Mark Leviton
Los Angeles native Mark Leviton had his first national publication in Rolling Stone while still in high school (a vicious pan of David Peel’s American Revolution album that he now feels was a bit harsh) and has written on music, film and books for over four decades, with hundreds of credits in Fusion, Phonograph Record Magazine, UCLA Daily Bruin, L.A. Weekly, BAM Magazine, Music Connection, New Musical Express, Let It Rock, Creem, The Los Angeles Times, Mojo and many other fly-by-night publications. From 1979-2004 he was with the Warner Music Group in Burbank, overseeing the release of over a thousand compilation albums and boxed sets, including The Cure’s Join The Dots, Left of the Dial: Dispatches From the ‘80s Underground and Time-Life’s Rock and Roll Era series. Before that he managed one of the original Rhino Records retail stores in Claremont, California.
88 articles
List of articles in the library
The Adolescents, Circle Jerks: The Adolescents/Circle Jerks: The Starwood, Los Angeles CA
Live Review by Mark Leviton, BAM, 16 January 1981
A PACKED house and a dance floor that demanded knee pads and crash helmets provided the Black Hole of Calcutta ambiance for an evening of ...
Profile and Interview by Mark Leviton, BAM, 18 April 1980
LOS ANGELES — "About the time we were doing our first album we used to play a club up the street here on Lankershim that ...
Angry Samoans: Gazzarri's, Hollywood CA
Live Review by Mark Leviton, Music Connection, 3 April 1981
The Players: Todd Homer, bass; Billy Vockeroth, drums; Gregg Turner, guitar & vocals; Mike Saunders, guitar & vocals; P.J. Gallaghan, guitar. ...
Angry Samoans: Comers: Angry Samoans
Profile by Mark Leviton, L.A. Weekly, 13 June 1980
PEOPLE GET upset by the Angry Samoans. It's not just that this feisty five-piece group trashes every cherished ideal of the middle class in language ...
Angry Samoans: The Angry Samoans: Back From Samoa (Bad Trip Records)
Review by Mark Leviton, Music Connection, 3 February 1982
THIS VENOMOUS collection of thirteen originals plus a nutty cover of 'Time Has Come Today' displays all the fury and sick humor of the band's ...
Profile and Interview by Mark Leviton, Phonograph Record, May 1972
ONE WOULD THINK that a group as successful as Badfinger, a group with their momentum (three top-selling singles, one LP million seller, association with Bangla ...
Joan Baez: Speaking Of Her Dreams
Interview by Mark Leviton, Village View, 15 December 1989
NO DOUBT the desk clerk at the Registry Hotel in Universal City who gave Joan Baez her suite number was unaware that 1961 was a ...
Long John Baldry Meets Mad Mark Leviton
Interview by Mark Leviton, UCLA Daily Bruin, 10 August 1972
WHEN I ARRIVED at the hotel for an interview with Long John Baldry during his most recent swing through Southern California, I half expected to ...
The Band: Cahoots (Capitol SMAS-651)
Review by Mark Leviton, Coast, February 1972
THE FIRST five times I played Cahoots I liked it — perhaps because I considered Stage Fright such a drought, and the new LP was ...
The Band: Cahoots (Capitol SMAS-651)
Review by Mark Leviton, Coast, February 1972
THE FIRST FIVE times I played Cahoots I liked it – perhaps because I considered Stage Fright such a drought, and the new LP was ...
The Bangles: The Bangs: Al's Bar, Los Angeles CA
Live Review by Mark Leviton, Music Connection, 5 August 1982
THE PLAYERS: Vicki Peterson, vocals, guitar: Debbi Peterson, drums, vocals; Susanna Hoffs, guitar, vocals; Annette Zilinskas, bass. ...
Walter Becker, China Crisis, Steely Dan: Walter Becker: Breaking the Silence
Interview by Mark Leviton, BAM, December 1985
Steely Dan's Walter Becker Ends His Five Year Absence From The Music Industry ...
Stephen Bishop's Escape From Hollywood
Profile and Interview by Mark Leviton, BAM, 16 January 1981
IN APRIL 1975, an obscure singer-songwriter named Stephen Bishop wrote an article for the small Los Angeles publication Folkscene which stated he'd been writing songs ...
Report by Mark Leviton, Rock's Backpages, February 2019
"I've realized audiences aren't listening to the lyrics of my first song – they're too busy trying to figure out how old I look..." Al ...
Interview by Mark Leviton, BAM, 29 March 1985
LOS ANGELES — Henry Rollins simply will not look at me. The Black Flag vocalist has been described as everything from Jim Morrison with Charlie ...
Black Flag: The Truth about Black Flag
Profile and Interview by Mark Leviton, BAM, 12 August 1983
LET'S FACE IT – much of what passes for music in our country is, in fact, nothing more than product, the worthless, soulless result of ...
The Blasters Bring It Back Alive
Profile and Interview by Mark Leviton, BAM, 21 May 1982
Records can be great, but hearing a great live performance is still, for me, the essence of music. Vinyl is only the documentation of a ...
The Blasters: Non Fiction (Slash/Warner Bros.)
Review by Mark Leviton, Music Connection, 9 June 1983
THIS RESILIENT band continues to deal with the major question of their career, namely how does a very good bar band win the hearts of ...
Interview by Mark Leviton, BAM, 10 February 1984
LOS ANGELES —"Music is a vehicle for ideas, and if the ideas suck and the music's good, it's still pretty bad music." The man at ...
Colin Blunstone: One Year (Epic)
Review by Mark Leviton, Phonograph Record, April 1972
AFTER the Zombies hit about two years ago with 'Time of the Season' they broke up for good. ...
Captain Beefheart: Clear Spot (Reprise K54007)
Review by Mark Leviton, Redbrick, 18 October 1972
EVEN IF you've never heard Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band, or heard them and hated them, you must hear this year's most interesting musical ...
Captain Beefheart: The Country Club, Reseda
Live Review by Mark Leviton, BAM, 27 February 1981
"YOU EITHER LOVE it or hate it," explained the guy standing behind me to his wary girlfriend during Captain Don's blistering set. "It's the weirdest ...
Cheap Trick Meet The Dream Police
Profile and Interview by Mark Leviton, L.A. Weekly, 21 September 1979
IN THE conference room of Epic Records in Century City, Cheap Trick guitarist Rick Nielsen is good-naturedly taunting the group's producer, Tom Werman, who can't ...
Ava Cherry: Bowie Backups and Beyond
Interview by Mark Leviton, BAM, 19 November 1982
LOSANGELES — Back-up singers don't always rise to distinction, but vocalist Ava Cherry, who worked extensively with David Bowie on the pivotal Diamond Dogs tour ...
Live Review by Mark Leviton, Van Nuys Valley News, 20 February 1970
I HAD THE good fortune of being present at Winterland in San Francisco before the Doors came out for their Long Beach concert, which I ...
Depeche Mode: Perkins Palace, Pasadena CA
Live Review by Mark Leviton, Music Connection, 24 July 1982
TECHNO-BUBBLE gum came to Perkins in the form of Depeche Mode, the most melodic of the new English synthesizer bands and the one most steeped ...
Ani DiFranco: Righteous Babe: Ani DiFranco On Music, Politics, And Staying Independent
Interview by Mark Leviton, The Sun Magazine, May 2016
SINGER-SONGWRITER Ani DiFranco doesn't like her music to be labelled. Some have called it "folk-punk," but when asked to define what she does, DiFranco says, ...
Al Di Meola: Al DiMeola: Santa Monica Civic, Santa Monica CA
Live Review by Mark Leviton, Music Connection, 16 October 1980
WHILE THERE'S no doubting Al DiMeola's technical abilities or his thorough knowledge of the guitar from jazz, rather than jazz-rock, roots, several things conspired to ...
The Dream Syndicate: Dream Syndicate: Acid Punk Grows Up
Interview by Mark Leviton, BAM, 13 July 1984
IT'S A HUMID 100 degrees and smoggy in Hollywood. Yet there we are, Dream Syndicate vocalist-writer Steve Wynn and I, sitting in Steve's parked car ...
The Dream Syndicate: Dream Syndicate: Country Club, Reseda CA
Live Review by Mark Leviton, Music Connection, 1 April 1982
The Players: Steve Wynn, guitar and vocals; Karl Precoda, guitar; Kendra Smith, bass, vocals; Dennis Duck, drums. ...
The Dream Syndicate: Dream Syndicate: Psychedelia Updated
Profile and Interview by Mark Leviton, BAM, 19 November 1982
LOS ANGELES — Steve Wynn is getting a little tired of having Dream Syndicate, the LA band for whom he writes, plays guitar and sings, ...
The Dream Syndicate: The Days of Wine and Roses (Ruby Records, Produced by Chris D)
Review by Mark Leviton, Music Connection, 20 January 1982
THE DREAM Syndicate has never had to struggle for a personal sound, even though their music is often like a wild river, flowing with ripples ...
Electric Light Orchestra: Town Hall, Birmingham (England)
Live Review by Mark Leviton, Phonograph Record, April 1973
THE TONE OF the evening was set when I spotted Jeff Lynne's electric guitar in the dressing room, leaning up against a sheaf of music ...
Review by Mark Leviton, Let It Rock, April 1973
THE NEW Fairport Convention LP is going to alienate some fans – a radical change in musical approach by a popular band will always do ...
The Firesign Theatre's Nostalgia for the Future
Interview by Mark Leviton, BAM, 2 December 1983
LOS ANGELES — Joey Yolk, wearing his T-shirt from the 1997 Rolling Stones Farewell Tour, has just struck out on foot for the big city, ...
Wild Man Fischer's One-of-a-Kind Mind
Profile and Interview by Mark Leviton, BAM, 1 June 1984
LOS ANGELES — "Mark!" Larry "Wild Man" Fischer's voice crackles over the telephone. "I'm depressed. The music business is hard... I might be doing some ...
Fleetwood Mac: Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles CA
Live Review by Mark Leviton, Music Connection, 3 October 1980
FLEETWOOD MAC, at the tail end of a long tour, performed a slightly edited version of their last Forum outings, but without enough tenacity or ...
The Fleshtones: Fleshtones: Whisky a Go Go, Los Angeles CA
Live Review by Mark Leviton, Music Connection, 19 February 1981
IT ISN'T every evening you run across a virtually non-stop 40-minute set of high-energy instrumental and beat music. For my money the Fleshtones have the ...
Flying Burrito Brothers: More Hot Burritos: the Flying Burrito Brothers
Report and Interview by Mark Leviton, BAM, 7 March 1980
LOS ANGELES — If tradition in music is meaningful in any way, it is because performers can emerge and fade, groups can split up and ...
John Fogerty: The Natural Is Back
Interview by Mark Leviton, BAM, 15 March 1985
WHAT BECOMES a legend most? You won't find John Fogerty in mink. He favors checked flannel shirts, suspenders, jeans and work boots, would rather go ...
Foreigner: The Forum, Inglewood CA
Live Review by Mark Leviton, Music Connection, 4 March 1982
FOREIGNER HAS managed to transcend the clichés of the much-vilified heavy metal rock form. Their Forum show was a powerful, direct lesson in how to ...
Foreigner: The Forum, Inglewood CA
Live Review by Mark Leviton, Music Connection, 4 March 1982
FOREIGNER HAS managed to transcend the clichés of the much-vilified heavy metal rock form. Their Forum show was a powerful, direct lesson in how to ...
Lowell George, Little Feat: Lowell George: A Feat Of His Own
Review and Interview by Mark Leviton, Blank Space, December 1978
FOR YEARS, fans of Little Feat have heard rumours about a solo album being prepared by Lowell George, the group's main songwriter, lead guitarist and ...
The Grandmothers: Grandmothers: We Are The Motherpeople
Profile and Interview by Mark Leviton, BAM, 22 May 1981
LOS ANGELES — In Don Preston's Echo Park rehearsal room, a band is running through what they refer to as a "punk version" of Frank ...
The Grass Roots: James Monroe High School, Van Nuys CA
Live Review by Mark Leviton, Van Nuys Valley News, 8 November 1968
Concerts by Grass Roots Draw Applause, Arrows ...
The Gun Club: Miami (Animal Records)
Review by Mark Leviton, Music Connection, 6 January 1982
I LOVE AMERICA. It's a land with a heart as big as all outdoors, willing to clasp to its bosom all sorts of crazies — ...
Merle Haggard: The Country Club, Reseda CA
Live Review by Mark Leviton, BAM, 18 April 1980
MERLE HAGGARD and his ten-piece backing band opened this new club with the kind of set most performers must only dream of. The set relied ...
The Incredible String Band: Incredible String Band: Liquid Acrobat as Regards the Air (Elektra)
Review by Mark Leviton, Coast, April 1972
SINCE THE Incredible String Band's last album, U, there have been some major changes. Joe Boyd of Witchseason Productions has quit the album-producing biz, leaving ...
Review and Interview by Mark Leviton, Village View, 14 December 1990
INSPIRAL CARPETS are not just another band from Manchester, England, the city that's become one of the most exciting music centers on earth, home of ...
Rickie Lee Jones: The World According to Rickie Lee Jones
Interview by Mark Leviton, BAM, 12 December 1984
RICKIE LEE JONES is telling a story on the radio: "In the dreamscape where you write, there are people who shadow you. Like I have ...
Little Feat : A Fan Remembers America's Greatest Unsung Band
Retrospective and Interview by Mark Leviton, BAM, 28 August 1981
LOS ANGELES – I have in my closet a roll of grainy 8mm silent film taken in spring 1970 at a concert near the base ...
Interview by Mark Leviton, BAM, 23 September 1983
LOS ANGELES – Fringe jackets, mini-skirts, turtlenecks, striped trousers, long hair, 12-string guitars, LSD, acoustic instruments, garage rehearsals – lots of things are coming back ...
Barry Mann, Cynthia Weil: Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil: Still Going Strong After 20 Years
Retrospective and Interview by Mark Leviton, BAM, 20 May 1983
HOLLYWOOD — The walls of their workroom are covered floor to ceiling in awards certificates, gold records and photographs of the biggest hit-makers of today ...
Ray Manzarek Opens Another Door
Interview by Mark Leviton, BAM, 18 November 1983
FEW MUSICIANS have the opportunity, or possess the talent, to expand the capabilities of their instruments, to redefine for ensuing generations just how far musical ...
McGuinn, Clark & Hillman: McGuinn Clark and Hillman: Flight From The Past
Profile and Interview by Mark Leviton, BAM, 2 March 1979
LOS ANGELES — To examine the fates of original Byrds members Roger McGuinn, Gene Clark, and Chris Hillman as they form a new act for ...
Malcolm McLaren: The Great Opera Swindle
Interview by Mark Leviton, BAM, June 1985
Malcolm McLaren Reveals His Grandmother's Role In The Sex Pistols And Hypes His Hip Hop Opera ...
Merry-Go-Round, Emitt Rhodes: Emitt Rhodes: On And Off The Merry-Go-Round
Retrospective by Mark Leviton, UCLA Daily Bruin, 7 November 1973
MY FIRST MEMORY of Emitt Rhodes is still very vivid — he was on the television program Where the Action Is as a part of the group ...
The Motels: Checking In With The Motels
Interview by Mark Leviton, Music Exchange, April 1982
SHE'S HAD LOVE affairs and bands break up around her, and she has steered a course to a successful career by combining the tough pragmatism ...
Mott The Hoople: Top Rank Suite, Birmingham, England
Live Review by Mark Leviton, Phonograph Record, November 1972
YOU'D THINK that a group with a top ten record in Britain ('All The Young Dudes'), associated with David Bowie to boot, would have no ...
Review by Mark Leviton, Phonograph Record, October 1973
I CONSIDER it unfair, even immoral, for Maria Muldaur to look and sing so well. I mean, a reviewer like myself can get pretty worked ...
Michael Nesmith: Mike Nesmith: Nevada Fighter
Review by Mark Leviton, Phonograph Record, September 1971
MIKE NESMITH is about as noncommital as a person can be. Ask him about his music's derivation and he's likely to say that no, he ...
Review by Mark Leviton, Words & Music, September 1972
Randy Newman deals with subjects and values that are all but forgotten in contemporary pop music, reflecting in his ironic, witty songs some profundities which ...
Randy Newman: Ragtime to Riches
Interview by Mark Leviton, BAM, 15 January 1982
EVER SINCE his 1968 debut album, many have considered Randy Newman one of the greatest songwriters in America. ...
Van Dyke Parks: Discover America
Review by Mark Leviton, Words & Music, September 1972
Van Dyke Parks, surely one of the most inventive musical minds in the business, is definitely not for everybody. His first album Song Cycle came ...
Christine Perfect/McVie: Fleetwood Mac's Songbird Flies Solo
Interview by Mark Leviton, BAM, 9 March 1984
CHRISTINE MCVIE'S Greatest Hits? Yeah, I have a copy on cassette that I play in my car, but don't go looking for it in the ...
Pink Floyd: Memorial Sports Arena, Los Angeles CA
Live Review by Mark Leviton, BAM, 7 March 1980
MONEY CAN'T buy you love, but it can buy you the most expensive, elaborately mounted rock show you've ever seen. As spectacle, there's no question ...
Procol Harum, Robin Trower: Procol Harum: Grand Hotel and Robin Trower: Twice Removed From Yesterday
Review by Mark Leviton, Let It Rock, June 1973
TIME WAS when I'd say that my favourite group and guitarist were Procol Harum and Robin Trower. It seemed all so simple, the steady intelligence ...
Rank And File: The Music Machine, Los Angeles CA
Live Review by Mark Leviton, Music Connection, 17 February 1983
A PACKED HOUSE witnessed a powerful Rank and File set that was a model of consistency and drive. The four-piece has narrowed their focus admirably, ...
Live Review by Mark Leviton, Rock's Backpages, 17 May 2013
BEFORE THE LIGHTS dimmed at the Richard Rodgers Theatre on 46th Street in Manhattan to signal the start of The Rascals: Once Upon a Dream, ...
Terry Reid: Still Making Waves
Interview by Mark Leviton, BAM, 15 December 1978
SANTA MONICA — Suppose for a moment you're a member of some English supergroup in the midst of a 30-city tour of the United States ...
Terry Reid: Mme. Wongs, Chinatown, Los Angeles CA
Live Review by Mark Leviton, Music Connection, 21 January 1980
The Players: Terry Reid, guitar, vocals; Robert Newman, drums; Jon Brandt, bass. ...
Boz Scaggs: Middle Man (Columbia)
Review by Mark Leviton, BAM, 18 April 1980
WATCHING THE degeneration of an artist's talents is no fun, especially when they've done truly classic work in the past. Boz Scaggs has never recovered ...
Seatrain: Marblehead Messenger (Capitol)
Review by Mark Leviton, Phonograph Record, November 1971
SEATRAIN WAS the first major splinter of the Blues project (now reformed in rather truncated version) and have consistantly been one of the best recording ...
Interview by Mark Leviton, BAM, 8 April 1983
THE BEVERLY CENTER IN LOS ANGELES is a mod-a-go-go kind of shopping mall, acres of parking, chock full of stores devoted to video equipment, "intelligent ...
The Specials: The Whisky, Los Angeles CA
Live Review by Mark Leviton, BAM, 7 March 1980
BEFORE THERE was reggae as we now know it, Jamaica had a ferociously happy, syncopated music variously called bluebeat, rock steady or ska. ...
John Stewart: Wheels of Thunder
Interview by Mark Leviton, BAM, 18 April 1980
If you can laugh in the face of the fireIf you can dance in the light of the flamesAnd if you don't look down when ...
Rod Stewart: Never A Dull Moment
Review by Mark Leviton, Words & Music, November 1972
ONE CAN ALWAYS COUNT on Rod for superb vocalizing, but his recordings sometimes slip because of the spottiness of the material, from marvelous to mediocre. ...
Richard Thompson: McCabe's, Santa Monica, CA
Live Review by Mark Leviton, BAM, 15 January 1982
"IT'S TIME TO ring some changes" was, in the words of the opening song of the set, the basic theme of Richard Thompson's first group ...
Violent Femmes: Music Machine, Los Angeles CA
Live Review by Mark Leviton, Music Connection, 24 November 1983
THE PLAYERS: Gordon Gano, guitar, vocals; Brian Ritchie, bass, vocals; Victor de Lorenzo, drums; Peter Balastrieri, saxophone. ...
Loudon Wainwright III: Loudon & I
Comment by Mark Leviton, Rock's Backpages, 14 February 2012
I'VE WRITTEN BEFORE about the parallels I continue to find between my own life and Loudon Wainwright III's, as he expresses events and feelings in ...
Loudon Wainwright III: Album II (Atlantic SO 8291)
Review by Mark Leviton, Coast, October 1971
LOUDON WAINWRIGHT'S first album last year was concerned with communication on a middle-Dylanish leveland it presented Loudon's character quite clearly: with sensitivity to his surroundings ...
Wall of Voodoo: Separating The Myths From The Lies
Profile and Interview by Mark Leviton, BAM, 21 November 1980
HOLLYWOOD They warned me. They all warned me. The woman at Index Records warned me. The disc jockey who interviewed them on the air ...
Bob Welch: Three Hearts Up His Sleeve
Interview by Mark Leviton, BAM, 16 February 1979
IT ISN'T EVERY DAY that a song, Phoenix-like rises from the ashes of its own failure and goes on to be a hit. It's even ...
Review by Mark Leviton, Phonograph Record, February 1973
...AND I WAS STILL raving about it the next week: And they had this piano player (assulter more like it) named Pianos Demolished who pounded ...
Interview by Mark Leviton, BAM, 12 September 1980
A Journey Into the Dark Underbelly of L.A. ...
Review by Mark Leviton, Creem, March 1971
THIS ALBUM IS a preview of what is the ultimate rock opera-symphony, 200 Motels, which is constantly growing and taking on amazing proportions. ...
Frank Zappa: Gail Zappa: Mother of Re-Invention
Comment by Mark Leviton, Rock's Backpages, 8 February 2013
I'M A HUGE admirer of Frank Zappa, and have been since the mid-'60s. As a music critic I've written about him extensively, and during my ...
List of genre pieces
Undisputed Heavyweight Champions of the Mix Tape: 30 Years of Transatlantic Friendship on Cassette!
Memoir by Mark Leviton, Rock's Backpages, August 2009
MY ENGLISH FRIEND Neil and I have one of the longest, strangest, and most voluminous correspondences in the history of the world – a correspondence ...
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