Give me your music, your art, your huddled masses of words and rhythms yearning to breathe free.
All the Beatles smoked. But then, who didn’t have a ciggie ‘tween their fingers in those days? Keith Richards of The Stones was simply incapable of playing guitar without a cigarette dangling from his lips. But John Lennon obviously cursed his cigarette habit. In two of his Beatles’ songs he makes references to the evil cancer … Read more
“My brother’s back at home with his Beatles and his Stones; we never got it off on that revolution stuff.” So lamented Mott the Hoople in their 1972 “All The Young Dudes,” a David Bowie-penned anthem about aimless glam-rockers and their disdain for the values of the past. Oh, those boogaloo boys in their eyeliner, … Read more
“Hey Bullfrog.” That was the original working title of the piano-driven Beatles song that ended up being called “Hey Bulldog” when Paul, for some unknown reason, began barking during the recording. Here’s a clip of the boys performing the song, which was, unfortunately, buried on the “Yellow Submarine” soundtrack. This is one of the few … Read more
In February 1972, Paul McCartney released a single that finally put him in the same league of controversy that his former Beatles bandmate John Lennon had long inhabited. That was the month Paul released his single, “Give Ireland Back to the Irish.” It was his response to Bloody Sunday, a horrific event in which British … Read more
Every family has its folk tales — those sometimes sweet, often cringe-inducing stories we’re forced to endure at every holiday gathering. Like the time my grandfather decided to forgo dental expenses by removing his own teeth with the help of Canadian Club whiskey and a pair of pliers. Or that day back in 1960, when … Read more