Too Soon to Know

David Lynch has conditioned me so, whenever I hear Roy Orbison’s voice I am afraid that something terrible is about to happen to Isabella Rossellini. You may have a completely different package of impressions that Roy Orbison’s voice unlocks, but unlock something it will. Orbison …

Tomorrow Never Knows

Never knows what? With Revolver, The Beatles were credited with exploding the boundaries of rock music. And while critics have recently begun to move away from taking for granted that Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band is all things to all people, Revolver’s status as …

Together ‘Til the End of Time

It was Motown’s – and the world’s – great loss that they didn’t know what to do with Brenda Holloway. Holloway was only 22 when she walked away from her career due to creative and financial differences. Which is a polite way of saying that …

This Year’s Kisses

I love Nina Simone’s way of pouring every drop of heartrending drama into every performance, even when the material doesn’t merit it. Simone can sound like she’s shouldering the weight of the whole world, and she may be singing about just that. This one, though, …

This Old Heart of Mine (Is Weak for You)

Record store customers browsing new releases in May 1966 may have been misled about what kind of music was behind the image of lily-white lovers canoodling on a beach that adorned the cover of the Isley Brothers’ This Old Heart of Mine. They may have …

Think

No one could ever mistake a Rolling Stones song for real American R&B, despite their best efforts as a cover band. But in a few short years they graduated from being, essentially, a very enthusiastic cover band, to writing songs that sounded like nothing else …

These Boots Are Made for Walkin’

This is the song that launched Nancy Sinatra’s career, and a thousand women’s marches. Written by Lee Hazlewood, who had the good sense to realize that to perform it himself would not be a good look, it was the perfect debut for a young singer …

That’s All I Ask

Nina Simone’s music isn’t always depressing; she could boogie down when she wanted to. But it’s all about the depressing stuff, the angry, the mournful, the cathartic, the uncomfortable. She belies the impression a lot of people have that jazz is harmless and easy to …

Taxman

Well, this certainly plays very differently in today’s context. George Harrison shuffled off this mortal coil far too soon, but in some regards he’s lucky he went when he did; he doesn’t have to do a 180 on his first protest song. In 1966 The …

Sunshine Superman

I hope you all got your fair fill of Donovan in the last few weeks. He is the singer of all the songs about all things sunshiny. This is one of his best-known signature songs, establishing him as the psychedelic troubadour that he’s been remembered …