blog riley

American Journeys | Concord, Mass. A Town That Has a Way With Words by Glenn Rifkin, May 20, 2007 (New York Times Travel Section) In the 19th century, Concord, Mass., was a peaceful country village and home to best-selling writers. In the 21st, Concord is a bustling, upscale Boston suburb and still … [Read more...]

From Chris Salewicz's new biography of Joe Strummer Redemption Song (Faber and Faber): In his June 1979 NME interview with Charles Shaar Murray [Strummer] had declared, "There's ten thousand days of oil left. It's finite." Joe Strummer had been inspired to write the song riding back with Gaby Salter … [Read more...]

Amazon.com to Launch DRM-Free MP3 Music Download Store with Songs and Albums from EMI Music and More Than 12,000 Other Labels SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 16, 2007--Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) today announced it will launch a digital music store later this year offering millions of songs in the … [Read more...]

An Open Letter to Sir Paul McCartney: Save Abbey Road (Huffington Post) In 1897, a German-American inventor named Emile Berliner, inventor of the gramophone method of recording, founded the Gramophone Company in London. Five years later, Enrico Caruso recorded 10 songs for Berliner, transforming his … [Read more...]

CATEGORY: CAR AD SOUNDTRACK WITH "CELEBRITY" Elvis Costello playing air guitar to Beethoven's Ninth in his Lexus ad beats out his wife Diana Krall raving on about Oscar Peterson in hers. (Who hogs the remote in that ride?) But would anybody buy a car from Elvis? Seems telling that neither of these … [Read more...]

STEALTH COVERS Blender's new list starts off with "Jersey Girl," popularized by Bruce Springsteen, originally performed by Tom Waits, as obvious as it is predictable. The lead track on this list is still "Tainted Love," which everybody STILL thinks it's fey 80s Britpop. We learned more from the … [Read more...]

EMI's bumpy history approaches yet another tipping point: after five years of rejecting suitors, getting hit on by Warners, flirting with Warners, urging a merger with Warners, watching Sony bed down with BMG and Jeff Jones assume Neil Aspinall's Apple mysteriously vacated throne, the first major to … [Read more...]

ABBEY ROAD REUNION: KNOB-TWIDDLERS REVEAL ALL IN NEW BOOK by Tim Riley, NPR critic and Beatle author https://soundcloud.com/triley60/abbey-road-reunion In November of 2006, over 30 engineers gathered for a reunion at Abbey Road studios in London, where many of them worked uncredited on … [Read more...]

The Last Magazine (Paperback) by David Renard (Author), Steven Heller (Contributor), Jan Van Mol (Contributor), Rankin (Contributor), Robert Sacks (Contributor) (from Universe/Rizzoli) Print is dying, so our current crop means we're watching the Last Mags -- a supernova, if this were music it would … [Read more...]

NPR's HERE AND NOW The Legacy set piece aired today. … [Read more...]

from ON THE MEDIA Iraq Veterans Memorial … [Read more...]

At first hearing I felt like I was eavesdropping on Shrub's unconscious, the kind of fearful bullying that renounces both Baker's bi-partisan Iraq "Study" Group recommendations and Gates's pleading to close Gitmo -- why get rid of Rumsfeld when his hotel managers keep raping the Geneva conventions? … [Read more...]

TWO NEW PODCASTS POSTED The first is old already (12/01/06), holiday box set recommentations including Fats Waller, Bob Wills, Buddy Guy and Gram Parsons. The second is from yesterday, Guilty Pleasures, alongside Renee Graham. Prescott gave it up privately that hers includes Madonna's … [Read more...]

OR WHY WE LOVE THE TIMES Houdini's grave to be opened - but what will they find there? Which begs the response: "Geraldo Rivera" -- Harry Shearer … [Read more...]

A Story That Could Be True If you were exchanged in the cradle and your real mother died without ever telling the story then no one knows your name, and somewhere in the world your father is lost and needs you but you are far away. He can never find how true you are, how ready. When the great wind … [Read more...]