Contributor
20 items by John Milward
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Conversation Peace | ALBUM REVIEW
It would be hard to underestimate the influential legacy of Stevie Wonder, a 1989 inductee into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. After recording a stack of '60s singles that helped define the sound of Motown,...
March 23, 1995 12:00 AM ET -
Turbulent Indigo | ALBUM REVIEW
"Let me speak," sings Joni Mitchell on "The Sire of Sorrow (Job's Sad Song)," "let me spit out my bitterness." Few songwriters could write, let alone convincingly convey, such blunt, honest language. Mitchell's words are honed by...
December 15, 1994 12:00 AM ET -
That's The Way It Should Be | ALBUM REVIEW
Booker T. and the MG's are the kind of instrumental virtuosos who don't make you say, "Wow," so much as offer an appreciative "yeah." Gaining fame as the Stax/Volt house band accompanying such titans of '60s soul...
October 20, 1994 12:00 AM ET -
Crazy Legs | ALBUM REVIEW
Crazy Legs is Jeff Beck's tribute to the player who inspired him to pick up the guitar, Cliff Gallup of Gene Vincent and the Blue Caps. The fact that this collection of rockabilly tunes is also one...
September 16, 1993 12:00 AM ET -
Good Vibrations: Thirty Years of The Beach Boys | ALBUM REVIEW
The Beach Boys, who released their first record 30 years ago, have been living off their past for so long that it's easy to hate them for it. It hasn't helped that the heroes-and-villains saga of the...
August 19, 1993 12:00 AM ET -
The Missing Years | ALBUM REVIEW
The Missing Years, John Prine's first studio album in five years and his best since Bruised Orange, from 1978, is filled with idiosyncratic delights. The presence of a stellar cast of supporting singers (Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty,...
January 23, 1992 12:00 AM ET -
Mr. Lucky | ALBUM REVIEW
John Lee Hooker and Willie Dixon are the last of a generation of giants that plugged Mississippi's Delta blues into urban America. Dixon went to Chicago and became a mainstay at Chess Records, where he played bass,...
October 3, 1991 12:00 AM ET -
For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge | ALBUM REVIEW
There's a message in the acronym that winks its way out of the title of Van Halen's latest album, and it has nothing to do with sex. No, what the title really spells out is how easy...
August 22, 1991 12:00 AM ET -
Join Together | ALBUM REVIEW
Join Together is the inevitable live-album curtain call designed to squeeze the last dollar out of the Who's twenty-fifth-anniversary tour. The package, which includes a handy order form for T-shirts and posters, could have been called...
May 17, 1990 12:00 AM ET -
Heritage | ALBUM REVIEW
The Eighties were not especially kind to funky big bands. Rhythm machines replaced drummers, synthesizers subbed for horns, and rappers found that the easiest way to take it to the bridge was to sample James Brown. That...
March 22, 1990 12:00 AM ET -
Computer Games | ALBUM REVIEW
One could call Computer Games George Clinton's first solo album, but it's really more like the latest chapter in the continuing saga of Parliament-Funkadelic, the musical conglomerate that Clinton has led for more than a decade. Most...
April 28, 1983 12:00 AM ET -
Hello, I Must Be Going | ALBUM REVIEW
On his first solo album, 1981's Face Value, Genesis drummer-singer Phil Collins showed that he wasn't about to be left behind in the mire of classical-rock sludge. That LP boasted shorter songs and demonstrated that Collins had...
January 20, 1983 12:00 AM ET -
Wild Things Run Fast | ALBUM REVIEW
Down at the Chinese Cafe, we'd be dreaming on our dimes/We'd be playing 'Oh my love, my darling' one more time," sings Joni Mitchell of the old times. The way Mitchell threads lyrics from the Righteous Brothers'...
November 25, 1982 12:00 AM ET -
Mirage | ALBUM REVIEW
Fleetwood Mac boasts the rarest of chart-topping, adult-oriented rock virtues — a group personality. In the three-part harmonies and the assured snap of the rhythm section, we hear five distinct personalities merge into a sound that is...
August 16, 1982 12:00 AM ET -
Hot Space | ALBUM REVIEW
Queen has always ruled by sound instead of soul, and Brian May's orchestral guitar creations are what captured — and has kept — the group's hard-rock following. But on Hot Space, with the John Deacon/Roger Taylor rhythm...
June 10, 1982 12:00 AM ET -
Beautiful Vision | ALBUM REVIEW
Last winter at the Great American Music Hall, Van Morrison shushed his band to a whisper and let the Bay Are a faithful in on a secret: "Listen to the quiet ... that silence is the heart"...
March 4, 1982 12:00 AM ET -
Lace And Whiskey | ALBUM REVIEW
When "School's Out" ripped out of the Dutch top-of-the-pops one vagabond summer, it was like receiving a postcard from home that fairly brimmed with typical American excess, bravado and humor. This was the meat of the Alice...
July 14, 1977 12:00 AM ET -
One More From The Road | ALBUM REVIEW
"Crossroads," the Robert Johnson-cum-Cream metallic raver included on this live album, deftly encapsulates Lynyrd Skynyrd's influences: Southern blues-rock diced with the sharp blade of British hard rock. Cream was based conceptually upon the idea of the guitar...
November 4, 1976 12:00 AM ET -
Rocks | ALBUM REVIEW
Whether or not Rocks is hot depends on your vantage point. If your hard-rock tastes were honed in the Sixties, as this band's obviously were, Aerosmith is a polished echo of Yardbirds' guitar rock liberally spiced with...
July 29, 1976 12:00 AM ET -
Destroyer | ALBUM REVIEW
There's no doubt that Destroyer is Kiss's best album yet or that Bob Ezrin, Alice Cooper's heavyhanded wizard of heavy-metal production who helped write seven of the nine tunes here, has made the difference. But despite Ezrin's...
June 3, 1976 12:00 AM ET
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