Mountain played Woodstock and was an important band through the early part of the 1970s. The centers of attention were guitarist Leslie West and bassist Felix...
Reading Music
The stories of the great bands and musicians are fascinating. Musicians as a group are brilliant, but often troubled. The combination of creativity and drama makes for great reading.
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Here are some books to check out.
Duke Ellington brought class, sophistication and style to jazz which, until that point, was proudly unpolished and raucous. His story is profound. The author, Terry Teachout, also wrote "Pops," the acclaimed bio of Louis Armstrong. Click here or on the image.
What else is there to say? Here is the story behind every song written by The Beatles. Click here or on the image.
The Grateful Dead don't get enough credit for the profound nature of its lyrics. Many of the band's songs are driven by a deep and literate Americana ("I'm Uncle Sam/That's who I am/Been hidin' out/In a rock and roll band" and "Majordomo Billy Bojangles/Sit down and have a drink with me/What's this about Alabama/Keeps comin' back to me?").
David Dodd's exhaustive study tells the story, song by song. Click here or on the image.
Category - Rock
There are lots of superbly talented musicians. But most genres have a single focal point: The Beatles and Louis Armstrong are two examples. Jimi Hendrix fills...
This encyclopedic Bob Dylan site has the details on every song he wrote, including the last time each was performed and other minutia. The site has tons of...
The Daily Music Break is going to publish an eBook entitled “Beyond Boundaries: Great Music Beyond Eras and Boundaries” next week. The eBook...
Blitzen Trapper, a band from Portland, OR, has been around since 2000. The high point was a two page feature in Rolling Stone in 2008. The band seems to be on...
The seventy-fifth anniversary of D-Day (my dad was at Omaha Beach) and the deaths of Leon Redbone and Dr. John got me thinking about the passage of time. A...
“All Down the Line,” a great Rolling Stones song, probably is in the band’s second tier in terms of popularity and recognition. It’s...
Bonnie Raitt is closely identified with the great John Prine song “Angel from Montgomery.” There are quite a few versions of it on YouTube...
This post initially appeared at The Daily Music Break. It’s been edited and expanded a bit. It’s ironic that Harry Nilsson, a songwriter of great renown...
Here’s a nice song about uselessness and the end of everything. This is what David Byrne had to say about “Road to No Where” as quoted at...