There’s a micro-genre of books that I’ve come to love: rock-star autobiographies. Many of the musicians I followed when I was younger have probably finished up the most interesting and/or lucrative portions of their music careers, and have turned to the written word as a different outlet. Having told stories through their songs over...
It’s been way too long since my last Five Books list. But it’s been a crazy-busy last few months, and for a while there my reading seemed to have just fallen off a cliff. But hopefully I’m back on track now. So herewith, are the last five books I’ve read, and a semi-wild guess...
A good portion of my summer vacation in 1971 was spent trailing my two older brothers and cousin around Brainerd, Minn., visiting every record store and head shop in hopes of finding the new album by The Who. My cousin had just seen them in concert at the Mississippi River Festival, and “obsessed” is...
Everyone loves lists, right? Well then, here comes a list: the best albums of the 1980s. Any such “Top” list having to do with music is going to be controversial, of course. But this one may be less so than others, at least for me. These five albums simply stand out from all the...
Note: This is the third of a three-part “mini-series” of posts. The first two parts are here and here, but if you’d like you can start right in with this one. The St. Louis Who concert announcement may have been the worst-kept secret in the world. By the time they actually went public, in...
“I’ve got to move with the fashions, or be outcast…” The story of our WHO weekend in 1980 continues. Episode 1 is here. After our adventure in Columbia, Geoff and I rode the bus back to St. Louis on Monday, arriving mid-afternoon at the downtown bus station. I showed him around a bit; I...
