Rick Nelson: ‘You can’t please everyone, so you got to please yourself’

“But it’s all right now, I’ve learned my lesson well.  You see, you can’t please everyone, so you got to please yourself.”  Those are lyrics from “Garden Party, a 1972 Top Ten single released by the late singer/actor Rick Nelson. The one-time teen idol who came to fame as “Ricky” in the popular 1950s TV … Read more

MC5: Kick Out the Censors, MoFos!

Once upon a time there were these cool retail shops called “record stores,” where we browsed through bins of lovely vinyl to our hearts’ content and discussed the latest releases with store owners and fellow shoppers. And even though we sneered at chains like Pittsburgh-based National Record Mart for prevailing over the small independently-owned stores … Read more

Bo’s Diddley Beat Made Lots of Beautiful Babies

An important event on this date kicked off what would become an indispensable element of rock-n-roll music for time immemorial. On March 2, 1955, legendary R&B master Bo Diddley entered a Universal recording studio in Chicago and burned onto vinyl his song “Bo Diddley.” With it’s distinctive five-accent rhythm beat, it launched a thousand rock … Read more

‘White Frankenstein’ Edgar Winter: The First to Wear a Strap-on

Today is the 68th birthday of multi-instrumentalist Edgar Winter, who – along with his deceased brother Johnny – was highly recognizable as one of the few albinos in rock. But far beyond that, he’s also a talented keyboardist, saxophonist and percussionist who’s famous for fusing jazz, rock and blues. His Edgar Winter Band is best … Read more