A compendium of musical delights by Alan and Margaret Ashworth
ONE of my favourite music videos is Robert Palmer’s Addicted to Love, directed by the fashion photographer Terence Donovan. Palmer is immaculate in white shirt, black trousers, skinny black tie and thousand-dollar … Continue readingRobert Palmer, rock ’n’ roll dandy
LAST week we left Tim Buckley having given his first, brilliant, British concert in October 1968. That December he went back into the studio to record his third studio album, Happy Sad. … Continue readingTim & Jeff, Buckley & Son Part 2
ONE of the most powerful movie passages I can remember is at the end of Coming Home, directed by Hal Ashby in 1978. It tells the story (spoiler alert, in case … Continue readingTim & Jeff, Buckley & Son
I THINK it’s fair to say that Sufjan Stevens didn’t get off to the most promising start in life. His schizophrenic, alcoholic, drug-addicted mother abandoned him in 1976, when he … Continue readingSufjan Stevens, Motherless Son
HOW did Joni Mitchell follow the towering achievement that was Hejira? Answer: With difficulty. As I wrote in a previous column, the album released in late 1976 was in my opinion the … Continue readingJoni Mitchell Part 4: The best of the rest
IT WAS in the spring of 1968 that Beach Boys drummer Dennis Wilson stopped his car for two attractive girl hitch-hikers in Malibu, Los Angeles. He invited them back to … Continue readingThe Beach Boy and the Evil Wizard
AMONG the many things I admire about Laura Veirs is that she is the polar opposite of a rock chick. A Mandarin Chinese-speaking geology graduate, she considered working as a … Continue readingTell Laura we love her
BACK in September we grimaced our way through Kenny Everett’s World’s Worst Record Show, a collection of 20 truly terrible tunes from the vaults, and I invited readers to provide their own … Continue readingA Christmas cringefest
BACK in March, which seems a very long time ago now, we left Jackson Browne grieving after the suicide of his wife Phyllis but experiencing unprecedented chart success with his 1976 album The … Continue readingA Jackson Browne study: Part 3
THE last time I visited Lindisfarne, or Holy Island, I intended to show our son Jim what a lovely place it is. Unfortunately the fog was so thick that you … Continue readingLindisfarne through the fog