Sleeping with the Bass Player

Bass players are the Rodney Dangerfields of the rock world, it seems. I tell ya, they just don't get no respect. And no wonder! On the day after God created rock stars (sometime around 4 am on a gin-soaked Saturday night in Memphis), he created groupies. And he commanded them: "Thou shalt honor thy singer and thy lead guitarist and have no false rock Gods before thee."

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Not to the Manor Born: Rock Stars in Stately Pleasure Domes

Deep in the psychedelic wood, Where a rock-n-roll martyr plays You'll find the enchanted neighborhood Of Brian Jones's drug-haze days. Brian the posh, Brian the posh, A randy little dandy - all fine, divine. He's Brian the posh, Brian the posh, A ritzy little glitzy old soul. I'd hate like hell to be sued by the Disney Empire for parodying…

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Altamont: Go Easy with Your Cold Fanged Anger

"Cold fanged anger." That's one of many disturbing lyrics from the Rolling Stones' classic "Midnight Rambler." It's a song about a black-caped killer -- a knife-sharpening hit-and-run raper who'll smash your windows, put his fist through your door, and stick his knife right down your throat. That character sprang from the mind of Mick Jagger. And on December 6, 1969, the monster turned on its maker, turning a day of free music into a night of chaos and killing. This is the story of the murder at Altamont.

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Happy Rockin’ Velvet Revolution Day, Czechoslovakia!

Post-communist Czechoslovakia was a country reborn of the fire of rock and roll! Today is the 26th anniversary of the start of the Velvet Revolution, a peaceful student-led anti-government protest movement that led to the fall of communism in Czechoslovakia in December 1989. The name of the revolution stemmed directly from Lou Reed's Velvet Underground, the house band of Andy…

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The Beatles and The Stones: Beasts of Beard-dom

"She asks me why I'm just a hairy guy. I'm hairy noon and night. Hair that's a fright. I'm hairy high and low. Don't ask me why. Don't know." Those words from the Broadway musical "Hair" pretty much summed up the "let it all hang out, let it all hang long" philosophy of the '60s. When it came to facial hair, The Beatles were a bit more adventurous than The Rolling Stones. But in the end, Mick proved to be the furriest of them all. Here's a little something for World Beard Day 2105.

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