Steely Dan – My Rival
Oldies Songs The Paranoia and Possessive Longing of a Man on the Edge, Driven to Madness by the Phantom of His Undoing There are some albums that arrive not as music, but…
Ted Nugent – A Thousand Knives
An Ominous Prelude to Rock ‘n’ Roll Mayhem The very mention of Ted Nugent’s 1977 masterpiece, Cat Scratch Fever, conjures up the raw, untamed spirit of hard rock, a time…
Walter Becker – Surf and / or Die
A Stream-of-Consciousness Requiem for the Unruly Spirit, Lost to the Lure of the Edge The year was 1994, and after a silence that had stretched for fourteen long years since…
Jackson Browne – Call It a Loan
A Ballad of Lingering Loss: When Giving More Than You Get Becomes a Heartbreaking Reckoning The year was 1980, an era when soft rock and heartfelt singer-songwriters reigned supreme, translating…
Slade – Love Is Like a Rock
An Unyielding Anthem of Endurance: The Enduring Power of Love as a Steadfast Force Ah, the 1980s. A decade of excess, neon, and, for bands who’d dominated the previous era,…
Ted Nugent – Sweet Sally
A Raucous, Unapologetic Celebration of the Unbridled Spirit of Youthful Female Energy Oh, to be transported back to 1977, a year when the air crackled with a raw, almost dangerous…
Donald Fagen – Miss Marlene
An Elegy to Faded Youth and the Ghost of a Bowling Queen The unmistakable late-career cool of Donald Fagen, a sound he polished to a jazz-funk sheen with Steely Dan…
Jackson Browne – I’m Alive (Live From Home)
A Quiet Affirmation of Survival, Renewal, and the Grace of Carrying On When Jackson Browne released “I’m Alive” in 1993 as the title track of his album I’m Alive, the…
Donald Fagen and Walter Becker – Snowbound
Snowbound: A Bittersweet Ode to Decadent Respite in a Dystopian Future The release of Donald Fagen’s second solo album, Kamakiriad, in 1993, marked a moment of profound significance for a…
Ted Nugent – Paralyzed
The Thrill of Hard Rock’s Wildman: A High-Energy Anthem About Desire and Unstoppable Momentum Oh, the late 1970s—a time when the embers of the rock and roll bonfire still burned…