Songwriting and Production
“When we released the song as a single, we put ‘Mississippi Queen’ on both sides so DJs couldn’t get creative and play the flipside instead. The single only got to number 21, but I think it could have gone a lot higher. I don’t know how they decide these charts. I mean, radio stations were…
Read More “Leslie West: How I Wrote “Mississippi Queen” | GuitarPlayer” »
The Beatles at a garden party fund-raiser for the Hemophilia Society in Brentwood, 1964. ALAN HAD TO ARRANGE GETTING THE BEATLES THERE, AND CALLED HIS USUAL LIMO SERVICE, FEELING OBLIGED TO TELL THEM WHO THEY WOULD BE TRANSPORTING. THEY TURNED HIM DOWN—THEY DIDN’T WANT TO RISK GETTING THEIR LIMO DAMAGED BY “CRAZY KIDS.” ALAN CALLED…
Read More “How the Beatles Really Ended Up at a Garden Party in Brentwood Los Angeles Magazine” »
Nathan Clark, venue owner: “I feel it’s a simple contradiction: ‘have live music, but don’t have it loud’. The main pillars of live music are social interaction, enjoyment, and emotional attachment. What they’re asking [audiences] to do is to sit there quietly, detach your emotions and don’t get involved. The artist has to mute their…
Read More “UK venues react to the latest performing arts guidance” »
Heroes was released as a single in September 1977. It only reached No.24 in the UK, and didn’t chart at all in the US. But the emotional power of the song would continue to resonate, as it became one of Bowie’s theme songs, along with the likes of Space Oddity and Changes. Its most memorable…
Read More “Heroes by David Bowie: The Story Behind The Song | Louder” »
“Freddie’s studio day would start at two in the afternoon. It is pointless calling a singer into a studio before then, anyway, because in the morning the voice hasn’t warmed up yet. With Queen, Freddie would be in the studio and playing around on the piano working on material. In Munich, he had lots of…
Read More ““He Could Do What He Wanted”: Behind Freddie Mercury’s Munich Years” »
Revolver’s commercial impact was immediate, the album topping the UK chart for seven weeks and the US chart for six. Culturally, although there had been earlier instances of psychedelic music, mostly in San Francisco, London and New York, Revolver opened the floodgates, and changed the thinking, and the chemical preferences, of young rock and pop…
Read More “How The Beatles made Revolver, the album that changed Everything | Louder” »