Against a backdrop of a slow waltz toward disappointment and death comes a familiar story — that of a man trying to scratch out a living any way he can. The emotion is amplified with great subtlety by some swelling horns You May Also Like: Jack Bruce and Robin TrowerRead More

Today’s Wrecking Ball preview is “Shackled And Drawn,” stream provided by Rolling Stone magazine. You May Also Like: Boz Scaggs + Duane Allman, “Loan Me a Dime” (1969): One Track Mind

If I was to make up a list of my favorite guitar players (and, thus, exposing myself to the Internet scourge known as GuitarFan™: You know the type. They blurt out things like “Where’s Slash?!!” and “Dimebag!” — think of it as a kind of Rock ‘n’ Roll Tourette’s) thenRead More

It has been announced that tracks from Bruce Springsteen’s forthcoming album Wrecking Ball will be streamed from various sites, one new song per day. Today sees the release of “Easy Money,” streaming at the News page at Backstreets.com. You May Also Like: No related posts.

The themes of struggle and redemption are so strong on Darkness that on every song I want to say that this song is the album’s emotional center. The reality is that each and every song get their fair share of the responsibility. You May Also Like: Night Songs by ElvisRead More

The theme is a Steely Dan favorite: “Here at the Western World” takes a darkly sarcastic look at drug-addled depravity in contemporary America.

You worry when legacy rockers return after long layoffs. You wonder if they are going to sound too on the nose, like imitations of their previous selves. You worry that they won’t sound enough like their old selves too You May Also Like: Tommy James and the Shondells – CellophaneRead More

It’s a short, inner-directed musing, but one that encapsulates the desperation that’s one of the essential elements of Darkness On The Edge Of Town. Bruce wanted this album to be relentless, to never let up You May Also Like: Reevaluating Bruce Springsteen’s ‘The Wild, the Innocent and the E StreetRead More

As much as I enjoy Steely Dan songs and can listen to most of them over and over (which is a good thing, since I’m writing about them every week), only one of their songs is what I’d call an “earworm” You May Also Like: Steely Dan’s The Royal Scam:Read More

Look past the doo-wah diddies (though that formed a memorable hit in 1964) and Manfred Mann — part of an early 1960s wave of Answers To The Beatles — is your basic renaissance hipster doofus. You May Also Like: The Only Thing That Disappointed Me About Aimee Mann’s @#%&*! SmilersRead More