Jim Farber
Jim Farber has been writing about music since the Ramones were new. For twenty five years, he was the Music Editor and Chief Music Critic of the New York Daily News. Over the years, he written for most every music publication, from Circus (where he was a staff writer in college) to Creem to Crawdaddy to Billboard. Currently, he contributes pieces on music and culture to The New York Times, The Guardian, The Independent, Entertainment Weekly, Tidal streaming, and many other outlets.
Jim's essays have appeared in several anthologies, including The Rolling Stone Book of the '70s and The Rolling Stone Record Guide. He is one of the main authors of the original Rolling Stone Rock Encyclopedia. Additionally, Jim has been a guest lecturer on music and criticism at Barnard and SUNY Purchase and is an adjunct professor at NYU in the Clive Davis Institute. He is a three-time winner of the ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award.
40 articles
List of articles in the library
Sex Pistols, Rick Wakeman: Rick Wakeman Denies Press Rumors In Sex Pistols Controversy
Interview by Jim Farber, Circus, 9 June 1977
LONDON: The furor over the Sex Pistols' firing by A&M Records still rages in the British Press. Punk rock is more controversial than ever. Circus ...
Ted Nugent: Stalking The Elusive Rock Crown
Interview by Jim Farber, Circus, 23 June 1977
Cat Scratch Fever Is Ted Nugent's Strongest Bid for Superstardom in Fifteen Years on the Road ...
Interview by Jim Farber, Circus, 5 January 1978
Seconds Out Captures Genesis' Spectacular US tour ...
Cheap Trick Takes a Giant Step
Interview by Jim Farber, Circus, 6 July 1978
Heaven Tonight, Chicago Groups Third LP, Inspires Rock Fanaticism ...
Robert Fripp: The Untold Story
Report and Interview by Jim Farber, Creem, November 1978
WHEN ROBERT FRIPP finally retired King Crimson to the home for aging mellotrons back in late 1974, he let out a string of Jeane Dixon-style ...
Bryan Ferry, Roxy Music: Roxy Music's reunion manifesto
Interview by Jim Farber, Rolling Stone, 5 April 1979
New album and tour ...
Chic is less than meets the ear
Interview by Jim Farber, Rolling Stone, 19 April 1979
NEW YORK — The Barnum Room is a disco where any man who dresses like a woman can feel like a star. Even on this ...
Electric Light Orchestra: ELO: Stringing along with pop
Interview by Jim Farber, Rolling Stone, 4 October 1979
Bev Bevan on the 'big sound' ...
Report and Interview by Jim Farber, Rolling Stone, 15 November 1979
First U.S. tour ever ...
Television, Tom Verlaine: Tom Verlaine: looking for life
Interview by Jim Farber, Rolling Stone, 20 March 1980
Ex-Television star's fall and rise ...
The Specials: The Specials (Chrysalis)
Review by Jim Farber, Creem, April 1980
BRITISH PEOPLE have given the world plenty of jerky things over the course of history: mercantilism, the white man's burden, Mary Poppins. But perhaps the ...
The Roches: Nurds (Warner Bros.)
Review by Jim Farber, Creem, February 1981
THE ROCHES' Nurd sorority is holding a party on their new album to which you are cordially uninvited. As the polar opposite of The Ramones' ...
Traffic, Steve Winwood: Steve Winwood Keeps On Running
Interview by Jim Farber, Creem, April 1981
The Diver Comes Up For Air ...
Jefferson Starship: Modern Times (RCA)
Review by Jim Farber, Creem, July 1981
Dear Stockholder, We are very pleased to report to all of you who own stock in the Jefferson Starship Corporation that our 1980 financial gross was ...
The Cramps: Psychedelic Jungle (IRS)
Review by Jim Farber, Creem, September 1981
DO NOT ATTEMPT TO ADJUST YOUR STEREO ...
Village People: Renaissance (RCA)
Review by Jim Farber, Creem, October 1981
WHAT IS this? The Village Ant-People? Spandau Village Ballet? How sad that the re-vamped V.P.s (read: Jacques Morali) would try to "cash" in on the ...
The Pretenders: Pretenders II (Sire)
Review by Jim Farber, Creem, November 1981
WELCOME TO the Pretenders' nightmare — an entire second LP to fill, hopefully living up to a big box office debut, and just about all ...
Motörhead: No Sleep 'Till Hammersmith (Mercury)
Review by Jim Farber, Creem, December 1981
BABY, LEMME BLUDGEON YOU DOWN ...
Soft Cell: Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret (Sire)
Review by Jim Farber, Creem, April 1982
WOW — A TRENDY electronic dance band that isn't awful! In fact, they're pretty good. Most of these not-so-new-fangled computerized groups sound just fab in ...
Richard and Linda Thompson: Richard & Linda Thompson: Shoot Out The Lights (Hannibal)
Review by Jim Farber, Creem, August 1982
TO RICHARD and Linda Thompson there's a movement to life — and you could call it "falling." The Thompsons' first U.S. album in four years ...
Review by Jim Farber, Creem, April 1983
AFTER HALF a dozen listenings, to get beyond the requisite outrage and horror over Neil Young performing electronic-tinged "dance" music, I can now honestly say ...
Joan Jett: Talking About The Music With Joan Jett
Interview by Jim Farber, Creem, October 1984
LAST YEAR Joan Jett put out an album which went gold and was, by at least one account (mine), one of the most thrilling straight-ahead ...
Interview by Jim Farber, Creem, February 1986
CAN THIS be the look of love? ABC in 1985 look more like escapees from a Hanna-Barbera convention. Quite a change from the glamorous gold ...
Prince, Mavis Staples: Mavis Staples: Children, It's A Brand New Day
Report and Interview by Jim Farber, Spin, April 1989
THE LATEST Prince protégé is not some 20-year-old babe done up in lingerie and stilettos. It's righteous, 48-year-old pop/gospel legend Mavis Staples: a woman holy ...
Nick Lowe: Wetlands Preserve, New York City
Live Review by Jim Farber, New York Daily News, 1 February 1995
NICK LOWE picked a strange place to get serious Monday night. The famously whimsical rocker gave a decidedly sober performance at the Wetlands, an odd-shaped ...
Marc Bolan, David Bowie, Freddie Mercury: The Androgynous Mirror
Book Excerpt by Jim Farber, 'Rolling Stone: The Seventies' (Little, Brown), 1998
ON A SWAMPY July night in 1974, I left my suburban home bound for David Bowie's Diamond Dogs concert, dressed in midnight-blue eyeliner, hepatitis-yellow platforms ...
Gretchen Wilson: Here for the Party
Review by Jim Farber, New York Daily News, 25 September 2005
Honky tonk angel — Gretchen serenades the joys of beer, chaw and real men ...
Review by Jim Farber, New York Daily News, 25 September 2005
SHERYL CROW wears her '70s influences on her sleeve. Despite having achieved stardom in the '90s, her albums sift together the pop side of Bonnie ...
Celine Dion, Barbra Streisand: Barbra Streisand: ENCORE/Celine Dion: Encore un Soir
Review by Jim Farber, Entertainment Weekly, 26 August 2016
DIVAS DEMAND encores – Barbra Streisand and Celine Dion know that. On new albums, both released the same day, two of the biggest voices in ...
David Bowie, Freddie Mercury: Growing Up Gay to a Glam Rock soundtrack
Memoir by Jim Farber, The New York Times, 3 November 2016
Freddie Mercury, David Bowie and Alice Cooper send signals to a semi-closeted gay teen in the '70s. ...
Lydia Lunch's Infinite Rebellion
Profile and Interview by Jim Farber, The New York Times, 28 June 2021
FOR NEARLY two hours on a recent afternoon, Lydia Lunch sat in her bright Brooklyn apartment and spoke with bracing speed, and at an alarming ...
John McLaughlin Discusses Mahavishnu Orchestra, Liberation Time, and More
Interview by Jim Farber, JazzTimes, 5 July 2021
Fifty years ago, he founded that epochal band and revolutionized the jazz world. Today, he's making music that reaches back to his roots, and his ...
Rick James: "There's a lot to unpack": the dark, difficult life of Rick James
Retrospective by Jim Farber, The Guardian, 2 September 2021
In a new documentary, the defining funk artist's ups and many downs are examined with a clear eye and a lack of sugar-coating. ...
Report and Interview by Jim Farber, The Guardian, 16 March 2022
The complicated and fractious history of the prog-rock titans is explored in revealing new documentary In the Court of the Crimson King. ...
Marc Almond, Soft Cell: Soft Cell's Marc Almond is Prepared to Say Good-bye
Interview by Jim Farber, Vulture, 5 May 2022
MARC ALMOND of Soft Cell has an apt metaphor for life at his age. He likens it to the bars that measure the power left ...
Jann Wenner on Rolling Stone: "Some reviews were just insufferably nasty"
Interview by Jim Farber, The Guardian, 16 September 2022
The founder of the legendary magazine discusses his rise to the top, navigating famous friendships and hiding his sexuality ...
John Lennon, Yoko Ono: "People will find out": May Pang on her time with John Lennon and Yoko Ono
Interview by Jim Farber, The Guardian, 5 April 2023
In a new documentary, the woman who went from assistant to lover of the ex-Beatle talks about her side of a misunderstood story ...
The Spinners: "Our voices chose for us"
Retrospective and Interview by Jim Farber, TIDAL, 17 August 2023
Henry Fambrough, the legendary soul group's last surviving original member, recounts their biopic-worthy story, from the Detroit projects to the Rock & Roll Hall of ...
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