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Bill DeYoung.com | Tim and Neil Finn: The Lost Interview

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May 27, 2014 12:34 pm. 1996, Bill DeYoung). The landscape of contemporary pop music would be far less interesting were it not for the semi-annual appearances on record of the Finn brothers, Tim and Neil. Tim started Split Enz in his native New Zealand, in the early ’70s, and a few years into it allowed little brother to join. By the time the band ended in 1984, more than a few truly great songs had been written and recorded. Crowded House’s highwater mark, arguably, was the third album,. In’93 Although i...

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Bill DeYoung.com | Meet The Bangles

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May 27, 2014 12:45 pm. Anyone who thinks rock ‘n’ roll is strictly men’s work hasn’t given a lot of thought to the Bangles. Nourished in equal amounts by the creative wellspring of ’60s pop and the fast food franchise of ’70s punk and new wave, the Los Angeles based quartet made a decade’s worth of wonderfully bright music that honored the historic and celebrated the contemporary. The Bangles were and are women. Said guitarist Susanna Hoffs, 41: It’s about going back to the original concept, which is to ...

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Bill DeYoung.com | This is Jethro Tull

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This is Jethro Tull. May 27, 2014 12:10 pm. Ian Anderson is sitting in the corner of a too bright coffeeshop in Melbourne, Fla., the morning after a concert. From nowhere, a slightly rough-looking middle aged woman approaches him. I just wanted to tell you I saw you at Woodstock, she tells Jethro Tull’s 55 year old pointman, who does a doubletake then smiles politely. Actually, we didn’t play Woodstock, Anderson explains. Oh yes, says the woman, knowingly. Jethro was there. He asks, poker faced. The fait...

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Bill DeYoung.com | The rise and fall of Kenny Rogers

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The rise and fall of. May 27, 2014 12:15 pm. Few artists of the past 30 years have enjoyed the across the board recognizability of Kenny Rogers. His celebrity landed him on more television shows and magazine covers than any other singer of his day, and for a long time, you couldn’t punch a radio button without hearing his teddy bear baritone. If he wasn’t singing on TV, he was hosting an awards show or schmoozing with some other superstar. Between 1977 and ’82, Rogers sold $250,000,000 worth of records&#...

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Bill DeYoung.com | Linda Ronstadt: An Unexpected Journey

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May 27, 2014 12:38 pm. There are many things about her career that Linda Ronstadt wishes she’d done differently. Still, the most successful female singer of the rock ‘n’ roll era is happily 56 years old, raising two young children, and working only when she wants to. All musicians, if they say they’re doing it for the audience, they’re probably bullshitting, Ronstadt says. Music is a biological necessity. It’s a way that we all have of processing our feelings. Her career has been a series of happy accide...

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Bill DeYoung.com | The Ballad of Rodney Crowell

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The Ballad of Rodney Crowell. May 27, 2014 12:29 pm. From Bob Dylan, he learned to put thoughts and music together. From Guy Clark, he learned to reach for poetry, not just words. Harmony, humility, perseverance and professionalism, he learned those from Emmylou Harris. He had the vision to do it, he had the songwriting talent, and he had the voice. I always thought Rodney was a great singer, a very underrated singer. Brown, who co produced all five of Rodney’s No. 1 hit singles, hit further paydirt ...

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Bill DeYoung.com | Stephen Stills: As I Come of Age

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May 25, 2014 7:27 pm. There exists a recording of Crosby, Stills and Nash’s performance at the Big Sur Folk Festival in 1969 that perfectly illustrates the inherent differences between the three men. Stills is tuning his guitar when a heckler begins haranguing the trio for playing for money, man. Crosby and Nash engage the guy from the stage, trying to gently explain that they’re on his side, they’re doing the show for free. Stills is in the crowd, in the heckler’s face. That’s the way it is with art.

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Bill DeYoung.com | Willie Nelson: Funny How Time Slips Away

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May 27, 2014 12:26 pm. Well, hello there/My it’s been a long, long time. With his beatific smile and twinkling bright eyes, Willie Nelson looks like the most serene and centered man on the planet. When he’s wearing a Stetson hat or a wide red bandanna, he brings to mind a sort of Western Santa Claus, someone you’d trust to slide down your chimney and come into your house with a sackful of cap guns, singing a cowboy tune. Oh, I guess that I’m doin’ fine. And even though he often found himself between thos...

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Bill DeYoung.com | Neil Young: Tell Me Why

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Neil Young: Tell Me Why. May 27, 2014 12:32 pm. Of course, many things have changed since this conversation. For example. As of this writing (2012),. Millions of people love him for these very reasons. There is no one in rock ‘n’ roll who sings and plays electric guitar with the symphonic crudeness of Neil Young, not another musician within 100 light years who can hammer an acoustic the way he can, and make it sound like something freshly hewn from the forest. He writes strange, beautiful songs. Lately h...