“Can I possibly believe that this deliberately barbaric sometime poet and her glorified garage band are worthy of comparison with Rimbaud, Jarry, Tzara, Gide, Mondrian? The short version of my answer is yes”
Originally published January 17, 1977
“For this high school generation, attendance at a Led Zeppelin concert is as mandatory as freshman English.”
Originally published February 3, 1975
“Sinatra remained white America’s last completely satisfying definition of masculine style — to somewhat disconcerting effect, let me add”
Originally published May 26, 1998
“Even his weaknesses stem from too much talent. But the stamina of his personal vision is far preferable to the formulaic nowhere of the music business.”
Originally published August 25, 1975
This is the show, this is the kid, the man of the hour, Mr. Dynamite, Mr. "Poppa’s Got a Brand New Bag," Mr. "Night Train"
Originally published November 25, 1965
“James Brown, probably the most influential black musician of all time, will turn 56 in prison — and then 57 and perhaps 58 as well”
Originally published February 21, 1989
“For a limpid half hour the Beatles ritually parried the outside world, capping trivia with irrelevance in sullen eclat.”
March 26, 2020
"Easy Rider is the only film I know that not only uses rock well — though that is rare enough — but also does justice to its spirit."
July 18, 2019
The afterlife of a pioneering composer who changed New York, then disappeared
May 2, 2018
Floor fillers and surprises from Ben UFO, Lone, Colleen “Cosmo” Murphy, Noncompliant, and Dense & Pika
February 16, 2018