for those who never gave up their turntables
THE HOLLIES ARE FROM MANCHESTER—everyone knows that, right? Hah! I bumped into a young couple at the Bellevue Transit Center. Handsome young man with a very pretty girl. Both in their mid 20s, both spick-and-spanned and nicely attired. When we exchanged “Hellos” I heard the accent and asked them from which part of England they hailed. [Continue reading]
MISS PATSY CLINE may seem to be the focus of this article, but she’s not—at least, not primarily. Primarily it’s about hyperbole in describing the accomplishments of popular stars, even when the artist doesn’t need any embellishment to shine among the other stars. Fans of any field of artistic or athletic endeavor are given to excessive bragging about their faves, whether it’s rock bands or comic book artists or baseball players. [Continue reading]
LAST WEEK, I RECEIVED AN EMAIL from a young musician that I had never heard of. (No big deal there: my ignorance of musicians young or old of the past few decades might cause you to titter in wonder at the immensity of it.) His name was Lawrence Bray, which set off no alarms of memory in my aging brain. [Continue reading]
THE KINKS’ ARTHUR album of 1969 was a smashing success with the critics and the few fans that the once popular group still had at the time. It sold better than any Kinks album had in recent memory, but barely graced the best-selling charts. ARTHUR has grown in prestige through the years and now both original pressings and even reissues are sought after by collectors. [Continue reading]
AS WE BEGIN OUR STORY sometime in late 1970, the Kinks were in a bit of a bad way. Despite being one of the premier groups of the British Invasion of 1964, they had not reached the Top 40 in the US since mid-1966. Even in their homeland—their own Village Green, filled with Arthur and millions like him—it had been more than a year since they’d had a hit! [Continue reading]