Somehow Eric Clapton has become known for a quiet song about his deceased son and a lame, slowed-down version of "Layla".  One has to give him credit for his longevity on his 64th birthday, but the fumes he’s living on are not three-dimensional.  Not that we need to blame him so much as his audience. […]

‘Cause nobody knows how I’m feeling I discovered Peter Frampton the last week of May 1971.  That’s when I purchased Humble Pie’s "Rock On", in preparation for seeing the band open for Lee Michaels at the Fillmore East.  This was regular procedure.  I bought Fairport Convention’s "Full House" the year before, when they opened for […]

Heard anybody talk about "Black Ice" recently?  How about "Long Road Out Of Eden"? Those albums were made for the paycheck, not the music.  Upon delivery, the parties involved got a huge sum from Wal-Mart, a guaranteed payment for a certain number of albums that the retailer gave up the right to return. This is […]

Stop lying. The Web has a zillion sleuths just waiting to be activated, like that worm on your computer delineated on "60 Minutes" last night The Conficker Worm: What Happens Next? (PC-only, in fact), in order to verify the veracity of your statements. Latest example? Microsoft’s new "Laptop Hunters" TV campaign, in which an uber-attractive […]