James Sullivan
Contributor
Boston Globe contributor, former San Francisco Chronicle music critic. Author of books on James Brown ('The Hardest Working Man') and pop culture ('Jeans: A Cultural History of an American Icon'). Has written for Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly, many more.
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The 20th Century Boy would have turned 63 in 2010. Marc Bolan, founder and frontman of the briefly stratospheric glam band T. Rex, prided himself on being ahead of his time. He called his music "cosmic." He wore glitter before the Glitter Twins. He danced the 'Ballrooms of Mars' decades before his space-rock successors.
But Bolan, for all his ...
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Before the Grinch's heart grew three sizes that day, the thing he hated most about Christmas was all the noise, noise, noise, noise. This year, at least in the UK, he'll just have to live with it: Rage Against the Machine's 17-year-old song 'Killing in the Name,' with help from an unlikely Facebook campaign, has been declared Britain's latest ...
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When they met as teenagers in the working-class port city of San Pedro, Calif., Mike Watt marveled at the way Dennes Boon could not be brought down with a football in his hands. Built like a fire hydrant, Boon "just seemed unkillable," Watt would remember.
They learned to play instruments by covering classic rock by bands like Alice Cooper and ...
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Pearl Jam, the Dead Weather and My Morning Jacket are some of the bands set to make their first appearances at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival this spring. The lineup for the venerable festival, now entering its 41st year, includes return performances by Aretha Franklin, the Allman Brothers and Van Morrison, and Louisiana music ...
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If you were looking for another name for rock 'n' roll, John Lennon once said, "you might call it Chuck Berry." Berry, now 83, has been around so long he named one of his last albums 'Alive and Rockin'' -- way back in 1981.
Though he still performs, it's been 30 years since the inaugural Rock and Roll Hall of Famer last put out a studio album. ...
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When rock 'n' roll gets political, it tends to lean left. Pop stars rally around war protest, humanitarian efforts and personal liberties. One early American rocker veered as far left as he could go, and he ended up at the bottom of an East German lake.
Though Colorado-born Dean Reed was practically unknown in his native country, he was a ...
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If the University of Oregon Ducks win the Rose Bowl this year, it's a good bet they won't be going to Disneyland. 'I Love My Ducks,' a popular online rap video made by three UO seniors, is being censored by campus officials because it features the school's mascot, a Donald Duck-like character under licensing agreement with the Walt Disney Co.
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