lefreeakblog

David Crosby or Croz to his fans, one of the key faces of 60s counterculture and ex member of The Byrds and Crosby Stills Nash & Young, died last month after a long illness. Crosby's career was a tale of two halves - firstly with the two aforementioned groups and a brief solo career before sex, drugs and rock & roll caught up with him landing him with a year of jail time in 1985. Initial come backs were often short lived, firstly with two solo albums in 1989 and 1993 and then teaming up with his son in the jazzy folk rock band CPR in the late nineties. However it was complete sobriety in the last decade of his life that led to a burst of creativity and five albums over his last ten years. His songs, opinions and moustache were part of the zeitgeist of the late sixties' counterculture and influence spread far and wide long after this period passed. Personally, I was particularly drawn to his sea songs because of my Devonshire roots and childhood days by the coast. This r...

After uncovering 57 hours of unseen footage, a new film documentary by acclaimed film director Peter Jackson will be released this month, covering The Beatles' recording sessions for Let It Be , the subsequent planning of a live concert and the resulting abridged famous rooftop show. I must be honest, the sheer volume of media excitement around this has been intriguing and raised as many eyebrows as heartbeats; afterall wasn't Let It Be the most maligned Beatles' album? Weren't Beatles' supposedly at war at this point?       As is generally the case, the truth is far murkier and more complex than the publicly believed narrative. Certainly, the starters for ten of the  teaser trailer and then the more recently released  official trailer just show what the fuss is all about, with arguably the then four most famous people on the planet having the time of their lives in full bright colour, in the rehearsal room, in the same room for far longer than any of us rea...

Little Richard, who passed away yesterday, was nicknamed The Originator", "The Innovator", "The Architect of Rock and Roll". Taking early secular rhythm and blues, and merging gospel, (jump) blues and boogie woogie, he injected his own fun wild personality and wrote catchy, high-octane songs on piano, that were sung and performed with so much energy and gusto it thrilled audiences particularly across the United States. Songs such as "Long Tall Sally", "Good Golly Miss Molly", "Rip It Up" and "Tutti Frutti", which was ranked by a range of musicians No.1 for Mojo Magazine to find out the "Top 100 Records That Changed The World": Soon many of his contemporaries were covering his songs, including Elvis Presley, Gene Vincent, Jerry Lee Lewis, Buddy Holly and Bill Halley; Elvis called him "The Greatest". His influence soon also passed into the sixties too where artists such as Elton John, The Rolling St...