Jeff Tamarkin
For more than two and a half decades, Jeff Tamarkin has been a prolific music and popular culture journalist and historian. For 15 years he was Editor of Goldmine, the "bible" of record/CD collectors. Prior to that, he served as the first Editor of CMJ (College Media Journal) and as Editor of Relix. He was also the first Editor of Grateful Dead Comix, editor of Global Rhythm, has written for dozens of publications, including Boston Phoenix, Playbill, East Bay Express, Sing Out!, New York Daily News, Billboard, Pulse, Creem, Mojo, Newsday, Tracks and ICE, and has contributed to the Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music and the All-Music Guide.
The first biography of this legendary San Francisco band, it was written with the cooperation of all of the band members and placed the Airplane into the context of their times, the volatile 1960s. Got a Revolution! was named one of the best books of 2003 by the San Francisco Chronicle and the Boston Phoenix, and received rave reviews from Publisher’s Weekly, Kirkus, Austin Chronicle, New York Daily News, The Onion, Uncut, Jazz Times and many others.
Jeff is currently the editor of BestClassicBands.com and lives in Hoboken, NJ, with his wife, novelist and book columnist Caroline Leavitt.
72 articles
List of articles in the library
J. Geils Band: Exclusive Interview with Peter Wolf
Interview by Jeff Tamarkin, Goldmine, 1 October 1983
1967 HAS GONE down in history as the Summer of Love, not as the year for great white R&B bands forming. But it was during ...
Interview by Jeff Tamarkin, Goldmine, 1 October 1983
GOLDMINE: What was the impetus behind this reunion album and tour? The last time the original group was together was for the 1977 album, Before ...
The Long Ryders: Long Ryders: Don't Call Us Country-Rock
Profile and Interview by Jeff Tamarkin, Billboard, 5 January 1984
L.A. Band Following in Burrito Brothers' Footsteps ...
Live Review by Jeff Tamarkin, Billboard, 5 May 1984
IT WAS THE old, familiar scene of singer/songwriter bearing acoustic guitar and playing for an attentive college crowd. What wasn't so familiar was that the ...
Live Review by Jeff Tamarkin, Billboard, 30 June 1984
IT WAS A folk-rocker's fantasy: R.E.M. was videotaping a concert for MTV broadcast in July, for a new series called Influences. And so the IRS Records ...
Greg Kihn: Reckihning & Rolling
Interview by Jeff Tamarkin, Creem, November 1984
EVEN IF YOU'VE never heard Greg Kihn's music, you probably know who he is – he's the character who comes up with dumb puns on ...
The Ramones: Things Get Exciting Again for Ramones
Profile and Interview by Jeff Tamarkin, Billboard, 10 November 1984
'Too Tough To Die' After 10 Years ...
The Mosquitos, The Raybeats: The Raybeats, The Mosquitos: Irving Plaza, New York NY
Live Review by Jeff Tamarkin, Billboard, 16 March 1985
THE RAYBEATS have been a New York club favorite for about five years now, but it was obvious from the ovation for the openers that ...
Interview by Jeff Tamarkin, Billboard, 30 March 1985
NEW YORK — Considering that Richard Thompson's albums invariably end up near the top of year-end critics' polls, one would think that the veteran British ...
Interview by Jeff Tamarkin, Billboard, 30 March 1985
NEW YORK — Considering that Richard Thompson's albums invariably end up near the top of year-end critics' polls, one would think that the veteran British ...
Aztec Camera: Bottom Line, New York NY
Live Review by Jeff Tamarkin, Billboard, 27 April 1985
AZTEC CAMERA is Roddy Frame's group, and the 21-year-old Scot doesn't let you forget it. Although he was backed by a very competent four-piece band, ...
Joan Armatrading, Cook Da Books: Radio City Music Hall, New York NY
Live Review by Jeff Tamarkin, Billboard, 11 May 1985
IF JOAN Armatrading is still an artist with a cult following, as she has been here for so long, then let's just say her cult ...
Hüsker Dü: Maxwell's, Hoboken, N.J.
Live Review by Jeff Tamarkin, Billboard, 8 June 1985
VERY RARELY does Maxwell's, the small club that has become something of a local mecca for the new roots-oriented American bands, sell out in advance. ...
The Scorpions: From Europe To Video Domination
Interview by Jeff Tamarkin, Circus, 31 August 1985
AFTER SPENDING virtually all of 1984 on the road, rocking fans on four continents, you'd think Scorpions needed a break. So they did, and they ...
The Scorpions: Scorpions: Around the World
Interview by Jeff Tamarkin, Circus, 30 November 1985
IT TOOK THE Scorpions more than a dozen years to do it, but there now remains no doubt that the Hannover, West Germany-based rockers have ...
The Residents: The Ritz, New York NY
Live Review by Jeff Tamarkin, Billboard, 8 February 1986
CHANCES ARE that if you know the Residents at all, you know them by their eyeballs, not their music. Avant-garde to the max, the San ...
The Replacements: The Ritz, New York NY
Live Review by Jeff Tamarkin, Billboard, 1 March 1986
ACCORDING TO longtime devotees, there are two kinds of Replacements concerts: those at which the band is sloppy and anything goes, and those where the ...
The Pogues: The World, New York NY
Live Review by Jeff Tamarkin, Billboard, 29 March 1986
ST. PATRICK'S DAY came to New York a few weeks early with the debut American appearance of the Pogues. But traditional Irish music never sounded ...
The Jesus & Mary Chain: The Jesus And Mary Chain: The Ritz, New York NY
Live Review by Jeff Tamarkin, Billboard, 5 April 1986
LlKE MANY previous "Next Big Things," The Jesus And Mary Chain is actually a mixture of next big things which came before. The Scottish quartet ...
Hüsker Dü, Dwight Yoakam: Irving Plaza, New York NY
Live Review by Jeff Tamarkin, Billboard, 3 May 1986
THE IDEA of pairing post-hardcore Hüsker Dü with neocountry Dwight Yoakam turned out to be more perverse in theory than in practice. There was no ...
A Flock Of Seagulls, Modern English: The Ritz, New York NY
Live Review by Jeff Tamarkin, Billboard, 24 May 1986
BRITISH SYNTH-poppers a Flock of Seagulls and Modern English each dented the top 10 three to four years ago — the former with 'I Ran' ...
Brian Setzer: Stray Cats No More
Interview by Jeff Tamarkin, Creem, June 1986
BRIAN SETZER has been keeping a mental list. Everyone he's spoken to lately seems to think his first post-Stray Cats album, The Knife Feels Like ...
The Pogues: Aye, Laddie — We're Off To The Isle…
Live Review by Jeff Tamarkin, Creem, June 1986
The Pogues: The World, New York NY ...
The Residents: Eyeball To Eyeball
Live Review by Jeff Tamarkin, Creem, June 1986
The Residents: The Ritz, New York, Jan. 16, 1986 ...
Yoko Ono: Beacon Theatre, New York NY
Live Review by Jeff Tamarkin, Billboard, 14 June 1986
AFTER AN earlier Radio City Music Hall date was canceled because of poor ticket sales, Yoko One finally played her first concert in New York ...
The Smithereens, The Ben Vaughn Combo: Ben Vaughn Combo, Smithereens: CBGB, New York, NY
Live Review by Jeff Tamarkin, Billboard, 21 June 1986
THE SMITHEREENS and the Ben Vaughn Combo were each nominated as best new rock band in the recent New York Music Awards, although neither band ...
The Cramps, Screaming Blue Messiahs: The Ritz, New York NY
Live Review by Jeff Tamarkin, Billboard, 30 August 1986
THAT THE Cramps have managed to thrive for 10 years without a U.S. major label deal is testimony to their devoted cult following. And that ...
Yoko Ono: Scream And Scream Again
Live Review by Jeff Tamarkin, Creem, September 1986
Yoko Ono: Beacon Theater, New York, May 22, 1986 ...
Steve Winwood: Pier 84, New York NY
Live Review by Jeff Tamarkin, Billboard, 18 October 1986
BEFORE LAUNCHING this tour in late August, Steve Winwood had long been absent from the concert circuit. And, seemingly, from his point of view those ...
Live Review by Jeff Tamarkin, Billboard, 8 November 1986
PERHAPS HOPING to capitalize on the nostalgia fever that has made the recent Monkees tour a success, five acts that got their start during the ...
Elvis Costello: Broadway Theatre, New York NY
Live Review by Jeff Tamarkin, Billboard, 15 November 1986
ELVIS COSTELLO'S five-night stand on Broadway roughly coincided with the World Series, which may have kept die-hard Mets fans at bay. Still, the Costello series ...
Charlie Watts Orchestra: The Ritz, New York NY
Live Review by Jeff Tamarkin, Billboard, 24 January 1987
WATCHING CHARLIE Watts' omnipresent grin at this, the second show of a three-night stand in December with his 31-piece extracurricular jazz project, one imagined that ...
Camper Van Beethoven: Cat Club, New York NY
Live Review by Jeff Tamarkin, Billboard, 14 March 1987
CAMPER VAN Beethoven makes the term "genre" obsolete. The Santa Cruz, Calif.-based quintet thrives on piecing together seemingly incompatible musical styles, often within a single ...
Georgia Satellites: Fire The Retro Rockets
Interview by Jeff Tamarkin, Creem, April 1987
"CREEM WAS always my favorite magazine when I was a kid," Rick Richards is saying, dreams of Boy Howdy running through his mind. "I remember ...
The Long Ryders: Bye Bye Byrdie
Interview by Jeff Tamarkin, Creem, October 1987
LET'S JUST get this part out of the way, since it's gonna come up anyway and maybe you're one of the ones who got pissed ...
Interview by Jeff Tamarkin, Goldmine, 28 December 1990
THE MOST AMAZING thing about Dick Clark is not that "America's Oldest Living Teenager" still fits that role at age 61. It's not that he's ...
Profile and Interview by Jeff Tamarkin, Goldmine, 19 February 1991
LET'S PLAY the numbers game. According to Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Singles 1955-1986, Pat Boone is the fifth highest-ranking artist in the history of the ...
Bill Haley & His Comets: The Decca Years And More
Review by Jeff Tamarkin, Goldmine, 19 April 1991
TO A CONTEMPORARY listener already mystified by '50s rock 'n' roll. Bill Haley might be the greatest mystery of all. Elvis's success is easy to ...
Essay by Jeff Tamarkin, Goldmine, 26 July 1991
THE QUINTET KNOWN as the Band never did get back together in that same, familiar aggregation. To this day, however, there is a band called ...
Frankie Lymon and The Teenagers
Retrospective by Jeff Tamarkin, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, 1993
RONNIE SPECTOR, in her autobiography, Be My Baby, wrote, "A lot of entertainers can't or won't tell you where they got their style from. But ...
Jefferson Airplane: The Jefferson Airplane Chronicles: Marty Balin
Interview by Jeff Tamarkin, Relix, April 1993
READING THE following interview, one might get a sense that there are two Marty Balins. ...
Al Kooper, Blood Sweat & Tears: Al Kooper: The Adventures Of Kooperman
Retrospective and Interview by Jeff Tamarkin, Goldmine, 18 February 1994
THE COVER of Rekooperation, Al Kooper's new album, his first in 12 years, is divided into 16 postage stamp-sized photographic portraits of the artist as ...
Darlene Love, The Righteous Brothers: Bill Medley and Darlene Love: Righteous Brother and Sister
Retrospective and Interview by Jeff Tamarkin, Goldmine, 4 March 1994
THERE'S A point during Darlene Love's one-woman show, Portrait Of A Singer, where she's talking about singing background vocals on the Righteous Brothers' 1966 #1 ...
Jefferson Airplane's Joey Covington
Retrospective and Interview by Jeff Tamarkin, Goldmine, 22 December 1995
BORN IN EAST Conemaugh, Pennsylvania, Covington moved to Los Angeles, where he played in a band called Tsong before meeting the Airplane's male lead singer, ...
Jackie Wilson: The Best of Jackie Wilson (Metro) ***½
Review by Jeff Tamarkin, AllMusic.com, 2002
COMPILING A Jackie Wilson best-of set should be a no-brainer. From the beginning of his solo career in the late '50s until the end of ...
Petula Clark: The Essential Petula Clark ***
Review by Jeff Tamarkin, AllMusic.com, 2003
PETULA CLARK had already logged seven Top Ten singles in her native Britain by the time she hitched a ride on the British Invasion in ...
Jefferson Airplane, Moby Grape, Skip Spence : Skip Spence and the Sad Saga of Moby Grape
Book Excerpt by Jeff Tamarkin, 'Got a Revolution', 2003
IN THE SUMMER of 1965, Jefferson Airplane decided to dismiss their first drummer, Jerry Peloquin. That's when a golden boy named Alexander "Skip" Spence came ...
Jefferson Airplane: The Summer Of Haight
Retrospective and Interview by Jeff Tamarkin, MOJO, April 2003
In January 1967, Jefferson Airplane were all set for take-off. But within months their dream was crumbling. Jeff Tamarkin on the destructive undercurrent to the ...
Jefferson Airplane: The End Of The Beginning: Jefferson Airplane at Altamont
Book Excerpt by Jeff Tamarkin, Helter Skelter Books, Summer 2003
THE VIOLENCE AT Altamont had begun before the Airplane even arrived, when a number of Hell’s Angels, who had been amassing near the stage, wantonly ...
Yoko Ono: The Outsider Peeks Inside
Profile and Interview by Jeff Tamarkin, Global Rhythm, January 2004
THE WOMAN'S clothing is being snipped from her body. Systematically, one by one, 200 scissors-wielding strangers – and the woman's son – silently have a ...
The Mamas and The Papas: The Mamas & the Papas: Anthology (Universal)
Review by Jeff Tamarkin, MOJO, October 2004
Following their meteoric rise, the band that built the California dream would never sleep soundly again. ...
Buddy Guy: Can't Quit The Blues **** ½
Review by Jeff Tamarkin, AllMusic.com, 2006
LEGEND STATUS CAME LATE to Buddy Guy, so it shouldn't be surprising that this is the first box set devoted to the blues giant's work. ...
Tangerine Dream: The Essential Collection (Metro Doubles) ****
Review by Jeff Tamarkin, AllMusic.com, 2006
DISTILLING the essence of a force as monumentally influential and prolific as the German electronic music pioneers Tangerine Dream to a two-CD checklist of essentials ...
Taylor Swift: Taylor Swift (Big Machine) **** ½
Review by Jeff Tamarkin, AllMusic.com, 2006
ALL OF 16 when she recorded this debut album, country-pop singer Taylor Swift's considerably strong voice straddles that precarious edge that both suggests experience far ...
Ziggy Marley: Love Is My Religion **½
Review by Jeff Tamarkin, AllMusic.com, 2006
MORE THAN two decades into his successful career — yes, he has now been recording for more years than his dad Bob did — Ziggy ...
Interview by Jeff Tamarkin, Harp, September 2006
PF SLOAN was a 19-year-old bearing the weight of the world on his shoulders when he wrote the protest classic 'Eve of Destruction' back in ...
Review by Jeff Tamarkin, AllMusic.com, 2007
IN WHAT MIGHT BE the least inspired album of her career, iconic diva Diana Ross sleepwalks through a mish-mash of seemingly randomly chosen love songs, ...
Joan Armatrading: Into The Blues (429 Records)
Review by Jeff Tamarkin, AllMusic.com, 2007
RECORDING Into The Blues, writes Joan Armatrading on the back sleeve of her first-ever blues album, "has given me so much pleasure," and that pleasure ...
The Skatalites: On The Right Track *** ½
Review by Jeff Tamarkin, AllMusic.com, 2007
THE SKATALITES' lineup on this new recording, cut in Australia in 2006 during their first tour there, consists of just two original members of the ...
Interview by Jeff Tamarkin, Harp, March 2007
WHEN RY Cooder received a doctored photo in the mail, of a red cat in the guise of Leadbelly, he knew he had found a ...
Judee Sill: Live in London: The BBC Recordings 1972-1973
Review by Jeff Tamarkin, The Boston Phoenix, 7 August 2007
IF JUDEE SILL'S story isn't fodder for a Lifetime TV movie, then nothing is: the early deaths of her father and brother; an alcoholic mother ...
Interview by Jeff Tamarkin, Harp, September 2007
"THERE IS only one thing I still don’t understand," Manu Chao says the day after his triumphant Bonnaroo set and not long after an equally ...
Queen Latifah: Trav'lin' Light (Verve) ***
Review by Jeff Tamarkin, The Boston Phoenix, 31 December 2007
QUEEN LATIFAH is never going to be Billie Holiday or even Macy Gray, but 2004's surprise hit, The Dana Owens Album, proved she had a ...
Book Review by Jeff Tamarkin, The Boston Phoenix, 13 January 2009
LIKE ANY GOOD murder mystery, Steve Knopper's Appetite for Self-Destruction keeps the tension high and the action swift as the search for a culprit drags ...
New York Dolls: Cause I Sez So (Atco) ****
Review by Jeff Tamarkin, The Boston Phoenix, 28 April 2009
THE BIG NEWS regarding the New York Dolls' second album since their reactivation five years ago is the return of Todd Rundgren as producer. ...
Green Day: 21st Century Breakdown (Reprise) ***½
Review by Jeff Tamarkin, The Boston Phoenix, 1 June 2009
IF ANYONE HAD suggested, circa Dookie 15 years ago, that Green Day would one day carry the torch for the classic rock opera… well, no ...
Review by Jeff Tamarkin, MOJO, October 2009
The latest in the Nuggets franchise documents the most fertile few years in southern Californian music history, taking in curios, weirdos, hipsters, freaks and a ...
KT Tunstall: Tiger Suit (Virgin) **½
Review by Jeff Tamarkin, The Boston Phoenix, 22 September 2010
THE KT TUNSTALL of Tiger Suit is tougher, louder, and more electronically endowed than the KT Tunstall of its poppy predecessor, 2007's Drastic Fantastic, and ...
Jimmy Scott: Singer Jimmy Scott Dies at 88
Obituary by Jeff Tamarkin, JazzTimes, 13 June 2014
JIMMY SCOTT, whose distinctively high contralto voice — caused by a rare genetic condition called Kallmann's syndrome — gave his music a purity and youthfulness ...
Grateful Dead: Deadicated: Tom Constanten
Interview by Jeff Tamarkin, Relix, 2 September 2014
OF THE DOZEN musicians who passed through the ranks of the Grateful Dead during their three-decade run, only one full-time keyboardist survives. Yet Tom Constanten, ...
Kamasi Washington: Swing Time: Kamasi Washington
Interview by Jeff Tamarkin, Reflex, 2 March 2021
AS A high profile jazz musician, Kamasi Washington is accustomed to improvising, just not in the ways that he's been forced to over the past ...
Patrick Sky, Singer-Songwriter Popular in the '60s, Dead at 77
Obituary by Jeff Tamarkin, Best Classic Bands, May 2021
SINGER-SONGWRITER Patrick Sky, a mainstay of the Greenwich Village folk music community in the mid-'60s, died May 27, 2021, in Asheville, N.C. His death was ...
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