Remembering Bobby Rogers of the Miracles
For someone who wasn’t a star in the Motown stable of artists, Bobby Rogers was a recognizable figure among fans and commanded the respect of his peers. Tall, strapping and bespectacled, Rogers was a founding member of the Miracles, who distinguished himself through his role as a foil to his better-known band mate, Smokey Robinson, and as a collaborator in the only group on Motown that wrote and produced the bulk of its own material.
Bobby Rogers and Smokey Robinson were fated to be friends and musical partners. They were born on the same day – February 19, 1940 – at the same hospital in Detroit, and grew up together singing. Their first musical group, the Five Chimes, formed in the basement of Rogers’ cousin Claudette’s home. With her, Pete Moore and Ronnie White, they became the Matadors. Eventually taking the name the Miracles, they were spotted at a local talent show by Berry Gordy Jr., then a fledgling songwriter with ...
Album Notes: The Rolling Stones – Exile on Main St.
I was seven years old when Exile on Main St. was released in 1972. It wasn't until later in the decade that I first heard the album, though I was already a Rolling Stones fan by then. My earliest rock and roll mentors – friends and family, and musicians and writers that I admired – told me Exile was the Stones record to have, so I picked up a used, well-worn copy on vinyl. The dog-eared double LP jacket was ragged and looked like hell; long gone were the dozen postcards that came with the original packaging. However, the scratched wax delivered an electric sound.
Those sounds – like my battered copy's packaging – were gritty, rough, perfectly unpolished. The album was filled with bravado, the songs seemingly shambolic, unrehearsed and the playlist was sprawling, with more than a dozen tracks. The Stones tapped into America's eclectic songbook, borrowing lines from country, blues, soul, swamp and the heyday of the rock and ...
30 Years After New Order's "Blue Monday": Interview with Peter Hook
Released on March 7, 1983, New Order's "Blue Monday" was a smash. Designed by Factory Records' Peter Saville, the original 12-inch sleeve packaging cleverly replicated a floppy computer disk and included little information about New Order (neither the name of the group nor the single title appeared). Although rumored that the cost of producing the complex die-cut sleeve represented a loss on each single sold by Factory, the seven-minute-plus track would become among the best-selling 12-inch singles of all time. The original single is part of a special Joy Division/New Order exhibit at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum.
"Blue Monday," which took nearly four months to record, was driven by a host of sequencer and synthesizer effects, including the throbbing synth bass line (overlayed with Peter Hook's lead bass stylings), and drum machine beat. The song contained no chorus, instead revolving around a series of verses. "It does come down to songwriting," said Hook ...
50 Years Later: The Legacy of Patsy Cline
Best known for her bold, rich and unparalleled emotionally expressive voice, Patsy Cline is one of the most inspirational, influential and impactful female vocalists of the 20th century. As a country music industry pioneer, Cline helped to blaze a trail for women to become headline performers in the genre. As a pillar of talent, Cline often encouraged and helped to support a number of female artists in country music, including Loretta Lynn, Barbara Mandrell, Brenda Lee and Dottie West. Cline also befriended her male counterparts, including Roger Miller, Faron Young, Harlan Howard and Carl Perkins – possessing the rare ability to be “one of the boys.” Cline could belly-up to the bar and tell a raunchier joke than any man. Her moxie and spunky attitude garnered the respect of the “good ole’ boy” Nashville network and allowed her to take charge of her own career in a way that other women at the time simply couldn’t do. Cline never backed down when it came to the business – “No dough, no show” was often her mantra and according to friend and fellow perfomer West, “It was common knowledge around town that you didn’t mess with ‘The Cline!’”
Interview with 2009 Hall of Fame Inductee Bobby Womack
Born on March 4, 1944, Cleveland-native Bobby Womack grew into a soul and gospel legend whose contributions as a songwriter, singer and guitarist have kept him and his music relevant for decades.
The son of a steelworker, Womack and his siblings got their start as a gospel group. On tour with the Soul Stirrers, the Womack brothers – Bobby, Cecil, Curtis, Harris and Friendly Jr. – were introduced to the Stirrer's lead singer, Sam Cooke. With a move from gospel to secular soul, Cooke asked the Womack brothers to join him in California, and 16-year-old Bobby Womack made the trip.
Billed as the Valentinos, Bobby and his brothers cut two R&B classics: “Looking for a Love” (later covered by the J. Geils Band) and “It’s All Over Now.” The Rolling Stones’ cover of the latter song beat the Valentinos’ own version onto the charts, giving the Stones their second Top 40 hit in the States and first Number One hit ...
In the Museum: The Who's Roger Daltrey
Born on March 1, 1944, Roger Daltrey injected the Who's songs with expressive muscularity and passion. Daltrey made a natural rock and roll frontman, theatrically swinging the microphone and proving the ideal, angst-projecting foil to Who songwriter/guitarist Pete Townshend's "windmill" strumming and instrument destroying antics and drummer Keith Moon's explosive – sometimes literally – playing. With rock-steady bass virtuoso John Entwistle, the four evolved from purveyors of Mod-era "maximum R&B" to visionary, literary creators of concept album narratives and singular rock opera productions. Simply put: the Who created some of rock and roll's most enduring and powerful anthems.
In mid-1965, Daltrey and the Who were unflagging devotees of R&B, though their reverence ultimately started to stifle creativity. Hoping to shake things up on the compositional front, manager Kit Lambert demanded a new anthem to go with the image they didn't have yet. Pete Townshend responded with a primitive home demo of "My Generation." Arranged as ...
Preview of "Rolling Stones: 50 Years of Satisfaction" at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum
On May 24, 2013, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, Ohio, will unveil a new, two-story retrospective exhibit titled "Rolling Stones: 50 Years of Satisfaction." Among the artifacts to be included in the Rolling Stones exhibit is the original collage art design that would appear in the inner gatefold sleeve of the group's Their Satanic Majesties Request.
Their Satanic Majesties Request was a psychedelic response to the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, which was released seven months prior to the Stones' effort in 1967. With psychedelia in full-swing, 1967 proved an eventful year for the Rolling Stones – most infamously following the arrests of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards on drug charges following a police raid during a party at the latter's Redlands home in Sussex. Among those also in attendance, though not detained, was Richards' friend and photographer Michael Cooper.
Throughout the Sixties, Cooper, a fixture on the London art and ...
Top of the Charts: Michael Jackson's "Thriller"
On February 26, 1983, Michael Jackson’s Thriller hit Number One on the Billboard 200 chart. The 1982 release was revolutionary, a watershed moment in the history of rock and roll. It earned a record-breaking number of Grammy awards, sold in record numbers, resulted in music videos that changed promotional possibilities, broke down racial barriers and left a legacy of influence that continues to this day.
Thriller was recorded with a production budget of $750,000 in 1982 and was produced by 2013 Hall of Fame Inductee Quincy Jones. Jackson and Jones combed through more than 700 demos – some Jackson had committed to a voice recorder – to find songs for his new album, eventually settling on a handful of tracks that included Jackson originals “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’,” “The Girl is Mine,” “Billie Jean” and “Beat It.” All four of the songs that Jackson composed were reflections of both personal and social issues surrounding the "King of Pop": In “Billie Jean ...
