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Pearl Jam Light Up Bridge School Benefit
Neil Young's fifteenth-anniversary Bridge School Benefit gives peace a chance
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Drifter's Escape
Jimi Hendrix was a great interpreter of Bob Dylan's work, from his definitive version of "All Along the Watchtower" to more rare takes of "Like a Rolling Stone" and "Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window?" He liked "Drifter's Escape" from the moment he heard it on Dylan's 1967 album John Wesley Harding. "Oh, yeah, […]
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Crosstown Traffic
"Crosstown Trafic" was recorded at the Record Plant in 1968, and, as Jimi Hendrix explained, "I was playing piano on it." In addition, as legend tells it, he also played a homemade kazoo made from paper and a comb on the track. Traffic's Dave Mason was a guest vocalist (cleverly making the most of the […]
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Brimful of Asha
Cornershop were not the biggest band to emerge during the Britpop era, but the success of "Brimful of Asha" certainly added some Bollywood swagger to an otherwise totally Anglocentric moment. The subject matter of "Brimful" — film dubbing and Asha Bhosle, India's best-known singer of movie soundtracks — imparted a little something about Indian culture […]
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Please Forgive My Heart
The soul-baring "Please Forgive My Heart" is the first taste off The Bravest Man in the Universe, Bobby Womack's return to the studio after a long absence from solo recording. Coaxed into the project by co-producers Damon Albarn and XL Recordings label head Richard Russell, Womack explained the session’s songwriting process: "Damon would start playing […]
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Vicious
Opening Lou Reed's 1972 solo album, the hard-riffing "Vicious" actually traces its origin back to Reed's days with the Velvet Underground. Picking up bits and pieces of songs from the people and places around him, and filing his notes for later use, Reed said it was Andy Warhol who provided fuel for the song. "He […]
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Tutti-Frutti
“I wrote ‘Tutti Frutti’ in the kitchen,” said Little Richard of the bus station in his native Macon, Georgia,where he worked as a dishwasher. One day, the dishes piled up so high he thought he’d never get out of there alive for all the pots and pans; that’s when frustration rubbed up against gospel inspiration […]
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Icky Thump
What's an "icky thump"? was the most-asked question upon the earliest airing of the title and lead-off track of from the duo's sixth album. "It's actually 'ecky thump,'" explained Jack White to Rolling Stone, "a Northern English phrase meaning, 'What the heck?'" that he learned from his British-born then-wife, Karen Elson. As a song, it's […]
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Ain't It a Shame
Fats Domino and his producer/collaborator Dave Bartholomew pioneered the big beat of rock with "Ain't That a Shame." Domino's original single bore the title "Ain't It a Shame," and it's alleged that Pat Boone tried to retitle the song 'Isn't It a Shame' when he cut his whitewashed cover version. (Personally, Domino was partial to […]
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The Words That Maketh Murder
PJ Harvey long intended to write an album about world affairs that you could also sing along to, which came to fruition in 2011 with Let England Shake. She made a conscious effort to avoid standard protest-song form on the album and on lead single "The Words That Maketh Murder," explaining "The words are very […]
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