by Kevin Burton Is it just that easy, like flipping a switch? Guess we’ll find out Thursday, when Columbia Records drops the first new Billy Joel single in 17 years, a song called “Turn The Lights Back On.” “In a press release from his label, Columbia Records, the song is said to …
Category Archives: rock and Roll
Steely Dan To Songwriters’ Hall of Fame
by Kevin Burton Steely Dan and four others will be inducted into the Songwriters’ Hall of Fame this year, according to multiple reports. R.E.M. and three non-performing songwriters, Hillary Lindsey, Timothy Moseley (Timberland) and Dean Pritchard will also be inducted. I don’t know if the Songwriters’ hall has toxic politics the way …
Elvis Presley: The King Of What?
by Kevin Burton Yesterday was Elvis’s birthday. He was born Jan. 8, 1935 in Tupelo, Mississippi. And the fact that I used only his first name and you know exactly who I am talking about is one measure of his exalted place in American culture. But how good was he as a musician, …
What Is The Meaning Of Nyro’s “Stoney End”?
by Kevin Burton One of the greatest vocal performances in my time as a consumer of pop music is on a song that leaves me deeply conflicted; Stoney End by Barbara Streisand. The song grabbed me on some level immediately upon its 1971 release, even before I had the life experience to understand …
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Turning My NFL Sunday Inside Out
by Kevin Burton I don’t know what that was last Sunday, but it was something, and it was personal. Was it a self-boycott, playing hooky, a tantrum ( I am good at those)? I guess it was the fantasy football version of the line “I’m just tired and bored with myself” from …
Last Of The Original Temptations Looks Back
by Nick Krewen Special to the Toronto Star Sixty-three years on, Otis Williams is still at the helm of one of the greatest Motown acts of all-time, the Temptations. Not only does the tenor and baritone vocalist continue to tour with the group into its seventh decade as its only original member, but …
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Blind Band, From Darkness To Limelight
by Xinhua GUIYANG — During the day, Yang Zhi works as a blind massage therapist, and at night, he is the lead singer of ‘Zhe Er Gen,’ a band that enchants the vibrant streets of Guiyang, capital of southwest China’s Guizhou Province. Bathed in the stage lights, passersby often halt in surprise as four …
New Beatles Song Is Neither Now Nor Then
by Kevin Burton Think of the individual Beatles’ colossal talents, with egos to match. Think of the group putting together an album. It’s John Lennon trying to get his songs on the record, Paul McCartney doing the same and George Harrison fighting to be heard at all. There is creativity, artistry, but …
One Final Encore For The Beatles
by Kevin Burton I’m guessing the final Beatles song, to be released later this week, will be neither a bang, nor a whimper. Or maybe it will be a bang, and a whimper and everything in between. That would be fitting for a band that was and is “ way beyond compare” to …
Travis Kelce, Taylor Swift, Jumping The Shark
by Kevin Burton America, do we hate the Chiefs yet? On second thought, let me extend the question to the rest of the world, since the NFL plays games in London, Mexico City and Frankfurt, Germany. World, have we had enough? It seems as usual I am behind the times, late to …
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