Give me your music, your art, your huddled masses of words and rhythms yearning to breathe free.
Most recording artists in the 1960s were singing about lovin’ your brothers and sisters regardless of the color of their skin, but few practiced that ethos better than Sly Stone, who assembled the first – and one of the few – interracial, dual-gender rock bands of the era: the iconic Sly and the Family Stone. … Read more
The name Stax Records is synonymous with soul music. But did you know that the legendary label of black artists like Otis Redding, Carla Thomas, Wilson Pickett, and Isaac Hayes was co-founded by a white woman who began her career as a school teacher? In the late 1950s, Estelle Axton began investing in Satellite Records, … Read more
On this 45th Earth Day I can’t think of a better tune to listen to than “Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology),” a song written and performed by the great Marvin Gaye. I’ve always been moved by the song’s haunting melody and the vivid images expressed in its lyrics. Where did all the blue skies go? … Read more
In the early 1960s, in a foggy land far from the steamy Mississippi Delta, there lived a small band of missionaries who spread the gospel of American blues music to British artists seeking spiritual enlightenment beyond the pulpit of mindless pop and traditional jazz. Alexis Korner, born on this date in 1928, was among those … Read more
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