
His coat is torn and frayed, it’s seen much better days But as long as the guitar plays, it’ll steal your heart away -Rolling Stones “Torn and Frayed” On December 18 Keith Richards will be seventy-four years old, a feat…
His coat is torn and frayed, it’s seen much better days But as long as the guitar plays, it’ll steal your heart away -Rolling Stones “Torn and Frayed” On December 18 Keith Richards will be seventy-four years old, a feat…
If you tried to give rock and roll another name, you might call it “Chuck Berry.” -John Lennon He lit up our teenage years, and blew life into our dreams of being musicians and performers. -Mick Jagger Charles…
Dear friends, tonight is the ninety-eighth edition of Friday Night with Guitar George. Barring any unforeseen calamities, two weeks from tonight—May 20, 2016—will be the 100th edition, and the last regular installment in the series. I won’t say that it…
A recent television appearance by a heavy metal band featured an impressive cover version of a well-known pop song half a century old. This got me thinking about other unlikely cover versions—the White Stripes’ rendition of Dolly Parton’s “Jolene” came…
Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today To get through this thing called life Electric word life It means forever and that’s a mighty long time –from “Let’s Go Crazy” A day and a half after the shocking news broke,…
It’s difficult to talk about rock & roll because it’s essentially a category and a category which embodies something which transcends the category. –Pete Townsend, 1968 Thus spake rock music’s resident philosopher in a 1968 interview. While the Beatles were…
It has steadily fallen for the past decade or two, but there was a time when Rod Stewart’s 1971 album Every Picture Tells a Story routinely landed near the top of most “Best Albums” lists. There are probably several reasons…
When you grow up in Montgomery, Alabama the name “Atlanta” has a certain magical charm to it. The city’s towers of steel and glass rose on the horizon of our imaginations like Oz’s Emerald City, full of wonder and delight.…
The 2016 death parade claimed two more victims last week: Maurice White and Dan Hicks. The former was widely successful and amassed an incredibly impressive resume. The latter was a lifetime musician who never quite hit the big time but…