rawk Archive
15 Jan 2020
No Such Thing As Rock ‘n’ Roll: A Conversation with Mott the Hoople’s Morgan Fisher (Part Two)
Continued from Part One… Released in March 1974, The Hoople was the last one that the band made before Ian Hunter left. At that point, was there a sense that the band might not continue? Well, obviously, it was a huge shock because we thought we were about to make it really big. I think
14 Jan 2020
No Such Thing As Rock ‘n’ Roll: A Conversation with Mott the Hoople’s Morgan Fisher (Part One)
Fans were thrilled when in mid 2019 a concert tour was announced, one featuring the core of Mott the Hoople’s mid 1970s lineup. And they were understandably disappointed when in October the tour was postponed – and then canceled. On doctor’s orders, lead singer Ian Hunter was sidelined due to a severe case of tinnitus.
13 Jan 2020
Don’t Ever Change: The Beatles’ ‘Live at the BBC’ at 25
The Beatles’ final album, Let it Be, was released in May 1970. With the exception of the 1977 LP The Beatles Live at the Hollywood Bowl and two same-named but different records titled Rarities in 1978, there would be no release of previously-unheard Beatles music until the middle of the 1990s. That wasn’t the plan.
09 Jan 2020
Album Review: Cary Grace – ‘Lady of Turquoise’
Cary Grace has carved out a fascinating niche in the world of music. Though she got her start in the Nashville singer-songwriter community (she even had Vince Gill play on one of her early albums!), her chosen musical idiom couldn’t be farther from all that. An American expat currently living in the UK, Grace has
07 Jan 2020
Samantha Fish: More Than Just a Girl with a Guitar (Part Two)
Continued from Part One … “Kill or Be Kind” is as far away as you can get from the idea of a song that’s merely an excuse for a guitar solo. I get the sense that you’ve got a confidence that you don’t have as much to prove as you did in the past. Honestly,
03 Jan 2020
The ‘It Was Fifty Years Ago Today’ Tour, Part Two
The continuing story of the Beatles’ White Album Continued from Part One… Todd Rundgren readily admits that he views The Beatles as an uneven record. “The album is incoherent,” he says, “and contains stuff that a lot of us found curious, but not essential, like ‘Revolution 9.’” But he acknowledges that for many listeners it
02 Jan 2020
The ‘It Was Fifty Years Ago Today’ Tour, Part One
The continuing story of the Beatles’ White Album Tribute concerts and tours are a fixture of today’s live music experience. Sometimes they’re self-tribute: Legacy acts take advantage of decades of goodwill and embark on victory-lap tours in which they recreate some of their most revered work. Brian Wilson has been touring for years in support
30 Dec 2019
Deliciousness: Frank Zappa’s ‘Hot Rats’ at 50
By the time of the release of Hot Rats, his second solo album, Frank Zappa was well established as an important force in pushing the boundaries of pop music. Not that much of what Zappa was doing could reasonably be termed “pop,” but his work flirted with the fringes of the pop world. The debut
23 Dec 2019
Musoscribe’s Best of 2019: Reissue/archival Releases
2019 was another great year for reissue and archival releases. A few stood out as especially noteworthy; those are listed and briefly described) below. More details (my reviews, interviews … that sort of thing) can be found by clicking the links below each. The Black Watch – 31 Years of Obscurity I wasn’t familiar John
22 Dec 2019
Boxed Set Review: Land of 1000 Dances
Though there were certainly earlier examples, the era of the lavish boxed set began a few decades back; it more or less coincided with the CD era. And it persisted well into the 21st century. In the last few years, it seems to have trailed off, though superb exceptions to that rule continue to pop