Sun Ra Times Two
Two albums with the same title, by the same artist, basically released one week apart on the same planet? Even considering the dubious history of music-biz capers and catastrophes, the Lights on a Satellite kerfuffle is hilariously surreal. By the time it was discovered, covers were already printed and records were already pressed. It's so bizarre that it's tempting to suspect intergalactic powers were involved. Could the ghost of that interstellar traveler, Master Sun Ra, who thought space was the place, have had a hand in this unlikeliest of Saturnian conjunctions?
Fortunately, the two versions of Lights on a Satellite are very different.
The Beatles in Mono According to Kevin
"But it is the wildest, most incredible music story of all time and I'm at least mildly flattered that I played a miniscule part in it.
I'm even more pleased that it's all behind me."Dave Dexter Jr. From his autobiography, Playback
It's almost too easy to make Dave Dexter Jr. the villain in the story of the Beatles' fumbled introduction to America. A devoted denigrator of rock'n'roll who thought it was a passing fad meant for the kiddies, and who also thought John Lennon played "lousy harmonica," he was just one of the many older music fans who were sure that Elvis Presley's hips had been a corrupting influence on America's youth, not to mention on good music.
The head of International A&R at Capitol Records, then owned by the UK's EMI, Dexter was no fan of British acts in general. He also turned down Manfred Mann, The Animals, The Yardbirds, and The Hollies.
The Passing of Two Americana Greats: Joe Ely and Raul Malo
Just before Christmas 2025, American music suffered two irreplaceable losses with the passings of Raul Malo (December 8) and Joe Ely (December 15). While a lot of musicians exist on the artistic and commercial fringes, Malo and Ely were foundational artists, gifted creators and performers who refused to be confined by artistic boundaries.
The Replacements' Tim: Let It Bleed Edition
Having just finished this review of The Replacements' Tim: Let It Bleed Edition, I thought I'd glance at a couple of online forums to see what the collective verdict was on the sound quality of the set's main attraction: a remix of the album by Ramones engineer Ed Stasium. At Steve Hoffman's forums, I saw this in one of the first posts: "It sounded like I expected Tim to sound when it came out in the fall of 1985. I've also listened to the newly remastered original album that comes with the set, and while it sounds good and I'm glad to have it, it pales compared to the 2023 Stasium mix." Ticking down a post or two, exuberance gushed forth: "Well, IMO the [Stasium] version of Tim may be the greatest rock record of all time."
The Tipitina's Record Club
Professor Longhair in his living room! Etta Jamesliveat Tipitina's!! Previously unknown James Booker recordings!!! All of it unreleased and unheard???
In the music world, spare time spurred by COVID closures led to many good ideas and side projects. Few have been better than Tipitina's Record Club (TRC).
Touched-up Beatles and Ringo in Color
Opinions vary, but like everything connected to The Beatles, charged arguments over Giles Martin's ongoing remastering of, and sonic tinkering with, the band's hallowed recording catalog are unending.
Vince Mendoza's Learning Laboratory
Photo by Reinout Bos
Audio engineers never get the credit they deserve. The same is true for music arrangers, who are also an unheralded but hugely fundamental part of any musical success. As a composer, conductor, and inventive arranger of popular music, the modest but multitalented Vince Mendoza says he's most focused on enhancing the song he is arranging and the story it is trying to tell.
"Young arrangers are very concerned with their own voice and spinning their own melodies and turning things upside down and backwards, and they forget what a song really is about," he told me in a recent Zoom conversation from his home in Los Angeles. "You could be writing about heartbreak, and there are a million and one ways to tell that story, but the listener still has to feel it."Vinyl Me Please Reissues Guy Clark's Old No. 1
Recently, a letter to the editor from Len Eggert arrived in Stereophile's digital mailbox that closed with a question: "How about coverage of other notable 'outlaw' singer-songwriters who shunned Nashville and put Austin on the musical map: Guy Clark? Kris Kristofferson? Jerry Jeff Walker? Waylon Jennings? Billie Joe Shaver? David Allan Coe? Are you listening, Robert Baird?"
Timely if nothing else, that email came just after I had serendipitously acquired a new-to-my-collection, first-pressing LP copy of the first Guy Clark album, Old No. 1.
Warren Zevon: the Werewolf on Mobile Fidelity
If music reflects the life of the person who created itif, for example, we can hear Mozart's inner turmoil in his operasthen Warren Zevon's song catalog is uncommonly revealing. Headless mercenaries, killer rapists, and yes, impeccably dressed werewolves with a taste for pina coladas are all part of the colorful world of WZ's twisted imagination and especially of his masterpiece, 1978's Excitable Boy, recently reissued by Mobile Fidelity on two 180gm LPs cut at 45rpm.
You're Only Lonely, JD Souther Passes
Photo by Jim Shea
The least surprising story in music today is the inevitable passing of irreplaceable talent. Tenor saxophonist Benny Golson died at age 95 the day I finished this salute to another fallen star, Southern California singer/songwriter John David "JD" Souther.