Johnson died on Wednesday at his home in St. Louis, at the age of eighty, after recent bouts with pneumonia and a kidney ailment. With his death, rock & roll lost a vital link to its roots in the Chicago boogie-woogie of Meade Lux Lewis and the jumping-piano jazz of Earl Hines and Count Basie. Born on July 8th...

By most standards, a record this loosely arranged, casually executed and at times downright sloppy wouldn't even pass muster as a demo. But Keith Richards is the Glimmer Twin with the garage-rock heart, a Rolling Stone for whom rawness isn't just a virtue, it's nirvana. Would he have it any other way? The funky whack of real-time, real-life drumming instead of digital imitations of Charlie Watts,...

Keith Richards's 1988 solo album, Talk Is Cheap, abounded in grooves, but it still sounded like an album of songs. For a musician like Richards, the live performance is the real story, and Live at the Hollywood Palladium, December 15, 1988 chronicles a very hot show – thereby telling the tale of Keith and his X-Pensive Winos very well indeed. Basically, it charts Richard's effort to fit his...