Before They Were The Police: Stewart Copeland, Sting and Andy Summers
September 22, 2014 | Posted in CLASSIC ROCK, PROGRESSIVE ROCK | By sockii
Before The Police became one of the top pop-rock acts of the early 1980s, each member of the band had already been involved in the music industry for a considerable amount of time. Bassist/singer Sting, drummer Stewart Copeland and guitarist Andy Summers were all talented musicians, yet their…
Book Review: Chris Campion’s Walking on the Moon: The Untold Story of the Police and the Rise of New Wave Rock
August 24, 2014 | Posted in CLASSIC ROCK, NON-FICTION | By sockii
Chris Campion’s Walking on the Moon: The Untold Story of the Police and the Rise of New Wave Rock is, quite easily, the most negatively-toned rock “biography” – and I use that term very lightly in this case – I can recall ever reading. While there is some interesting information contained within the book’s 300 pages, each of those pages is so thoroughly laced with…
The Who: Quadrophenia and More in Atlantic City, February 22 2013
May 18, 2014 | Posted in CLASSIC ROCK, LIVE MUSIC | By sockii
Quadrophenia has long been my favorite album by The Who, so I was thrilled to hear they would be taking it on the road again for the “Quadrophenia and More” Tour in 2012-2013. However, many expressed concerns over…
Pete Townshend: Who I Am Book Review
April 17, 2014 | Posted in CLASSIC ROCK, NON-FICTION | By sockii
Who is Pete Townshend? That is the question the famous rocker purports to answer in his 2012 autobiography, Who I Am. With a musical career now encompassing…
Album Review: Sting’s The Last Ship
October 3, 2013 | Posted in CLASSIC ROCK, FOLK, MUSICAL THEATER | By sockii
“The Last Ship” by Sting. Available now at Amazon.com.
No one is perhaps more surprised than I am over how much I enjoy Sting’s new album, The Last Ship.
Because the truth is, no matter how much of a fan of The Police I am (and I’m a really, really big Police fan!) I’ve never been particularly keen on Sting’s solo work in comparison—at least not since his first solo album in 1985, The Dream of the Blue Turtles…
Peter Gabriel Back to Front 2012 Tour Review
September 23, 2012 | Posted in CLASSIC ROCK, LIVE MUSIC | By sockii
In May 2012, Peter Gabriel announced that he would be touring this fall to mark the 25th anniversary of his massively successful 1986 album So. So brought Gabriel’s music to a largely new, mainstream audience in the 80s…
Top 10 Most Romantic Warren Zevon Songs
January 31, 2011 | Posted in CLASSIC ROCK | By sockii
Although best known for his morbidly witty songs such as “Werewolves of London,” “Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner” and “Lawyers, Guns and Money,” Warren Zevon could at times prove himself a true romantic at heart. The late singer-songwriter penned love songs and ballads filled with…
A Brief Introduction to Pink Floyd
December 2, 2010 | Posted in CLASSIC ROCK | By sockii
Pink Floyd is one of the most successful rock bands of all time, with record sales in excess of 200 million worldwide. Yet at the same time, the individuals who have made up the band through the years have maintained a certain degree of anonymity unusual in the often personality-driven world of rock music, with few people outside of diehard fans and musicians able to name the band’s members…
“Amused to Death” by Roger Waters: An Album Retrospective
November 29, 2010 | Posted in CLASSIC ROCK | By sockii
With Pink Floyd bassist-songwriter Roger Waters having recently toured his staggering 30th anniversary presentation of The Wall, now is a perfect time to re-examine his solo works, including the 1992 album Amused to Death. Like much of Waters’ work…
Roger Waters Brings the Wall Live to Philadelphia: Three Nights in Review
November 14, 2010 | Posted in CLASSIC ROCK, LIVE MUSIC | By sockii
On November 8, 9 and 11, 2010, Roger Waters brought his triumphant 30th anniversary tour of Pink Floyd’s The Wall to the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Previously I wrote about the specifics of the show and the updated staging of The Wall in my review of the Madison Square Garden performance on October 5, 2010…
