Pop Music

It's with some embarrassment that I present these reviews, embarrassment because they represent such a small slice of the development of pop music during my lifetime.

I could easily have reviewed five times as many just from my own collection (and perhaps I will do so over the next few years) but for the sake of getting them online, this is my basic list, music that I've loved, puzzled over and helped plot the haphazard course of my life by:

The Beatles

The release of the single Love Me Do in 1962 seems so very long ago and yet by the end of 1969, when, except for one brief session their recording sessions had ended, The Beatles had carved their own very significant place in 20th Century history. 

Their solo albums and other projects only make sense in terms of The Beatles and that history and I'll be looking at some of their solo projects in that light:   

• John Lennon
• Paul McCartney
• George Harrison
• Ringo Starr

Joni Mitchell

Whether folk waif, hippy or Looking For Mr. Goodbar, Joni Mitchell has brought a bravery and exploration to both her lyrics and her music, that, oddly enough, can only be rivalled by David Bowie in the history of pop music

David Bowie

Chameleon, style merchant and a genuinely intuitive musician, David Bowie produced over ten years of quality rock music and had a huge impact upon a generation of European popsters

Roxy Music

Appearing out of nowhere as some strange hybrid of Style, Americana & unemployed spacemen, Roxy Music created an impressive portfolio of albums in the 1970s that somehow eventually mutated into leader Bryan Ferry's exotic, sophisticated European muzak.

Strangely, Roxy Music's early albums still sound frighteningly contemporary, only hampered by old recording standards. They were and are the real deal.  

• Bryan Ferry
• Brian Eno

King Crimson

King Crimson's path has been to bring virtuoso musicians together and make an awful noise, frequently in weird time signatures and with strange, dislocated lyrics. I love it!

• Robert Fripp
• Adrian Belew

Todd Rundgren

Todd Rundgren:

• Egomaniacal smarty-pants
• King of white-boy soul
• Mystic

...all of the above are true. So what? Rundgren has, at times, written exquisite pop songs. He gets my vote.

• Todd Rundgren & Utopia 

In 2009 I hope to add full retrospectives on:

• Steely Dan
• Peter Gabriel
• Kate Bush

...as well as a greatest hits section (which should be a lot of fun for me).