Available for research, band bios, liner notes, marketing copy. Early rock and roll / classic rock / punk / NYC. Most recent book: WHY PATTI SMITH MATTERS.
Why Patti Smith Matters
Patti Smith arrived in New York City at the end of the Age of Aquarius in search of work and purpose. What she found—what she fostered—was a cultural revolution. Through her poetry, her songs, her unapologetic vocal power, and her very presence as a woman fronting a rock band, she kicked open a door that countless others walked through.
Newsletter
Weekly essays on rock and roll, live music, music history, music books, and other popular culture tidbits.
Last Night in Evansville (by Caryn Rose)
Last night, Bob Dylan concluded his latest leg of the Rough and Rowdy Ways tour. Barring any Farm Aid-level surprises, that makes this his final show of 2023, with no future dates announced as of now. The year-end finale took place in Evansville, Indiana, and we’ve got an on-the-ground report from writer Caryn Rose.
A band, a brand, a spectacle, a Sphere
In Las Vegas, U2 harnesses its superpower: relentless earnestness
Who’s Next : Life House (Super Deluxe)
An exhaustively comprehensive 11-disc box set explores a defining work by the classic rock band alongside the ambitious, shelved concept album that would become Pete Townshend's white whale.
1980: Pete Townshend, Empty Glass
Peter Dennis Blandford Townshend tells you everything you need to know about his first real solo album[1], Empty Glass, with the (literally) iconic cover image: Pete as an angel, with his sacrament (brandy) in front of him, flanked by acolytes, two beautiful women offering their best come-hither looks. It is a record both casually and deathly spiritual, with Townshend engaged in the latest plane of the spiritual inquest he’d been engaged in since 1968’s Tommy.
All 234 U2 Songs, Ranked From Worst to Best
On the occasion of the release of U2’s 14th studio album, Songs of Experience, it is worth noting how remarkable it actually is that this band has remained a going concern for over 40 years, since Larry Mullen Jr. put up a notice at Mount Temple Comprehensive School: “Drummer seeks musicians to form band.”
U2: Songs of Surrender
After 50 years as one of the biggest bands in the world, there’s something charming in the way that U2 keeps acting like they have something to prove.
Live at the Fillmore (1997)
Compiled from a marathon run of shows at the Fillmore Auditorium, this live set is a joyful, relaxed, and abundant journey through Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ personal rock’n’roll history.
The Simple Genius of Charlie Watts, As Told Through 6 Classic Rolling Stones Songs
His most memorable moments with the Stones aren’t five-minute drum solos, but rather small, precise elements that could only have been created by Charlie Watts.
Everyone Wanted to Be Like Ronnie Spector
The first time Ronnie Spector, who passed away this week at age 78 after a short bout with cancer, altered the course of music history it was as the central voice of the essential 1960s girl group the Ronettes. With hair teased up to the heavens, dramatic black eyeliner, and skintight outfits, the Ronettes — the name the family act stuck with after stints as the Darling Sisters and then Ronnie and the Relatives — transcended the art of hitmaking. They set trends. What was originally a gimmick...
Artist residencies used to be a punch line. Adele shows who gets the last laugh now.
After being abruptly postponed in January, Adele’s Las Vegas residency, “Weekends With Adele,” made its debut at Caesar’s Palace on Friday. Adele highlights how it’s been transformed into an artistic achievement, why it’s never going away and reminds us how Las Vegas made residencies cool.
‘My Hometown Thought I Was a Freak’
Agnostic Front, Cro-Mags, Warzone, Murphy’s Law, Bad Brains. Ancient band names, at this point as legendary and distant as Ozymandias. But in the early 1980s, when the smoke cleared from the remnants of first-wave New York City punk rock, another self-made scene evolved: New York hardcore (or NYHC, as its adherents referred to it).
Review: Bruce Springsteen's Only The Strong Survive
In 2003, Bruce Springsteen was still doing Christmas shows in what was still a deserted Asbury Park. If you went to AP back in the pre-gentrification era, you probably remember that feeling of stepping into a time machine.