by Kevin Burton Texas has its outsized pretentions, but California for most of a century was considered the American promised land. This was reflected throughout popular culture, including in music. So there is no shortage of songs we could use to represent the Golden State in our summer rock and roll road trip …
Category Archives: songwriting
“Memphis” And The Poetry Of Chuck Berry
by Kevin Burton You knew any rock and roll road trip would have to stop by Memphis, right? Well, we are using a Chuck Berry vehicle to get there. We’re going Coast to Coast this summer, talking rock and roll history by means of songs with a state or city in the title. …
Motown’s Move To LA Stifled The Magic
by Kevin Burton There is more than a little irony in the 1971 Jackson 5 song “Going Back To Indiana.” That makes for an easy choice to make Indiana a destination for our summer rock and roll road trip, Coast to Coast. For Coast to Coast we are talking rock and roll history, …
Lieber & Stoller’s “Kansas City” A Classic
by Kevin Burton The musical catalog of lyricist Jerry Lieber and pianist Mike Stoller has been described as “some of the most authentic rhythm and blues that white Jewish guys ever wrote.” Eight years before Norman Mailer published “The White Negro,” these two transplanted easterners submerged themselves in the LA black culture and began …
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Let’s Rock Coast To Coast This Summer
by Kevin Burton We are well into summer now; what do you say we go on a road trip? How about a rock and roll road trip? My wife and I had two mini vacations in late May and into June. The time on the road got my blood pumping. Could be another …
I Guess Static Cling Is A Thing After All
by Kevin Burton Serving up quibbles and bits for Saturday breakfast on Page 7. Stray ideas, quick hitters, random asides. It’s food for thought, albeit maybe not real deep thought….. So, I spent the first 90 percent of my workday Friday with a washcloth stuffed inside my shirt. I put on a …
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A New Beatles Song? We’ll Take It!
by Kevin Burton From a beloved uncle or a dear friend who has passed away, you find a previously unknown letter. How precious is that? It’s a piece of that person that you never had, at a time when you thought there would be no more glimpses into their being. Would you not …
The Story Behind “Sultans Of Swing”
by Kevin Burton It turns out there really was a band called Sultans Of Swing that inspired the great 1978 Dire Straits hit. “Sultans Of Swing” is one of those tunes that stops you in your tracks. It just exudes cool. We tell its story, evoking a musical proverb from “Take It …
The DJs Made Old-Time Radio Come Alive
by Kevin Burton Music fans who go back as far as the 80s and especially before, badly miss the old days of radio. You had music historians, actual musicians and others who loved music, choosing what records hit the airwaves. It was a wacky, fun time for listeners across musical genres. It was …
Steely Dan Takes On Lennon And “Imagine”
by Kevin Burton One of the few Steely Dan tunes I don’t really like took on more juice recently when I read that the song is an attack on John Lennon’s “Imagine.” I had no idea the song “Only A Fool Would Say That,” from the 1972 album “Can’t Buy A Thrill” casts Lennon as …
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