The civil rights movement reached its climax on August 28, 1963 with the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Protesters came together to bring awareness to racial inequality and press congress to enact civil rights legislation. An interracial crowd of more than 250,000 gathered to hear Dr. Martin Luther King’s iconic “I have a […]

How’s this for a concert roster: Otis Redding, Buffalo Springfield, The Who, and Jimi Hendrix?? Those are just some of the 36 acts that graced the stage of the Monterey Pop Festival in June of 1967. The guest list isn’t surprising given the star power behind the festival. Paul McCartney and Brian Wilson […]

Led Zeppelin records Stairway to Heaven on Led Zeppelin IV and it becomes one of the most requested songs on FM radio
If you haven’t played air guitar or slow danced to it in high school, then you’ve certainly heard it on the radio…again and again. It’s the most requested and played song on FM […]

When it premiered October 11, 1975 Saturday Night Live was cutting-edge comedy. It was as though a bunch of young smart hipsters had hijacked the airwaves from their parents. Thirty-two years later, the program is still on—an amazing feat—even though some would argue it’s lost its luster. Still, Saturday Night Live has […]

Neil Young, Canadian singer-songwriter, guitarist, and film director, penned the lyrics to the protest song “Ohio,” after seeing the photos of the Kent State shootings on May 4, 1970 in Life magazine. The song was quickly recorded by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (“CSNY”) and immediately released as a single, even though CSNY’s “Teach Your […]

The Joshua Tree was the fifth studio album by U2 and released on March 9, 1987. Produced by Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois the album is considered to be their magnum opus and was massively successful. Winning the Album of The Year Grammy in 1998 critics and fans alike assert this is U2’s best album.
Everything […]

As cultural signposts go, it’s hard to deny the implications of an angst punk trio turned unlikely rock juggernauts dethroning the King of Pop. January 11, 1992 is a pivotal date – marking grunge’s crowning achievement and a rare instance of the counterculture trumping the mainstream. It was the day alternative rock ceased being “alternative” […]

Folklore has it that Robert Johnson sold his to the devil in lieu of the devil tuning his guitar for him at the crossroads. In doing so, it made Robert Johnson one of the best delta bluesman. He could sing and play the greatest blues music that anyone had heard at the time. His music […]

Even in life, Kurt Cobain’s significance had grown beyond mere “rock star”. He was a reluctant spokesman for Gen Xers. But Cobain had been deeply troubled for some time. Plagued by a lifetime of depression, chronic (and extremely painful) stomach ulcers, a tempestuous marriage, and a self-medicating heroin addiction, Cobain had been hospitalized twice in […]

Paul Simon released the groundbreaking Graceland in August, 1986. The title song was inspired by a trip to Graceland in Memphis, however Graceland was notable for Simon’s brilliant synthesis of South African music in to the album. The project was originally inspired by Simon’s listening to a cassette of the South African group the Boyoyo […]