
Queen- Spread Your Wings- London 10-28-77
Queen always was one of those top-tier bands who could really sing and play their highly arranged material live, and here is ample proof of that fact in a rare live-in-studio performance of "Spread Your Wings" from Autumn 1977, broadcast on BBC Radio from London's Maida Vale Studio.

Live- Selling the Drama- New York City 3/97
When the string of passionate, dynamic songs on the 1994 Throwing Copper album by Pennsylvania band Live opened up like the petals on a rose bud, I was really impressed. Not since the R.E.M. days of Murmur and Reckoning a decade earlier …

R.E.M.- Maps and Legends- Santa Monica 1987
R.E.M. live acoustic "Maps and Legends" at McCabe's Guitar Shop, Santa Monica May 1987

Kinks- Picture Book- London 1996
"The Kinks are a really good live band. We're not so keen on recording studios," Ray Davies told me. Maybe that's why the Kinks have owned their own studio in London for so long, in order to minimize many of the irritants from recording in…

Robert Plant- Rockin’ at Midnight- Birmingham UK 9-85
When Robert Plant performed this toe-tappin', finger snappin' "Rockin' at Midnight" in concert in Birmingham England in September 1985, he had already successfully lifted the curtain on Act Two of his lengthy post-Led Zeppelin career.

Judas Priest- Living After Midnight- Atlanta 12-11-82
Program Director Alan Sneed was midway through a distinguished career helming legendary rock radio stations in Nashville, Atlanta, and Houston when Judas Priest rolled into the Omni in early December 1982 to film and record. Those facts are…

Mark Knopfler- Money for Nothing- Dallas Ft Worth 9-8-19
Mark Knopfler the quiet-spoken Englishman from his performance in September 2019 in Grand Prairie TX taking his big band through their paces on the showstopper "Money for Nothing".

U2- Until the End of the World- NYC Yankee Stadium 1992
U2's "Until the End of the World", it is imperative that the listener understand that the singers' (plural) perspectives change every time the stanzas do. The singer in the first stanza is Jesus Christ; the singer in the second stanza is Judas; and in the final stanza, it's you and me.

Pete Townshend- Rough Boys- Cannes 1-29-86
Pete Townshend took his all-star Deep End band to the annual MIDEM music convention in Cannes France at the end of February 1986 to perform live on the legendary Rockpalast television show stage. His setlist included the song "Rough Boys", which…

Talking Heads- Take Me to the River- WCOZ, Boston 11-17-77
the first time that I met legendary songwriter/ guitarist the late Teenie Hodges was at a Talking Heads record release party for "Fear of Music" in Memphis in 1979. Teenie had sought me out to introduce himself, since I had been influential in getting ROCK 103 Memphis to play the Talking Heads version of "Take Me to the River", the soul classic originally co-written and recorded by Memphis legend Al Green.