H e was born the third of 12 children in Macon, Georgia, on December 5th, 1932, though he sometimes said it was December 25th, perhaps to honor Christ his savior, perhaps to burnish his own legend, or more likely both. His parents wanted to call him Ricardo, but the birth …
Read More »'Shit, Mary, I Can't Dance': Neil Young Drops the Tender 'Try'
Neil Young has released the charming “Try” from Homegrown, the long-lost 1975 album that he’s finally decided to release next month. The COVID-19 pandemic delayed the record’s arrival, but we’ve already waited nearly 50 years for it to come out. What’s another few months? The soothing barroom ditty opens with …
Read More »Mike Love on New Quarantine Song 'This Too Shall Pass,' Beach Boys' Future
For the Beach Boys, 2020 was supposed to be a busy year, packed with performances and meet-and-greets.“And then it came to a screeching halt,” Mike Love tells Rolling Stone. “I just look forward to the time when we can get out and do our live music again.” While remaining isolated …
Read More »Paul McCartney: 'I Owe a Lot of What I Do to Little Richard'
Paul McCartney, who learned “everything he knows” from Little Richard, penned a tribute to the rock pioneer Sunday following Little Richard’s death at the age of 87. “From ‘Tutti Frutti’ to ‘Long Tall Sally’ to ‘Good Golly, Miss Molly’ to ‘Lucille’, Little Richard came screaming into my life when I …
Read More »'A Bomb in the Center of the Climate Movement': Michael Moore Damages Our Most Important Goal
If you’re looking for a little distraction from the news of the pandemic — something a little gossipy, but with a point at the end about how change happens in the world — this essay may soak up a few minutes. I’ll tell the story chronologically, starting a couple of …
Read More »Inside Michigan's Fight for Safe, Legal Vapes
Dan Colucci’s cigarette habit started before he was a teenager. It was part of his ritual on the way to middle school, when he would pass by a local gas station in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. “Packs of cigarettes were sitting loose,” he tells Rolling Stone. “So, I would just go …
Read More »Dua Lipa's 'Future Nostalgia' Is the Disco Liberation Soundtrack We Need Now
In early December of last year, back when we still could go places, I took a trip to New Orleans, where seemingly every gay bar I visited had already added Dua Lipa‘s “Don’t Start Now” into rotation. The song was barely a month old at that point, but it felt …
Read More »Op-Ed: Big Insurance Is Climate's Quiet Killer
Climate and social justice advocates have long worked to connect the dots between flows of big money and the main players propping up the fossil fuel economy. As the climate movement pulls at the threads of old power structures, it’s found that the villains of the climate crisis are a …
Read More »Billie Joe Armstrong, the Bangles' Susanna Hoffs Cover 'Manic Monday'
Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong continued his “No Fun Mondays” quarantine series with a cover of the Bangles’ “Manic Monday,” recruiting that band’s Susanna Hoffs for a video cameo on electric guitar. The duo put a power-pop spin on the Prince-penned 1986 hit, replacing the original’s twinkling synths and clean …
Read More »Hal Willner, Music Producer and Longtime 'SNL' Music Supervisor, Dead at 64
Hal Willner — the respected producer who worked with Lou Reed and Marianne Faithfull, was a long-time Saturday Night Live staffer and compiled a series of offbeat and creative all-star tribute albums — died Tuesday at the age of 64. A rep for Willner confirmed the producer’s death to Rolling …
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