In 1971 Andy Warhol photographs the denim-clad groin area of Warhol Factory regular Jed Johnson. The photo goes on to become an indelible image in the world of rock ‘n’ roll, as it became the cover photo for The Rolling Stones’ Sticky Fingers album. The cover even initially featured a working zipper that when opened […]

Punk svengali and master manipulator Malcolm McClaren engineered the Sex Pistols’ ill-fated tour of the American South in 1978 to maximize mayhem and build upon their already notorious reputation. Deliberately avoiding venues in major cities where the audiences might actually appreciate the band, instead their gigs were booked on an endless circuit of remote redneck […]

Richie Havens is an African American folk singer and guitarist. Havens is perhaps best known for his intense rhythmic guitar style, soulful covers of pop and folk songs and his opening performance at the Woodstock Festival. He was initially scheduled to appear fifth on the bill, but the promoters asked him to come on early […]

Freedy Mercury was born Farookh Bulsara in Zanzibar in 1946 and spent most of his childhood in India before his family settled in England in 1964. Freddie Mercury, Roger Taylor, Brian May and Mike Grose formed Queen in 1970. The band is noted for its musical diversity, multi-layered arrangements, vocal harmonies and incorporation of audience […]

So much music is released daily across so many genres, subgenres, and sub-subgenres, that it is remarkable when an album comes along music fans of all stripes can get behind. In 2003, Outkast’s double album Speakerboxxx/The Love Below possessed that kind of unifying power. On the heels of simultaneous critical darling/commercial breakthrough Stankonia, a follow-up […]

The Big Chill is a 1983 film that tells the story of several University of Michigan college friends who reunite after many years for the funeral of one of their friends who has committed suicide. The soundtrack is a great album (for Boomers) of Motown classics featured in the film including hits from Marvin Gaye, […]

O Brother, Where Art Thou? is a black comedy film directed by Joel Coen, set in Mississippi during the Depressin. It was released in 2000. The film stars George Clooney, John Turturro, Tim Blake Nelson, John Goodman, Holly Hunter, and Charles Durning and is loosely based on the Odyssey by Homer. The film’s American roots […]

Shaft was released in theaters in 1971. Directed by Academy Award winning film director Gordon Parks, Shaft is an action film that tells the story of a black private detective, John Shaft, who travels through Harlem and to the Italian mob in order to find the missing daughter of a black mobster. It stars Richard […]

The word grunge originated as a slang term for “dirt” or “filth”. Mark Arm the vocalist for the Seattle band Green River—and then Mudhoney—is generally credited as being the first to use the term grunge to describe the movement. Arm first used the term in 1981, when he wrote a letter under his given name […]

Miles Davis recorded the album “Bitches Brew” between August of 1969 and January of 1970, though much of the work after August was editing and mixing. The great trumpeter’s parting shot at the 60s was really an attempt to update jazz in the age of rock. Davis was joined by a team of incredibly talented […]