Al Aronowitz
Al Aronowitz was often described as "the godfather of rock journalism". His POP SCENE column in the NEW YORK POST turned him into one of the most powerful rock journalists in the world. Those columns - plus his writings in THE SATURDAY EVENING POST, THE VILLAGE VOICE and many other publications - set the tone for all subsequent coverage of rock and roll. He collected some of his unpublished manuscripts in THE BLACKLISTED MASTERPIECES OF AL ARONOWITZ. As the man who introduced Allen Ginsberg to Bob Dylan, Bob Dylan to the Beatles, and the Beatles to marijuana, Al was known to boast that "the '60s wouldn't have been the same without me". He died in 2005.
41 articles
List of articles in the library
Report and Interview by Al Aronowitz, Saturday Evening Post, August 1963
2003 note: The following was trimmed down to fit in the pages of the Saturday Evening Post by Bill Ewald, one of the few editors ...
The Beatles: Music's Gold Bugs
Essay by Al Aronowitz, Saturday Evening Post, March 1964
BRIAN SOMMERVILLE is a balding 32-year-old Londoner whose jaw juts out like the southeast corner of England when he thinks he is about to say ...
Bob Dylan: A Night With Bob Dylan
Essay by Al Aronowitz, New York Herald Tribune, 12 December 1965
BOB DYLAN picked himself up from the revolving turntable; staggered into an armchair, waved his hands above his head and sat down to watch the ...
Jimi Hendrix: The Jimi Hendrix Experience: Axis: Bold as Love
Review by Al Aronowitz, LIFE, 15 March 1968
Brash Buccaneer with a Wah-Wah ...
The Band, Bob Dylan: The Band: Country Soul from Bob's Backup Band
Profile and Interview by Al Aronowitz, LIFE, 26 July 1968
BIG PINK IS one of those middle-class ranch houses you would expect to find in suburbia rather than on a mountain top in rustic Woodstock, ...
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 ...
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 ...
Big Brother & The Holding Company, Janis Joplin: Janis Joplin: Singer With The Bordello Voice
Profile and Interview by Al Aronowitz, LIFE, 20 September 1968
IF YOU HAVEN'T heard of Big Brother and the Holding Company by now, you're going to miss your chance. ...
The Band: On The Horizon: The Band
Profile and Interview by Al Aronowitz, Hullabaloo, October 1968
BIG PINK IS ONE of those middle-class ranch houses of the type that you would expect to find in development row in the heart of ...
The Rolling Stones: Brian Jones: Over His Dead Body
Obituary by Al Aronowitz, New York Post, 1969
I AM STANDING with Brian Jones at the window of his hotel suite when we looked down into this open sore in the bedrock fifteen ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
Miles Davis: Rock Is A White Man's Word, Says Miles
Report and Interview by Al Aronowitz, Melody Maker, 17 October 1970
NEW YORK — Junior Mance was working the bandstand at New York's Top of the Gate and you had to put your ear to Miles ...
The Doors: Over His Dead Body: Memories of Jim Morrison
Obituary by Al Aronowitz, New York Post, 1971
WE ALL MAKE our deals with the devil. I suppose Jim Morrison must have realized that he made his. Listen to Jac Holzman, the president ...
Judy Collins: Judy — the leading lady
Profile and Interview by Al Aronowitz, Melody Maker, 9 January 1971
JUDY COLLINS is a leading lady. Like Myrna Loy used to be, and Loretta Young, and Barbara Stanwyck, and Rosalind Russell. The kind of actress ...
Alex Taylor, James Taylor: James and Alex Taylor: And He Played Real Good For Free
Report by Al Aronowitz, Melody Maker, 10 April 1971
CHILMARK, MASSACHUSETTS.The Island Children's School gave its first annual benefit concert here last January 12 and if you've read The Vineyard Gazette then you know ...
The Doors, Jim Morrison: Jim Morrison: This is the End, Beautiful Friend
Obituary by Al Aronowitz, Melody Maker, 17 July 1971
Al Aronowitz on the death of Jim Morrison ...
The Doors: The End of Jim Morrison
Obituary by Al Aronowitz, Fusion, 17 September 1971
WE ALL MAKE our deals with the devil. I suppose Jim Morrison must have realized that he made his. Listen to Jac Holzman, the president ...
David Bowie: The Super Pop Event
Live Review by Al Aronowitz, New York Post, 29 September 1972
David Bowie: Carnegie Hall, NYC ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
Jimi Hendrix: The Final Tribute to Jimi Hendrix
Memoir by Al Aronowitz, Circus, 29 September 1977
I HAD TO talk Miles into going to Jimi's funeral with me. ...
Interview by Al Aronowitz, The Blacklisted Masterpieces of Al Aronowitz, 1978
1. San Francisco Jerry Garcia wanted me to write a story about him. That was the deal. I was managing this folksinger who needed ...
Fleetwood Mac: The Ghost of Fleetwood Past
Memoir by Al Aronowitz, Circus, 2 February 1978
EVERY TIME I hear a Fleetwood Mac cut on the radio, I find myself thinking they're friends of mine, and I don't even know them. ...
Linda Ronstadt: America's Sex Valentine
Profile by Al Aronowitz, Gallery, February 1979
I KNOW AN eighteen-year-old genius named Jimmy Dunbar who thinks the ultimate prize in the ultimate contest would be a weekend with Linda Ronstadt. Not ...
The Eagles, Fleetwood Mac: Fleetwood Mac's Tusk and The Eagles' The Long Run
Review by Al Aronowitz, The Washington Post, 14 November 1979
LONG AND EAGERLY AWAITED, Fleetwood Mac's Tusk comes as the most spectacular event in records since Stevie Wonder's Songs in the Key of Life. Less ...
Fleetwood Mac: A Vote For Fleetwood Mac
Essay by Al Aronowitz, The Blacklisted Masterpieces of Al Aronowitz, 1981
Washington I have no faith in politicians. I think musicians are full of shit, too, but music makes me feel better. Music makes me ...
The Byrds, Roger McGuinn: Born Again: Roger McGuinn
Interview by Al Aronowitz, The Blacklisted Masterpieces of Al Aronowitz, 1981
Roger McGuinn is explaining that he's found religion. He's now a Christian. Jesus is the only one in sight that he can believe in. He's ...
Memoir by Al Aronowitz, The Blacklisted Masterpieces of Al Aronowitz, 1981
YEAH, I KNEW Emmett Grogan, knew him well enough to've gone on a half-ass caper with him in behalf of a coke dealer who thought ...
Mick Jagger, Miles Davis, The Rolling Stones: Mick and Miles (A Musical in Several Parts)
Essay by Al Aronowitz, The Blacklisted Masterpieces of Al Aronowitz, 1981
A remarkable personal reminiscence of the night the author took rock star Mick Jagger to meet jazz star Miles Davis turns into rock/jazz history and ...
Bobby Darin: The Kid: Bobby Darin
Profile by Al Aronowitz, The Blacklisted Masterpieces of Al Aronowitz, 1981
East Harlem, an Italian ghetto, 1936. The kid is born May 14, a Taurus. From the beginning, he's sickly. As soon as he's conscious of ...
The Beatles, Bob Dylan: Eyewitness: Dylan Turns The Beatles On To Dope
Essay by Al Aronowitz, Q, May 1994
History ahoy! In the second of our new series, journalist Al Aronowitz recalls introducing Bob Dylan to The Beatles and how His Bobness turned the ...
Profile by Al Aronowitz, The Blacklisted Masterpieces of Al Aronowitz, 1996
THE DAY HE GETS OUT of the hospital from his third suicide attempt, Dave Kapralik is ready to try to snuff himself again. He's got ...
Dr. John: Retropop Scene: Emmett, Mac and Peter Coyote
Memoir by Al Aronowitz, The Blacklisted Journalist, 1 May 1996
I. NEW YORK, October 27, 1971 Emmett Grogan sent Tuesday Weld home early. He didn't like all the publicity that was going around about the two ...
Thomas Jefferson Kaye, Bob Neuwirth: A Movie For David Geffen
Retrospective and Interview by Al Aronowitz, The Blacklisted Journalist, 1 July 1997
I. WHEN I TELL people that Bobby Neuwirth was one of the hippest men I ever knew, they say, "Who?" They want to know didn't I ...
Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell: A Crown Jewel of a Show: King Bob and Queen Joni
Essay by Al Aronowitz, The Blacklisted Journalist, 1 March 1999
I REALLY WOULDN'T know what to say to Bob Dylan if I bumped into him again. I suppose I could talk about our one-time mutual ...
Ray Charles: The Great Ray Charles Needed No Justifying
Retrospective by Al Aronowitz, The Blacklisted Journalist, 1 July 2004
Ronald Reagan arrived at the Pearly Gates this week, and was met by St. Peter. Reagan was stunned for a moment. ...
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