Blog Posts by Gene Sculatti

  • The Rock’s Backpages Rewind: Was 1960 Really The Worst Pop Year Ever?

    By Gene Sculatti – Fri, Mar 18, 2011 2:28 PM EDT

    Did all those post-Elvis pop Bobbies - Bobby Vee, Bobby Darin, Bobby Rydell et al - suck or did they actually sock? Gene Sculatti looks back on a maligned musical annum--Barney Hoskyns, Editorial Director, Rock's Backpages

    Kids today. And the music they listen to! As I write, Billboard's (U.S.) Top 10 features three songs with the F-word in their title, one enumerating the joys of sado-masochism, another urging immoderate consumption of vodka and cocaine-preferably as one "freaks it off" on the dance floor.

    But really, can 2011 compare to what orthodox history still disparages - after half a century - as the unquestioned nadir of modern pop: the post-Elvis, pre-Beatles early '60s? The official story goes like this: rock 'n' roll was defanged, with Elvis in the army, Chuck Berry in jail, Buddy Holly, Eddie Cochran and Richie Valens dead, Little Richard studying to become a minister. Jerry Lee Lewis, banned from the radio after his notorious nuptials (he'd married his 13-year-old

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  • The Dust Blows Forward, ‘N The Dust Blows Back: Remembering Captain Beefheart

    By Gene Sculatti – Thu, Dec 30, 2010 6:49 AM EST

    Not many rock writers can claim to have seen the late Captain Beefheart live in 1966 - and then later to have worked with the great man. California veteran Gene Sculatti did both, and reminisces here about 45 years of magic fandom--Barney Hoskyns, Editorial Director, Rock's Backpages

    It's impossible for me to think what the world would be without Captain Beefheart's music in it. Amidst the bad news, the good is that his music is, and hopefully forever shall be, in the world.

    This reminiscence is strictly personal. I had a little one-on-one interaction with Beefheart; mostly the relationship was between me and his powerful, funny, touching recordings and performances. I first encountered him in the spring of 1966 at Frisco's Avalon Ballroom, when he and the Magic Band were the latest in a line of surprise visitors on the underground railway that weekly shuttled north L.A. bands like Love, the Rising Sons, Sons of Adam, etc. My late cousin and I, teenaged blues-heads (whose knowledge

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  • San Francisco, Where Art Thou?: Reassessing The Musical Legacy Of The ’60s Psychedelic Capital

    By Gene Sculatti – Tue, Sep 21, 2010 1:59 PM EDT

    San Francisco turned rock and roll on its head when it fostered the radical psychedelic rock of the mid-to-late '60s. Gene Sculatti was there and reported on the dawn of the Dead and the Airplane as early as 1966; here he casts his gaze back on the Bay Area and considers the city's lasting musical legacy.--Barney Hoskyns, Editorial Director, Rock's Backpages

    A couple of weeks ago, paging through an article on Robert Plant in the September issue of MOJO, I learned that, upon their initial meeting in a Dublin pub, the Zep master and his current bandmate Buddy Miller initially bonded over a shared interested in the West Coast music of... Moby Grape and Quicksilver Messenger Service.

    How quaint that, and an unexpected pleasure.

    On Sunday, I woke to the sound of a neighbor kid, aged 12 or 13, practicing a lick on electric guitar. It was familiar, not unpleasant, and soon revealed itself to be "Black Magic Woman," likely learned from the 1970 hit by Santana. In 1970, this kid's parents may

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News for You

  • Restaurant learns online reviews can make or break

    SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (AP) — It was the customer service disaster heard around the Internet.

  • The new consoles from Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony

    NEW YORK (AP) — Microsoft is the last of the three big video game console makers to unveil its latest gaming system. The unveiling comes nearly eight years after the Xbox 360 went on sale. It follows last fall's debut of Nintendo's Wii U and a preview in February of the upcoming PlayStation 4 from Sony.

  • Singer Kellie Pickler named new 'Dancing' champ

    LOS ANGELES (AP) — Kellie Pickler came into the final "Dancing With the Stars" episode in second place but finished in first.

  • Woman on Trump: 'Somebody had to stand up to him'

    CHICAGO (AP) — An 87-year-old woman who alleges Donald Trump cheated her in a skyscraper-condo sale told jurors Monday she had qualms about suing the real estate mogul and TV celebrity. But, she quickly added, "Somebody had to stand up to him."

  • Singer Kellie Pickler jives to victory on "Dancing With the Stars"

    By Andrea Burzynski NEW YORK (Reuters) - Country singer Kellie Pickler won the 16th season of ABC's "Dancing With the Stars" on Tuesday night, winning over judges and TV audiences with her graceful style and high-jumping jives with partner and professional dancer Derek Hough. Pickler, who first grabbed attention as a contestant on "American Idol" in 2006, screeched and jumped up and down when she learned she had won. "This is amazing! Oh, my God!" she exclaimed, before fellow finalist and NFL player Jacoby Jones hoisted her on his shoulders to celebrate. ...

  • Douglas, Damon dramatize a steamy show-biz affair

    NEW YORK (AP) — The idea of Michael Douglas playing Liberace might seem nearly as outrageous as Liberace himself.

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