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…
Category: Music
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…
The Great Shame Of The New Bee Gees Biography, Plus 10 Of The Best Post Disco-Era Gibb Songs
Maurice, Robin & Barry Gibb – 1979. I can’t let this slide, I’m sorry. Half-way through David N. Meyer’s new and “definitive” biography on the Bee Gees I was thinking that despite the constant factual errors and the presumptions, it was gripping writing and unique analysis. I even contacted the author to point out several…
35 Years Since “The Worst Movie Of All Time” – Why ‘Sgt. Pepper’s’ Wasn’t Quite The Disaster It’s Made Out To Be
35 years ago this week a film many regard as the worst in movie history was released. Which is no mean feat considering it was produced by one of the sharpest showbiz svengali’s of the 60s and 70s Robert Stigwood, that it featured the music of the Beatles and that it starred A-listers of…
Queen’s Other 6 Minute Long #1 Hit – Brian May’s Birthday
Brian May. UPDATE JULY 2014: Queen + Adam Lambert will be playing a concert at Auckland’s Vector Arena on Wednesday September 3rd. Tickets go on sale 9am, Thursday July 24. On last night’s episode of The Two we played a clip of a six minute long Queen number one hit which has several different stanzas and…
The Death Of Glee’s Cory Monteith – A Glee Cover Of An Early 80s Brothers Gibb Song
Cory Monteith. Hearing of a 31 year old whose life has ended, possibly in part due to their inability to overcome their demons and addictions, is pretty heartbreaking. I wasn’t a big watcher of Glee, probably only because I’m not a big watcher of a lot of TV these days, but I liked that there…
Robbie Robertson Of The Band Turns 70 – A Song Of His Even Better Than ‘The Weight’.
This month Robbie Robertson, the chief songwriter and driving creative force of The Band, turned 70. As The Band themselves noted, the simultaneous humility and arrogance of being called “The Band” is genius. “We’re just the band,” versus, “We are The Band.” It’s a little bit like having a radio show called “The Two.” Other…
Barry Gibb Reveals Who He’d Most Like To Write A Hit With
Barry Gibb was recently asked who’d he like to co-write a number one hit with, answering either Chris Martin from Coldplay or Paul McCartney. In England to accept a lifetime achievement award from the Nordoff Robbins 02 Silver Clef Awards, Barry also did several interviews promoting the September UK / Ireland leg of his Mythology tour. In…
10 Years Since Barry White’s Death – A Forgotten Song Robbie Williams Sampled For A #1 Hit
Barry White. It’s 10 years today since soul / R&B great Barry White died, aged just 58. While he only dominated the charts in one decade (the 70s) he continued scoring with occasional songs well into the 80s and 90s and all told had close to 20 US or UK top 40 hits. White was…
The Roxborogh Report Hits 250,000 Visitors – An Extraordinary Stevie Wonder Song For Nelson Mandela
With Stevie Wonder, Ronald LaPread (Commodores) and Clare Healy, 2008. This week the two-and-a-half year old Roxborogh Report had its 250,000th visitor. When I first started this music and travel blog back in Canada late in 2010 it was getting about 1,000 hits a month, making the possibility of hitting 250,000 more of a 20-year…
James Gandolfini Dies – A Buried Bruce Springsteen Ballad In Tribute
James Gandolfini. Such incredibly sad news about actor James Gandolfini who has died of a suspected heart-attack at the age of just 51 while on holiday in Italy. Only a couple of weeks ago Pam Corkery and I were talking on The Two (Newstalk ZB Friday and Sunday evenings from 8pm) about how The Sopranos…
