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CLICK  TO  ENLARGE I'm still going through some old magazines that I've saved for years and while doing so I stumbled upon the twentieth anniversary issue of  Rolling Stone   ( issue 512, Nov. 5 - Dec. 10, 1987 ) which I'm sure I never read until now. To celebrate the occasion, the controversial rock magazine interviewed a large number of famous rock stars, writers, celebrities and politicians and reprinted a lot of photographs that appeared in earlier issues. Many of them were fascinating.  Some of the magazine's out-of-date advertisements were interesting too. I could buy any new Sony CD player and get 3 CDs free plus a free membership to the CBS CD club. There was a full page ad for the old MacNeil - Lehrer Report on PBS and another one for Kodak film. My, how times have changed. Other highlights in this 310 page special edition included old letters to the editor from every year of Rolling Stone 's existence, beginning in 1967 and running throug...

Who would believe it? The title track from Bruce Springsteen's breakthrough album, Born to Run , only reached number 23 on the Billboard Hot 100 . I would bet most people assumed it was a number one, or a top five at the very least. In Canada, it only climbed to number 53. The song was played on both top 40 radio and album rock radio. Today it's one of the staples of the classic rock format where it's often played to the point of exhaustion. Regardless, it made Springsteen's career.  The arrangement is unmistakably based on Phil Spector's wall of sound. It's obvious from the opening notes. I'm sure everyone knows that Springsteen is not the most pleasant vocalist in the world but here - buried under that Spectorian wall -his shortcomings are barely noticeable. The dense, rocking track also included brass and string sections and about a dozen multi-tracked guitars. The instrumental highlights are Danny Federici's glockenspiel and Clarence Clemons' sax...

Stevie Ray Vaughan, center, with Double Trouble & John Hammond on right It took over a year for my wife and I to clean out my late father-in-law's house that was loaded with five decades of possessions he never threw away. It was extremely time consuming. Just like everyone else, we've been stuck at home lately so we decided it's now time to clean out our house. We want to do it now because in the future, when there is possibly only one of us, the survivor will not have to spend more time than necessary getting rid of stuff that is no longer needed or wanted. We were also inspired to purge -  believe it or not - by Ringo Starr. A few years ago the drummer and his wife decided to sell a lot of his memorabilia including the famous drum kit he used while rising to international superstardom with The Beatles. It was the set you see in hundreds of pictures, the one he used to record many of their early hits. It's the one he played on The Ed Sullivan Show . I decided that...

The little known rock guitarist, Johnny A. (John Antonopoulos) is one of the most tasteful axemen to ever pick up the instrument.    Antonopoulos, who hales from Boston, has been a sideman for many established rockers including keyboard player Bobby Whitlock, best known for his work with Derek & the Dominos; percussionist Mingo Lewis of Santana; and for six years, Peter Wolf, the former frontman of the J. Geils band. In 2015 he began a three year stay as guitarist for the Yardbirds.  A. is too good to be a second banana so it's only fair that in 1999 he stepped out on his own with Sometime Tuesday Morning , a sophisticated, all instrumental CD containing twelve tracks including eight originals. For this unpretentious debut A. works with only two supporting players, Ed Spargo on electric bass and Craig McIntyre on drums. A.'s virtuosity and versatility is apparent everywhere. The arrangements vary greatly from prog-rock and fusion, to country, from Jeff Beck to Chet At...

Wikipedia defines a musical sellout as one "who alters his material to encompass a wider audience, and in turn generates greater revenue." The Urban Dictionary describes a sellout as "anyone who sacrifices artistic integrity in an effort to become more successful or popular (generally in music); someone who forgets their roots." It's sad when respected musicians become more motivated by financial concerns than a desire to follow their muses but that isn't always the reason someone will be branded as a sellout. Sometimes the artist will have that unfortunate label attached to him even without losing any artistic honesty. I'm sure we've all met snobs who truly believe that any music that sells in large quantities is unworthy of appreciation. How many times have you known an obscure cult band that was loved by the music press (I'm looking at you Rolling Stone ) and as soon as they've scored a hit they're considered a bourgeois j...

Before we discuss Mary Chapin Carpenter's excellent C'mon C'mon let's explore her family tree because it's very, very interesting and it may help explain her popularity outside the realm of country music. Carpenter's father was a Life Magazine Executive. She is the fourth great-granddaughter of John Marshall, the fourth Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States who was the longest serving chief justice (1801 - 1835). She is also the eleventh great-granddaughter of Francis Cooke and Richard Warren, who came to America on the Mayflower. The late Harry Chapin and his two brothers, Steve and Tom, all musicians, are her fifth cousins. C'mon C'mon, Carpenter's fourth album is both her best and biggest seller. Almost three million music lovers purchased copies of the 1992 release that spun off seven hit singles on the country charts, most notably "I Feel Lucky" at #4; a cover of Lucinda Williams' "Passionate Kisses, a...