Thank you, Elvis (and Radio Luxembourg)

Way back in drab, post-war England, teenaged boys with bad teeth and sun-starved skin - bored to tears with BBC Radio's unflinching policy of airing nothing but show tunes and classical music - were stringing wires around their small, government-built "council houses" so they could tune in to the one radio station that gave them a reason to live. What they found - from across the English channel - was the infamous "pirate station," Radio Luxembourg. What they heard was a black-sounding white man named Elvis Presley. And what changed their lives was a moody little tune called "Heartbreak Hotel." Here's a tribute to Elvis, on what would have been his 80th birthday.

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Happy 100th, Frank

If you think everyone’s making too big a fuss over what would have been Frank Sinatra's 100th birthday today, then you might have been born too late or you aren’t aware that he was the original bad-ass rock star. Here’s my favorite Frank moment, from the 1957 film “Pal Joey.” I know it’s staged, but I love it. He serenades…

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Giving Thanks — To the Forces that Fueled Rock-n-Roll

Today, as I give thanks for all the people, events and opportunities that have enriched my life, I would also like to acknowledge my gratitude for the cosmic forces that came together in the 20th century to create the music that saved my soul: rock and roll. I am thankful...

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Everybody Drinks from the Chuck Berry Well

Chuck Berry is the head of my holy rock trinity, which includes John Lennon and Bob Dylan. And today's his 89th birthday. I'll always love this ornery old genius. I had only one chance to see him live, performing a short outdoor set during the Three Rivers Arts Festival in 1983. Sure, his guitar sound and style formed the foundation…

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Woody Guthrie’s Yiddishe Mama

Woody Guthrie, born 103 years ago today, is best known as the dust bowl balladeer who wrote many of America's most beloved songs, including "This Land Is Your Land." He was a free spirit and a sprite, a vagabond minstrel who spent his 55 years on earth using music to empower the common man. He wrote of the roads he traveled and the characters he met, of "dusty old dust" and the places he lived on "the wild, windy plains." He also wrote about a land and a culture far removed from his Tom Joad roots, a place "where the halvah meets the pickle, where the sour meets the sweet." Yes, folks, it turns out that Woody Guthrie had a Jewish mother-in-law! And folk culture is all richer for it.

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