By Stephen B. Armstrong Blondie emerged in the mid-’70s out of the Lower Manhattan club scene, competing for gigs with the likes of Talking Heads, Television and the Ramones. Early on, critics pasted the “punk” label on the band, in part because Blondie repudiated the excesses of contemporary prog acts like Pink Floyd and Yes, delivering […]
By Stephen B. Armstrong For much of her career, Emmylou Harris has been a Nashville fixture, crafting records filled with lyrics that read like poetry and musical arrangements that eschew the glossy trappings and finger-snapping hooks of so much country music. Her songs tend to be as serious as they are emotive, many of them elegies […]
By Stephen B. Armstrong As primary songwriter for the Beach Boys in the ’60s, Brian Wilson composed some of the best-remembered pop songs ever recorded, including “California Girls,” “Help Me, Rhonda,” and “Good Vibrations.” But as the ’70s progressed, addictions to drugs, cigarettes and junk food, along with schizophrenia, impaired his ability to write new […]