ERNIE BLACK: Dylan said that “Tangled Up In Blue” took ten years to live and two years to write. The song, written in 1974, is a fictional account of the breakdown of his marriage to Sara Lowndes, which ended in divorce in 1977 (they had married in 1965). It opens his great album Blood on […]
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TOM RYUGO: Herman’s Hermits weren’t remotely close to the Beatles in terms of talent. Peter Noone himself said in an interview for “The History of Rock & Roll” miniseries “I couldn’t write songs like John Lennon and Paul McCartney. I’d look silly in the Gene Vincent look. So we just wrote good romantic music.” There […]
JOSHUA ENGEL: It’s not really the Beach Boys’ song. It’s a Caribbean folk song dating to at least the 19th century, and maybe older. They weren’t even the first popular recording of it. It had already been done by the Kingston Trio, and by The Weavers before that. I wouldn’t say it sounds “innocent”. It’s […]
Q: Do you think The Rolling Stones treated Mick Taylor fairly when he was in their band, especially after they went on tour with him as a solo act after his departure from them? RICH S replies … He chose to leave. He did not tour with them as a solo act. He guested on […]
Henry Hrebien writes … The Strawberry Alarm Clock………think about it. The…… Strawberry…… Alarm…… Clock. Now, what a bizarre name for a band. It seems kind of pseudo psychedelic as if the person who dreamed up this name never took acid but came up with a title after surmising what a psychedelic experience must be like […]
Oscar® nominated documentary “What Happened, Miss Simone?” is the story of Nina Simone’s life and career. Through archive interview and extensive performance footage, alongside new interviews with family, friends and colleagues, it paints a fascinating portrait of this complex and challenging artist. Nina Simone was many things: pianist, singer, songwriter, performer, civil rights campaigner, wife […]
HAROLD PHILLIP BENSON … Badfinger was a Welsh/Irish group that started out as the Iveys in 1961. They became the first group signed by Apple in 1968 and renamed themselves “Badfinger” after an earlier incident when John Lennon was in the studio, recording with his mates on piano the song “With a Little Help from […]
Bob Smith provides an answer The members of Spirit all had successful careers that began long before the incarnation of “Spirit”. Drummer Ed Cassidy had been a part of some very noteable acts prior to the formation of Spirit, performing with Ry Cooder, Taj Mahal, in addition to several giants of jazz. Following years on […]
Q What was John Lennon’s role in “Yesterday”?: A reader writes: John said nothing – it was entirely Paul’s work; it made him cringe when a pianist would strike up Yesterday when he walked into a restaurant. There is a tiny story though; Paul recalled that he dreamt the tune and when he woke up, […]
Darrin Ballard writes … From the age of 13 to 22, I worked for the Seattle Supersonics who played in the Seattle Center Coliseum, now the Key Arena. As anyone who works in a stadium will tell you, the worker bees all help each other out. I would get autographs for the ushers and ticket […]
Marcus Lundgren writes … First of all, let me just preface my thoughts on this song by saying that I mean no disrespect to either the late, great Syd Barrett or his estate by showing the dramatic change in appearance he underwent in a few short years. Later photographs of the man are widespread over […]
Larry Starstruck writes … I am going to name some that I don’t feel are as well known as they should be. I will cross genres on this one. 2. Al DiMeola: This guy did a music that is a fusion of latin and jazz ideas. His acoustic and electric work is incredible. 3. Larry […]
Billy Beattie writes … Gosh that’s too hard to answer. So many Prog songs I love equally that I would have to give you 25 at least, and I’m libel to change my Mind, so in no specific order we have…. Comfortably numb Pink Floyd .such an epic song everything about it is great, it’s […]
Daniel Elder writes … I know a lot of people will say John Deacon of Queen, which I hugely agree with. But I would say that Cliff Williams of AC/DC is the most underrated. A lot of people just discard Cliff because his bass lines, they are really simple, generally play the root of the […]
MICHAEL BURDEN has fond memories of the 1960s and this song Towards the end of the decade there was one famous (or infamous) song that was banned, and that was “Je t’aime… moi non plus” (French for “I love you… me neither”) by Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg. The story of this song began in […]
I recently purchased a Benchmark DAC 2 which supports DSD decoding following an article from Robert Hartley indicating that Sony would release all of its music catalog in DSD download format. As of today, there are only 358 DSD downloads available from Acoustic Sounds. On average the DSD downloads is music that is 30-45 years […]
Amy Christa Erano wries … Southern white men in general (“Southern Man”) and white Alabamans in particular (“Alabama”). Those two songs painted a very negative picture of Southern white men, and while the South certainly has a history of racism as well as slavery, Ronnie Van Zant was a Southern white man (from Florida, not […]
Sylvie Malaborsa writes … John Lennon’s father, Alfred was a merchant marine, who spent long periods of time away from his family. Upon his return in 1944 after a long absence when John was four years old, his wife Julia, who had an adventure with a Welsh soldier, was pregnant. After their separation, he had […]
Matt Rimmer Queen information sponge (1975 – present day) answers ….. “Does Brian May still play his original Red Special in concerts or is it now a museum piece and he plays a replica of the original he made with his dad at the beginning of his career?” Yes, he still prefers to play his […]
Robin Meadows · Michael Lee-Kapsalis, MM Music & Vocal Performance, Indiana University (2001) There was friction between everyone when they wrote and recorded Under Pressure together. The song was written not just by Freddie and David but by Queen and David. In fact, it was John Deacon who came up with the bass line. However, […]
Timm Davison, studied Media Communication at University of Washington (2017) replies: For a rock band, bringing it to the stage is supremely important, as much so now as ever before (there could be an entire post about how touring is really the only money-maker these days, as streaming has taken precedence over physical sales, there […]
From classic-rock squabbles to hip-hop diss tracks and social media wars, here are the ridiculous, rancorous conflicts that have held us rapt. https://getpocket.com/explore/item/music-s-30-fiercest-feuds-and-beefs?utm_source=pocket-newtab-global-en-GB Hi and thanks for taking a look. If you have a email you want to share with us the please contact us by clicking https://www.hifianswers.com/talk-to-our-editors/ Thank you
Alex Johnston, Bass & guitar, BA Hons in music theory, tech and musicology writes: Oh, but they did. Did they ever. You know the persistent rumour that there are unreleased Beatles tracks which are so crazy-ass off-the-wall that the band won’t let them be released? And that these tracks have been rumoured to be, at […]
J C MORGAN No he did not. John was wrongly quite dismissive of George Martin’s contributions towards the end of the ‘60s, contrary to his original appreciation of him. John was always a one or two take musician, unlike Paul who strived for perfection, unfortunately on some really poor songs he should never have recorded, […]