Stevie Ray Vaughan “Testify” (1983)
Not long ago I was engaged in an important discussion at a Mets game with some old friends Ike, Petey and Sean about what our “walk up” music would be if we were major league ballplayers. I didn’t hesitate in naming ‘Testify’, this absolutely incendiary Stevie Ray Vaughan instrumental from his... Read More
Beatles “Run For Your Life” (1965)
For all the cheeriness of ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’, ‘All You Need Is Love’, ‘Good Day Sunshine’, ‘Here Comes The Sun’ and ‘With A Little Help From My Friends’, the Beatles also wrote some goddamn dark songs. And I’m not even talking about... Read More
Dave Clark Five “Glad All Over” (1963)
Can you guess how many band members were in The Dave Clark Five?... Read More
Dawes “A Little Bit Of Everything” (2011)
There are a lot of ways to discover a song and a band. This one came via a restaurant in Nashville called Etch. I was there last year with my wife and our friends Paul and Maryellen, and on our first night in town, with so much local flavor we were anxious to try, the...... Read More
Van Halen “Ice Cream Man” (1978)
Van Halen wasn't exactly my favorite thing. This song was a definite exception.... Read More
Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds “Don’t Pull Your Love” (1971)
‘Don’t Pull Your Love’ was the first (and second-biggest) hit by this cheesy, early ‘70’s Los Angeles soft rock quartet. Wait, they weren’t actually a quartet? For years my friends Zing, Messiah and I have debated how many members this ... Read More
Buckwheat Zydeco “Zydeco Boogaloo” (1984)
This site is called So Much Great Music because that’s really how I feel; there’s just too much great stuff out there, both past and present, to be pigeon-holed into only one or two music genres, or to just a few artists within a given genre. Now, I’m not saying I like everything: regular readers...... Read More
Mumford & Sons “Little Lion Man” (2009)
Some years ago I had the opportunity to have lunch with Daniel Glass, longtime music executive and founder in 2007 of Glassnote Records. Not long before our meeting, Glassnote had put out an album by a completely unknown quartet of Brits called Mumford & Sons, which against all odds, let alone all music industry trends,...... Read More
George Thorogood “It Wasn’t Me” (1978)
As legend, or some old music magazine, has it, an interviewer once asked George Thorogood why he didn’t write more of his own songs, to which he replied “Because Chuck Berry already wrote all the f*cking songs that ever needed to be written.” I can’t quite call this a direct quote, but I’m pretty confident...... Read More
Link Wray “Rumble” (1958) [performed 1974]
Lots of great guitarists have lots of different influences, but they all love Link Wray. I can’t prove it as a scientific fact, but just believe me on this. I first heard Wray’s trailblazing sound tearing up the two albums on which he partnered with Rockabilly legend Robert Gordon for his first two releases, Robert...... Read More