inner man, ...
Roxy Music: For Your Pleasure (Warner Bros. BS 2696)
Review by Paul Gambaccini, Rolling Stone, 5 July 1973
STOP DOING the stroll, mouse, limbo, eighty-one and peppermint twist. Give the Strand four minutes of your time and you won't think of doing another ...
Review by Ken Barnes, Rolling Stone, 19 July 1973
SINCE 1968 and the ascension of Cream and Hendrix to godhead status, rock has been ruled by tedious variations on their initial improvisatory explorations. ...
Bobby Womack Says He Could Be a Superstar
Interview by Vernon Gibbs, Rolling Stone, 19 July 1973
NEW YORK — Bobby Womack was in the midst of a highly successful tour with Santana. His single, 'Harry Hippie', had just been certified gold, ...
Chicago: A James William Guercio Enterprise
Report and Interview by Judith Sims, Rolling Stone, 19 July 1973
CHICAGO, THE line goes, would be a useless slag heap of Midwestern has-beens went it not for the strong hand of their producer, a young ...
Heads Hands and Feet: Old Soldiers Never Die
Review by Jon Tiven, Rolling Stone, 19 July 1973
SOME OF ENGLAND'S finest ex-sessionmen, Heads Hands & Feet, have been soaking up America's finest as their influences, backing up Jerry Lee Lewis, Jackson Browne, ...
Review by Jon Tiven, Rolling Stone, 19 July 1973
JIMI HENDRIX, Jeff Beck, the Byrds, Blue Ash...it seems that everyone in the world has taken a Bob Dylan song to great heights at one ...
Speedy Keen: Previous Convictions
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 2 August 1973
Knockabout drummer John "Speedy" Keen was rescued from oblivion by a perceptive Peter Townshend, who saw in Mr. Keen an offbeat but potentially compelling talent. ...
Albert Hammond: The Free Electric Band
Review by Jon Tiven, Rolling Stone, 16 August 1973
ALBERT HAMMOND makes pure pop music and although ‘It Never Rains in California’ was merely annoying, ‘The Free Electric Band’ was a giant step forward. ...
Bluesology, Elton John, Bernie Taupin: The Rolling Stone Interview: Elton John
Interview by Paul Gambaccini, Rolling Stone, 16 August 1973
ELTON JOHN wanted to do The Rolling Stone Interview when we first suggested it to him in February. A grueling British tour kept him occupied ...
Bonnie Bramlett: Sweet Bonnie Bramlett
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 30 August 1973
Right after switching labels, from Atlantic (which considered the increasingly temperamental pair more trouble than they were worth) to Columbia, the Bramletts separated. The expected ...
Joan Armatrading: Whatever's For Us (Cube)
Review by Paul Gambaccini, Rolling Stone, 30 August 1973
FROM HER opening piano passage on 'My Family', the most endearing keyboard introduction since the first notes of 'Your Song' led off Elton John, one ...
Leon Russell: Ontario Motor Speedway
Live Review by David Rensin, Rolling Stone, 30 August 1973
"SURE, WE'D LIKE this to be another Watkins Glen," laughed publicist Gary Stromberg, as the blistering sun crept slowly into the sky over the San ...
Iggy Pop, The Stooges: New York Confidential: Iggy Pop
Report by Ed McCormack, Rolling Stone, 30 August 1973
HIS PLATINUM hair was ratty; his polo shirt was wrinkled and a big plastic hairbrush-handle stuck out of the back pocket of his Midwestern Prole ...
Mott The Hoople: Mott: No Success like Failure
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 13 September 1973
WHAT AN ARRAY of weapons this band has: awesome firepower, an ever-increasing depth of expression, timely themes and an artistic way of mixing qualities on ...
Cat Stevens: A Happier Cat Stevens Explains Foreigner and Other Mysteries
Interview by Paul Gambaccini, Rolling Stone, 13 September 1973
LONDON — Cat Stevens is happy these days. "Happier now than I can recall being," he said. "Not laughing-happy. I don't go 'Haha! — oh, ...
Lillian Roxon, Journalist-Author Of Rock Encyclopedia Dies at 41
Obituary by Loraine Alterman, Rolling Stone, 13 September 1973
NEW YORK — Lillian Roxon, author of the Rock Encyclopedia, was many things to many people. ...
New York Dolls: New York Confidential: the Mercer Arts Center
Report by Ed McCormack, Rolling Stone, 13 September 1973
THE MERCER Arts Center, home hatchery for New York's indigenous glitter rock scene and erstwhile social headquarters for its proletarian neodecadents, has gone the way ...
Hot Chocolate, Stories: Stories and Hot Chocolate: 'Brother Louie'
Report and Interview by Paul Gambaccini, Rolling Stone, 13 September 1973
"THIS IS NOT what I wanted," Enrol Brown mused over a boiled egg breakfast in his London penthouse. "Tony Wilson and I will still get ...
Dr. John: "The Doctor Is In" — A Talk with Dr. John
Interview by Paul Gambaccini, Rolling Stone, 27 September 1973
MALCOLM JOHN Rebennack is a New Orleans musician who has played on more sessions than he or anyone else can remember. In 1968 his first ...
Jimmy Cliff: Unlimited and Wonderful World, Beautiful People
Review by Charlie Gillett, Rolling Stone, 27 September 1973
PUT THE NEEDLE on Jimmy Cliff's Unlimited, and the grooves writhe like a poised snake, the record grows hot with anger, and the air fills ...
Keef Hartley: Lancashire Hustler
Review by Jon Tiven, Rolling Stone, 27 September 1973
KEEF HARTLEY'S a strange one, a functional drummer who, by way of his Mayall/Artwoods background, has managed to hang in there. ...
Lou Reed's New Deco-Disk: Sledgehammer Blow to Glitterbugs
Report and Interview by Larry Sloman, Rolling Stone, 27 September 1973
NEW YORK — At 10 AM on a muggy New York morning, in Studio A of the Record Plant, a slight, dark, intense young man ...
Manassas, Stephen Stills: Stephen Stills: The Reformation Of a "Jive" Artist
Interview by Judith Sims, Rolling Stone, 27 September 1973
LOS ANGELES — It's difficult to name a rock & roll star who's been put down, chopped up, dismissed and generally hated as much as ...
Review by Lenny Kaye, Rolling Stone, 27 September 1973
THE GREENING OF MOTOWN continues apace, with performers who once flourished under the company's autocratic guidelines (the Four Tops, Gladys Knight) seeking success elsewhere while ...
The Temptations: Temptations' Paul Williams Dead at 34: Suicide
Report by uncredited writer, Rolling Stone, 27 September 1973
DETROIT — Paul Williams, 34, one of the original Temptations, was buried here August 24th. He died anonymously, barely two blocks from the Motown offices ...
Allman Brothers Band: The Allman Brothers Band: Brothers and Sisters
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 27 September 1973
THE ALLMAN BROTHERS BAND's magic has always existed mainly on the concert stage, where it can engage its audience casually and cumulatively. The band's image, ...
Weather Report: Fair Weather Jazz Fans Leave Them Alone
Interview by David Rensin, Rolling Stone, 27 September 1973
PASADENA, CALIF. — "Our music demands everything from the listener," says Josef Zawinul seriously. "Either you love it or you don't — there's no middle ...
Elton John at the Hollywood Bowl - July 1973
Live Review by David Rensin, Rolling Stone, 11 October 1973
THE HOUSE LIGHTS dimmed and a lonely spot picked out a single figure onstage. ...
Kracker, The Rolling Stones: Stones in Europe: A Hearty Welcome After 2 Long Years
Report by Paul Gambaccini, Rolling Stone, 11 October 1973
This is just another tour. And Wembley is just another show. — Charlie Watts in London, the night before. ...
Raspberries: The Raspberries: Side 3
Review by Metal Mike Saunders, Rolling Stone, 11 October 1973
SINCE THEIR last time out, the Raspberries must have heard Blue Ash, or some vaguely threatening noises from the other side of Ohio, because a ...
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 25 October 1973
In a form in which individual instrumental feats are often self-indulgent and superfluous, Eric Clapton's music remains an anomaly. His greatest guitar playing has been ...
Gilbert O'Sullivan: Avery Fisher Hall, NYC
Live Review by Lenny Kaye, Rolling Stone, 25 October 1973
"TO GILBERT," READ the note attached to a plastic baby elephant presented by a squealing child fan in the front rows: "I think you're cute." ...
Gram Parsons: Ashes In the Morning
Memoir by Eve Babitz, Rolling Stone, 25 October 1973
Eve Babitz is an artist and author of a column and an upcoming book entitled Eve's Hollywood. — Editor ...
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 25 October 1973
FROM THE ALBUM title and Fisher's sensitive-looking cover portrait, you might expect the first solo LP of the former Procol Harum organist to be unbearably ...
Procol Harum at the Hollywood Bowl, September 1973
Live Review by David Rensin, Rolling Stone, 25 October 1973
LOUSY sound systems and poor concerts are not a rarity these days, even for big name attractions like Neil Young or America, but when the ...
10cc, Jonathan King, Neil Sedaka: 10cc: Hottest Band in the UK
Interview by Paul Gambaccini, Rolling Stone, 8 November 1973
MANCHESTER, England — "I am known in the business for hype," UK Records president Jonathan King boasted rather than confessed. "Sometimes I hype like hell. ...
America: What This Band Needs Is a Hat Trick
Profile and Interview by David Rensin, Rolling Stone, 8 November 1973
LOS ANGELES – To the crowd at the Hollywood Bowl, America could do – and did – no wrong. But to America, the concert was ...
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 8 November 1973
SOME of the best recordings by the new generation of song-based groups have dealt overtly with Beatles music, the idea being that if you can't ...
Isis: Eight-Piece, All-Woman Band in Musical No-Man's Land
Report and Interview by Glenn O'Brien, Rolling Stone, 8 November 1973
NEW YORK – An all-woman rock band, one that really cooks, seems to be both a contradiction in terms and a lousy pun. They've come ...
Mike Oldfield: Tubular Bells (Virgin)
Review by Paul Gambaccini, Rolling Stone, 8 November 1973
AN UNKNOWN English teenager playing over 20 instruments has produced the most important one-shot project of 1973. It is a debut performance of a kind ...
The Rolling Stones: Goat's Head Soup
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 8 November 1973
HISTORY HAS PROVEN it unwise to jump to conclusions about Rolling Stones albums. At first Sticky Fingers seemed merely a statement of doper hipness on ...
Review by Greg Shaw, Rolling Stone, 22 November 1973
A NEW STRAIN of music has been developing of late, unheralded except by those who delight in new studio techniques applied in loving parody to ...
Back Door Trio Forsakes the Pubs
Profile and Interview by Paul Gambaccini, Rolling Stone, 22 November 1973
LONDON — "THIRTY thousand people? That's as many as they get in a Blackburn football match!" ...
Carol Kaye's Bass: Solid Gold Hitmine
Interview by Judith Sims, Rolling Stone, 22 November 1973
LOS ANGELES — Carol Kaye is one of the few successful female session musicians, certainly one of Los Angeles' finest and busiest bassists. Her list ...
Review by Charlie Gillett, Rolling Stone, 22 November 1973
Super Dude? It sounds like this year's version of Muddy Waters' 'Hoochie Coochie Man' or Pickett's 'Midnight Mover' but where those men defined love as ...
Gerry Rafferty: Can I Have My Money Back?
Review by Harold Bronson, Rolling Stone, 22 November 1973
Gerry Rafferty paid his dues playing bass in countless rock bands before joining up with fellow Scot Billy Connolly in a mildly successful affair called ...
J. Geils Band: Long Beach Arena, Long Beach CA
Live Review by David Rensin, Rolling Stone, 22 November 1973
"HOPE YOU GUYS have tickets for tonight's show," advised the cop as we hurried for the Arena entrance. We nodded our assent, smiled and kept ...
Earth, Wind & Fire: Earth Wind & Fire: Memories of Trane & Motown
Interview by Vernon Gibbs, Rolling Stone, 6 December 1973
CINCINNATI — MAURICE White and Phillip Bailey, the two lead singers and percussionists for Earth, Wind and Fire, are sitting in a rented Pontiac parked ...
Rick Derringer: All-American Boy
Review by Lenny Kaye, Rolling Stone, 6 December 1973
THE OLD LITANY of the man with the cigar ("C'mere kid I'm gone make you a star") has been recited so often that it might ...
Interview by Paul Gambaccini, Rolling Stone, 6 December 1973
THE SMILING face of Diana Ross froze as she answered the question. The gauche bastard had just asked how she felt replacing Tammi Terrell in ...
Review by Greg Shaw, Rolling Stone, 20 December 1973
WITH EVERYONE from the Band to Don McLean doing oldies albums, the Who revisiting the Mod era, and David Bowie's guitarist Mick Ronson's obvious brilliance ...
Review by Paul Gambaccini, Rolling Stone, 20 December 1973
DON McLEAN could well be the pop Orson Welles of the Seventies, a talented man who happened to make his initial impact with one of ...
Review by Paul Gambaccini, Rolling Stone, 20 December 1973
'LIVE AND Let Die' is the best record Paul McCartney has made since Let It Be, although 'Maybe I'm Amazed' is an equally good composition. ...
Interview by Glenn O'Brien, Rolling Stone, 20 December 1973
NEW YORK – Elizabeth Derringer is married to Rick Derringer. Rick Derringer is a rock star. He has been since he was the 15-year-old guitarist ...
Marc Bolan, T. Rex: The Low-Profile Marc Bolan: Finished with "R&R Lunacy"
Interview by Andrew Bailey, Rolling Stone, 20 December 1973
LONDON — THE man who put the bump and grind back into British pop music was a few minutes late arriving at his West End ...
Steve Miller: The Steve Miller Band: The Joker (Capitol)
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 20 December 1973
STEVE MILLER is responsible for three of the best and one of the worst albums I own. ...
Review by Lenny Kaye, Rolling Stone, 20 December 1973
Quadrophenia is the Who at their most symmetrical, their most cinematic, ultimately their most maddening. Captained by Pete Townshend, they have put together a beautifully ...
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 3 January 1974
THIS ALBUM may do for Neil Young's declining image what Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid did for Dylan's. But like Dylan's much-maligned movie soundtrack ...
The Nazz, Todd Rundgren: Singles: 'Hello, It's Me' — Todd Rundgren
Interview by Paul Gambaccini, Rolling Stone, 3 January 1974
"IT'S NOT that I didn't want it out," Todd Rundgren explained, "It's just that it's like a two-year, six-year time warp," ...
Review by Lenny Kaye, Rolling Stone, 3 January 1974
UNDER NORMAL CIRCUMSTANCES this would be a fairly disappointing album for the Band, coming as it does on the year-old heels of a live set ...
Review by Lenny Kaye, Rolling Stone, 17 January 1974
The Alice Cooper phenomenon, which began with the chart entry of "I'm Eighteen," rose to diabolical heights with Killer and School's Out and extravaganzaed in ...
Dave Mason: It's Like You Never Left
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 17 January 1974
THAT FIRST AUTHENTIC follow-up to Alone Together finally exists. But while his skills as a musician are as noticeable as before, Dave Mason seems to ...
Live Review by Paul Gambaccini, Rolling Stone, 17 January 1974
"THE NEXT stop that we make will be England" was the cue for 3000 Londoners to get out of their seats and move to the ...
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 31 January 1974
THE ALBUM TITLE is the band's reference to themselves as unwitting followers of some enticing but unrealizable dream, That dream may have been Badfinger's expectations ...
Electric Light Orchestra: On the Third Day
Review by Greg Shaw, Rolling Stone, 31 January 1974
IF YOU LIKED ELO II for its weavings of familiar classical motifs through lengthy songs, On the Third Day will both please and disappoint you. ...
John Prine: Sweet Revenge (Atlantic)
Review by Tom Nolan, Rolling Stone, 31 January 1974
SWEET REVENGE is another side of John Prine, a departure from the nearly unrelenting somberness of his earlier work, and an engaging picture of the ...
Maria Muldaur: A Singer Who Has the Pipes
Interview by Judith Sims, Rolling Stone, 31 January 1974
LOS ANGELES — "Not that many people are issued good voices," said Maria Muldaur, curled up on her hotel sofa on Christmas Eve, "That's probably ...
Interview by David Rensin, Rolling Stone, 31 January 1974
LOS ANGELES – "I never felt my music was ever really wanted by the Mahavishnu Orchestra," complained drummer Billy Cobham. "I tried having them use ...
Stealers Wheel: Ferguslie Park
Review by Harold Bronson, Rolling Stone, 31 January 1974
WITH FERGUSLIE PARK, Gerry Rafferty and Joe Egan are back as Stealers Wheel. Considering that the duo is unencumbered by the band's former members (with ...
The Beatles, Paul McCartney, Wings: The Rolling Stone Interview: Paul McCartney
Interview by Paul Gambaccini, Rolling Stone, 31 January 1974
THIS JANUARY marks the tenth anniversary of the Beatles' appearance on the American charts. Last month Rolling Stone conducted its first full-scale interview with Paul ...
Review by Paul Gambaccini, Rolling Stone, 14 February 1974
CHER AND producer Snuff Garrett have resurrected the LP pegged to a hit single and embellished it with a few cover versions and throwaway tracks. ...
Stealers Wheel: Down to Two And Enjoying It
Interview by Paul Gambaccini, Rolling Stone, 14 February 1974
LONDON — Ferguslie Park is a housing development in Scotland where Gerry Rafferty and Joe Egan once lived. The long-time friends are now the sole ...
Review by Ken Barnes, Rolling Stone, 14 February 1974
THE KINKS traditionally stand as preservers of the eternal verities of their Village Green, fighting off the depredations of predatory capitalists in their dapper demolition ...
Ann Peebles: "You're My Idol": Ann Peebles Is Next
Profile and Interview by Judith Sims, Rolling Stone, 28 February 1974
MEMPHIS — The track may be pure chooglin' Memphis: There's that Willie Mitchell/Al Green horn arrangement easing in midway, and there's that easy glide in ...
Canned Heat: One More River To Cross
Review by Harold Bronson, Rolling Stone, 28 February 1974
ONE WOULD EXPECT that with its new label, Atlantic, and rejuvenated line-up (which includes Bob Hite, vocals; Henry Vestine, guitar; Fito de la Pareda, drums; ...
Fleetwood Mac Flak: Manager Takes Name, Not Members, On Tour
Report by Loraine Alterman, Rolling Stone, 28 February 1974
And then there were none... ...
Review by Ken Barnes, Rolling Stone, 28 February 1974
NILS LOFGREN, a superb songwriter, possesses an appealing vocal style and is a fine guitarist. On the strength first three albums it’s unbelievable that he ...
Stories: Ian Lloyd & Stories: Traveling Underground
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 28 February 1974
STORIES COPED with the loss of founder Michael Brown (a fine keyboard player and songwriter who also led the Left Banke) by recording 'Brother Louie', ...
Ozark Mountain Daredevils: The Cosmic Corncobs Go North
Profile and Interview by David Rensin, Rolling Stone, 28 February 1974
LOS ANGELES – Bolivar, Missouri, has 5000 citizens and more than a hundred churches, Bible schools and theological colleges full of well-scrubbed Christian boys and ...
Mahavishnu Orchestra: Rick Laird: Why Mahavishnu Is Breaking Up
Interview by Loraine Alterman, Rolling Stone, 28 February 1974
NEW YORK — Rick Laird, former bassist with the now-scattered Mahavishnu Orchestra, said it was a case of too much ego and pride that finally ...
Stevie Wonder Returns With a Synthesized Howl
Report and Interview by Paul Gambaccini, Rolling Stone, 28 February 1974
LONDON — IT HAD been five months since his auto accident, five months since he had done a complete show onstage, and it was clear ...
Dave Mason: No More Traffic Jams
Interview by David Rensin, Rolling Stone, 14 March 1974
LOS ANGELES – The reporter from the Free Press had one more question for Dave Mason after the interview at his road manager's house in ...
Commander Cody and his Lost Planet Airmen: Live from Deep in the Heart of Texas
Review by Greg Shaw, Rolling Stone, 28 March 1974
COMMANDER Cody’s fourth and most successful album proves the group can incite any audience to dance, drink and have fun. ...
Genesis: Short on Hair, Long on Gimmicks
Interview by Richard Cromelin, Rolling Stone, 28 March 1974
LOS ANGELES – Peter Gabriel's five o'clock shadow tints not only cheeks and chin but the shaved patch of flesh which cuts up from the ...
Graham Nash: Tales Behind Wild Tales
Interview by Loraine Alterman, Rolling Stone, 28 March 1974
NEW YORK – In the living room of a moss-green suite at the Plaza Hotel, Graham Nash sits at the piano with an harmonica braced ...
Emmylou Harris, Gram Parsons: Gram Parsons with Emmylou Harris: Grievous Angel
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 28 March 1974
MICK JAGGER wrote 'Wild Horses' for and about the late Gram Parsons and its chorus describes the paradox that fueled Parsons’ life and vision. '...Wild ...
The Rolling Stones: Rock Dreams: Teen Fantasies as Art
Interview by Andrew Bailey, Rolling Stone, 11 April 1974
Artist Guy Peellaert and Rock Dreams, artwork of rock icons in fantasized situations ...
Alvin Lee: On The Road To Freedom
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 11 April 1974
TWO OFTEN UNPERSUASIVE musicians have combined to make an album better than any of their past work. Alvin Lee and Mylon LeFevre may have always ...
Big Star: Radio City (Ardent ADS-1501)
Review by Ken Barnes, Rolling Stone, 11 April 1974
BIG STAR proved themselves one of the leading new American bands working in the mid-Sixties pop and rock vein with the release of their debut ...
John Denver: John Denver's Greatest Hits
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 11 April 1974
JOHN DENVER has a strong and tuneful tenor, a smilingly ingenuous persona both vocally and visually and a sense of purpose to his writing and ...
Grand Funk Railroad: Knight & Funk: The Bleat Goes On
Report and Interview by Ian Dove, Rolling Stone, 11 April 1974
Lawsuits Settled ...
Lamont Dozier: Out Here on My Own (ABCX-804)
Review by Paul Gambaccini, Rolling Stone, 11 April 1974
FAMOUS WRITER-producer Lamont Dozier neither wrote nor produced this album, so it represents a break from his Motown and Invictus work. There isn't much novelty ...
Rick Derringer, Edgar Winter, Johnny Winter: Rick Derringer: The Irony of the Hootchie Koo
Report and Interview by Loraine Alterman, Rolling Stone, 11 April 1974
NEW YORK — "I never expected 'Rock and Roll Hootchie Koo' to do so well commercially," said Rick Derringer, the single's writer as well as ...
Review by Ken Barnes, Rolling Stone, 25 April 1974
DEEP PURPLE'S first album since last year's departure of vocalist Ian Gillan and bassist/composer Roger Glover is a passable but disappointing effort. ...
Emerson Lake & Palmer: ELP...What? ELP!... What? ELP...
Report and Interview by Judith Sims, Rolling Stone, 25 April 1974
LOS ANGELES — Say what you will about the music, Emerson, Lake and Palmer's recently completed four-month American tour was the heaviest rock & roll ...
Review by Greg Shaw, Rolling Stone, 25 April 1974
THE BIGGEST FACTOR preventing the spread of glitter rock in America is the persistent popularity of blues, particularly in the form of its degenerate offspring, ...
Maggie Bell Wants to Sound Like Maggie
Report and Interview by Loraine Alterman, Rolling Stone, 25 April 1974
NEW YORK — "Maggie Bell the Winner, Just the Beginning" read the banner slung across an enormous horseshoe of red carnations. The flowers were set ...
Maggie Bell: Queen of the Night (Atlantic SD 7293)
Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 25 April 1974
The Ghost and Maggie Bell ...
Tanya Tucker: Would You Lay with Me (In a Field of Stone) (Columbia KC 32744)
Review by Ken Barnes, Rolling Stone, 25 April 1974
TANYA TUCKER'S third album, like the first two, contains many covers of recent country chart-busters, competent but rarely inspired backing, and an almost smothering use ...
Fairport Convention, The Strawbs: The Strawbs: Hero and Heroine; Fairport Convention: Nine
Review by Ken Barnes, Rolling Stone, 25 April 1974
The Strawbs and Fairport Convention are conveniently linked by their past importance in modernizing the British folk scene (and their use, at different times, of ...
Van Morrison, the Persuasions: Felt Forum, NYC
Live Review by Happy Traum, Rolling Stone, 25 April 1974
Inventive Van Impresses ...
Cat Stevens' Return: Pop Goes the Poet
Report and Interview by Paul Gambaccini, Rolling Stone, 9 May 1974
LONDON — Two children, one black and one white, played on the doorstep of Cat Stevens's terraced house. ...
Review by Greg Shaw, Rolling Stone, 9 May 1974
ON THEIR SECOND A&M album, this Scottish group with folk roots continue on their heavy electric course, guided by producer Roger Glover (of Deep Purple ...
Terry Melcher: Surf's Up! Terry Melcher's Nightmare Is Over
Interview by Tom Nolan, Rolling Stone, 9 May 1974
LOS ANGELES – Terry Melcher, a consistent professional, has participated in scores of hits with artists as diverse as Frankie Laine and the Byrds. Seven ...
Tower of Power: Back To Oakland (Warner Bros. BS 2749)
Review by Paul Gambaccini, Rolling Stone, 9 May 1974
THE FUNK burner bubbles constantly in the background, but it doesn't compensate for the lack of good material. Even the token ballad, 'Time Will Tell,' ...
Bachman-Turner Overdrive, The Guess Who: Bachman-Turner Overdrive: 'Let It Ride' In Overdrive
Interview by David Rensin, Rolling Stone, 23 May 1974
"WE PLAY all over the States and almost every radio station we run into has 'Let It Ride' being spun next to the Guess Who's ...
Report and Interview by Paul Gambaccini, Rolling Stone, 23 May 1974
Nouveau Rock Bops British Charts ...
Interview by Richard Cromelin, Rolling Stone, 23 May 1974
LOS ANGELES – The rain that was falling relentlessly on the tropical fantasyland that surrounds the Beverly Hills Hotel was giving Leo Sayer "a nasty ...
Peter Frampton: Something's Happening
Review by Ken Barnes, Rolling Stone, 23 May 1974
PETER FRAMPTON has become a highly stylized performer. The songs on his new album sound much the same as the material on two earlier solo ...
The Beatles, Marc Bolan, Ringo Starr: Ringo's Agenda: Movie, Music, But No Beatles
Interview by Loraine Alterman, Rolling Stone, 23 May 1974
LOS ANGELES — "No, it's not getting back together, I promise you, not this year, folks," said Ringo Starr, who should know whether "it," the ...
Roxy Music: Stranded (Atco 7045)
Review by Paul Gambaccini, Rolling Stone, 23 May 1974
TWO BRITISH bands are genuinely stretching the dimensions of pop music. One, 10 c.c., has already found a degree of popularity in the States. Roxy ...
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 23 May 1974
STEELY DAN is the most improbable hit-singles band to emerge in ages. On its three albums, the group has developed an impressionistic approach to rock ...
The Eagles, Neil Young: Luesta College, San Luis Obispo CA
Live Review by David Rensin, Rolling Stone, 23 May 1974
Punch Card Pop ...
Bill Wyman Solo: It's Me, Such As I Am
Report and Interview by Andrew Bailey, Rolling Stone, 6 June 1974
THE NIGHT BEFORE, Bill Wyman had been in a studio making a short promotional film for his debut solo album, Monkey Grip, released May 15th. ...
Carly Simon, James Taylor: James Taylor: Milwaukee Auditorium, Milwaukee
Live Review by Barbara Charone, Rolling Stone, 6 June 1974
Magic in Milwaukee ...
The Doors, Jim Morrison: Pam Morrison: A Final Curtain on Her Affair with Life
Report by Judith Sims, Rolling Stone, 6 June 1974
LOS ANGELES — "Pamela was Jim's other half," said ex-Door Ray Manzarek. "The two of them were a perfect combination; I never knew another person ...
Review by Greg Shaw, Rolling Stone, 6 June 1974
WHILE AMERICAN AUDIENCES continue to boogie as though it were still 1968, London has been overrun by pop maniacs, raising the ghost of Carnaby Street ...
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 6 June 1974
THIS ALBUM is definitely not for everyone. Terry Melcher, once the producer of the Byrds and Paul Revere and the Raiders, has released an eccentric ...
Blue Oyster Cult: Secret Treaties Columbia KC 32858
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 20 June 1974
THE BLUE Oyster Cult shares certain traits with that other New York cult band, the Dolls: an appropriate image for the outpouring of urban (and ...
Led Zeppelin: Swan Song Is a Beginning
Report and Interview by Loraine Alterman, Rolling Stone, 20 June 1974
NEW YORK — "The name Led Zeppelin means a failure," explains lead singer Robert Plant, "and Swan Song means a last gasp — so why ...
Mott the Hoople: Rock on Broadway
Report and Interview by Richard Cromelin, Rolling Stone, 20 June 1974
NEW YORK — The hall had long since emptied. The only light on the stage was cast by a bare light bulb atop a scrawny ...
Review by Ken Barnes, Rolling Stone, 20 June 1974
DISMISSED by snobbish critics as a clockwork singles machine, the Guess Who have continued selling albums and filling concert halls even after the hits stopped ...
New York Dolls: The New York Dolls: Too Much Too Soon
Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 20 June 1974
Lotta Goin' Nowhere Goin' On ...
Blue Swede: Grunting a Feeling
Report and Interview by Harold Bronson, Rolling Stone, 4 July 1974
LOS ANGELES – Oohka Chucka! Oohka Oohka Oohka Chucka! – a jungle war cry gives way suddenly to a hardy, supper-club crooner romanticizing an old ...
Clive Davis Return: "I Love Music"
Report and Interview by Loraine Alterman, Rolling Stone, 4 July 1974
AFTER A YEAR of speculation, former Columbia Records President Clive Davis, 41, announced that he has been writing a book about his Columbia years, and ...
Flash Cadillac and the Continental Kids: Flash Cadillac: There's No Face like Chrome
Review by Ken Barnes, Rolling Stone, 4 July 1974
FLASH CADILLAC & the Continental Kids have been identified with a stale spate of revivalist Fifties bands – even though their live performances prove they ...
The Carpenters: Up From Downey
Profile and Interview by Tom Nolan, Rolling Stone, 4 July 1974
KAREN CARPENTER, the solo singing half of a brother and sister musical duo that has sold over 25 million records world-wide, has classic "good looks" ...
The Velvet Underground: 1969 Velvet Underground Live (Mercury SRM 2 7504)
Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 4 July 1974
MANY OF Lou Reed's fans continue to believe that his significant achievements came as leader of the Velvet Underground rather than on his recent solo ...
War: A Street Rod on the Boulevard of Soul
Report and Interview by Barbara Charone, Rolling Stone, 4 July 1974
"SOMETIMES I TELL myself: I'm B.B. Dickerson and I'm in War so I'm going to pull up in front of the Continental Hyatt House in ...
Review by Greg Shaw, Rolling Stone, 18 July 1974
A FEW YEARS AGO, some English pubs began presenting live bands as a free service to their patrons. Since there have never been enough outlets ...
Gil Evans, Jimi Hendrix: Gil Evans: Jazzing Up Jimi
Interview by Ian Dove, Rolling Stone, 18 July 1974
Evans gave Hendrix's music an orchestral workout. ...
Edgar Winter: The Edgar Winter Group: Shock Treatment (Epic PE 32461)
Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 18 July 1974
EDGAR WINTER was the most unlikely rock star of 1973. For five years we had been led to believe that it was his brother Johnny ...
Eric Clapton: The Rolling Stone Interview: Eric Clapton
Interview by Steve Turner, Rolling Stone, 18 July 1974
LONDON — Robert Stigwood, his manager, put it about as simply and as playfully as it could be put, after a celebration party in April: ...
Brownsville Station: School Punks
Review by Ken Barnes, Rolling Stone, 1 August 1974
THIS IS AN IMPORTANT album. It's a good album, too, but even if it were terrible, it would still be important. ...
Report and Interview by Richard Cromelin, Rolling Stone, 1 August 1974
LOS ANGELES – If Golden Earring, the perseverant Dutch quartet, turns out to be as good as the Ray Milland/Marlene Dietrich WWII film whose title ...
Report and Interview by David Rensin, Rolling Stone, 1 August 1974
THE AUDIENCE is expectant, the music strident, the voice rich and full-throated and sensuous. It's San Diego, the first stop on Maria Muldaur's 30-day road ...
Joni Mitchell, Tom Scott: Tom Scott: Joni's Spark
Interview by David Rensin, Rolling Stone, 1 August 1974
LOS ANGELES – Mention the name Tom Scott in jazz circles and recognition is immediate: The 25-year-old horn-playing prodigy from Southern California is well known ...
Elton John: Caribou (MCA-2116)
Review by Tom Nolan, Rolling Stone, 15 August 1974
Maestro of Mediocrity ...
John Stewart: The Phoenix Concerts (RCA)
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 15 August 1974
THE MERE SOUND of John Stewart’s tremulous voice is enough to conjure up the ghost of an antique, heroic America. Stewart’s songs — 16 of ...
Bad Company: Paul Rodgers's Bad Company
Interview by Steven Rosen, Rolling Stone, 15 August 1974
LOS ANGELES – Cub Scout shirt unbuttoned, face unshaven, hair uncombed, Paul Rodgers sits tensely in a corner armchair. ...
Ray Manzarek Opens a New Door: Jazz
Interview by Barbara Charone, Rolling Stone, 15 August 1974
CHICAGO – "See that guy," Jim Morrison once remarked, pointing to Ray Manzarek: "He is the Doors." Although Morrison received all the attention, it was ...
Review by Ken Barnes, Rolling Stone, 29 August 1974
Abba's emergence is one of the most cheering musical events in recent months. Just when the Top 40 was plumbing hitherto-unfathomable, moribund depths, along came ...
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 29 August 1974
ON ITS FIRST album, Bad Company – led by former Free singer Paul Rodgers and original Mott the Hoople guitarist Mick Ralphs – resembles Free ...
The Band, Bob Dylan: Bob Dylan/The Band: Before The Flood (Asylum)
Review by Tom Nolan, Rolling Stone, 29 August 1974
THROUGHOUT BOB DYLAN'S performances on this in-concert album there is evident an effort to match the material – nearly all from much earlier in his ...
Foghat: Their Business Is Rock & Roll
Report and Interview by Loraine Alterman, Rolling Stone, 29 August 1974
So you want to be a rock & roll star Well listen now to what I say Just get an electric guitar ...
Olivia Newton-John: If You Love Me, Let Me Know (MCA-411)
Review by Ken Barnes, Rolling Stone, 29 August 1974
FORMULA FOR success: Take a pleasantly colorless female singer, and give her a catchy ditty bland enough for the easy-listening stations, slightly countrified for C&W ...
John Lennon: Two Questions about Lennon
Report by Al Aronowitz, Rolling Stone, 29 August 1974
NEW YORK – John was wearing shades, his chestnut hair glistening in the fancy studio lights, big ones over his cars, sitting in a booth ...
Live Review by David Rensin, Rolling Stone, 12 September 1974
Carlos in a Cavern: Jazz, Sort of ...
Steeleye Span: Ye Olde Rocke & Rolle
Profile by Steve Turner, Rolling Stone, 12 September 1974
CONSIDER STEELEYE SPAN – grounded firmly in traditional English folk music and trying to crack a largely American audience that has no background in, or ...
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 26 September 1974
MORE THAN any other group of the Seventies, America — in both its British and U.S. periods—has epitomized the stiff, soulless side of California pop. ...
Jimi Hendrix: 'Black Gold': New Hendrix in Old Tapes
Interview by Ian Dove, Rolling Stone, 26 September 1974
NEW YORK — The archaeological probing of the Hendrix tapes continues. Up in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, at the Shaggy Dog Studios, Alan Douglas — producer, record ...
Interview by Loraine Alterman, Rolling Stone, 26 September 1974
NEW YORK — Judy Collins, blue eyes bright with enthusiasm, is sitting in her sunswept Upper West Side apartment, talking about the film she has ...
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 26 September 1974
Man is a Welsh-based band with its heart in San Francisco–specifically, in the elongated and textured music of Quicksilver and the early Dead. Earlier versions ...
The Strawbs: Strawbs: Stumbling Cousins
Interview by Andrew Bailey, Rolling Stone, 26 September 1974
LONDON — THERE'LL always be a Dave Cousins, sure, but will he always have a Strawbs? The group's leader has a knack for not saying ...
The Rolling Stones: 'Its Only Rock and Roll'
Interview by Paul Gambaccini, Rolling Stone, 26 September 1974
"WE HAD THE hook line with nothing to set it to for a long time," Keith Richard explained in the Rolling Stones' London office. "Then ...
Average White Band: Average White Band (MCA)
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 10 October 1974
If it wasn’t apparent from its first album (on MCA), it is from the second: Scotland’s Average White Band is one of the best self-contained ...
David Bowie: Time For Another Ch-ch-change
Report and Interview by Richard Cromelin, Rolling Stone, 10 October 1974
LOS ANGELES – David Bowie hadn't slept for 36 hours. He'd just gone through his rigorous show at the Universal Amphitheater for the fourth night ...
Report by Judith Sims, Rolling Stone, 10 October 1974
HONOLULU — BACKSTAGE violence erupted before an August 31st concert at Hawaii Raceway Park which starred War, Black Oak Arkansas, Billy Preston and Brownsville Station. ...
Jesse Winchester: Learn To Love It
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 10 October 1974
ON JESSE WINCHESTER'S first two albums, Jesse Winchester and Third Down, 110 To Go, the fine balance struck between conviction and melodiousness, simplicity and eloquence ...
Interview by David Rensin, Rolling Stone, 10 October 1974
LOS ANGELES – Along with many of the stars and hopefuls at Chicago's 1971 Black Expo, Minnie Riperton waited patiently backstage to approach the blind ...
Joe Cocker: Academy of Music, New York NY
Live Review by Ian Dove, Rolling Stone, 24 October 1974
WELL, HE went on. Stood out there in the spotlight and sang. Out in the street the freeloaders and ticket beggars were truly frenzied, having ...
The Deadly Nightshade, Little Feat: Little Feat, Deadly Nightshade: Bottom Line, New York NY
Live Review by Ian Dove, Rolling Stone, 24 October 1974
OUT OF the West Coast but with their hearts in Dixie, rolling along, all grits'n'boogie, coasting from basic rock blues to bar-and-grill country, Little Feat ...
Mose Allison, Syreeta: Bottom Line, New York NY
Live Review by Ian Dove, Rolling Stone, 24 October 1974
SYREETA WRIGHT'S exhortations were built around Stevie Wonder, whose name was mentioned often and with reverence throughout the performance. Syreeta left no doubt that she ...
Paul Anka: The Lonely Boy Grows Up
Interview by Tom Nolan, Rolling Stone, 24 October 1974
RENO — PAUL Anka, on the eve of his 33rd birthday, glides onto the stage of the Headliner Room at Harrah's with the aplomb of ...
The Faces, The Rolling Stones, Ronnie Wood: Ron Wood: Not Just Another Pretty Face
Interview by Judith Sims, Rolling Stone, 24 October 1974
LOS ANGELES — I've Got My Own Album To Do is a good title for Ron Wood's first solo album: It fits his sly, impish ...
Raspberries: The Raspberries: Starting Over
Review by Ken Barnes, Rolling Stone, 24 October 1974
THE RASPBERRIES have at last realized their potential. They've clearly become the premier synthesizers of Sixties pop influences, extant. Even more importantly, the end results ...
Traffic Lightens Up for American Tour
Report and Interview by David Rensin, Rolling Stone, 24 October 1974
NEW YORK – Looking only slightly recovered from a two-day-old case of jet lag, Traffic drummer Jim Capaldi strutted into the Providence Civic Center dressing ...
Report by Judith Sims, Rolling Stone, 7 November 1974
LOS ANGELES — Robbie McIntosh, 24, drummer with the Average White Band, died in his North Hollywood hotel room September 23rd of an overdose of ...
Kiki Dee: Rocketing Along With Elton
Interview by Barbara Charone, Rolling Stone, 7 November 1974
CHICAGO – The crowds gathering in 32 American cities over 44 dates between September 25th and December 3rd are there to see Elton John – ...
Mountain: Radio City Music Hall, New York NY
Live Review by Ian Dove, Rolling Stone, 7 November 1974
Mountain Comes to Manhattan ...
Ronnie Wood: I've Got My Own Album To Do
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 7 November 1974
RON WOOD, whose role in the Faces has paralleled Keith Richard's function in the Rolling Stones, has put together what is less a solo album ...
Bob Dylan, Eric Weissberg: Blood on the Tracks: Dylan Looks Back
Report and Interview by Larry Sloman, Rolling Stone, 21 November 1974
NEW YORK — It looked like old times at Columbia's A&R Studio September 16th. John Hammond Sr. was there, Phil Ramone was working the board. ...
Dory Previn's Songs: Many Sides Now
Interview by Loraine Alterman, Rolling Stone, 21 November 1974
LOS ANGELES — Forget about her fear of flying. It's still easy to understand why Dory Previn is reluctant to travel from her comfortable home ...
George Harrison, Ravi Shankar: George Harrison: The Niceman Cometh
Report by Andrew Bailey, Rolling Stone, 21 November 1974
LOS ANGELES — Somewhere in the city, inside the trailer of a tractor-trailer rig, hammers, saws and measuring rules bang and whine toward conversion of ...
Nektar: Germany's Nektar: They See the Light
Profile and Interview by Richard Cromelin, Rolling Stone, 21 November 1974
ST. LOUIS – The light show, thinks Mick Brockett, is something that was prematurely abandoned by the rock world, and though he's reluctant to talk ...
Jefferson Starship, Stardrive with Robert Mason: Radio City Music Hall, New York NY
Live Review by Ian Dove, Rolling Stone, 21 November 1974
Starship to Crew: Down to Earth ...
The Rolling Stones: Making the Stones’ New Album
Profile and Interview by Steve Turner, Rolling Stone, 5 December 1974
Twenty-one albums on, Keith Richard is back in Richmond, the Thameside London suburb where the Rolling Stones first played the local clubs 12 years ago. ...
Roger McGuinn: The Post-Flight Is Finally Solo
Report and Interview by David Rensin, Rolling Stone, 5 December 1974
LOS ANGELES – A solitary figure in the Troubadour spotlight, Roger McGuinn swayed gently as he sang: "Hey Mr. D. do you want me to ...
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 5 December 1974
RAGS TO RUFUS, the second LP from the pop group turned soul band, is most notable for lead singer Chaka Khan’s inspired performances. ...
Average White Band: White Band with Soul
Interview by Judith Sims, Rolling Stone, 19 December 1974
LOS ANGELES — Their name has a nice sense of irony and confidence, because the Average White Band plays music that is anything but white; ...
Electric Light Orchestra: Roll Over Chuck Berry and Tell Beethoven the News
Interview by Richard Cromelin, Rolling Stone, 19 December 1974
SAN FRANCISCO – Jeff Lynne nods toward the sliding glass door, through which can be seen an in-progress high-rise which looms uncomfortably close to his ...
Robert Fripp: After King Crimson, The Apocalypse
Report and Interview by Ian Dove, Rolling Stone, 19 December 1974
NEW YORK – After five short years, King Crimson is no more and the man who began and ended the group, Robert Fripp, is already ...
Retrospective and Interview by Michael Lydon, Rolling Stone, 1975
"DRINK SOME BEER and be of good cheer!" ...
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 2 January 1975
UP TO NOW, the big singles, 'Come and Get It', 'No Matter What', 'Day After Day', and especially 'Baby Blue' have provided the obvious high ...
Interview by Mick Brown, Rolling Stone, 2 January 1975
THAT BRUCE JOHNSTON should have chosen an old Beach Boys hit for the group California Music's first release on his (and Terry Melcher's) Equinox label, ...
Report by Ed McCormack, Rolling Stone, 2 January 1975
NEW YORK — Elton John's opening words to the audience at Madison Square Garden were: "Hello, New York! Happy Thanksgiving!" ...
Genesis: To Them, It's Only Rock & Role
Interview by Barbara Charone, Rolling Stone, 2 January 1975
LONDON – Having recently sold England by the pound, Genesis and Atlantic Records now turn their attention to the United States, where the esteemed buck ...
Gil Scott-Heron: Survival Kits on Wax
Profile and Interview by Sheila Weller, Rolling Stone, 2 January 1975
NEW YORK – At the age of 25, he has to his credit two published novels, one published collection of poetry and four albums of ...
Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 2 January 1975
TWO YEARS AGO, while working for another magazine, I rejected a rambling interview between black poet Nikki Giovanni and singer Gladys Knight. The interview wasn't ...
Jefferson Starship: Dragon Fly
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 2 January 1975
FOR SEVERAL YEARS, the nucleus of the Airplane/Starship has been struggling to hold together a concept that didn't seem workable in the first place. The ...
Interview by Judith Sims, Rolling Stone, 2 January 1975
LOS ANGELES — Her name means "sweet singer" in India; in Swahili it means "one of uniqueness, or something like that," but Syreeta Wright claims ...
Electric Light Orchestra: The Electric Light Orchestra: Eldorado
Review by Ken Barnes, Rolling Stone, 2 January 1975
THE ELECTRIC LIGHT Orchestra has sometimes swamped itself in grandiose conceptions, and Eldorado (A Symphony) sounds like a prime opportunity to do it again. But ...
Tom Rush's Circle: Joni, James & Cows
Interview by David Rensin, Rolling Stone, 2 January 1975
MANFRED, MASSACHUSETTS – James Taylor's nasal drawl crackled insistently across the telephone line from his Martha's Vineyard retreat. "I first heard Tom Rush about ten ...
Harry Chapin: Harry & Sandy Chapin's Cat
Interview by Paul Gambaccini, Rolling Stone, 16 January 1975
HARRY CHAPIN'S hit that hits close to home came from within his own. "My wife, Sandy, had written a poem that implied I was on ...
J. Geils Band: Still Looking at the Purse
Report and Interview by Larry Sloman, Rolling Stone, 16 January 1975
NEW YORK — "We have just begun to fight," bellows Peter Wolf, lead singer and songwriter for the J. Geils Band, banging his fist to ...
Andy Fairweather Lowe: Andy Fairweather Low: Spider Jiving
Review by Tom Nolan, Rolling Stone, 30 January 1975
ANDY FAIRWEATHER LOW has one of the quirkiest and most distinctive voices in recent pop memory, and from the first bar of this topnotch debut ...
George Harrison: George's Tour Winds Down in New York, and Mr. Harrison Goes to Washington
Report and Interview by Larry Sloman, Rolling Stone, 30 January 1975
NEW YORK — George Harrison scream sings 'Sue Me, Sue You Blues', a song born and bred in this city, to a nearly packed Madison ...
Johnny Bristol: Hang On in There Baby (MGM M3G 4959)
Review by Paul Gambaccini, Rolling Stone, 30 January 1975
THIS SONGWRITER/producer's debut as an LP artist frequently bears similarities to the work of Barry White. Vocals are alternately guttural and emotive, then strident and ...
Review by Ken Barnes, Rolling Stone, 30 January 1975
ARTHUR LEE and Love have an albatross around their necks: their nearly perfect 1968 album, Forever Changes, a never equaled distillation of smooth pop and ...
Profile and Interview by Richard Cromelin, Rolling Stone, 30 January 1975
LOS ANGELES – It was several months ago in London that the disc jockey on Capitol Radio, BBC's commercial rival, was revealing the results of ...
Alvin Lee's Long Road To Freedom
Interview by Barbara Charone, Rolling Stone, 13 February 1975
LONDON – Alvin Lee is on the road again, and this time he's not going home. ...
Billy Swan: I Can Help (Monument KZ 33279)
Review by Tom Nolan, Rolling Stone, 13 February 1975
THE RISE to the top of pop and country charts by the title single of this debut album seems to have been as much a ...
Arthur Lee: Love, Arthur Lee Style: More Changes
Interview by Steven Rosen, Rolling Stone, 13 February 1975
LOS ANGELES – Not since the 1972 release of Vindicator has Arthur Lee been widely heard on record, that first polo project seemingly marking the ...
Interview by David Rensin, Rolling Stone, 27 February 1975
LOS ANGELES – "I've never asked anyone to help me or give me a break," declared Billy Preston adamantly. "Whatever I don't have now I ...
Curtis Mayfield: Got to Find a Way (Curtom CRS 8604)
Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 27 February 1975
CURTIS MAYFIELD'S dilemma remains the same with each album. Each of his albums since Superfly has seemed uninspired, static, overreaching, an attempt to make a ...
Review by Loyd Grossman, Rolling Stone, 27 February 1975
JACK BRUCE WAS one of the most outstanding and at the same time least recognized talents to appear on the transatlantic rock scene in the ...
Loggins & Messina: There's Gold In The Middle Of The Road
Interview by Tom Nolan, Rolling Stone, 27 February 1975
THE RUSTIC HOUSE on Round Valley Drive in the hills of the San Fernando Valley is in one of those pockets of geography that provides ...
Mac Davis's Ode to Rock & Roll
Interview by Paul Gambaccini, Rolling Stone, 27 February 1975
MAC DAVIS has written a number of hits for himself and other artists but, on a promotional trip to North Dakota, he heard a record ...
The Faces: Raunchy Faces Back on Tour
Report and Interview by Barbara Charone, Rolling Stone, 27 February 1975
LONDON – "We're playing as one now like our life depended on it," Rod Stewart announced, looking down eagerly at his game pie in a ...
Charlie Rich: The Depression, Country Music and Me
Essay by Al Aronowitz, Rolling Stone, 27 February 1975
This sorrowful piece was sent to us, by third-class mail, by Al Aronowitz, pop columnist for the New York Post until the paper dropped him ...
Dan Fogelberg: Home Free At Last
Report and Interview by David Rensin, Rolling Stone, 13 March 1975
LOS ANGELES - For Dan Fogelberg, 1974 ended on a note of modest triumph. Though 6,500 fans jammed the Shrine Auditorium to help the Eagles ...
B.T. Express: BT Express: Do It ('Til You're Satisfied)
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 27 March 1975
DO IT ('Til You're Satisfied) resembles George McCrae's Rock Your Baby album in that it finds a persistent groove and stays with it unflaggingly from ...
Carl Douglas: Kung Fu Fighting (20th Century T-464)
Review by John Mendelssohn, Rolling Stone, 27 March 1975
I WAS GAILY dancing the kung fu (even though I don't, as the song informs us one is supposed to, possess the grace of a ...
Grand Funk Railroad: All The Girls In The World Beware
Review by Ken Barnes, Rolling Stone, 27 March 1975
IT'S A MEASURE OF Grand Funk's less than overwhelming critical acceptance that the chief topic of interest for most reviewers has been the band's current ...
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 27 March 1975
AFTER RECORDING Abandoned Luncheonette, an often ingenious merger of white acoustic pop and Philly soul, Philadelphians Hall & Oates disavowed that style, switched producers (from ...
Live Review by Wayne Robins, Rolling Stone, 27 March 1975
ONLY TWO weeks after Sly Stone scaled his decline by falling on his face at Radio City Music Hall, two of his most popular heirs ...
P.F.M.: Cook (Manticore MA6-502S1)
Review by Ken Barnes, Rolling Stone, 27 March 1975
P.F.M. IS ITALY'S number one entry in the progressive rock sweepstakes. Except for a pretty ballad sung in their native tongue ("Dove... Quando..."), however, and ...
Shirley Goodman, Shirley & Company: Shirley & Company: 'Shame' of the Discos
Profile and Interview by Paul Gambaccini, Rolling Stone, 27 March 1975
A FRIENDSHIP formed backstage at the Apollo Theater 19 years ago is responsible for one of the year's surprise hits. ...
Jethro Tull: Tull on top: Ian Anderson Speaks His Mind
Interview by Judith Sims, Rolling Stone, 27 March 1975
LOS ANGELES — Ian Anderson, leader of Jethro Tull, did not seem pleased, even though his group had just broken all attendance records at the ...
Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 10 April 1975
BRITISH BLUES has always been a workmanlike form, as much a job as a pleasure. Alvin Lee is smart enough to realize this, and having ...
EmmyLou Harris: Pieces of The Sky
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 10 April 1975
WHEN THE BYRDS recorded Sweetheart of the Rodeo in 1968, the romance between country music and pop was still secret. Seven years later, both country ...
Little Feat: Giant Steps Across The Sea
Interview by David Rensin, Rolling Stone, 10 April 1975
JACKSON BROWNE said that their founder was "the Orson Welles of rock & roll" and Jimmy Page has called them his "favorite American group." ...
Millie Jackson: Caught Up (Spring SPR 6703)
Review by Paul Gambaccini, Rolling Stone, 10 April 1975
THIS REMARKABLE exposition of a lover's triangle told from the perspectives of wife and adulteress is the high point of Millie Jackson's career to date. ...
The Pretty Things: New Pretty Things Get a Led Zep Uplift
Interview by Steve Turner, Rolling Stone, 10 April 1975
LONDON – The Pretty Things were there at the beginning. Phil May, the band’s lead singer and only original member, followed Keith Richards out of ...
Supertramp: Crime of the Century (A&M SP 3647)
Review by John Mendelssohn, Rolling Stone, 10 April 1975
VIRTUALLY EVERY track on this album seems to last twice as long as the actual music warrants, a vastly disproportionate amount of needle time seems ...
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 24 April 1975
As he's moved westward – from the East Coast to Ohio to Colorado to Los Angeles–Joe Walsh has assimilated one regional rock style after another. ...
Robin Trower's Unbroken Barricade: 'I'm Still in the Shadow of Jimi Hendrix'
Interview by Richard Cromelin, Rolling Stone, 24 April 1975
PORTLAND – Robin Trower finally emerges from the dressing room, which has remained locked for an ominously long time, and forces a smile. ...
Review by Ken Barnes, Rolling Stone, 24 April 1975
ON THEIR NOW obscure Warner Bros.' albums Sparks's intriguing lyrics and immaculate conceptions were undermined by inadequate musical constructions. ...
Obituary by Jerry Wexler, Rolling Stone, 24 April 1975
LOS ANGELES — Aaron "T-Bone" Walker died of bronchial pneumonia March 16th at the Vernon Convalescent Hospital. The 64-year-old Texas blues guitarist, famous for standards ...
Review by Wayne Robins, Rolling Stone, 8 May 1975
FROM THE LOOK of its album cover, Ace is a band of five frustrated English football players who, like Rod Stewart, turned to music to ...
Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen: Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen (Warner Bros.)
Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 8 May 1975
IN 1971, COMMANDER Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen, already a legend in such disparate climes as San Francisco and Detroit, finally reached a recording ...
Interview by Judith Sims, Rolling Stone, 8 May 1975
LOS ANGELES — 'Shaving Cream', a 1947 song by Paul Wynn, was an unlikely candidate for the Number One rating on the nation's most popular ...
Gordon Lightfoot: Cold on the Shoulder (Reprise)
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 8 May 1975
FOR A DECADE NOW, Gordon Lightfoot has been a neo-folk hero in Canada. His early records and performances were distinguished by a rugged romanticism that ...
Interview by Barbara Charone, Rolling Stone, 8 May 1975
LONDON – "Fucking tremendous," Ian Hunter mumbled into Mick Ronson's right ear as his first solo album blasted out of the speakers. The former leader ...
Mac Davis: All the Love in the World
Review by John Mendelsohn, Rolling Stone, 8 May 1975
HEREWITH, THE Legend of the Songpainter. ...
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 8 May 1975
TWO OF THe MOST liberated and ambitious of the "fun" oriented British bands beginning to make their mark in the States are the updated war-horses ...
Review by John Mendelsohn, Rolling Stone, 8 May 1975
STEELY DAN sound like a million dollars not only next to at least 26 of their coresidents of the Boss 30 when they're in it, ...
The Pretty Things: Silk Torpedo
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 8 May 1975
THE PRETTY THINGS are from a different part of town. Once competitors with the Stones in the raunch-and-outrage genre, the Pretty Things began a progression ...
Bette Midler: Clams on the Half Shell Revue, Minskoff Theatre, New York NY
Live Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 22 May 1975
Bette's Off on Broadway ...
Eric Clapton: There's One In Every Crowd
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 22 May 1975
Eric Clapton's sense of well-being is reiterated on There's One in Every Crowd, but on this album it seems less a cause for joy than ...
John Mayall's After-Hours Madness
Interview by Steven Rosen, Rolling Stone, 22 May 1975
CINCINNATI – With the release of his latest album, New Year, New Band, New Company, 41-year-old John Mayall has logged 23 albums in just over ...
Report and Interview by Barbara Charone, Rolling Stone, 5 June 1975
THOUGH IT SOUNDS like a song about a stale love affair, ‘How Long’ is the story of an English band struggling to stay together. ...
Review by Ken Barnes, Rolling Stone, 5 June 1975
BOB SEGER is a superb songwriter and Midwestern rocker who's been ignored for far too long. He had a hit, 'Ramblin' Gamblin' Man' in 1968, ...
Doobie Brothers: One Guitarist On, One Guitarist Off
Report and Interview by Joel Selvin, Rolling Stone, 5 June 1975
SAN FRANCISCO – Three years ago, the Doobie Brothers lived on food stamps in San Jose, playing at ramshackle area clubs for as little as ...
Freddy Fender's Tex-Mex 'Teardrop'
Profile and Interview by Joe Nick Patoski, Rolling Stone, 5 June 1975
AUSTIN — "RIGHT ON, Cacheton," an orange-suited Freddy Fender drawled to a Western-attired onlooker at the El Paso Cattle Co., a steel building that was ...
Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 5 June 1975
JEFF BECK SEEMS finally to have figured out that his is not going to replace the great '60s group which bore his name and featured ...
Manhattan Transfer: Manhattan Transfer
Review by John Mendelsohn, Rolling Stone, 5 June 1975
ONLY THE MOST incorrigible boogie casualty could find the Manhattan Transfer less than quite uncommonly delightful onstage. ...
Pink Floyd: Los Angeles Sports Arena
Live Review by David Rensin, Rolling Stone, 5 June 1975
Space Rock: Floydian Slip ...
Smokey Robinson: Quiet Stormbringer
Interview by Judith Sims, Rolling Stone, 5 June 1975
LOS ANGELES — During the three years since Smokey Robinson retired from the Miracles and the road, he's released three solo albums — Smokey, Pure ...
Review by Ken Barnes, Rolling Stone, 19 June 1975
10cc's Original Soundtrack is a fascinating record. Musically there's more going on than in ten Yes albums, yet it's generally as accessible as a straight ...
Review by John Mendelsohn, Rolling Stone, 19 June 1975
WHILE IT'S DIFFICULT to picture anyone failing to be amused by the intentional ludicrousness of, say, dedicating an album to the revolution or making the ...
Review by John Mendelsohn, Rolling Stone, 19 June 1975
NOT TO TAKE anything away from Ralf, Florian, Klaus or even Wolfgang – who are probably real nice geezers once you get to know them ...
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 19 June 1975
WITH THREE full-time electric guitarists, a piano player and a fireplug of a lead singer who looks like Robert Blake's Baretta in a hippie disguise, ...
Review by Ken Barnes, Rolling Stone, 19 June 1975
WITH THEIR LAST five albums (including Relayer) reaching Top Five status, Yes are central to the new British Invasion. ...
Harry Nilsson: Duit On Mon Dei
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 3 July 1975
HARRY NILSSON hasn't made a good album since '71's Nilsson Schmilsson, the recording that brought him the sales and critical esteem he'd deserved all along. ...
Jeff Beck, Mahavishnu Orchestra: Jeff Beck, The Mahavishnu Orchestra: Winterland San Francisco CA
Live Review by Joel Selvin, Rolling Stone, 3 July 1975
JEFF BECK seems determined to be taken seriously as a significant rock instrumentalist, stepping out from behind his British pop star facade. Not only his ...
Blood Sweat & Tears Featuring David Clayton-Thomas: New City
Review by John Mendelsohn, Rolling Stone, 17 July 1975
IN NEW CITY BS&TFDC-T have made an album that fans of everything from soul to easy listening to jazz to difficult listening to rock will ...
Carla Bley, Jack Bruce, Mick Taylor: Bruce and Taylor's Band of Misfits
Interview by Barbara Charone, Rolling Stone, 17 July 1975
LONDON – "I had three choices: give up completely, find a backing group to play my songs mechanically, or become a sideman playing bass in ...
Wings: Dawn of the Age of Venus and Mars: McCartneys, Wings Take to the Stars
Interview by Paul Gambaccini, Rolling Stone, 17 July 1975
LONDON — IT WAS a brilliantly sunny day in the late spring Britons like to call summer. Secretaries were tanning themselves in St. James Park, ...
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 17 July 1975
JAMES TAYLOR pretty much wrote the book for the singer/songwriters of the Seventies. That may be a dubious distinction but Taylor's early work, characterized by ...
Perspectives on Ralph J. Gleason
Memoir by Al Aronowitz, Rolling Stone, 17 July 1975
RALPH GLEASON got hooked on music when he was a high school kid in Chappaqua, New York, back in the early '30s. You gotta dig ...
Perspectives on Ralph J. Gleason
Memoir by j. poet, Rolling Stone, 17 July 1975
ONE OF THE things that inspired me to become a record reviewer was Ralph Gleason's record collection. It completely filled all the walls of his ...
The Souther-Hillman-Furay Band: Souther Hillman Furay: Trouble in Paradise
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 17 July 1975
IN CONCERT LAST year, Richie Furay seemed bewildered, as if he'd suddenly found himself onstage not with his own band but rather with a bunch ...
Yvonne Elliman: Eric's Backup Lady
Interview by Barbara Charone, Rolling Stone, 17 July 1975
LONDON – The driver was growing impatient. He had little over an hour to squeeze through rush-hour traffic and deposit Yvonne Elliman on a plane ...
Charlie Rich: Every Time You Touch Me (I Get High) (Epic PE 33455)
Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 31 July 1975
THE PARTNERSHIP of producer Billy Sherrill and singer Charlie Rich, one of the most profitable in recent years, has now run its course. Since the ...
Elton John: Elton & Company Seduce Wembley
Report by Paul Gambaccini, Rolling Stone, 31 July 1975
LONDON — "An English audience is like a good fuck," Glenn Frey of the Eagles explained earnestly in a trailer-cum-dressing room behind Wembley Stadium. "You ...
Review by Tom Nolan, Rolling Stone, 31 July 1975
LISTENING to this Joan Baez album – her first self-declaredly apolitical, decidedly commercial album since the days of folk rock – it is possible to ...
Johnny Ace, Bobby "Blue" Bland, Junior Parker: Obituary: Don D. Robey, R&B Pioneer, Dead at 71
Obituary by Joe Nick Patoski, Rolling Stone, 31 July 1975
HOUSTON — Don D. Robey, a leading figure in rhythm & blues and gospel recordings in the Fifties and Sixties, died early Monday, June 16th, ...
Obituary by Joe Nick Patoski, Rolling Stone, 31 July 1975
HOUSTON — DON D. Robey, a leading figure in rhythm & blues and gospel recordings in the Fifties and Sixties, died early Monday, June 16th, ...
The Rolling Stones: The Stones Roll On: A Scare in Boston; Success in Toronto; A Slip in New York
Report by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 31 July 1975
NEW YORK — The scariest moment came in Boston, when overzealous fans grabbed the writhing, confetti-spitting dragon that appears at the end of 'Jumpin' Jack ...
Aerosmith, ZZ Top: Z.Z. Top, Aerosmith: Los Angeles Forum
Live Review by Todd Everett, Rolling Stone, 31 July 1975
Something Borrowed, Something Blues, Y'All ...
Peter Frampton: Saved by the Power of Love
Interview by Richard Cromelin, Rolling Stone, 14 August 1975
LOS ANGELES – Peter Frampton's fine-boned, clear-eyed and unlined face gives little hint of the eight years which have elapsed since the singer/guitarist, now 25, ...
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 14 August 1975
FROM ITS CONCEPTION to its sonics, Spirit of '76 is this year's eccentric's eccentric record, and Randy California (last heard from as "Kapt. Kopter" on ...
The Beau Brummels: The Beau Brummels
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 14 August 1975
I BOUGHT MY first two Sixties rock & roll albums, the Byrds' Mr. Tambourine Man and the debut LP of the Beau Brummels, at a ...
Tim Buckley Dead at 28; Murder Charged
Report by Judith Sims, Rolling Stone, 14 August 1975
LOS ANGELES — Singer/songwriter Tim Buckley died at the Santa Monica Hospital emergency room at 9:42 p.m. on June 29th. At first police suspected that ...
Report by Ed McCormack, Rolling Stone, 28 August 1975
In which a suburban prole decadent does battle with a hot midtown Manhattan discotheque — two out of three falls, no curfew ...
Report by Richard Cromelin, Rolling Stone, 28 August 1975
Where cycle sluts, tanktoppers and dedicated bumpers dance, dance, dance, stick poppers up adversity's nose and dodge surging roachers... ...
The Eagles: Eagles Fly High with Disco 'Nights'
Interview by Paul Gambaccini, Rolling Stone, 28 August 1975
"WE LIKE TO be a nice little country-rock band from Los Angeles... about half the time," Eagles drummer Don Henley claimed backstage after the band's ...
Neil Young: Tonight's The Night
Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 28 August 1975
"I'm sorry. You don't know these people. This means nothing to you." — Neil Young, in the liner notes ...
Roger McGuinn, Stephen Stills: Steven Stills, Roger McGuinn & Band Albums
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 28 August 1975
Roger McGuinn: Roger McGuinn & Band (Columbia)Stephen Stills: Stills (Columbia) ...
Three Dog Night: Coming Down Your Way
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 28 August 1975
THIS ALBUM clearly marks the demise of Three Dog Night, actually if not yet officially. It's the latest and worst in a series of terribly ...
Bob Marley & the Wailers: An Herbal Meditation with Bob Marley
Interview by Richard Cromelin, Rolling Stone, 11 September 1975
LOS ANGELES – This Bible is not the arcane, apocryphal version you might expect to find in the possession of these mysterious Rastas, but a ...
Roger Daltrey, The Who: Roger Daltrey: What the Who's Been Doing
Interview by Barbara Charone, Rolling Stone, 11 September 1975
LONDON – "I don't think Tommy held the band back – it's just that nobody wanted to listen to what [else] we were doing. Who's ...
The Rolling Stones: I Call and Call and Call on Mick
Report by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 11 September 1975
THE ROLLING Stones holed up at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel for their week in Los Angeles. I arrived on July 8th about 12 hours after ...
The Bay City Rollers: Bay City Rollers Skate on Thin Hype
Report by Paul Gambaccini, Rolling Stone, 25 September 1975
LONDON — "Whoever is doing their public relations has no sense of shame," BBC disc jockey John Peel complained. He had just read newspaper reports ...
Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band: The Bottom Line, New York NY
Live Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 25 September 1975
Bruce Springsteen: A Rock Star Is Born ...
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 25 September 1975
NOT ONLY IS Fleetwood Mac no longer blues oriented, it isn't even really British: The two newest members, Lindsey Buckingham (guitar and vocals) and Stevie ...
Gary Stewart: You're Not the Woman You Used to Be
Review by John Morthland, Rolling Stone, 25 September 1975
THIS COLLECTION OF old singles was released to scoop up some of the financial overflow from country music's current hottest new item. ...
Millie Jackson: Still Caught Up
Review by John Morthland, Rolling Stone, 25 September 1975
AND STILL GETTIN' it while the get-tin' is still good. Those who enjoyed Caught Up, Millie Jackson's last song cycle, won't be disappointed by this ...
Review by John Morthland, Rolling Stone, 25 September 1975
POOR SLADE. The biggest band in England for a while and in the States they couldn't get arrested. Last time out, they toned down and ...
The Tubes: The Tubes (A&M SP-4534)
Review by Wayne Robins, Rolling Stone, 25 September 1975
THE TUBES seem to be a theater group that parodies rock & roll and its associated social conventions of the last five years. There are ...
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 9 October 1975
PROCOL HARUM, down to delusions of grandeur after losing key members (like Robin Trower and Matthew Fisher) and running desperately low on ideas has been ...
Review by John Mendelsohn, Rolling Stone, 9 October 1975
NOT SINCE MARC Bolan noshed himself into semiretirement have our pre-nursery-school age friends been given product on which they could so effortlessly get off as ...
Crosby and Nash: More Kick-Ass Than Anyone Expects
Interview by Cameron Crowe, Rolling Stone, 23 October 1975
THANKS TO A band featuring such polished musicians as Danny 'Kootch' Kortchmar (guitar), David Lindley (fiddle and Hawaiian steel guitar), Craig Doerge (keyboards), Lee Sklar ...
Flo & Eddie: Illegal, Immoral and Fattening
Review by Ben Edmonds, Rolling Stone, 23 October 1975
INSIDIOUS. Here we have the mainspring of the Turtles, Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan, with an album that contains two songs (‘Rebecca’ and ‘Let Me ...
Hall & Oates: Daryl Hall and John Oates
Review by Ben Edmonds, Rolling Stone, 23 October 1975
After three albums Daryl Hall and John Oates finally have a clear-cut style. This is Hall & Oates's Wild Honey: lean, basic and more concerned ...
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 23 October 1975
JOHN FOGERTY singlehandedly prepares records that are virtually perfect in execution as well as conception: brilliantly concise self-expression, captivating and broad-based radio music. Though he ...
Report by Ed McCormack, Rolling Stone, 23 October 1975
NEW YORK — The gaudy white awning of CBGB shines like a lighthouse for freaks amid the darkened, derelict-strewn doorways of the Bowery — where ...
Tom Waits: Reno Sweeney's, New York City NY
Live Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 23 October 1975
AS A PERFORMER, Tom Waits seems closer to Patti Smith and Bruce Springsteen than to anyone else currently working in rock; unlike them, however, Waits ...
Sam & Dave: Sam & Dave: Back At' Cha!
Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 6 November 1975
IF ANYTHING SYMBOLIZES the decline of the Stax Records era (recently brought to a probable close with the indictment of president Al Bell for bank ...
Gloria Gaynor: Experience (MGM M3G 4997)
Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 6 November 1975
DRIVEN BY a three-song montage, Gloria Gaynor's first MGM album was the very model of modern disco production: loud, compact, as hummable as it was ...
Grand Funk Railroad: Caught In The Act (Capitol)
Review by John Morthland, Rolling Stone, 6 November 1975
IF GRAND FUNK was once a publicist’s tool, this new live album shows the extent to which they have become a producer’s tool. If once ...
Edgar Winter, Johnny Winter: Johnny and Edgar Winter: Two Hazy Shades of Winter
Report and Interview by David Rensin, Rolling Stone, 6 November 1975
OAKLAND – "My band's a dictatorship and Edgar's is a democracy," Johnny Winter blurted out through the hotel-room haze after playing the last of three ...
Labelle: Paramount Theater, Oakland, CA
Live Review by Tom Vickers, Rolling Stone, 6 November 1975
Climax Lacks at Glittering Labelle Premiere ...
Pink Floyd: Wish You Were Here
Review by Ben Edmonds, Rolling Stone, 6 November 1975
WITHOUT PINK FLOYD we would not have the European sci-fi multitudes (Hawkwind, Can, Amon Duul II and all their little friends) to kick around. They ...
The Faces, Rod Stewart: Rod Stewart Faces the American Dream
Report and Interview by Tom Nolan, Rolling Stone, 6 November 1975
BY SUNDOWN the 55,000 people packed into the Los Angeles Angels' Anaheim Stadium for this "sunshine festival" have stolidly endured six hours of a rather ...
Travis Wammack: Not for Sale (Capricorn CP-0162)
Review by John Morthland, Rolling Stone, 6 November 1975
NO DOUBT about it, Travis Wammack is a terrific guitarist — flashy, instinctive and intelligent. On a club stage with a hot band, he's probably ...
The Ohio Players: Money, 'Honey': Ohio Players on the Royalties Road
Profile and Interview by John Morthland, Rolling Stone, 20 November 1975
NEW ORLEANS — It's midafternoon as the limousine containing the Ohio Players is swallowed up by the giant, saucerlike shell known as the Louisiana Superdome, ...
KC & the Sunshine Band, George McCrae: Sunshine Band Sees Daylight — That's the Way K.C. Likes It
Profile and Interview by Tom Vickers, Rolling Stone, 20 November 1975
SAN CARLOS, CALIFORNIA — K.C. and the Sunshine Band threw a down-home dance party on the Circle Star Theatre's usually sedate stage. Whistles turned to ...
The Amazing Rhythm Aces: Stacked Deck
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 20 November 1975
‘THIRD RATE Romance’, an intriguing mystery on Jesse Winchester's '74 album, Learn to Love It, is no longer mysterious – the song's become a well-deserved ...
Report by Larry Sloman, Rolling Stone, 4 December 1975
NEW YORK — It was four o'clock on a brandy-soaked October Thursday morning in Greenwich Village as about 20 friends and assorted hangers-on gathered in ...
Review by John Morthland, Rolling Stone, 4 December 1975
DESPITE ITS UNEVENNESS, this is a vast improvement over Street Lights and accomplishes much of what that LP set out to do in the first ...
The Carpenters, Neil Sedaka: Neil Sedaka: Second Stairway To Heaven
Report and Interview by Tom Nolan, Rolling Stone, 4 December 1975
AWAY FROM the Vegas casino clatter, inside the Riviera Hotel's now empty Versailles Room, onstage, seated at a piano is a petite, energetic man who ...
Review by Joe McEwen, Rolling Stone, 18 December 1975
ON HER FIRST two albums, Betty Davis staked out a peculiar brand of kinky, tongue-in-cheek funk that garnered her a cult following in Philadelphia and ...
Review by Ben Edmonds, Rolling Stone, 18 December 1975
AS THE FORMER lead singer of the Raspberries, a group whose misadventures prevented them from ever seeing sales figures that compared equitably with their true ...
Review by Tom Nolan, Rolling Stone, 18 December 1975
LEON REDBONE, according to the record jacket of his first album, is not to be confused or associated with the Epic recording artists Redbone. Hardly. ...
Linda Ronstadt: 'Heat Wave' – The Long Hot Sessions
Report and Interview by Todd Everett, Rolling Stone, 18 December 1975
"THE BAND HAD been trying to get Linda to add it to her set for quite a while," recalls pianist Andrew Gold, "but we never ...
Simon & Garfunkel Reunite: It's Paul, But Is It Art?
Report and Interview by Wayne Robins, Rolling Stone, 18 December 1975
NEW YORK – Comedian Richard Belzer was warming up the studio audience for NBC's Saturday Night program, October 18th. This, he was saying, was an ...
Review by Joe McEwen, Rolling Stone, 1 January 1976
THIS IS AN encouraging album. After a celebrated re-signing with Motown last year, the ponderous Norman Whitfield-produced Me 'n Rock 'n Roll Are Here to ...
Flo & Eddie Post-Turtles: So Snappy Together
Interview by Richard Cromelin, Rolling Stone, 1 January 1976
ON THE ROAD IN INDIANA – "Shit," laments Howard Kaylan (Eddie), whose long silver hair and gray beard give him the appearance of a lecherous ...
Patti Smith: Her Horses Got Wings, They Can Fly
Profile and Interview by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 1 January 1976
Factory Girl, Coal Stove Visionary, Scion of Rimbaud and the Ronettes, Patti Smith Now Challenges the Assembly Line of Rock & Roll ...
Review by Simon Frith, Rolling Stone, 1 January 1976
THERE USED TO be this ad (in the Fifties, I suppose) for a cigarette: YOU'RE NEVER ALONE WITH A STRAND! A guy alone in the ...
Toots & The Maytals, The Who: The Who, Toots and the Maytals: The Summit, Houston TX
Live Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 1 January 1976
The Who: Losing the Spark after a G-G-Generation? ...
Neil Young and Crazy Horse: Zuma
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 15 January 1976
"It's another rock & roll album. A lot of instrumental things... it's about the Incas and the Aztecs. It takes on another personality. It's like ...
Review by Joe McEwen, Rolling Stone, 29 January 1976
ONCE A CONSISTENT R&B hit-maker, Ann Peebles's output has seen a precipitous drop in both the vitality of her music and the sales of her ...
Earth Wind and Fire: Signs Rise for Shining Stars
Interview by David Rensin, Rolling Stone, 29 January 1976
LOS ANGELES – "Music is a sacred thing and we take it very seriously," Earth Wind & Fire founder/percussionist Maurice White offers during a rehearsal ...
Eric Carmen: Avery Fisher Hall, New York NY
Live Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 29 January 1976
ERIC CARMEN looks like his music, the slickness of which is so overwhelming that the ragged edges are jarring until you realize they've been placed ...
The Faces, The Rolling Stones: Faces Break Up – Wood a Stone?
Report by Tom Nolan, Rolling Stone, 29 January 1976
LOS ANGELES – After a six-year association, Rod Stewart is leaving the Faces. The news was revealed at a London press conference called by Stewart ...
The Cate Brothers: Cate Brothers
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 29 January 1976
TEN YEARS AGO, Earl and Ernie Cate were playing the same Arkansas bars as Ronnie Hawkins and the Hawks. While the Hawks have moved on ...
Van Dyke Parks: The Clang of the Yankee Reaper
Review by Ben Edmonds, Rolling Stone, 29 January 1976
In rootless Southern California, the only cultural traditions are those which you create for yourself. Maybe that's why Van Dyke Parks is much beloved of ...
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 12 February 1976
BRITISHER Robert Palmer is another marcher in the growing column of white folks who prefer playing it greasy and getting down (notable recent examples: Bowie, ...
The Cate Brothers: Playing the New Southern Sensibility
Interview by Joe Nick Patoski, Rolling Stone, 12 February 1976
DALLAS — While a Memphis band's Beatles mimicry penetrated the thin walls of the clammy locker room in the Electric Ballroom, keyboard player Ernie Cate ...
Archie Bell and the Drells: Dance Your Troubles Away (TSOP PZ 33844)
Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 26 February 1976
Do You Wanna Dance? ...
Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes: Wake Up Everybody (Philadelphia International PZ 33808)
Review by Joe McEwen, Rolling Stone, 26 February 1976
WITH THE rumored schism between Harold Melvin and lead singer Teddy Pendergrass, the current status of the Blue Notes seems to be in limbo. Though ...
Report by Joe Nick Patoski, Rolling Stone, 26 February 1976
Carter Benefit at Astrodome ...
Tommy Bolin: Teaser Tommy Bolin Gets Deep into Purple
Interview by David Rensin, Rolling Stone, 26 February 1976
ON THE COVER of his first solo album, Teaser, Tommy Bolin's face is creased into a laugh that couples angelic delight and demonic perversity. Considering ...
Queen: Four Queens Beat Opera Flush
Report and Interview by Steve Turner, Rolling Stone, 11 March 1976
Cashing In on a Rock Rhapsody ...
Roxy Music Hits New High with Love Drug
Interview by Paul Gambaccini, Rolling Stone, 11 March 1976
"I FIRST learned 'Love Is the Drug' might catch on in America when I was in an elevator in Milwaukee," Roxy Music's Bryan Ferry said ...
The Osmonds: The Family Plan Of The Latter-Day Osmonds
Profile and Interview by Tom Nolan, Rolling Stone, 11 March 1976
The Wizards who Live in the Land of OsWorship their God and Obey the LawsWear Ice Cream Suits without Bulges or FlawsAnd Smile with the ...
Review by Simon Frith, Rolling Stone, 25 March 1976
The quintessential 10cc moment comes at the end of How Dare You?: an ethereal voice pleads, "Don't hang up!" The riff is pretty and relaxing. ...
Donna Summer: Love On The Road
Report and Interview by Richard Cromelin, Rolling Stone, 25 March 1976
BEVERLY HILLS – The question was: how do you take a recording-studio orgasm on the road? "I'm sort of eager to find out myself," Donna ...
Comment by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 25 March 1976
EACH YEAR, the American music industry embarrasses itself by nationally televising a 90-minute display of the irrelevant and the ridiculous, the Grammy Awards. ...
Junior Walker & the All Stars: Junior Walker and the All-Stars: Hot Shot
Review by Joe McEwen, Rolling Stone, 25 March 1976
HOT SHOT is the first Junior Walker album in three years, which is surprising in light of the current reign of disco/dance music, Walker’s natural ...
Funkadelic, Parliament: Parliament-Funkadelic: Mothership Connection
Review by Joe McEwen, Rolling Stone, 25 March 1976
WITH THE "Parliafunkadelicment thang", leader George Clinton has succeeded in creating two distinct identities for one band—the mystical voodoo of the Funkadelics and the stabbing, ...
Archie Bell and the Drells Still Dance All Night
Profile and Interview by John Morthland, Rolling Stone, 8 April 1976
NEW YORK – Archie Bell interrupts his rushed, businesslike replies for a moment and works up the faintest trace of a smile: "I didn't know ...
Hank Williams Jr.: Hank William Jr. and Friends
Review by John Morthland, Rolling Stone, 8 April 1976
LAST AUGUST, on a hunting trip near the Great Divide at Missoula, Montana, the recently divorced Hank Williams Jr. fell 500 feet down a mountainside, ...
Sutherland Brothers and Quiver: Reach for the Sky
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 22 April 1976
THIS CLASSY ROCK GROUP from Britain somehow managed, over the course of its three Island albums, to grow progressively more obscure, despite an infectious '73 ...
Review by John Morthland, Rolling Stone, 6 May 1976
GOSPEL MUSIC is certainly closer to Charlie Rich's natural milieu than anything he's done since he and Billy Sherrill hit on the ‘Behind Closed Doors’ ...
Laura Nyro: Smile (Columbia PC33912)
Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 6 May 1976
LAURA NYRO'S first album in four years fails to live up to the promise of her lovely early records. While Smile has a certain charm ...
Report and Interview by Tom Vickers, Rolling Stone, 20 May 1976
The only way for our music to go is the way the world goes. And where it goes negative, we're going to show where it ...
Maxine Nightingale's Disco Hit: 'I Couldn't Dance to It'
Interview by Paul Gambaccini, Rolling Stone, 20 May 1976
MAXINE NIGHTINGALE is puzzled by the success of 'Right Back Where We Started From', a song which has made her a star, pushed her marriage ...
The Rolling Stones: Black and Blue (Rolling Stones)
Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 20 May 1976
Decembers Children Today: Glimmer Twins Star As Stones Roll On ...
The Rolling Stones: Stones in Germany — World Next?
Report and Interview by Paul Gambaccini, Rolling Stone, 3 June 1976
FRANKFURT, GERMANY — The Rolling Stones are on tour again, traveling through Europe and preparing themselves for Bicentennial celebrations in the U.S. this summer. ...
Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson: Dylan meets Willie Nelson: Thunder Deep in the Heart of Texas
Report by Joe Nick Patoski, Rolling Stone, 17 June 1976
HOUSTON — It was the Rolling Thunder Revue's second stop here this year, just five months after the less-than-successful Rubin Carter Astrodome benefit, and Bob ...
John Lennon: Sue You, Sue Me Blues
Report by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 17 June 1976
ROCK STARS are easy prey for legal harassment; rather than have their time and money eaten up by fruitless months of litigation, most stars agree ...
Steely Dan: No Silly Love Songs Here
Interview by Richard Cromelin, Rolling Stone, 17 June 1976
LOS ANGELES — Steely Dan has drifted in and out of public view since the group's songwriting team — guitarist Walter Becker and pianist Donald ...
Wings: The Spectrum, Philadelphia PA
Live Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 1 July 1976
McCartney: Rock & Roll on a Wing & a Prayer ...
Report by Paul Gambaccini, Rolling Stone, 15 July 1976
LONDON — Patti Smith prompts some strong opinions here. New Musical Express drooled that Horses, her debut Arista album, was "better than... the first Beatles ...
Jeff Beck: Wired (Epic PE 33849)
Review by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 29 July 1976
All Wired Up: Beck's Best Yet ...
The Ramones: Ramones (Sire SASD-7520)
Review by Paul Nelson, Rolling Stone, 29 July 1976
IF TODAY'S Rolling Stone were the Cahiers du Cinema of the late Fifties, a band of outsiders as deliberately crude and basic as the Ramones ...
Bob Marley & the Wailers, Ras Michael & The Sons of Negus, Peter Tosh: Bob Marley with a Bullet
Report and Interview by Ed McCormack, Rolling Stone, 12 August 1976
Man to man is so unjust You don't know who to trust... Who the cap fit Let them wear it — 'Who ...
Report and Interview by Ed McCormack, Rolling Stone, 26 August 1976
Music for the New Stone Age ...
Clarence Reid (aka Blowfly): Sex and the Single
Comment by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 26 August 1976
TEN YEARS ago, the Kingsmen used to launch, full tilt, into their biggest hit, 'Louie Louie', then stop. "Hey, these guys never heard this song ...
Stephen Stills, Neil Young: Stephen Stills & Neil Young: Nassau Coliseum, New York NY
Live Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 26 August 1976
Flaws and Applause — Young's Hot, Stills's Not ...
Live Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 9 September 1976
Central Park Rock & Roll, Hoochie Koo ...
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 9 September 1976
IN AMERICA'S LESS CRISS-crossed midsection, young rockers have the opportunity to incubate their dreams – and their talents – free of pressure. The most romantic ...
Review by Joe McEwen, Rolling Stone, 9 September 1976
SALVAGED FROM THE debris of the Stax bankruptcy, the Emotions have reemerged with one of the year's most refreshing soul albums. Producer Maurice White, who ...
Burning Spear: Man in the Hills (Island ILPS-9412)
Review by John Morthland, Rolling Stone, 23 September 1976
THANKS TO this summer's marketing blitz, virtually the entire spectrum of reggae is now available in America, although not in any depth. ...
Charlie Daniels' Rowdy, Southern, Swinging Music
Interview by Joe Nick Patoski, Rolling Stone, 7 October 1976
The 'Uneasy Rider' is no dumb rebel... and he doesn't wear panty hose, either ...
The Meters: The Meters: Paul's Mall, Boston
Live Review by Joe McEwen, Rolling Stone, 4 November 1976
THE METERS may well be the finest performing American band. Without resorting to such modern pop trappings as smoke bombs and gyrating pianos, the Meters ...
The Bee Gees: Bee Gees: Children of the World
Review by Joe McEwen, Rolling Stone, 4 November 1976
FROM MUSHY pop ballads through late-Sixties psychedelia and low-key rock, the Bee Gees have demonstrated a chameleonlike ability to adapt to disparate pop trends. These ...
Bryan Ferry: Let's Stick Together
Review by Wayne Robins, Rolling Stone, 18 November 1976
LET'S STICK TOGETHER is the least campy of Bryan Ferry's three solo albums. Rather than do suave interpretations of oldies as diverse as ‘It's My ...
Peter Frampton: Madison Square Garden, New York NY
Live Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 18 November 1976
Frampton Packaging Pays Off ...
Interview by Paul Gambaccini, Rolling Stone, 18 November 1976
Some photographs & rotogravures ...
Jackie Wilson: The Trials of Jackie Wilson
Report by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 18 November 1976
CHERRY HILL, New Jersey — Since September 1975, Jackie Wilson has lain in a series of southern New Jersey hospitals, intravenously fed and unable to ...
Earth Wind and Fire: Earth, Wind & Fire: Spirit
Review by Joe McEwen, Rolling Stone, 16 December 1976
THE SONGS OF Earth, Wind and Fire combine pure urban fantasy with the type of facile brotherhood messages that also crop up in the music ...
Funkadelic: Tales of Kidd Funkadelic
Review by Joe McEwen, Rolling Stone, 16 December 1976
WHAT YOU SEE ON Funkadelic album covers is what the band is about: "THE SABER-TOOTH, SLIPPERY TONGUED & MOST NASTIC MAU-MAU BOOTYBUSTERS OF NOXIOUS NEEGROW ...
Jesse Winchester: Studio Six Concert, Montreal, Quebec
Live Review by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 16 December 1976
THE ATMOSPHERE AT the small Montreal studio was so much like a living room's that it was hard to believe it was anything more than ...
John Mellencamp: Johnny Cougar: Chestnut Street Incident (MCA-2225)
Review by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 16 December 1976
JOHNNY COUGAR is a comically inept singer who unfortunately takes himself seriously. His debut album is full of ridiculous posturing with virtually nothing to back ...
Review by Joe McEwen, Rolling Stone, 16 December 1976
NOW THAT the Staples are unabashed sex merchants, the O'Jays are pop's foremost message mongerers. But the O'Jays don't write or produce their albums, so ...
Essay by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 16 December 1976
THERE'S BEEN nothing but grief since Newsweek (or was it the Sunday New York Times!) decided that rock critics invented Bruce Springsteen. Only a moron ...
Special Feature by Paul Nelson, Rolling Stone, 16 December 1976
HOMBRE — I loved that movie. I dig Paul Newman. I love the way he smashed that shot glass into that guy's face. Richard Boone ...
Frank Zappa: Zoot Allures (Warner Bros. BS 2970)
Review by Robert Duncan, Rolling Stone, 30 December 1976
WITH REGARD to poo-poo, snot, vomit, depersonalized sex, booze, zoot suits and the banality of mainstream rock, Frank Zappa, one of rock's original angry young ...
Graham Parker and the Rumour: Heat Treatment (Mercury)
Review by Simon Frith, Rolling Stone, 30 December 1976
HEAT TREATMENT, Graham Parker’s second Mercury album, confirms the promise of his debut, Howlin’ Wind, which appeared earlier this year. The rapidity of the followup ...
Funkadelic, Parliament: Parliament/Funkadelic: Municipal Auditorium, New Orleans
Live Review by Wayne Robins, Rolling Stone, 30 December 1976
A GOLD PYRAMID glitters onstage. Light beams, like giant mutant insect eyes, stare down at the audience. Musicians dressed for a Halloween party in some ...
Robin Trower: Why Robin Trower’s Not Appreciated At Home
Interview by Mick Brown, Rolling Stone, 30 December 1976
LONDON– "IN America we’re important; when we hit a town it’s boy..." Robin Trower snaps his fingers and smiles, "it’s that kind of feeling. But ...
Essay by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 13 January 1977
ROCK CRITICISM is now often seen in many quarters as more important than rock itself. Many critics carry this one step further by superimposing their ...
Review by Joe McEwen, Rolling Stone, 27 January 1977
IF HIS RECORDS ARE ANY indication, Al Green is a troubled, no, haunted man. ...
Jackson Browne: The Pretender (Asylum 7E-1079)
Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 27 January 1977
Stalking the great Pretender Cycles of uncertainty ...
The Damned, The Sex Pistols: U.K. Report: Sex Pistols And Beyond
Report and Interview by Mick Brown, Rolling Stone, 27 January 1977
LONDON – So this is how legends are born. Not with a song, or even a death, but with an expletive. ...
Ry Cooder, Flaco Jimenez: Flaco Jimenez: In Search Of The Polka-Rock Fusion
Interview by Joe Nick Patoski, Rolling Stone, 10 February 1977
IF THE ACCORDION ever manages to rise from the underground of ethnic music as rock's undiscovered lead instrument, Flaco Jimenez will at long last be ...
Joni Mitchell: Hejira (Asylum 7E-1087)
Review by Ariel Swartley, Rolling Stone, 10 February 1977
Mitchell: the siren and the symbolist ...cold steel and sweet fire ...
Review by Joe McEwen, Rolling Stone, 10 February 1977
IT WAS THE STUFF from which legends are carved: an office, a studio no larger than a motel room crammed with organs, pianos and a ...
Live Review by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 11 February 1977
THIRTEEN YEARS after the Beatles played their first American concert at Carnegie Hall, the Electric Light Orchestra pads a headlining set at Madison Square Garden ...
Return to Forever, Stanley Clarke: Stanley Clarke Returns To Forever (For Now)
Interview by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 24 February 1977
NEW YORK — Stanley Clarke sits attentively behind the mixing board in Electric Lady's Studio B, concentrating a dispassionate producer's gaze on Roy Buchanan in ...
The Sensational Alex Harvey Band: The Monsters in Alex Harvey
Profile and Interview by Mick Brown, Rolling Stone, 24 February 1977
BRUSSELS — Alex Harvey has a special way of saying hello. His body, which normally moves with the easy, rolling gait of the dancer and ...
American Grandstand: Hey Rocky, what's a punk?
Comment by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 10 March 1977
AS ROLLING Stone has developed a nonrock readership, columnists from William Buckley to Russell Baker have been confused by some of the more arcane rock ...
Interview by Ed McCormack, Rolling Stone, 10 March 1977
"Nobody wants to see Punk grow up" ...
Demis Roussos: Demis the menace
Interview by Mick Brown, Rolling Stone, 24 March 1977
His trembly voice has sold 25 million records ...
Live Review by John Morthland, Rolling Stone, 7 April 1977
"THIS ONE goes back to 1936," Leon McAuliffe grinned. "Bob told me, 'Leon, just hit a chord and then I'll say something,' and so I ...
Interview by Richard Cromelin, Rolling Stone, 21 April 1977
LOS ANGELES — In black minidress and thigh-high boots, Blondie's bombshell, Deborah Harry, evokes the very essence of Nancy Sinatra. When she breaks into the ...
Review by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 21 April 1977
ROCK & ROLL HAS this bad habit of being unpredictable. You never can tell when a band will undergo that alchemic transmigration from lead to ...
Eddie & The Hot Rods: Eddie and the Hot Rods: Teenage Depression (Island ILPS 9457)
Review by Simon Frith, Rolling Stone, 5 May 1977
THE REASON HISTORY can't repeat itself is because we know too much, and the reason that most of the punk bands currently plaguing Britain aren't ...
Queen: Fit to be Crowned: Queen's Mercury Rising
Report and Interview by Mick Brown, Rolling Stone, 5 May 1977
NEW YORK — Queen's Freddie Mercury just loves to be pampered. He says it conserves his energies for more important things. And, anyway, he likes ...
Iggy Pop: The Idiot (RCA APL1-2275)
Review by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 5 May 1977
IGGY POP has always been the greatest rock comedian. As leader and frontispiece for that most extreme wing of rock nihilism represented by the Stooges, ...
Review by Stephen Demorest, Rolling Stone, 5 May 1977
WHEN PETER GABRIEL resigned as frontman of Genesis two years ago, he said it was to search for the unexpected. On the evidence of his ...
The Trammps: Roseland Ballroom, New York NY
Live Review by Joe McEwen, Rolling Stone, 5 May 1977
A YEAR AND a half ago, the Trammps were a band of promise. They were also a lot of fun. Presided over by MFSB drummer ...
American Grandstand: The Reel Paper
Comment by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 19 May 1977
JOAN MICKLIN Silver's new movie, Between the Lines, purports to tell the story of the Boston Mainline, an alternative weekly not unlike Boston's relatively real-life ...
Atlanta Rhythm Section: Back to the Classics
Report and Interview by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 2 June 1977
BOSTON — THREE months ago the Atlanta Rhythm Section had reached the nadir of their career. After making five good albums that sold only sporadically ...
Marvin Gaye: Live at the London Palladium
Review by Joe McEwen, Rolling Stone, 2 June 1977
ALONG WITH Van Morrison, Marvin Gaye must be considered one of the most reticent pop performers. This is his second live album in three years, ...
Roger Daltrey, The Who: Who's Still Angry? Roger Daltrey Is
Interview by Mick Brown, Rolling Stone, 2 June 1977
LONDON — "If I wanted to get anything out of this business," Roger Daltrey says, "it was never to have to go back and work ...
Interview by Paul Gambaccini, Rolling Stone, 16 June 1977
LONDON — AFTER an extended period of getting together whatever one gets together in the English countryside, Stevie Winwood, 29, has emerged with his first ...
Elton John: Elton's Royal Return
Report and Interview by Mick Brown, Rolling Stone, 30 June 1977
LONDON — "IT WAS so good to play in front of real people," Elton John said in his dressing room, looking tired but exultant after ...
Johnny "Guitar" Watson: Johnny Guitar Watson: A Real Mother for Ya (DJM DJLPA-7)
Review by Joe McEwen, Rolling Stone, 30 June 1977
JOHNNY GUITAR Watson has been around. Twenty years ago he recorded a frantic, B.B. King-styled blues for R.P.M.called '3 O'clock in the Morning' that helped ...
Review by Stephen Demorest, Rolling Stone, 30 June 1977
NICK DRAKE may be the most ethereal recording artist I've ever heard. His fleeting career — the moody, mysterious music, the remote relationship with his ...
Supertramp: The taking of America by strategy
Interview by Richard Cromelin, Rolling Stone, 30 June 1977
DENVER — IN 1975 — quite unexpectedly — Supertramp's Crime of the Century saturated the American airwaves. And, touring on the album's heels, the group ...
Interview by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 14 July 1977
TO STIG Anderson, it's a familiar story. "I've seen it all a hundred times," says Abba's business manager, record company president and lyricist. "First, we ...
Lowell George, Little Feat: Lowell's retreat from Little Feat
Interview by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 14 July 1977
WASHINGTON DC. — "When we really get going we can play music as complex as Weather Report or Herbie Hancock," Little Feat pianist Bill Payne ...
Review by Joe McEwen, Rolling Stone, 14 July 1977
I KNOW, I know. I'm not supposed to admit liking a record by the Sylvers, much less write about it. Even my girlfriend, who prefers ...
Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 28 July 1977
IN NEW Orleans it is easier to perceive an American musical tradition than anywhere else; the city is the fount not just of jazz, but ...
Allen Toussaint Listens to New Orleans
Profile and Interview by Joe Nick Patoski, Rolling Stone, 28 July 1977
NEW ORLEANS — Allen Toussaint is the Crescent City's premier composer/producer, and his success behind the scenes is obvious: he's written ten gold records and produced ...
The Dictators: Manifest Destiny (Asylum 7E-1109)
Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 28 July 1977
THREE YEARS ago I dismissed the Dictators' first album by saying that the joke of a bunch of musical-mental incompetents acquiring a record contract had ...
10cc, Godley & Creme: 'We Couldn't Scrap The Whole Thing': 10cc's Survival Hit
Interview by Paul Gambaccini, Rolling Stone, 28 July 1977
THE 10CC THAT will be touring America starting in mid-July is only half the group that recorded 1975's 'I'm Not in Love', but twice the ...
Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers: Rock 'n' Roll with the Modern Lovers (Beserkley PZ-34800)
Review by Paul Nelson, Rolling Stone, August 1977
SOME HISTORY is necessary. Four or five years ago, David Johansen's New York Dolls and Jonathan Richman's Boston-based Modern Lovers were the most talented progenitors ...
38 Special: 38 Special (A&M SP-4638)
Review by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 11 August 1977
38 SPECIAL IS the second rock band in the Van Zant family, but any similarity between Donnie Van Zant's group and his older brother's Sturm ...
Sex Pistols, The Stranglers, The Vibrators: Punk: something Rotten in England
Report by Mick Brown, Rolling Stone, 11 August 1977
LONDON — British member of Parliament Marcus Lipton told his constituents that if punk rock was going to be used to destroy Britain's established institutions, ...
Ry Cooder: Show Time (Warner Bros. BS 3059)
Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 11 August 1977
IT OUGHT to be surprising that Ry Cooder opens his new album with a rock & roll song, Gary "U.S." Bonds' 'School Is Out'. If ...
The Heptones: Party Time (Island MLPS 9456)
Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 11 August 1977
LEROY SIBBLES is one of the finest singers reggae has produced, and one of its best songwriters. In consequence, the Heptones' second American album has ...
Betty Wright: The Rhythm & Blues Gospel According To Betty Wright
Interview by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 25 August 1977
NEW YORK — Just a few years back, Betty Wright was a candidate for Aretha Franklin's Queen of Soul crown. But now the brassy singer ...
MC5, New York Dolls, The Sex Pistols: The Sex Pistols: Kick out the jams
Comment by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 25 August 1977
IT CONTRAVENES logic, but there is little doubt in my mind that the most important record of the past year is the Sex Pistols' 'God ...
Interview by John Morthland, Rolling Stone, 8 September 1977
PROVIDENCE, R.I. ...
Cheap Trick: In Color (Epic PE-34884)
Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 22 September 1977
Cheap Trick's comical treat ...
Clifton Chenier's Cajun comes with French dressing
Report and Interview by Gary Kenton, Rolling Stone, 22 September 1977
The king of Zydeco accordion ...
Elvis Presley: How Great Thou Art
Obituary by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 22 September 1977
ELVIS IN THE PROMISED LAND ...
Eric Carmen: Boats Against The Current
Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 22 September 1977
THIS IS THE SORT of album people accuse Paul McCartney of making: syrupy romanticism without bite or backbeat. It is not as overtly classical as ...
Bad Company: Madison Square Garden, New York City
Live Review by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 6 October 1977
Bad Co. gives N.Y. the business ...
Patti LaBelle: Patti LaBelle (Epic PE 34847)
Review by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 6 October 1977
IF THIS record is any indication, the solo albums prompted by LaBelle's dissolution are going to make everyone forget about the trio. Patti LaBelle's solo ...
The Jam: In the City (Polydor PD-J-6 110)
Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 6 October 1977
WOULDN'T IT be funny if the most influential album of the Sixties turns out to be The Who Sings My Generation? If you don't think ...
Alan Parsons: when producer becomes star
Interview by Mick Brown, Rolling Stone, 20 October 1977
LONDON — The question of mistaken identity still weighs heavily on Alan Parsons' mind, even though he's had two hit albums, Tales of Mystery and ...
The Beach Boys, Dennis Wilson: Beach Boys: no more fun, fun, fun
Report and Interview by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 20 October 1977
NEW YORK — After sixteen years together and the triumphant comeback of leader Brian Wilson, the Beach Boys recently came perilously close to disbanding completely. ...
Gladys Knight and the Pips: Cholly Atkins, dancing machine
Interview by Deanne Stillman, Rolling Stone, 20 October 1977
DETROIT — I find Cholly Atkins, R&B dance master, in the basement of Gladys Knight's mother's Tudor mansion, rehearsing the Pips in a new routine ...
Hall & Oates: Daryl Hall & John Oates: Beauty on a Back Street (RCA AFL1-2300)
Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 20 October 1977
Hall & Oates put it all together ...
James Brown: Mutha's Nature (Polydor PD-1-6111)
Review by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 20 October 1977
ELVIS' DEATH exploded the myth of his senescence with the fury of a surprise eruption from a long-dormant volcano. It had been easy to laugh ...
Richard Hell & The Void-Oids: Blank Generation (Sire SR 6037)
Review by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 20 October 1977
RICHARD HELL HAS been touted as an underground genius for nearly three years, and this debut album boldly tries to document him as such. The ...
Stephen Davis & Peter Simon: Reggae Bloodlines (Doubleday/Anchor, $6.95)
Book Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 20 October 1977
Reggae Bloodlines: an essential portrait of Jamaican masters ...
The Animals: Before We Were So Rudely Interrupted (United Artists)
Review by Simon Frith, Rolling Stone, 20 October 1977
LONG-DEAD GROUPS usually come back for commercial reasons – individual careers are slipping, the musicians are no longer recognized in the streets – and the ...
Thin Lizzy: Bad Reputation (Mercury SRM-1-1186)
Review by Stephen Demorest, Rolling Stone, 20 October 1977
LIKE THE good-bad characters in its songs, Thin Lizzy is no better than it should be. Catering to the moderate-hard-rock mainstream, the band's music has ...
The Rolling Stones, Mick Taylor: Mick Taylor: The Stone who got away
Interview by Mick Brown, Rolling Stone, 3 November 1977
LONDON — "WHAT have I missed most not playing with the Stones? I've missed the scandals, the court cases, the drugs and the busts, that's ...
Talking Heads: Talking Heads: 77
Review by Stephen Demorest, Rolling Stone, 3 November 1977
TALKING HEADS are the last of CBGB's original Big Four to record (following Patti Smith, the Ramones and Television), and their debut is an absolute ...
The Persuasions: The Dying Art Of Friendly Persuasions
Interview by John Morthland, Rolling Stone, 3 November 1977
NEW YORK – PERSUASIONS leader Jerry Lawson checked the refrigerator in his Bedford-Stuyvesant apartment one recent morning and found it nearly empty. ...
John Lennon, Bruce Springsteen: Behind the Scenes: Iovine in the Right Place
Profile and Interview by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 17 November 1977
NEW YORK — In 1973, when he was working with producer John Lennon as assistant engineer on Harry Nilsson's Pussycats album, Jimmy Iovine looked up ...
Bob Marley & the Wailers: Marley Beats the Devil
Report and Interview by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 17 November 1977
A Rasta recovery ...
Tom Waits: Foreign Affairs (Asylum 7E-1117)
Review by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 17 November 1977
THE ADMIRING audience that Tom Waits built up with his early work now worries about him in a way that does his derelict's persona proud: ...
Review by Joe McEwen, Rolling Stone, 1 December 1977
DIANA ROSS' gifts aren't easy to capture on record. In fact, it's been a decade since anybody has done it consistently. She's campy and prone ...
Lynyrd Skynyrd: Ronnie Van Zant: Requiem for a Simple Man
Obituary by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 1 December 1977
I LAST SAW Ronnie Van Zant, Lynyrd Skynyrd's leader and prime mover, a year ago on a rainy Monday night in New York City. Van ...
The Ramones, The Sex Pistols: American Grandstand: Punk Inc.
Comment by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 29 December 1977
PETER RUDGE, who manages the Rolling Stones' American tours and likes to speculate about rock & roll almost as much as I do, suggested recently ...
Joan Armatrading shows some motion
Interview by Mick Brown, Rolling Stone, 29 December 1977
GIVEN THE option of two leather sofas and a comfortable armchair, Joan Armatrading chooses instead to sit on the window ledge, bathed in the pale ...
Rod Stewart: Foot Loose and Fancy Free
Review by Joe McEwen, Rolling Stone, 29 December 1977
Rod: forever a dull moment ...
Elvis Presley: Andy Kaufman Does De Elvis
Report by John Mendelsohn, Rolling Stone, 12 January 1978
OH, GOD, where did they find this poor soul, and what desperate circumstances could have resulted in his presence on stage before us? ...
Fleetwood Mac: Big Mac — Over 8 Million Sold
Profile and Interview by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 12 January 1978
THERE IS nothing mysterious about Fleetwood Mac sweeping Rolling Stone's 1977 Readers' Poll. Rumours, the album that topped the charts for six months, has sold ...
Earth Wind and Fire: All 'n All
Review by Joe McEwen, Rolling Stone, 26 January 1978
AT THEIR WORST, Earth, Wind and Fire indulge in some of the most pretentious excesses in current black music. As on past Earth, Wind and ...
Leonard Cohen: Death of a Ladies' Man (Warner Bros. BS 315)
Review by Paul Nelson, Rolling Stone, 9 February 1978
Leonard Cohen's doo-wop nightmare ...
Ralph MacDonald: The Sound of a Syndrum
Interview by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 9 February 1978
RALPH MACDONALD has done for percussionists what McDonald's did for hamburgers. In a short time his collection of congas, bongos, cowbells, shakers, triangles and countless ...
Boz Scaggs: Down Two then Left (Columbia JC 34729)
Review by Susin Shapiro, Rolling Stone, 23 February 1978
BOZ SCAGGS is a little like sex and show business. When he's good, he's very good, and when he's bad, he's not that bad. Down ...
Bob Dylan, Joan Baez: Renaldo and Clara (dir: Bob Dylan; Circuit Films 232mins)
Film/DVD/TV Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 9 March 1978
Ballad in plain dull ...
Warren Zevon on the Loose in Los Angeles
Profile and Interview by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 9 March 1978
IN THE OPENING LINES of the title song from Warren Zevon's new album, Excitable Boy, the title character smears Sunday pot roast all over his ...
Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock: Carnegie Hall, New York NY
Live Review by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 23 March 1978
Corea and Hancock go full circle ...
Review by Greil Marcus, Rolling Stone, 23 March 1978
WHEN I FIRST heard this record some months ago, I was appalled. "One bourbon, one Scotch and one beee-ah," George Thorogoood was mush-mouthing over the ...
Harry Chapin: Singing for the World's Supper
Report and Interview by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 6 April 1978
THE MORNING OF February 3rd, singer/ songwriter Harry Chapin flew to Washington D.C. from Ontario. He'd just done a concert and, having slept on the ...
Muddy Waters, Johnny Winter: Muddy Waters: The Bottom Line, New York NY
Live Review by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 6 April 1978
Muddy Waters' mojo is still in working order ...
Grateful Dead, Bob Weir: Alone again gratefully: Bob Weir proves he's more than Dead
Interview by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 20 April 1978
"THIS DOESN'T represent me correctly," Bob Weir complains to a photographer as he gestures at the half-empty dishes before him. "I hardly ever drink tea, ...
Bonnie Raitt: Freebo's Travels With Bonnie
Interview by John Mendelsohn, Rolling Stone, 20 April 1978
LOS ANGELES – AT AN age when most rock musicians are superstars in decline, prosperous session players, or in their fifth or so year of ...
The Rolling Stones: Everybody's talking to Lisa Robinson
Profile and Interview by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 4 May 1978
NEW YORK — IT IS conceivable that America's most influential rock byline has never appeared in Rolling Stone. Lisa Robinson's natural turf is self-created and ...
Foreigner’s Road Map: Destination Top Ten
Interview by John Mendelssohn, Rolling Stone, 4 May 1978
IN THE SPRING of 1976, Mick Jones found himself. With a dwindling bank account and dim prospects, even after twelve years of playing guitar and ...
Lee Dorsey: Night People (ABC AA-1048)
Review by Joe McEwen, Rolling Stone, 4 May 1978
DECAY AND decline are never simple in pop music. Take New Orleans R&B as a case in point. A once-flourishing scene had just about sputtered ...
The Beatles: Beatlemania’s Boys in the Band
Report and Interview by John Mendelsohn, Rolling Stone, 18 May 1978
JOE PECORINO, A small, affable young man who earns his living by pretending to be John Lennon in the successful stage production, Beatlemania, denies that ...
Delbert McClinton: Second Wind (Capricorn)
Review by John Morthland, Rolling Stone, 18 May 1978
DELBERT McClinton’s music reminds me of a frenzied 1972 R&B nonhit called 'Stoop Down Baby', on which singer Chick Willis runs down many verses of ...
Ian Dury & the Blockheads: New Boots and Panties!! (Stiff STF 0002)
Review by Susin Shapiro, Rolling Stone, 18 May 1978
IAN DURY has fashioned New Boots and Panties!! out of the more vile and pernicious aspects of his social persona: he's the midnight rambler in ...
The Manhattans: There’s No Good In Goodbye; It Feels So Good
Review by Joe McEwen, Rolling Stone, 18 May 1978
IN A FIELD ONCE glutted with heavyweights, lightweights and pretenders, the Manhattans stand almost alone, a throwback to an era when an orange sharkskin suit, ...
Review by Joe McEwen, Rolling Stone, 1 June 1978
ONCE, WHEN I WAS FOURTEEN, I bought a copy of "My Dearest Darling" by Etta James, a record I'd heard as an oldie on a ...
Journey: No Longer an Uphill Road
Interview by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 1 June 1978
NEW YORK — Journey's recent performance at New York's Palladium theater was the kind of show careers are built on. Led by Neal Schon's searing, lightning-fast ...
Nick Lowe: Pure Pop for Now People (Columbia JC 35329)
Review by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 1 June 1978
NICK LOWE, the man who produces Elvis Costello and Graham Parker, is a rising deity on the English pop front. But as you might guess ...
Bob Seger: Not a Stranger Anymore
Interview by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 15 June 1978
BOB SEGER lives in the woods near a highway that once flooded with traffic from Michigan straight through to Florida. The Interstate changed that, leaving ...
Bunny Sigler: Let Me Party with You (Gold Mind GZS-7502)
Review by Joe McEwen, Rolling Stone, 15 June 1978
FOR CLOSE to a decade, Bunny Sigler has been one of Philadelphia's best-kept secrets. His five-year association with Philadelphia International netted just two albums (though ...
Ian Dury: Tales of sex & drugs & rock & roll
Interview by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 15 June 1978
IAN DURY, between sets at the Bottom Line, is lolling on a chair in the just-cleared club. "With, with, wiv, with," he says. "Not for ...
Aretha Franklin: Almighty Fire
Review by Joe McEwen, Rolling Stone, 29 June 1978
THERE'S A SONG on Almighty Fire that has little to do with the rest of this Curtis Mayfield-produced album. 'I'm Your Speed' ends side two ...
Cissy Houston, Singers' Singer, Steps Out
Profile and Interview by Joe McEwen, Rolling Stone, 29 June 1978
Legendary background vocalist ...
Freddy Fender: Behind the Scenes: Huey Meaux's bathtub sound
Profile and Interview by Joe Nick Patoski, Rolling Stone, 13 July 1978
HOUSTON — "Y'SEE, the Big Bopper needed a flip side to 'The Witch Doctor Meets the Flying Purple People Eater', so he wrote this tune ...
Generation X Idolizes Rock & Roll
Interview by Paul Gambaccini, Rolling Stone, 13 July 1978
LONDON — ANYONE WHO calls Elton John a "bald cunt" is risking the wrath of the rock & roll mainstream, but Billy Idol of Generation ...
Bruce Springsteen: Springsteen fever
Report and Interview by Paul Nelson, Rolling Stone, 13 July 1978
AT THE Music Hall in Boston in late May, Bruce Springsteen begins a song in almost total darkness, a single blue spotlight faintly limning the ...
Patti Smith: The Patti Smith Group: The Palladium, New York NY
Live Review by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 13 July 1978
Patti comes home a hero ...
Bruce Springsteen: Darkness on the Edge of Town (Columbia JC 35318)
Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 27 July 1978
The Boss' triumphant return ...
David Johansen, New York Dolls: Up from the valley of the Dolls: David Johansen returns
Report and Interview by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 27 July 1978
ONSTAGE IN Philadelphia in late May, David Johansen is dressed in solid white, his hair swept back, looking like the Staten Island greaser saint he ...
Etta James' long search for stardom
Interview by John Morthland, Rolling Stone, 10 August 1978
IT IS A cruel irony that had she not been a junkie for thirteen of her forty years, Etta James would probably still be working ...
Report and Interview by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 24 August 1978
A true believer witnesses mass conversions, rock & roll vandalism, a rocket upside the head and a visit with God. ...
Report by Joe Nick Patoski, Rolling Stone, 24 August 1978
IF ANYTHING was learned from the 105,000 fans who piled into the Cotton Bowl over the Fourth of July weekend for the two-day Texxas World ...
Radio Birdman: Radios Appear (Sire SRK 6050)
Review by Wesley Strick, Rolling Stone, 24 August 1978
THE SAINTS' recent emigration to England reopens the question: is there punk after Perth? In Sydney, which some describe as Canoga Park on the far ...
The Flamin' Groovies: Flamin' Groovies: Now (Sire SRK6059)
Review by Wesley Strick, Rolling Stone, 7 September 1978
IT SEEMS PERVERSE, even mordant, to call the new Flamin' Groovies album Now. But since Low and Wow have been taken, Now must serve as ...
Johnny Burnette & The Rock 'n Roll Trio: Tear It Up (Solid Smoke SS-8001)
Review by John Morthland, Rolling Stone, 7 September 1978
OF ALL THE raving rockabilly legends — men like Charlie Feathers and Sonny Burgess — who never gained a commercial foothold, Johnny Burnette was one ...
Rev. James Cleveland: Savoy Delivers the Gospel
Interview by Joe McEwen, Rolling Stone, 21 September 1978
ELIZABETH, N.J. — Fred Mendelsohn likes to tell a story. "I was at an Arista convention in New Orleans," he says, inching forward in his ...
Interview by Mick Brown, Rolling Stone, 21 September 1978
LONDON — Although Phil Lynott isn't well-known yet in America, Thin Lizzy's singer/bass player is already something of a sex symbol in England: the super-stud ...
Fleetwood Mac, Steve Miller: Fleetwood Mac, The Steve Miller Band: JFK Stadium, Philadelphia PA
Live Review by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 5 October 1978
Fleetwood Mac clicks despite Nicks ...
REO Speedwagon Makes Its Own Way
Interview by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 5 October 1978
Riding the Seger circuit ...
Keith Moon, The Who: The Who Come To a Fork in the Road
Interview by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 5 October 1978
"THIS POOR hotel," says Pete Townshend, gesturing at his spacious suite in the Navarro Hotel on New York's posh Central Park South. "Mr. Russell, the ...
Keith Moon, The Who: Keith Moon 1947-1978
Obituary by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 19 October 1978
LONDON, ENGLAND — Keith Moon died before he got old. The Who's spark-plug drummer, who turned thirty-one on August 23rd, was found dead in the bedroom ...
Report by Joe Nick Patoski, Rolling Stone, 2 November 1978
YOU CAN BUY six-packs of beer at the gas station, find a good poker game most any night and, some say, even play slot machines ...
The Kinks: The Once and Future Kinks
Report and Interview by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 2 November 1978
Untangling fourteen years of rock & roll fantasy ...
Heart Gets Back on the Right Beat
Interview by Wesley Strick, Rolling Stone, 30 November 1978
Legal battles behind them ...
Billy Joel: The Miracle of 52nd Street
Interview by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 14 December 1978
NOBODY EVER mistook Billy Joel for a matinee idol. In a world that worships angular, tall, rangy types like Robert De Niro and John Travolta, ...
Chicago: Getting Stronger Every Day
Interview by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 14 December 1978
NEW YORK — Larry is a professional ticket scalper, and business at Central Park's outdoor concert series this past summer had been so good that he ...
Blondie: What Deborah Harry won't do
Interview by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 14 December 1978
Blondie's punk Garbo ...
Arnold Shaw: Honkers and Shouters: The Golden Years of Rhythm and Blues (Collier)
Book Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 28 December 1978
Birth of Rhythm, Death of the Blues ...
Review by Nick Tosches, Rolling Stone, 1 January 1979
WHAT JIM MORRISON wanted more than anything – more than fame, more than wealth, more than the women's wet submission that fame brought with it ...
The Marshall Tucker Band: Marshall Tucker Band: Madison Square Garden, New York NY
Live Review by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 23 January 1979
Marshall Tucker plays Dead ...
Interview by John Morthland, Rolling Stone, 8 February 1979
"WELL IT'S one for the money/Two for the show/I'd dance/But I'm too old," a beaming, bouncing forty-six-year-old Carl Perkins mocked from the Bottom Line stage ...
Boomtown Rats: The Boomtown Rats: Bound For Glory
Interview by Paul Gambaccini, Rolling Stone, 8 March 1979
Will America do the Rat? ...
Interview by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 5 April 1979
NEW YORK — "I can read your thoughts right now, every one from A to Z," sings Chaka Khan in her current hit, 'I'm Every ...
Richard and Linda Thompson, Richard Thompson: Richard and Linda Thompson's Flight From Convention
Interview by Mick Brown, Rolling Stone, 5 April 1979
"IF I DON'T seem a part of the recording industry, it's probably because I don't feel a part of it," says Richard Thompson, the guitarist/songwriter/singer ...
George Harrison: A Conversation with George Harrison
Interview by Mick Brown, Rolling Stone, 19 April 1979
UP FOR THE DAY FROM HIS HOME IN OXFORDSHIRE, some 30 miles from London, George Harrison had spent the morning in the recording studio with ...
Chic is less than meets the ear
Interview by Jim Farber, Rolling Stone, 19 April 1979
NEW YORK — The Barnum Room is a disco where any man who dresses like a woman can feel like a star. Even on this ...
The Police: the case of the bleached blonds
Interview by Mick Brown, Rolling Stone, 3 May 1979
'Roxanne' arrests America ...
Report by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 17 May 1979
Elvis Costello puts his foot in his mouth ...
The Jam: All Mod Cons (Polydor)
Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 17 May 1979
FOR TWO albums, the Jam made leader Paul Weller's obsession with Pete Townshend and the early Who stand up as an acceptable substitute for personal ...
Ultravox: The Low-Budget Way To See The U.S.A.
Report and Interview by John Mendelsohn, Rolling Stone, 14 June 1979
AS RECENTLY AS January, Britain’s Ultravox — purveyors of highly stylized, often outré music alternately reminiscent of Pink Floyd, Brian Eno and Roxy Music — ...
Punk Attack: 'The Obituary of Rock and Roll'
Book Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 28 June 1979
Julie Burchill and Tony Parsons: The Boy Looked at Johnny (Pluto Press) ...
Chris Rea: Up from Cleveland... England
Profile and Interview by Mark Williams, Rolling Stone, 26 July 1979
Singer/songwriter with an edge ...
Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 26 July 1979
Been down so long, it looks like down to me ...
Robert Fripp's Public Exposure
Report and Interview by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 26 July 1979
The return to 'an intelligent way of living' ...
Lene Lovich: The Bits and Myths of Lene Lovich
Profile and Interview by Mick Brown, Rolling Stone, 9 August 1979
A VISION IN black, even her gingerbread pigtails decorated with a wedding cake of black lace, Lene Lovich sits in the unassuming offices of Stiff ...
John Lennon: American Grandstand: Another Open Letter to John Lennon
Column by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 23 August 1979
DEAR JOHN: It's been almost two years since I wrote my first open letter to you, imploring you to break your silence, make another record ...
Earth Wind and Fire: Earth Wind & Fire: I Am
Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 23 August 1979
MAURICE WHITE, Earth, Wind and Fire's presiding genius, ranges across popular music like a robber baron, selecting only the tastiest artifacts for his collection. ...
Rachel Sweet: Sixteen and Nobody's Fool
Profile and Interview by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 23 August 1979
AKRON, OHIO ...
Merle Haggard: Serving 190 Proof (MCA)
Review by John Morthland, Rolling Stone, 6 September 1979
REMEMBER 'OKIE from Muskogee' and 'Fightin' Side of Me', the two Merle Haggard anthems that served as right-wing rallying cries during the volatile turn of ...
Devo: Duty Now for the Future (Warner Bos.)
Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 20 September 1979
Devo destroyed ...
Teddy Pendergrass: Teddy (Philadelphia International)
Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 4 October 1979
TEDDY PENDERGRASS transcends the Philadelphia pop-soul confections of his production-machine material so effortlessly that it's a little frightening. He makes lightweight erotic sermonettes like 'Life ...
Led Zeppelin: The Songs Remain The Same: Led Zeppelin at Knebworth Park
Live Review by Mick Brown, Rolling Stone, 4 October 1979
...
Interview by Mick Brown, Rolling Stone, 1 November 1979
"POP IS A MEANINGLESS term," Ian Gomm says as he takes a sip of beer in his manager’s London home. "But I’ve got a vested ...
Report and Interview by Jim Farber, Rolling Stone, 15 November 1979
First U.S. tour ever ...
Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 29 November 1979
IN THE BEGINNING, Cheap Trick was lovable because they tried to pull off the toughest trick in the book: making rock that was both bonehead-hard ...
Delbert McClinton: Keeper of the Flame (Capricorn)
Review by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 13 December 1979
DELBERT McCLINTON'S virtues are plain, but they're hardly simple. He's too much of a hybrid and vocal wizard ever to be simple. His is the ...
Frank Zappa: The Myth Of Joe's Garage
Interview by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 13 December 1979
I'M STANDING ON the loading platform at L.A. International Airport at 2:30 in the morning, listening to a prerecorded voice that keeps repeating "...the white ...
The Eagles: Boston Garden, Boston
Live Review by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 13 December 1979
The Eagles: takin' it easy in Boston ...
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers: Damn the Torpedoes (Backstreet/MCA)
Review by Ariel Swartley, Rolling Stone, 13 December 1979
DAMN THE Torpedoes is the Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers album we've all been waiting for — that is, if we were all Tom Petty ...
Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 24 January 1980
It's too late to stop now ...
Linton Kwesi Johnson: a poet turns to reggae
Interview by Mick Brown, Rolling Stone, 7 February 1980
Summoning Forces of Victory in Britain ...
Wings: Rainbow Theatre, London
Live Review by Mick Brown, Rolling Stone, 7 February 1980
Wings in London: Taking the spotlight off McCartney ...
B.B. King: Thirty years on the road
Interview by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 21 February 1980
LOS ANGELES — B.B. King sat quietly in the American Bandstand dressing room, sipping a diet soda and staring at the words to a song ...
Santana: Carlos Santana’s Journey Toward Perfection
Report and Interview by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 21 February 1980
"I’VE WANTED SOME Roy Rogers boots ever since I was a kid." Seated in his manager’s office, Devadip Carlos Santana pulls on a glistening red ...
Grateful Dead: Oakland Auditorium Arena, Oakland CA
Live Review by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 21 February 1980
The New Year's Dead ...
Styx: Cow Palace, San Francisco CA
Live Review by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 6 March 1980
WHEN HOLLYWOOD wanted to inject some real contemporary action into Mannix or one of those made-for-TV movies back in the Sixties, they'd throw in a ...
Aretha Franklin: La Diva (Atlantic)
Review by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 20 March 1980
IT'S NO news that, during the last several years, Aretha Franklin has regressed from being one of our most powerful R&B performers into a mere ...
Penetration: Coming Up for Air (Virgin International)
Review by Laura Fissinger, Rolling Stone, 20 March 1980
HEY, THE echo switch has been rediscovered! Not to mention other stuff within reach of a bargain-basement studio console. Producer Steve Lillywhite seems to have ...
Pat Benatar: In the Heat of the Night (Chrysalis)
Review by Laura Fissinger, Rolling Stone, 3 April 1980
THIS STORY'S so ancient it barely has the strength to be told. When those that ain't got finally get, they start pulling the same tricks ...
The Knack: ...But The Little Girls Understand (Capitol)
Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 3 April 1980
Leave it to Fieger — Nixing the Knack ...
Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 15 May 1980
LISTENERS WHO first discovered Bob Seger with Night Moves and Stranger in Town clearly find his new album an even more palatable product, since it ...
Review by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 12 June 1980
DEPARTURE OFFERS ample proof that the Seventies hard-rock genre so many people have been trying to bury for the last few years just doesn't want ...
Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 26 June 1980
AS A FUNDAMENTALLY religious artist, Pete Townshend fashions his music from sermons and confessions. Though it's not an easy thing for intellectuals to admit, this ...
The Cramps: Songs the Lord Taught Us (International Record Syndicate, Inc.)
Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 24 July 1980
WELCOME TO ART-rockabilly, a merger of the sensibilities and guitar styles of Link Wray and Lou Reed. Actually, this concoction — like fried grasshoppers and ...
Bobby Bare's Down and Dirty Country
Profile and Interview by John Morthland, Rolling Stone, 7 August 1980
The singer's most recent album bucks the pop-crossover trend ...
Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 7 August 1980
PAINTED IN CONTRASTING shades of urban blight, suburban boredom and rural decay, Michigan is perfect primitive rock & roll territory: a place where nothin' to ...
Rodney Crowell: A Songwriter Surfaces
Profile and Interview by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 21 August 1980
'Ashes by Now': his first hit ...
The Blues Brothers, Aretha Franklin: The Blues Brothers: Original Soundtrack (Atlantic)
Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 4 September 1980
WITH THEIR second LP, Blues Brothers John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd have moved from the gratuitously racist to the merely patronizing — progress of a ...
Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 18 September 1980
LUCID AND DRIVEN, Peter Gabriel's third solo album sticks in the mind like the haunted heroes of the best film noirs. With the obsessiveness of ...
Def Leppard Breaks the Heavy-Metal Mold
Interview by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 2 October 1980
KANSAS CITV, Missouri — Oblivious to the sticky heat and the rancid aroma of animal fat from the rendering plants across the Missouri River, the ...
Paul Simon: What Do You Do When You're Not A Kid Anymore And You Still Want To Rock & Roll?
Profile and Interview by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 30 October 1980
IN ONE-TRICK PONY PAUL SIMON LOOKS AT THE WAY THINGS MIGHT HAVE BEEN. ...
Carlene Carter: Musical Shapes (Warner Bros.)
Review by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 13 November 1980
IT'S ALWAYS embarrassed Englishmen like Mick Jagger and Eric Clapton that they got rich by showing Americans how palatable their native R&B and blues were. ...
Dave Davies, The Kinks: Dave Davies Forgets About The Past
Interview by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 13 November 1980
NEW YORK CITY — "Eyes can lie," warns Dave Davies in his song 'Visionary Dreamer'. "And sometimes words are oh so useless..." ...
Devo: Freedom of Choice (Warner Bros.)
Review by Laura Fissinger, Rolling Stone, 27 November 1980
AFTER THE SEMINAL mutant microcosm of the modern world they constructed on Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo., Devo have moved on ...
Bruce Springsteen: The Boss is Back
Report and Interview by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 27 November 1980
Bruce Springsteen hits the road for his first tour in two years, and along the way gives ample life to his performing legend. ...
John Lennon: Ghoulish Beatlemania
Essay by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 22 January 1981
WHEN A ROCK star dies in a plane crash or from an overdose of drugs and alcohol, the accident may seem tragic or repulsive, but ...
Bruce Springsteen and the Secret of the World
Report and Interview by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 5 February 1981
FAME GRIPS A JERSEY BOY... BUT HE GETS OUT UNSCATHED ...
Kurtis Blow Raps His Way To The Top
Report and Interview by John Morthland, Rolling Stone, 5 March 1981
The sound of the streets hits the heartland. ...
Donna Summer: The Wanderer (Geffen) ****½
Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 19 March 1981
A rock & roll road map of Donna Summer's soul ...
Adam & The Ants: The Ants Are Coming
Profile and Interview by Paul Gambaccini, Rolling Stone, 30 April 1981
So unplug the jukebox And do us all a favor That music's lost its taste So try another flavor — Adam and ...
Garland Jeffreys: Escape from the Demons
Interview by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 14 May 1981
NEW YORK CITY ...
Al Green: The Lord Will Make a Way (Myrrh) **
Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 23 July 1981
ONE NIGHT, after listening intensively to the grand and ancient gospel groups (pre-psychobabble Staples Singers, the Soul Stirrers with and without Sam Cooke, Dorothy Love ...
Chaka Khan: What Cha' Gonna Do for Me (Warner Bros.) **
Review by Laura Fissinger, Rolling Stone, 6 August 1981
WHAT CHA' Gonna Do for Me is a textbook example of how to make incredibly pedestrian "fusion" music and pass it off as jazz for ...
G.E. Smith: An Ace Axeman Steps Out Front
Interview by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 6 August 1981
NEW YORK CITY — "All I've ever wanted to call myself is a player," says unsung guitar legend G.E. Smith as we sit down to ...
Obituary by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 3 September 1981
HARRY CHAPIN often described himself as a "third-rate folk singer," and judging from most of the reviews he received in these pages and elsewhere, he ...
Pat Metheny Shrugs Off Success
Interview by Laura Fissinger, Rolling Stone, 17 September 1981
NEW YORK CITY — In his salad days as a (barely) postadolescent college instructor, Pat Metheny should have been teaching Healthy Attitudes 101 in addition ...
Review by Deborah Frost, Rolling Stone, 29 October 1981
'WHO'S CRYING Now', the hit single off Journey's hit LP, isn't super hip, super deep or even real, real hooky. But it does sound good. ...
Pat Benatar: Precious Time (Chrysalis) **
Review by Laura Fissinger, Rolling Stone, 29 October 1981
Spandex ballet ...
Billy Squier: Don't Say No (Capitol) **
Review by Deborah Frost, Rolling Stone, 12 November 1981
BOOMPH OMPH Bdumph dumbph ouch. That's the sound of Billy Squier's 'The Stroke' clanking mercilessly through the summer. Like a construction site beneath your window ...
Devo: Sixties Idealists or Nazis and Clowns?
Interview by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 10 December 1981
LOS ANGELES — "Someone wanted to know where your home is," the waitress said to Mark Mothersbaugh. "I don't have a home," Mothersbaugh replied softly, peering at ...
Elvis Presley: A Bad Year for Elvis Presley
Comment by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 24 December 1981
THOUGH ELVIS Presley died in 1977, he made more headlines in 1981 than any living rock star. The initial tremors were felt on July 31st, ...
The Kinks' Resurgence Continues
Report and Interview by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 4 February 1982
NINETY MINUTES after the Kinks' show at the Seattle Center Coliseum, Ray Davies is strolling out of a restaurant called Bob Murray's Dog House, a ...
Van Morrison breaks his silence (sort of)
Profile and Interview by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 18 February 1982
The mystery man says he's no longer interested in the 'rock & rocll circus' ...
Earth Wind and Fire: Earth, Wind and Fire Return to Form
Interview by Vernon Gibbs, Rolling Stone, 4 March 1982
NEW YORK CITY — Maurice White, the guiding force behind Earth, Wind and Fire, is seated in the middle of a posh Manhattan hotel suite. A party ...
The Police, Sting: The Police's Sting considers a new career
Interview by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 4 March 1982
PHILADELPHIA — DEEP in the bright yellow innards of Philadelphia's Spectrum Arena, the reluctant rock god known as Sting eyes a dressing room crowded with ...
Bobby Womack: The Poet (Beverly Glen Music) ***½
Review by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 13 May 1982
ORIGINALLY A protégé of Sam Cooke, Bobby Womack is a gritty-voiced soul singer who has written a wealth of terrific songs, including 'It's All Over ...
Marshall Crenshaw: Marshall Crenshaw (Warner Bros.)
Review by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 13 May 1982
MARSHALL CRENSHAW'S rock & roll has the kind of crafty simplicity that has to be called classic. Like the Everly Brothers and the early Beatles, ...
Black Uhuru: Tear It Up (Island) ***½
Review by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 10 June 1982
MOST OF THE songs on this live LP date back to Black Uhuru's early days and, as a result, may not be familiar to American ...
Rick James: Sex, Street Smarts and Success
Interview by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 24 June 1982
SAUSALITO, CA — Rick James Lies sleeping on the plush burgundy velvet seat in the back of the long black limousine. It has been forty-eight ...
Ry Cooder: The Slide Area (Warner Bros.) **
Review by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 24 June 1982
RY COODER HAS made ten albums (excluding soundtracks) since his 1970 debut LP, and with the exception of one overly precious stiff (Jazz), each new ...
The Pretenders: James Honeyman-Scott: 1956-1982
Obituary by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 22 July 1982
JAMES HONEYMAN-Scott, the twenty-five-year-old lead guitarist for the Pretenders, died in his sleep in London sometime during the early morning hours of June 16th. The ...
David Johansen: Live It Up (Blue Sky) ****
Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 5 August 1982
DESPITE A RAFT OF extraordinary songs and some devastating performances, David Johansen has never made a uniformly good record. In fact, listening to Johansen's albums ...
Kid Creole & The Coconuts: Kid Creole and the Coconuts: Wise Guy (ZE) **
Review by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 5 August 1982
THE TITLE OF this record in the U.K. is Tropical Gangsters, in line with the album's plot, which finds Kid Creole and the Coconuts shipwrecked ...
Loverboy: Rock's Five Nice Guys
Profile and Interview by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 5 August 1982
DENVER — NICE. That's the perfect word to describe Loverboy, a rock band so wholesome the Boy Scouts should consider offering it an honorary membership. ...
Creedence Clearwater Revival, John Fogerty, Tom Fogerty: Will Creedence Clearwater ever be revived?
Interview by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 2 September 1982
JOHN FOGERTY, once the driving force behind Creedence Clearwater Revival, is a strange one, and his older brother, former Creedence rhythm guitarist Tom Fogerty, is ...
The Gap Band: Gap Band IV (Total Experience) ***
Review by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 30 September 1982
WITH ITS synthesized percussion explosions, syncopated handclaps and ominous melody, 'Early in the Morning', the Gap Band's recent hit single, is the sonic equivalent of ...
X: The Maturing of a Punk Band
Interview by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 30 September 1982
SAN FRANCISCO — a few minutes before doing a live interview at the University of San Francisco radio station, John Doe of X picked up a ...
Marvin Gaye: Midnight Love (Columbia) ****
Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 20 January 1983
AS A COMEBACK album, Marvin Gaye's Midnight Love is remarkably arrogant: it simply picks up from 1973's Let's Get It On as if only ten ...
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers: Long After Dark
Review by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 20 January 1983
TOM PETTY and the Heartbreakers play a finely crafted band of meat-and-potatoes rock. ...
Kate & Anna McGarrigle: Kate and Anna McGarrigle: Love Over and Over (Polydor) ***½
Review by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 17 March 1983
WHILE THEIR most compelling virtue is their lovely vocal interplay, Kate and Anna McGarrigle have always been careful to use classy session players. As a ...
Gloria Stavers: October 3rd, 1927-April 1st, 1983
Obituary by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 12 May 1983
ON THE surface, 16 magazine was no more than a shallow, dizzy fanzine for teenage girls. It was crammed with bubblegum singers, TV idols, "win ...
A&R Crisis: Why U.S. Acts Can't Get Record Deals
Report and Interview by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 23 June 1983
NEW YORK CITY — "When you do A&R," says Karin Berg as she climbs the steps of Manhattan's cavernous, sparsely populated Ritz nightclub near midnight ...
George Clinton: the return of Dr. Funkenstein
Profile and Interview by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 23 June 1983
HEADS TURN when George Clinton enters a room. Any room. At the moment, the people in the lobby of the Beverly Hills Hotel are staring ...
Report by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 7 July 1983
Rock & roll gets in bed with corporate America ...
Report by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 13 October 1983
Sixteen years after the Summer of Love, the bands that made the Fillmore famous are as mainstream as Tony Bennett. Meanwhile, a new generation of ...
Was (Not Was) Just Can't Play it Straight
Interview by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 8 December 1983
LOS ANGELES — They would meet on the highest bleacher seat at the high-school field. Shivering in the cold Michigan night, they would talk about ...
Sunnyboys: Get Some Fun (Mushroom)
Review by Clinton Walker, Rolling Stone, 1984
THE SUNNYBOYS are a group who had success — or near-success, at least — thrust upon them at an early age, and although it's to ...
The Clash: A Fired-up Joe Strummer Brings his New Clash to America
Interview by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 1 March 1984
Group gets back to its punk roots ...
The Gap Band: Sex, Drugs and the Devil: The Gap Band Fights for Success
Profile and Interview by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 1 March 1984
HOLLYWOOD — The bodyguard was not smiling. "Could you wait out here until Mr. Simmons has completed his call?" he asked, gesturing to the hallway ...
Huey Lewis and the News: Huey Lewis: The Boy Next Door Becomes a Rock & Roll Star
Report and Interview by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 15 March 1984
His new LP, Sports, spawns two hits ...
Rock & Roll Fanzines: A New Underground Press Flourishes
Report and Interview by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 29 March 1984
Inside news for the hard core ...
DeBarge's Family Affair: Motown Spawns Another Jackson 5
Interview by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 26 April 1984
AT MOTOWN Records these days, they're talking about the "new Jacksons." That's the word on DeBarge, a group of siblings whose latest LP, In a ...
Michael Jackson, The Jacksons: Outside promoters lessen King's role in Jacksons' summer tour
Report by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 10 May 1984
DUE TO growing dissatisfaction with Don King, Michael Jackson and his five brothers have brought in two music-business veterans to promote their upcoming tour. Frank ...
Marvin Gaye: Trouble Man: Marvin Gaye 1939-1984
Report by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 10 May 1984
Long before the shooting, Marvin Gaye's life had become a nightmare of drugs, debts and family discord ...
Rockwell: Berry Gordy's son scores with a little help from Michael Jackson
Interview by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 24 May 1984
THE GIRL with the video camera is following Rockwell around Motown Records' Sunset Boulevard offices. Everywhere he goes, she follows, camera trained on the young ...
Spinal Tap: the Comics Behind the Funniest Rock Movie Ever
Interview by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 24 May 1984
Celebrating seventeen years of heavy metal's most painful career ...
Interview by Mick Brown, Rolling Stone, 24 May 1984
LONDON — WITH the release of Parting Should Be Painless, his first solo album since the demise of the Who, Roger Daltrey is clearly a ...
Dennis Wilson: The Beach Boy Who Went Overboard
Report by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 7 June 1984
He was the wild one. He could never get enough of anything: drugs, women or booze. But in the end, he had nothing. ...
The Jacksons' Summer Tour In Chaos As Businessmen Scramble For Power
Report by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 7 June 1984
LITTLE MORE than a month and a half before the Jacksons were due to hit the stage, preparations for their summer tour were a shambles. ...
Bobby Womack: A New Hit Proves It's Not Over Yet For The Man Who Wrote 'It's All Over Now'
Interview by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 21 June 1984
LOS ANGELES — Bobby Womack is happy. The forty-year-old singer currently finds himself with a hit album (The Poet II) and single ('Love Has Finally ...
Report by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, August 1984
SAN FRANCISCO — Rock-video fans who don't get their MTV — and that means seventy-five percent of the country's households — were at the losing ...
The Spinners: Ex-Spinner collapses onstage, dies
Obituary by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 30 August 1984
PHILIPPE E. WYNNE, the former Spinner whose sweet, soulful tenor was heard on such million-selling hits as 'One of a Kind (Love Affair)', 'Could It ...
Morris Day, Prince, The Time: Purple Rain Star Morris Day Goes It Alone
Report and Interview by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 13 September 1984
Real-life rivalry with Prince leads to split ...
The Bangles: a Female Fab Four?
Interview by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 13 September 1984
LOS ANGELES — Are the Bangles the new Go-Go's? One can't help but wonder. After all, like the Go-Go's, the Bangles are an all-female rock ...
Review by Deborah Frost, Rolling Stone, 27 September 1984
A new generation of bands is dominating the charts ...
Ray Parker Jr.: from sideman to lady's man
Interview by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 27 September 1984
'Ghostbusters' is his latest chartbuster ...
Lindsey Buckingham, Fleetwood Mac: Lindsey Buckingham, Lonely Guy
Interview by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 25 October 1984
Handsome millionaire rock star, 34, seeks soul mate for long-term relationship. Must be willing to relocate to LA. No drugs. ...
Richard Branson: Rock & Roll at 30,000 Feet
Profile and Interview by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 25 October 1984
From Tubular Bells to Boy George, Richard Branson has made millions from music. Now he's trying to run his own airline. Is he smart enough ...
Talking Heads: Stop Making Sense (Dir. Jonathan Demme)
Film/DVD/TV Review by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 25 October 1984
Heads play from heart in new film ...
The Special AKA, The Specials: Special AKA: New Band, Old Cause
Profile and Interview by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 8 November 1984
SAN FRANCISCO: Jerry Dammers, leader of the Special AKA, is a very idealistic man. He believes, for instance, that popular songs can change the way ...
Julian Lennon: Valotte (Atlantic)
Review by Davitt Sigerson, Rolling Stone, 17 January 1985
YES, HE sounds and often thinks like His father. That's probably what accounts for Julian Lennon's label push and radio exposure. What's ironic is that ...
New Edition Scores With Bubble-Gum Funk
Profile and Interview by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 17 January 1985
CHARLESTON — SINCE teenyboppers first screamed for Ricky Nelson and Frankie Avalon more than twenty-five years ago, pop music's teen idols have tended to be ...
Philip Bailey, Phil Collins, Earth, Wind & Fire: Bailey's big break
Interview by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 31 January 1985
Earthy Wind and Fire singer scores a hit ...
Deep Purple: Perfect Strangers
Review by Deborah Frost, Rolling Stone, 28 February 1985
The title track comes blasting out of nowhere, like an I'm-alive-and-well message from an old friend you'd given up for dead. With its steamy vocal ...
John Fogerty: Fogerty Returns To The Stage
Live Review by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 14 March 1985
Oldies highlight show for cable TV ...
Report by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 14 March 1985
Ten-day event comes off with few hitches ...
Report by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 14 March 1985
"CHECK YOUR ego at the door." That was the message producer Quincy Jones sent to Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Wonder, Willie Nelson, Diana Ross ...
Bronski Beat: The Age of Consent (London/MCA)
Review by Ira Robbins, Rolling Stone, 28 March 1985
NOW THAT FRANKIE HAS PROVEN TO BE a remote-controlled sham with less depth (not to mention stage presence) than its sloganeering T-shirts, the gay-rock mantle ...
The Gap Band: Gap Band: Gap Band VI (Total Experience Records) ****
Review by Davitt Sigerson, Rolling Stone, 28 March 1985
LEON RUSSELL took the three Wilson brothers out of Tulsa, Oklahoma, and L.A. entrepreneur Lonnie Simmons made them funk stars as the Gap Band. Beginning ...
John Fogerty alters album: 'Zanz' becomes 'Vanz'
Report by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 28 March 1985
Fantasy Records and Saul Zaentz still threaten to sue former Creedence leader ...
Eric Clapton, The Firm: Eric Clapton: Behind the Sun (Warner Bros.); The Firm: The Firm (Atlantic)
Review by Deborah Frost, Rolling Stone, 11 April 1985
NOBODY EVER said it was easy being God. Nobody ever said it was a gig Eric Clapton even asked for. The man has spent most ...
Profile and Interview by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 11 April 1985
East L.A.'s favorite sons can play everything from blues to Tex-Mex ...
Prince Unveils New Studio Album
Report by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 11 April 1985
Around the World in a Day should be out in April ...
Interview by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 9 May 1985
How Rosanna Arquette, Madonna and director Susan Seidelman lost tempers and found each other through Desperately Seeking Susan ...
Madonna seduces Seattle: Madonna, Paramount Theatre, Seattle
Live Review by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 23 May 1985
Her first show featured all the hits and more... ...
Profile and Interview by Charles Shaar Murray, Rolling Stone, 23 May 1985
Sade's elegant look and cool sound have made her pop music's most stylish female star ...
Amy Grant wants to put God on the charts
Profile and Interview by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 6 June 1985
AMY GRANT, the Christian singing star, is talking about the Prince concert she attended a few months ago. She didn't like it "When he started ...
Marvin Gaye: Furor over X-rated Marvin Gaye LP
Report by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 20 June 1985
Co-producer says he changed lyrics to one song; associates blast quality of other tracks ...
Bryan Ferry: Boys and Girls (Warner Bros.)
Review by Ira Robbins, Rolling Stone, 18 July 1985
WHEN BRYAN Ferry first began making solo records in 1973, his apparent goal was to forge a path radically different from what he was writing ...
Report and Interview by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 18 July 1985
They don't sound like the Ramones, and they don't look like the Sex Pistols, but bands like Hüsker Dü, the Minutemen and the Meat Puppets ...
Review by Davitt Sigerson, Rolling Stone, 15 August 1985
OH, SLICK RICK, you can trade your beads for a hennaed perm, but they still won't put you on MTV. As Dylan said of George ...
Bob Geldof: Live Aid take may hit $60 million
Report by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 29 August 1985
As many as 2 billion people watched the event ...
Review by Ira Robbins, Rolling Stone, 12 September 1985
EVER SINCE his classic solo debut, 1978's Pure Pop for Now People — and a follow-up, Labour of Lust, almost as good — lovable Nick ...
The Seeds: Where Are They Now: Sky Saxon
Interview by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 12 September 1985
The leader of the Seeds was 'Pushin' Too Hard' in the Sixties; now he'd into 'flower heaven power'. ...
Wanda Jackson: Where Are They Now: Wanda Jackson
Interview by Ira Robbins, Rolling Stone, 12 September 1985
The original 'Fujiyama Mama' wailed to the rockabilly beat — but now she's moved by a stronger power ...
Steve Arrington: Dancin' in the Key of Life (Atlantic)
Review by Davitt Sigerson, Rolling Stone, 26 September 1985
STEVE ARRINGTON, who once sang and drummed with the Dayton funk band Slave, has been gathering admirers since 'Just a Touch of Love' and 'Watching ...
Ry Cooder, Frank Frost: Ry Cooder's Crossroads Blues
Report and Interview by Tony Scherman, Rolling Stone, 10 October 1985
THERE'S NO MONEY IN BEING A ROOTS-MUSIC VIRTUOSO, BUT THIS GUITARIST'S CAREER TURNED THE CORNER WHEN HE STARTED WRITING SOUNDTRACKS. ...
The Red Hot Chili Peppers: Freaky Styley (EMI America/Enigma)
Review by Ira Robbins, Rolling Stone, 24 October 1985
AFTER NEARLY two decades of racial division, popular music is in the midst of an overdue and exciting (if modest) effort to integrate itself. One ...
Review by Rob Tannenbaum, Rolling Stone, 7 November 1985
NONA HENDRYX emerged from post-LaBelle limbo as a member of Talking Heads' big Remain in Light band. On The Heat, her fourth solo album, she ...
Sheila E.: Sheila E: Romance 1600 (Paisley Park/Warner Bros.)
Review by Davitt Sigerson, Rolling Stone, 21 November 1985
IT'S A PITY that Sheila E., Prince's only independently creative female artist, needs a twelve-minute collaboration with the Small One to make her second LP ...
Giorgio Moroder, Ray Parker Jr., Tina Turner: Soundtracks Thrived in Summer of '85
Report by Rob Tannenbaum, Rolling Stone, 21 November 1985
Arranged marriages between movies and rock & roll produced spectacular results ...
Review by Davitt Sigerson, Rolling Stone, 5 December 1985
THESE THREE records from the illustrious Womack clan — two from Bobby and one from brother Cecil and wife Linda (daughter of Sam Cooke and ...
ZZ Top: Afterburner (Warner Bros.)
Review by Deborah Frost, Rolling Stone, 5 December 1985
THE SOURCE of ZZ Top's appeal was never any secret to the beer drinkers and hell raisers who worshiped them the instant the band began ...
The Rolling Stone Interview: Bill Graham
Interview by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 19 December 1985
The P.T. Barnum of rock & roll celebrates his twentieth anniversary ...
Little Steven & The Disciples Of Soul: Q&A: Little Steven
Interview by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 16 January 1986
LITTLE STEVEN Van Zandt, to his simultaneous worriment and gratification, has become the symbol of the antiapartheid movement outside of South Africa. It's not surprising ...
Bob Dylan, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers: Tom Petty: Back On The Road
Interview by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 16 January 1986
Tom Petty teams up with new pal Bob Dylan ...
Olivia Newton-John, Diana Ross: Olivia Newton-John: Soul Kiss/Diana Ross: Eaten Alive
Review by Davitt Sigerson, Rolling Stone, 13 February 1986
HERE WE HAVE two of the biz' primo canaries coming up with long-awaited (and, you can bet, carefully considered) albums and not exactly setting the ...
Joan Baez, The Band, Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin, Peter, Paul & Mary: Albert Grossman: 1926-1986
Obituary by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 13 March 1986
Managed Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin and others ...
Fela Kuti: Zombie, No Agreement, Shuffering And Shmlling (Celluloid)
Review by Rob Tannenbaum, Rolling Stone, 13 March 1986
ALTHOUGH HE is virtually unknown in the United States, Fela Kuti of Nigeria is the most dangerous musician in the world. For two decades, Fela ...
The Bangles: Different Light (Columbia)
Review by Laura Fissinger, Rolling Stone, 13 March 1986
Bangle Lore ...
The Jesus & Mary Chain: The Jesus and Mary Chain: Have they got a prayer?
Interview by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 13 March 1986
THE GAUNT, black-leather-clad members of the Jesus and Mary Chain are perched about the dressing room of the I Beam in San Francisco like four ...
10,000 Maniacs: The Wishing Chair (Elektra)
Review by Ira Robbins, Rolling Stone, 27 March 1986
LEST 10,000 Maniacs be mistaken for members of the SoHo establishment, check your map: the sextet's home base, Jamestown, New York, is roughly the same ...
Review by Rob Tannenbaum, Rolling Stone, 10 April 1986
IF FALCO had disappeared after his 1981 hit 'Der Kommissar', future archivists could have memorialized the Austrian singer on some Eurotrosh Volume II compilation, and ...
Stevie Wonder: The Timeless World of Wonder
Interview by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 10 April 1986
When you've sold 70 million records and persuaded Congress to make your hero's birthday a national holiday, you can afford to keep people waiting, and ...
Interview by Laura Fissinger, Rolling Stone, 24 April 1986
After a nearly fatal four-year slump, the Wilson sisters take Heart and reclaim their platinum past ...
Independent Promotion: The Inside Story
Report and Interview by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 24 April 1986
IT WAS GOING to be easy money. The cash would be sent, each week, in an unmarked brown paper envelope to the home of the ...
Review by Davitt Sigerson, Rolling Stone, 24 April 1986
WHO BUT PRINCE fills us today with the kind of anticipation we once reserved for new work by Bob Dylan, the Beatles and the Rolling ...
Grand Juries Investigate Mob Ties to Record Biz
Report by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 8 May 1986
MCA linked to criminal activities ...
Prince & The Revolution: Metro Dance Club, Boston MA
Live Review by Jim Sullivan, Rolling Stone, 22 May 1986
Prince surprises Boston Club show emphasizes music, not spectacle ...
A Flock of Seagulls: Dream Come True (Arista)
Review by Rob Tannenbaum, Rolling Stone, 5 June 1986
AFTER THEIR 1982 debut became one of that year's most popular albums, A Flock of Seagulls found itself unable to expand on its kinetic, reductive ...
Brian Eno: More Blank Than Frank (Jem)
Review by Rob Tannenbaum, Rolling Stone, 5 June 1986
AFTER BRIAN Eno left Roxy Music in 1973, he made four prophetic rock albums that incorporated unbalanced rhythms, random synthesizer noises, minimalist drones and whimsical, ...
Dwight Yoakam: Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc. (Reprise)
Review by James Hunter, Rolling Stone, 5 June 1986
KENTUCKY-BRED singer and songwriter Dwight Yoakam makes his Los Angeles country music get up and go. As he boasts on the Johnny Horton cover that ...
Report and Interview by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 5 June 1986
HERE WE ARE on a nice drive down Cahuenga Boulevard — the journalist's rental wreck following Madonna's forty-plus-grand midnight-blue Mercedes sports coupe — and the ...
Review by Davitt Sigerson, Rolling Stone, 17 July 1986
OF ALL CURRENT superstars, none has manipulated the apparatus of fame more astutely than Madonna. Like Prince, she recognized the virtue of a one-word name ...
Live Review by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 17 July 1986
Amnesty's rock & roll roadshow All-star lineup gives America the message ...
Boy George, Culture Club: Boy George's Nightmare
Report by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 28 August 1986
A SPECIAL REPORT ON THE FALLEN POP IDOL'S BOUT WITH HIS DRUG ADDICTION ...
Review by James Hunter, Rolling Stone, 28 August 1986
FORGET GEORGE Strait as the White-Stetsoned sheriff of country's current "new traditionalism" Think of him instead as Elvis Presley balladeering out of the Lone Star ...
Van Morrison: The Pier, New York NY
Live Review by Rob Tannenbaum, Rolling Stone, 28 August 1986
STUBBORN SOUL: VAN MORRISON'S ERRATIC SHOW ...
Clarence Carter: Where Are They Now? Clarence Carter
Profile and Interview by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 11 September 1986
Hits: 'Slip Away', 'Too Weak to Fight', 'Patches' ...
The Righteous Brothers: Where Are They Now? The Righteous Brothers
Interview by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 11 September 1986
Hits: 'You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'', 'Ebb Tide', 'Unchained Melody', '(You're My) Soul and Inspiration', 'Rock and Roll Heaven' ...
Randy Travis: Storms Of Life (Warner Bros.)
Review by Davitt Sigerson, Rolling Stone, 25 September 1986
OF ALL THE cool new Country stars, expect Randy Travis to last the longest. ...
John Fogerty: On The Road Again
Interview by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 9 October 1986
John Fogerty returns to the stage after a fourteen-year layoff ...
Seymour Stein: The Sultan Of Sire
Interview by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 9 October 1986
Seymour Stein may be the most eccentric record executive in America. But his taste, foresight and business smarts have taken his label to the top ...
Paul Simon: Graceland (Warner Bros.)
Review by Rob Tannenbaum, Rolling Stone, 23 October 1986
IN HIS TYPICALLY understated way, Paul Simon has been an ardent musical explorer since he went solo in 1972. His songs have incorporated almost every ...
Lionel Richie: Dancing on the Ceiling
Review by Anthony DeCurtis, Rolling Stone, 6 November 1986
Lionel Richie will never surprise you. His triumph has been his ability to turn conservative dependability into a commercial, and at times even an aesthetic, ...
Rodney Crowell: Street Language (Columbia)
Review by James Hunter, Rolling Stone, 6 November 1986
RODNEY CROWELL'S credentials as a first-rate country-pop producer (for his wife, Rosanne Cash, on Seven Year Ache and Rhythm and Romance) and songwriter ('Till I ...
Tina Turner: Break Every Rule (Capitol)
Review by Davitt Sigerson, Rolling Stone, 6 November 1986
Tina repeats a winning formula ...
Billy Idol: Whiplash Smile (Chrysalis)
Review by Rob Tannenbaum, Rolling Stone, 4 December 1986
Billy Idol's only human ...
Report and Interview by Rob Tannenbaum, Rolling Stone, 18 December 1986
A year after The New York Times ran its obit, country music is stronger than ever, thanks to artists like Steve Earle, Dwight Yoakam and ...
Cameo's Black-Rock Breakthrough
Profile and Interview by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 15 January 1987
Veteran band goes Top Ten with 'Word Up' ...
Robbie Nevil: Robbie Nevil (Manhattan Records)
Review by Laura Fissinger, Rolling Stone, 12 February 1987
MY BEEF with Robbie Nevil is such a stock critic's kvetch that it seems only mannerly to preface it with kudos and huzzahs. Which, by ...
Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Paul Simon: UN Group Attacks Paul Simon
Report by Rob Tannenbaum, Rolling Stone, 12 February 1987
Says Graceland broke cultural boycott of South Africa ...
Rubén Blades y Seis del Solar: Agua de Luna (Elektra)
Review by Laura Fissinger, Rolling Stone, 26 March 1987
EVEN THOUGH Rubén Blades's English-language debut isn't due for a while yet, the Panamanian salsa star, lawyer, essayist, activist and actor has already been bear-hugged ...
Interview by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 26 March 1987
Kevin Hunter and his San Francisco-based band remain musical free spirits ...
Review by Rob Tannenbaum, Rolling Stone, 26 March 1987
NOT THAT long ago, XTC was a nearly perfect band. It corrupted its bountiful hooks with unsettling harmonies and rhythms and rocked hard enough to ...
Concrete Blonde: Concrete Blonde (I.R.S.)
Review by Laura Fissinger, Rolling Stone, 23 April 1987
HORDES OF eighties bands have claimed to be catholic in both their influences and their output. Concrete Blonde, however, can actually back the claim up. ...
Profile and Interview by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 23 April 1987
The Grammy Award-winning producers who made Janet Jackson a 'Nasty' superstar have been turning out lots of hits lately ...
Report and Interview by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 21 May 1987
Chris Isaak has borrowed from the past to become a star of the future ...
George Jones: Wine Colored Roses (Epic)
Review by James Hunter, Rolling Stone, 21 May 1987
THIS IS the finest George Jones record in more than five years. Still working with producer-arranger Billy Sherrill, Jones commands a mix of ten songs ...
Level 42: Running in the Family (Polydor)
Review by Rob Tannenbaum, Rolling Stone, 18 June 1987
AFTER SEVERAL albums of funk-fusion flash, Level 42 harnessed its considerable instrumental ability on World Machine, as sleek and agreeable a digital-era pop record as ...
Paul Butterfield's Better Days, Paul Butterfield Blues Band: Paul Butterfield 1942-1987
Obituary by uncredited writer, Rolling Stone, 18 June 1987
ON MAY 4TH, bluesman Paul Butterfield was found dead in his North Hollywood, California, apartment. He was forty-four. Though he had been in a Pittsburgh ...
Review by Laura Fissinger, Rolling Stone, 2 July 1987
OVER HEART'S eleven-year recording career, the band has often been charged with creating standard-issue stadium rock. That accusation hasn't always been fair: the Wilson sisters ...
Microdisney: Crooked Mile (Virgin)
Review by Laura Fissinger, Rolling Stone, 2 July 1987
THE MUSIC on Crooked Mile is a marvelous cross-genre mutant: lazy tempos and teary guitars from country music, Elvis Costello-esque chord progressions and lead vocals, Merseybeat melodies, ...
Interview by Laura Fissinger, Rolling Stone, 2 July 1987
The Judds find that the family that plays together stays together ...
The Neville Brothers: Funky but Chic
Profile and Interview by Rob Tannenbaum, Rolling Stone, 2 July 1987
Lots of people have heard of the Neville Brothers. Now the Nevilles want lots of peopleto hear their music. ...
Review by Rob Tannenbaum, Rolling Stone, 13 August 1987
AFTER INITIATING one of the most successful publicity juggernauts of the decade, Boy George had a hard time adjusting to the consequences of fame. The ...
Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin, Billie Holiday, Bruce Springsteen: John Hammond 1910-1987
Obituary by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 27 August 1987
LEGENDARY RECORD producer and talent scout John Hammond — who played a key role in the careers of Billie Holiday, Count Basie, Benny Goodman, Aretha ...
Danny Wilson: Meet Danny Wilson (Virgin)
Review by Rob Tannenbaum, Rolling Stone, 10 September 1987
"HERE'S SOME summer music for an angel," sings Gary Clark in 'You Remain an Angel', and what follows is not the Beach Boys' sandy harmonies ...
Def Leppard unleashes Hysteria
Interview by Rob Tannenbaum, Rolling Stone, 10 September 1987
DEF LEPPARD'S album Pyromania, released in 1983, sold 6 million copies in the U.S. alone. It's no surprise, then, that people ask Def Leppard bassist ...
Curiosity Killed The Cat: New Faces: England's Latest Curiosity
Profile and Interview by Rob Tannenbaum, Rolling Stone, 24 September 1987
Teen heartthrobs Curiosity Killed the Cat try to conquer America ...
Boy George, Culture Club: Boy George: Mr. Clean
Report and Interview by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 8 October 1987
Boy George Straightens Up His Act ...
Aerosmith: Permanent Vacation (Geffen)
Review by Deborah Frost, Rolling Stone, 22 October 1987
ALTHOUGH AEROSMITH was slagged for nearly two decades as sloppy Stones seconds, the band was finally given hip vindication last year by Run-D.M.C. And what ...
Review by Davitt Sigerson, Rolling Stone, 22 October 1987
MICHAEL JACKSON is a man. Agreed, he is a young man, emotional age about thirteen, with a young man's interest in cars, girls, scary movies ...
Bob Marley & the Wailers, Peter Tosh: Reggae great Peter Tosh murdered
Report by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 22 October 1987
THE REGGAE star Peter Tosh, a founding member of the Wailers, was gunned down during an apparent robbery when three men invaded his home near ...
The Dukes of Stratosphear: Psonic Psunspot (Geffen)
Review by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 22 October 1987
THE DUKES of Stratosphear are XTC's psychedelic alter ego; XTC first donned this paisley disguise for the import-only psychedelic psendup 25 O'Clock. That album was ...
Interview by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 5 November 1987
TWENTY YEARS ago, you and the Band seemed to set yourselves apart from the whole psychedelic scene that was so popular at the time. ...
Smokey Robinson, Smokey Robinson & The Miracles: Smokey Robinson
Interview by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 5 November 1987
Motown's slogan was "The Sound of Young America" not "The Sound of Black America." ...
Interview by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 5 November 1987
TWENTY YEARS ago, when you were only seventeen, you had already had a Number One hit and were well on your way to becoming one ...
Buster Poindexter: Buster Poindexter (RCA)
Review by Deborah Frost, Rolling Stone, 19 November 1987
THE GREAT irony of Buster Poindexter is that it finds David Johansen, who launched his career as a New York Doll by threatening to live ...
Special Feature by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 19 November 1987
Eleven, years ago, the enigmatic leader of the Band walked away from the rock world. Now, after some years of wild living, he's joined with ...
Alex Chilton: High Priest (Big Time)
Review by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 3 December 1987
NO DOUBT about it, Alex Chilton is really hip right now, with bands like R.E.M., the Replacements and the Bangles citing his legendary early-Seventies group ...
Reba McEntire: The Last One To Know (MCA)
Review by Rob Tannenbaum, Rolling Stone, 3 December 1987
AS COUNTRY music's most popular female singer, Reba McEntire deserves a lot of credit for aiding the new-traditionalist revival in Nashville. But tagging McEntire as ...
Rosie Vela: Rosie Flores: Rosie Flores (Reprise)
Review by Laura Fissinger, Rolling Stone, 3 December 1987
WHAT DWIGHT Yoakam is to new-traditionalist country's male division, Rosie Flores could be to its distaff side. Like Yoakam, she comes out of the California ...
Review by Anthony DeCurtis, Rolling Stone, 3 December 1987
Nothing Like The Sun – a powerful, often hypnotic album that blends jazz and rock styles into a thoughtful suite of twelve songs about love, ...
The Jesus & Mary Chain: The Jesus and Mary Chain: Darklands (Warner Bros.)
Review by Ira Robbins, Rolling Stone, 3 December 1987
IN ITS own way the Jesus and Mary Chain's second album is just as audacious as the band's controversial debut, Psychocandy. On the first album ...
Report by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 14 January 1988
ROLLING STONE has uncovered details of alleged cash payoffs — payola — to radio-station personnel by the operation of the California-based independent promotion man Joe Isgro. ...
Public Image Ltd: Public Image Limited: Happy? (Virgin)
Review by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 11 February 1988
TEN YEARS ago he was burying Led Zepplin; now he's praising it. Such are the artistic swings from Johnny Rotten (ne Lydon), professional iconoclast. Not ...
Bon Jovi, Mötley Crüe: Doc McGhee: Top rock manager pleads guilty to drug charges
Report by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 10 March 1988
Bon Jovi and Mötley Crüe boss tied to international smuggling ring ...
Robyn Hitchcock & the Egyptians: Globe of Frogs (A&M)
Review by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 10 March 1988
"SURREAL," "WHIMSICAL" and "psychedelic" are the standard adjectives that are applied to Robyn Hitchcock's oeuvre, but with his brilliant new album, Globe of Frogs, you ...
David Lee Roth: Skyscraper (Warner Bros.)
Review by Deborah Frost, Rolling Stone, 24 March 1988
PART BORSCH Belt, part Baryshnikov, David Lee Roth is hard rock's greatest entertainer. Man, myth, mountain climber — he's created a frontman fantasy that makes ...
Payola: The Record-Label Connection
Report by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 21 April 1988
How much do record-industry executives know? ...
Casual Gods, Jerry Harrison: Jerry Harrison: From Talking Head to head God
Interview by Rob Tannenbaum, Rolling Stone, 5 May 1988
Just how casual is Jerry Harrison's solo career? ...
Negativland: Escape From Noise (Seeland)
Review by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 19 May 1988
DOORS SLAM/PEOPLE yell/Children scream/Sirens whine/Trucks rumble and roar/And rock music blares, as Negativland asks the musical question "Is there any escape from noise?" ...
Cheap Trick: Lap of Luxury (Epic) **½
Review by Ira Robbins, Rolling Stone, 2 June 1988
EMPLOYING A variety of producers and stylistic retreads, Cheap Trick has spent the Eighties in a vain attempt to regain commercial and creative momentum. The ...
MCA and the Mob: Risky Business
Report by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 2 June 1988
How did a reputed mobster become a deal maker for MCA Records? ...
Review by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 16 June 1988
THIS YEAR'S award for Best Gospel Adaptation of a Greek Tragedy will surely go to The Gospel at Colonus, the Broadway musical that presents Sophocles' ...
Interview by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 16 June 1988
Other Roads ends eight-year layoff ...
Stump: A Fierce Pancake (Chrysalis) ***
Review by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 16 June 1988
FRESH FROM an extended engagement at the Theatre of the Absurd, Stump makes music that virtually defines the word quirky. This half-English, half-Irish quartet boasts ...
Experience Unlimited (EU): E.U.: America gets behind a new dance
Report by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 30 June 1988
Spike Lee's film School Daze launches "da butt" ...
Robert Plant: Brendan Byrne Arena, East Rutherford NJ
Live Review by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 14 July 1988
YOU HAVE to feel a little sorry for Robert Plant. Since the breakup of Led Zeppelin, the singer has put together a successful solo career ...
Billy Ocean: The pacific world of Billy Ocean
Interview by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 14 July 1988
Fame hasn't rocked the even-keeled pop singer ...
Interview by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 11 August 1988
The troubled pop genius who made the Beach Boys great has finally released his first solo album. Is Wilson really back? ...
Camper Van Beethoven: Our Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart (Virgin) ***½
Review by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 11 August 1988
CAMPER VAN Beethoven, the long-time champ of college radio, has burst out of the indie underground with a strong major-label debut that boasts better songs ...
Joan Jett and the Blackhearts: Up Your Alley (Blackheart/CBS Associated) ***
Review by Rob Tannenbaum, Rolling Stone, 11 August 1988
THOUGH COARSE stomps like 'Bad Reputation' and 'Cherry Bomb' have established Joan Jett as an eternal teen rebel who loves rock & roll for its ...
Sade: Stronger Than Pride (Epic) **½
Review by Rob Tannenbaum, Rolling Stone, 11 August 1988
LIKE WALLY Pipp, who took a day off from the Yankee lineup and was permanently replaced by Lou Gehrig, Sade has risked usurpation by more ...
The Bible: Eureka (Ensign/Chrysalis) ***½
Review by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 25 August 1988
THE NEWS that new-country bad boy Steve Earle produced this high-gloss record might seem like a publicity hoax, but it's true. And believe it or ...
Jim Dickinson, Steve Earle, R.E.M., U2: Memphis: A Legendary Music City is on the Rebound
Report by Rob Tannenbaum, Rolling Stone, 8 September 1988
Keith Richards, U2 and R.E.M. have recorded there, but the city's future hinges on its home-grown talent ...
Bruce Hornsby's Southern Comforts
Interview by Rob Tannenbaum, Rolling Stone, 22 September 1988
Rock's other Bruce is a home-town boy — that's just the way he is ...
Kingdom Come: For the members of Kingdom Come, the song remains the same
Interview by Rob Tannenbaum, Rolling Stone, 22 September 1988
A group of heavy-metal copycats just can't get the Led out ...
Public Enemy: Rockin' The Joint
Interview by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 22 September 1988
The incendiary rappers preach black self-sufficiency at New York's Riker's Island. But are they prisoners of their own racist doctrine? By Michael Azerrad ...
Review by Davitt Sigerson, Rolling Stone, 22 September 1988
Keith Sweat: Make It Last Forever (Elektra) ***; Tony Terry: Forever Yours (Epic) ***; Al B. Sure!: In Effect Mode (Warner Bros.) ***; Johnny Kemp: ...
Randy Newman: Still Grouchy After All These Years
Interview by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 22 September 1988
Randy Newman has overcome Epstein-Barr and has made another brilliant album. But that doesn't mean he's happy. ...
The Primitives: Lovely (RCA) ***
Review by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 22 September 1988
ART POP or pop art, it makes no difference — in a perfect world, every song on this record would be a hit. ...
David Lindley: The Weird World Of David Lindley
Interview by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 6 October 1988
DAVID LINDLEY has found the oud of his dreams in a guitar store on Manhattan's Forty-eighth Street. "This is a beauty," he says, admiring the ...
Dwight Yoakam: Buenos Noches From A Lonely Room
Review by Holly Gleason, Rolling Stone, 20 October 1988
SINCE FOCUSING the public eye on his archival brand of country music with Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc. two years ago, Dwight Yoakam has been good ...
Review by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 3 November 1988
When things get heavy ...
Run-DMC: Concert Violence: Who's to Blame?
Report by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 3 November 1988
Action needed in the wake of recent deaths at rap and metal shows ...
Michelle Shocked: Short, Sharp, Talented
Profile and Interview by Holly Gleason, Rolling Stone, 3 November 1988
Is country-folk singer Michelle Shocked ready for stardom? ...
Def Leppard: Rock's New Gift of Garb
Report and Interview by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 3 November 1988
Once maligned, concert merchandising is now rock's hottest business ...
Suicidal Tendencies: Calling the shots
Interview by Ira Robbins, Rolling Stone, 3 November 1988
Punks prove their metal ...
Mick Jagger, The Rolling Stones: Jagger scores down under
Report and Interview by Toby Creswell, Rolling Stone, 17 November 1988
Successful Australian tour reaffirms the singer's powers ...
Report by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 17 November 1988
Friends of the soul singer say drug has 'whipped him' ...
Kip Hanrahan, Hal Willner: Kip Hanrahan and Hal Willner: Rock's renegade producers
Profile and Interview by Rob Tannenbaum, Rolling Stone, 17 November 1988
Kip Hanrahan and Hal Willner make records that challenge the traditional notion of a producer's role ...
Pop Will Eat Itself: Box Frenzy (Rough Trade)
Review by Rob Tannenbaum, Rolling Stone, 17 November 1988
HERE COMES trouble. Perhaps the first hint of fallout from the Beastie Boys' bratty attitude and timely, surreal raps, Pop Will Eat Itself has recorded ...
Scalped: Why you can't get good concert seats
Report by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 17 November 1988
WHEN RHONDA Stofko and June Iacovello entered the New Rochelle Mall, in the suburbs of New York, at 7:30 one morning in August to purchase ...
Guns N' Roses: The Hard Truth About Guns N' Roses
Special Feature by Rob Tannenbaum, Rolling Stone, 17 November 1988
Finally, some bad boys who are good ...
Crosby Stills Nash & Young: CSNY release American Dream
Report and Interview by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 1 December 1988
First studio album since Déjà Vu ...
Book Review by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 1 December 1988
DAVID CROSBY'S autobiography, Long Time Gone, provides a gripping, sometimes terrifying portrait of a rock stars personal and professional decline through drug addiction. As an ...
Edie Brickell and New Bohemians: Shooting Rubber Bands at the Stars (Geffen) ***
Review by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 1 December 1988
"I'm not aware of too many things/I know what I know if you know what I mean/Philosophy is the talk on a cereal box/Religion is ...
Judas Priest: Heavy metal on trial
Report by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 1 December 1988
Judas Priest suicide suit takes 'subliminal message' tack ...
David Byrne: Byrne Compiles Brazil LP
Report and Interview by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 12 January 1989
Album spotlights 'tropicalismo' ...
Crosby Stills Nash & Young: Crosby Stills Nash and Young: American Dream
Review by Anthony DeCurtis, Rolling Stone, 12 January 1989
American Dream fades out on the line "Why not keep on singing anyway?" – and that lackadaisical slogan seems to sum up the spirit in ...
Creedence Clearwater Revival, John Fogerty: Fogerty Wins Unusual Self-Plagiarism Suit
Report by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 12 January 1989
Case is latest round in long fight with Fantasy Records ...
R.E.M.: Green (Warner Bros.) ***½
Review by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 12 January 1989
The greening of R.E.M. ...
Voice of the Beehive: Let It Bee (PolyGram)
Review by Rob Tannenbaum, Rolling Stone, 12 January 1989
THE BONANZA of new female talent in rock continues. Voice of the Beehive is a five-piece band led by sisters Tracey Bryn and Melissa Brooke, ...
Pink Floyd: Delicate Sound of Thunder (Columbia)
Review by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 26 January 1989
THIS LIVE double-LP set documents Pink Floyd's enormously successful 1987-88 world tour. Although it was inevitable, releasing a live record is still a bit strange, ...
Steve Earle: Copperhead Road (Uni) *** ½
Review by Rob Tannenbaum, Rolling Stone, 26 January 1989
IN 1986 AND 1987, Steve Earle made two great records — Guitar Town and Exit 0 — on which he established a vivid Southern-working-class identity ...
Steve Earle: A Bad Boy Settles Down
Report and Interview by Holly Gleason, Rolling Stone, 26 January 1989
STEVE EARLE recently released his third album, Copperhead Road, and married his fifth wife, Teresa. Considering that last New Year's Day found him in a ...
Bon Jovi, Gorky Park: Bon Jovi
Report and Interview by Rob Tannenbaum, Rolling Stone, 9 February 1989
THE AMBASSADORS OF LITE-METAL MUSIC HEAD OUT TO EXPORT NEW JERSEY TO RUSSIA AND THE REST OF THE WORLD ...
Jane's Addiction: Hardly a Plain Jane
Profile and Interview by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 9 February 1989
Viewing life with open eyes is the sensibility that fuels Los Angeles art rocker Perry Farrell and his group, Jane's Addiction ...
Lyle Lovett: Lyle Lovett and His Large Band (MCA/Curb) ****
Review by Holly Gleason, Rolling Stone, 9 February 1989
LYLE LOVETT has always been a little bit schizophrenic. A Nashville musician with big-band leanings, Lovett has somehow managed to gracefully walk the line between ...
The Go-Betweens: 16 Lovers Lane (Capitol)
Review by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 9 February 1989
AUSTRALIA'S GO-Betweens have been quietly recording wonderful albums of engaging pop for almost ten years. Previous records featured cleverly structured tunes with even cleverer lyrics, ...
The Replacements: Don't Tell a Soul (Sire/Reprise) ***½
Review by Ira Robbins, Rolling Stone, 9 February 1989
The Replacements' Adult Entertainment ...
Review by Anthony DeCurtis, Rolling Stone, 23 February 1989
NEW YORK is Lou Reed's rock & roll version of The Bonfire of the Vanities. But whereas Tom Wolfe maintains an ultimately cynical distance from ...
Cowboy Junkies Shoot For Success
Interview by Holly Gleason, Rolling Stone, 9 March 1989
NASHVILLE'S BLUEBIRD CAFE is packed for the local debut of the Cowboy Junkies. The Canadian bands lethargic cover of 'Sweet Jane' has been talked up ...
Danielle Dax: Dark Adapted Eye (Sire)
Review by Ira Robbins, Rolling Stone, 9 March 1989
WILDLY VARIED and unpredictable, Danielle Dax's Dark Adapted Eye finally delivers this accessibly eccentric veteran of the British independent-label scene to America. ...
Guy Clark: Old Friends (Sugar Hill) ***½
Review by Holly Gleason, Rolling Stone, 9 March 1989
THIS IS THE first album in five years by Guy dark, one of the deans of Texas songwriting. Like his previous work, Old Friends evokes ...
Report by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 9 March 1989
SOUL SINGER James Brown has received a second six-year prison sentence. The sentence will run concurrently with the six-year term Brown is already serving at ...
Phil Spector: He's a Rebel By Mark Ribowsky (E.R. Dutton, $18.95)
Book Review by Alan Betrock, Rolling Stone, 23 March 1989
Haunted Spector ...
Adele Bertei: Little Lives (Chrysalis) ***
Review by Deborah Frost, Rolling Stone, 23 March 1989
AT LAST A woman who proves that dance music and bimbo are not necessarily synonymous. Unlike the faceless, pitchless one-hit material-girl wonders, Bertei, on her ...
De La Soul: 3 Feet High and Rising (Tommy Boy)
Review by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 23 March 1989
DE LA SOUL HAS already mastered the three Js of postmodernism: juxtapose, juxtapose, juxtapose. Welcome to the first psychedelic hip-hop record. ...
Harry Connick Jr.: The Entertainer
Profile and Interview by Rob Tannenbaum, Rolling Stone, 23 March 1989
New Orleans jazz pianist Harry Connick brings mission to his music ...
New Order: Technique (Quest) ★★★
Review by Ira Robbins, Rolling Stone, 23 March 1989
NEW ORDER has regularly searched out trendy dance-music styles. Most recently, the quartet explored the musical scene of Europe's current hot spot, Ibiza, the Spanish ...
Tanita Tikaram: Ancient Heart (Reprise)
Review by Holly Gleason, Rolling Stone, 23 March 1989
AS HER album title suggests, Tanita Tikaram possesses an old soul. There's a worldliness to her work that belies her nineteen years, as she writes ...
XTC: Oranges and Lemons (Geffen)****
Review by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 23 March 1989
XTC's Paternal Power Pop ...
James Brown: Wrestling With The Devil
Report and Interview by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 6 April 1989
The struggle for the soul of the Godfather of Soul ...
Profile and Interview by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 6 April 1989
A trailblazing black rock band scores ...
The Beat, Fine Young Cannibals: Chewing the Fat with the Fine Young Cannibals
Interview by Rob Tannenbaum, Rolling Stone, 20 April 1989
A FEW WEEKS before the release of The Raw and the Cooked, Fine Young Cannibals' new album, Roland Gift and Andy Cox are in New ...
Rush: A Show of Hands (Mercury) *½
Review by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 20 April 1989
ALTHOUGH THEIR fans treat the three members of Rush as if they were the Holy Trinity, the band chose the theme of another threesome — ...
De La Soul's Hippie-hop: Psychedelic Rappers Introduce the DA.I.S.Y. Age
Profile and Interview by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 4 May 1989
"HELLO, YOU'VE reached Mars. What can I do for you?" Trugoy the Dove is on the telephone in the tidy basement of his parents' house ...
Brian Wilson: Landy Loses License
Report by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 18 May 1989
Brian Wilson's therapist agrees to ethics-charge settlement ...
Randy Newman: Coach House, San Juan Capistrano, CA
Live Review by Holly Gleason, Rolling Stone, 18 May 1989
Old Four Eyes Is Back ...
Report by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 1 June 1989
Is the classic-rock format dictating which acts record companies sign? ...
Profile and Interview by Rob Tannenbaum, Rolling Stone, 1 June 1989
L.A. rapper Tone-Lōc takes his success in stride — like everything else in his life ...
The Bangles: Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, Los Angeles CA
Live Review by Holly Gleason, Rolling Stone, 15 June 1989
Heroines Take a Fall ...
Tim Finn: All's Well That Enz Well
Profile and Interview by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 15 June 1989
ONE OF TIM Finn's best re-cent gigs was performing at a sheepshearing party in his native New Zealand. Along with his brother, Neil Finn of ...
Wendy and Lisa: Fruit at the Bottom (Columbia) ** 1/2
Review by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 15 June 1989
ON THEIR 1987 debut album, Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman seemed to be bending over backward not to sound like Prince, whose band they had ...
Cindy Lee Berryhill: Naked Movie Star (Rhino)
Review by Holly Gleason, Rolling Stone, 29 June 1989
CINDY LEE Berryhill comes across as a mixture of beat poet, street waif and social gadfly — a dangerous combination that threatens to slide into ...
Review by Rob Tannenbaum, Rolling Stone, 29 June 1989
AT A TIME when most prominent black groups are, like Public Enemy, Living Colour and De La Soul, post-hip-hop upstarts, Andrew Roachford is a determinedly ...
Youssou N'Dour: Can Youssou N'Dour Score?
Profile and Interview by Rob Tannenbaum, Rolling Stone, 13 July 1989
With a little help from Peter Gabriel, Senegal's top artist looks to the West ...
k.d. lang: k.d.lang: Absolute Torch and Twang
Review by Holly Gleason, Rolling Stone, 13 July 1989
Absolute Torch and Twang – the third major-label LP by Canadian chanteuse K.D. Lang and the second with her band the Reclines – splits the ...
Interview by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 13 July 1989
Once postpunk's bad boys, the members of the Cult have found fame with Sonic Temple ...
Wynton Marsalis: Majesty of the Blues (Columbia) ***½
Review by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 13 July 1989
NONE OTHER than Miles Davis himself pronounced trumpeter Wynton Marsalis a "perfect player," but that may have been damning with faint praise — there was ...
Retrospective by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 10 August 1989
BREAD VIRTUALLY invented soft rock in the early Seventies, and the group's biggest hits – 'Make It With You', 'If', 'Baby I'm-a Want You' and ...
Cleveland Affirms Rock Hall of Fame Deal
Report by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 10 August 1989
City must raise funds by mid-November ...
Grand Funk Railroad: Mark Farner
Interview by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 10 August 1989
"THE TRUE JOY that I have now comes from knowing Jesus Christ as my Savior and my Lord, and rendering my life in servitude to ...
Neneh Cherry: Raw Like Sushi (Virgin) ***½
Review by Rob Tannenbaum, Rolling Stone, 10 August 1989
TALK ABOUT a sign of the times: Earlier in the decade, Neneh Cherry was a peripheral member of the postpunk warriors the Slits, then played ...
Clint Black: Killin' Time (MCA) ***½
Review by Holly Gleason, Rolling Stone, 24 August 1989
IN TODAY'S brave new Nashville, artists fall into neat categories: the docile crooners, like Randy Travis and George Strait, who sing pretty and pretty much ...
Bobby Brown, New Edition: Bobby Brown's Uneasy Passage
Profile and Interview by Rob Tannenbaum, Rolling Stone, 7 September 1989
Will the Jack of Swim be the next King of Soul? ...
The Cure: Searching For The Cure
Report and Interview by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 7 September 1989
Can the masters of "mope rock" enjoy life at the top? ...
Studio 54 Co-Owner Steve Rubell Dead at 45
Report by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 7 September 1989
STEVE RUBELL, whose celebrity-studded New York discotheque Studio 54 was at the epicenter of the disco craze during the late Seventies, died July 25th in ...
Moe Tucker: Maureen Tucker: Life in Exile After Abdication (50 Skidillion Watts)
Review by Rob Tannenbaum, Rolling Stone, 5 October 1989
MAUREEN TUCKER was the Ringo Starr of the Velvet Underground — an unschooled drummer whose hard, unadorned, idiosyncratic style was an irreplaceable element of the ...
Phranc: I Enjoy Being a Girl (Island)
Review by Deborah Frost, Rolling Stone, 5 October 1989
'FOLKSINGER', THE opening cut on I Enjoy Being a Girl, instantly encapsulates everything that is right — as well as everything that is wrong — ...
Live Review by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 5 October 1989
HAD SOMEONE predicted in 1978 that 49,223 people in a stadium would one day clap and sing along as the Gothic rockers in the Cure ...
Tears for Fears: Fear of Finishing
Report and Interview by Ira Robbins, Rolling Stone, November 1989
Songs From The Big Delay: How Tears For Fears Took Four Years To Sprout The Seeds of Love ...
Rickie Lee Jones: Flying Cowboys
Review by Anthony DeCurtis, Rolling Stone, 2 November 1989
Flying Cowboys simultaneously bears the distinctive mark of Rickie Lee Jones's wild, unruly talent and continues the steady process by which her art is achieving ...
Tears for Fears: The Seeds Of Love (PolyGram) ****
Review by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 2 November 1989
AFTER THE release of Tears For Fears' mammoth-selling second album, Songs From the Big Chair, in 1985, an English music paper remarked, "It'll soon be ...
B.B. King: Mississippi Homecoming
Report and Interview by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 30 November 1989
RILEY B. KING, a son of the Mississippi Delta and by everyone's admission but his own the King of the Blues, stands by a two-lane ...
Daniel Lanois: Chairman of the Boards
Interview by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 30 November 1989
Daniel Lanois, rock's premier producer, steps out with his own album ...
Jeff Beck, Stevie Ray Vaughan: Jeff Beck & Stevie Ray Vaughan: Guitar Slingers Shoot It Out
Report and Interview by Ted Drozdowski, Rolling Stone, 30 November 1989
Jeff Beck and Stevie Ray Vaughan go head-to-head on U.S. tour ...
Bruce Springsteen: Springsteen Goes It Alone
Report by Rob Tannenbaum, Rolling Stone, 11 January 1990
Rocker will search for a new direction without the E Street Band ...
Echo & The Bunnymen, Ian McCulloch: Ian McCulloch
Interview by Ira Robbins, Rolling Stone, 5 February 1990
AN HOUR BEFORE Echo and the Bunnymen went onstage in Osaka, Japan for the final date of a world tour in April 1988, singer Ian ...
The Jungle Brothers: Jungle Brothers: Done by the Forces of Nature (Warner Bros.) ***1/2
Review by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 8 February 1990
THE JUNGLE Brothers are part of the Native Tongues, a triumvirate of innovative rap groups (including De la Soul and A Tribe Called Quest) united ...
Roxanne Shanté: Bad Sister ****
Review by Chuck Eddy, Rolling Stone, 8 February 1990
RECORDED BETWEEN laundry loads in 1985 when she was fourteen years old, Roxanne Shanté's first single, 'Roxanne's Revenge', was a spontaneous storm of sassy rap ...
The Residents: The King and Eye ***½ (Enigma)
Review by Ira Robbins, Rolling Stone, 8 February 1990
CLOAKED IN anonymity, the Residents have spent fifteen years playfully dancing around music's strangest regions to create a vast, influential and mostly enjoyable body of ...
Review by James Hunter, Rolling Stone, 8 February 1990
STARS OF the Gospel Highway traces the exuberant rise of black gospel in America. The third in a series coordinated by Anthony Heilbut, a chronicler ...
Interview by Anthony DeCurtis, Rolling Stone, 22 February 1990
With her last album, Janet declared her independence from her famous family. Now, on Rhythm Nation, she's stepping out and dealing with the real world ...
Interview by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 22 February 1990
"IT'S NOT like I'm a horribly depressed person trying to come across as having a noose around my neck," says Trent Reznor, the sole member ...
Obituary by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 22 March 1990
The pioneering rocker takes his own life after waging a losing battle with chronic depression ...
Review by Chuck Eddy, Rolling Stone, 22 March 1990
'YA BE YE', the first single from Yemenite thrush Ofra Haza's Desert Wind, is a song of maternal advice, a Middle Eastern rejoinder to the ...
The B-52s: Mission Accomplished
Report and Interview by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 22 March 1990
...
A Tribe Called Quest: People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm ***
Review by Chuck Eddy, Rolling Stone, 19 April 1990
INASMUCH AS THE arch and arty New York hip-hop foursome A Tribe Called Quest exudes any enthusiasm at all on its debut album, that enthusiasm ...
Lisa Stansfield: Affection (Arista) ****
Review by Amy Linden, Rolling Stone, 3 May 1990
ENGLAND HAS been spewing out the latest in hip soul stylists, but the "style" part hasn't been cutting the mustard. Mostly the records have been ...
Guns N' Roses, N.W.A: At a Loss for Words
Report by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 31 May 1990
Record-industry acceptance of stickering is already having a chilling effect ...
Live Review by Robert Sandall, Rolling Stone, 31 May 1990
WHILE THE black south African leader Nelson Mandela was still in jail, his seventieth birthday, in June 1988, inspired the starriest gathering of rockers since ...
Review by Chuck Eddy, Rolling Stone, 14 June 1990
AS EDISON MIGHT have put it, most great disco is one-percent inspiration, ninety-nine-percent perspiration. Its unguarded vulgarity is what puts it over – "I'm not ...
The Sundays: Reading, Writing And Arithmetic
Review by Ira Robbins, Rolling Stone, 14 June 1990
TO JOIN THE RANKS of sophisticated pop ensembles with female vocalists — whose membership includes the Cocteau Twins, 10,000 Maniacs and, on occasion, Everything But ...
Interview by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 12 July 1990
Former pop bassist Norman Cook proves a studio wizard ...
Review by Davitt Sigerson, Rolling Stone, 12 July 1990
The New Jack Edition ...
Soul II Soul: Two London club DJs redefine classic soul with a new approach to making music
Interview by Robert Sandall, Rolling Stone, 12 July 1990
BERESFORD ROMEO, the twenty-seven-year-old black British rapper and entrepreneur better known as Jazzie B. is sprawled comfortably across the end of a sofa in a ...
Mariah Carey: Building the Perfect Diva
Report and Interview by Rob Tannenbaum, Rolling Stone, 23 August 1990
Mariah Carey had a hit LP and a Top Ten single, but whose 'Vision' is it? ...
Profile and Interview by Evelyn McDonnell, Rolling Stone, 23 August 1990
Pouty vocals drape a psychedelic soundtrack ...
Retrospective and Interview by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 23 August 1990
"My eyes were opened. There's a new world and a new society and a new spirit." ...
2 Live Crew: Banned in the U.S.A.: The Luke LP Featuring the 2 Live Crew (Luke/Atlantic) ***
Review by Chuck Eddy, Rolling Stone, 6 September 1990
ODDLY ENOUGH, given the unprecedented barrage of anxiety Luther Campbell's foul mouth has inspired, the 2 Live Crew doesn't have a remarkably inventive mind forsin. ...
Cameo: Real Men... Wear Black (PolyGram) ***
Review by Amy Linden, Rolling Stone, 6 September 1990
THERE WAS a time when Larry Blackmon's yowl was a definite signal to be on the lookout for the funk. Cameo's leader and main vocalist ...
The Neville Brothers: Neville Brothers: Brother's Keeper
Review by John Mendelsohn, Rolling Stone, 6 September 1990
SHOUDN’T IT BE A CLINCH TO PRODUCE a consistently breathtaking Neville Brothers album? Wouldn’t one have only to hand Aaron Neville a collection of worthy ...
Review by Chuck Eddy, Rolling Stone, 6 September 1990
SHONEN KNIFE consists of three young Japanese women who play some of the happiest, snappiest rock & roll ever to bounce off a satellite dish. ...
Alice In Chains, Mother Love Bone, The Posies: A Seattle Slew
Report and Interview by Dave DiMartino, Rolling Stone, 20 September 1990
Record companies are flocking to the Great Northwest, signing bands like crazy and hoping to find the Next Big Thing ...
Marion Williams: Surely God Is Able (SpiritFeel/Shanachie)
Review by James Hunter, Rolling Stone, 20 September 1990
COMMENTATORS OFTEN place the Olympian gospel singer Marion Williams, a thriving veteran who got her start singing with the Ward Sisters during the late Forties, ...
Review by Chuck Eddy, Rolling Stone, 20 September 1990
THE DOWNFALL of Poison, whose first two albums showcased a carefree marriage of '60s bubblegum to '70s hard rock, can be traced to the day ...
Obituary by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 4 October 1990
STEVIE RAY VAUGHAN has died, and with him goes the spirit of Jimi Hendrix once again. Vaughan was linked to Hendrix throughout his playing life. ...
Review by John Mendelsohn, Rolling Stone, 18 October 1990
IN VIEW OF MÖTLEY CRÜE’S AND OZZY Osbourne’s ongoing mega-stardom, it’s hard to imagine that success in heavy metal is the result of anything other ...
Metallica: Elektra: a Label Celebrates its Heritage
Report and Interview by Rob Tannenbaum, Rolling Stone, 1 November 1990
Forty years of Elektra music, from Josh White and Tom Paxton to Metallica and the Cure ...
The Pixies: Surfing With The Aliens: The Pixies
Report and Interview by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 1 November 1990
THE KIDS AT England's annual Reading festival are a scruffy lot. A ‘90s hybrid of hippie and punk, they wear tie-dyed T-shirts, asymmetrical hairdos, jeans ...
The Meters: Look-Ka Py Py; Good Old Funky Music (both Rounder)
Review by Ted Drozdowski, Rolling Stone, 1 November 1990
SOUL MUSIC has a history of great instrumentals: 'Green Onions', 'Soul Serenade', 'Last Night' — and virtually every early independent-label recording by the Meters. Led ...
The Vaughan Brothers: Family Style (Epic)
Review by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 1 November 1990
Brothers Beyond Tears ...
Creedence Clearwater Revival, Tom Fogerty: Tom Fogerty Dies
Obituary by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 1 November 1990
Co-founded Creedence Clearwater Revival ...
Review by John Mendelsohn, Rolling Stone, 15 November 1990
SINCE THE HEYDAY of Little Richard, one of the things that teenagers have liked most about rock & roll is that it can provoke parents ...
Soul Asylum: Soul Asylum and the Horse They Rode In On (Twin-Tone/A&M) ***
Review by Evelyn McDonnell, Rolling Stone, 29 November 1990
THE FOUR MEMBERS of the Minneapolis band Soul Asylum honed their chops in the imposing shadow of the almighty Hüsker Dü. When the Hüskers split ...
ZZ Top: Recycler (Warner Bros.) ****
Review by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 29 November 1990
ZZ Top Recycles the Blues ...
Cinderella: Heartbreak Station
Review by Chuck Eddy, Rolling Stone, 10 January 1991
LIKE TOO MANY hard-rock albums in the last year or so, the latest by the mall-metal stalwarts in Cinderella is a blatant bid for the ...
Cocteau Twins: Beacon Theater, New York NY
Live Review by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 10 January 1991
THE COCTEAU twins are the prototypal ethereal postpunk group, their diaphanous music aerated by layers of rippling guitars and Liz Fraser's virtuoso wordless vocals. Prone ...
Whitney Houston: I'm Your Baby Tonight (Arista)
Review by James Hunter, Rolling Stone, 10 January 1991
Whitney Gets Warmer ...
Al B. Sure!: Private Times... and the Whole 9! (Warner Bros.) **½
Review by Amy Linden, Rolling Stone, 24 January 1991
FRAMING PRIVATE Times... and the Whole 9!, the latest from Al B. Sure!, is a remake of 'Hotel California'. Yes, that 'Hotel California' — and ...
The Waterboys: Beacon Theater, New York NY
Live Review by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 24 January 1991
ON THE Waterboys' 1988 tour, the stage was thick with musicians playing Irish folk instruments while leader Mike Scott hung back on acoustic guitar. But ...
ZZ Top: Cow Palace, San Francisco, CA
Live Review by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 24 January 1991
WHO BUT ZZ Top would use laser lights to project a crude line drawing of a woman, naked save for cowboy hat and boots, onto ...
Jimmie Vaughan, Stevie Ray Vaughan: Jimmie Vaughan: Picking Up the Pieces
Interview by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 7 February 1991
After the death of his brother, Jimmie Vaughan carried on ...
Ralph Tresvant: Ralph Tresvant (MCA)
Review by Amy Linden, Rolling Stone, 7 February 1991
RALPH TRESVANT is a pretty package, but once you rip off the ornamentation, all you're left with is a box filled with Styrofoam peanuts and ...
Paul Simon: Oakland Coliseum Arena, California
Live Review by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 7 March 1991
THE ENTIRE AUDIENCE at the Oakland Coliseum was dancing to Paul Simon's Graceland hit 'You Can Call Me Al'. ...
Queen: Innuendo (Hollywood) ***
Review by Chuck Eddy, Rolling Stone, 7 March 1991
ONE WAY TO CONFIRM that Queen never consisted of your typically haughty progressive-rock snobs is to consider the following: In the late Seventies, Emerson, Lake ...
Alexander O'Neal: All True Man (Tabu/Epic)
Review by James Hunter, Rolling Stone, 4 April 1991
SINGER ALEXANDER O'Neal has been an adult-soul champ since he and his producers, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, released Alexander O'Neal in 1985. That debut ...
Interview by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 18 April 1991
Hot Ticket Chris Isaak: The last time he played Los Angeles, he couldn't get a sound check. ...
Review by Chuck Eddy, Rolling Stone, 18 April 1991
EVER SINCE the Who and the Stones, if not the Revolutionary War, uppity British ironists have made a habit of "elevating" vulgar American pop crazes ...
Janet Jackson, Michael Jackson: The Jacksons Score Big
Report by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 2 May 1991
Michael and Janet set new standards for artist deals ...
Janet Jackson, Sting, Suzanne Vega: Changing Times at A&M
Report and Interview by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 16 May 1991
The classy, formerly independent label tries for a comeback ...
Guitar Designer Leo Fender Dies
Obituary by uncredited writer, Rolling Stone, 16 May 1991
CLARENCE LEO Fender, the inventor whose solid-body electric guitars changed the course of music history, died on March 21st in Fullerton, California. The eighty-two-year-old Fender ...
Boogie Down Productions, KRS-One: KRS-One: Wisdom From The Street
Profile and Interview by Alan Light, Rolling Stone, 30 May 1991
Kris Parker once lived in the subways and shelters of New York. Now the rapper known as KRS-One is hip-hop's righteous voice — and one ...
Pet Shop Boys: Radio City Music Hall, New York NY
Live Review by Rob Tannenbaum, Rolling Stone, 30 May 1991
UNLESS ELVIS Presley reappears in Las Vegas, the curiosity and expectations that preceded the Pet Shop Boys' first American tour are unlikely to be equaled ...
Review by Chuck Eddy, Rolling Stone, 13 June 1991
UNION, A REUNION of most of the people who used to sing and play instruments for Yes, is an eclectic miscarriage that almost isn't even ...
Review by Chuck Eddy, Rolling Stone, 27 June 1991
TO HER CREDIT, Pat Benatar has never been a purist. From the beginning, this opera-trained mom has not cared whether you classified her as a ...
Throwing Muses: The Real Ramona (Sire) ***½
Review by Evelyn McDonnell, Rolling Stone, 27 June 1991
AS THROWING Muses has developed, so have the band's imperatives. On the Muses' first album, Kristin Hersh and Tayna Donelly, the group's two singer-songwriters, were ...
David Ruffin, The Temptations: Former Temptation David Ruffin Dies
Obituary by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 11 July 1991
DAVID RUFFIN, a former lead singer for the Temptations, died of a drug overdose in the early-morning hours of June 1st at the Hospital of ...
Richard Thompson: Rumor and Sigh (Capitol) ***½
Review by Ira Robbins, Rolling Stone, 11 July 1991
AN EXCEPTIONAL guitarist whose memorable songs have been widely covered, Richard Thompson is — more than twenty years into the personal odyssey that outlines his ...
Geto Boys: We Can't Be Stopped (Def American) **½
Review by Rob Tannenbaum, Rolling Stone, 5 September 1991
IT'S A FAMILIAR debate: conservative guardians call the Geto Boys' music obscene, while liberal watchdogs accuse them of glorifying violence against women and degrading the ...
Report by Rob Tannenbaum, Rolling Stone, 19 September 1991
Inside the world of headbangers in New York and Los Angeles ...
Kentucky Headhunters: Hard-Rock Hoedown
Profile and Interview by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 19 September 1991
The Kentucky Headhunters serve up their own style of Southern fare. ...
Grateful Dead: Poster Artist Rick Griffin Dies
Obituary by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 3 October 1991
RICK GRIFFIN, one of the creators of the psychedelic poster art that originated in San Francisco during the mid-Sixties, died on August 17th of severe ...
Fabulous Thunderbirds: The Fabulous Thunderbirds: Walk That Walk, Talk That Talk (Epic)
Review by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 3 October 1991
IT'S HARD TO imagine the fabulous Thunderbirds without founding member Jimmie Vaughan. ...
Bryan Adams: Waking Up the Neighbours (A&M)
Review by James Hunter, Rolling Stone, 17 October 1991
WAKING UP the Neighbours will, with no sweat, reestablish Bryan Adams as the radio's hoarse purveyor of energy and fun. A scrupulously careful yet adamantly ...
Beat Happening, Fugazi, Thee Headcoats, L7: The Alternative Underground
Report by Ira Robbins, Rolling Stone, 17 October 1991
Bands on the real cutting edge turn out for six-day Washington festival. ...
Billy Bragg: Don't Try This at Home (Elektra)
Review by Rob Tannenbaum, Rolling Stone, 31 October 1991
ALTHOUGH BILLY Bragg is often a great songwriter, it's no surprise that his socialist-propaganda ditties haven't converted young Americans to the teachings of Marx and ...
Report by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 31 October 1991
NOW THAT the compact disc has supplanted the vinyl phonograph record, consumers can brace for another technology war. Next year, Philips Electronics N.V. and Sony ...
Primus: Does Primus Really Suck?
Report and Interview by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 31 October 1991
The San Francisco trio, whose music mixes thrash, funk and progressive rock, has built a devoted following of fans on the alternative scene ...
Mariah Carey: Emotions (Columbia) **
Review by Rob Tannenbaum, Rolling Stone, 14 November 1991
A ROOKIE success as spectacular as Mariah Carey's tends to spark a backlash, and Carey was derided by skeptics who saw that Columbia Records had ...
Matthew Sweet: A New Girlfriend for Matthew Sweet
Profile and Interview by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 28 November 1991
Hard-edged album documents romantic turmoil ...
Profile and Interview by Rob Tannenbaum, Rolling Stone, 28 November 1991
Or will success drive the British singer 'Crazy'? ...
Review by Ira Robbins, Rolling Stone, 28 November 1991
DESPITE THE hand-wringing the fanzines do each time an indie-rock hero signs a major-label deal, righteous postpunk stars from Hüsker Dü to Soundgarden have joined ...
Bill Graham 1931-1991: Rock's Greatest Showman
Obituary by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 12 December 1991
THE MUSICAL notes seemed to hang in the air of the synagogue, each one dripping with the sorrow and heartache felt by those who had ...
Live Review by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 12 December 1991
ON SUNDAY, November 3rd, more than 300,000 people showed up at the Polo Field in Golden Gate Park for the biggest rock concert ever held ...
Michael Jackson: The Making Of The King Of Pop
Report by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 9 January 1992
THE SEVEN DWARFS are singing. Their voices are floating out of speakers hidden among the trees and lush flora surrounding Michael Jackson's mansion in Neverland ...
Live Review by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 6 February 1992
A GUY WHO can sing a line like "Baby, you're too well-read" and mean it, Lloyd Cole is the intellectual in the black leather jacket ...
Robert Wyatt: Dondestan (Gramavision)
Review by Ira Robbins, Rolling Stone, 6 February 1992
THROUGHOUT A career as singular and honest as his expressive voice, Robert Wyatt has remained a true progressive. From his days in the Soft Machine, ...
My Bloody Valentine: The Sound of the Future: My Bloody Valentine
Interview by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 6 February 1992
"WE'D LIKE TO COME OUT FROM the shadow of the greatest things ever done," declares Kevin Shields, the soft-spoken, bookish-looking leader of My Bloody Valentine. ...
Review by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 20 February 1992
MUSICIANS WHO live in New York City have often learned the hard way that the music industry can he short-sighted when it comes to recognizing ...
Bryan Adams: The Ritz, New York City
Live Review by Ira Robbins, Rolling Stone, 5 March 1992
THE BIRTH OF ROCK & ROLL WAS A messy business. With an instinctive need for communication that just couldn’t wait for formal language, the baby ...
Buckwheat Zydeco: On Track (Charisma) ***½
Review by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 19 March 1992
STANLEY DURAL JR. made an error in choosing the stage name Buckwheat Zydeco. ...
Luka Bloom Doesn't Want To Be Just Another Boring Folkie
Interview by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 19 March 1992
A STRICT VEGETARIAN, Luka Bloom is right at home at a fanatic health-food restaurant in Manhattan's East Village, where he's outlining the fundamental problem with ...
Elton John: The Rebirth of Elton John
Interview by Philip Norman, Rolling Stone, 19 March 1992
Drugs, fame and alcohol turned him into a monster. Now, after rehab, he's clean, happy and in love. ...
Review by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 19 March 1992
A CHARTER MEMBER of England's class of '77, XTC is one of the few bands from that era to remain virtually intact. ...
ABBA: The Munich Philharmonic Orchestra Plays ABBA Classic (Atlantic)
Review by Chuck Eddy, Rolling Stone, 16 April 1992
IT'D BE REAL easy to make fun of this one. But think about it: It was ABBA, after all, that most successfully turned postrock pop ...
Garth Brooks: Country's New Gold Rush
Report and Interview by Rob Tannenbaum, Rolling Stone, 16 April 1992
With Garth Brooks leading the way, Nashville is booming ...
Lush: Spooky (4AD/Reprise) ***
Review by Simon Reynolds, Rolling Stone, 16 April 1992
FOR THE past few years, British indie rock has been dominated by bands known as shoegazers (because they're shy onstage), purveying a style of music ...
Nirvana: Inside the Heart and Mind of Kurt Cobain
Interview by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 16 April 1992
FOR NOW, Kurt Cobain and his new wife Courtney Love, live in an apartment in Los Angeles's modest Fairfax district. The living room holds little ...
Green River, The Melvins, Mudhoney, Nirvana, Soundgarden, Supersuckers: Seattle: Grunge City
Report and Interview by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 16 April 1992
For real rockers Seattle is the ultimate wet dream. By Michael Azerrad ...
Superchunk: Tossing Seeds (Singles 89-91)
Review by Chuck Eddy, Rolling Stone, 16 April 1992
SUPERCHUNK IS A fresh-faced power-pop quartet – three boys, plus a girl on bass – from North Carolina that does one thing and does it, ...
They Might Be Giants: Apollo 18 (Elektra) ***½
Review by Ira Robbins, Rolling Stone, 30 April 1992
THE WORLD OF absurdist wit has always numbered musicians among its residents, but no band has gentrified the neighborhood like They Might Be Giants. ...
Review by James Hunter, Rolling Stone, 14 May 1992
Healing for a Cult of Millions ...
The Jesus & Mary Chain: Honey's Dead (Def American) ***½
Review by Ira Robbins, Rolling Stone, 14 May 1992
AN APPETITE for self-destruction, any psych major can tell you, is a cry for attention. So when Jim Reid of the Jesus and Mary Chain ...
Cypress Hill: The Disciples of Pot
Interview by Rob Tannenbaum, Rolling Stone, 28 May 1992
Cypress Hill says marijuana's getting a bad rap ...
El DeBarge: In the Storm (Warner Bros.) ***
Review by Chuck Eddy, Rolling Stone, 28 May 1992
El DEBARGE'S god (to whom El apologizes for his "lasciviousness" in the liner notes) blessed him with the voice of an angel. When El was ...
Live Review by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 25 June 1992
ONE OF this country's few truly underground bands, Fugazi refuses to join a major label and adamantly avoids any promotion. The band members won't even ...
Juliana Hatfield: Hey Babe (Mammoth)
Review by Rob Tannenbaum, Rolling Stone, 9 July 1992
JULIANA HATFIELD is not the first writer to depict romance as a covert war between supposed allies. A previous generation of singer-songwriters, notably Joni Mitchell ...
Billy Ray Cyrus: The Man Who Would Be King of Country
Profile and Interview by Rob Tannenbaum, Rolling Stone, 6 August 1992
Billy Ray Cyrus scored with Some Gave All ...
Helmet: Big Boom in Industrial Metal
Interview by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 20 August 1992
Helmet signs million-dollar deal with Interscope ...
The Black Crowes: The Hordern Pavilion Sydney, Australia
Live Review by Toby Creswell, Rolling Stone, 20 August 1992
THE BLACK Crowes flew almost 12,000 miles to speak to the disfranchised. The 4500 people who crammed into the Atlanta band's single Sydney show were ...
Live Review by Ted Drozdowski, Rolling Stone, 20 August 1992
EVAN DANDOand Juliana Hatfield make the kind of garage pop that's kept Boston's collegiate audiences enthralled since 1980, when the local favorites the Neighborhoods recorded ...
Helmet: Meantime (Interscope) ***½
Review by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 17 September 1992
A MARVEL OF precisely channeled aggression, Meantime could be the soundtrack to the mind of an NFL linebacker. Leader and rantwriter Page Hamilton sounds like ...
Jerry Garcia, Grateful Dead: Jerry Garcia Ill; Dead Cancel Tour
Report by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 1 October 1992
THE GRATEFUL Dead have canceled a four-city fall tour of the East Coast and have put other plans on hold until Jerry Garcia recovers from ...
Marty Stuart: This One's Gonna Hurt You (MCA)
Review by Holly George-Warren, Rolling Stone, 1 October 1992
"I'M COUNTRY to the bone," Marty Stuart growls in 'Me and Hank and Jumpin' Jack Flash', an update of the hokey hillbilly-heaven theme and the ...
Live Review by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 1 October 1992
PJ HARVEY isn't like anybody else. The British power trio combines English folk cadences, the stark interplay of electric Chicago blues and vintage postpunk, suffused ...
Rolling Stone: A Day in the Life
Memoir by Andrew Bailey, Rolling Stone, 15 October 1992
I RAN THE magazine's London office for five years in the early Seventies, contributing stories and acting as editor for a bunch of other writers, ...
Paul McCartney: "It was my role to be a bit more the cheerful chap than the others"
Memoir by Paul Gambaccini, Rolling Stone, 15 October 1992
PAUL McCARTNEY changed my life when I heard 'I Want to Hold Your Hand' for the first time, on WINS in New York in late ...
Nirvana: Reading Festival, England
Live Review by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 29 October 1992
"FUCK WOODSTOCK," read one popular T-shirt here, although this twentieth annual jamboree also began with lots of wasted folks frolicking in the mud and ended ...
Etta James: The Right Time ****
Review by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 26 November 1992
THERE IS no greater living blues singer than Etta James, and no producer more attuned to the right setting for a blues diva than Jerry ...
George Jones: Tramps, New York NY
Live Review by Rob Tannenbaum, Rolling Stone, 7 January 1993
OVERWHELMED BY the adoring crowd that greeted his first New York show in thirteen years, George Jones blinked in disbelief and said shyly, "We may ...
Report and Interview by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 7 January 1993
After a successful European summer tour and a sold-out show at the mammoth 45,000-seat Velez Sarsfield Stadium, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, what has the world's ...
Jerry Garcia, Grateful Dead: Garcia: Trucking Again
Report and Interview by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 21 January 1993
The Grateful Dead bounce back with new releases and a tour in '93 ...
The Beastie Boys, Henry Rollins: The Beastie Boys, Rollins Band: Roseland Ballroom New York NY
Live Review by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 21 January 1993
THIS PAIRING wasn't as odd as it seemed, because the Beastie Boys have created ― or at least mobilized ― a new kind of fan. ...
Utah Saints: Utah Saints (London/PLG) ; Various Artists: Techno Mancer (Antler Subway/Caroline)
Review by James Hunter, Rolling Stone, 21 January 1993
TECHNO IS music that gets on people's nerves. Whether pounding like metal or watercoloring like New Age, it strikes many as repetitive and cold, about ...
Mudhoney, Pavement: 45rpm Singles: Seven Inches of Pleasure
Report by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 4 February 1993
For bands and fans, the single is the new format of choice ...
Obituary by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 4 February 1993
Blues master dies at age sixty-nine ...
Bikini Kill: Bikini Kill EP (Kill Rock Stars) **½
Review by Chuck Eddy, Rolling Stone, 4 February 1993
ANY DECENT PARENT would be proud of a daughter who staked her claim as a "riot grrrl" these days. ...
Curtis Mayfield: The Anthology 1961-1977
Review by Joe McEwen, Rolling Stone, 4 February 1993
CURTIS MAYFIELD and the Impressions: The Anthology, a two-CD, forty-song set, is a remarkable document. Lovingly assembled by Chicago-soul authority Robert Pruter, this collection connects ...
Keith Richards & The X-Pensive Winos: Town and Country Club, London
Live Review by David Sinclair, Rolling Stone, 4 February 1993
ON THE EVE of his forty-ninth birthday, the eternally delinquent Keith Richards was back in his hometown, at an 1800-capacity club, doing what he loves ...
Review by James Hunter, Rolling Stone, 4 February 1993
RATHER THAN preaching or hectoring, the Five Blind Boys of Alabama featuring the great Clarence Fountain just demonstrate their beliefs through the medium of music. ...
Dinosaur Jr: Where You Been (Sire) ****
Review by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 18 February 1993
TODAY'S TWENTYSOMETHINGS didn't grow up on the Beatles and the Stones. They grew up on Kiss, Peter Frampton and Neil Young. Making something meaningful out ...
Screaming Trees: The Lost Boys
Profile and Interview by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 18 February 1993
IT IS THE second of a pair of Seattle homecoming shows that close their tour with Alice in Chains, and Screaming Trees are well into ...
Debbie Gibson: Deborah Gibson: Body Mind Soul
Review by Chuck Eddy, Rolling Stone, 4 March 1993
USED TO BE the most risqué thing about Debbie Gibson was how in 'Lost in Your Eyes' you could hear her sing "I get weak ...
Poison: Native Tongue (Capitol) **½
Review by Deborah Frost, Rolling Stone, 18 March 1993
"OH, NO, NO," moans Bret Michaels during the final, crashing chords of the newly reconstituted Poison's attempt to reestablish its lacquered toehold on the bubble-metal ...
Interview by David Sinclair, Rolling Stone, 1 April 1993
WHEN THE English rock stars of the 1960s eventually wearied of life on the road and in the metropolis, the ones who still had any ...
Interview by Anthony DeCurtis, Rolling Stone, 1 April 1993
GARTH BROOKS is a regular at the Pancake Pantry on Twenty-first Avenue in Nashville. When he arrives for breakfast, the proprietor greets him at the ...
Review by James Hunter, Rolling Stone, 15 April 1993
The Bliss Album: A New Dawn ...
Robyn Hitchcock & the Egyptians: Respect (A&M) ***½
Review by Evelyn McDonnell, Rolling Stone, 15 April 1993
ALTHOUGH HE'S gussied them up in images of frogs, fish, food and whatnot, Robyn Hitchcock's obsessions have always been basic and Freudian: sex and death. ...
Meat Puppets, Negativland: SST Records: Lawyers, Punks and Money
Report by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 15 April 1993
SST Records' battle of writs and wills against former acts ...
Antenna: Hideout (Mammoth) ***½
Review by Holly George-Warren, Rolling Stone, 29 April 1993
"PLUMB THE depths, descend the steps and maybe you can have it for your own." The lyrics to 'Shine', the opening track on Hideout, Antenna's ...
John Lee Hooker: Boom Boom (Pointblank/Charisma) ***½
Review by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 29 April 1993
JOHN LEE HOOKER is the last ofthe classic Mississippi Delta blues guitarists, the unaccompanied bards who could generate more energy sitting on a low stool ...
Live Review by Rob Tannenbaum, Rolling Stone, 13 May 1993
RUN-D.M.C. holds a fistful of rap firsts — Top Five single, million-selling album, Rolling Stone cover — so it's hardly surprising that it's now the ...
Review by Chuck Eddy, Rolling Stone, 13 May 1993
THE ONLY THING you can say for sure about 'Informer', the unsinkable Number One reggae novelty by white Toronto toaster Snow, is that it somehow ...
Lollapalooza: Return of the All Day Sucker
Report by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 27 May 1993
Lollapalooza '93: The making of the summer's biggest rave ...
Interview by Steven Daly, Rolling Stone, 27 May 1993
England's new Band of the Century hits a glam slam ...
Butthole Surfers: Independent Worm Saloon (Capitol) ***
Review by Ira Robbins, Rolling Stone, 10 June 1993
IS NOTHING sacred? This alternative thing has definitely spun out of control when the Butthole Surfers — America's worst underground-rock nightmare, a band that began ...
David Bowie: Station to Station
Interview by David Sinclair, Rolling Stone, 10 June 1993
ON A PERSONAL TOUR OF ZIGGY'S LONDON, DAVID BOWIE LOOKS BACK HIS AT DAYS AS THE GLAM KING OF ENGLAND ...
The Lemonheads, Sloan: Lemonheads, Sloan: The Academy, New York NY
Live Review by Ira Robbins, Rolling Stone, 10 June 1993
NEWLY PROMOTED from the 'Sassy' Cute Boy Alert to one of People's fifty most beautiful people, head Lemonhead Evan Dando is reaching that state of ...
Monie Love: In a Word or 2 (Warner Bros.)
Review by Evelyn McDonnell, Rolling Stone, 10 June 1993
MONIE LOVE is a good storyteller, an adept rapper and a mediocre songwriter. Her lyrics flow and flow, but on In a Word or 2, ...
Milli Vanilli, Try 'N B: Rob & Fab: Rob & Fab (Joss Entertainment) **; Try n' Be: Try n' Be (RCA) **
Review by Chuck Eddy, Rolling Stone, 10 June 1993
MILLI VANILLI is pop music's answer to baseball's 1919 Chicago Black Sox — the group's scandal will forever overshadow the way it outperformed so much ...
Whitney Houston: Down and Dirty
Interview by Anthony DeCurtis, Rolling Stone, 10 June 1993
YOU'RE EXPECTING her to float delicately into the room, but Whitney Houston strides in with a purposeful air. She's dressed way down in purple stretch ...
Bruce Springsteen: Bruce Rocks the U.K - But He Can't Match His Own Impossibly High Standards
Live Review by David Sinclair, Rolling Stone, 24 June 1993
"WHEN I WAS YOUNG, I truly didn't think music had any limitations," said Bruce Springsteen in an interview with New York Newsday last year. "I ...
Sonny Til & The Orioles: Is This The Woman Who Invented Rock & Roll?: The Deborah Chessler Story
Retrospective and Interview by Greil Marcus, Rolling Stone, 24 June 1993
IN AN EARLY EPISODE of Homicide: Life on the Street, Barry Levinson's recent TV series about a team of Baltimore cops, the detective played by ...
David Bowie, Mick Ronson: Mick Ronson: Ziggy's Axeman
Obituary by David Sinclair, Rolling Stone, 24 June 1993
Mick Ronson was a sideman extraordinaire ...
Butthole Surfers: The Butthole Surfers: In Through the Back Door
Profile and Interview by Jason Cohen, Rolling Stone, 24 June 1993
The Butthole Surfers are the certified shock jocks of the next wave ...
Paul Westerberg: 14 Songs (Sire/Reprise) ***
Review by Holly George-Warren, Rolling Stone, 8 July 1993
"DO YOU remember me long ago/I used to wear my heart on my sleeve," Paul Westerberg sings on 'First Glimmer', the second of 14 Songs, ...
Giant Sand: Maxwell's, Hoboken, NJ
Live Review by Rob Tannenbaum, Rolling Stone, 5 August 1993
CHAOS IS A constant menace in giant Sand's music. For a few years, it overwhelmed Howe Gelb's writing — he'd launch a song with a ...
Interview by Deborah Frost, Rolling Stone, 19 August 1993
PJ Harvey beat the sophomore jinx and get their mojo workin' with an American tour and their powerful new album, Rid of Me. ...
Interview by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 19 August 1993
"HELLO, I'M A little fat chap that plays records on the radio," DJ John Peel announced at the start of a recent broadcast. ...
Review by Tom Graves, Rolling Stone, 2 September 1993
MONTHS BEFORE the Sugar Cubes' first album debuted in the United States, a heavy buzz began to circulate about the group's lead singer, Björk. ...
Review by Chuck Eddy, Rolling Stone, 2 September 1993
THERE ARE NO songs about driving cars on Exposed, the debut solo album by former Mötley Crüe throat Vince Neil, none about racing Indy Lights ...
Billy Ray Cyrus: It Won't Be the Last (PolyGram)
Review by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 16 September 1993
IT SHOULD come as no surprise that the new Elvis arrives sans pompadour or leisure suit. Billy Ray Cyrus is an Elvis for the '90s, ...
The Fall: Mark E. Smith's Wrath & Roll
Profile and Interview by Jason Cohen, Rolling Stone, 16 September 1993
MARK E. SMITH is one of Britain's great misanthropes. On the 1980 live album Totale's Turns, only the third record by his band the Fall, ...
Review by Evelyn McDonnell, Rolling Stone, 30 September 1993
PICTURE a punk rocker: Ian MacKaye and Emma Goldman are her heroes. She reads Maximum Rock 'n Roll and plays 'Holidays In The Sun' on ...
Michael Jackson: An Abuse of Trust: Michael Jackson Defends His Honor
Report by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 14 October 1993
FOR MICHAEL Jackson, a man who has spent an enormous amount or time and millions of dollars helping underprivileged, sick and disabled children, it was ...
Debbie Harry: Deborah Harry: Debravation (Sire/Reprise)
Review by Evelyn McDonnell, Rolling Stone, 14 October 1993
BACK WHEN Blondie was becoming America's biggest New Wave band, Deborah Harry's deadpan lyric barbs cut the edges around her paper-doll appearance. This is the ...
Iggy Pop: American Caesar (Virgin) ****
Review by Mark Kemp, Rolling Stone, 14 October 1993
IGGY POP'S LAST ALBUM, Brick by Brick (1990), seemed as if it might be his swan song — one last blast of creative juice after ...
Smashing Pumpkins' Sudden Impact
Interview by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 14 October 1993
BILLY CORGAN is laughing and slapping his knee. ...
G.E. Smith & the High Plains Drifters: The Stephen Talkhouse, Amagansett, N.Y.
Live Review by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 28 October 1993
AMAGANSETT, A rustic hamlet at the eastern tip of Long Island, is the site of one of America's best-kept club-land secrets, the Stephen Talkhouse. Named ...
The Breeders: The real new deal
Interview by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 28 October 1993
The BREEDERS get wet and wild as they dive back into action on "Last Splash" ...
PJ Harvey: P.J. Harvey: 4-Track Demos
Review by Evelyn McDonnell, Rolling Stone, 25 November 1993
THE POP INDUSTRY loves to simulate authenticity, a trick that, like the manufacturing of fake antiques, puts demands on the consumer. It's hard to tell ...
Profile and Interview by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 9 December 1993
AFGHAN WHIGS join Sub Pop alumni with a major label debut, Gentlemen ...
Pearl Jam: Warfield Theatre, San Francisco
Live Review by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 9 December 1993
THERE WAS NOTHING pedestrian about the first show of the Pearl Jam tour. ...
Pet Shop Boys: Q&A: Neil Tennant of the Pet Shop Boys
Interview by Rob Tannenbaum, Rolling Stone, 9 December 1993
NEIL TENNANT calls from his country house in Sussex, England. "'Country house' sounds like I've got 30 acres," he says. "It's a little Georgian house, ...
Review by Mark Kemp, Rolling Stone, 9 December 1993
BEFORE UNCLE TUPELO'S No Depression sneaked out of Belleville, Ill., in 1990, the respective sounds of Sonic Youth and Lynyrd Skynyrd probably never occupied a ...
The Lemonheads: Lemonheads: Roseland Ballroom, New York City
Live Review by Jason Cohen, Rolling Stone, 27 January 1994
THE SIDEWALK outside Roseland told the story: dozens of parents, a few clutching the Playbill from My Fair Lady next door, all lined up at ...
Report by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 10 February 1994
CBGB celebrates its 20 years of rock & roll ...
Kate Bush: Dear Diary: The Secret World of Kate Bush
Interview by David Sinclair, Rolling Stone, 24 February 1994
CRICKLEWOOD IS not at all the kind of place you would expect to find Kate Bush. Although immortalized long ago in the title of a ...
Review by Richard C. Walls, Rolling Stone, 24 February 1994
THIS CURRENT EDITION of the Band consists of three of its original five members — drummer-vocalist Levon Helm, bassist-vocalist Rick Danko and keyboardist Garth Hudson ...
Joan Jett: The Original Riot Grrrl
Interview by Steven Daly, Rolling Stone, 24 March 1994
Joan Jett lives up to her bad reputation ...
Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra: Juggy Gayles: Leader of the Old School
Profile and Interview by Holly George-Warren, Rolling Stone, 24 March 1994
JUGGY GAYLES hyped records the old-fashioned way-with style ...
Live Review by Ted Drozdowski, Rolling Stone, 7 April 1994
MAYNARD JAMES Keenan, singer for Los Angeles' Tool, teetered like a crippled vulture and pecked a ticket stub off of the stage. "Twelve dollars and ...
Review by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 7 May 1994
WHETHER BY preference or rationalization, slacker victims trumpet their dropout status with dilapidated jeans, greasy hair and a sarcastic, defeatist posture. Enter 23-year-old Beck singing, ...
Interview by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 19 May 1994
MEAT PUPPETS make bong rock for now people ...
Nirvana: Live Through This: a year on the road with Nirvana
Obituary by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 2 June 1994
LAST SPRING, Kurt Cobain sat at his kitchen table at 3 a.m., chain-smoking and toying with one of the medical mannequins he collected. "It's hard ...
Laurie Anderson: The Nerve Of Her
Interview by Gillian G. Gaar, Rolling Stone, 16 June 1994
THE GENERAL PUBLIC MAY HAVE heard little from performance artist Laurie Anderson in recent years. But that's certain to change in 1994, a hectic year ...
Pink Floyd, Syd Barrett: Pink Floyd: The Division Bell; Syd Barrett: Crazy Diamond
Review by Tom Graves, Rolling Stone, 16 June 1994
IS THIS still really Pink Floyd? That seems to be the question, as it has been since Roger Waters left the band in 1985 to ...
Report and Interview by Steven Daly, Rolling Stone, 16 June 1994
PRIMAL SCREAM return to rock roots with Give Out but Don't Give Up. ...
Paul McCartney: Strawberries Oceans Ships Forest and Come Together: Motown Sings The Beatles
Review by Gillian G. Gaar, Rolling Stone, 30 June 1994
THROUGHOUT HIS CAREER, Paul McCartney has occasionally ventured into atypical musical genres anonymously or under an assumed name. In 1974, under the guise of the ...
Alice Cooper: The Last Temptation
Review by Chuck Eddy, Rolling Stone, 14 July 1994
IF YOU WENT to high school in the '70s, Alice Cooper's 'I'm Eighteen' and 'School's Out' became part of your life. Cooper dirges like 'Desperado' ...
Live Review by Ted Drozdowski, Rolling Stone, 14 July 1994
IF LOVE IS a drug and Morphine are a band, this is a strange world. And the power trio, whose Cure for Pain is 1994's ...
Spin Doctors: Turn It Upside Down (Epic) ***½
Review by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 14 July 1994
AT THE beginning of the 1990s, lower Manhattan was a rock & roll paradise. New York was an oasis for free thinkers, and the crumbling ...
Pavement: The Road Less Traveled: Pavement's Crooked Path to Stardom
Profile and Interview by Jason Cohen, Rolling Stone, 14 July 1994
FOR A BAND that is decidedly reticent about the prospect of mass exposure, Pavement are awfully good at getting it. In their earliest days, when ...
George Michael: He's a Loser, Baby
Report by David Sinclair, Rolling Stone, 11 August 1994
Court rejects GEORGE MICHAEL'S plea to break his contract with Sony ...
Guided by Voices: Bee Thousand (Scat) ****
Review by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 11 August 1994
LATE IN Bee Thousand, Guided by Voices singer/songwriter Robert Pollard provides a skeleton key to his remarkable music. "I am a pharmacist, prescriptions I will ...
Interview by Steven Daly, Rolling Stone, 11 August 1994
MADDER ROSE balance prettiness with dissonance on Panic On ...
Report by Evelyn McDonnell, Rolling Stone, 8 September 1994
The ticket is love rock and minimalism at Yoyo a Go Go ...
Profile and Interview by Carol Cooper, Rolling Stone, 22 September 1994
COOLIO gets a phat return on his dues with 'FANTASTIC VOYAGE' ...
Profile and Interview by Steven Daly, Rolling Stone, 3 November 1994
BLUR stand up for their mod-rock roots on Parklife ...
Junior Brown: The Mercury Lounge, New York NY
Live Review by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 1 December 1994
JUNIOR BROWN is an institution among the guitar-playing aficionados of Austin, Texas. And judging from the number of people unable to squeeze their way into ...
Review by Mark Kemp, Rolling Stone, 1 December 1994
AS A SONGWRITER, Lou Barlow is the Joni Mitchell of indie rock's low-fi chic. His simple, often acoustic-based pop melodies are packed with twisted, unresolved ...
Oasis: Maxwells, Hoboken, N.J.
Live Review by Jason Cohen, Rolling Stone, 15 December 1994
FOR A YOUNG but already massive British band, there's nothing quite so incongruous as the first American tour. Goodbye to blind worship, magazine covers and ...
Soul Coughing: Ruby Vroom (Slash/Warner Bros.)
Review by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 15 December 1994
RAP & ROLL exploded five years ago, long enough to spawn a second generation, mongrelized by even more influences and hence more sophisticated. Beck, Bobby ...
Profile and Interview by Mark Kemp, Rolling Stone, 15 December 1994
"IT DOESN'T FEEL good to be stuck," Lisa Germano says, as she surveys the opening of a dark tunnel that cuts a 30-foot passageway through ...
Interview by Evelyn McDonnell, Rolling Stone, 29 December 1994
WHAT A DIFFERENCE a year makes. Twelve months ago bassist and band leader Me'Shell NdegeOcello's debut album, Plantation Lullabies, had just been released by Maverick. ...
Profile and Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Rolling Stone, 1995
YOU'D THINK he’d be pissed off, but the title of his new album — Peacemaker — should have given me a clue. The man still ...
Counting Crows — Adam Duritz interviewed
Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Rolling Stone, 1995
BACKSTAGE AT the Shepherd's Bush Empire, Adam Duritz is opening a gift from a fan. Coasters. Normal ones, the sort you'd buy your dad for ...
Gary Moore, Peter Green: Gary Moore on Peter Green
Report and Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Rolling Stone, 1995
"TONIGHT IS a bit different", says Gary Moore from the stage to a packed London theatre. "We’re celebrating the music of a very special man." ...
Grateful Dead: Land of the Dead
Report by Ben Fong-Torres, Rolling Stone, 1995
WHEN IN THE MID-SIXTIES San Francisco came to represent nothing left to lose, there was a handful of identifiable pioneers who changed the face, the ...
Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Rolling Stone, 1995
"KING CRIMSON," says Adrian Belew, "does a brand of music that no-one else does, a sound that no-one else makes." Robert Fripp calls it "the ...
Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Rolling Stone, 1995
"THE LAST couple of years", says Thom Yorke, "have been pretty mind-altering." Thom, 26, is so thin and sharp-edged you’d cut yourself if you touched ...
Cake Like: Delicious (Avant/Sphere)
Review by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 23 February 1995
THE MEMBERS OF Cake Like reportedly formed a band because they were sick of listening to their musician boyfriends talk about their bands. They may just get ...
Candlebox: Keepers Of The Flame
Interview by Jason Cohen, Rolling Stone, 23 February 1995
DEFYING THE ALTERNATIVE-ROCK TREND, CANDLEBOX BREAK OUT OF SEATTLE WITH TRADITIONAL POP METAL ...
Report by Gillian G. Gaar, Rolling Stone, 23 February 1995
"HEY... AM I on?" were the uncertain first words delivered by Pearl Jam singer-cum-DJ Eddie Vedder at the start of the band's latest frolic on ...
Live Review by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 23 February 1995
A THREE-DAY tribute to the ultimateguitarist's guitarist figured to be a fret-heavy hurricane of hot licks, but Danny Gatton brought down a monsoon of flying ...
Radiohead, Suede: The British Aren't Coming
Report by David Sinclair, Rolling Stone, 9 March 1995
IS THE NEWEST WAVE FROM THE U.K. A WASHOUT? ...
Foul Play, Goldie, My Bloody Valentine, Omni Trio: Goldie et al: Jungle Boogie
Report by Simon Reynolds, Rolling Stone, 23 March 1995
Get down, get down: The U.K. moves to underground groove ...
Interview by Ted Drozdowski, Rolling Stone, 23 March 1995
SEBADOH flirt with the mainstream ...
Simple Minds: Moore Theater, Seattle
Live Review by Gillian G. Gaar, Rolling Stone, 23 March 1995
IT COULD be coincidence that Simple Minds kicked off their first tour in three years in Seattle. Given the band's unveiling of a rougher-edged, guitar-based ...
Profile and Interview by Carol Cooper, Rolling Stone, 6 April 1995
ON 'BABY', THE second single from her platinum-album debut, Brandy, sweet, petite Brandy Norwood latches on to the song's skeletal groove and rides it as ...
Suede: The London Suede: Manhattan Center Ballroom, New York NY
Live Review by Jason Cohen, Rolling Stone, 6 April 1995
"THIS IS A boring old one," Brett Anderson says with a shrug, and then Suede ignite 'Animal Nitrate', a typically brazen concoction of straight-razor guitar, ...
Wilco: A.M. (Reprise/Sire) ***½
Review by Holly George-Warren, Rolling Stone, 6 April 1995
GRAM PARSONS had a vision back in the '60s. With his International Submarine Band, Flying Burrito Brothers and later as a solo artist, he blazed ...
Bonzo Dog Band, Vivian Stanshall: Vivian Stanshall 1943-1995
Obituary by Ira Robbins, Rolling Stone, 20 April 1995
VIVIAN STANSHALL died in a fire at his apartment in London on March 5. At 51 he was the Renaissance man of English absurdity. A ...
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers: Tom Petty: This Is How It Feels
Interview by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 4 May 1995
"That's all we need is another dog onstage." Tom Petty's calm drawl has just gone as thick as black smoke from a smudge pot. Petty ...
Report and Interview by Jason Cohen, Rolling Stone, 18 May 1995
OASIS CROSS THE ATLANTIC WITH A HOT RECORD, TWO BATTLING BROTHERS AND ATTITUDE TO SPARE. ...
Radiohead: The Bends (Capitol) ***½
Review by Ted Drozdowski, Rolling Stone, 18 May 1995
LUCK AND LYRICS that capped the Zeitgeist's ass made Radiohead's 'Creep' the summer radio hit of 1993. ...
Liz Phair: Wiltern Theater, Los Angeles CA
Live Review by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 1 June 1995
"FABULOUS... NOT so fabulous," SAID Liz Phair as she strapped on her red Fender Musicmaster guitar and faced a hall full of fans from Hollywood's ...
Thurston Moore: Psychic Hearts
Review by Mark Kemp, Rolling Stone, 1 June 1995
THURSTON MOORE has said that although he's flattered when younger bands cite Sonic Youth as an influence, it would be nice if the group were ...
Review by Jason Cohen, Rolling Stone, 29 June 1995
BARELY A year old, Gene have already attracted the standard amount of instant acclaim in merry old England. In this latest case the critical clamor ...
Review by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 29 June 1995
THE ALLMAN Brothers Band live on because live performance is what they're about. The call of the road and the thrill of collective improvisation are ...
Fugazi: Red Medicine (Dischord) ***½
Review by Mark Kemp, Rolling Stone, 13 July 1995
FUGAZI HAVE never been quite as one-dimensional as their critics would have it. On their first full-length album, 1990's Repeater, the D.C. quartet reinvented the ...
Jerry Lee Lewis: Young Blood (Sire) ***½
Review by Ted Drozdowski, Rolling Stone, 13 July 1995
JERRY LEE LEWIS has had enough stomach trouble, gunplay and marriages to kill a man twice, but at 59 he still pounds the piano like ...
Paul Weller: Stanley Road (Go! Discs/London) ***
Review by Evelyn McDonnell, Rolling Stone, 13 July 1995
NAMED AFTER the area in suburban London where he grew up, Stanley Road is possibly the most autobiographical record Paul Weller has ever made. He ...
Sonic Youth Go Guitar Crazy On Lucky 13th Release
Report and Interview by Robert Gordon, Rolling Stone, 13 July 1995
WHAT'S A nice downtown New York band like Sonic Youth doing in Memphis, Tenn.? Recording their next art-damage album, of course, and immersing themselves in ...
Stephin Merritt: Man With A Plan
Profile and Interview by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 13 July 1995
Stephin Merritt: Low-fi Svengali ...
Michael Jackson: HIStory: Past, Present And Future, Book I (Epic) ***½
Review by James Hunter, Rolling Stone, 10 August 1995
A DECADE after 'Thriller' and MTV transformed pop, Michael Jackson releases a collection that combines a classic greatest-hits anthology with a jarring and uneven new ...
Profile and Interview by David Sinclair, Rolling Stone, 10 August 1995
"YOU 'AVEN'T got any rizlas, 'ave you?" Tricky says, asking for rolling papers by way of an introduction. The 27-year-old rapper and songwriter — "I ...
Obituary by David Sinclair, Rolling Stone, 10 August 1995
BONO CALLED him "one of the top 10 guitar players of all time," and there is no doubt that Rory Gallagher, who died in a ...
Report and Interview by Jason Cohen, Rolling Stone, 24 August 1995
While the Courtney saga continues, Hole prove that a rock & roll band is the sum of its parts ...
The Prodigy: Irving Plaza, New York
Live Review by Frank Owen, Rolling Stone, 24 August 1995
EVERYBODY KNOWS that Brits can't rap or dance: They lack flow. True to form, the Prodigy's unexceptional rapper (Maxim Reality) and two clumsy dancers (Leeroy ...
Interview by Carol Cooper, Rolling Stone, 24 August 1995
The women of TLC stay cool under fire ...
White Zombie: Great Woods, Mansfield, Mass.
Live Review by Ted Drozdowski, Rolling Stone, 24 August 1995
WHITE ZOMBIE proved the axiom that rock & roll ain't brain surgery. At their concerts it's legerdemain — trickery and pyrotechnics, aka smoke and mirrors. ...
Ron Sexsmith: Ron Sexsmith (Interscope)
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 7 September 1995
PROVOCATIVE INCONGRUITIES abound on this major-label debut. Sexsmith is a boyish 31-year-old artist from Toronto, a classic crooner in an era of tormented shriekers. He's ...
Review by Chuck Eddy, Rolling Stone, 7 September 1995
MARTYRED MEXICAN-American superstar Selena, shot to death by her ex-fan club president outside a Corpus Christi, Texas, motel this past March, loved dressing skimpily onstage ...
Review by Mark Kemp, Rolling Stone, 21 September 1995
IN THE TITLE TRACK of Lenny Kravitz's new album, the singer struggles with the dictates of reality that come to bear on fantasy. "Welcome to ...
Bryan Ferry, Roxy Music: Bryan Ferry
Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Rolling Stone, October 1995
You’ve just celebrated your 50th birthday. Traumatic? ...
Report and Interview by Jason Cohen, Rolling Stone, 5 October 1995
Garbage's masterminds craft murky pop into an album that's impossible to refuse ...
Interview by Marc Weingarten, Rolling Stone, 5 October 1995
THE HISTORY of rock & roll has been told many times. Why is your version of the story any different? ...
Profile and Interview by David Sinclair, Rolling Stone, 5 October 1995
IT'S A GLORIOUS SUMMER DAY in Oxford, city of dreaming spires in the heart of England. Three young tykes laugh and joke with each other ...
PM Dawn: Is P.M. Dawn's Prince Be the Brian Wilson of Hip-Hop? God only knows
Interview by Amy Linden, Rolling Stone, 19 October 1995
PRINCE BE sits behind the console of a studio in midtown Manhattan. "I am actually aching to stop working," he says with a sigh, leaning ...
The Bottle Rockets: The Brooklyn Side
Review by Mark Kemp, Rolling Stone, 19 October 1995
ON THEIR MAJOR-LABEL DEBUT, the Bottle Rockets achieve what Lynyrd Skynyrd often tried to do but never quite pulled off. Without sacrificing their identity as ...
Afghan Whigs get Soulful on Their New LP, Black Love
Report and Interview by Dave Thompson, Rolling Stone, November 1995
JOE PIXIE IS PISSED. TWO FEET TALL, with a voice like a pubescent munchkin, he has been phoning around local fast-food joints trying to get ...
Review by Chuck Eddy, Rolling Stone, 2 November 1995
CANDLEBOX WERE lifted out of Seattle by Madonna instead of by Sub Pop Records, and their audience tends to be teenage girls. So they're maligned ...
PM Dawn: P.M. Dawn: Jesus Wept (Gee Streel/Island)
Review by Mark Kemp, Rolling Stone, 2 November 1995
JESUS WEPT is a multitracked feast of guitar rock, pillow-soft pop, moody psychedelia and sugary-sweet R&B with only one straight-up rap track on the entire ...
Review by Carol Cooper, Rolling Stone, 2 November 1995
With this LP, our former Prince turns in his most effortlessly eclectic set since 1987’s Sign O’ The Times. ...
Take That: 'Back For Good' (Arista)
Review by James Hunter, Rolling Stone, 2 November 1995
BEAUTIFUL LOSER ...
Interview by Simon Reynolds, Rolling Stone, 16 November 1995
THE SEA and Cake are crammed into a van parked on a busy side street in Manhattan's Lower East Side. They're here as opposed to ...
Obituary by Geoffrey Himes, Rolling Stone, 30 November 1995
TRUMPETER DON Cherry died of liver failure on Oct, 18 near Malaga, Spain. He was 58. As a member of the Ornette Coleman Quartet in ...
Interview by Mark Kemp, Rolling Stone, 14 December 1995
Coolio completes his fantastic voyage from the mean streets of Los Angeles to the top of the pop charts ...
Review by Geoffrey Himes, Rolling Stone, 14 December 1995
EVEN TODAY the stereotype lingers that country songs are all words – storytelling lyrics backed by merely functional music. That cliché can be shattered once ...
Report and Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Rolling Stone, 1996
"HELLO", says Gavin Rossdale, slumped against the sofa on the trailer floor after a day of interviews. "We’re Bush — calculating, conniving, formulaic opportunists. Who ...
Report and Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Rolling Stone, 1996
DIRE STRAITS is dead. Or as good as. The grave may open once in a while for the odd charity appearance, but as to another ...
Kula Shaker and the New Psychedelia
Report by Sylvie Simmons, Rolling Stone, 1996
BRITPOP’s ‘60s revivalism has brought in its wake all manner of cosmic hoo-hah. Hallucinogens have taken over from cigarettes-and-alcohol as the switched-on Englishman’s millenium-blues-buster of ...
Little Axe: Sugar Hill to Stoke Newington
Report and Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Rolling Stone, 1996
THE MAN the critics are calling the missing link between Jimi Hendrix and King Tubby is sitting in a grim pub in an untrendy part ...
Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Rolling Stone, 1996
THEY'RE LIVING in a house, a very big house, in the country. "Actually", says Robert Smith, showing me around the candlelit ground floor, smoky log ...
Grateful Dead: Dead End: The Grateful Dead Call It Quits
Report and Interview by David Gans, Rolling Stone, 25 January 1996
Surviving members focus on solo projects ...
Junior Walker & the All Stars: Junior Walker 1931-1995
Obituary by Geoffrey Himes, Rolling Stone, 25 January 1996
IN EARLY 1965, a new single lit up American radio. It began with a gunshot, echoed by the snare drum that followed. Then a tenor ...
Live: "Live!" "Hootie!" "Live!" "Hootie!"
Profile and Interview by Jason Cohen, Rolling Stone, 25 January 1996
THIS IS THE exchange on the streets, a cry that rises up as the members of Live make their escape from the 1995 Billboard Music ...
Tori Amos: She Walks The Line: Tori Amos: Boys For Pele (Atlantic) **
Review by Evelyn McDonnell, Rolling Stone, 8 February 1996
THE TENSION BETWEEN secular desires and spiritual devotion has fueled rock & roll frenzy since Day One, so to speak, when the fundamentalist-reared Jerry Lee ...
The Tony Rich Project: Words (LaFace/Arista)
Review by Carol Cooper, Rolling Stone, 8 February 1996
If ’94 and ’95 were the years that quirky auteurs like Dionne Farris and Des’ree caught the public’s imagination, 1996 may be the year that ...
Review by Geoffrey Himes, Rolling Stone, 8 February 1996
ARETHA FRANKLIN AND VAN MORRISON are the best vocal improvisers of their generation, but neither can be accurately described as a jazz singer. When authentic ...
Rocket From The Crypt: Rocket Takes Off
Report and Interview by Marc Weingarten, Rolling Stone, 22 February 1996
San Diego's favourite sons get fans fired up ...
16 Horsepower: Divine Inspiration
Interview by Holly George-Warren, Rolling Stone, 4 April 1996
SIXTEEN HORSEPOWER conjure up that old-time religion ...
Obituary by Geoffrey Himes, Rolling Stone, 4 April 1996
AS A GUITARIST, Brownie McGhee was a master of the intricate, ragtime-influenced patterns that define the blues of the South's Piedmont region. As a singer ...
Interview by Simon Reynolds, Rolling Stone, 4 April 1996
"Repetition in the music and we're never gonna lose it," sang Mark E. Smith of the English post-punk legends the Fall in the aptly titled ...
Profile and Interview by Steven Daly, Rolling Stone, 18 April 1996
Steve Albini is working on their next album, and their lead singer is pals with Courtney Love. Does that make them a band to ridicule ...
Interview by David Sinclair, Rolling Stone, 18 April 1996
Frontman JARVIS COCKER wreaks revenge for the 'Common People' ...
Steve Earle: Back in the Saddle
Interview by Geoffrey Himes, Rolling Stone, 18 April 1996
C&W outlaw STEVE EARLE returns from his lost years ...
Girls Against Boys: House Of GVSB
Review by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 2 May 1996
FOR ALL their rebel posturing, many so-called alternative bands still adhere to the old-fashioned conventions of melody and verse-chorus-verse. But not Girls Against Boys. ...
Merle Haggard: Down Every Road (Capitol) ****
Review by Mark Kemp, Rolling Stone, 2 May 1996
COUNTRY'S FIGHTIN' FUGITIVE ...
Bikini Kill: Reject All American (Kill Rock Stars) ****
Review by Mark Kemp, Rolling Stone, 16 May 1996
ON THEIR SECOND full-length album, Bikini Kill take some surprisingly gentle turns, supplementing their fiery, bash-'em-in-the-face punk with sweetly seductive pop. ...
The Gun Club, Jeffrey Lee Pierce: Jeffrey Lee Pierce 1958-1996
Obituary by Mark Kemp, Rolling Stone, 16 May 1996
AS THE guitarist and singer for the Gun Club, Jeffrey Lee Pierce unleashed the primal passion of the blues onto Los Angeles' thriving early '80s ...
Golden Smog: Tramps, New York NY
Live Review by Mark Kemp, Rolling Stone, 30 May 1996
THE PROBLEM with supergroups is that they have no center of gravity. Try finding a predominant vision in the music of rock's original supergroup, Blind ...
Mickey Hart, Robert Hunter: Hart and Hunter: Opening the Mystery Box
Interview by Richard Gehr, Rolling Stone, 31 May 1996
So what's so mysterious about the Mystery Box?Mickey Hart: The musical mystery is, How do you marry tuned percussion and voice? And on a metaphorical ...
Review by Mark Kemp, Rolling Stone, 13 June 1996
THE BIG QUESTION that followed the runaway success of Beck Hansen's major-label debut, Mellow Gold, was: Can this precocious child of bohemian stock survive one-hit ...
Chic: Bernard Edwards, 1952-1996
Obituary by Geoffrey Himes, Rolling Stone, 13 June 1996
BACK IN THE DISCO era, when most records went thump-thump-thump, the music produced by Bernard Edwards and Nile Rodgers went bumpity-bip-bop, bing-bang-boom. ...
Report and Interview by Steven Daly, Rolling Stone, 13 June 1996
LOLLAPALOOZA is the "alternative" tour, and H.O.R.D.E. a neo-hippie haven. Is there room for the ENIT Festival, the weirdest of them all? ...
The Raincoats: Looking In The Shadows (DGC) ****
Review by Evelyn McDonnell, Rolling Stone, 13 June 1996
THE RAINCOATS aren't the kind of band to get hung up on a sound as mundane as a clock ticking. ...
Jimmy Buffett: Q&A: Jimmy Buffett
Interview by Mark Kemp, Rolling Stone, 22 August 1996
IT'S BEEN nearly 20 years since Jimmy Buffett bided his time wasting away in Margaritaville. Today, rock's romantic poet-pirate has become a virtual one-man theme ...
R.L. Burnside, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion: R.L. Burnside: A Ass Pocket Of Whiskey (Matador) **½
Review by Mark Kemp, Rolling Stone, 22 August 1996
...
Grateful Dead, Mickey Hart, Robert Hunter: Q&A: Mickey Hart & Robert Hunter
Interview by Richard Gehr, Rolling Stone, 5 September 1996
IT'S BEEN A hectic, emotional year for former Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart and the band's longtime lyricist Robert Hunter. After coming to grips with ...
Sebadoh: Harmacy (Sub Pop) ***½
Review by Mark Kemp, Rolling Stone, 5 September 1996
FOR YEARS, the '60s-garage-style dissonance and folk-inspired melodicism of this prolific indie band have been associated with the low-fi movement. But Sebadoh really make high-risk ...
Marshall Crenshaw: Miracle Of Science (Razor & Tie)
Review by Barney Hoskyns, Rolling Stone, 19 September 1996
MARSHALL CRENSHAW occupies a small but special niche in modern American rock: He's a power-pop singer/songwriter. Unfortunately, with one foot in the cultish dBs/Mitch Easter ...
The Prodigy: Prodigy: End Fest, Bremberton, Washington
Live Review by Gillian G. Gaar, Rolling Stone, 19 September 1996
ON THE one hand, it was hard to see why Prodigy were chosen to close End Fest; the annual daylong outdoor music festival is usually ...
R.E.M.: New Adventures In Hi-Fi (Warner Bros.) **** ½
Review by Mark Kemp, Rolling Stone, 19 September 1996
New Day Rising: R.E.M. make a great new album in the face of disaster ...
The Sex Pistols: Filthy Lucre Live ***½
Review by Ira Robbins, Rolling Stone, 19 September 1996
PERRY FARRELL once titled a Jane's Addiction album Nothing's Shocking. He has since spent his entire career trying to prove otherwise. John Lydon — once ...
Tracy Chapman: Central Park Summerstage, New York
Live Review by Anthony DeCurtis, Rolling Stone, 19 September 1996
"LIVE, LAUGH, LOVE, but through it all, forgive"; "Let's not compare ourselves to others"; "You are your own garden"; "For God's sake, teach people to ...
Vic Chesnutt: Famous By Association
Interview by Mark Kemp, Rolling Stone, 19 September 1996
Vic Chesnutt joins in his rock & roll heroes in the spotlight ...
Rage Against The Machine: Roseland Ballroom, New York NY
Live Review by Evelyn McDonnell, Rolling Stone, 3 October 1996
AT ABOUT the same time Bob Dole was accepting the GOP's presidential nomination some 3,000 miles away, Rage Against the Machine drop-kicked 'People of the ...
PJ Harvey, John Parish: John Parish & Polly Jean Harvey: Dance Hall At Louse Point **
Review by Evelyn McDonnell, Rolling Stone, 17 October 1996
EVER SINCE laying herself bare on the first PJ Harvey album, Dry, Polly Jean Harvey has been struggling to find a pose within which to ...
Josh Wink: Lands Techno at a Major Label
Profile and Interview by Frank Broughton, Rolling Stone, 31 October 1996
JOSH WINK stands in a Manhattan office building's elevator, displaying a dark scab on his leg. "I call it my Ibiza tattoo," the 26-year-old Philadelphia ...
Review by Barney Hoskyns, Rolling Stone, 31 October 1996
PET SHOP BOYS have become an institution. The quintessential '80s act, Chris Lowe and Neil Tennant have stuck to their guns and refused to defer ...
Phish: Billy Breathes (Elektra)
Review by Richard Gehr, Rolling Stone, 31 October 1996
Phish's sixth album, A Live One (released last year) distilled a decade's worth of dedicated roadwork by a group that reinvented improvised rock for a ...
Sheryl Crow: She Only Wants To Be With You
Interview by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 14 November 1996
"CAN WE TALK?" Sheryl Crow plants a hand on her right hip and addresses what she calls a "granola crowd" packed tight in the Santa ...
The Cardigans: First Band On The Moon (Mercury) ****
Review by Jason Cohen, Rolling Stone, 14 November 1996
IN THIS WORLD of cookie-cutter,post-alternative bands, the Cardigans are fueled by a deep and abiding faith in novelty. ...
The Queers: They're Here, They're the Queers and they're not what you think
Profile and Interview by Ira Robbins, Rolling Stone, 14 November 1996
ONE OF the golden rules in the punk handbook is to confuse and irritate people at every opportunity. So naming a band of straight boys ...
Interview by Steven Daly, Rolling Stone, 14 November 1996
Each year, Rolling Stone looks to the far edges of rock & roll in search of new artists who march to the beat of a ...
Fountains of Wayne Bubble with Power Pop
Interview by Ira Robbins, Rolling Stone, 28 November 1996
ADAM SCHLESINGER is a busy boy. His band, Fountains of Wayne, has just released its debut album, a winning blast of power pop with textures ...
The Lemonheads: Car Button Cloth (TAG/Atlantic) ****
Review by Barney Hoskyns, Rolling Stone, 28 November 1996
THE NEWS that Evan Dando was working on another Lemonheads album was originally greeted with, among other things, skepticism. Anyone familiar with the lanky Bostonian's ...
Review by Jason Cohen, Rolling Stone, 28 November 1996
The Real Presidential Debate ...
Stone Temple Pilots: Universal Amphitheater, California
Live Review by Dave DiMartino, Rolling Stone, 12 December 1996
SCOTT WEILAND seemed the picture of health at the opening night of Stone Temple Pilots' current six-week tour, confounding the expectations of some cynics who ...
Vic Chesnutt: About To Choke (Capitol)
Review by Ira Robbins, Rolling Stone, 12 December 1996
A RUSTY, banged-up sign with hand-painted words swings slowly over a porch in a light Georgia breeze, conveying its simple promise without need of neon. ...
Review by Chuck Eddy, Rolling Stone, 17 December 1996
AT ITS BEST, Slaughter fills the same niche today that garage bands filled in the mid-'60s – a speedy and loud but pretty and danceable ...
The Sex Pistols: Return of The Sex Pistols
Report and Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Rolling Stone, Summer 1996
The jury’s out. It’s either the ultimate joke, the perfect punch-line — plump, forty, pimple-free Johnny Rotten with a tan only sensible living and serious ...
The Sex Pistols: Finsbury Park, London
Live Review by Sylvie Simmons, Rolling Stone, Summer 1996
"WELL?" Johnny Rotten asked the 30,000-strong crowd dotting the park — not a sell-out, despite weeks of hype and a festival-sized bill, though more than ...
Mark Eitzel, R.E.M.: Mark Eitzel with Peter Buck: Union Chapel, London
Live Review by Sylvie Simmons, Rolling Stone, 1997
AN OLD CHAPEL in Islington, North London, Prime Minister Tony Blair’s old ‘hood. The stage is set up around the pulpit; the audience sits in ...
The Cure: An interview with Robert Smith
Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Rolling Stone, 1997
THE ROAD to Christmas is choked with compilation albums. Greatest Hits and Best Ofs, collections of the safe-and-familiar-plus-bonus-new-track clog up the record shops at this ...
Offspring: Ixnay On The Hombre
Review by Chuck Eddy, Rolling Stone, 10 January 1997
IN PURE IQ-test terms – singer Dexter Holland is just inches away from his microbiology Ph.D., for Christ's sake – the Offspring might rank as ...
Beck: #1 Artist of the Year: Beck
Report and Interview by Mark Kemp, Rolling Stone, 23 January 1997
ONE NIGHT a few years ago, I was doing laundry with Beck in Los Angeles, listening to him ruminate on whether he might be a ...
Bruce Springsteen Finds "A Sense Of Place"
Report and Interview by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 6 February 1997
SUNRISE, FLA.; "Don't make me come out there and slaaaap that tan off ya." Bruce Springsteen's warnings to potentially restless crowds tend to have a ...
Offspring: The Offspring: Ixnay on the Hombre (Columbia) ***½
Review by Chuck Eddy, Rolling Stone, 6 February 1997
Primitive radio gods? ...
Erykah Badu: Baduizm (Kedar Entertainment/Universal)
Review by Miles Marshall Lewis, Rolling Stone, 20 February 1997
PERHAPS THE first thing you notice about Erykah Badu is her uncanny vocal similarity to Billie Holiday – from the very beginning of Baduizm, Badu's ...
David Bowie: Sound + Fisson: David Bowie: Earthling (RCA Records) ***½
Review by Mark Kemp, Rolling Stone, 20 February 1997
David Bowie breaks it down on his new album, Earthling ...
David Bowie: All the Young Dudes
Report and Interview by Mark Kemp, Rolling Stone, 6 March 1997
A cast of modern rockers helps DAVID BOWIE celebrate his 50th ...
Bruce Springsteen: Fred Goodman: The Mansion on the Hill (Times Books, $25)
Book Review by Ira Robbins, Rolling Stone, 6 March 1997
BABY, YOU'RE A RICH MAN A new book explores how rock & roll became a $20 billion business ...
Review by Barney Hoskyns, Rolling Stone, 6 March 1997
SOMETIMES YOU JUST feel like telling the '60s to go away. As if all those gleefully plagiarizing Brit-pop bands weren't enough, now we have a ...
Richard Buckner: Devotion + Doubt
Review by Holly George-Warren, Rolling Stone, 20 March 1997
ON THE STARK and spacious Devotion + Doubt, Richard Buckner's aching vocals stand weather-beaten but unbowed, like a lone saguaro on the Mojave. And just ...
Review by Barney Hoskyns, Rolling Stone, 20 March 1997
IT IS HARD to believe we’re a whole decade away from The Joshua Tree – U2’s very own Born In The USA, its Purple Rain, ...
Review by James Hunter, Rolling Stone, 3 April 1997
ASIDE FROM a minor hit three years ago, with the perfect pop single 'Girls and Boys', England's beloved Blur have never quite killed alternative-era America. ...
Courtney Love: Love's Labor Lost
Interview by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 3 April 1997
How Courtney blew her fight for an Oscar nomination as the junkie wife of a porn king in The People vs. Larry Flynt ...
Beck: The Rolling Stone Interview
Interview by Mark Kemp, Rolling Stone, 17 April 1997
"YOU gotta do the chicken thing again." Beck's manager interrupts the 26-year-old singer's lunch on the set of the British popular music show TFI Friday ...
Report by Holly George-Warren, Rolling Stone, 17 April 1997
LEE'S LIQUOR lounge, in Minneapolis, is jumping. The beer signs, cattle skulls and assorted stuffed fish and small game adorning the wood-paneled walls are vibrating, ...
Review by Ira Robbins, Rolling Stone, 17 April 1997
TEMPTING FATE with a great gimmick, Morphine barreled into the fast lane five years ago, driving a chesty blare of two-string slide bass, baritone sax ...
The Divine Comedy: Casanova (Setanta) ****
Review by Jason Cohen, Rolling Stone, 17 April 1997
LIKE MOST tortured artists, Neil Hannon is filled with anguish and frustration. But Hannon, the Irishman who is the Divine Comedy, has little use for ...
The Notorious B.I.G.: Murder Ballads: The Notorious B.I.G.: Life After Death (Bad Boy)
Review by Anthony DeCurtis, Rolling Stone, 1 May 1997
IN A FRIGHTENING WAY, the current hip-hop scene recalls the end of Goodfellas: The major players are turning up dead, heading off to prison or ...
Special Feature by Chris Heath, Rolling Stone, 1 May 1997
No Doubt thought they were READY for anything. Then they got FAMOUS and suddenly their singer was no longer just A GIRL. ...
Supergrass: In It for the Money (Capitol) ***½
Review by Ira Robbins, Rolling Stone, 1 May 1997
SCALING A learning curve that would do the dons of their hometown university proud, Supergrass, from Oxford, England, have graduated from rambunctious adolescence to credible ...
Ben Folds Five: Irving Plaza, New York NY
Live Review by Ira Robbins, Rolling Stone, 12 June 1997
BEN FOLDS pounds out a far more traditional pop message than today's techno titans, but the North Carolina pianoman shares one of their key insights: ...
Sleater-Kinney: There's a Riot Goin' On
Interview by Evelyn McDonnell, Rolling Stone, 12 June 1997
SLEATER-KINNEY want to bring feminist punk rock to the mainstream ...
Hanson: Middle Of Nowhere (Mercury) ***
Review by Chuck Eddy, Rolling Stone, 26 June 1997
'MMMBOP', the debut hit by kiddie trio Hanson that's now warming up Top 40 charts and fourth-grade hearts, sticks in your brain like Trident in ...
Interview by Dave DiMartino, Rolling Stone, 26 June 1997
AFTER 10 LONG YEARS, John Fogerty is back with Blue Moon Swamp, his first album since 1986's Eye of the Zombie, and it is a far better, breezier affair. ...
The Dandy Warhols: Dandy Warhols, The: …The Dandy Warhols Come Down (Capitol)
Review by Barney Hoskyns, Rolling Stone, 10 July 1997
IT'S A SILLY NAME, of course, one guaranteed to discourage people from taking them seriously. And maybe seriousness isn't the issue anyway. ...
Charlatans, The (UK), Primal Scream: Primal Scream: Vanishing Point; Charlatans UK: Tellin' Stories
Review by Jason Cohen, Rolling Stone, 10 July 1997
YES, VIRGINIA, there were rock & roll-meets-club culture collisions before the electronica boomlet. Take Primal Scream's 1991 masterpiece Screamadelica, a soulful, druggy expansion of rock's ...
Radiohead: OK Computer (Capitol) ****
Review by Mark Kemp, Rolling Stone, 10 July 1997
THE DAYS of whine and poses may be over, but don't tell that to Radiohead singer Thom Yorke. He has survived the demise of grunge ...
Spice Girls: Too Hot to Handle
Interview by Chris Heath, Rolling Stone, 10 July 1997
How five British pop tarts built their own world empire ...
Retrospective by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 7 August 1997
On May 29, just as he was to begin recording the follow-up to his acclaimed album, Grace, JEFF BUCKLEY decided to take a swim in ...
The Prodigy: Prodigy: The Fat Of The Land
Review by Barney Hoskyns, Rolling Stone, 7 August 1997
RARELY HAS a pop trend been so shamelessly spoon-fed to America as the hold-all genre dubbed "electronica". Rarely, indeed, has the music industry tried so ...
Coolio: My Soul (Tommy Boy) ***
Review by Mark Kemp, Rolling Stone, 21 August 1997
Paradise Lost ...
The Prodigy: Keith Flint Is the Firestarter
Profile and Interview by Chris Heath, Rolling Stone, 21 August 1997
How a faceless ass-rumbling hard rock techno band found a voice (and a haircut) and set the world on fire. ...
Fela Kuti: Fela Anikulapo-Kuti 1938-1997
Obituary by Vivien Goldman, Rolling Stone, 18 September 1997
KING OF AFRO BEAT DEAD AT 58 ...
Shaggy: Midnite Lover (Virgin) ***
Review by Barney Hoskyns, Rolling Stone, 18 September 1997
WHEN SHAGGY had a global smash with his irresistible version of the Folkes Brothers' 'Oh Carolina', in 1993, and followed it up with the U.S. ...
The High Llamas: Hawaii (Alpaca Park/V2)
Review by Dave DiMartino, Rolling Stone, 18 September 1997
THE LATEST album by England's High Llamas — finally released here — is guaranteed to elicit open-mouthed astonishment from Brian Wilson fans who thought they ...
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan 1948-1997
Obituary by Mark Kemp, Rolling Stone, 2 October 1997
STAR OF PAKISTAN DEAD AT 48 ...
Review by Barney Hoskyns, Rolling Stone, 2 October 1997
PITY THE cerebral technicians of Stereolab, whose coolly subversive fusion of muzak and krautrock has for too long condemned them to the Critics’ Darling ghetto. ...
The Rolling Stones: Bridges To Babylon (Virgin) ****
Review by Mark Kemp, Rolling Stone, 2 October 1997
ON THEIR last two albums, the Rolling Stones proved that they still had verve and stamina, and that they could re-create the sounds of their ...
The Beatles: Derek Taylor 1932-1997
Obituary by Philip Norman, Rolling Stone, 30 October 1997
THE SIMPLE term "music publicist" does not begin to describe Derek Taylor, who died from cancer of the esophagus at his home, in Suffolk, England, ...
Fleetwood Mac: Back In The Chain Gang
Retrospective and Interview by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 30 October 1997
Fleetwood Mac were the lovingest, fightingest, druggingest band of the '70s. Twenty years later, the psychodrama continues… ...
Review by Barney Hoskyns, Rolling Stone, 30 October 1997
ON WHAT IS something of a transitional album, the recently separated Mariah Carey moves still further away from the warmed-over Whitney Houston of Carey's early ...
Chrissie Hynde, The Pretenders: Chrissie Hynde
Interview by Holly George-Warren, Rolling Stone, 13 November 1997
IN 1978, CHRISSIE Hynde, an Akron, Ohio, native living in London, formed the Pretenders. The hand's 1980 debut, The Pretenders, featuring guitarist James Honeyman-Scott, bassist ...
Interview by Evelyn McDonnell, Rolling Stone, 13 November 1997
FIONA APPLE is 20 years and one album old, and already she knows the bipolar swings of stardom. Thanks to one fortuitously placed demo tape, ...
Interview by Evelyn McDonnell, Rolling Stone, 13 November 1997
IN 1976, JOAN Jett was a black-leather-wearing 16-year-old living across the street from Los Angeles' notorious Whisky-a-Go-Go and writing songs like the classic fox anthem ...
Interview by Vivien Goldman, Rolling Stone, 13 November 1997
UNITING GENERATIONS with her twin allegiances to R&B and rap, Mary J. Blige delivers emotional intimacy packaged in a luxurious voice. ...
Interview by Evelyn McDonnell, Rolling Stone, 13 November 1997
ONE WAY to control your career is to declare yourself sovereign. When 19-year-old Dana Owens came rapping out of Newark, N.J., in 1989, she assumed ...
Interview by Vivien Goldman, Rolling Stone, 13 November 1997
AT AGE 30, Sinead O'Connor seems to be experiencing a rebirth with her critically acclaimed new EP, Gospel Oak, and the ecstatic reception to her ...
Obituary by Mark Kemp, Rolling Stone, 27 November 1997
Country-pop star dies in plane crash ...
Review by Chuck Eddy, Rolling Stone, 27 November 1997
LAST TIME WE heard from them (in 1995), aging eye-shadow poster boys Duran Duran had a hit cover of Grandmaster Flash's eerie 1983 cocaine rap ...
Master P: Survival of the Illest
Report and Interview by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 27 November 1997
New Orleans' MASTER P builds a hip-hop empire from the underground up ...
The X-Ecutioners: New York's Turntable Wizards the X-Ecutioners Move the DJ Front and Center
Interview by Evelyn McDonnell, Rolling Stone, 27 November 1997
THEY MAY spin records, but don't call the X-Ecutioners DJs. "A DJ will play somebody else's record, say, 'All right, that was this tune,' and ...
Lucinda Williams: The Fillmore, San Francisco CA
Live Review by Will Hermes, Rolling Stone, 11 December 1997
"I'VE READ that I'm a demanding perfectionist and a difficult diva," quipped a sinewy Lucinda Williams, who lately has gotten as much press for her ...
Shania Twain: Come On Over ***
Review by Chuck Eddy, Rolling Stone, 11 December 1997
THE FIRST thing you notice about Shania Twain's Come On Over, once you get past her pretty pictures on the cover, is how the titles ...
The Verve: Bittersweet Success
Interview by David Sinclair, Rolling Stone, 11 December 1997
AFTER YEARS OF NEAR MISSES, THE VERVE HAVE SCORED BIG BY STAYING TRUE TO THE DARKNESS AT THE HEART OF ROCK & ROLL ...
Review by Will Hermes, Rolling Stone, 12 December 1997
LIKE The Grateful Dead, the eternally jamming Phish are best judged by their concerts. ...
Sublime: Bradley Nowell: Life After Death
Retrospective and Interview by Mark Kemp, Rolling Stone, 25 December 1997
Two months before the release of his band's finest album, Bradley Nowell stuck a needle in his arm and died. In the 18 months since, ...
Jimmy Page/Robert Plant, Led Zeppelin: Page & Plant
Report and Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Rolling Stone, 1998
THE VERY IDEA of MTV as deus ex machina is enough to send shudders down the hardiest spine. But MTV it was who approached Robert ...
Fiona Apple: The Caged Birds Sings
Interview by Chris Heath, Rolling Stone, 22 January 1998
WHEN FIONA Apple pulls into a new town — some place where she has never been before but where tonight there is a theater with ...
Sonic Youth: Avery Fisher Hall, New York NY
Live Review by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 22 January 1998
Noise Goes to the Philharmonic ...
Black Sabbath: NEC, Birmingham
Live Review by Sylvie Simmons, Rolling Stone, February 1998
BLACK SABBATH. Industrial hell turned up to 11, baptised in blood and leather, and leather is cows and cows are sacred, and Heavy Metal doesn't ...
Review by Richard C. Walls, Rolling Stone, 2 February 1998
AT THE BEGINNING of Elvis Costello's covers album, there's a little sleight of hand, a misdirecting cue to the listener — a false start, a ...
Review by Mark Kemp, Rolling Stone, 2 February 1998
WHAT DOES A defiantly anti-corporate rock band do when it starts getting too much attention? In Pavement's case, they recoil. ...
Review by Chuck Eddy, Rolling Stone, 5 February 1998
A SEXTET OF East German sexual-torture fanatics that has been accused of luring the youth of Europe toward communist bliss (and who also appeared on ...
Victoria Williams: Musings Of A Creekdipper (Atlantic)
Review by Holly George-Warren, Rolling Stone, 5 February 1998
LOUISIANA-BORN songwriter Victoria Williams may share an audience with the alt-country likes of Wilco and the Jayhawks, but she remains a true outsider artist with ...
All Saints: All Saints (London) **½
Review by Chuck Eddy, Rolling Stone, 5 March 1998
SHAPELY LONDON dance-pop quartet All Saints are slated to supplant the Spice Girls, but they're more like the legacy of TLC and En Vogue — ...
Obituary by Geoffrey Himes, Rolling Stone, 5 March 1998
DAVID "JUNIOR" Kimbrough didn't release his first album until 1992, when he was 62, but when Fat Possum Records issued All Night Long, Rolling Stone ...
Obituary by Robert Gordon, Rolling Stone, 5 March 1998
JUNIOR WELLS, one of the greatest harmonica players in blues history, died of lymphatic cancer on January 15th in Chicago. He was 63. ...
The Rolling Stones: Babylon By Jet
Report and Interview by Chris Heath, Rolling Stone, 5 March 1998
THE ROLLING STONES MOUNT THE MOST SUCCESSFUL AMERICAN ROCK TOUR EVER ...
Interview by Steven Daly, Rolling Stone, 19 March 1998
ON THEIR DEBUT, MOON SAFARI, THE FRENCH DUO AIR MAKE LOUNGE MUSIC FOR THE ELECTRONIC SET ...
Marilyn Manson: The Long Road Out of Hell (ReganBooks)
Book Review by James Hunter, Rolling Stone, 19 March 1998
MANSON'S LITTLE BLACK BOOK: MARILYN MANSON UNLEASHES THE ULTIMATE TELL-ALL ...
Report and Interview by Will Hermes, Rolling Stone, 2 April 1998
THE DO-IT-YOURSELF PSYCHEDELIA OF THE ELEPHANT 6 BANDS ...
Daz Dillinger: Retaliation, Revenge and Get Back (Death Row) ***½
Review by Miles Marshall Lewis, Rolling Stone, 16 April 1998
CONFRONTED WITH a seeming domino effect of setbacks — including the murder of Tupac Shakur, the departure of Dr. Dre and the incarceration of CEO ...
James Taylor: Hammersmith Apollo, London
Live Review by David Sinclair, Rolling Stone, 30 April 1998
A Hazelnut Voice for All Seasons ...
Report by Will Hermes, Rolling Stone, 30 April 1998
IS ELECTRONICA STILL THE NEXT BIG THING? AT THE WINTER MUSIC CONFERENCE, IT'S ALL THAT AND MORE ...
The Beastie Boys: Adam Yauch on His Spiritual Journey: "I Don't Care If Somebody Makes Fun of Me"
Interview by Anthony DeCurtis, Rolling Stone, 28 May 1998
ALONG WITH his group, the Beastie Boys, Adam Yauch, 33, has grown up in public. Since their days of dodging the local authorities in city ...
Interview by Will Hermes, Rolling Stone, 28 May 1998
THE ORIGINAL Mack Daddy, John Lee Hooker represents the funkiest lowdown essence of the blues. Born in the Mississippi Delta in 1917, Hooker was a ...
Bobby "Blue" Bland: Love Throat: Bobby "Blue" Bland
Interview by Robert Gordon, Rolling Stone, 28 May 1998
BOBBY BLAND'S people seat me at a table, make sure I'm comfortable. An effective entrance demands the proper set-up. ...
Massive Attack: Mezzanine (Virgin)
Review by Barney Hoskyns, Rolling Stone, 28 May 1998
ELDER STATESMEN of the moody dance genre that used to be called trip-hop, Massive Attack like to take their time making albums. So long, indeed, ...
Presidents of the United States of America: Pure Frosting
Review by Chuck Eddy, Rolling Stone, 11 June 1998
SEATTLE NOVELTY-ROCK trio the Presidents of the United States of America recently resigned from office; seems they were sick of getting paired with "Weird Al" ...
Review by Chuck Eddy, Rolling Stone, 25 June 1998
TOO MANY recent "rock en español" hypes (Negu Gorriak, Niños con Bombas, Todos Tus Muertos) prove only that gratuitously pissed-off slam-dance funk can sound repulsive ...
Interview by Steven Daly, Rolling Stone, 25 June 1998
With a little help from her faeries, she is doing more than just getting by ...
DMX: It's Dark and Hell Is Hot (Ruff Ryders/Def Jam) ***
Review by Miles Marshall Lewis, Rolling Stone, 9 July 1998
NEW YORK-SPAWNED RAPPER DMX has been priming listeners for his debut for months, reciting scene-stealing stanzas on releases by L.L. Cool J, Ice Cube and ...
Tupac Shakur: Revenge Killing?
Report by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 9 July 1998
Suspect in TUPAC killing shot in Compton ...
Queen Latifah: Order In The Court (Flavor Unit/Motown)
Review by Evelyn McDonnell, Rolling Stone, 6 August 1998
IN THE four years since Queen Latifah's last album went gold and she won a Grammy, rappers have been getting rich, showing tits and making ...
Review by James Hunter, Rolling Stone, 3 September 1998
PERFECT CHEMISTRY ...
Grateful Dead: The Other Ones: The Furthur Festival, Irvine Meadows Amphitheater, Irvine CA
Live Review by Marc Weingarten, Rolling Stone, 3 September 1998
THREE YEARS after the death of Jerry Garcia, Deadheads had their best reason yet to congregate and undulate as one. The Other Ones, a band ...
Royal Crown Revue: The Contender
Review by Chuck Eddy, Rolling Stone, 1 October 1998
SNAZZY FEDORAS and a brass section can't hide Royal Crown Revue's tough-guy heart. On their varied and witty fourth album, The Contender, this swinging Los ...
Obituary by Robert Gordon, Rolling Stone, 15 October 1998
ROCKABILLY PIONEER Charlie Feathers died in Memphis on August 29th of complications following a stroke. He was sixty-six. ...
Cypress Hill: IV (Ruffhouse/Columbia) ***½
Review by Will Hermes, Rolling Stone, 15 October 1998
LIKE MUCH current literature, hip-hop is obsessed with memoir. That's why the lead track on Cypress Hill's IV is so radical; 'Eye of the Pig' ...
Marilyn Manson: The Love Song of Marilyn Manson
Special Feature by Chris Heath, Rolling Stone, 15 October 1998
In which our hero, trapped in the hills of Los Angeles, finds a girl, discovers his emotions and consumes copious amounts of drugs ...
Joni Mitchell: "I'd Rather Not Compromise. I'm In It For The Musical Adventure."
Interview by Steven Daly, Rolling Stone, 29 October 1998
BY THE time she got to Woodstock, they were 25,000 strong — and it was twenty-nine years too late. But Joni Mitchell cared not that ...
Interview by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 29 October 1998
MASTER P is hip-hop's man of the year, and then some. It seems hardly a week goes by without a new release from his No ...
Review by Chuck Eddy, Rolling Stone, 17 November 1998
FORMER ARMY airborne soldier Shawn Mullins is a sensitive tough guy. Inside the sleeve of Soul's Core – the Atlanta troubadour's seventh album but his ...
Review by Chuck Eddy, Rolling Stone, 26 November 1998
LONG BEFORE the advent of samplers, Brazilian avant-Tropicalist Tom Zé was uniting seemingly opposed styles and constructing instruments from found objects – blenders, typewriters, floor ...
Barenaked Ladies: Northern Exposure
Interview by Will Hermes, Rolling Stone, 10 December 1998
The improbable and partially nude true story of how five funny guys from Toronto called Barenaked Ladies became the biggest new rock band in America ...
Hank Williams III: Grandpa Was A Honky-Tonker
Interview by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 10 December 1998
HANK WILLIAMS III LOVES PUNK, HATES NASHVILLE AND WANTS TO SAVE COUNTRY MUSIC ...
Seal: Human Being (Warner Bros.) **½
Review by Evelyn McDonnell, Rolling Stone, 10 December 1998
WITH HIS rippled six-foot-three body shouldering a face marked by scars that could be teen-idol stigmata, you can't quite hate Seal because he's beautiful. ...
Ronnie Spector: Rolling Ronette
Report by Jaan Uhelszki, Rolling Stone, 17 December 1998
YOU CAN BET it wasn't the first time Keith Richards has given up a night's sleep, but it may have been one of the more ...
Beat Junkies: The World Famous Beat Junkies Volume 2 (Blackberry/Nu Gruv Alliance)
Review by Will Hermes, Rolling Stone, 21 January 1999
A DJ scratch album that's a cut above the rest ...
Interview by Marc Weingarten, Rolling Stone, 21 January 1999
Beck, Radiohead and Pavement producer Nigel Godrich explains ...
Review by Chuck Eddy, Rolling Stone, 4 February 1999
Two techno pioneers prove why they're legends ...
Placebo: Without You Nothing (Virgin)
Review by Chuck Eddy, Rolling Stone, 4 February 1999
Brits who show their glam peers how to rock ...
White Zombie, Rob Zombie: Rob Zombie: Monster of Rock
Report and Interview by Steven Daly, Rolling Stone, 4 February 1999
Hot Pants, Hot Rods, Guitars that spit blood: How he went from a television-addicted high school loser to the new King of Heavy Metal ...
Profile and Interview by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 18 February 1999
For forty years, CHRIS BLACKWELL has survived on killer instincts, killer bud and tough business tactics. Along the way, he's changed the course of pop ...
Fatboy Slim: Funk Sold Brother
Report by Marc Weingarten, Rolling Stone, 1 April 1999
With help from Nike, Miramax and TV Guide, Fatboy Slim puts some Rockafeller in his skank ...
Too $hort: Can't Stay Away (Short Records/Jive) ***
Review by Miles Marshall Lewis, Rolling Stone, 1 April 1999
The don of pimped-out hip-hop returns ...
Britney Spears: Inside the Mind (and Bedroom) of America's Teen Queen
Profile and Interview by Steven Daly, Rolling Stone, 15 April 1999
The child navigates becoming a woman while the former Mousketeer courts worldwide fame ...
Sleater-Kinney: The Roxy, Los Angeles
Live Review by Marc Weingarten, Rolling Stone, 15 April 1999
THE THRIFT-shop slummers and the baby-T cutie-pies who crammed the Roxy for Sleater-Kinney's L.A. performance only drove home what's become painfully obvious: This Olympia, Washington, ...
Talking Heads: 1999 – Not So Eighties, After All
Report by Jaan Uhelszki, Rolling Stone, 27 April 1999
David Byrne joins his fellow Talking Heads ...
The Notorious B.I.G., Puff Daddy, Tupac Shakur: Suge Knight Linked to Notorious B.I.G. Murder
Report by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 27 May 1999
LOS ANGELES homicide detectives have reportedly identified jailed Death Row Records CEO Suge Knight as a prime suspect in the murder of rap star Notorious ...
Review by Barney Hoskyns, Rolling Stone, 10 June 1999
THAT THE TERM "singer-songwriter" is no longer one of abuse is at least partly because of the excellent Ron Sexsmith. A thirtysomething Canadian who sounds ...
Interview by Pat Blashill, Rolling Stone, 10 June 1999
THE VENGABOYS' 'We Like To Party!' is a Big Gulp of bubblegum techno and the goofiest, most ubiquitous beach-party anthem since 'Rock Lobster'. But the ...
Underworld: Hammerstein Ballroom, New York NY
Live Review by Steven Daly, Rolling Stone, 10 June 1999
OUTSIDE UNDERWORLD'S only Manhattan show, dealers are touting coke and ecstasy. And judging by the euphoric mood inside, there are more than a few takers. ...
Review by Miles Marshall Lewis, Rolling Stone, 8 July 1999
Whither the Wu? For now, the Wu-Tang Clan's past is more exciting than its present ...
Obituary by Vivien Goldman, Rolling Stone, 8 July 1999
REGGAE LOST one of its most distinctive sounds with the death of producer and instrumentalist Augustus Pablo in Kingston, Jamaica, on May 18th. The cause ...
Review by Anthony DeCurtis, Rolling Stone, 5 August 1999
THE TITLE TRACK of Jackson Browne's second album, For Everyman, was a response to the escapist vision of Crosby, Stills and Nash's 'Wooden Ships'. As ...
Limp Bizkit: Send Porn Stars, Funk and Money: The Limp Bizkit Story
Report and Interview by Steven Daly, Rolling Stone, 5 August 1999
"WHO WANTS to speak to me?" Fred Durst regards his cell phone with suspicion. "Adam Sandler?" The Limp Bizkit leader has been chatting with producer ...
Randy Newman: Q&A: Randy Newman
Interview by Rob Tannenbaum, Rolling Stone, 19 August 1999
BEFORE ICE Cube, before Eric Bogosian, before Chris Rock, before the country was close to ready, Randy Newman wrote and sang thorny portraits of racists, ...
Interview by Pat Blashill, Rolling Stone, 2 September 1999
MEET BRITAIN'S GREATEST LIVING SPACE-ROCK HOOTENANNY BAND ...
Cher: Live At Arrowhead Pond, Anaheim, California, August 20th, 1999
Live Review by Erik Himmelsbach, Rolling Stone, 30 September 1999
BY EMBRACING her inner Studio 54, Cher recently landed the biggest hit of her four-decade career with the dance-house thumper ‘Believe’. Her mammoth stage show, ...
Interview by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 11 November 1999
JOHN COLTRANE, Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk and Charles Mingus were not just virtuoso musicians but path-breaking composers and bandleaders who shaped the sound of modern ...
The Chemical Brothers: Dark Side of the Rave
Report by Pat Blashill, Rolling Stone, 11 November 1999
Drug deaths and police crackdowns threaten the national rave scene ...
Loudon Wainwright III, Rufus Wainwright: Fathers & Sons: Loudon and Rufus Wainwright
Interview by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 11 November 1999
LOUDON WAINWRIGHT III, 53, was the folk-singing son of a famous Life magazine writer and came on the scene with several other "new Dylans" in ...
Buena Vista Social Club, Ry Cooder: Fathers & Sons: The Cooders
Interview by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 11 November 1999
JOACHIM COODER was four years old when he decided he wanted to be a drummer, after watching his father, Ry, and drummer Jim Keltner record ...
Elvis Costello, Ross McManus: Fathers & Sons: The Costellos
Interview by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 11 November 1999
DECLAN MACMANUS took to the stage in 1977, an angry young man sporting Buddy Holly glasses and a strange name: Elvis Costello. But he wasn't ...
Allman Brothers Band: Fathers and Sons: The Allmans
Interview by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 11 November 1999
THE STORY of the Allman Brothers Band is one of the most glorious and the most tragic in rock. On this year's tour, celebrating the ...
Tommy Lee, Methods of Mayhem: Methods of Mayhem: Tommy Lee's Second Coming
Report and Interview by Erik Himmelsbach, Rolling Stone, 11 November 1999
Ex-Crüe drummer out of jail and back on the radio ...
Mos Def: Black on Both Sides (Rawkus)
Review by Miles Marshall Lewis, Rolling Stone, 11 November 1999
The star of Black Star takes a positive-minded, versatile solo turn ...
Goo Goo Dolls: Winning Ugly: The story of the Goo Goo Dolls
Interview by Chris Heath, Rolling Stone, 11 November 1999
Thirteen years ago they were three scruffy punks from Buffalo bent on drinking themselves into oblivion. Then they turned down their amps and dizzied up ...
The Notorious B.I.G.: New Allegations Link Suge Knight to Murder of the Notorious B.I.G.
Report by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 20 January 2000
DEATH ROW RECORDS HEAD Marion "Suge" Knight, currently serving time for a parole violation at California's Mule Creek State Prison, has again been named as ...
Paul McCartney: The Cavern, Liverpool
Live Review by David Sinclair, Rolling Stone, 20 January 2000
IN ITS OWN downbeat English way, Mathew Street in Liverpool is as much a shrine to the Beatles as Graceland is to Elvis. Walk up ...
Curtis Mayfield: The Soul of Soul: Curtis Mayfield 1942–1999
Obituary by Anthony DeCurtis, Rolling Stone, 3 February 2000
"EVERYTHING WAS A SONG," Curtis Mayfield once said. "Every conversation, every personal hurt, every observance of people in stress, happiness and love ... if you ...
Live Review by Erik Himmelsbach, Rolling Stone, 17 February 2000
THE KINGS of Country Rock have been on ice for the better part of two decades. Still, they earned most of their reported $7 million ...
Susan Tedeschi's Old-Fashioned Success Story
Profile and Interview by Anthony DeCurtis, Rolling Stone, 2 March 2000
"YOU SAY you haven't been rocked in a long, long time/ And good hard rockin' is so hard to find."The opening lyrics to Susan Tedeschi's ...
Kelis Doesn't Get Mad, She Gets Even
Interview by Jaan Uhelszki, Rolling Stone, 9 March 2000
Hip-hop's current It Girl talks about her reputation, decision-making, and more ...
Aimee Mann, Michael Penn: Aimee Mann and Michael Penn
Interview by Erik Himmelsbach, Rolling Stone, 31 March 2000
In which two of L.A.’s best songwriters get dumped by their labels, get married and live happily ever after. ...
Bone Thugs-N-Harmony: BTNHResurrection
Review by Miles Marshall Lewis, Rolling Stone, 27 April 2000
CLEVELAND NATIVES Bone Thugs-N-Harmony have embodied the Nineties hip-hop ethos: Establish your street cred, and take your hardcore pop. ...
Buffalo Springfield: Will Buffalo Springfield Roam Again?
Live Review by Charles Bermant, Rolling Stone, 29 April 2000
NEIL YOUNG'S NEW album, Silver and Gold, features a plaintive ballad titled 'Buffalo Springfield Again', where he expresses nostalgia for the band that first put ...
Review by Anthony DeCurtis, Rolling Stone, 8 June 2000
On his first two solo albums (I Can't Stand Still and Building the Perfect Beast), Don Henley made yearning his great theme. Something had disappeared ...
Wu-Tang Clan Take L.A. On New Album
Interview by Marc Weingarten, Rolling Stone, 4 August 2000
In the studio with the Wu-Tang Clan ...
The Go-Betweens: The Friends of Rachel Worth (Jetset)
Review by Holly George-Warren, Rolling Stone, 14 September 2000
Sleater-Kinney aid return of '80s post-punk rockers. ...
Pearl Jam: Live in Europe 1-25
Review by Ben Edmonds, Rolling Stone, 26 October 2000
PEARL JAM's late-spring 2000 tour is remembered for the mosh-pit tragedy that claimed the lives of nine fans in Denmark. But up until then, the ...
U2: All That You Can't Leave Behind
Review by James Hunter, Rolling Stone, 26 October 2000
U2'S TENTH STUDIO album and third masterpiece, All That You Can't Leave Behind, is all about the simple melding of craft and song. Their first ...
Los Lobos: Just Another Band From East L.A./El Cancionero – Mas y Mas
Review by Geoffrey Himes, Rolling Stone, 9 November 2000
The rare first album and a new four-disc set from the Mexican-American greats ...
The Soft Boys: Underwater Moonlight
Review by Bill Holdship, Rolling Stone, 13 March 2001
IN THIS ERA of nonstop rock lists, the term "classic" is almost as overused as "genius" and "influential."But 1980's Underwater Moonlight remains all three of ...
The Kinks: BBC Sessions 1964-1977
Review by Marc Weingarten, Rolling Stone, 24 May 2001
GOD BLESS THE BBC for dustingoff its rock archives and releasing them all on CD. This latest batch of goodies is a collection of performances ...
Review by Ben Edmonds, Rolling Stone, 24 May 2001
A BOUNTY OF classic blues albums has recently become available on CD, fortified with bonus tracks and unissued material. ...
Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne: Jackson Browne and Bonnie Raitt: Rock for Java
Live Review by Charles Bermant, Rolling Stone, 4 June 2001
BACK IN THE 1970s, when Jackson Browne and Bonnie Raitt became notorious for spearheading benefit concerts, the issues were, well, more clear cut: Vote for ...
The White Stripes: White Blood Cells
Review by Pat Blashill, Rolling Stone, 25 June 2001
THE WHITE STRIPES play gothic garage punk strictly by all the best and baddest rules. Detroit's Jack and Meg White, allegedly brother and sister, look ...
Elvis Presley: From Elvis In Memphis
Review by James Hunter, Rolling Stone, 10 July 2001
IN THE Elvis Presley mythology, 1968 marks the year of the TV Renaissance, when Presley delivered a mesmerizing, passionate performance on NBC, which regenerated his ...
Iggy Pop: The Importance of Being Iggy
Interview by Jaan Uhelszki, Rolling Stone, 13 July 2001
JAMES NEWELL OSTERBERG, a.k.a. Iggy Pop, once billed himself as the "world's forgotten boy," but that is no longer the case. From fronting the proto-punk ...
Buffalo Springfield: The Box Set
Review by Ben Edmonds, Rolling Stone, 19 July 2001
BUFFALO SPRINGFIELD are that rarest of beasts: an influential 1960s band whose recorded legacy hasn't been recycled into dust. Classic-rock radio stations don't dig much ...
Fred Neil: Rocking My Life Away: Fred Neil
Obituary by Anthony DeCurtis, Rolling Stone, 20 July 2001
"HE WAS A hero to me," David Crosby said of singer-songwriter Fred Neil. But when Neil died of cancer on July 7th at the age ...
Review by Pat Blashill, Rolling Stone, 16 October 2001
FOR A NEW-METAL band competing in a field of alpha males with pierced, sloping brows, the supple, even delicate Incubus have an awful lot of ...
Jay Z: Jay-Z: Hammerstein Ballroom, New York NY
Live Review by Pat Blashill, Rolling Stone, 8 November 2001
Jay-Z Hustles ...
Review by James Hunter, Rolling Stone, 13 November 2001
STING WAS IN Tuscany when he gave this concert in a courtyard there, beginning at nine in the evening, Italian time, September 11th. ...
Willie Nelson: The Great Divide
Review by Pat Blashill, Rolling Stone, 8 January 2002
SUNNY AND UPLIFTING are not words generally associated with Willie Nelson, but that's not the only reason some will be surprised by his new album. ...
Ludacris: Word of Mouf (Def Jam South)
Review by Pat Blashill, Rolling Stone, 17 January 2002
The South's most freewheeling mouth? ...
Mobb Deep: Infamy (Loud/Columbia)
Review by Pat Blashill, Rolling Stone, 31 January 2002
Rappers ride spooky thing into ground ...
Mobb Deep: Infamy (Loud/Columbia) **½
Review by Pat Blashill, Rolling Stone, 31 January 2002
Rappers ride spooky thing into ground ...
Interview by Chris Heath, Rolling Stone, 28 February 2002
The tumultuous past and glorious present of Scott Stapp and America's biggest rock band ...
Review by Eric Weisbard, Rolling Stone, 14 March 2002
Arty big band with hidden charms ...
Natalie Imbruglia: White Lilies Island (RCA)
Review by Pat Blashill, Rolling Stone, 28 March 2002
'Torn' pop starlet gets less convincing ...
The Kinks: Ray Davies: Rocking My Life Away
Interview by Anthony DeCurtis, Rolling Stone, 29 March 2002
Lost Davies interview illuminates the "underrated" Kinks ...
Review by Pat Blashill, Rolling Stone, 2 July 2002
FOR ANYONE who's already screaming "Enough!" whenever Avril Lavigne's supernaturally catchy single 'Complicated' comes on the radio, the news is all bad. ...
Review by Pat Blashill, Rolling Stone, 2 July 2002
IN 1987, BACK when alt-rock was called "college rock," the Pixies loomed large, like a bizarre crossbreeding of pop sensibilities, art-rock conceptualism and nasty guitar ...
Review by Mark Kemp, Rolling Stone, 16 July 2002
THE FIFTEEN-YEAR-OLD mall rats who recorded Silverchair's mid-Nineties debut, Frogstomp, got plenty of flak from folks who couldn't get beyond the band's preoccupation with Pearl ...
Jeff Buckley: Songs To No One: 1991-1992
Review by Pat Blashill, Rolling Stone, 8 October 2002
IN THE EARLY '90s, two restlessly inventive musicians, Jeff Buckley and Gary Lucas, both haunted by phantoms from the '60s, crossed a generation gap and ...
Jackson Browne: The Naked Ride Home
Review by James Hunter, Rolling Stone, 17 October 2002
FROM THE COOL romanticism of 1993's I'm Alive to the textured ruminations of 1996's Looking East, Jackson Browne has explored, with a sense of flash ...
Kraftwerk: Trans-Europe Express
Review by Pat Blashill, Rolling Stone, 22 October 2002
WITH THEIR 1974 international smash hit 'Autobahn', Kraftwerk had coolly demonstrated that an experimental electronic group from Dusseldorf, Germany, could kick out perfect pop on ...
Leonard Cohen: The Essential Leonard Cohen
Review by Pat Blashill, Rolling Stone, 22 October 2002
THE DARK, POETIC music of Leonard Cohen should be listed on the table of periodic elements — when you discover it, it suddenly seems as ...
Christina Aguilera: Has Anyone Seen Christina?
Interview by Chris Heath, Rolling Stone, 14 November 2002
Because all we can find is Xtina, with her explosive beats, body piercings and broken glass. ...
Flaming Lips: The Flaming Lips: Finally The Punk Rockers Are Taking Acid 1983-88
Review by Pat Blashill, Rolling Stone, 14 November 2002
FOLLOWING THESE fearless alterna-rockers on their path from '80s weird to pop bliss, few would have thought in the late '80s that the Flaming Lips, ...
Bruce Springsteen: People of the year: Bruce Springsteen
Interview by Anthony DeCurtis, Rolling Stone, 12 December 2002
His album The Rising dealt with life after 9/11. His world tour confronted the realities of war ...
Ben Harper: Diamonds On The Inside
Review by Pat Blashill, Rolling Stone, 25 February 2003
EVEN AS HE invokes folks such as Bob Marley and Jimi Hendrix, Ben Harper turns rock clichés inside out until they mean something new again. ...
50 Cent: Paramount Theatre, Seattle
Live Review by Eric Weisbard, Rolling Stone, 12 May 2003
Hip-hop's biggest new name plays it safe and quick ...
A Tribe Called Quest: Hits, Rarities & Remixes
Review by Pat Blashill, Rolling Stone, 24 June 2003
THE TIP-OFF TO all of a Tribe Called Quest's considerable talent was the grainy, mischievous curl in rapper Q-Tip's voice: Tribe were abstract imps who ...
Steely Dan: The Greatest Albums Ever Made: Steely Dan's Countdown to Ecstasy
Review by Pat Blashill, Rolling Stone, 30 October 2003
WALTER BECKER and Donald Fagen were wiseass New York musician nerds stranded in L.A. in the early '70s, and they poured all the cynicism and ...
Review by Mac Randall, Rolling Stone, 27 November 2003
Al Green reunites with his partner from his greatest records, producer Willie Mitchell. ...
David Byrne: Grown Backwards (Nonesuch)
Review by Pat Blashill, Rolling Stone, 29 April 2004
Ex-Talking Head – and the most cosmopolitan man in New York – continues his global luau. ...
Gram Parsons: Parsons Lives in Film: Grand Theft opens in theaters tomorrow
Report and Interview by Jason Cohen, Rolling Stone, 17 June 2004
IT'S ONE OF rock & roll's great mythologies: the day Phil Kaufman stole Gram Parsons' body, keeping a promise to give his friend a fiery ...
Al Green: Call Me/Explores Your Mind
Review by Pat Blashill, Rolling Stone, 29 June 2004
WHEN WRITER Toni Morrison said that black artists always seem to move with ease, she was talking about someone like Al Green. He sings from ...
The Clash: London Calling (25th Anniversary Legacy Edition)
Review by Pat Blashill, Rolling Stone, 22 September 2004
IN 1979, London Calling was sold with a sticker declaring that the Clash were the only band that matters, and they acted as if they ...
Townes Van Zandt: Van Zandt's New "Love"
Report by Jason Cohen, Rolling Stone, 23 September 2004
IF YOU KNOW your Texas music, it's a famous story: in 1970 a young Joe Ely picked up a hitchhiker on his way to Houston. ...
Green Day: Irving Plaza, New York
Live Review by Pat Blashill, Rolling Stone, 28 October 2004
GREEN DAY'S New York show, one of four small venue dates the band played before its fall arena tour, felt like it was shot out ...
Pavement: Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain: L.A.'s Desert Origins
Review by Pat Blashill, Rolling Stone, 25 November 2004
PAVEMENT MAY have been alternative rock's most notorious mess, but this deluxe reissue of their best album, appended with nearly forty extra tracks, illuminates one ...
Jefferson Airplane: Obituary: Spencer Dryden
Obituary by Ben Fong-Torres, Rolling Stone, 10 February 2005
Jefferson Airplane's inventive drummer was one of the best of the psychedelic era ...
Nick Cave and Australia's Bad Deeds
Report and Interview by Jason Cohen, Rolling Stone, 8 May 2006
Rocker's screenplay for The Proposition considers Australia's "open wounds" ...
Review by Will Hermes, Rolling Stone, 15 June 2006
Eclectic miniopera from Brazilian master of the weird ...
The Beatles, The Rolling Stones: Summer of Love: London
Retrospective by Alan Light, Rolling Stone, 12 July 2007
Tightly knit, decadent and explosively creative, the scene was too good to last ...
Review by Will Hermes, Rolling Stone, 26 June 2008
LIKE FELLOW CROONERS Amy Winehouse and Kate Nash, Adele Adkins polished her skills at the Brit School in south London – as good a finishing ...
Review by Will Hermes, Rolling Stone, 26 June 2008
COLDPLAY'S FOURTH release has been billed as their experimental record, as well as their political record. And it is both, relatively speaking. Viva la Vida ...
Jackson Browne: Time The Conqueror
Review by James Hunter, Rolling Stone, 2 October 2008
AFTER SPENDING the late part of last year stumping for John Edwards, Jackson Browne continues to address the frustration, outrage and heartbreak over the Bush ...
Ryan Adams and the Cardinals: Cardinology
Review by Will Hermes, Rolling Stone, 30 October 2008
RYAN ADAMS' drug problems and public tantrums have often overshadowed his music. But Cardinology may put an end to that. ...
Franz Ferdinand, Cold War Kids: Portland, Oregon
Live Review by Jason Cohen, Rolling Stone, 17 December 2008
CHRISTMAS GIFTS from 94/7 FM come in bigger packages: the Portland alternative station's "December to Remember" concert series features eight bands over four evenings, instead ...
Review by Will Hermes, Rolling Stone, 5 February 2009
AGE CAN undermine lesser rockers. But time's cruel toll just validates Morrissey's morbid drama-queen spiels — to paraphrase a lyric from his old band the ...
The Beastie Boys: Beastie Boys: Paul's Boutique – 20th Anniversary Remastered Edition
Review by Mark Kemp, Rolling Stone, 19 February 2009
IN 1989, FEW people imagined that the bratty trio who took "You Gotta Fight for Your Right" to the Top 10 would do more than ...
Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit: Lightning Rod
Review by Mark Kemp, Rolling Stone, 19 February 2009
Ex-Trucker takes on heartland rock and brooding weepers. ...
Michael Jackson: Michael Reinvents Pop
Retrospective by Anthony DeCurtis, Rolling Stone, August 2009
Recorded before he turned 21, Off The Wall made him a superstar — and the most important young R&B artist in America. ...
Review by Will Hermes, Rolling Stone, 8 September 2009
PHISH TURNED 25 last November quietly; after all, they'd been defunct for over four years. So consider their reunion LP, the self-released Joy, a belated ...
Live Review by Gillian G. Gaar, Rolling Stone, 16 September 2009
Pink's High-Flying Funhouse Spectacle Debuts in Seattle ...
Review by Will Hermes, Rolling Stone, 3 March 2010
PART KANYE WEST, PART BRIAN ENO, producer-musician Brian Burton — a.k.a. Danger Mouse — has defined himself with his excellent taste in brilliant misfits. His ...
Drake, Paramore: Paramore, Drake Rock Into the Night at New Jersey's Bamboozle
Live Review by Maura Johnston, Rolling Stone, 2 May 2010
DURING THE DAYLIGHT HOURS of the two-day New Jersey parking-lot festival known as the Bamboozle, attendees wander around the Meadowlands grounds, scoring rides on the ...
Review by Will Hermes, Rolling Stone, 19 July 2010
"DON'T FUCKIN' tell me what to do," chants reformed teen-pop prodigy Robyn. No worry, girl, things are under control. ...
Arcade Fire Go Big at Madison Square Garden
Live Review by Will Hermes, Rolling Stone, 5 August 2010
A FEW YEARS BACK, U2 used Arcade Fire's recording of 'Wake Up' to pump up arena crowds before they hit the stage. ...
Review by Will Hermes, Rolling Stone, 22 September 2010
ROBERT PLANT'S 2007 ALBUM with pop-bluegrass songbird Alison Krauss, Raising Sand, did something 25 years of solo records never quite managed. It fully transformed him ...
Kings of Leon: Come Around Sundown
Review by Will Hermes, Rolling Stone, 18 October 2010
IN THE RUN-UP to Kings of Leon's fifth album, frontman Caleb Followill fretted publicly over his band's swelling popularity. Sorry, dude: That horse left the ...
Review by Will Hermes, Rolling Stone, 22 November 2010
KE$HA'S MAIN competitor rocks a mean meat dress, but can she rock a couplet like "Your little heart goes pitter-patter/I want your liver on a ...
Captain Beefheart: 10 Essential Captain Beefheart Songs
Guide by Will Hermes, Rolling Stone, 20 December 2010
Tracks that mixed free-jazz with the blues, and influenced everyone from PJ Harvey to the Black Keys. ...
Review by Will Hermes, Rolling Stone, February 2011
ADELE ADKINS' retro-soul debut, 19, was striking less for her songs than for that voice: a voluptuous, slightly parched alto that swooped and fluttered like a ...
Radiohead: The King Of Limbs – A Track-by-Track Breakdown
Guide by Will Hermes, Rolling Stone, 18 February 2011
RADIOHEAD RELEASED its eighth album, The King of Limbs, as a digital download this morning, a day earlier than expected. With eight tracks spanning 37 ...
Review by Will Hermes, Rolling Stone, 26 May 2011
JUSTIN VERNON'S life could be the most implausible reality-TV show ever. Five years ago, he split from his beardy prog-folk band, DeYarmond Edison, and moved ...
Review by Will Hermes, Rolling Stone, December 2011
OVER 10 YEARS and seven albums, Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney have turned their basement blues project into one of America's mightiest bands. ...
Review by Rob Tannenbaum, Rolling Stone, 10 May 2012
Scotsmen craft art pop full of hooks, wit and weirdness. ...
Bob Marley & the Wailers: Marley: A Legend in Sharp Focus
Film/DVD/TV Review by Will Hermes, Rolling Stone, 16 August 2012
New documentary may be the definitive portrait of international pop's most potent star. ...
Review by Will Hermes, Rolling Stone, 20 September 2012
IT'S HARD TO imagine a more preposterous road to platinum success than the one Mumford & Sons travelled. Sigh No More, the 2010 debut by ...
Review by James Hunter, Rolling Stone, 22 September 2012
IN THE 1970s, ZZ Top broke through with a regional sound – simmering Texas blues – and then, in the next decade, reimagined their sound ...
Review by Will Hermes, Rolling Stone, October 2012
ELLIE GOULDING emerged in 2010 with a one-two punch: first, her (still-rising) helium-voiced hit 'Lights', then, an elegant read of Elton John's 'Your Song' that ...
Alabama Shakes' Unlikely Triumph
Interview by Will Hermes, Rolling Stone, 14 March 2013
BRITTANY HOWARD, the powerhouse 24-year-old frontwoman for Alabama Shakes, isn't much for red carpets. ...
Tyler, The Creator: Q&A: Tyler, the Creator
Interview by Rob Tannenbaum, Rolling Stone, 11 April 2013
The Odd Future leader on homophobia, Miley Cyrus and why Tumblr is "sad". ...
Review by Will Hermes, Rolling Stone, 15 April 2013
JAKE BUGG is a 19-year-old from a Nottingham housing project whose self-titled debut topped the U.K. pop charts late last year, somewhat astonishingly, with songs ...
Daft Punk: Random Access Memories
Review by Will Hermes, Rolling Stone, May 2013
FRENCH DUO Daft Punk helped create our current stadium-shaking, Coachella-dominating dance-music moment, and their new album is by far the year's most anticipated EDM set. ...
Robin Thicke: Blurred Lines (StarTrak/Interscope)
Review by Rob Tannenbaum, Rolling Stone, 1 August 2013
The George Clooney of club jams calls in a crack squad of hitmakers for laid-back, top-shelf pop. ...
Civil Wars, the: The Civil Wars: The Civil Wars
Review by Will Hermes, Rolling Stone, 1 August 2013
TAYLOR SWIFT disses exes with singalong choruses, Rihanna duets with her abusive beau, but no pop act makes outsize romantic dysfunction sound as extravagantly pretty ...
Neko Case: The Worse Things Get, the Harder I Fight, the Harder I Fight, the More I Love You
Review by Will Hermes, Rolling Stone, 3 September 2013
ONCE MERELY A third of the New Pornographers' indie-rock-Avengers front line and a solo act with country-rock leanings, ginormous pipes and comedy-club-stage banter, Neko Case ...
Review by Will Hermes, Rolling Stone, 5 November 2013
IF MAYA ARULPRAGASAM has a persecution complex, she's earned it. ...
Review by Will Hermes, Rolling Stone, 21 November 2013
THERE'S SOMETHING deliciously perverse in hearing Justin Timberlake sing — gorgeously, it must be said — old-timey roots music. ...
Mike Bloomfield: Michael Bloomfield: From His Head to His Heart to His Hands (Columbia/Legacy)
Review by Will Hermes, Rolling Stone, 13 April 2014
Anthology captures the titanic legacy of the late talent who inspired Clapton, Dylan and more. ...
Sharon Van Etten: Are We There
Review by Will Hermes, Rolling Stone, 5 June 2014
Sharon Van Etten's follow-up to her 2012 breakthrough is full of elegantly drawn gloom. ...
Review by Will Hermes, Rolling Stone, 3 July 2014
On first LP since 2009, Vermont's shaggy heroes return to the studio in full-on party mode. ...
Stevie Nicks: 24 Karat Gold – Songs from the Vault
Review by Will Hermes, Rolling Stone, 23 October 2014
The star re-records a batch of lost demos from four decades, using Nashville session A-team. ...
The Pop Group: The Oral History of the Pop Group: The Noisy Brits Who Were Too Punk for the Punks
Interview by Richard Gehr, Rolling Stone, 7 November 2014
While London was calling, these Bristol teenagers responded with dub, avant-jazz and noise — and inspired everyone from Nick Cave to Nine Inch Nails. ...
Charli XCX: Sucker (Atlantic/Neon Gold) ****
Review by Will Hermes, Rolling Stone, 18 December 2014
The U.K. singer reinvents pop punk on her loud, fun, ridiculously catchy new LP ...
Review by Will Hermes, Rolling Stone, 9 April 2015
"I'M JUST A horse with no name," sings Laura Marling on 'Warrior' — slyly invoking the 1970s soft-rock hit by America while conjuring a wanderer ...
Parquet Courts: Live at Third Man Records
Review by Will Hermes, Rolling Stone, 9 April 2015
Brooklyn rockers rip through a ferocious concert album ...
Review by Will Hermes, Rolling Stone, 21 April 2015
Soul rockers free their minds to explore new psychedelic worlds on their second album ...
Review by Will Hermes, Rolling Stone, 28 April 2015
ZAC BROWN Band's cocktail of soul, rock, jazz and more is tasty, even when it's a little predictable. They triangulate country bounce, classic-rock flex and ...
Grateful Dead: Soldier Field, Chicago
Live Review by Will Hermes, Rolling Stone, 5 July 2015
Grateful Dead's Goodbye, Night Two: Chemistry Lost, Cash-Grabs Abound. For the second of three Fare Thee Well shows, the band goes into latter year doldrums ...
Keith Richards: Crosseyed Heart
Review by Will Hermes, Rolling Stone, 14 September 2015
KEITH RICHARDS' first solo album since 1992 opens like a fever dream, with the 71-year-old rock god croaking acoustic blues like Robert Johnson after burning ...
Patty Griffin: Servant Of Love
Review by Will Hermes, Rolling Stone, 15 October 2015
WHEN JIMMIE RODGERS, the "Father of Country Music," cut 'Blue Yodel #9' with Louis Armstrong in 1930, combining rural mountain music with blues and jazz ...
Review by Will Hermes, Rolling Stone, 29 October 2015
THE OBVIOUS QUESTION trailing Trey Anastasio's latest: How much did he take home from his summer vacation with the Dead? Answer: About what you'd expect ...
The Replacements: Bob Mehr: Trouble Boys – The True Story of the Replacements
Book Review by Will Hermes, Rolling Stone, 10 March 2016
A new biography dives deep into the "'80s punk underdogs" epic, tragic story. ...
Review by Will Hermes, Rolling Stone, 10 March 2016
NOT SINCE Herbie Hancock robo-rocked the Grammys in 1984 have jazz and pop felt as closely intertwined as they do this year. ...
Review by Will Hermes, Rolling Stone, 28 June 2016
DEV HYNES described his third LP under his Blood Orange moniker as something "like my version of [the Beastie Boys'] Paul's Boutique." ...
Brandy Clark: Big Day in a Small Town
Review by Will Hermes, Rolling Stone, 1 July 2016
BRANDY CLARK'S 2013 DEBUT, 12 Stories, heralded a Nashville songwriting renaissance, alongside pathfinders like Kacey Musgraves and Eric Church. Its sequel, and proper major label ...
St. Paul & The Broken Bones: Sea of Noise
Review by Will Hermes, Rolling Stone, 8 September 2016
FROM FRANK OCEAN to Blood Orange, we're in a golden age of expansive R&B — meaning the bar is high, even for old-school revivalists like ...
Dirty Projectors: Dirty Projectors
Review by Will Hermes, Rolling Stone, 24 February 2017
ALONGSIDE TV ON THE RADIO, LCD Soundsystem and Vampire Weekend, Dirty Projectors were a key part of New York's radical rewiring of rock in the ...
Review by Will Hermes, Rolling Stone, 13 March 2017
"BRING BACK the neo-libs, I'm sorry/I didn't fuckin' mean to pray for anarchy!" apologizes Jason Williamson, sort of, on 'Carlton Touts', a hot rant about ...
Gregg Allman, Southern Rock Pioneer, Dead at 69
Obituary by Richard Gehr, Rolling Stone, 27 May 2017
Allman Brothers Band leader "passed away peacefully at his home in Savannah, Georgia". ...
Review by Maura Johnston, Rolling Stone, 25 July 2017
LANA DEL REY has become a hugely adored miserablist thanks to a perpetually wounded voice and plainspoken poetry. Her fourth album as Lana Del Rey ...
Neil Young: Roxy – Tonight's the Night Live
Review by Will Hermes, Rolling Stone, 23 April 2018
The songwriter opened a legendary L.A. club in 1973 with an incredible performance that spotlighted his classic album. ...
Blood Orange’s Haunted, Sexy Negro Swan
Review by Will Hermes, Rolling Stone, 27 August 2018
Dev Hynes delivers praise songs to self-realization and fluidity, with help from Janet Mock, A$AP Rocky, P-Diddy and others. ...
Jess Glynne: Always In Between
Review by Maura Johnston, Rolling Stone, 19 October 2018
BRITISH BELTER JESS GLYNNE introduced herself to American audiences in 2014 with 'Rather Be', an effervescent slice-of-love giggle that showed off her strong vocals and ...
The Struts: Young and Dangerous
Review by Will Hermes, Rolling Stone, 19 October 2018
THE STRUTS, hailing from the UK, have a head start on the revivalist circuit — two years into the game, in 2014, they opened for ...
Review by Will Hermes, Rolling Stone, 25 October 2018
Her first album in eight years offers a personal take on disco's healing ecstasy. ...
Meg Baird, Mary Lattimore: Meg Baird and Mary Lattimore: Ghost Forests
Review by Will Hermes, Rolling Stone, 13 November 2018
Experimental music that's warm and inviting. ...
The 1975: A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships
Review by Maura Johnston, Rolling Stone, 4 December 2018
The UK band's latest cuts through our social media malaise with some highly emotional songs and a sound that replicates the sonic placelessness of the ...
Review by Will Hermes, Rolling Stone, 3 February 2019
BEIRUT MUSIC sounds like the fuzzy memory of a wedding involving distant relatives, where you were swept up in folk dances and traditional drinking games, ...
Review by Will Hermes, Rolling Stone, 22 March 2019
On her fourth solo LP, the singer/songwriter returns with songs rooted in her home turf, with help from Beck, Ringo Starr and others. ...
Review by Will Hermes, Rolling Stone, 25 April 2019
On her third LP, the New Zealand singer pivots artfully from folk eccentric to pop eccentric. ...
Review by Will Hermes, Rolling Stone, 11 July 2019
SINCE HER GOTHY 2014 single 'Beggin' For Thread' ("to sew this hole up that you ripped in my head"), Jillian Banks has stepped with a ...
Review by Will Hermes, Rolling Stone, 2 October 2019
With cinematic strings and goth-noir drama, the singer-songwriter makes her biggest, boldest record yet. ...
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