Last weekend, some younger friends, both very involved in music and starting to collect vinyl, brought over a “pile.” One record they were interested in playing was an old lime green Capitol of The Band’s “brown” album. I cleaned it for them; though they believed it was mastered by Bob Ludwig (“RL”), I found no such inscription in the deadwax. We fired it up- nice sounding. I pulled out my copy- an “RL” which I hadn’t heard in a while. The difference between the two records was immediate and obvious, from the depth and impact of the bass to the overall... Read More

I keep being reminded of Curtis Mayfield’s genius in the music of others: Jimi Hendrix’s broken chord stylings, the soul beat of the great Stevie Wonder, the funk of Sly Stone and the spirituality of Bob Marley. I don’t have a clear picture of the man, but only fragments: his early material, including the powerful “People Get Ready” (see note 2, below) when he was recording with the Impressions, the huge success of Superfly, his long-enduring activism and tragic last years. Trying to get a handle on his music in a couple of records isn’t easy; I have a few compilations on vinyl... Read More

  In spite of his considerable talents, Terry Reid is often best remembered as the guy who passed up an invitation from Jimmy Page to become the singer of a new group Page was forming out of the ashes of the Yardbirds. This bit of lore may be as legendary as the story of the Decca executives who passed on signing The Beatles. But Reid takes credit for referring Page to Robert Plant, who with John Bonham, formed the core of Page’s new band, with fellow session man, John Paul Jones. The “what if’s” are, in my estimation, irrelevant, and seemed to have affected Reid’s artistry not... Read More

  Garnet Mimms is another example of the Brits helping us tap into our own musical legacy. Often classified as “Northern Soul,” Mimms was actually a black man from West Virginia who had a few hits with his group, The Enchanters, including the song “Cry Baby,” written by Bert Berns and Jerry Ragavoy. (It’s the same song that Janis Joplin made far more famous a few years later). As a solo artist, Mimms recorded a number of good songs, but few are better than “As Long As I Have You.” That song took hold in the UK and was covered by Led Zeppelin in early tours. Mimms was... Read More

Alas, Detroit, that city of industrial might, now known for blight and bankruptcy. Despite its current woes, Detroit (and Michigan at large) has always been fertile ground for the musical arts—and I’m not just talking about the legendary Detroit Symphony Orchestra or Motown—but something that had just as great a reach, but far less recognition: the “garage rock” scene of the ‘60s, which led to a variety of different and significant musical threads: early punk, as represented by Iggy Pop, rock, of the type played by Bob Seger and Mitch Ryder, the famously loud, raucous MC-5, and... Read More