The worst thing we could’ve done to Michael Jackson was to buy 40 million copies of Thriller. Up until that record-breaking point, Jackson was an entertainer celebrated solely for his artistry, not for his bizarre behavior or his rapidly deteriorating face. Before 1982, if you spotted him in a tabloid,…

It’s a given: Most Americans know ca-ca about ska. To date, we’ve only sent one record with a skanking beat into the Top 5–Little Millie Small’s squeaky-sweet ode to her pubescent licking stick, “My Boy Lollipop”–and that was way back in 1964! Despite its impressive chart showing, “Lollipop” was largely…

Because we refer to television as “the vast wasteland,” we don’t put much stock in music made by its inhabitants. Plenty of TV personalities have fashioned disastrous singing careers for themselves, but few have ever tried to branch out into instrumental music. In the Fifties, Jackie Gleason parlayed his enormous…

Live albums? Why, they’re either contractual obligations or shameful cash-ins for someone who’s just bolted from his record label. More often, they’re the measure of an artist whose best work is behind him. Take Paul McCartney. His albums barely go gold anymore, so it’s no surprise that he’s released three…

From its humble beginnings in the South Bronx to “Rappers Delight” to Run-DMC, N.W.A and beyond, hip-hop has proved to be the most vital and progressive music form of the past 20 years, with enough staying power to rival even rock ‘n’ roll’s lengthy reign. Like rock, rap struck terror…

Steve Gorman, drummer for the Black Crowes, remembers the first time he realized his band was no longer the new kid on the block. “Two years ago,” he recalls, “I was sitting at my brother’s house in Baltimore and he puts on MTV. The veejay goes, ‘After the break, we’ll…

Jimmy Page and Robert Plant America West Arena May 10, 1995 “This can’t be a Led Zeppelin show. I feel so safe.” So remarked an ASU teacher’s assistant sitting next to me, and he was right–it wasn’t a Led Zeppelin show. It was a night of the oldies! And for…

There’s a famous film clip of the Beatles, newly arrived in America, riding in a limousine and listening incredulously to a transistor radio. From that tiny speaker, a strange deejay the lads had never heard of named Murray the K was anointing himself “the fifth Beatle.” Since then, everyone who…

Tom Petty occupies a strange place in our collective psyche. Because of his notable collaborations with respected rock elders like Bob Dylan, George Harrison and the late Del Shannon, we tend to view him as a rookie instead of the 20-year veteran that he is. When he and the Heartbreakers…

Glenn Frey Solo Collection (MCA) How much water can one ex-Eagle tread? Prior to all of last year’s Eagles reunion by-products, Frey released a Greatest Hits–Live album. Now here comes its studio equivalent, minus all the Eagles stuff on which Frey’s dead ass and reputation still coast. For an entire…

If you believe the myths, “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” was either a drunk mispronouncing “in the garden of Eden” or else it was very bad Latin for “play as long as you like, I’ve got to take a monstrous dump.” This lumbering, 17-minute-and-five-second Iron Butterfly opus took up the whole of an album…

At last–I’ve found it! After years of vein-popping concentration searching for unique descriptions, after developing blisters on every finger from thumbing through thesauruses looking for new adjectives, I’ve discovered the ultimate way to determine whether a song is good. But I’ll give credit where credit is due: I owe it…

Hell-Bent: Insurgent Country Volume 2 (Bloodshot) Insurgent, indeed! How dare they, these young bands of scofflaws, going and recording songs that are actually representative of the heart and soul of authentic American country music. There’s nary a ten-gallon hat, daintily trimmed mustache or skintight pair of jeans to be seen…

Trisha Yearwood Thinkin’ About You (MCA) And you won’t feel like a dweeb thinkin’ about her, either. Trisha Yearwood is a rare find–she’s inoffensive to both new “young country” fans and old holdout traditionalists. Trish and her producer have picked an intelligent, well-written batch of tunes with no self-congratulatory “thank…

Feast your eyes on these humble liner notes: “THIS is an event. Not merely the release of more ‘product,’ but a major milestone in the annals of Rock.” What could it be? A recording of Buddy Holly and Elvis Presley singing together? A Sgt. Pepper outtake? Dylan’s Royal Albert Hall…

Two years ago, Phoenix’s then-newest oldies station, KPSN-FM “Sunny 97,” hit the airwaves playing Arthur Conley’s 1967 hit “Sweet Soul Music.” At noon on November 28, 1994, KPSN played it again for the last time. David Bowie’s “Changes” followed, along with a new ten-minute station ID spelling out exactly what…

Quick–who did more for rock ‘n’ roll, Martha and the Vandellas or Peter, Paul and Mary? Your first instinct is to go with the girls from Detroit. Martha and the Vandellas’ biggest hits–“Heat Wave,” “Dancing in the Street” and “Nowhere to Run”–were driven by heart-pounding rhythms and what sounded like…

Morrissey World of Morrissey (Sire/Reprise) Back in the Sixties, patchwork albums like Magic Bus: The Who on Tour or the Rolling Stones’ December’s Children and Flowers were the norm. Part rip-off, these collections of B sides and unreleased-in-the-U.S. tracks were often padded with selections already available on other albums without…

Dag, and Mother May I Neeb Hall, Arizona State University campus, Tempe February 22, 1995 If you ever thought that being signed to a major label was the ticket to Easy Street, you should have made it to this show, a double helping of rising acts recently inked to majors…

Throwing Muses University (Sire) Throwing Muses used to be an easy band to loathe. Chief Muse Kristin Hersh wrote wildly inconsistent songs and sang them with the vocal equivalent of buckshot on broken glass. Rock critics from the indie underground drooled ecstatically over the Muses in part because the noise…

For years, the crumbling of the British Empire has been mirrored by the shrinking chart fortunes of British bands in the colonies. Sure, at one time Britain gave us the Beatles, the Stones, the Who, the Kinks, Cream, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, the Sex Pistols, the Police and the Smiths–but…