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Singer.  Songwriter.  Bandmate.  Celebrity.  Activist.  Artist.  Husband and father.  These are just a few of the most public roles played by one of the most important musical – and arguably, societal – figures of his generation, John Lennon. As a founding member, co-chief songwriter and co-lead vocalist of the most important and influential band in the history of popular music, Lennon’s musical legacy would have been secure if he had never played another note after the Beatles broke up in 1970.  But he did, creating a complex, at times uneven, but never dull body of solo work that includes some…

Once upon a time, the live album ruled -- the time being the 1970s.  Oh sure, there had been a few successful live albums before that, notably the Beach Boys’ Beach Boys Concert, which went to #1 in 1964 – but the real heyday of the live album was the 70s, when both global superstar bands like The Who and the Rolling Stones and next-tier acts like Bob Seger and AC/DC issued live albums that captured not just the music but the full character and commitment of the artist. In the 80s, 90s and beyond the live album’s star has…

Some months ago there was a lively discussion on the Daily Vault staff writers’ e-mail list about the criteria for choosing featured artists for our monthly retrospectives.  A consensus formed that the artist chosen should meet two or more of these criteria: 1) groundbreaking, 2) influential, 3) large sales, 4) longevity, 5) historical/representative of a specific era or style of music.  There was also the sixth “X ingredient,” as identified by the inimitable Duke Egbert: “some damn fool is willing to do the majority of the work.” Kansas, the Midwestern prog-rockers gone arena rockers gone 80s power balladeers and back…

The ditches lining the great highway of rock and roll are littered with the wreckage of bands that tried to buck the wrong trend at the wrong time, and strewn with debris from groups who almost made it, only to bust apart on the cusp of success.  Not many bands can say they passed through both of these gauntlets, came out stronger and ended up one of the most-admired acts of their era.  But then, if Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers have ever stood for anything, it's the idea that the more you doubt them, the stronger they get. Petty,…

Those who trade in stereotypes might find it slightly counter-intuitive to realize that of all the genres that make up popular music, the one with the largest contingent of highly successful female artists might just be country.The singing cowgirl has been part of American legend for too many years to count, but in the 1950s the iconic image found human form in the person of Patsy Cline. The emotion she poured into her performances helped pave the way for contemporaries and successors like Loretta Lynn, Tammy Wynette and Dolly Parton.In the 1970s a new generation of female country singers and…

A band with as long a lifespan and as broad an influence as Deep Purple comes with a lot of legends. One of them goes like this. When the original lineup of Montrose -- generally regarded as the first homegrown American heavy metal band -- first met with producer Ted Templeman in early 1973, he asked them who their favorite bands were. Between the four of them they named just two groups. Led Zeppelin was one. The other was Deep Purple. Most people recognize Zeppelin as one of the progenitors of heavy metal music; fewer understand that they went toe…

In these days of Afro-Cuban-Filipino reggae-pop-metal-house music, it sometimes feels as though there are as many genres of music as there are varieties of religious belief in the world.  One musical genre born of belief, however, has transcended its peers both in terms of sheer popularity and in terms of the breadth of musical styles that coexist under a single umbrella -- the umbrella of Contemporary Christian Music, or CCM.  CCM, launched, most would agree, with the advent of "The Jesus People" in the late 1960s and "fathered" by early artists such as Larry Norman, Randy Stonehill, and Mark Heard,…

Once upon a time, the leading bard of his age declared that "All the world's a stage / And all the men and women merely players."Not that we'd ever compare ourselves to Shakespeare -- the women on our staff are all played by actual women, thank you very much -- but the quote is relevant when the topic at hand is music from the stage (showtunes, if you must). Musicals as a genre extend far beyond what we think of as modern music -- whose timeline might begin with the original blues recordings of the 20s -- having been a…

Robert Allen Zimmerman was not meant for small things. From the beginning of his career, when the man who rechristened himself Bob Dylan was hailed as a dynamic new voice within the tight-knit and often-critical folk community, he made a mark. As the years went by, the mark grew bigger and bigger, until the conclusion became inescapable: whatever one makes of his inscrutable public face, his daring artistic decisions, or his acquired taste of a voice, Bob Dylan is one of the most important musical figures of the 20th century. His words ignited the imagination of an entire generation, spurring…

Okay class, time for a little history lesson.From 1999 through 2006, you could not find any Prince reviews on The Daily Vault.  This was because the DV's founder, Christopher Thelen, had banned him from appearing on the site for reasons he expressed thusly at the time: ********************In 1999, Prince (then known as "The Artist") launched an offensive campaign against numerous fan sites devoted to him and his music. Some sites were shut down for allegedly selling bootleg CDs; others were shut down for vague copyright reasons. In the end, the gist was that "Asshole" (as he has been called on The…