It was bittersweet reading social media and seeing the number and variety of songs that Jeff Beck fans cited as their favorites. But when I think of Jeff Beck, it’s not only his music but also two people that come immediately to mind. The first is Rod Stewart who was introduced to the music charts... Continue Reading →
It is once again time for my annual ode to self-importance – listing my favorite music of the past year. It was another year of being pleasantly surprised by how often I listen to albums – even though I think they are too long these days (see my old man rant here) – in this era... Continue Reading →
Broken. The Bachelor franchise is broken. It’s always been stupid and once upon a time, we were fine with that. But now it’s moved beyond stupid to a place where we feel stupid for devoting our lives to something so stupid. The conceit of the show has been that their “process” can lead two people... Continue Reading →
In 2010, I wrote a blog about what I look for when evaluating Idolists. Rereading it today, I can see my approach hasn’t changed much. But in the introduction to music critic and author Steve Hyden’s recent list of the Top 100 lead signers of all time, he used four criteria that overlap mine but... Continue Reading →
Who is this season’s best Idolist? That depends on how you define “best” and what direction you are looking – back to the past or forward to the future. For now, I’m looking backward by compiling the grades I’ve given to the Top Ten’s performances in the form of a mid-term report card. The graded... Continue Reading →
For whatever reason, Idol decided to add an extra one-hour audition show after the Oscars around 11:30 p.m. Whether even I will bother to watch remains to be seen (really, who am I kidding?), but this weekend I had a very personal reminder of why the auditions matter. WST, a millennial music-obsessive friend, sent me... Continue Reading →
One album. One. That one album – Presenting the Fabulous Ronettes Featuring Veronica – is the entire album discography of the Ronettes. And that one album is all that a 19-year old Ronnie Spector needed to leave an indelible imprint on the collective psyche of a generation who grew up on Elvis, The Beatles and... Continue Reading →
Ray's Musings 