<span class="localtime" data-ltformat="F j, Y | g:ia" data-lttime="2021-04-23T16:05:57+00:00“>April 23, 2021 | 12:05pm ET “We’re playin’ on a level that most will never see.” William Forsythe’s Sheriff Wydell says that in the 2005 movie The Devil’s Rejects. It could just as easily be attributed to Keith Richards, circa 1971. From 1968-1972, The Rolling Stones were on an iconic, career-defining run that arguably surpasses that of any of their British Invasion-era peers and tops any four-album stretch by every other rock band. But this creative surge came with an encroaching darkness. Co-founder Brian Jones was a creative and personal liability. He was pushed out, then found dead in his swimming pool. Jagger and Richards skipped his funeral. Related Video...
Gimme a Reason takes classic albums celebrating major anniversaries and breaks down song by song the reasons we still love them so many years later. This time we make like a rolling stone with Bob Dylan and Highway 61 Revisited. Highway 61 Revisited is unanimously considered not only one of Bob Dylan’s greatest albums, but also one of the most influential and enduring records of its genre and time. Released mere months after the highly controversial Bringing It All Back Home (whose focus on electric instrumentation and cryptic lyricism — punctuated by Dylan’s appearance at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival — left many devotees feeling betrayed and incensed), the LP saw its creator delve further into those polarizing elements. The end result was a collection that brilliantly and bravely mixed ...
Gimme a Reason takes classic albums celebrating major anniversaries and breaks down song by song the reasons we still love them so many years later. This week, we celebrate 50 years of The Beatles’ Let It Be. It’s become an iconic scene: The Beatles carrying out their last-ever live performance on the roof of Apple Corps, joined by keyboardist and general legend Billy Preston, their long hair flipping around in the London wind while they recorded live takes of songs like “Dig a Pony” and “Don’t Let Me Down” before eventually being shut down by the Metropolitan Police. The event was unannounced. Onlookers gathered on their lunch breaks, looking up at the midday sensation. This was the concert from which the final version of the Let It Be album would in part manifest, preserving takes of thr...