Segarini – Petty Differences

It was sometime during the Spring of 1977. I was in New York (for God knows why) and my friend Ritchie swung by the Chelsea and Bobnapped me in his TransAm, or Camaro, or whatever the fuck it was, and drove us across the George Washington Bridge into Soprano Country and the Wilds of New Jersey. This wasn’t the first time by a long shot. Once was to a Mansion he and his buddies ‘liberated’ while the owners were in the Hamptons, where he introduced me to Yes and ‘Roundabout’ on a GhettoBlaster set up on one of the numerous fireplace mantles, and another time, when he spirited me away to a high school in West Orange to hear some guy named Bruce Springsteen play a school dance in the Gymnasium. THIS time, we were on our way to a house party on the Jersey Shore, long before The Situation briefly lived in a broken condom….

Pat Blythe – Tom Petty, Burton Cummings, Scott Holt and Bill Durst…..

I open today’s column with great sadness. Tom Petty, a true rock ‘n’ roller and one of the most respected individuals in the music business today, as both as musician and a person, has died just days before his 67th birthday. Social media was on fire with the news, jumping the gun just a tad early (thanks CBS) but nonetheless, we instinctively knew in our hearts he wasn’t going to make it. I traversed the 70’s and 80’s with Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers, listening to and loving his work. Not your “classic” rocker, in both appearance and musically, but we all knew Petty was pure talent. The “humanness” of his lyrics, his way of combining them with a unique melody and his distinctive voice, touched a certain part of your psyche and drew you in. You stopped to listen. There will be so much written about him over the next few days and weeks I won’t drag it out here. Suffice to say this is one rocker I will truly miss. I send my condolences to his wife Dana York, his two daughters Adria and AnnaKim, his step-son Dylan and his extended family.

Pat Blythe: Solstice, Petty and Beer

The days are just flying by and we’ve already reached the longest day of the year. Now the days start to get just a teeny, tiny bit shorter but we don’t start to notice it until sometime late August….it just kinda creeps up on you. And so the cycle continues. I contend the longest day shouldn’t be until summer is over but that’s a discussion I need to have with Mother Nature and quite, frankly, I think she’s a little pissed with how we’ve been treating Gaia. I’ll hold off for another day

JAIMIE VERNON – AMERICAN SINGERS, AMERICAN LEGENDS (BOP BOP BOP)

Those who’ve known me a long time – including the pre-curmudgeon me in the days before the intertoobs – can attest to my unapologetic, jingoistic rah-rah All Canadian mantra. I love my country. I love my music. But despite my seemingly anti-‘Merika crusade dating back to Ronnie’s Rocket Regalias in the early 1980s, I do love my American pop music.

Doug Thompson: ROLLING STONE MAGAZINE MISSES THE MARK…..AGAIN!

Rolling Stone Magazine recently released their latest ‘list’, “The 100 Greatest Songwriters” rollingstone.com).  Let me repeat that title, “The 100 Greatest Songwriters”.  Their descriptive line states “From Brill Building tunesmiths to Punk poets, from Woody Guthrie to Max Martin, the visionaries who defined music history.”

Pat Blythe: Women of Rock – Part Two

Ch-ch-ch-cha-changes

I have been slowly getting to know my fellow writers, conversing with them through Facebook, email and over the phone. A what! Yep, a real live telephone. You know, those devices that allow you to actually hear what the other person sounds like while enjoying honest-to-goodness dialogue. Fingers seem to do more walking and mouths less talking these days. We are no longer an oral society. The world of banter, tete-a-tetes and nattering have gone the way of such foods as pineapple upside down cake. (remember those) Mmmmmm……

JAIMIE VERNON – THE WAGONS ARE CIRCLING…THE DRAIN

WARNING: This blog features the oral history of wallpaper drying and pertains to music that’s less than a decade old. Reading it might very well put you in a coma and cause your family to call emergency services.

It’s been a very interesting week in the music business as the wintery cobwebs get dusted away and we start seeing the industry awaken from its post-2014 slumber. There’s something amiss in Muzoid Land and it appears to be the long tail of sins of the past coming back to eat itself.