Here is Alice Cooper’s breakthrough hit I’m Eighteen from 1970. Three years later it was the song Johnny Rotten – 18 or 19 at the time – famously mimed to for Malcolm McLaren to get the job of singer with The Sex Pistols.
The Killers’ debut single Mr Brightside has spent a record seven and a half years hanging around the UK singles chart since 2004 – but never got to the top.
I was busy building tree houses and playing with train sets when The Stooges released their debut album so I can only imagine the impact of hearing this when it came out. No need to say when that was either – it’s right there in the title.
Captain Beefheart enjoyed one of his more mainstream moments when he recorded Observatory Crest for his ninth album Bluejeans & Moonbeams.
Texan troubadour Vincent Neil Emerson is one of country music’s minority of Native American performers, coming from the Choctaw-Apache tribe.
RIP Duane Eddy (1938-2024)
Everyone knows the guitar riff that kicks off Duane Eddy’s first hit single Movin’ N’ Groovin’ from back in 1958 – though not necessarily from this record.
I love dipping back in to old compilation albums and discovering early efforts by two or three bands who went on to become big names. Stevo’s first compilation, Some Bizzare Album, uncovered this one.
This week saw the 91st birthday of Willie Nelson, veteran pioneer of Outlaw Country and still turning out two or three albums a year without any notable loss of quality.
I admire the fact he was still writing at 88, and he can certainly spin a good yarn after all those years. But, oh man, John LeCarré’s latest spy saga is filled with excruciating anachronisms that make the 21st century seem like a foreign country.
If dance music was rock music, then this tune, Waters Of Nazareth by French dance duo Justice, would be its Smoke On The Water.