Songwriting and Music Production
It was all there in 1967, before most of the world had ever heard of her: the northern ice, the fancy clothes and the ache of sadness, the non-triadic melodies, the velvet vocal and painting with words. In her early days, she had written too many songs to take care of, so many of them…
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“The Rolling Stones is a big concert band in other decades and other areas when The Beatles never even did an arena tour, Madison Square Garden with a decent sound system” Jagger said. “They broke up before that business started”. Jagger thinks that while they sing the blues, the Stones went on to embrace something…
Read More “Mick Jagger Responds to McCartney Saying Beatles were Better than the Stones” »
Do you think of Goats Head as a particularly druggy album? Druggy? Was it a druggy album? It’s not got a lot of druggy subject material, apart from perhaps “Coming Down Again,” but you’ll have to talk to Keith about that. I mean, my guess is that could be a drug reference. [Laughs.] But the…
“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” »
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” »
There was originally going to be an extra passenger on that trip to Illinois – Ringo Starr. On hearing of Louise’s intentions, the legendary drummer ”begged off, saying, ‘If she’s going to make us work, I’m not going.’”Harrison became a slight talking point in the Benton area. He bought a guitar – a Rickenbacker 425…
Read More “George Harrison’s Hilarious Culture Shock Trip Through Small Town America” »
It does look weird. “I have a bunch of cool Teles and some cool Strats. All things considered, I’m a Les Paul guy but I love good-sounding guitars. And as far as I’m concerned, you know, and Gibson probably wouldn’t want me to say it, but the Strat is hands-down probably one of the best,…
Read More “Watch Slash Play a Stratocaster During the “November Rain” Video Shoot | GuitarPlayer” »