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.

by Mark Saleski What do Neil Diamond, System of a Down, the Beastie Boys and The Dixie Chicks have in common? Rick Rubin.

For all of the talk of how modern Joe Cocker’s forthcoming album would be, this song is a refreshing throwback.

by Mark Saleski The next statement I make isn’t gonna win a lot of friends and influence in the rock music fan world but, well … here goes nothin’: I’ve never liked British blues all that much.

by Nick DeRiso 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 greasefire groove and afro-shaking new clavinet sound. “Outa-Space” is not to be confused with his similarly named No. 4 hit of a year later, “Space Race.” (Dick Clark [...]

Note: To commemorate the 70th birthday of John Lennon, we’re revisiting this single from early in his post-Beatles career. One of the things I find most fascinating about the man was how he was able to impart blunt, timeless wisdom about our lives while struggling to make sense of his. “Karma” was one of those ‘message’ songs that he so [...]

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 a 1988 solo recording from Keith Richards — seemed to confirm [...]

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 snippets of Lennon interviews and new interpretations of his songs (both [...]

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 or so-called standards that didn’t properly showcase his direct, emotional range. [...]

The Beatles, just as their creativity went supernova, quit the road in 1966 — frustrated over the inability of that period’s sound systems to amplify the increasingly complex work spinning around on your turntables and in their heads. Later, of course, each of the individual members revisited the band’s seminal works. But never again did they take the stage together [...]