Give me your music, your art, your huddled masses of words and rhythms yearning to breathe free.
Dana Spiardi 
Sam Cooke, one of the greatest soul singers in history, was shot to death on this date in 1964 – at the very height of his career. Circumstances surrounding Cooke’s murder have always been sketchy. Bertha Franklin, who managed the Hacienda Motel in Los Angeles, told police that Cooke entered her motel office in a rage, … Read more
When I was 16, the woman whose bedroom was above mine in our apartment building was forced to move because I wouldn’t stop playing Led Zeppelin’s “Nobody’s Fault But Mine” at warp sound. I mean, I feel bad about it now, but at the time I felt such a sense of…victory! Behold, the power of … Read more
Snarly, salty Tom Waits is one of the few singer/songwriters never to sell out by allowing his songs to be used in TV commercials. Waits has filed lawsuits against the following companies for attempting to use his songs – or rips-offs of his music – in TV ads: Frito-Lay, Levis, Audi, and Scandinavian company Adam … Read more
That was the pronouncement of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II on the transformation of the Fab Four from the droll, cheeky mop-tops of 1964, to the lysergically induced hipster-gurus of 1967. Rumor has it that the Queen voiced this “turning funny” verdict to Sir Joseph Lockwood, chairman of the Beatles’ British record company EMI, at a … Read more
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, … Read more