You’d expect a song by David Byrne to be quirky but even by his own eccentric standards this one is… let’s say idiosyncratic. (more…)
With his big hat and catchy tunes, George Strait was my gateway drug into what the old joke calls my two of my favourite types of music – country and western. (more…)
Jim Carroll’s tragic song, People Who Died, commemorates the friends he lost to drugs during an early life catalogued in his teenage memoir The Basketball Diaries. (more…)
Punk rock meets primitive electro in The Nails’ finest moment, a tribute to the women they met on their journey from the backstreets of Boulder to Downtown New York. (more…)
The venerable denim-clad 12-bar boogie merchants of Status Quo have had a record-breaking 60 hit singles, but only one number one, in January 1975. This is it. (more…)
Michael Prophet has an unusual “crying” voice that can be heard at its distinctive best on his first hit, a cover of a tune by The Maytones. (more…)
Revolution on the streets never sounded sweeter than when The Twinkle Brothers lent their smooth harmonies to a song about Mob Fury. (more…)
Wayne Smith’s landmark ragga anthem Under Me Sleng Teng in 1985 marked the move away from conscious reggae into digital dancehall music in Jamaica. (more…)
A mellow tune for a sunny afternoon by Don Carlos, original lead singer of Black Uhuru, the trio he formed in 1973 with friends Rudolph Dennis and Duckie Simpson.
Wailing Souls sing Fire House Rock, a fine example of one of the greatest, but least appreciated, of Jamaica’s vocal harmony reggae groups. (more…)