When Jimi Hendrix and his Gypsy Sun and Rainbows band took to the stage, the timing was pretty lousy. With everything that had gone wrong during the Woodstock festival on the second day, the crowds rapidly decreased in number. What had been approximately 400,000 people in attendance, had been reduced to about 30,000 or so. […]
MUSIC: Your questions answered
Found 145 results
TC writes … Trying to untangle a Dylan lyric is like trying to decipher a century’s worth of classic literature. It really can’t be done. Besides, when you find out what an artist really meant by their lyrics, it often reduces it to something far less than you’ve cultivated in your own imagination. And the […]
AP writes: I’m not sure you can say it’s much better mixed than their other albums, but it certainly sounds better than most contemporary albums and that’s largely down to Geoff Emerick. The Beatles changed engineer after Rubber Soul – Norman Smith left EMI and became the manager of Pink Floyd. Geoff Emerick replaced him […]
RS writes: Apparently he was, after the recording off the Live Evil album. Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler accused Ronnie James Dio and Vinnie Appice of going into the studio and turning up the volume level of their parts on the recording tape. That was their grounds for letting them both go. I suspect they […]
NA writes: Strangely, one of Bowie’s most (in)famous alter-egos, had a very short shelf-life. He moved from the blue eyed soul of Young Americans – what he called “plastic soul” – in the tail end of 1974 through 1975, into the Duke in 1976 for Station to Station and his Isolar tour of the same […]
TR writes: For me it is George Harrison’s Somewhere In England. The studio album prior to that, George Harrison featured 5 tunes that even today are a joy to listen to, including “Blow Away”, “Not Guilty”, and the terrific “Love Comes To Everyone”. Somewhere in England was bland. Felt like Harrison was on automatic. No […]
CF writes: On balance, I’d say yes. But it’s not an easy question to answer because it depends on so many factors. Which speakers are we comparing? Are we taking the used price of old speakers against what can be bought new for the same amount, or are we inflation adjusting the old price for […]
RK writes: He was that rare individual who knew he had enough. He didn’t need the money, and he was sick of playing the same tunes over and over and over. He formed a band more to his liking, Bill Wyman’s Rhythm Kings. A friend of mine was one of the lead singers for a […]
SW writes: Bill was older. Bill had served in the military. He was married and had a child when he joined the band. Bill was more conservative in that he was not a drug user. He did partake in drink and was infamous for indulgences with groupies. I have heard Keith call him an “Ernie” […]
A member writes: I agree with everyone who said it’s wrong to say that Art Garfunkel’s career is a failure. The way i understand the question is that it’s asking about why Paul has been more successful than Art. It’s not a criticism of Art. It’s unavoidable, i guess, for any comparison as solo artists […]
R E writes: Nesmith was not hired as a musician. He was hired as an actor. His role was to play a musician, not be a musician. And to sing. The first records were cut by the best studio musicians in LA. Later the guys in the band got to play on some recordings, but […]
FC writes: (I am posting this answer a second time, as advised by Muiris Mac Cartaine, because I originally posted it as a response to his answer.) I am glad to see that “American Woman” by the Guess Who has been suggested by Ken Dierfler. The song, written and performed by proud Canadians, is about […]
JIMMY T writes: Wow, I had to think for a very long time about this. The reception every album has gotten, after all, has been extremely mixed. Just a side note, I’ll chiefly be using Rolling Stone Magazine’s reviews as they helpfully archive them and are easily accessible. I’m also excluding 1982’s Coda because it […]
ACE writes: Neither David Crosby nor Graham Nash played lead guitar in CSN, only rhythm. Stephen Stills was their lead guitarist, and with no disrespect to Crosby and Nash, Stills was far and away the best guitarist of the three. In fact he’s widely considered one of the best guitarists in popular music history by […]
EML writes: When you think of the Grateful Dead, you think of a band with a cult following—not a band that captured the American zeitgeist and held it for an extended period. But the band’s touring success rivals all others, and surpassed any other American band during the height of their era. The Grateful Dead […]
AJ writes: Good question. This answer may help to illuminate general questions about people’s preferences for mono over stereo. For most of the 1960s, mono was the default format in which most people listened to recorded music. Radios looked mostly like this: Record players (cassettes were not yet a thing, and digital music was decades […]
TOM R writes: Paul joined the other three ex-Beatles to work on Ringo’s song “I’m the Greatest”. He even suggested doing something more but John Lennon immediately balked and had no interest. According to Lennon’s Playboy interview, in 1977–78, Paul used to show up at his Dakota apartment with his guitar and they’d hang out […]
MICHAEL writes: Taken from a search, we find this insightful snapshot, given to provide some explanation for Sympathy For The Devil”. I find it interesting and coinciding with the reality perception back in the day. The Story behind ‘Sympathy For The Devil’ Over the last 50 years the Jagger/Richards songwriting partnership has produced some of […]
MSW writes: Mike, Peter, Davy and Mickey were musicians prior to the formation of The Monkees. They didn’t play on first two albums (Mike was the only one who did and on his own compositions only) due to an arrangement Screen Gems did with Don Kirschner that put him in charge of all Monkees music. […]
NA writes: Strangely, one of Bowie’s most (in)famous alter-egos, had a very short shelf-life. He moved from the blue eyed soul of Young Americans – what he called “plastic soul” – in the tail end of 1974 through 1975, into the Duke in 1976 for Station to Station and his Isolar tour of the same […]
WM writes: The real significance was the musical careers of the 4 names in the group: Neil Young- Solo, CSNY, Stills Young band Stephen Stills – Solo, CSN, CSNY, Stills Young band Jim Messina – Solo, Poco, Loggins and Messina Richard Furay – Poco, Souther-Hillman-Furay, Richard Furay band I consider these guys, like the Beatles, […]
JN writes: 80-90 % of the sources that run through my stereo set-up are multy channel capabele sources, TV settup box, Apple TV or the Amazon like alternatives, BluRay player, which provide surprisingly good sounding CD quality, MS X-box, Nintendo switch, and other great game consoles and yes I play vinyl too. But talking about […]
TB writes: During his time in the Beatles his frustration stemmed from the terrible sound systems the band was essentially forced to use when performing. In our current time we’re used to bands being their own amplifiers, mixing boards, speakers and so on. It wasn’t like that at all back in the 1960s. Bands then […]
ACE writes It’s pretty widely accepted that the “jester” in McLean’s song “American Pie” is Dylan, and Bob understandably didn’t take kindly to basically being referred to as a clown. McLean has never officially confirmed that he was talking about Dylan, but it’s pretty obvious he was if you actually listen to the lyrics. The […]