British R&B from the 60s is sometimes called "Northern Soul." Chris Farlowe was prototypical. He even released a single pretending to be an old bluesman.

When Kaylan wrote "Eleanore" he was trying to write a song which was so bad that record execs would stop bothering him to write hits. But the execs loved it.

The following two lines from "Ballad Of Frankie Lee And Judas Priest" are iambic.

Saying, "Are you Frankie Lee, the gambler, (pause)
Whose father is deceased?

Dylan when singing pauses in between the two lines to make the cadence even easier to pick out.

Dylan's father Abraham Zimmerman died on June 5, 1968, less than a year after Dylan recorded "Ballad of Frankie Lee And Judas Priest." It is possible that the knowledge of his own father's impending death influenced the lyric.

"[Dylan] is a bard who has found his form."--Paul Williams, 1966. And a year later Dylan returned. After a mere 2.5 electric albums (one side of Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited, and Blonde On Blonde) John Wesley Harding featured Dylan in his original acoustic format.

WBZ-AMs Dick Summer Show, which could be heard all up and down the East Coast at night, used to play the hell out of it

Turtles singer Howard Kaylan (b. Howard Kaplan, 1947, New York City) was overweight when he sang "She'd Rather Be With Me" on the Ed Sullivan Show in '67. By '69 he and Turtles backup vocalist Mark Volman were just plain fat. It was as if they had stopped trying.

The Nails '88 Lines About 44 Women' is derivative of Jim Carroll's 'People Who Died.' If Carroll himself had recorded it then people would have accused him of stealing from himself.

Carroll's book The Basketball Diaries is a memoir of his prep school days. It later became a film starring Leonardo DiCaprio.

Members of the same ethnic group can feud. Sonny Bono thought Sonny and Cher's manager--who had an Italian name--was lazy. Bono fired him in order to avoid the manager profiting unfairly from Sonny and Cher's impending comeback.

Sonny and Cher's TV show in the early 70s did indeed bring them back big, and they lived happily ever after. Until they split up. He got the TV show, which soon tanked. She got half of his song-writing royalties, a point which still bothered him decades later when he wrote his autobiography.

Black Americans have performed a disproportionate percentage of hit records since at least the 60s. In some other fields (Jews in film production, perhaps) some other ethnic groups do well.

Between late '63 and '65 black-performed music was so popular that Billboard did away with its separate R&B chart and kept track of black-oriented and non-black -oriented records on the same pop chart. Billboard later brought back the R&B chart as the Soul chart.

Dylan doesn't understand his own success just as most people don't understand their own lives.

Agnetha released albums after Abba, but the only former member to have an American solo hit was Frida (Anni-Frid) with "I Know (There's Something Going On)"

I am going to form an Online Committee to Revitalize Interest In The Career Of Billy Squire. He deserves it, he's earned it, and people like him.

It was only 7 years between Momentary Lapse of Reason and Division Bell, but it's been 14 since. By not releasing bad albums Pink keeps its reputation intact.

Some say Zimmerman took his stage name of Dylan from an uncle's first name. Dylan's parents were immigrant-era Jews. Their siblings didn't have names like Dylan.

Even in 1966, at his creative peak, there were some people who put Dylan down. Paul Williams wrote that year: "the favorite indoor sport...is...disparaging...Dylan."

It wasn't just Dylan who couldn't sustain his creative output into the 70s. Burt Bacharach couldn't either. Indeed, Dylan came closer with Blood On The Tracks.

The 1st time I ever heard Barbra Streisand singing "Stoney End" I could tell immediately that Laura Nyro had written it. Something about the chord progressions.

Mark Lindsay went to school in Cambridge, Idaho. He met Paul Revere in Caldwell. They then relocated to Portland and eventually to LA. It's amazing that starting out playing clubs in Idaho could eventually lead to the Raiders' level of success.

I guess that you can become successful in show business from anyplace in the continental US.

Loverboy were fairly old when they broke in late 1981. Guitarist Paul Dean was 36. Singer Mike Reno was in his late 20s.

Renaldo and Clara is Dylan's version of the Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour--an ambitious film project which the rest of the world didn't get.

Bob Dylan in the 60s was unique. But he still had models of how to be successful. He had Allen Ginsberg, Pete Seeger, Baudelaire.

"I had written a long letter to [Dylan]...I said also that I had dug the great line in the song 'Idiot Wind,'...I said it was a 'national rhyme'--Allen Ginsberg, New Age Journal Interview, February 1976.

The line which Ginsberg praised was:

Idiot wind,
blowing like a circle round my skull
from Grand Coulee Dam to the Capitol

In this line the image of a circle is repeated in "skull," the Capitol Dome in Washington DC, and the arched Grand Coulee Dam.

"[In] late 1965, Dylan gave Ginsberg a gift of money which Ginsberg used to purchase a portable tape recorder"--Clinton Heylin

Ginsberg then, with Dylan's approval, made pseudo-bootleg tapes of Dylan's concerts.

Dylan and Ginsberg were close. However, when Ginsberg wrote Dylan ca. 1975 seeking a $200,000 donation for Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche's Naropa Institute, the two had not seen each other in four years. (Dylan, in responding to Ginsberg's letter, ignored the request for money.)

Rinpoche was an interesting case. He opposed the use of psychedelics on the grounds that they clouded the mind. But he himself was an alcoholic, and died of that disease.

Rinpoche would sometimes preach drunk. His followers are divided on the extent to which, if at all, his alcoholism detracted from his teachings.

"In the mid-80s, poodle rock band Europe became the first Swedish act after the demise of Abba to make a significant international impact..."--Carl Magnus Palm

Abba opened the door for a lot of other Swedish rock bands, from Roxette to the Cardigans. The producers, engineers and studio musicians who worked on Abba records, which were often made in Sweden, formed a pool of talent on which later Swedish bands could rely on as well.

To me Drake and/or Harpo with the rest of the "Where The Action Is" crew--Fang, Smitty, Mark and Paul--is the classic Paul Revere and the Raiders lineup.

At LiveAid MTVs Nina Blackwood exclaimed "who would have expected to see Sting singing backup on 'Money For Nothing'!", not realizing Sting was on the record.

The legendary Newport festival where Dylan went electric, and Pete Seeger tried to unplug Dylan's amplifier, was 1965. His 1963 performance went smoothly.

When Dylan played LiveAid Keith Richards and David Crosby backed him up. My brother referred facetiously to "those derelicts who wandered onstage" behind Dylan.

Even if Dylan were to attend a wedding or a funeral at a church it would not be evidence that he was an Xtian. However, attending a church to worship would be

Xtianity Today says Bob Dylan hadn't been seen inside a church in many years. But he is sighted at High Holy Day services regularly. He is no longer an Xtian.

John Lennon was friends with Nilsson. So when Klaus Voorman of the Plastic Ono Band played on Nilsson's "Jump Into The Fire" that Lennon association helped.

"People Got To Be Free" was a huge hit in 6/68, but wasn't on the latest Rascals album "Once Upon A Dream," only on their "Time/Peace" greatest hits compilation

The Raiders toured Western Europe as the opening act for the Beach Boys. Mark Lindsay called it "an eye-opening experience." thanks in part to Dennis Wilson's drug use. "Bruce Johnston was a health nut. He took thousands of vitamins and other pills. Dennis also took thousands of things...not as many vitamin pills as Bruce Johnston," he says.

The people on the tour were concerned that Dennis would get caught with drugs at a border stop. The Raiders and Beach Boys had their own plane for travelling. One time they pulled into Heathrow and were diverted to a corner of the runway. The plane were searched.

The UK police found Johnston's pills and Johnston had to accompany them to the police station. It took several hours for the police to test the pills. Eventually the police had to sheepishly tell Johnston that the tests came back clean. There was no problem with his pills.

The drumming is prominent on "California Girls" but Dennis Wilson only drummed on tour, not in the studio. In fact he was hardly heard on the Beach Boys' records.

On the outro to "Aquarius" the bass player improvises with fleet fingers while Billy Davis improvises also in a soulful manner. The resulting interplay is very high-energy, especially a part where Davis let's out a short yelp of "Whoa!"

Mark Lindsay referred to Billy Stewart's performance of "Summertime" as "an ambitious version." Stewart trilled his "R"s in a way that most singers could not.

It is surprising that the lyric "I get high in the evening sniffing pots of glue" in Elton's 1974 single "The Bitch is Back" aroused no protest.

When Elton sang "I'm a bitch...the bitch is back" it was an allusion to his own homosexuality.

"All Things Must Pass" was as successful as any of the other' Beatles' albums.

On Abbey Road Harrison was the songwriting equal of Lennon-McCartney. "Here Comes The Sun" and "Something" were 2 of the most popular songs on the album.

Picture duck-tailed 15-year-old Mark Lindsay hitchhiking into Caldwell, Idaho in 1957. With dreams of being a star fuelled by having won a talent contest.

Some UK Jewish artists have been working class. Helen Shapiro's family was poor enough not to own a record player. Marc (Feld) Bolan's father was a bus driver. Bolan went to the same school as Shapiro. Elkie (Elaine Bookbinder) Brooks' father was a baker. And in the modern era, Amy Winehouse's father is a truck driver.

On the other hand, Beatles' manager Brian Epstein's family owned a furniture store.

Artists become more musically conservative as they age. Clapton in Cream and the Dominoes was more progressive than he ever was afterwards.

"250624" has a stupid lyric. The writer simply rhymes "more" with "four" and expects the listener to assume that it all means something.

By the time "Magic Carpet Ride" was a hit its songwriter Mars Bonfire was no longer in the band. That first album had a silver cover and included "The Pusher."

"Magic Carpet Ride" was a shlocky little song. A 15-year-old could imagine it was about sex and the girl was the carpet. It had a squealing guitar in it.

The intro to "Heat Wave" sound as if the vocals were wiped from one of the choruses. One can subliminally hear the girls singing. Possibly the channels bled.

I like "Heat Wave." It is a great record. The channel-bleeding, if it even exists, enhances the record.

"Blue Moon" is an old song written by Rodgers and Hart in 1934. The Marcels had a hit with an upbeat version. But Elvis recorded a slow, haunting arrangement of it on Sun Sessions.

A few days before "Cruel To Be Kind" was a hit a radio programming consultant met Lowe backstage and told him he had a hit. Afterwards Lowe was nonchalant.

In the 90s Kevin Cronin was on the Howard Stern Show. He said REO could still draw 12K people to Midwest shows, but on the coasts they couldn't draw anyone.

Yes's early music used unusual time signatures. The 90125 album which featured "Owner of a Lonely Heart" was much more mainstream. Wikipedia calls it "MTV era."

Voorman did the collage on the cover of Revolver. Having discovered the Beatles probably helped Voorman become a successful session bass player.

Klaus Voorman was the guy who was walking past the Star Club, heard the Beatles inside and befriended them. He played bass on Nilsson's "Jump Into The Fire."

"Some Girls" contain remarks about black and possibly Puerto Rican girls which might not pass muster today. But 30 years ago was a different time.



.

Blood On The Tracks is the exception to the rule that Dylan's post Harding lyrics are not worthy of examination. Jakob said the album was his parents talking.

The Raiders played Knott's Berry Farm. The stage had a waterfall backdrop and was hot and humid. Mark was woozy. After the show he barfed on Mrs. Knott's shoes.

Rundgren's lyrics are not like Dylan's or even Donovan's. The listener is not repaid for close inspection of them. There are not deep thought buried in them.

If Bon Scott had lived he would now be 62. But that is not surprising. AC/DCs Powerage came out about in '74' when Scott was in his late 20s.

The Jagger and Richard guarded against substandard material by other Stones. The only Wyman song they recorded was "In Another Land" which had a good melody.

Billy Squire released a dark, gloomy video in the 80s that featured him laying on a bed. Soon afterwards he complained that the director ruined his career.

For years David Lee Roth regretted having quit Van Halen ca 1985. But all was well in the end as Roth rejoined in 2008 and toured with the band.

Tom Petty once shot a 40-lb rat and an onlooker then offered $50 for it because he wanted to stuff Tom Petty's rat. Petty offered him $150 to clean it up.

Gram Parsons eventually got bored with being in the Flying Burrito Brothers. Chris Hillman said he had to fire Parsons for skipping rehearsals.

'Couldn't I Just Tell You' from 1972s 'Something/Anything' rocks. It sounds a lot like the songs Rundgren earlier wrote with Nazz and unlike later songs

Piano Red recorded a song called "Bald-Headed Lena," later performed by the Lovin' Spoonful with a rare vocal performance by guitarist Zal Yanofsky. The image of a bald woman is a recurrent motif in pop lyrics. The Kinks recorded a song by producer Shel Talmy called "Bald-Headed Woman." There is also the Beach Boys "She's Going Bald." Not to mention Little Richard's Bald-Headed Sally.

Ted Nugent, not Derek St. Holmes, sang lead on "Cat Scratch Fever." although the latter did sing about half the songs on the "Cat Scratch Fever" album.

When the Shaggs covered the Byrds "Feel A Whole Lot Better" by Gene Clark they copied McGuinn's guitar solo but didn't pay McGuinn royalties.