Released 50 years ago today, Steely Dan’s ‘Pretzel Logic’ remains a pinnacle achievement for the premier jazz-pop rock band. Here’s a handful of reasons why.

For all of the unabridged amazement surrounding Billy Preston’s high school-aged mastery of both the bubbling jazz of Jimmy Smith and the lean Memphis R&B of Booker T. Jones, the truth is, he’d been at this a while. You May Also Like: Billy Sherwood Talks #Yes50, ‘Topographic Drama’ and aRead More

A 50th anniversary tour hasn’t even been confirmed, but already a group billed as the Rolling Stones Liberation Front raised a ruckus about the setlist, backup singers, opening act and Keef’s crazy-ass skull ring. OK, we made one of those up. You May Also Like: No related posts.

by Mark Saleski What do Neil Diamond, System of a Down, the Beastie Boys and The Dixie Chicks have in common? Rick Rubin. You May Also Like: Tom Petty, Johnny Cash + Beastie Boys: Rick Rubin’s Most Important Albums

A massive reissue project from Apple Records had me digging back through the old Billy Preston sides. None is more titanically funky, and lastingly influential, than “Outa-Space,” with its grease-fire groove and afro-shaking new clavinet sound. “Outa-Space” is not to be confused with his similarly named No. 4 hit ofRead More

by Nick Deriso There was no reason to believe that the Rolling Stones, 30 years into their dangerously debauched rock career, would make anything worth a damn out of the 1990s. In fact, the preceding decade — one in which, by far, the Stones’ best new thing was actually aRead More

by Nick DeRiso “Come Together,” a concert first envisioned as a benefit to raise anti-violence awareness through the work of John Lennon, was scheduled to be held on Oct. 2, 2001, at New York City’s famed Radio City Music Hall. Then came Sept. 11. This rangy event, featuring recorded snippetsRead More

NICK DERISO: Sam Cooke, for all his power and grace as a singer, established this strikingly brief legacy during the time of the Hit Single. Which meant Cooke’s most well-known albums of the early 1960s were often dotted with dated filler, tunes in the Broadway style of the day orRead More

by S. Victor Aaron The critics all declare Exile On Main Street to be The Rolling Stones’ magnum opus. Yeah, it’s a great album alright but for my money, I’ll take the one right before it, Sticky Fingers, anyday. From the sass of “Brown Sugar” to the gentle country ofRead More