by Kevin Burton If you start talking about the fauna and flora of a certain environment, people are going to be weirded out. Why? Well, we usually say flora and fauna, not the other way around. Is there a good reason for this? Maybe not, but don’t buck the trend, unless weirdness is …
Tag Archives: rock and Roll
“Rock Your Baby” And The Dawn Of Disco
by Kevin Burton There would come a time, in a year or so, when you could not escape disco. But at its inception 50 years ago, you couldn’t have seen it coming. “Disco snuck up on America like a covert operation,” wrote Alice Echols in her book “Hot Stuff, Disco and the Remaking …
Gerry Rafferty Was Born 77 Years Ago Today
by Kevin Burton The headline to an article in The Independent called Gerry Rafferty a “bipolar alcoholic industry misfit.” His biographers including his daughter Martha dispute none of that. The article was printed on the occasion of the 2021 release of “Rest In Blue” an album of Rafferty demos polished and completed by …
Continue reading “Gerry Rafferty Was Born 77 Years Ago Today”
“No Hard Feelings” By Eric Carmen Is A Gem
by Kevin Burton You remember Eric Carmen for “All By Myself” and for the Raspberries’ “Go All The Way.” But it’s one of his B-sides that resonates most with me. We got word last week that Carmen had died at age 74. The news sent my mind to several places, including to a …
Continue reading ““No Hard Feelings” By Eric Carmen Is A Gem”
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 …
Continue reading “What Is The Meaning Of Nyro’s “Stoney End”?”
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 …
It’s Black Coffee Or No Coffee At All
by Kevin Burton Let’s get a few things straight right up front. We’re all friends here, yes? The various sugars, sugar substitutes, creams, potions, spices, flavors, elixirs – chief among them pumpkin of any kind – these things that otherwise upstanding people put into coffee, these things individually and collectively are an abomination. …
Tell A Stranger About Philadelphia Freedom
by Kevin Burton Trying to wrestle down he lighter-than-air 70s anthem “Philadelphia Freedom” by Elton John is like trying to tell a stranger ‘bout rock and roll. You kind of can’t. You can parse the words if you like, look into its origins, the elements that went into it. But in the end …
Continue reading “Tell A Stranger About Philadelphia Freedom”
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 …
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 …
Page 7 