Give me your music, your art, your huddled masses of words and rhythms yearning to breathe free.
Dana Spiardi 
Picture this: Good-girl Betty meets motorcycle bad-boy Jimmy at a candy store, where he’s obviously buying candy cigarettes. He turns around and smiles at her. You get the picture? (Who knew that candy stores were such popular pick-up joints in 1964?) But is she really going out with him? Yep, the next thing you know, … Read more
Cutting your teeth…honing your skills…paying your dues…(and, my favorite)…making your bones. Whatever you want to call it, Jimi Hendrix did it all in the days prior to achieving eternal superstardom as the greatest rock guitarist of all time. He played for years in backup bands for such American artists as Little Richard, Sam Cooke, the … Read more
If you could whittle down The Beatles’ double “White Album” to a single-disc LP, which songs would you include (or toss)? First some background: The album, released in the U.S. on this date in 1968, is comprised largely of songs the boys wrote while they should have been meditating during their stay at the Maharishi … Read more
December 19, 1980: That was the last time I dropped a quarter into a jukebox and had the pleasure of hearing THREE songs. I’m guessing they might have been “Whip It”, “Emotional Rescue”, and “Hit Me With Your Best Shot”. Why on earth would I recollect those kinds of details? Because they relate to a … Read more
Sometimes I think it’s a sin, when I feel like I’m winning, when I’m losing again. Those words from Canadian singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot have run up and down the staircase of my mind many times. Just when I think I’ve got it, it turns out I don’t. His win/lose lyric has several cousins: Springsteen’s one … Read more