2019-08-27 14:22
“Jan Nigro remembers seeing Laura’s list of possible name changes, all variations of Nigro. Her father recalls that she seriously considered ‘Niagra,’ a name she had… Read More
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Rock My Soul: An Audio History Of Rock & Roll Blog
rockmysoul1923-1974.blogspot.com
Audio history of Rock and Roll blog with Youtube links. List of origins, influences, hits, milestones, trendsetters of popular music, 1920-1974.
2019-08-26 14:04
“When his singing career hit its stride in 1966, ‘Tell It Like It Is’ had zoomed to the No. 1 and No. 2 spots on two of the most respected music charts in the country and g… Read More
2019-08-19 21:05
Lead singer Tony Mossop was born in Jamaica and “started singing in a church choir as a boy of nine” (album notes). Based in London, the Soul Seekers performed country gospel fro… Read More
2019-08-19 20:44
“Neil started his music career in 1955 when he moved from St. Petersburg to Memphis, Tenn…The singer became a cult favorite in New York City’s Greenwich Village folk scene… Read More
2019-08-19 20:42
“Popular music is underwritten by advertisers. If a song is TOO controversial, and enough folks scream into their phones about it, its hit potential gets instantly curtailed. Witness N… Read More
2019-08-19 20:38
“Tyler’s Mouse and the Traps…were actually to what would become the punk ethic. They were formed in 1964 by Ronnie ‘Mouse’ Weiss (vocals/guitar), Bugs Henderso… Read More
2019-08-19 20:33
“What people heard was arguably the first conceptual pop LP and way ahead of its time. Frank Zappa already had a clear vision of the mixture of music and satire that he wanted to put o… Read More
2019-07-31 20:54
“many of the same qualities that made the rock-and-roll of the 1960s commercially successful did the same for Morricone’s film music: it was concise, easily remembered, harmonica… Read More
2019-07-31 20:47
“Open auditions were held for the four Monkees in order to attract ‘real’ people for the sake of verisimilitude on the level of personae—the Beatles weren’t act… Read More
2019-07-31 20:45
Penn Jillette: “The Monkees were engineered to appeal to the broadest audience possible with no other concerns. The Monkees were sanitized to fit into America’s living rooms. My… Read More
2019-07-30 18:53
“In describing his trademark Brasil ‘66 sound, the pianist/arranger says, ‘You can relate to it in an organic way, It makes you dream and it makes you feel good. It’s… Read More
2019-07-29 20:38
John Mayall “spent two years in the service, including some time in Korea. Upon returning to England in 1955, he continued his education at the Regional College of Art in Manchester, w… Read More
2019-07-25 20:51
“The son of Italian immigrants, a fact that was evident in his style and manner, Martino worked as bricklayer in his father’s construction business before being encouraged to bec… Read More
2019-07-25 20:39
Lou Adler, record producer: “Denny [Doherty] could have been a big band singer in the ‘40s. he had that sort of wide-open, Western broadness to his voice. A very romantic singer… Read More
2019-07-24 20:48
“They followed with one hit after another until 1967, when Boone and Yanovsky were arrested in California for possession of marijuana. They angered a good number of their fans, many of… Read More
2019-07-24 20:47
“John Sebastian and Zal Yanovsky were joined in their new band by Steve Boone, who played bass, and Joe Butler on drums. At the beginning, as Sebastian put it years later in the San Fr… Read More
2019-07-23 14:41
Lead singer Peter Lewis “was a key figure in the development of British Christian music.” His high school band Union City once beat the Quarrymen—who became the Beatles&mda&hell…Read More
2019-07-19 14:08
“Even in a year as star-blessed as 1966, the Left Banke’s Walk Away Renee stood out. There was a harpsichord, a string quartet, a keening vocal and a lyric of real teenage heartb… Read More
2019-07-18 13:47
“‘I really can't play with my brother [Dave Davies] as the Kinks and not have Mick [Avory] in the band,’ says [Ray] Davies. ‘Mick will work with him, but Dave doesn&r&hell…Read More
2019-07-17 14:13
Based in London, “The Joystrings were probably the most high profile Christian group during the mid 60s, and they were among the best…All the group members were members of the S… Read More
2019-07-16 16:35
“Like Rashomon, the story of Jefferson Airplane, the band’s Paul Kantner has astutely postulated, is also one of many truths. There’s a cliché these days, ‘If… Read More
2019-07-15 15:23
“In early 1966, a dejected Tommy James arrived home in Niles, Mich., from what appeared to be the last road gig with his then-group The Koachmen, just in time to answer a phone call th… Read More
2019-07-12 19:30
In 1963, Hurt was rediscovered by folk music archivists who were delighted to find that the performer of Hurt’s 1928 recordings still lived in Avalon, Mississippi. They invited him to… Read More
2019-07-12 19:25
Graham Nash “grew up in Salford and sang in a duo with schoolfriend Allan Clarke before the pair formed The Hollies, one of the most successful chart groups of the 60s. ‘I've bee… Read More
2019-07-11 15:58
“Jimmy writes a letter home: I still have my guitar and amp and as long as I have that, no fool can keep me from living. There’s a few record companies I visited that I probably… Read More
2019-07-10 17:25
“Bobby Hebb was raised in a musical family, and he performed as a child with his brother Harold at Nashville’s Bijou Theater. Spotted by Roy Acuff, he played miscellaneous instru… Read More
2019-07-08 14:10
“Although Mr. Graham was acclaimed among his peers, his eclecticism posed a marketing dilemma for record companies and booking agents. His music was not exactly folk and not exactly ja… Read More
2019-06-24 20:17
“Imagine that the British Invasion of the US never happened, that the Beatles’ three-night stand on The Ed Sullivan Show never aired, and that American popular music in the 1960s… Read More
2019-06-24 20:16
“The Fugs, led by Ed Sanders and Tuli Kupferberg, made protest an ecstatic, sarcastic comedy (‘Kill for Peace’ was their hit), bridging the gap between Beats and hippies, c… Read More
2019-06-24 20:14
“The Four Tops are a one-in-a-million. They were the best in my neighborhood in Detroit when I was growing up. When I was eleven or so, my first group was an early version of what woul… Read More
2019-06-24 20:12
Lamont Dozier (songwriter): “Back in ’66, we were listening to a lot to Bob Dylan. He was the poet then, and we were inspired by his talk-singing style on ‘Like a Rolling S… Read More
2019-06-24 20:10
“Their success has been attributed to the strong falsetto and three-octave range of Valli, the group’s tight doo-wop harmonies, the songwriting skill of pianist Bob Gaudio, and e… Read More
2019-05-09 20:43
The Exceptions were based in Chicago. Band member Peter Cetera “went on to become the lead vocalist and front-man for the 1970s band, ‘Chicago’” (www.1960schristianmu… Read More
2019-05-09 20:29
“A founder member of the Detroit-based Falcons, Floyd was present on both their major hits, ‘You’re So Fine” and ‘I Found A Love’. He then recorded solo f… Read More
2019-05-09 20:21
“Mark Tulin was born in Philadelphia to Jewish parents, Rose and Leon, and later moved to LA. He and his brother, Kip, were encouraged to learn musical instruments. While studying at T… Read More
2019-05-09 20:17
“‘Just Like a Woman’ is the ultimate heartbreaker on the album (Blonde on Blonde), a tale of two ships that don’t just pass in the night; they hit each other at rammi… Read More
2019-05-09 20:13
“Being without the one you love can play funny tricks on you. The narrator in ‘Visions of Johanna’ describes the world around him as if viewed through a fun-house mirror, y… Read More
2019-05-09 20:10
“In his live shows from that era…Dylan was challenging his audience rightly to get on board or get out of the way. Even in these shows, however, it wasn’t like he was unle… Read More
2019-05-09 20:04
“…determining Dylan’s motivation behind the song has always been a bit of a head-scratcher. There are two camps here: Those who see Dylan as advocating the use of drugs as… Read More
2019-05-06 20:09
Donovan: “The inspiration for the lyric came out of meeting my wife Linda in 1965. She had been in a relationship with Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones. When they split we got togethe… Read More
2019-05-06 20:09
“Leonard Cohen said that a poet finds his theme when he’s a teenager and then neverleaves it. Has that been true for you?Donovan: Absolutely. The theme is set and all other songs… Read More
2019-05-06 20:07
Donovan: “My father brought me up in the socialist tradition. He read me poems of radical change. Poets in the 1700s addressed the great tragedy of the working man and how the industri… Read More
2019-05-02 19:53
Steve Winwood, keyboard player: “I came from a musical family. My father, who worked at my great-uncle’s foundry, played the saxophone, clarinet, bass and drums, and he had four… Read More
2019-05-02 18:48
“Not only were these Southern Californians one of the first on the scene with a ‘contemporary musical expression: The Beat’, they had one big advantage over other Christian… Read More
2019-05-02 01:41
“Two British bands of the 1960s could have been described as the rock equivalent of a pop-art action painting. One, of course, was the Who. The other was often tapped as one of the ban… Read More
2019-04-30 20:42
“Cream made its official debut on July 31, 1966, before a crowd of 20,000 at Britain’s 6th National Jazz & Blues Festival. Robert Stigwood, whose other primary client was the… Read More
2019-04-29 20:15
A Christian quartet based in Scotland that performed from 1961 to the late 1960s (www.1960schristianmusic.com). “Unique in approach and universal in appeal, the music of the Concords h… Read More
2019-04-09 18:40
“I have always been grateful that I did not fall in love with Leonard [Cohen] in the way that I fell in love with his songs. I could have, certainly. He had that charm, that glint in h… Read More
2019-04-09 18:38
A Christian British group’s revision of “House of the Rising Sun.” “The Cobblers started as a result of the Billy Graham North of England Crusade in Manchester&hellip&hell…Read More
2019-04-09 18:36
“Sometimes I think, ‘It’s such a pain in my ass,’” says Cher of being, well, Cher. “But then I remember, ‘You’re so lucky to be able to do wha… Read More
2019-04-09 18:34
“Roger McGuinn’s twelve-string Rickenbacker guitar was one of the defining sounds of 1960s pop, and never was it heard to more brilliant effect than on Eight Miles High. He has s… Read More
2019-04-08 19:40
“Living in Chicago, Bloomfield was able to hear Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy and other blues giants live. Briefly a rock-band guitarist, he worked as a folk-club manager and played his earl… Read More
2019-03-29 20:27
“While recording ‘Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag,’ I could feel something new kicking around inside me. Soon enough, I gave birth to a little baby I named funk…I h… Read More
2019-03-29 20:25
“what I do is not rock and roll! Rock and roll happens to be some of the music that I love, but let’s face it: it is a derivative of Black R & B, with some Hank Williams&mdas&hell…Read More
2019-03-29 20:22
“‘Kind of a Drag’ definitely made The Buckinghams happy. The song catapulted the regionally successful Chicago band to national stardom when it reached No. 1 on the Billboa… Read More
2019-03-29 20:18
“The Blues Magoos formed in 1964 and were initially called the Trenchcoats, which quickly became an important part of the emerging Greenwich Village rock scene, securing a residency at… Read More
2019-03-29 20:14
“Shaw herself was discovered by Adam Faith after she took part in a talent contest, and became the first British artist to win the Eurovision song contest, with ‘Puppet on a Stri… Read More
2019-03-22 19:29
“The career of Cilla Black, who died after a fall at her home on Spain’s Costa del Sol in August 2015, provided a definitive illustration of the experiences of many female singer… Read More
2019-03-22 19:23
“Although the Beatles’ Revolver revolution makes some claims to our political consciousnesses by critiquing some ‘institutions,’ they really aim, throughout the album… Read More
2019-03-22 19:21
“By the evening of August 29 [1966], when they enact their final concert—at San Francisco’s Candlestick Park, to a less than sold-out house—they have been working at… Read More
2019-03-22 19:11
“‘Eleanor Rigby’ emerges as the Beatle’s most explicitly religious song…What the Beatles offered in place of a religious eschatology was an unprecedented empha… Read More
2019-03-22 19:07
“JOHN: People ask me what music I listen to. I listen to traffic and birds singing and people breathing. And fire engines. I always used to listen to the water pipes at night when the… Read More
2019-03-19 15:41
“There can’t be many number one hit singles on which the French nursery rhyme ‘Frere Jacques’ is sung. But ‘Paperback Writer’ is one. It was Paul’s… Read More
2019-03-19 15:39
“In the early hours of the morning of Thursday September 22nd, after 22 sessions lasting around 94 hours in four different recording studio, Brian’s masterpiece is finally comple… Read More
2019-03-19 15:37
Brian Wilson “wouldn’t hesitate to put a musician through his or her paces if the effort helped achieve the precise shading he desired. While the tracking sessions could be long… Read More
2019-03-19 15:30
“Looking back, Brian said, ‘God was with us the whole time we were doing this record…” Brian always had a keen sense of what the marketplace wanted in a pop song by… Read More
2019-03-18 19:25
“The first single from Pet Sounds to hit the charts owes its existence to Al Jardine’s love for the Kingston Trio. ‘Sloop John B’ has origins dating to 1926, and the… Read More
2019-03-03 23:04
Brian Wilson “identified one of the key themes, when he recalled the sad and reflective end of the album with ‘Caroline No,’ ‘Oh it was (sad), but you know life goes… Read More
2019-03-03 22:24
“Formed in Cape Cod, Massachusetts in 1964, this band was originally composed of band members Victor ‘Moulty’ Moulton (drums), Bruce Benson (rhythm guitar), Ronnie Enos (le… Read More
2019-03-03 22:20
“The group was formed out a 13-strong (yes, 13!) aggregation calling themselves The Men. Internal squabbles resulted in six of them forming their own band, with somebody’s wife l… Read More
2019-03-03 22:16
The Liverbirds “(pronounced lie-vah)…played the Cavern Club alongside the Beatles and were sent to the Reeperbahn in the early Sixties on the same promotional circuit. They neve… Read More
2019-03-03 22:12
“Before there were the Go-Go’s, the Runaways, or Fanny, there was Goldie and the Gingerbreads, the first all-female band ever signed to a major label. Unlike other girl groups of… Read More
2019-02-22 21:48
“The Association were a successful sixties vocal-harmony group who, despite selling some 15 million copies of their singles, were unable to build a long-term career for themselves. For… Read More
2019-02-22 21:45
“The three successive lead guitarists of the highly influential Yardbirds personified the changes in (London-based) British rock of the sixties: from blues (Eric Clapton) through the b… Read More
2019-02-22 21:42
“‘For Your Love’ was composed in the changing room of a men’s clothing shop where one of British pop’s great enigmas then worked. The originator of smashes, hom… Read More
2019-02-22 21:40
“When they finished working and released the record in December 1965, ‘Uptight’ exploded with a funky, exuberant expression of the gospel vision. Paying Stevie’s debt… Read More
2019-02-22 21:38
“Amos Wells Blakemore Jr. arrived in Chicago as a boy and made his first records in his own name in 1953, aged just eighteen. Elmore James and Muddy Waters served as session men. He le… Read More
2019-02-15 20:20
Manager Kit Lambert: “I paid my few shillings and went into the back. On a stage made entirely of beer crates…were The High Numbers, ugly in the extreme. Roger with his teeth cr… Read More
2019-02-15 20:18
Pete Townshend: “I grew up in Acton, and heard Ken Colyer’s band locally near Hounslow where my friend Jimpy lived. His band was called the Crane River Band, and they played all… Read More
2019-02-15 20:14
“A major attraction on the San Francisco scene, We Five found that elusive middle ground between folk and pop and enjoyed a fair amount of success stateside in the latter half of the S… Read More
2019-02-15 20:11
“Born Autry DeWalt II in 1942 in Blythesville, Arkansas, the saxophonist was nicknamed Junior by his stepfather, whose name was Walker. When he turned professional in 1962, he took up… Read More
2019-02-15 20:09
“This is a great example of how, even on a song you love and think you know by heart, Dylan can trick you. Given just a perfunctory listen, ‘It Ain’t Me, Babe’ comes… Read More
2019-02-08 22:35
“The release of ‘Baby Please Don’t Go/’Gloria’ in November of 1964 is the landmark record that changed, however briefly, how the world saw Belfast and, just as… Read More
2019-02-08 22:22
“This one was inspired by an argument between its composer, Lamont Dozier, and his girlfriend. Just as she was about to take a swing at him after catching him in a lie, Lamont shouted… Read More
2019-02-08 22:19
“The ride began in the early 1960s when the Statler Brothers, who had formed in 1955 and later took their name from a box of tissues in a hotel room, first opened for Johnny Cash. Agen… Read More
2019-02-08 22:16
“The son of Italian immigrants (father Santo was a truck driver, mother Jean a beautician), he tried to break into show business after graduating from high school in Inglewood, Calif… Read More
2019-02-08 22:13
Jerry Roslie’s “voice—a meaty, lunatic, blast of hoodlum-R&B bravado, punctuated with bloodcurdling howls—would be Roslie’s ticket to legend with his next b… Read More
2019-02-08 16:54
“Founded in 1961 by guitarist Larry Parypa and his bassist brother, Andy, the Sonics were part of a singular Northwest ferment with the Kingsmen, the Fabulous Wailers, and Paul Revere… Read More
2019-02-07 15:16
“The Skatalites’ sound was born in Kingston, Jamaica, where several of the original members graduated from the Alpha Boys School, a prestigious arts and trade academy, in the 194… Read More
2019-02-06 16:59
“In the brazen spirit of the best garage rock, a music in which gumption and attitude mean more than craft and creativity, it represented a ruse by a band from San Antonio to grow long… Read More
2019-02-04 21:47
At the Flamingo Club in London, 1964, “There wasn’t anyone around to entertain the large audience. Then suddenly we noticed a young kid with a guitar sitting on the floor. Curly… Read More
2019-02-04 21:37
“George Morton was born in 1940 in Richmond, Virginia but grew up in Brooklyn, New York. When he was 14, his family moved to Hicksville, on Long Island, a decision taken by his parents… Read More
2019-01-25 21:55
They “found a perfect niche, specializing in the doomed romanticism of American teenage life and unfolding a landscape filled with misunderstood adolescents, rebel boyfriends, disappro… Read More
2019-01-25 21:53
“Hearing Pushin’ Too Hard by the Seeds for the first time while drifting under the streetlights of Lyons [Nebraska] on a warm night sent me, for two minutes and 30 seconds, onto… Read More
2019-01-25 21:52
Tommy Walton was guitarist from Alabama who played for a sessions band called the Vikings. “We stayed with the popular stuff, we did some Beach Boys…we could do the Hollies&hell&hell…Read More
2019-01-25 21:49
“On the night of May 9, 1965, Keith awoke in a hotel room in Clearwater, Florida, with a riff running through his mind, and he quickly recorded it on a cassette tape.” Richards:… Read More
2019-01-25 21:47
“Brian Jones was increasingly disturbed about his own role within the group. In many ways the original instigator of the Rolling Stones, and their early leader, he resented Mick Jagger… Read More
2019-01-18 20:14
“How do you hold it together if you are right at the top of the mountain with the final say on everything and everyone and the mountain is made up of money and people’s lives? Mi… Read More
2019-01-18 20:11
“Another young Lubbock group, Delbert McClinton and the Ron-Dels, recorded ‘If You Really Want Me to I’ll Go.’ McClinton, who had cut his musical teeth on the Jacksbo… Read More
2019-01-18 19:59
"Musician contributor Jon Young remarked that [Robinson's] autobiography 'documents everything from family history and the early days of the Miracles to his extramarital affairs and, most st… Read More
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