"This machine kills fascists" These are the words Woody Guthrie had emblazoned on his guitar. Conventional wisdom is you can’t change the world with a song.  I don’t buy that.  The arts are the voice of the proletariat, music, plays, books, they’re the only way the impoverished masses can stand up to power.  But you […]

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 […]

There’s a point in this recording where Alison Krauss yelps like she’s having the orgasm of a lifetime!  She digs down deep, into the netherworld of her pudenda, and from down below the feeling courses up her body until she vocalizes in a near-scream akin to having that girl in "Stray Cat Blues" drag her […]