Ironically enough, my favourite has always been ‘We’re Only In It For the Money’…

Apparently you get a ‘special’ board game. Mmm. I’m sure Frank would have been disgusted.

Indeed. I was attracted to the Zappa ‘Hot Rats Sessions’ but £100 plus for six discs seems a bit steep. Regardless of whether you like Jethro Tull or not their series of anniversary editions of Steven Wilson […]

True. So many bands burn out after a few albums. The overwhelming majority don’t even get that far of course.

I think the Beatles had the right idea.

Yes, I remember buying that. Fool that I was. I’m sure you did your best with what you were presented with. I dread to think what they were like before you edited them.

Yes, I remembered Kinky Friedman after I’d posted. Haven’t read any of his pieces though. Mike Scott wrote a rather scathing song about him on the last but one Waterboys album which is worth hearing…

You got me on Quadrophenia. Maybe 73 was the cut-off point for The Who.

But however listenable some of those post-72 Stones albums may be I would still stick to my guns and say that the bulk of their creative […]

Can any rock star actually write a novel with a real ‘story’?

Dylan couldn’t. Townshend apparently can’t either. Lennon was useless at plots and lost interest after two or three pages. Morrissey’s ‘novel’ was […]

I maintain that, whilst enjoyable, it will probably get one or two mentions in an index rather than an entire chapter.

‘Some Girls’ is often regarded as the finest album of their non-golden era and it does show […]

Mmm. Let it Bleed. Beggar’s Banquet. Aftermath. Exile on Main Street. Sticky Fingers. Plus a shedload of incredible non-album singles too numerous to mention.

When the history of the Stones is finally written […]

I know. It’s spooky. It may sound like a throwaway comment but I actually believe it’s true. I can’t think of any record either band made after that date that stands up to the stuff they made prior to it. They […]

I haven’t bought a single ‘new’ album this year but, so far anyway, the best re-issue (lavish and beautifully-presented…and reasonably cheap) has been ‘Stormwatch’ by Tull.

Oh, you know I love The Who but, like the Stones, they kind of died around 1972.

Thanks Colin. Don’t remember that one. But I only dipped my toe in their world. ‘Emergency’ was a cracker though.

You’re probably right about his political state of mind. I know someone quite close to him who admits he doesn’t really have a clue and lives in a pretty isolated environment in LA. But I haven’t got a problem […]

Who could forget ‘Emergency’?

And….er….um…

I take your point. But I would argue that the idea of writing a ‘standard’ was largely one which preoccupied the Denmark Street/Tin Pan Alley crew at this period. Pop was at a trans-formative point although […]

Out in March apparently. I rather liked his covers album. Despite his ridiculous political opinions I remain a champion of his art. At his best a superb lyricist with an infectious sense of the magical and the […]

No, that would be Hugh Cornwell.

Yes, interesting. But I suppose that, crucially, the ‘non-art’ stuff was intended to be ephemeral and disposable at the time of release. No one- not least the Beatles, Stones or Motown crew- would have imagined […]