Dulli on Cohen

Greg Dulli takes a Leonard Cohen number out for a spin. It's everything you would hope it is.

Melody Gardot

She'll break your heart.

K-tel's Cruisin' Series

In the 70's, K-tel was a record label known primarily for scattershot compilations of greatest hits that people who didn't often buy music might grab, as any given release from the label might have a lot of the songs one would hear on the radio on the way to and from work. The records were well known (and often maligned) as a result of their corny advertising campaigns. If the term "As seen on TV!" wasn't invented by K-tel, it had to have been close.
Plus, they sold mood rings.

The literal translation of the word nostalgia- "pain from an old wound." While the wounds were still fresh, K-tel released a series of comps with comic panel covers detailing the year by year coming of age of a couple of baby boomers, teen rebels without a clue when the Rock & Roll hit in the late 50's, then through the turbulent 1960's.

It's certainly not a new idea. That saga's been done in movies, TV, literature, everything. But never in comic strip form, and never right on an album cover. Note how the style of the art changes with each release, from cartoonish to stylish to, finally, stark and realistic. The lovebirds have had their fun, and are entering the 1970's as squares. Click to enlarge the drama.

The Story Of Holocaust Survivor Dina Babbit

Comic book masters Stan Lee, Neal Adams, and Joe Kubert collaborated to tell the fascinating story of Dina Babbit. Click to enlarge:

Gene Vincent Never Gave Up

Gene Vincent was a survivor if there ever was one. When Elvis got drafted, Chuck Berry went to prison, Little Richard got religion, Jerry Lee Lewis embraced the country music fans who would forgive his transgressions with Carl Perkins not too far behind, Buddy Holly and Eddie Cochran were killed (with Gene in the car at the time), when radio got taken over by teen idols and singing groups and stars created entirely by record producers, Gene Vincent never stopped swinging.

Forgotten and marginalized in America, Gene was the Rock & Roll King of England. One of the The Beatles' first big break was getting to perform on the same bill as him, and their early leather suits were patterned after Gene's. As well as covered one of his later songs that nobody in America heard.

Gene could get pretty far out. It's hard to imagine who the target audience was for a song like this. It's also hard to imagine Gene gave a shit.

His back catalog goes in and out of print, but our Teutonic friends at Bear Family Records have brought us a huge, complete box set as only they can. Get it while it's still around...