Blog Archives
The Clash’s Last Testament
The Clash’s eponymous first album was a classic that didn’t get released in America until after their second album was released here. Give ‘em Enough Rope is generally considered a slick, American produced sophomore jinx of an album, but I’ll be posting about that soon. The band loses their manager and heads back to London, [...]
Coming of The Clash
Another post about The Clash, this one goes all the way back to the band’s eponymous first album. It was released in the UK in 1977 but actually followed the band’s second album, Give ‘Em Enough Rope, in America. The album helped to define the punk songbook with tunes like “White Riot,” “Janie Jones,” “London’s [...]
Clash Craps Out
So I’ve been posting a lot about The Clash lately as we look back at the end of that band, 30 years ago in 1986. I’ve been asked to celebrate Joe Strummer’s birthday in August on WXNA’s Eighties/Schmeities show, hosted by Edward Brinson. Joe’s special day is August 21. We’ll commemorate Joe on August 19 [...]
Joe’s Jams
Here’s another post celebrating The Clash at 30: Viva Joe Strummer – The Clash and Beyond documents the British rocker’s childhood as as diplomat’s son, his rock ‘n’ roll initiation with The 101ers, his storied history with The Clash to Strummer’s overlooked later career music which was cut short by his untimely death in 2002. [...]
Missing Trane
This month we remember the death of John Coltrane on July 17, 1967. Coltrane’s resume stretches from R&B honking to playing with be-bop legends like Miles and Monk, to pioneering his own spiritually illuminated free jazz in the last decades of his life. A true giant of American music, Coltrane makes my shortlist of heroes [...]
Clash Crash ’86
This year we mark the anniversary of the death of The Clash — they fired Mick Jones in 1983, but The Clash was still a thing until 1986. Thirty years later I’m planning a number of Clash-related posts in the months to come. The Clash are always in the running when I consider favorite bands [...]
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I’d like to write a great Fourth of July song. I don’t know that anyone can best this one, and I don’t imagine that anyone would want to. Happy Fourth of July… Stay Awake! Please subscribe to my YouTube channel where I archive all of the videos I curate at Insomnia. Click here to check out more Music posts.
Ecco Arlo
Today we celebrate the birthday of Arlo Guthrie who was born on June 10, 1947. Here’s Arlo at Woodstock singing Bob Dylan’s “Walkin’ Down the Line.” Stay Awake! Please subscribe to my YouTube channel where I archive all of the videos I curate at Insomnia. Click here to check out more Music posts.
Ace of Hearts
If Elvis was a white singer who adopted a black style, Johnny Ace was a black singer and piano player who started a sensation of his own by adopting the style of the white crooners he heard on the radio. Today we remember Ace’s birthday on June 9, 1929. By the mid-50′s popular music was [...]
After Gene Clark
Over the weekend my assistant discovered this great Irish radio documentary about singer/songwriter and former Byrd, Gene Clark. The program recounts Clark’s role as The Byrds’ greatest songwriter, and his troubled solo career which resulted in genius works like the austere White Light and the sprawling, incandescent No Other. We lost Clark 25 years ago [...]
