“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 […]
Merle Haggard (1999)
“…you’ve got these perfect people performing perfect music and it’s perfectly boring to me.” At the end of the 1990s, Merle Haggard was one disgruntled country music legend.
Aretha Franklin (1995)
Aretha Franklin hates the new biography about her, “Respect” by David Ritz. She’s condemned it: “a very trashy book…full of lies and more lies about me.” I didn’t hate it. It’s the best book yet about the Queen of Soul. That said, I’m kind […]
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 […]
“Tracks” by Robyn Davidson
Last week I went to see “Tracks.” It’s a new movie, but it took more than 30 years to get made. In June, 1981 I was writing for The Real Paper, the smaller of Boston’s two alternative weeklies and the place where I began my journalistic career in January, 1981. My editor handed me […]
James Brown
May 1992 Augusta, Georgia The sweetest words I ever heard an editor utter: “How would you like to go to Georgia to interview James Brown?”
Ginger Baker
“I’m just a working musician who’s struggling to play polo.” If you’ve seen the documentary “Beware of Mr. Baker,” you know interviewing Ginger Baker can be a dicey proposition, maybe even injurious to your health. When I met with Baker in Boston in 1994, he lived […]
Richard Addrisi: “Never My Love”
“If people tell me they’ve never heard “Never My Love,” I say, ‘That means you’ve never been in an elevator or a supermarket.’ You can’t escape the song. It’s just there.“ March 11, 2002 By phone from his home in Los Angeles In […]
Celia Cruz
“I’m the queen because there is no one else!” April, 2, 2002 By phone from her home in Fort Lee, New Jersey I traveled to Cuba for ten days in late 2001, an eye, ear and mind opening journey. It […]