I was saddened to hear of the passing of Ellen McIlwaine on Wednesday, June 23, 2021. She was a great slide guitarist, on par with Bonnie Raitt, and had an illustrious career, including jamming with Jimi Hendrix. I did a piece on her album, Spontaneous Combustion. Here’s a link to …
Truly a musical master that has marched to his own tune, Todd Rundgren has been successful as a solo artist, a band member (Utopia) and a record producer. He has led developments in using the internet, software & interactivity to further enhance the musical experience. Link to his wiki page. He …
Back in the olden days when hamsters in wheels spun our turntables, it was a bit of a risk to buy new music, especially when you didn’t know the artist or hadn’t heard their work. I had several criteria for selecting new music and one of the secondary ones was …
Along with Roger Dean, Hipgnosis was a favourite album cover art designer of mine. They were responsible for remarkable cover art for bands like Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, T Rex, 10cc, Styx, Electric Light Orchestra among many others. Their cover art for Dark Side of the Moon is iconic. Hipgnosis …
Album cover art was one of the key decision criteria for me in selecting an album to purchase if I was not familiar with an artist or band. There were many great album cover artists out there and the 60’s & 70’s was a great time for album art. Unfortunately, …
I don’t know why the television series Space 1999 popped into my head the other day, but it recalled the fun memories I have of the groundbreaking work of Gerry & Sylvia Anderson. In the 1960’s &’70’s they had several terrific science fiction series in their SUPERMARIONATION format, as well …
It’s interesting that the larger musical world has uniques sounds or categories based on musicians gathering in specific geographies, examples being the San Francisco sound of the mid/late ’60’s, Detroit’s Motown, the Merseybeat of 60’s Liverpool, the Southern Rock of Lynyrd Skynyrd, Allman Brothers et al. One of these I …
Before there was a lot of automation and digital equipment, radio hosts had to play 45’s or album tracks manually. With the average song being in the 3 minute range, that didn’t leave a lot of time to leave the booth for refreshment, a smoke or to answer the call …
Spencer Davis passed on October 19, 2020. He is best known for the Spencer Davis Group, in which Steve Winwood got his start. The group had some well known hits in the mid ’60’s (“Keep on Runnin’”, “I’m A Man”, “Gimme Some Lovin’”), but the group’s fame waned with Winwood’s …
The infamous drum solo was a staple of the late ’60’s & early ’70’s rock scene; it seemed that every band worth their salt had to have a song that featured a drum solo. If there wasn’t a drum solo within an album song, they often chose to do …
