« Le Rock’n’roll est la plus brutale, la plus hideuse, la plus prostrée, la plus vicieuse des formes d’expressions qu’il m’ait malheureusement été donné d’écouter. » Frank SINATRA Une culture 100% adolescente est née dans l’après-guerre. Portée par le rock, un vecteur de libération sexuelle et raciale qui a fait scandale dès 1956, la nouvelle génération a produit un son et une attitude qui ont ébranlé le monde. Ce dictionnaire chronologique (notices par ordre alphabétique) réunit 98 artistes en 98 chefs-d’oeuvre et perles méconnues. Il permet de comprendre les fondamentaux de cette musique. Musicien, journaliste et historien du rock, Bruno Blum commente et présente la naissance, l’évolution, les différents styles du rock, et ses meilleurs représentants durant l’âge d’or du rock n’roll.

'The Best of Jethro Tull The Anniversary Collection,' released in 1993, is a best-of box set by British rock group Jethro Tull. Included are some of the band's biggest and best hits spanning from 1968 to 1991. A two disc collection, 'The Anniversary Collection' compiles releases from 1968-1974 on disc one, and releases from 1975-1991 on disc two, including early hits like, 'This Was' to Tull's later work, like 1991's 'Catfish Rising.' With such a comprehensive collection, it's interesting to hear the changing roster of characters (the original lineup has changed many times, but for Ian Anderson - vocals, flute - the one constant). Jethro Tull has managed to persevere for decades because they remain a scion of hard rock and ingenuity, and the plethora of amazing tracks included on 'The Anniversary Collection' is testament to this. Included are two tracks from, 'Crest of a Knave' - the album that won Jethro Tull the 1989 Grammy for Best Hard Rock/Heavy Metal Performance in 1989, the first Grammy of its kind over awarded. This is the definitive collection of Jethro Tull, and fans, old and new alike, should not miss owning 'The Best of Jethro Tull The Anniversary Collection.'

Four of the five original members of The Byrds appear on Younger Than Yesterday, their fourth album recorded in 1966 and released in 1967. Time has shown it to be among the most durable of the band's albums. David Crosby, Roger McGuinn, and Chris Hillman come into their own as songwriters and Michael Clarke continued to mature into an impressive drummer. The album successfully expands their musical styles into several different directions yet remains a focused set blending folk-rock, heavy psychedelia, jazz influences and early indicators of the country rock direction the band later pursued.
While there's a somber, brooding tone that hangs over many of the songs, the album has a fresh playful quality capturing new musical textures, including reverse tape effects and brass instruments…

Without a question this is an awesome recording and a necessity in anyone’s progressive rock collection. Absolutely brilliant progressive rock.
Bubu was born in the mid of the 1970s, created by composer Daniel Andreoli. In the midst of a turbulent time in Argentina's history, Bubu struck the local music scene with an exceptional music, breaking schemes already imposed by the existing rock, mixing symphonic melodies and harmonies with the characteristical ecstasy and frenzy of progressive rock. "Anabelas" (1978) consists of three long epic compositions, and features mostly instrumental music that sounds like a cross of early King Crimson, Magma and Anglagard. Bubu was quite a large band and actually with a wide range of talent and instrumentation…

Badger was a British rock band from the early 1970s. The band was co-founded by keyboardist Tony Kaye after he left Yes, with David Foster. Foster had been in The Warriors with Jon Anderson before Anderson co-founded Yes. Foster later worked with the band on Time and a Word. Kaye had worked on a solo project by Foster that was never released. The pair found drummer Roy Dyke, formerly of Ashton, Gardner & Dyke, and Dyke suggested Brian Parrish formerly of Parrish & Gurvitz which later became Frampton's Camel (after Parrish left P&G) on guitar. The new band began rehearsing in September 1972 and signed to Atlantic Records.

There's a reason Turnstiles begins with the Spector-esque epic "Say Goodbye to Hollywood." Shortly after Streetlife Serenade, Joel ditched California – and, by implication, sensitive Californian soft rock from sensitive singer/songwriters – for his hometown of New York. "Say Goodbye to Hollywood" was a celebration of his move, a repudiation of his past, a fanfare for a new beginning, which is exactly what Turnstiles was. He still was a singer/songwriter – indeed, "Summer, Highland Falls" was his best ballad to date, possibly his best ever – but he decided to run with his musical talents, turning the record into a whirlwind tour of pop styles, from Sinatra to Springsteen.

Live albums are dangerous things. While the good ones capture the raw excitement of a show, all too often they expose a band's weaknesses, the ones that get covered in the studio – a singer who's not so good and instrumentalists who really can't cut it. But Colosseum, by the time they made their live album (the CD version comes with an extra track, "I Can't Live Without You," that wasn't on the original vinyl), were a seasoned outfit with some top-notch performers. In veteran Chris Farlowe they had a blues belter who could also turn his hand to jazz. Dave "Clem" Clempson was a rock guitarist first and foremost, but not limited to that, and bassist Mark Clarke was exactly the elastic foil drummer Jon Hiseman needed in the rhythm section.

A vent’anni dalla sua pubblicazione “Piccoli fragilissimi film”, bellissimo esordio solista di Paolo Benvegnù, esce in una nuova versione che prende il nome di Piccoli fragilissimi film – Reloaded disponibile a partire dall’11 ottobre 2024. Un’opera che scava a ritroso nel tempo con mani nuove e ancor più esperte, senza tradire l’originale ma dando nuova linfa e un fascino diverso ai brani, e diventa un progetto collettivo grazie a preziose e inaspettate collaborazioni. Tra i compagni di viaggio che Benvegnù ha voluto al suo fianco in questo “tuffo nel passato/presente”, i primi svelati sono: Paolo Fresu & Ermal Meta, La Rappresentante di Lista e Dente

The Best of the Allman Brothers offers a brief but effective introduction to the band, featuring such hits as "Ramblin' Man", "Crazy Love", "Melissa", "Jessica", and "Statesboro Blues".

Tony Joe White's self-titled third album, Tony Joe White, finds the self-proclaimed swamp fox tempering his bluesy swamp rockers with a handful of introspective, soul-dripping ballads and introducing horn and string arrangements for the first time. The album – White's 1971 debut for Warner Bros. – was recorded over a two-week period in December 1970, in two different Memphis studios (one was Ardent Studios, where Big Star later recorded their influential power pop albums). His producer was none other than London-born Peter Asher, who had just produced James Taylor's early hits for the label (he would continue to produce hits for Taylor and Linda Ronstadt on his way to becoming one of the most successful producers of the '70s). One can surmise that Warner Bros. may have put White and Asher together as a way for the producer to work his magic with an artist who had much promise.

Unlike many bands whose careers had begun in the early 1970s, Camel still continued to enjoy much success at the close of the decade. I Can See Your House From Here was a revitalized work that included many fine songs such as Ice (featuring Phil Collins on Percussion), Hymn To Her and Your Love is Stranger Than Mine. Produced by Rupert Hine, the album was a chart success and spawned an extensive World tour. This Esoteric Recordings edition has been re-mastered from the original tapes and features two Bonus Tracks, including a live version of Ice recorded by the BBC in 1981. The accompanying CD booklet includes copious photographs and memorabilia and a new essay.

Moving away from the guitar histrionics of Beauty Stab, Martin Fry reduced ABC to a duo of himself and Mark White for 1985's danceable How to Be a…Zillionaire! Incorporating light hip-hop rhythms, ABC made sure Zillionaire sounded contemporary for mid-'80s dance clubs, and as a result, some of the record sounds stiff and dated. Still, when Fry's sense of melody is on, as on the catchy single "Be Near Me," or when he works in his vicious, cynical wit, as on "How to Be a Millionaire" and "So Hip It Hurts," the record rivals the peaks of Lexicon of Love.

Rory Gallagher restera à jamais un des bluesmen blancs les plus rock’n’roll, une bête de scène habitée par sa musique. Le regretté guitariste irlandais entré depuis dans la légende ne sait plus vraiment ce dont il a envie quand vient l’occasion d’enregistrer son septième album.Nous sommes en 1977. Gallagher a récolté de très belles critiques avec son Calling Card sorti l’année précédente. Mais il lui manquait un album à l’Américaine pour satisfaire ses propres désirs de production plus léchée. L’occasion se présente alors et Rory en profite. Le fiévreux musicien et son groupe se rendent à San Francisco en fin d’année pour bosser avec le producteur Elliot Mazer. Un scénario idéal.

All 31 songs the Merseybeats ever recorded manage to fit on this single-CD compilation. That includes the A-sides and B-sides of all eight of their 1963-1965 singles, all of the tracks from their sole album that weren't on 45s, the songs from their 1964 On Stage EP (none of which made it onto any other format at the time), and even German versions of "I Think of You" and "It's Love That Really Counts." That doesn't leave much to complain about. Nonetheless, it has to be said that if you have their Edsel best-of, Beat & Ballads, which concentrates on their best singles, you're not missing much, even if it's only half the length. Of the cuts here that aren't on Beat & Ballads, few are memorable, largely encompassing some mediocre group-penned B-sides and drab covers, some of inappropriately pop-oriented tunes…

A fairly standard trawl through Lene Lovich's back pages, rounding up all the hits and near misses that punctuated her four years at Stiff Records, backed up by more choice album cuts than one might remember there being. For obvious reasons, the Stateless debut album predominates here, with the manic flurry of "Lucky Number," "Say When," and "I Think We're Alone Now" positively refusing to leave your head once you've heard them again. Moving on, the enthralling "Bird Song" reminds you what Kate Bush once seemed capable of accomplishing (at least until Hazel O'Connor came along and devalued the whole thing), while a delicious cover of Frankie Valli's "The Night" still out-dramas any other version you could name. Lovich's later years, however, still sound as unremarkable as her early releases were astonishing, with the annoying "New Toy" single, and 1982's barely memorable "It's You (Only You)" closing the chronology in disappointing fashion. For anyone uncertain about rushing into Stateless itself, however, this is where you test the water. You'll be plunging in at the deep end soon enough.