Dave Zimmer
A music journalist and rock historian since the late '70s, Dave Zimmer is the author of Crosby, Stills & Nash: The Authorized Biography (St. Martin’s Press, 1984; Da Capo Press, 2000; Da Capo Press, 2008) and editor of 4 Way Street: The Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young Reader (Da Capo Press, 2004), a book which features interviews with CSN&Y, individually and collectively, by such writers as Ben Fong-Torres, Cameron Crowe, Ellen Sander, Joel Selvin, Roy Carr, Ritchie Yorke, Lenny Kaye, Jaan Uhelszki, Peter Knobler, Penny Valentine, Vicki Wickham and Dave himself, among others.
His first published rock writings were for BAM: The California Magazine, in 1977, when he met BAM publisher Dennis Erokan and managing editor Blair Jackson at a Santa Cruz, California bar called the Crossroads, where a local band called the Ducks (featuring Neil Young that summer) was performing. Dave would go on to pen more articles, reviews and columns for BAM than any other writer, working as a full-time editor for the magazine in Oakland and Los Angeles from 1981 to 1990.
Dave also wrote articles for Creem, Hit Parader, Music + Sound Output, Good Times ( Santa Cruz , CA ), and the Peninsula Times-Tribune, among other US publications. After interviewing Stephen Stills, Graham Nash and David Crosby extensively in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, he became Crosby, Stills & Nash’s biographer in 1982. The third edition of his CSN book was published in 2008, redesigned and fully updated, featuring more than 300 photographs by Henry Diltz.
Beyond his music writing and editing, since 1990 Dave has worked as a communications director for MCA Records, Universal Studios, Seagram, Vivendi and, most recently, Penguin Group. A native Californian, Dave currently lives in West Orange , New Jersey with his wife and son.
57 articles
List of articles in the library
The Ducks, Jeff Blackburn: Jeff Blackburn Bucks the Odds
Report and Interview by Dave Zimmer, Good Times, 8 June 1978
QUACK, QUACK: A familiar sound last summer in Santa Cruz when the Ducks were the musical hit of the town. But as the summer of ...
Crazy Horse, Neil Young: Crazy Horse: In Full Gallop
Profile and Interview by Dave Zimmer, BAM, 19 January 1979
SAN FRANCISCO – During the past several years Billy Talbot, Ralph Molina, and Frank Sampedro played before standing room only crowds in some of the ...
Interview by Dave Zimmer, BAM, 6 April 1979
LOS ANGELES – Ambitious, blunt but expressive, forceful, aggressive when the occasion requires it, capable of manic dedication and drive towards work and life goals...a ...
Doobie Brothers, Tom Johnston: Tom Johnston: The Former Doobie Still Listens To The Music
Interview by Dave Zimmer, BAM, 19 October 1979
THE YEAR was 1972. Summer had waned and I was driving along Highway 101, with the only source of music being a static-laden AM car ...
Interview by Dave Zimmer, BAM, 1 February 1980
INTEGRITY, MORE than any other word seems to define what Graham Nash is all about. ...
Aerosmith, Joe Perry: Joe Perry: Joe Perry Project Takes Off
Interview by Dave Zimmer, Creem, August 1980
My brand new ship is stellar boundTo search out a place I've never foundWhere I go only time will tellThere's a lot of space betweenHeaven ...
Grace Slick, Jefferson Starship: Grace Slick: Making Her Own Dreams
Interview by Dave Zimmer, BAM, 1 August 1980
MILL VALLEY – "I can't do anything middle of the road. My music is either very polite, with classical instruments, or, its rude and offensive." ...
The Eagles, Randy Meisner: Randy Meisner: Ex-Eagle Flies High Solo
Profile and Interview by Dave Zimmer, BAM, 7 November 1980
DURING THE FRANTIC throes of the late '60s, this city devoured more musicians than it rewarded. The situation hasn't changed much since. But back in ...
Rosanne Cash Comes Into Her Own
Interview by Dave Zimmer, BAM, 10 April 1981
COTATI – LONESOME steel guitar moans waver and echo throughout the Inn of the Beginning – a classic Old West watering hole 50 miles due ...
Jefferson Starship: Return of The Band That Will Not Die
Report and Interview by Dave Zimmer, Creem, November 1981
YOU CAN'T last any longer than the Jefferson Starship, a band that's been at the top of the charts with regularity since, unbelievably, 1966. ...
George Thorogood & The Destroyers: George Thorogood Cuts Through The USA
Interview by Dave Zimmer, Creem, February 1982
YOU COULD see it coming. About a hundred yards off, an old Checker Marathon cab was roaring along the asphalt, eating up the broken white ...
Interview by Dave Zimmer, BAM, 26 February 1982
Everybody looked like a broken-down movie extra; a withered starlet, disenchanted stuntmen, midget auto racers, poignant California characters with their end-of-the-continent sadness, handsome, decadent, Casanova-ish ...
Crystal Gayle, Tom Waits: Tom Waits: Hollywood Confidential
Interview by Dave Zimmer, BAM, 26 February 1982
LA's Hobo Laureate Creates the Score for Coppola's One From the Heart. ...
Crosby Stills and Nash: Crosby, Stills & Nash: Together Again
Report and Interview by Dave Zimmer, BAM, 30 July 1982
CLOSED SESSION No Admittance – these words are scrawled on the door of Studio 2 on the Zoetrope film lot in Hollywood. A young woman, ...
The US Festival: A Celebration of Music, Technology and People
Report and Interview by Dave Zimmer, BAM, 13 August 1982
SAN BERNARDINO — The Police, Tom Petty, Fleetwood Mac, Pat Benatar, Talking Heads, Jackson Browne, Santana, The B-52s, Eddie Money and over 20 other top ...
Crosby Stills and Nash: Crosby, Stills & Nash: Here Today, Gone Tomorrow
Report and Interview by Dave Zimmer, Hit Parader, October 1982
INSIDE DEVONSHIRE Studios in North Hollywood, California, Graham Nash puts one of the tape machines into reverse. "Grrp Wrr, Grrp Wrr," the machine moans. ...
Missing Persons: Found In L.A.
Profile and Interview by Dave Zimmer, BAM, 5 November 1982
I MUST CONFESS something. Before even having heard Missing Persons produce a single note, I was attracted to the group because of a photograph I'd ...
Joni Mitchell: Wild Things Run Fast
Review by Dave Zimmer, BAM, 3 December 1982
JONI MITCHELL'S in love. At least she was while writing and recording Wild Things Run Fast. You can hear it in the loose and easy ...
Crosby and Nash, Don Henley, Danny Kortchmar: Danny Kortchmar: The Standup Rocker
Interview by Dave Zimmer, Record, March 1983
"I HATE folk music, I always have," snaps Danny Kortchmar. Such a revelation is surprising, in view of the fact that Kortchmar (aka "Kootch") has ...
The Band, Bob Dylan, Robbie Robertson: Robbie Robertson: Between Trains
Interview by Dave Zimmer, BAM, 6 May 1983
QUALITY IS something that Robbie Robertson definitely understands. ...
The Brat, Carlos Guitarlos, Los Illegals, Los Lobos, The Plugz, Ruben and the Jets: East LA Rocks!
Report and Interview by Dave Zimmer, BAM, 1 July 1983
But bands find it's a long way from the Barrio to Hollywood... ...
Randy Newman: The Natural Soundtrack (Warner Bros.)
Review by Dave Zimmer, BAM, 13 July 1984
WHEN IT COMES to capturing the flavor of America at various points in this century, few songwriters have been able to do it as well ...
The Pretenders: Spending Time With The Pretenders' Chrissie Hynde
Interview by Dave Zimmer, BAM, 24 August 1984
THE PRETENDERS have landed in Pittsburg. It's a Monday night, about 9 pm, and Chrissie Hynde is bored. ...
Bill Graham: Legacy of a Dance Hall Keeper
Interview by Dave Zimmer, BAM, 21 September 1984
Taking a look at his life as it is and as it was, Bill Graham addresses his place in rock and roll's order of power, ...
Cyndi Lauper Bops Through The Night
Interview by Dave Zimmer, BAM, January 1985
PADDING SLOWLY through Burbank Airport, clutching a grey handbag and a Walkman cassette player, Lauper, at first glance, resembles a simple immigrant from "the old ...
Vanity: Dressed For Success: Behind Closed Doors With Vanity
Interview by Dave Zimmer, BAM, June 1985
SAN FRANCISCO — "I know this is the right key," a Tri-Star Pictures publicist sighs while trying in vain to unlock the door to the ...
Utopia: Better Living Through Electricity
Interview by Dave Zimmer, BAM, June 1985
Todd Rundgren And Utopia Get Wired ...
John Lee Hooker: King of the Boogie
Interview by Dave Zimmer, Buzz, November 1985
JOHN LEE Hooker is a prideful man. When he looks back over his lengthy blues career – more than five decades old now – he ...
Bruce Springsteen, Nils Lofgren: Nils Lofgren: The E Street Flip
Interview by Dave Zimmer, BAM, November 1985
NEW JERSEY – There he is, taking windmill swipes at his guitar with wild abandon, then doing a complete flip on the Meadowlands stage while ...
Jefferson Starship: The Starship Strikes Back
Profile and Interview by Dave Zimmer, BAM, 11 December 1985
"Say ya don't know me?Or recognize my face?...Don't you remember?We built this city on rock and roll!"– from 'We Built This City'by Bernie Taupin, Martin ...
The KBC Band: Kantner Balin Casady Band: Old Flight Mates Carry On
Interview by Dave Zimmer, BAM, 20 December 1985
"WE DON'T play many tapes submitted by unsigned bands," said KFOG DJ John Russell on the air a couple of weeks ago. "But I think ...
10,000 Maniacs: At Least Six Are Not Insane
Profile and Interview by Dave Zimmer, BAM, February 1986
JAMESTOWN, NEW York, about 400 miles from NYC, is home for 10,000 Maniacs. ...
Alan Parsons: The Alan Parsons Project: Studio Rats
Interview by Dave Zimmer, BAM, April 1986
"You know Poe has been a big influence on me and Alan," says Parsons collaborator Eric Woolfson. "And when I saw this word, 'stereotomy,' I ...
The Beatles: The Final Invasion
Retrospective by Dave Zimmer, BAM, 5 September 1986
Twenty-four thousand screaming fans couldn't be wrong. But what they didn't realise on that late August evening was that the Beatles didn't want to be ...
Interview by Dave Zimmer, BAM, 10 December 1986
NO ONE will ever accuse Peter Case of being a schemer or a planner. "When it comes to building a career," admits the 32-year-old singer/songwriter, ...
Interview by Dave Zimmer, BAM, 16 January 1987
THE FIRST thing you notice is the twinkle in his eyes. That is the clearest signal that David Crosby is, indeed, back among the living. ...
Interview by Dave Zimmer, BAM, 23 October 1987
Fleetwood Mac Swap Partners For Tango Tour ...
Rock & Advertising: The Selling Of A Revolution
Report by Dave Zimmer, BAM, 4 December 1987
Madison Avenue Buys A Big Piece Of The Rock: How The Ad Industry Takes Your Favorite Songs And Turns Them Into Jingles For Toothpaste, Tennies ...
Buster Poindexter, David Johansen: David Johansen: Buster Poindexter Does L.A.
Interview by Dave Zimmer, BAM, 29 January 1988
"I LOVE L.A.," announces Buster Poindexter, fingering the stem of a martini glass. "I think it's great." And why shouldn't he? ...
Ry Cooder: Fascinatin' Rhythms
Interview by Dave Zimmer, BAM, 12 February 1988
FIVE YEARS may have passed since Ry Cooder last put together an album of non-movie music, but it's not as if the guy has been ...
Cindy Lee Berryhill: Beat Wise
Interview by Dave Zimmer, BAM, 11 March 1988
ONCE UPON a time Cindy Lee Berryhill tried to make it as a Top 40 singer in San Diego. ...
Neil Young: Blue Notes for a Restless Loner
Interview by Dave Zimmer, BAM, 22 April 1988
THE ROBERT De Niro of rock 'n' roll, Neil Young has continually transformed himself throughout his career and inhabited musical characters in much the same ...
Van Halen: Tales From The Crypt
Interview by Dave Zimmer, BAM, 1 July 1988
THE ITINERARY for Van Halen's Monsters of Rock Tour reads like a combined schedule for the Washington Redskins and University of Miami football teams. ...
Eric Burdon: An Ex-Animal Leaves His Cage
Interview by Dave Zimmer, BAM, 7 October 1988
LOOKING MORE LIKE A bantamweight boxer than a veteran rock singer, Eric Burdon stares out the window of his publicist's tenth floor office in the ...
Mark Knopfler, Randy Newman: Randy Newman And Mark Knopfler: Newman's Navigator to A Land of Dreams
Interview by Dave Zimmer, BAM, 21 October 1988
'IT'S MONEY That Matters', the first single from Land of Dreams, bristles with guitarist Mark Knopfler's trademark guitar licks, Randy Newman a la Dire Straits' ...
Randy Newman: A Nightmare on Main Street
Interview by Dave Zimmer, BAM, 21 October 1988
RANDY NEWMAN was sitting in the Forum Arena in Inglewood a while ago, watching the Lakers put on yet another basketball clinic at the expense ...
Chris Hillman, The Desert Rose Band: The Desert Rose Band: Chris Hillman's Hot Burrito #3
Interview by Dave Zimmer, BAM, 2 December 1988
ROCK IS no longer the dirty word it once was in Nashville. But after LA's Desert Rose Band placed four singles on the country charts ...
Was (Not Was): Spies In The House Of Funk
Interview by Dave Zimmer, BAM, 2 December 1988
MASTERS OF funkified musical left turns, that was one way to describe Was (Not Was) after listening to their 1983 LP, Born to Laugh At ...
Al Stewart: A British Eccentric Finds A House In Bel Air — And A Home
Interview by Dave Zimmer, BAM, 10 March 1989
SINGER-SONGWRITER Al Stewart has a theory about why he'll never sell as many records as Lionel Richie or Billy Joel. ...
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Traveling Wilburys: Tom Petty: Once In A Full Moon
Interview by Dave Zimmer, BAM, 5 May 1989
BY THE time Tom Petty became a Traveling Wilbury last year, he had every reason to stand shoulder to shoulder with the likes of Roy ...
Interview by Dave Zimmer, BAM, 30 June 1989
WELCOME TO the Griffith Park Pony Rides. Assorted toddlers, most of them 2- or 3-something, are circling a dusty track, strapped onto tired ponies. Not ...
Stan Ridgway: Drawing Mosquitos With An Eye For Detail
Interview by Dave Zimmer, BAM, 20 October 1989
STAN RIDGWAY is a great painter of life. Rather than oil or water colors, however, his medium has always been the English language. He creates ...
Steve Vai, Whitesnake: Steve Vai: Vaiing For Attention
Interview by Dave Zimmer, BAM, 12 January 1990
NO, YOUR eyes aren't deceiving you. Steve Vai is holding a seven-string guitar, custom-made for him by Ibanez. ...
Interview by Dave Zimmer, BAM, 12 January 1990
WAKING UP before noon is still a foreign idea to many working musicians, and not just the ones who are hopeless drug addicts. It's just ...
Dire Straits, Mark Knopfler, The Notting Hillbillies: Mark Knopfler: Going His Own Sweet Way
Interview by Dave Zimmer, BAM, 20 April 1990
NO, THE Notting Hillbillies are not Mark Knopfler's version of the Traveling Wilburys. In fact, there was never supposed to be a band at all. ...
Todd Rundgren: In Todd We Trust
Interview by Dave Zimmer, BAM, 15 June 1990
FOLLOWERS OF Todd Rundgren may not get as much publicity as Deadheads, but the loyal legions that flock to Rundgren's concerts – particularly in the ...
The Motels: The Dual Life Of Martha Davis
Interview by Dave Zimmer, BAM, 18 November 1993
TAKE MARTHA DAVIS, the sultry, dark-eyed leader and lead singer of the Motels. Last year, her band's third album, All Four One, went Top 20 ...
back to LIBRARY
