Supertramp’s biggest selling LP, 1979’s Breakfast In America. Last week on Newstalk ZB I faced the usual election-season accusations via email and text from a handful of listeners claiming I’m a “radical lefty” spouting my “liberal agenda” with “lefty buzzwords” like “inequality.” Do you laugh or cry? There are actually people on this planet who believe…
Category: Artists: Q-Z
Eminem At Western Springs, Auckland – My All-Time Hip-Hop Top 20
Eminem. Has anyone ever written blogs about Captain & Tennille and Eminem on the same day? It’s the question on everybody’s lips this summer. Suffering a whiff of FOMO* right now with 50,000 of my fellow Aucklanders at the Eminem Western Springs gig, I couldn’t resist making a semi-controversial list. Here are my top 20…
Sheryl Crow Gets Her Political, Rock & Roll Swagger Back – ‘Shine Over Babylon’
Sheryl Crow. For her 52nd birthday, here’s precisely the sort of Sheryl Crow song I wish more people knew. I saw a recent interview where she said she wanted to be remembered for music that mattered so with that in mind, have a close listen to Shine Over Babylon. From her excellent 2007 LP Detours,…
The Time I Requested A Song At A Sly & The Family Stone Concert
Sly Stone. Crazy dream stories are much like poetry on the radio: boring and usually vaguely awkward. But I’m going to take a punt and describe last night’s possibly edam cheese-inspired drama in the hope it’s semi interesting. I dreamt I was at a Sly & The Family Stone gig at a nonexistent 1000-seater venue…
Sophie Madeleine Covers The Bee Gees ‘You Win Again’ – Why This Is Complex, Unusual Pop Music
Sophie Madeleine. To celebrate Barry Gibb’s announcement of his first solo American concert dates, here’s a charming little cover of the Bee Gees 1987 UK #1 hit You Win Again. Performed by British singer Sophie Madeleine in 2011, it was part of her 30 Covers 30 Days project. On her YouTube site she explains: “Being…
Bee Gees Cracking Jokes & Singing Silent Night On Cilla Black’s 1983 Christmas Special
From a nonexistent Bee Gees LP, photo circa 1973. Less than two weeks out from Christmas, it’s time for a good Christmas-y post, so here are two clips, one from the Bee Gees and the other from Sheryl Crow. The Bee Gees clip is both charming and unique. Appearing on Cilla Black’s TV show in…
Nelson Mandela Dies – U2 Pays Tribute With ‘Ordinary Love’
Nelson Mandela. “I am not a saint, unless you think of a saint as a sinner who keeps on trying.” I thought of this Nelson Mandela quote a couple of days ago when New Zealand politician John Banks was once again trying to tell all who’d listen that anyone who knows him knows he’s an…
So What If We’re Controlling All The Oil? Prince, Sheryl Crow & The Debate Over Deep-Sea Oil Drilling
Sheryl Crow. In New Zealand right now there is a huge amount of talk about the rights and wrongs of deep-sea oil-drilling, so I thought it only appropriate to find a way to link this topic to a couple of songs. Like a lot of debates, I’ve been frustrated at peoples’ desire to make this…
The Dark Gospel Of Johnny Cash – ‘God’s Gonna’ Cut You Down’
Johnny Cash Sometimes I need only the most tenuous* of links to select a brilliant song to play in closing on Newstalk ZB’s The Two (Pam Corkery / Tim Roxborogh – Fridays and Sundays from 8pm) and last night was one of those occasions. Pam had mentioned “ramblers and gamblers” in passing and it made…
40 Years Since Stevie Wonder’s ‘Innervisions’ – The Deep Cut ‘Jesus Children Of America’
Stevie Wonder. It’s 40 years this month since Stevie Wonder released not just arguably his greatest ever album, but an LP which is regularly listed as being one of the greatest by any artist of any era. Innervisions was astoundingly already Stevie Wonder’s 16th studio album when it was released by the 23 year old…
That Time Tim Finn Rapped In A West Indian Accent
Mark Greatbatch, 1992. With the schedule for the 2015 Cricket World Cup to be held in New Zealand and Australia announced yesterday (and you can click here if you’d like to read it), I thought it was time to bust out two not entirely beloved cricket anthems from the 90s. The first is the theme…
Mick Jagger Turns 70 – Why The Rolling Stones Never Play This Early 70s Song In Concert
Sir Mick Jagger turned 70 on Friday (or if you’re author David N. Meyer, Dick Taggart turned 65 on Wednesday) so to celebrate, here are my top five favourite Rolling Stones songs. At #1 is the dark horse Ventilator Blues, a song which is up there for me with another of Exile On Main Street’s (1972) songs, Sweet…
