Tag Archives: 1970s

FROM STARMAN TO STARDUST: The Singular Sound, Voice & Vision Of David Bowie (1947-2016)
Originally posted on RPM: Jonathan Perry's Life in Analog:
What better fit for a Flashback Friday Halloween than to examine a pivotal point in the singular career of David Bowie, a man of many masks, guises, and gazes: the doomed astronaut of Space Oddity, messianic rock god alien of Ziggy Stardust, paisley dandy, diamond…

WHO’S NEXT? NOBODY COMES CLOSE: Reflections On Listening To Who At 50, And Their Rock Masterpiece (No, It’s Not Tommy)
Originally posted on RPM: Jonathan Perry's Life in Analog:
The sound of a jet taking off? Nope, it’s just The Who in full flight. Just a quick one — pun intended — to honor one of my all-time favorite artists, The Who, to mark their “Who Hits 50!” world tour that lead singer Roger…

Smashing Mirrors & Smashed Guitars: Pete Townshend, Purveyor Of Power Chords, Turns Seventy
“Pete Townshend was among the first rock writers to wonder aloud if growing up wasn’t such a blast after all. Instead of churning out generic pop hits about cruising in cars and kissing girls, Townshend gazed inward and explored the confusion that came from adolescent alienation.” — JP

BEHIND OLE’ BLUE EYES: Roger Daltrey, The Voice Of My Generation, Blows Out 72 Candles
Happy Birthday to the greatest scream in rock and one of my two or three favorite rock & roll singers — The Who’s incomparably leather-lunged frontman Roger Daltrey, who proved that — like the Volkswagen Beetle and the Small Faces’ Steve Marriott– big things came in small packages (and in Roger’s case, he had a […]

TIME CAPSULE: On Matthew Sweet (But Not His ‘Girlfriend’) Hitting The Half-Century Mark
Cueing up Matthew Sweet on the ole turntable in honor of his birthday this week got me thinking about time (but then, doesn’t everything?). The notion of time speeding up and (thankfully) slowing down, and how it defines and marks us, after all, is precisely the effect certain music and albums have on our lives. In the case […]

STARS & STRIKES AND THE SPIRIT OF ’76: Dan Epstein Talks Baseball, Beer, and Bowling With Billy Corgan
Dan Epstein is a lot like the decade he writes and speaks so eloquently about. Like the 1970’s, he’s unabashedly shaggy. He has a soft spot for oversized Bicentennial belt buckles and AM radio novelty fare like C.W. McCall’s “Convoy.” He has an abiding affection for an Oscar Gamble-sized Afro (if you know who that is, you […]

STILL A BEAUTIFUL BUZZ: Strolling Down Exile On Main Street
Coinciding with the deluxe reissue a few years back of the Rolling Stones’ “Exile On Main St.”, I pitched a piece to The Boston Globe on what that blearily beautiful sprawling double album meant to me growing up amid corporate FM radio of the late 1970s and early ’80s, and how it (and the Stones) helped […]