Gene Sculatti
Gene Sculatti wrote the first article in a national magazine on the San Francisco scene (Crawdaddy, 1966). He has subsequently written for Creem, Mojo, the Los Angeles Times and numerous other publications. He served as Editor of Radio & Records (1974) and Editorial Director for Warner Bros. Records, where he oversaw the label’s ad copywriting and the publications Circular and Waxpaper (1975-81). Between 1991 and 2003, he was Director of Special Issues at Billboard and, from 2005 to 2006, Managing Editor of Ice magazine.
Gene is the author of The Catalog of Cool, Too Cool, San Franciscan Nights: The Psychedelic Music Trip and The 100 Best-Selling Albums of the ’60s . From 1982 to 1987, he co-hosted "The Cool & the Crazy" radio program on KCRW-FM. He has written liner notes for more than 100 albums, is a frequent contributor to the site www.SonicBoomers.com, and, as DJ "Vic Tripp," he hosts the weekly radio show Atomic Cocktail at www.Luxuriamusic.com. A collection of his music writings, Tryin' to Tell a Stranger 'Bout Rock and Roll, was published in September 2016.
138 articles
List of articles in the library
Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane: San Francisco Bay Rock
Guide by Gene Sculatti, Crawdaddy!, October 1966
THE SAN FRANCISCO rock scene is a complex one. It is a plentiful jumble of hard rock, folk-rock, blues-rock, bubble-gum, and adult bands that have ...
Simon & Garfunkel: Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme (Columbia)
Review by Gene Sculatti, Mojo Navigator, 8 November 1966
SIMON AND Garfunkel's third album is quite different from their second (their first, all-folk album was produced before their first hit and is nowhere as ...
The Beach Boys: Villains and Heroes: In Defense of the Beach Boys
Essay by Gene Sculatti, Jazz & Pop, September 1968
BRIAN WILSON AND COMPANY are currently at the center of an intense contemporary rock controversy, involving the academic "rock as art" critic-intellectuals, the AM-tuned teenies, ...
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 ...
Review by Gene Sculatti, Fusion, 12 November 1971
She's got long black hairAnd a big black carI know what you're thinkin'But you won't get far!She's gonna make you itch'Cause she's a witch! ...
Lonnie Mack: The Hills of Indiana
Review by Gene Sculatti, Fusion, 24 December 1971
"FOR BEST results, this record should be played more than once." Maybe Elektra should've included that tip in the liner notes. ...
Quicksilver Messenger Service: Quicksilver
Profile by Gene Sculatti, Fusion, April 1972
THE ONCE-FAMOUS logo, "May the Baby Jesus Shut Your Mouth and Open Your Mind," has been supplanted by an outsized plastic marquee proclaiming ‘Summer of ...
Creedence Clearwater Revival: Mardi Gras (Fantasy)
Review by Gene Sculatti, Phonograph Record, May 1972
CREEDENCE AGAIN. Their sixth or seventh LP, the first minus Tom Fogerty on rhythm, the first with Stu Cook and Doug Clifford contributing songs and ...
Little Feat: Sailin' Shoes (Warner Brothers 2600)
Review by Gene Sculatti, Fusion, July 1972
THERE WAS A time, a few months back, when I worried whether or not I'd ever behold the coming of a second Little Feat album. ...
Jim Dickinson: James Luther Dickinson: Dixie Fried (Atlantic 8299)
Review by Gene Sculatti, Fusion, August 1972
UP TO YOUR ears in sessionmen gone solo? More than fed up with Russell/Nix-type Southern boys? Bludgeoned to insensitivity by Kinney Product? Well, James Luther ...
Johnny Rivers: The Folks Dancin' There Were All Shook Up
Profile by Gene Sculatti, Phonograph Record, October 1972
IF THE SEVENTIES are starting out, as they appear to be, making good on the debts incurred against all the various minorities over the years, ...
Van Dyke Parks: Discover America
Review by Gene Sculatti, Creem, October 1972
WHATEVER BECAME of Ars Nova, the United States of America. Neon Philharmonic or the Fifty Foot Hose? Less than five years ago, "art-rock" projects like ...
Dorsey Burnette: Here and Now (Capitol 11094)
Review by Gene Sculatti, Fusion, November 1972
REMEMBER THE Burnette Brothers? Johnny and Dorsey, that is, out of Memphis in the Fifties doing 'The Train Kept A-Rollin'' and mucho ace rockabilly? No? ...
Review by Gene Sculatti, Creem, November 1972
"Like Sonny Bono will never know what happened when it's all over. He'll never know why it happened, because he didn't know what happened to ...
Eggs Over Easy: Good 'N' Cheap (A & M)
Review by Gene Sculatti, Creem, January 1973
SOMETIMES IT GETS downright hard to remain cynical. Witness this latest destined-for-obscurity near-masterpiece (produced by Link Wray) from three former Berkeley folkies who pulled out ...
Roxy Music: Roxy Music (WB MS 2114)
Review by Gene Sculatti, The Sacramento Bee, 27 January 1973
Roxy Music Is More Than Strange ...
Review by Gene Sculatti, Creem, February 1973
Come on. You didn't think ‘Horse With No Name’ and ‘Ventura Highway’ would get these guys voted into the pantheon of CSN&Y Springalopoco second-liners where ...
Neil Diamond: Hot August Night (MCA)
Review by Gene Sculatti, Creem, March 1973
YEAH, IT IS pretty dismal. Yeah, there's a dearth of R&R and a wealth of vacuous pap for the most part. Yep, old ND has ...
The Beach Boys: A California Saga
Essay by Gene Sculatti, Greg Shaw, Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, May 1973
The Revival of Coastal Consciousness featuring The Beach Boys, Dean Torrance, California, American Spring ...
Bob Marley & the Wailers, The Wailers: The Wailers: Catch A Fire
Review by Gene Sculatti, Fusion, May 1973
AFTER ALL THESE veers, a new Wailers' LP! But wait, Catch A Fire doesn't have anything to do with those soggy Seattle-ites who rocked hot ...
Review by Gene Sculatti, Creem, June 1973
YEARS AGO, Mad ran a feature on "What Kind of Parents Will Today's Teenagers Make?" It depicted a pair of graying, pot-bellied rockers in leathers, ...
Ruben and the Jets: Ruben & The Jets: For Real! (Mercury)
Review by Gene Sculatti, Music World, June 1973
AS DEBUTS GO, this is a competently performed, surely inoffensive first try, but it's not the oldies revamp its title implies. The problem is, it's ...
Review by Gene Sculatti, Phonograph Record, July 1973
YOU CAN'T DEPEND on anybody these days. Once you make your mind up about some group or other, they change their act or audience response ...
The Beach Boys, Jan & Dean: Surfin' USA
Retrospective by Gene Sculatti, Let It Rock, August 1973
THOUGH it’s hard to believe, there actually was a time when youth simply signified non-adult status. Adults and youth each held to their own preferences, ...
Review by Gene Sculatti, Phonograph Record, October 1973
I DON'T KNOW if there's any correlation between Brownsville Station's oddly misplaced power chords on parts of their new album and the band's misreading of ...
The Beach Boys: Smiley Smile and Friends
Sleeve notes by Gene Sculatti, Reprise Records, 1974
Oddly enough, while thumbing through my record collection for these two albums, so that I might fashion a more perfect set of introductory notes, I ...
The Beach Boys: Wild Honey and 20/20
Sleeve notes by Gene Sculatti, Reprise Records, 1974
Somewhere right now someone is listening to the Beach Boys for the very first time. And somewhere else, someone is playing a Beach Boys record ...
The Beach Boys: At The Anaheim Convention Center, California
Live Review by Gene Sculatti, Phonograph Record, January 1974
WHERE ELSE could the Beach Boys preface a performance of 'Surfer Girl' with, "on our way down here tonight, we passed within two blocks of ...
The Guess Who: The Best of The Guess Who, Vol. II
Review by Gene Sculatti, Phonograph Record, 1 March 1974
HE PLAYS PIANO as well as Nicky Hopkins Jerry Lee, When he sang 'Running Bear' he sounded like a cross between the late great Jimboy ...
Review by Gene Sculatti, Phonograph Record, April 1974
I SUPPOSE YOU could call Terry Melcher's long awaited solo debut an extension of California rock and the "West Coast Sound." After all, he was ...
Terry Jacks: Listening To AM Radio Is Money To His Ears
Interview by Gene Sculatti, The Sacramento Bee, 27 April 1974
"TOP FORTY radio is what I'm into. I love it; there's so much good music to listen to on it. I put in four or ...
The Marshall Tucker Band: A New Life
Review by Gene Sculatti, Fusion, June 1974
I used to have a band like this one once. Yeah. Five guys trying to work into that storm 'n' lull Grateful Dead groove. Organ, ...
Johnny Rivers: Road (Atlantic)
Review by Gene Sculatti, Zoo World, 4 July 1974
THE PROBLEM with being an Interpretive talent (as opposed to a one-man writer-singer show) is that you're ultimately dependent on the material you select to ...
Velvet Underground: The Velvet Underground: Velvet Underground Live With Lou Reed (Mercury)
Review by Gene Sculatti, Zoo World, 4 July 1974
THE GREATEST thing about Lou Reed is that, until recently, his lyrical vocabulary was the perfect compliment to his music. His capacity in both depts. ...
Gene Vincent & His Blue Caps: The Bop That Just Won't Stop
Review by Gene Sculatti, Zoo World, 1 August 1974
FOR THE MOST PART, the continuing "rock 'n roll revival" phenomenon we've been witnessing these past 5 years is a pretty shabby affair. What with ...
Report by Gene Sculatti, Phonograph Record, September 1974
"You know they're either out surfin' or they've got a party goin'..." ...
Review by Gene Sculatti, Zoo World, 12 September 1974
MOST EUROPEANS would, quite rightly, give their balls to suck Slurpees at a 7-11 or grow up absurd on Yankee turf, but they don't get ...
Raspberries: The Raspberries: Starting Over (Capitol)
Review by Gene Sculatti, Zoo World, 26 September 1974
MAYBE YOU had 'em pegged wrong, in the matching mod suits, Eric Carmen mincing like the late Paul McC with an Ohio accent. But hey, ...
The Righteous Brothers: Give It To The People (Haven)
Review by Gene Sculatti, Zoo World, 10 October 1974
THEY DID it in Las Vegas and they sure do it here. Recombine their talents, hop into the saddle with strong material and take hold ...
Little Feat: Feats Don't Fail Me Now (Warner Bros.)
Review by Gene Sculatti, Zoo World, 24 October 1974
HERE THEY come again, those six hazy L.A. razor boys with the penchant for wry lyrics and poppin' their thang in public. Still intact, still ...
Barry White: Can't Get Enough (20th Century)
Review by Gene Sculatti, Zoo World, 7 November 1974
YOU KNOW, I've heard people say that too much of anything isn't good for you. But I don't know about that, 'cause the fact is, ...
Frijid Pink: All Pink Inside (Fantasy)
Review by Gene Sculatti, Zoo World, 7 November 1974
WHAT DO you do if you're a certified and stamped One Hit Wonder? It depends. You can only play out your hit for so long; ...
David Cassidy: Cassidy Live! (Bell)
Review by Gene Sculatti, Creem, December 1974
HERE'S A GUY with some claim to status. His dad's distinguished himself, right alongside Claude Akins, as one of the slimiest heavies ever to grace ...
The Turtles: The Turtles (Happy Together Again) (Sire)
Review by Gene Sculatti, Zoo World, 19 December 1974
ITEM: THE Turtles' It Ain't Me Babe album cover was one of the first to recognize and promptly display rock 'n roll fatty tissue, at ...
Profile and Interview by Gene Sculatti, Creem, February 1975
"I'll kill your kid sister,I'll murder your dadI'll rip the lashes off your eyes,I'll slaughter all your cattle,And I'll burn your cropsIf you're dancin' with ...
Review by Gene Sculatti, Phonograph Record, March 1975
IF THERE'S A SINGLE behavioral pattern which has emerged over the last four years of pop music, it's the reinstatement of the song, not the ...
The Marshall Tucker Band: Marshall Tucker Band: Where We All Belong (Capricorn)
Review by Gene Sculatti, Creem, April 1975
DID RANDY NEWMAN have the mystic Tucks in mind when he went and dedicated that album to Good Old Boys? Maybe so. ...
Profile and Interview by Gene Sculatti, Phonograph Record, May 1975
EXTRAORDINARY OR just plain down to earth great, there's something about the name Ben E. King and his powerful voice that conjures up one hell ...
Swamp Dogg: Have You Heard This Story??
Review by Gene Sculatti, Creem, June 1975
IN ONE SENSE Jerry ‘Swamp Dogg’ Williams suffers from the same ailment which all but debilitated acts like Slade or Roxy or (until recently) Randy ...
The Guess Who: Power in the Music
Review by Gene Sculatti, Creem, October 1975
RIGHT OFF THE BAT, the one thing you can say for Power in the Music is that it is everything last year's predecessor Flavours wasn't, ...
Review by Gene Sculatti, Creem, October 1975
I DON'T KNOW about anybody else, but this is one I've been waiting for ever since I caught Reg Presley, 20 pounds overweight and stuffed ...
Review by Gene Sculatti, Creem, December 1975
IT'S BEEN TEN or twelve years since the East Bay Golliwogs traipsed onto some crepe-strewn highschool gym floor and set up, almost a decade since ...
The Bay City Rollers: Bay City Rollers
Review by Gene Sculatti, Creem, December 1975
THE ARCHIES WERE the most radical rock 'n' roll group of the last seven years. And it's about time everybody owned up to their considerable ...
Flash Cadillac and the Continental Kids: Flash Cadillac: Sons of the Beaches
Review by Gene Sculatti, Creem, January 1976
What lame-o group is finally going to win the distinction of recording The Last ‘Fifties’ Song of the Seventies? Just when I thought the sub-genre ...
Ringo Starr: Blast From Your Past (Capitol)
Review by Gene Sculatti, Creem, March 1976
IT'S HARD TO figure our just what constitutes the biggest detriment to a healthy music scene these days; the dearth of flesh & blood artists ...
Review by Gene Sculatti, Creem, August 1976
"I don't wanna walk around with youI don't wanna walk around with youI don't wanna walk around with youSo why you wanna walk around with ...
Blue Oyster Cult: Agents Of Fortune (Island)
Review by Gene Sculatti, Crawdaddy!, September 1976
It’s back-to-the-roots for the Oysters this time; the roots being the band’s late-’60s incarnation as the Stalk-Forrest Group. Which is to say, Agents Of Fortune ...
Jonathan Richman And The Modern Lovers: Jonathan Richman And The Modern Lovers
Review by Gene Sculatti, Crawdaddy!, October 1976
WHAT WE HAVE here, as every pop observer knows, is a four-piece band led by a highly eccentric singer-songwriter full of inspiration and highly visible ...
The Miamis, Mink DeVille, The Shirts, Tuff Darts: Various Artists: Live At CBGB's (CBGB 315)
Review by Gene Sculatti, Crawdaddy!, December 1976
MEANWHILE, DOWNTOWN ...
Review by Gene Sculatti, Crawdaddy!, August 1977
ALONG WITH THE New Wave, there seems to be a related roots discovery phenomenon taking place: the full scale re-examination of mid-'60s pop R&B that ...
The Dictators: Manifest Destiny
Review by Gene Sculatti, Crawdaddy!, August 1977
IT WOULDN'T BE hard. One could assemble a tidy list of contemporary Major Acts whose initial fate it was to be cast as "critics' favorites": ...
Review by Gene Sculatti, Creem, February 1981
IS JOE JACKSON as tired of goofing on wacky 50's graphics as I am? Apparently not, because Beat Crazy sports the squarest, most cliched cover ...
John Lennon, Yoko Ono: Double Fantasy (Geffen)
Review by Gene Sculatti, Ampersand, February 1981
I'M ONE of those people who gave John Lennon a lot of credit for his self-imposed 5-year exile from recording. After all, why make music ...
Review by Gene Sculatti, Creem, April 1981
THE GOOD NEWS is that England's surviving punk pioneers have released their most accessible album to date. Songs like ‘Dr. Jekyll’ and ‘Wait For The ...
Everybody Needs Somebody To Hate: A History Of L.A. Punk Rock
Overview by Gene Sculatti, Creem, October 1981
"For God's sake, is that all you people in L.A. want to hear: aggressive lyrics and a raging guitar?!"– Chris Stein ...
Review by Gene Sculatti, Creem, October 1981
This is what? These guys’ second or third LP since Mick Jones publicly declared F’gner ain’t dinosaurs and that they were really starting to get, ...
‘Home Runs, No Bunts’ — Solar Power On The Rise
Interview by Gene Sculatti, Los Angeles Times, 6 December 1981
Does the Stones' latest album fail to start you up? Has your affair cooled with the New Romantics? You say you didn't grow up to ...
Lindsey Buckingham: Law And Order (Elektra)
Review by Gene Sculatti, Creem, February 1982
ONE WAY TO assess the relative merits of any time frame is the measurable presence of oddballs. And, hey, it's no secret that oddball content ...
Review by Gene Sculatti, Creem, August 1982
REMEMBER THE 70's? Not much of a decade, you say. Yeah, well. Fella here used to be a mover and a shaker back in the ...
John Mellencamp: John Cougar: No wonder he's feeling so up
Interview by Gene Sculatti, Los Angeles Herald Examiner, 7 August 1982
Who is John Cougar and why are people saying these things about him? Critics are calling him a shameless Mick Jagger mimic and the Rich ...
Big Brother & The Holding Company: Big Brother's Peter Albin (1984)
Interview by Gene Sculatti, Davin Seay, Rock's Backpages audio, 1984
With a little help from bandmate James Gurley, Big Brother's bassist recalls growing up in San Carlos; the scene at 1090 Page Street; meeting his future bandmates; Chet Helms and the Family Dog; Big Brother's debut show at the first Trips Festival; the mutual influence of the San Francisco bands; developing the group's material; the arrivial of Janis Joplin; getting stranded in Chicago and recording the eponymous first album; playing the Monterey Pop Festival; signing with manager Albert Grossman and recording Cheap Thrills...
File format: mp3; file size: 66.4meg, interview length: 1h 09' 09" sound quality: ***
Hot Tuna, Jefferson Airplane: Jefferson Airplane's Jack Casady (1984)
Interview by Gene Sculatti, Davin Seay, Rock's Backpages audio, 1984
The Airplane bassist talks about the bands he had been in; meeting Jorma Kaukonen and joining the Airplane; the democratic band set-up; venues like the Longshoreman’s Hall and the emergence of hippies; the Acid Tests and the Warlocks; recruiting Grace Slick from the Great Society; the band's RCA contract and large advance; recording Surrealistic Pillow; ‘White Rabbit’; playing Monterey Pop; the band's vocal blend; the end of the band; forming Hot Tuna; how he developed his bass style, and playing Erma Franklin’s ‘Piece Of My Heart’ to Big Brother.
File format: mp3; file size: 53.3mb, interview length: 55' 30" sound quality: ****
Quicksilver Messenger Service: Quicksilver's John Cipollina (1984)
Interview by Gene Sculatti, Davin Seay, Rock's Backpages audio, June 1984
Cipollina looks back on his childhood and youth, falling in love with the electric guitar and starting his first bands; meeting Dino Valenti and the formation of Quicksilver Messenger Service; the emergence of hippies, and the early Fillmore scene; hanging out with the Charlatans; signing to Capitol, and their first recordings; the evolution of psychedelic rock, and the brotherhood of the San Francisco bands.
File format: mp3; file size: 91.5mb, interview length: 1h 35' 21" sound quality: ***
Sleeve notes by Gene Sculatti, Rhino Records, 1986
Hey, come on in. Glad you could make it. Gonna be a great party (take your coat?) Lesley'll be here in a minute. She's over ...
Sleeve notes by Gene Sculatti, Rhino Records, 1986
No 'bout a doubt it, Mr. A has shaken a lot of action. He cut his first hit, a nifty nine-million seller, at fifteen, wrote ...
Sleeve notes by Gene Sculatti, Edsel Records, 1986
It was no Sun Records. It wasn't Philles or Dimension, or Cameo-Parkway or even Big Top. But Autumn Records surely qualifies as one of America's ...
The Four Seasons, Frankie Valli: The Four Seasons: 25th Anniversary
Sleeve notes by Gene Sculatti, Rhino Records, 1987
"... He turned on his record player, dressed up in his sharpest clothes, and practiced dancing as if as long as Kookie Byrnes or Cousin ...
Madonna: The Immaculate Collection
Sleeve notes by Gene Sculatti, Sire Records, 1990
"The Coolest Queen of White Heat"... "An outrageous blend of Little Orphan Annie, Margaret Thatcher and Mae West"... "Narcissistic, brazen, comic... the Goddess of the ...
Dion: Bronx Blues — The Columbia Recordings (1962-1963)
Sleeve notes by Gene Sculatti, Sony/Columbia Records, 1991
"Rock 'n' roll started as rebellious music. It had an attitude, and in that attitude was a lot of stuff: anger, frustration, joy, and that ...
Sleeve notes by Gene Sculatti, Sony/Epic Records, 1991
As with most successful artists, Screamin' Jay Hawkins career hung on lots of ifs... It might not have happened at all if his first manager ...
Sleeve notes by Gene Sculatti, EMI/Right Stuff, 1993
"I've got my J-200 there with me. That's the big Gibson, like the kind the Everly Brothers had custom-made for them. So beautiful. The case ...
Sleeve notes by Gene Sculatti, EMI/Right Stuff, 1993
One of the few good things left in the current morass of ‘oldies’ radio is the element of surprise. In a world where the same ...
Harper's Bizarre: Harpers Bizarre: Feelin’ Groovy
Sleeve notes by Gene Sculatti, Warner Bros. Records, 1997
"The object of A&R is to give people what they want to have, not what you think they might like to hear." Thus spoke a ...
Tony Bruno: Beguiled By Bruno – My Great-Lost-Album Trip
Retrospective and Interview by Gene Sculatti, Scram, 1998
IT'S LONELY out here.Apart from the people who recorded it, I've never met anyone who's ever really known about this unusual album, first released 30 ...
Comment by Gene Sculatti, LCD, 5 November 1999
Who's the perp?Somebody must've done this. ...
Mojo Navigator: Memories of Mojo
Retrospective by Gene Sculatti, Scram, 2000
SAN FRANCISCO, 1966. This was a long time ago. The Grateful Dead swung hard, fast and scary, and Peter Albin's demented LSD-preacher stalked stages as ...
Overview by Gene Sculatti, Scram, 2000
The All-Time Top 10 'Next Dylans': Monkee, Punkers, Bubblegum King: They Wished That For Just One Time They Could Stand Inside His Shoes ...
The Beach Boys, The Byrds: Gary Usher
Interview by Gene Sculatti, Scram, 2002
Gary Usher In Conversation With Gene Sculatti January 1971 ...
Brian Wilson: Gettin' in Over My Head
Report by Gene Sculatti, ICE, June 2004
WITH A RESILIENCE REMINISCENT of that battery-powered bunny or California's governor in his biggest pre-politics role, Brian Wilson is back – again. Fresh on the ...
MOR's Adventures in the Lands of Pop and Rock
Overview by Gene Sculatti, Scram, 2005
STAN CORNYN'S liner notes to Buddy's in a Brand New Bag, middle-of-the-road singer Buddy Greco's 1967 LP, tell it all: "Now the hip Mr. Greco ...
Van Morrison: Magic Time: Van the Man's New Lucky 13
Review and Interview by Gene Sculatti, ICE, May 2005
THE ARTIST who famously proclaimed It's Too Late to Stop Now means what he says. In 1974, when Van Morrison used the phrase for the ...
Creedence Clearwater Revival, John Fogerty: John Fogerty: The Long Road Home
Interview by Gene Sculatti, ICE, October 2005
IT'S NOT HARD TO UNDERSTAND how a popular artist might tire of singing the words to his biggest hits after decades of doing so. Year ...
Burt Bacharach: At This Time: Burt Bacharach
Report and Interview by Gene Sculatti, ICE, November 2005
AFTER 40-PLUS YEARS, one of America's greatest songwriters finally has something to say. Which is not to suggest that songs like 'Close to You' or ...
Sopwith Camel: The Sopwith Camel
Retrospective by Gene Sculatti, Arkadia, November 2005
TIMING, AS THEY SAY, is everything. The adage is just as applicable to the realms of commerce and marketing as it is to creative inspiration. ...
Dion: The Wanderer Walks with the Blues
Interview by Gene Sculatti, ICE, Winter 2005
IT'S A SHAME that, these days, a singer this good needs a qualifier. Until the arrival of Celine, there was only one Dion — Dion ...
Deon Jackson: Love Makes the World Go Round
Sleeve notes by Gene Sculatti, Collector's Choice, 2006
IF YOU HAVE TO BE remembered as a one-hit wonder, it helps if the hit was a wonderful one, a unique-sounding record from what was ...
The 5th Dimension: Up, Up and Away/Magic Garden
Sleeve notes by Gene Sculatti, Collector's Choice Records, 2006
IT'S NO SECRET that time has a way of erasing details and leaving our memories with only the broadest contours of our shared experience. Most ...
Yesterday Once More: Digging the Fifties Revival in the 1970s
Retrospective by Gene Sculatti, Scram, 2006
ANY GOOD STUDENT of pop-music history knows what happened in the 1970s: The broken bricks from the aesthetic street-fights of the '60s were scooped up ...
Sleeve notes by Gene Sculatti, Rhino Records Anthology, April 2006
Brooks & Dunn? Outkast? Big & Rich? Where are the duos of today? Sure, there are duet performances, and tons of hits by so-and-so ...
Profile and Interview by Gene Sculatti, USA Today, 14 August 2006
"THE EASTERN WORLD, it is explodin'/ Violence flarin,' bullets loadin'." Some things never change. ...
Rockin' on the Outskirts: S.F. Rock Beyond the Ballrooms
Sleeve notes by Gene Sculatti, Rhino, 21 October 2006
Love Is the Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets box (Rhino) ...
Jerry Butler: The Ice Man Cometh/Ice On Ice
Sleeve notes by Gene Sculatti, Collectors Choice Music, November 2006
As well as being two classic albums of '60s pop-soul, The Ice Man Cometh and Ice on Ice comprise a tale of two cities – ...
Yesterday Once More: Digging the 1970s Fifties Revival
Comment by Gene Sculatti, Scram, 1 December 2006
ANY GOOD STUDENT of pop-music history knows what happened in the 1970s: The broken bricks from the aesthetic street-fights of the '60s were scooped up ...
Dick Dale: Checkered Flag (Sundazed)
Sleeve notes by Gene Sculatti, Sundazed, 2007
I'M A SUCKER for this stuff, there was no way that, as a California teenager in 1963, I wasn't going to buy a copy of ...
Neil Sedaka: The Definitive Collection (Razor & Tie)
Sleeve notes by Gene Sculatti, Razor & Tie, 2007
IT'S ALMOST LIKE A scene from a movie, one of those Fifties cinematic cash-ins about crazy music and hopped-up teens. At a high-school talent show, ...
The Rascals: The Definitive Rascals
Sleeve notes by Gene Sculatti, Rhino, February 2007
"THE FIRST ALBUM wasn't us," Felix Cavaliere confided to Hit Parader magazine in 1968. "It was our interpretation of other people's music. 'Good Lovin'' was ...
Sleeve notes by Gene Sculatti, Sundazed Music Inc., 14 July 2007
"There was a definite shock value in hearing the Grape open up with a sound that you did not so much hear as feel in ...
Clyde McPhatter, The Drifters: Clyde McPhatter & The Drifters
Sleeve notes by Gene Sculatti, Collector's Choice Music, August 2007
"I fell in love with the man's voice. I toured with the group and watched Clyde and listened; finally I got a chance to join ...
The Drifters: I'll Take You Where The Music's Playing (Collectors' Choice Music)
Sleeve notes by Gene Sculatti, Collectors' Choice Music, August 2007
IF THE MID-'60s "Brill Building era" – when teams like Goffin-King, Bacharach-David and Mann-Weil wrote like what seemed two-thirds of the hits in Top 40 ...
Mink DeVille: Where Angels Fear to Tread
Sleeve notes by Gene Sculatti, Collector's Choice Music, 13 May 2008
PEOPLE TALK. When they talk about the music of Willy DeVille, they say things like "DeVille's talents transcend all trends. He fuses blues, rock and ...
Sleeve notes by Gene Sculatti, Collector's Choice Music, 8 July 2008
"I WAS 12 years old when I first heard Frankie Lymon singing 'Why Do Fools Fall in Love' on my grandmother's radio," wrote Ronnie Spector ...
Ben E. King: Supernatural and Benny And Us
Sleeve notes by Gene Sculatti, Collector's Choice Records, 2009
BY NOW IT'S A TRUISM that F. Scott Fitzgerald got it wrong when he said, "There are no second acts in American lives." Sure, lots ...
Various Artists: THE T.A.M.I. Show (Shout Factory)
Film/DVD/TV Review by Gene Sculatti, Ugly Things, 2009
FIRST OFF, any regular reader of this publication whose home doesn't house a copy of this DVD–man, where are you at? Filmed before a Santa ...
Fillmore: The Last Days (Rhino Entertainment)
Film/DVD/TV Review by Gene Sculatti, SonicBoomers.com, 24 April 2009
IT WENT OUT with a whimper, not a bang. Bill Graham's July 1971 decision to close Fillmore West surely didn't pass unnoticed, but the shuttering ...
Frank Zappa, The Mothers Of Invention: Frank Zappa: The Freak-Out List (Chrome Dreams)
Film/DVD/TV Review by Gene Sculatti, Ugly Things, 2010
YOU GOTTA HAND it to the folks at Chrome Dreams. Recognizing a good thing, they've come up with yet another "unauthorized" Zappa title (their fifth, ...
Sleeve notes by Gene Sculatti, Collector's Choice Records, 2010
AS A SONGWRITER, singer, producer and multi-instrumentalist, Jorge Calderon has amassed a list of credits that would easily qualify him for a master's degree in ...
The Orlons: Wah Watusi and South Street
Sleeve notes by Gene Sculatti, Collector's Choice, 2010
IF THEY'RE LUCKY, most decades get a handle–not right at birth, but usually by the time they grow up a little and let us know ...
Bobby Darin, Bobby Vee: Was 1960 Really The Worst Pop Year Ever?
Retrospective by Gene Sculatti, Rock's Backpages, March 2010
KIDS TODAY. And the music they listen to! As I write, Billboard's (U.S.) Top 10 features three songs with the F-word in their title, one ...
Retrospective by Gene Sculatti, Rock's Backpages, September 2010
LAST SATURDAY, paging through an article on Robert Plant in the September issue of MOJO, I learned that, upon their initial meeting in a Dublin ...
Captain Beefheart: The Dust Blows Forward, 'N The Dust Blows Back: Remembering Beefheart
Memoir by Gene Sculatti, recordmecca.com, 19 December 2010
IT'S IMPOSSIBLE for me to think what the world would be without Captain Beefheart's music in it. Amidst the bad news, the good is that ...
The Tymes: So Much In Love (Real Gone Music)
Sleeve notes by Gene Sculatti, Real Gone Music, 2011
IT SEEMS only appropriate that this noteworthy debut be discussed in the context of several other "firsts" associated with the Tymes. This package represents the ...
Sleeve notes by Gene Sculatti, Shout! Factory Records, 2012
IN 1975, at the age of 32, Mick Jagger famously uttered one of the more regrettable, bite-yourself-in-the-behind remarks in modern pop history. "I'd rather be ...
Sanford-Townsend Band: The Sanford-Townsend Band: Smoke From A Distant Fire
Sleeve notes by Gene Sculatti, Real Gone Records, 2012
IT'S A FUNNY THING about brass rings. Sometimes they come round and we pass on them, forever locked out of a future that might've been. ...
Bunky & Jake, Jake and the Rest of the Jewels: Everything's Jake on A Lick and a Promise
Review by Gene Sculatti, Rock's Backpages, 8 February 2012
THE SUBTITLE of a recently published book on Manhattan's Seventies punk scene is Five Years in New York That Changed Music Forever. It's a sure ...
Justin Bieber: Overcovering Pop: Are We There Yet?
Comment by Gene Sculatti, Rock's Backpages, June 2012
WHAT have we wrought, us guys and gals who write about pop music? ...
The Beach Boys: Verizon Wireless Amphitheater, Orange County
Live Review by Gene Sculatti, Rock's Backpages, June 2012
"THERE'S SOMETHING RIDICULOUS about a 70-year-old man going out there and singing 'Fun, Fun, Fun.'" So said my wife last week when I told her ...
Memoir by Gene Sculatti, Rock's Backpages, 29 August 2012
IT WAS 50 YEARS ago today, more or less. I was in the car with my parents, somewhere in Oregon, en route from our home ...
Steely Dan: Dawn of the Dan: Can't Buy a Thrill Turns 40
Retrospective by Gene Sculatti, Rock's Backpages, 20 September 2012
AT THE TIME, Steely Dan's Can't Buy a Thrill hardly appeared as a serious contender for the most-likely-to-succeed debut of the Class of '72. The ...
Beauty In Two Dimensions: It's A Spongebob Christmas!
Review by Gene Sculatti, Rock's Backpages, 21 November 2012
I'M A FOOL FOR Christmas records. Good ones, that is: Spector's list-topper, sure, and the Beach Boys' album that starts with 'Little St. Nick' and ...
Retrospective by Gene Sculatti, Rock's Backpages, 27 November 2012
ITEM: A recent Los Angeles Times article reported that the city's Wende Museum, which houses more than 100,000 Cold War artifacts, had outgrown its present ...
Larry Williams: That Larry Williams (Real Gone Music)
Sleeve notes by Gene Sculatti, Real Gone Music, 2013
IT'S NOT JUST because he has such a common name. A quick Google search turns up a Larry Williams who's "an American author and commodity ...
Hello People: The Hello People: Fusion (Real Gone Music, 2013)
Review by Gene Sculatti, (Real Gone Music), 2013
IN THE HEYDAY of '60s and '70s pop, humanity's diversity was on display everywhere. There were People's Choice, Rupert's People, Ceylib People, just plain People, ...
Paley Brothers: The Paley Brothers: The Complete Recordings
Sleeve notes by Gene Sculatti, Real Gone Music, 2013
"PEOPLE looked at us and said, 'What are you guys?'" says Jonathan Paley. ...
Comment by Gene Sculatti, Rock's Backpages, 18 April 2013
IS IT JUST ME? Or has anyone else who's seen the PBS special Muddy Waters and the Rolling Stones Live found the whole affair cringe-worthy ...
Elton John: Don't Shoot the Piano Player: Elton's Croc-Rock Reconsidered
Retrospective by Gene Sculatti, Rock's Backpages, 17 June 2013
FOR SOME REASON — most likely the much-reported news of his participation in the new Queens of the Stone Age album — I've lately found ...
David Ruffin: My Whole World Ended/Feelin' Good (Real Gone Music)
Sleeve notes by Gene Sculatti, Real Gone Music, January 2014
JUST ONE look at the tune-stack on My Whole World Ended and there's a real temptation to draw a plumb line between the disconsolate titles ...
Jesse Winchester: Seems Like Only Yesterday: Live in Montreal 1976
Sleeve notes by Gene Sculatti, Real Gone Music , February 2015
AMONG THE more effective pieces of ordnance most writers keep close at hand is a gift for understatement. Jesse Winchester's arsenal has always been well-stocked. ...
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