On a day that had everyone from the president on down wiping away tears and parents hugging their kids extra long and hard, we’re reminded that great tragedies often collide with great beauty.

Patti Smith fans, long starved for in-concert material, have seen a veritable tidal wave of live releases lately — including three albums between 2005-08 and then the Live in France DVD from last year. Still, the Festival des Vieilles Charrues film, welcome though it no doubt was, suffered because of bad video quality.

As Greg Lake continues his celebrated one-man “Songs of a Lifetime” tour through the UK and Italy, I returned to this 2-DVD career retrospective from Image Entertainment/Warner Music Vision.

Were it any other band, it would be easy to scoff at the prospect. Three old dudes and a replacement for the now-apparently requisite missing dude, but this is Led Zeppelin

Eric Clapton has certainly done a lot to make us forget his roots in the blues tradition, starting with his turn toward psychedelia in Cream — just a couple of years after a celebrated stint with John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers

This is what the internet is, or should be, all about: stumbling onto some weird thing that thrills you. Take that as you may, obviously, but as a music fiend, I’m talking about moments like right now where searching for one thing I find something else

What a dynamite single from the lovely Fabienne Delsol. Although it was formatted by Damaged Goods Records as an A and B side release, I view this single as a double A-side. Both songs are that strong.

You’ve heard the hits, from the sublime (“Maybe I’m Amazed,” “Junior’s Farm,” “Band on the Run”) to the ridiculous (“Let ‘Em In,” “Ebony and Ivory,” the perfectly named “So Bad”). But what of those tucked-away gems by Paul McCartney?

The Spencer Davis Group was, and remains, more than Steve Winwood – having continued recording and touring into the new millennium under the auspices of its Welsh-born multi-instrumentalist namesake.

The Very Beast of Dio Vol. 2 picks up where the first volume left off in Dio’s solo career and features tracks from 1996 onward. It’s an interesting period for me