When it was released on his 2012 album Kisses on the Bottom, the track ‘My Valentine’ immediately stood out as one of the better original Paul McCartney compositions of the past few decades. Since most of the selections from that terribly titled album were covers of time-tested jazz and pop standards, Macca put himself into […]
Continue Reading
While sex, drugs and rock and roll wasn’t just an apt catchphrase for the lifestyle that the stars of past decades indulged in, it seemed as though it was more of a motto that they lived by, and the likes of Robert Plant will no doubt be able to attest to the fact that it […]
Continue Reading
Nothing that Bob Dylan ever wrote has been known for being the simplest thing in the world. When he went electric for the first time, Dylan wanted to challenge the perception of what rock and roll lyricism could be, and after spending his time as a folk artist, his verbiage was unlike anything that you […]
Continue Reading
Eric Clapton didn’t sign up for rock and roll simply to have hits. He was a brilliant guitarist and songwriter when the time called for it, but when he got the first itch to play guitar, it was more about trying to find the best blues licks that he could to put on record whenever […]
Continue Reading
Oh, to have been in the 1960s – the decade where pop music truly came into its own and everyone was feeling wildly inspired by all of the activity. For a young Jimmy Page, who was primarily working as a session musician in the early part of the decade before going on to join The […]
Continue Reading
In the shadow of their enormous, unprecedented success story, it is easy to forget that The Beatles were, at their core, four young lads in their mid-20s, largely figuring things out as they went along. Once that fact is realised, the mounting internal tensions within the group certainly make a lot more sense, particularly as […]
Continue Reading
For anyone who considers themselves to be a fan of the band, choosing a favourite album by The Beatles is a near-impossible task, given how virtually all of their albums reach a similar standard of excellence and are almost inseparable from one another in this regard. Admittedly, very few people are going to look at […]
Continue Reading
When talking about the rise of The Beatles, it’s easy to forget about the kind of impact Ringo Starr has had. No, he might not have been gifted with the greatest songwriting chops in the world, but his internal sense of rhythm when playing all of their songs always put him one notch above every […]
Continue Reading
There’s not a day that goes by that Jimmy Page hasn’t been a student of the guitar. There are many aspects of the instrument that he has mastered both onstage and in the studio, but he was always willing to learn something new from whatever guitar hero was setting the world on fire at any […]
Continue Reading
The fact that Elvis Presley was one of the best-selling artists to have ever lived is something often taken for granted. He’s a caricature, an iconoclast, a mirage; a figure that increasingly few people actually remember from the time when he was alive. But to put him into context, Presley could have quite feasibly still […]
Continue Reading