The Wolfman Howls Again - Mephisto's Rock Gems The Wolfman Howls Again - Mephisto's Rock Gems 50 years of Rock and Roll, laced with heavily intoxicating doses of Soul and Rythm and Blues. Blender mixed with Pop from 5 decades from all 5 continents. Some people call it the Articles
Time to go....
2008-02-07 23:28:00 This blog will be closed shortly, for several reasons. The first and most important is that I pretty much went through the music I wanted to post. I don't want to start posting "second league" stuff. Second, I'm way too busy elsewhere ... Third, this blog although it was meant to give people an opportunity to discover old music, seems to have only reached people that wanted to download music... [Please Visit the blog for the full post...] More About: Time
Happy Australia Day!
2008-01-26 01:01:00 Little River Band - Reminiscing (1978) eMusic's FREE Daily Download! [Please Visit the blog for the full post...] More About: Australia , Happy , Australia Day
A tribute to a legend : The genius of Phil Spector
2008-01-20 10:00:00 Phil Spector Biography Strictly speaking, Phil Spector wasn't even a performer -- he's a musician, but he very rarely released records under his name. However, as a producer -- and, to a significant extent, songwriter, label owner, and session player -- he has influenced the course of rock & roll for more than all but a handful of performers. The Wall of Sound that he perfected in the early '60s... [Please Visit the blog for the full post...] More About: Phil Spector , Phil , Legend , Genius , Tribute
Bob B. Soxx & The Blue Jeans - Why Do Lovers Break Each Other's Hearts? (19
2008-01-20 08:59:00 Bob B. Soxx & the Blue Jeans were an early-'60s studio group assembled by producer Phil Spector that featured singers Bobby Sheen (b. 1943, St. Louis, MO), Darlene Love, and Fanita James (the latter two were former members of the Blossoms). The group had a Top Ten pop and R&B hit with a cover of "Zip-A-Dee Doo-Dah," the Oscar-winning song from the 1946 Walt Disney film Song of the South, in the... [Please Visit the blog for the full post...] More About: Break , Lovers , Hearts
The Ronettes - Be My Baby (1963)
2008-01-20 08:58:00 The Ronettes weren't the most commercially successful girl group, but their music was some of the most groundbreaking in the field, thanks to their association with the legendary Wall of Sound producer Phil Spector. Their biggest hit, "Be My Baby ," is widely regarded as one of the crowning achievements of Spector's oeuvre, and of girl-group pop in general. In fact, many critics have deemed it one... [Please Visit the blog for the full post...]
The Righteous Brothers - You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' (1964)
2008-01-20 08:51:00 They weren't brothers, but Bill Medley and Bobby Hatfield (both born in 1940) were most definitely righteous, defining (and perhaps even inspiring) the term "blue-eyed soul" in the mid-'60s. The white Southern California duo were an established journeyman doo wop/R&B act before an association with Phil Spector produced one of the most memorable hits of the 1960s, "You've Lost That Lovin'... [Please Visit the blog for the full post...] More About: Brothers
The Crystals - Then He Kissed Me (1963)
2008-01-20 08:39:00 Among aficionados of the girl group sound, there can't be five acts more beloved than the Crystals. Their best-known songs, which include "He's a Rebel," "Uptown," "Da Doo Ron Ron," "Then He Kissed Me," and "There's No Other Like My Baby," are among the finest examples of the best that American rock & roll had to offer in the period before the British Invasion; and decades into the CD era, the... [Please Visit the blog for the full post...]
Ike & Tina Turner - River Deep, Mountain High (1966)
2008-01-20 08:37:00 As husband and wife, Ike & Tina Turner headed up one of the most potent live acts on the R&B circuit during the '60s and early '70s. Guitarist and bandleader Ike kept his ensemble tight and well-drilled while throwing in his own distinctively twangy plucking; lead vocalist Tina was a ferocious whirlwind of power and energy, a raw sexual dynamo who was impossible to contain when she hit the stage,... [Please Visit the blog for the full post...] More About: River , Deep , High
Andy Kim - Baby I Love You (1969)
2008-01-20 08:35:00 Born in Montreal in 1952, Andy Kim went to New York at the age of 16 to become a star. He soon returned home but then quit school and moved to New York to begin recording. Kim remained unknown until he joined songwriters Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich, who helped out on the big late-'60s hits "How'd We Ever Get This Way," "So Good Together" and "Baby , I Love You" (a platinum-plus single). Andy... [Please Visit the blog for the full post...] More About: I Love You
George Harrison - What Is Life (1971)
2008-01-20 08:34:00 As lead guitarist for the Beatles, George Harrison provided the band with a lyrical style of playing in which every note mattered. Harrison was one of millions of young Britons inspired to take up the guitar by British skiffle king Lonnie Donegan's recording of "Rock Island Line." But he had more dedication than most, and with the encouragement of a slightly older school friend -- Paul McCartney... [Please Visit the blog for the full post...] More About: Life , George Harrison
The Pearls - You Came, You Saw, You Conquered (1972)
2008-01-20 08:30:00 When Phil Swern, ace London promo guru for the famed A&M records was told by DJ Emperor Rosko of a hot oldies track which was wowing the dancers at his gigs, his ears perked up and before you could say Martha & The Vandellas Phil had two ace female session vocalists and former solo stars in the studio cutting a new version in keeping with the updating of 1950s and early 1960s nostalgia which was... [Please Visit the blog for the full post...] More About: Pearls
Ian Matthews - Da Doo Ron Ron (1972)
2008-01-20 08:22:00 During his stylistically diverse and often convoluted career, Iain Matthews (born Ian Matthews MacDonald -- he changed his last name in 1968 and then the spelling of his first name in 1989 to reflect his Celtic roots) has seen commercial success, major-label deals, and numerous bands come and go, and then come and go again, while always bouncing back in one way or another. After time spent with... [Please Visit the blog for the full post...]
Wizzard - See My Baby Jive (1973)
2008-01-20 08:20:00 Eccentric pop genius Ulysses Adrian "Roy" Wood developed the Electric Light Orchestra out of the Move, a truly great British band in an era of great British bands. However, because of a rift with Jeff Lynne, Wood left ELO after the debut No Answer and created Wizzard, a bizarre octet who debuted at a 1972 Wembley Rock 'n' Roll Festival and then captured the airwaves with "Ball Park Incident."... [Please Visit the blog for the full post...] More About: Baby , Jive
Mink DeVille - Little Girl (1977)
2008-01-20 08:16:00 Although a product of the New York punk scene, at heart Mink DeVille was a soul band with roots in R&B, the blues and even Cajun music. The group was a showcase for frontman Willy DeVille (born William Boray in 1953), a native New Yorker who in 1971 travelled to London to form a band; unable to find compatible musicians, he worked as a solo performer before returning to the U.S. and settling in... [Please Visit the blog for the full post...] More About: Girl , Little Girl
Crispian St. Peters - The Pied Piper (1966)
2008-01-19 09:00:00 Crispian St. Peters was one of those mid-1960s acts, like We Five (from whom he appropriated a song), who seemed to capture a moment with his best songs, but never moved past that moment. In his particular case, a mix of psychological problems, bad timing, and an inconsistent style seemed to make it impossible to get past his two big hits. Born Robin Peter Smith in Kent, England, he'd been a... [Please Visit the blog for the full post...] More About: Piper , 1966
Barry Blue - Dancin' (On A Saturday Night) (1973)
2008-01-19 08:35:00 Barry Blue (born Barry Ian Green, 4 December 1950, London [1]), is a rock singer / producer / songwriter from the United Kingdom. He is best known for his hit songs, "Dancin' (on a Saturday Night )" which he co-wrote with Lynsey De Paul, and "Do You Wanna Dance" (1973), both from the 1970s. He signed to Bell Records in the early 1970s and had five hit singles[1], including "School Love" (1974),... [Please Visit the blog for the full post...] More About: Barry
Gary Numan - Cars (1979)
2008-01-19 08:30:00 After a couple lineup shuffles, Tubeway Army -- Gary Numan (aka Valeriun), Paul Gardiner (aka Scarlet), and Numan's uncle Jess Lidyard (aka Rael) -- debuted in February of 1978 with "That's Too Bad" on Beggars Banquet, a furious fusion of punk and pop, but darkly cold and clinical. During a studio session a few months later, Numan began fiddling with a miniMoog synthesizer that remained from... [Please Visit the blog for the full post...] More About: Cars
A Flock Of Seagulls - Wishing (If I Had A Photograph Of You) (1983)
2008-01-19 07:30:00 As well-known for their bizarrely teased haircuts as their hit single "I Ran (So Far Away)," A Flock of Seagulls were one of the infamous one-hit wonders of the new wave era. Growing out of the synth-heavy and ruthlessly stylish new romantic movement, A Flock of Seagulls were a little too robotic and arrived a little too late to be true new romantics, but their sleek dance-pop was forever... [Please Visit the blog for the full post...] More About: Wishing
Echo & The Bunnymen - The Cutter (1983)
2008-01-19 07:25:00 Echo & the Bunnymen's dark, swirling fusion of gloomy post-punk and Doors-inspired psychedelia brought the group a handful of British hits in the early '80s, while attracting a cult following in the United States. The Bunnymen grew out of the Crucial Three, a late-'70s trio featuring vocalist Ian McCulloch, Pete Wylie, and Julian Cope. Cope and Wylie left the group by the end of 1977, forming the... [Please Visit the blog for the full post...] More About: The Cut
Earl Van Dyke & The Soul Brothers - All For You (1965)
2008-01-18 09:00:00 The Funk Brothers were the brilliant but anonymous studio band responsible for the instrumental backing on countless Motown records from 1959 up to the company's move to Los Angeles in 1972. Woefully underappreciated as architects of the fabled "Motown sound," the individual musicians were rarely credited on the records that relied upon their performances, which downplayed their importance to the... [Please Visit the blog for the full post...] More About: Soul , Earl , Dyke
Stealers Wheel - Everyone's Agreed That Everything Will Turn Out Fine (1973
2008-01-18 08:30:00 Although remembered today primarily for one or two songs, Stealers Wheel in its own time bid fair to become Britain's answer to Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. Only the chronic instability of their lineup stood in their way after a promising start. Gerry Rafferty (b. Paisley, Scotland, Apr. 16, 1946) and Joe Egan (b. 1946) had first met at school in Paisley when they were teenagers. Rafferty had... [Please Visit the blog for the full post...] More About: Fine , Turn
New Musik - Sanctuary (1981)
2008-01-18 08:00:00 New Musik 's near-total lack of commercial acceptance is one of the great mysteries of early-'80s pop. Their music, rooted in classic pop songwriting but with a forward-looking interest in shiny electronics, is both instantly accessible and coolly forbidding. This dichotomy is most clearly expressed in the split between group leader Tony Mansfield's melodies, which are hummable, welcoming, and... [Please Visit the blog for the full post...]
Manic Street Preachers - If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next (1
2008-01-18 07:30:00 Dressed in glam clothing, wearing heavy eyeliner, and shouting political rhetoric, the Manic Street Preachers emerged from their hometown of Blackwood, Wales, in 1991 as self-styled "Generation Terrorists." Fashioning themselves after the Clash and the Sex Pistols, the Manics were on a mission, intending to restore revolution to rock & roll at a time when Britain was dominated by trancey... [Please Visit the blog for the full post...] More About: Children
Carla Thomas - B-A-B-Y (1966)
2008-01-17 09:00:00 In the glorious decade and a half of sound that was Stax in the '60s and early '70s, Carla Thomas was the Queen of Memphis Soul. She was born in Memphis in 1942, and 18 years later she recorded a duet with her father Rufus Thomas, giving the fledgling Satellite label its first taste of success with the regional hit "Cause I Love You." As her 18th birthday drew nigh, she cut her first solo single,... [Please Visit the blog for the full post...] More About: 1966 , Homa
10cc - The Wall Street Shuffle (1974)
2008-01-17 08:30:00 Deriving their name from the metric total of semen ejaculated by the average male, the tongue-in-cheek British art-pop band 10cc comprised an all-star roster of Manchester-based musicians: vocalist/guitarist Graham Gouldman was a former member of the Mockingbirds and the author of hits for the Yardbirds, the Hollies, Herman's Hermits and Jeff Beck; singer/guitarist Eric Stewart was an alum of... [Please Visit the blog for the full post...] More About: Wall Street , Street , Wall , Shuffle , The wall
Big Country - Chance (1983)
2008-01-17 08:00:00 With their ringing, bagpipe-like guitars and the anthemic songs of frontman Stuart Adamson, Scotland's Big Country emerged as one of the most distinctive and promising new rock bands of the early '80s, scoring a major hit with their debut album, The Crossing; though the group's critical and commercial fortunes dimmed in the years to follow, they nevertheless outlasted virtually all of their... [Please Visit the blog for the full post...] More About: Chance
Rage Against The Machine - Killing In The Name (1993)
2008-01-17 07:00:00 Rage Against the Machine earned acclaim from disenfranchised fans (and not insignificant derision from critics) for their bombastic, fiercely polemical music, which brewed sloganeering leftist rants against corporate America, cultural imperialism, and government oppression into a Molotov cocktail of punk, hip-hop, and thrash. Rage formed in Los Angeles in the early '90s out of the wreckage of a... [Please Visit the blog for the full post...] More About: Rage Against the Machine , Rage , Killing
The Lovin' Spoonful - Do You Believe in Magic (1965)
2008-01-16 09:00:00 Right on the tails of the Beau Brummels and the Byrds, the Lovin' Spoonful were among the first American groups to challenge the domination of the British Invasion bands in the mid-'60s. Between mid-1965 and the end of 1967, the group was astonishingly successful, issuing one classic hit single after another, including "Do You Believe in Magic ?," "You Didn't Have to Be So Nice," "Daydream,"... [Please Visit the blog for the full post...]
Tony Joe White - Groupy Girl (1970)
2008-01-16 09:00:00 Tony Joe White has parlayed his songwriting talent into a modestly successful country and rock career in Europe as well as America. Born July 23, 1943, in Goodwill, LA, White was born into a part-Cherokee family. He began working clubs in Texas during the mid-'60s and moved to Nashville by 1968. White's 1969 debut album for Monument, Black and White, featured his Top Ten pop hit "Polk Salad... [Please Visit the blog for the full post...] More About: Girl , Tony
XTC - Making Plans For Nigel (1979)
More articles from this author:2008-01-16 08:30:00 XTC was one of the smartest -- and catchiest -- British pop bands to emerge from the punk and new wave explosion of the late '70s. From the tense, jerky riffs of their early singles to the lushly arranged, meticulous pop of their later albums, XTC's music has always been driven by the hook-laden songwriting of guitarist Andy Partridge and bassist Colin Moulding. While popular success has eluded... [Please Visit the blog for the full post...] More About: Plans , Nigel 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 |
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