[ purchase ] When she was fifteen years old, Eva Boyd moved from North Carolina to Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, and worked as a maid and occas...

Who can forget it, the snarl and the spat out words, as the youthful Elvis Costello gave his commentary on right wing political ideology. Or...

  purchase [ The Philosophy of Modern Song ] If you use Amazon as your guide to the number of books Bob Dylan has written, you'll end u...

Musician? Yeah, I know, but the problem with this theme is a need to have read the books in question, and the reading of a book requires a h...

Robert Hunter Stories about the Grateful Dead, as with any number of other bands, often relate events that are wild, outrageous and salaciou...

Josh Ritter : Southern Pacifica [ purchase ]  Not every great songwriter is a great writer, and not every great writer is a great songwrit...

The mythological lure of the road has long attracted attention in way more than just musical memes. We’ll get to that in due course, but it ...

Lynyrd Skynyrd : What’s Your Name? [ purchase ]  Growing up in the 1970s, as I did, the life of a rock musician seemed pretty fucking cool...

Less on, more been, my excuse is down to the scourge of IT. (Others may vary.) As far as I’m concerned, the IT superhighway can go take one....

Funny how it all comes round. I used to rant against this song back in the day. As a dyed in the wool afficianado of the original Lindisfarn...

Actually, as the avid trainspotters will already have conjectured, and loudly, it is the other way around, it is Chant No.1 (We Don't Ne...

  purchase [ Dare ] There was an article in The Guardian the other day about the influence of the C64 (that would be the mid 1980s Commodor...

purchase [ White Album ] When it appears at the start of a sentence, don’t is a command - as opposed to its use mid-sentence, where it is mo...

Blue Öyster Cult : (Don’t Fear) The Reaper [ purchase ]  For the second post in a row, I’m writing about a band that I know pretty much n...

Me, I bloody loathe Eurovision. Eh, say a whole continent across the pond, Eurovision? OK, the Eurovision Song Contest, to give it the full ...

  purchase- from Clap Your Hands Say Yeah- [ Some Loud Thunder ] Another quickie.  Due to the fact that - on the road - I have no access to...

  purchase [ Born to Run ] Faced with yet another theme where I have run the clock down to the buzzer, I am going to re-mention a song that...

I have always found the idea of the Flaming' Groovies decidedly enticing and enthralling. Even before they ever came into my personal ea...

  Thunderclap Newman : Something In The Air [ purchase ]  I suggested this theme during a summer thunderstorm, but when I started brainstorm...