Best Thing I’ve Read Today
Gavin Edwards on the backstory of Otis Redding's classic song, "Sittin' On The Dock Of The Bay," the first posthumously-released single to go to number one... Steve Cropper, who regularly backed Redding up as the guitarist for Booker T. and the MG’s (a.k.a. the Stax...
Stephen Davis, “Gold Dust Woman”
Stephen Davis has written books about Jim Morrison, Bob Marley, Miles Davis, and other musicians. Now he has a best-selling biography of Stevie Nicks, “Gold Dust Woman.” In my conversation with him, we talked about: How the version of "Rhiannon" we all know isn't the...
The Wizard Of Oz In Concert
Here's something rare you can share with your family today. It's a staged concert version of "The Wizard Of Oz" that was done at Lincoln Center on May 5, 1995, as a benefit for the Children's Defense Fund. It aired exactly once on TNT and TBS, on November 22, 1995....
Picture Of The Day
There are a few old-time acts I wish I could have seen in person on one of my trips to Vegas -- Sammy Davis Jr., Buddy Hackett, and Louis Prima/Keely Smith -- but I missed them by a generation. In particular, I would have loved to see Prima and Smith in one of their...
Those Boring Cars
Yesterday, I mentioned that the next inductees into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame will be the Moody Blues, Nina Simone, Dire Straits, Bon Jovi, and The Cars. Of those, the only band I saw in concert was The Cars. It was 1980, when the band was at the height of its...
Moody Memories
The 2018 Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame inductees will be the Moody Blues, Bon Jovi, The Cars, Nina Simone, and Dire Straits. Of those, the only ones I've interviewed are the Moody Blues, and I've dug them out of the archives for you. From 1996, here's a...
David Hepworth, “Uncommon People”
David Hepworth is a British journalist who has written about music for four decades. Now he's published "Uncommon People: The Rise and Fall of the Rock Stars," and joined me to talk about it. Among the topics we covered: How much of achieving rock stardom comes from...
Steven Bach, “Cirque Du Soleil: Crystal”
Here's my conversation with Steven Bach, musical director for Cirque du Soleil's first ice show, "Crystal" (which plays four shows at the Family Arena in St. Charles this weekend). We talked about the difficulty in mounting an acrobatic show on ice, where they put the...