As I read Jordan's last piece , erudite and informative, it got me a'thinking around the other taboo subject in popular song, seemin...

  purchase [ The Who By Numbers ] When I purchased my own first "stereo" back in '71, the merchant included a copy of "Wh...

Memphis Minnie : My Butcher Man [ purchase ]  There’s a long history in music of songs with double entendre lyrics. Now, Cardi B. and Meg...

  ....you'd probably barf, that certainly being also my reflex response to this nadir of kitsch, a song so ghastly I cannot bring myself...

 Yup, can't resist, the elephant in the room, or rather the dead elephant in the room, as passed over always has me reaching for the ref...

[ purchase the Complete Recordings ] [ purchase the DVD of the film ]  My wife and I just finished watching the eight part NatGeo (!) seri...

No, don't panic, Superlungs hasn't passed, this is the tale around how he coulda/mighta/shoulda "been" Robert Plant, were ...

  purchase [ choose one   ] In the bi-weekly notice to the SMM team for this theme, I jokingly threatened to include something Turkish. A re...

  purchase  [ New Chautauqua ] The term “record label” has almost become irrelevant. As we consume more and more of our music in digital fo...

Group 87 : Future of the City [ purchase ]  When I suggested this theme, I was trying to think of a St. Patrick’s Day theme that didn’t fa...

Mindful there has not been too much a pitter-PATter of posts arriving under this banner, time to think out of the box. And what could be bet...

Did Green Day derive their name from the Green Day of March 17? And I know I am a day or two late in nailing it, but it is one of many ques...

  purchase [ Mr Pitiful ] You could read about yourself if you don't already know but I'll save you the effort: back in '64, a r...

Anyone with even the most cursory knowledge of this site will appreciate that there is likely little hip hop demographic within the reading ...

  purchase [ Misstra Know It All ] Is "misstra" a variation on Mr.? - and thus a viable choice for this theme? The word <misst...

James Taylor : Hey Mister, That's Me up on the Jukebox [ purchase ] If you’ve been reading my work on this site since 2011 (!), you m...

  It's thursday night, it's 7.30, so it must be Top of the Pops, that covering most of my youth, from as early as I can recall, poss...

Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers : Ms. B.C. [ purchase ]  When you’ve been a theme-oriented blog for as long as Star Maker Machine , it...

Have you ever realised how many Jones's there are in music. And I don't mean performers, I mean in the material. Is it the commonest...