“No one has to push me to be complex.” If there has been a musical menage à trois more sublime and more successful than that of composer Burt Bacharach, lyricist Hal David, and singer Dionne Warwick, I can’t think of it.
Elvis Costello (and Burt Bacharach, Part 1)
“I think there’s as much self revelation in “What Is This Thing Called Love” by Cole Porter as there is in any song by Kurt Cobain.” Elvis Costello is nobody’s idea of Dionne Warwick. But in 1998 he pulled off playing both the Warwick and Hal David roles when he teamed up with Burt […]
Bob Dylan speaks: the MusiCares speech
“A lot of people don’t know this, but the blues, which is an American music, is not what you think it is. It’s a combination of Arabic violins and Strauss waltzes working it out. But it’s true.” – Bob Dylan After reading provocative excerpts from the 30-minute speech Dylan gave at the MusiCares […]
Scotty Moore
“I didn’t get rich, but it was better than picking cotton…” We can debate who invented rock and roll, but there is no question that it was Elvis Presley who turned it into an earth shaking phenomenon. He also did something equally revolutionary at the same time: He made the guitar the most […]
Jack Bruce (1993)
“I couldn’t be happier.” I blew my chance. It only occurred to me today, two weeks after Jack Bruce’s death at age 71 from liver disease, that I should have thought to thank him for his part in my becoming a bass player. The first song I learned, copying […]
Billy Joel (1998)
“…if I only knew me from “Tell Her About It” and “Uptown Girl” and “Just the Way You Are,” I might not like Billy Joel either.” Not many pop stars are honest or insightful enough to acknowledge their haters point of view. Billy Joel did and that’s one reason I dug talking to him. Here’s […]
Joe Perry (2004)
“It’s never easy to make a record.” March 19, 2004 On the road between Hot Springs and Little Rock, Arkansas, one week into Aerosmith’s Honkin’ On Bobo tour After years of talking about it, Aerosmith finally made good in 2004 on its promise to record a blues album. Nobody was more excited about it […]
Aimee Mann
“It doesn’t even pay to sell out.” January, 1996, in advance of the “I’m With Stupid” release and tour By phone from her home in Los Angeles I caught sight of Aimee Mann on TV last week. She was rocking out with Ted Leo, her unlikely partner in a new band, The Both. Singing […]
Edie Brickell
“I would never listen to his ideas as far as writing goes.” – Edie Brickell, on her husband Paul Simon. August 16, 1994 By phone from Montauk, Long Island, New York Edie Brickell charmed many people as the winsome lead singer of the New Bohemians – perhaps no one more so than Paul Simon, […]
Dickey Betts
“Gregg Allman has decided to try to justify this thing by running around the country claiming I’m strung out on drugs and too drunk to play music. It’s just ludicrous.” September 8, 2000 By phone from a hotel room in Chicago I spoke to Dickey Betts in the midst of what must have been six […]