It is on Depeche Mode‘s smoldering masterpiece Violator (1990) where you find Personal Jesus, released as the album’s lead-single and becoming the biggest-selling 12-inch single in Warner Bros. history to that point. According to Johnny Cash a ‘gospel’ and “the most evangelical song I have ever recorded”, it remains to this day the perfect song …
Elias Rahbani is a composer, arranger, lyric writer, conductor & producer from Lebanon. With his Mosaic Of The Orient album, Rahbani has created a mix of Eastern and Western sounds. It’s a record like few others. Strong melodies accompany the use of Arabic instruments with the more Western use of organs and drums. I hope the …
At best, a good year-end list can feature a few albums that may have gone unnoticed. So let’s take a look at the 10 albums that are worthy of a second glance. Do not pay too close of attention to the order- almost all of these could have fit into the top spot. 1) Pere …
It may surprise one or the other reader, but I am not the most confident musician when it comes to my own lyrics. I don’t consider myself a genius there. Michael Stipe from R.E.M. is a genius. A master when it comes to conveying impressions. His lyrics are like a car ride along a street …
Before I had the mustache, I wore a full beard and looked like George Clinton on the cover of Parliament’s The Clones Of Dr. Funkenstein. I liked T-Rex, David Bowie and The Stones, but George Clinton had a philosophy that I understood: “Everything is on the one.” The beat always emphasizes the one. Every instrument …
‘Krautrock’ is now the common nomenclature for German avant-garde of the 70s, although that was not always the case- the term was originally used to mock and dismiss the experimental music bursting out of Germany at the time. The German innovators of Kraftwerk, Can, Faust and Neu! were artists who sought a conscious break from …
People had suspected it for years. But in 1972, the release of two albums made it official: there were aliens living on Earth. The first of these grand announcements may have been the least shocking of the two. David Bowie released The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust. People had long suspected Bowie of being …
I could actually name any Dylan album of the Sixties here, but no other album has turned my life so completely upside down like his debut did. Maybe we don’t sound like him, but even for The Stooges his approach was very important: Dylan wasn’t only endlessly talented, he was also the first Rock-musician who …
Ever wonder how a new tradition is born? Certainly not by destroying the past, but by building upon the planks and pillars of those that came before. There needs to be a healthy respect for the past without sinking into the quicksand of past glory. Nostalgia being the certain death of creativity and progress. On …
As a senior in high school, I skipped a lot of class. If grades were measured on cunning and deceit I would have gotten straight A’s. It didn’t take much motivation for me to duck down a lonely hallway on a mostly unfrequented wing, and find that door that the security guard never monitored. Finding …
