The Classic Albums series of programs and DVDs is one of the best ever for any serious music fan. Each 60-minute episode dissects the creative forces and execution of some of Rock’s most iconic albums with the people who were there. While some of the first episodes struggled in finding their groove, all the recent editions […]
Denny Tedesco, son of legendary studio guitarist Tommy Tedesco, has made the best film ever about the LA studio scene, The Wrecking Crew. Unless you’ve attended one of a handful of screenings, chances are you haven’t scene this slightly sentimental valentine from a son to his father. If you are at all interested in the music […]
Mad Men, TV’s best dramatic series two years running according to the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, concluded it’s third season last night. Betty is on a plane to Reno to gain a divorce, and Don is starting a new ad agency with the finest Sterling/Cooper has to offer. It’s all excitement for Don, […]
For many music fans, the late seventies and eighties were the golden age for music and musicians. Music had become a huge money making industry thanks to the perfect storm of MTV and baby boomers having cash to spend on albums and CD’s. Michael Jackson’s Thriller, released in 1982, was the perfect confluence of something […]
The Robben Ford Group – Robben Ford – guitar, Russel Ferrante – keyboards, Jimmy Haslip – bass, and Ricky Lawson – drums – were a tight, highly musical band of studio musicians that played that strange hybrid of jazz, pop, rock, and blues that was being called “fusion” in the late seventies. Playing mostly instrumentals, […]
When Island Records founder Chris Blackwell was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, he was sure to make a “special thanks to Steve Winwood, whose association with the label gave us credibility with many artists that made us successful.” Steve Winwood equals credibility. He is the real deal. A musician’s musician. Steve […]
“Why should I care?” The “rock opera” Tommy had elevated the status of the band. Touring in support of the record making a captured-for-all-posterity stop at Woodstock, the Who’s live machine was in full gear, and their reputation was on the rise. Their playing had become ferocious, the interplay nuanced, and arguably more powerful than […]
Growing up in Los Angeles in the seventies, it was impossible not to feel the omnipresence of the Chandler’s LA Times. It had become for a time, under the direction of publisher Otis Chandler, a rival to the NY Times and Washington Post (it ranks third behind those two in terms of lifetime Pulitizers). Robert […]
During a rather ho-hum Emmy Awards Show (unlike many others, I was not fawning over Neil Patrick Harris) winning Mad Men writer-producer Mathew Wiener referenced the “golden age” of Television and expressed how lucky he is to be making his show. I would broaden his scope here a bit – we are all lucky that […]
Quentin Tarantino has a huge a monkey on his back called Pulp Fiction. Pulp was game-changing film-making and the ripples created by that film have become so mainstream that people forget just how astonishing the movie was when it was released. It was a game changer. No director working today has as unique a stamp as […]