Bruce Pollock
Veteran journalist, lyricist, novelist, humorist, essayist, columnist, editor, music historian and record producer, Bruce Pollock has written for such publications as The New York Times, Saturday Review, TV Guide, Entertainment Weekly, Musician, Family Weekly, USA Today, Playboy, The Gannett Westchester Newspapers, and the Village Voice. He is the author of seven books on music, including Working Musicians, The Rock Song Index, Hipper Than Our Kids, and In Their Own Words, as well as three novels. He is the former founding Editor in Chief of GUITAR: For The Practicing Musician and was the Editor of 17 Volumes of Popular Music: An Annotated Index of American Popular Songs (1983-1999). He is currently a compilation producer at a major label in NYC and at work on another novel, as well as several new books on music.
35 articles
List of articles in the library
Leonard Cohen: The Obscure Case of Leonard Cohen and The Mysterious Mr. M.
Interview by Bruce Pollock, After Dark, February 1977
AS I HUSTLED up Sixth Avenue toward the Algonquin Hotel for an interview with Columbia recording artist Leonard Cohen, writer of such heavyweight literary pop ...
10,000 Maniacs: Rock & Roll Acid Test: 10,000 Maniacs
Interview by Bruce Pollock, Guitar, May 1988
TURNING POINTS in the history of rock 'n' roll are moments frozen into the souls of those who witness them. Up in the Northeast Tundra ...
Book Excerpt by Bruce Pollock, from the book 'When Rock Was Young', 1981
IN THE PARKING LOT of the high school, the ageing greasers stood by their late model gas guzzlers, trading sips of blackberry brandy washed down ...
XTC: The X-Factor: Andy Partridge
Interview by Bruce Pollock, Guitar, January 1986
"WE CALL IT BILLY Bolts or Billy Bolt Upright. I just sort of sit up and become this person Billy Bolt. You lust get into ...
Andrea True Connection: True Blue: Andrea True Connection
Report and Interview by Bruce Pollock, Viva, 1977
BACK IN THE prepubescent days of sex/rock, when I was but a novice covering the amateur porn scene like a groping middle finger, I rode ...
Bob Mould, Husker Du: Off the Underground Wall: Husker Du's Bob Mould
Interview by Bruce Pollock, Guitar, July 1987
IN A ROCK 'N' ROLL world seemingly littered with spandex sheep, Bob Mould is a definite character, from his solid, Midwestern farmboy semi-crew and lumpen ...
Lou Reed Does Not Want Anyone To Know How He Writes His Songs
Interview by Bruce Pollock, Modern Hi-Fi and Music, 1975
LOU REED THINKS he's gone as deep as he wants to go for his own mental health. If he got any deeper, he'd wind up ...
Danny and Dusty: Danny & Dusty: The Lost Weekend
Review by Bruce Pollock, Wilson Library Bulletin, November 1985
WHILE 'JO-ANN', recorded by the Playmates in 1958, still stands as my all-time favorite rock and roll single, a girl and a song (and a ...
Bruce Springsteen: Proceedings of Discovery
Comment by Bruce Pollock, Gannett Westchester Newspapers, 1978
WE ROCK PUNDITS, critics and reviewers, Rockwells of good taste, O'Neills of moral fervor, are in reality no better than the average slob on the ...
Leo Kottke: Of Ice Fields, Breath Mints & Corn Flakes: Leo Kottke
Interview by Bruce Pollock, Guitar, October 1989
TRYING TO COME up with enticing copy about Leo Kottke, is a little like writing an ad for Kellogg's Corn Flakes. There's something about ...
Report and Interview by Bruce Pollock, Sounds, 20 October 1973
ON THE broadwalk at Asbury Park, New Jersey, you can hear the black waters of the Atlantic rippling against the rotted sides of the pier ...
Book Excerpt by Bruce Pollock, 'In Their Own Words' (Collier Books), 1975
BUFFY SAINTE-MARIE came to prominence during the folk era, hoisted to underground approval on the virtue of her classic Universal Soldier and her first album ...
Book Excerpt by Bruce Pollock, 'In Their Own Words' (Collier Books), 1975
ALTHOUGH AT FIRST he may sound like an early incarnation of Bob Dylan, lyrically John Prine has a voice all his own. Fusing his country ...
Book Excerpt by Bruce Pollock, 'In Their Own Words' (Collier Books), 1975
THE FIRST MAJOR black lyricist who comes to mind, circa 1955, is Chuck Berry. To many, Berry is rock 'n' roll. His lyrics, however, spoke ...
Loudon Wainwright III: Loudon Wainwright
Book Excerpt by Bruce Pollock, 'In Their Own Words' (Collier Books), 1975
ANOTHER OF THE new breed of songwriters sharp, witty, terse, incisive Loudon Wainwright III arrived on the Greenwich Village scene just as it ...
Linda Creed, Thom Bell: Philly’s Lyric Queen: Linda Creed
Book Excerpt by Bruce Pollock, 'In Their Own Words' (Collier Books), 1975
IN THE 70S THE most popular form of music is, once again, R&B, also known as Soul. Emanating primarily from Philadelphia, it is a laid-back ...
Book Excerpt by Bruce Pollock, 'In Their Own Words' (Collier Books), 1975
THIS HUSBAND-AND-WIFE country songwriting team have been at it for more than twenty-five years, proving the old adage, the family that plays together, stays together. ...
Book Excerpt by Bruce Pollock, 'In Their Own Words' (Collier Books), 1975
MELANIE EMERGED on the music scene, a tiny figure in the rain at Woodstock in 1969, alone onstage with her guitar and her songs. She ...
Book Excerpt by Bruce Pollock, 'In Their Own Words' (Collier Books), 1975
FOR A LONG PERIOD of time in Greenwich Village, Phil Ochs served as a sort of town crier. Each month at the Sunday Songwriters Workshop ...
Richie Havens: Middle Of The Dirt Road
Interview by Bruce Pollock, Guitar, Fall 1990
IT'S A VOICE you remember, possessing in its cavernous reaches the smoky essence of an age. ...
The Monkees: Peter Tork: The Monkees and After
Interview by Bruce Pollock, When The Music Mattered, 1982
IT WAS PROBABLY late 1966 or early 1967 when word first began to circulate through the Village. "You know the Monkees, that plastic-fantastic pop group, ...
John Sebastian, The Lovin' Spoonful: John Sebastian
Book Excerpt by Bruce Pollock, 'In Their Own Words' (Collier Books), 1975
IT IS IMPOSSIBLE to describe the feeling, being away from the Village for the first time, living in San Francisco in the summer of 1965, ...
Book Excerpt by Bruce Pollock, 'In Their Own Words' (Collier Books), 1975
DOC POMUS (with Mort Shuman), Jerry Leiber (with Mike Stoller), Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, and a handful of others were the seminal figures during the ...
Book Excerpt by Bruce Pollock, 'In Their Own Words' (Collier Books) , 1975
ALONG WITH HIS first wife, composer Carole King, Gerry Goffin has been responsible for some of the most memorable and enduring music of the early ...
Book Excerpt by Bruce Pollock, 'In Their Own Words' (Collier Books), 1975
FIRST TOM SANKEY brought The Golden Screw to off-off Broadway. Then, summarizing rapidly, Al Carmines applied his lyric touch to the outrageous Home Movies and ...
Grateful Dead, Robert Hunter: Robert Hunter
Book Excerpt by Bruce Pollock, 'In Their Own Words' (Collier Books), 1975
ROBERT HUNTER is the resident lyricist for the Grateful Dead, rock eminences of the San Francisco scene. An underground poet with a solo album, Tales ...
Interview by Bruce Pollock, Playboy, 1980
PLAYBOY: Did Mrs. Garfunkel ever think of you as a bad influence on her son? ...
Book Excerpt by Bruce Pollock, In Their Own Words (Collier Books), 1975
SLOWLY BUT SURELY, almost against his will, Randy Newman has become a legend in his own time – although not too many people know it, ...
Book Excerpt by Bruce Pollock, 'In Their Own Words' (Collier Books), 1975
HARRY CHAPIN IS probably the most novelistic of our songwriters. Using techniques most often found in prose, he has created a series of story songs, ...
Retrospective and Interview by Bruce Pollock, brucepollockthewriter.com, December 2011
ONE OF THE MOST enigmatic and evocative and emotionally intense songwriters ever to hit the Top 40, Laura Nyro's career survived numerous dips and bends. ...
Keith Richards, The Rolling Stones: Keith Richards Shares His Songwriting Secrets
Interview by Bruce Pollock, Guitar, July 1986
LIKE A POLITICIAN ON THE PODIUM, whistle-stopping across the boondocks on a flatbed, Keith Richards has his share of timeless bromides, comfortable answers his tongue ...
Bruce Springsteen: The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle (Columbia)
Review by Bruce Pollock, The New York Times, 16 December 1973
Springsteen Celebrates Street Life ...
Book Excerpt by Bruce Pollock, 'In Their Own Words', 1975
ALTHOUGH PRIMARILY considered a composer, Frank Zappa's lyrics reflect his unique approach to rock 'n' roll almost as well as his music does. Combining a ...
Report and Interview by Bruce Pollock, Songfacts, 7 November 2012
AT THE KEYBOARDS, Donald Fagen was the smoky voice and songwriting co-conspirator (with Walter Becker) on all of Steely Dan's classic hits, from 'Reelin' In ...
Report by Bruce Pollock, Musician, July 1993
FOR A band at the top of the local ladder, it's the best of times and the worst of times. It's when the answer from ...
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