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Love and Money

There are records, records full of great songs with meaningful and effective lyrics and nearly flawless execution that despite these attributes fail to find a significant audience. The Jazz idiom in particular has been plagued with this problem, but matching quality to quantity extends throughout all popular music. Now with the whole music business essentially…

Black Sabbath

The mostly terrific Classic Albums series serves up another musically focused documentary – this time with Heavy Metal pioneers Black Sabbath. While metal may not be your thing, there can be little debate that Black Sabbath is ground zero for the genre. The great thing about the Classic Albums series is being a fan is not a…

Moody Blues

“Nights in White Satin” is a truly timeless classic rock ballad. It will be played until the end of time. The Mellotron, second only to the Theramin as Rock’s most curious instrument, was never more tastefully integrated into song than through the masterful playing of Mike Pinder on mostly ethereal compositions that were frequently weighted down with…

Rush – Career Documentary

The band Rush is the Rodney Dangerfield of music – no respect.  Despite dozens of gold albums and decades of consistently sold out concerts – Rush’s extraordinary musicianship and half dozen bona-fide rock anthems are consistently ignored by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (and critics in general) in favor of esoteric critic’s darlings…

Stones in Exhile

Eagle Rock Entertainment recently released, with some great fanfare – including a nearly complete re-broadcast on the Jimmy Fallon show with Mick Jagger guesting – a video chronicle of the Rolling Stones recording of Exile On Main Street. To critics, Exile is generally regarded as the Stones’ high-water mark, featuring some of their most spirited and…

Damn the Torpedos

The Classic Albums series does it again with another terrific release that brings insight into one of the great rock albums of the seventies (and perhaps all time), Tom Petty and Heartbreakers “Damn the Torpedoes!” (in stunning Blu-ray from Eagle Rock Entertainment and Kayos Productions). Back in the 70’s, when there was a record business and bands…

Emmy Awards

“Television’s Biggest Day!” is this weekend when NBC airs the 62nd Annual Prime time Emmy Awards at 5 PM pacific time Sunday. Hosted by the energetic and mostly inoffensive Jimmy Fallon, this show, with far too many categories and awards, is a great one to speed through after recording on your DVR. Despite the best…

Ritchie Hayward – RIP

It is with great sadness that I learned of the passing of Little Feat drummer Richie Hayward who died of liver cancer last week. Hayward was for me (I am a huge fan of drummers) one of the true giants on the skins. His grooves were always startlingly original, unique, and funky. Regardless of the song,…