Happy Birthday Justin Hayward of The Moody Blues  The Moody Blues’ Days Of Future Passed was recently celebrated with an expanded 50thAnniversary Deluxe Edition 

Days Of Future Passed was the Moody Blues’ landmark second album and formally marked the beginning of the band’s psychedelic era. Featuring the London Festival Orchestra, this richly orchestrated album followed in the wake of the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and Magical Mystery Tour but was in itself a unique and highly original piece of work. The album includes the hits “Tuesday Afternoon” and the ever-enduring “Nights In White Satin,” which established the Moody Blues as true pioneers in the development of progressive rock.

Singer, songwriter and guitaristJustin Hayward was born in Swindon, Wiltshire, England on October 14, 1946.

In 1966 he replaced the departing guitarist Denny Laine after the group had achieved a hit record with “Go Now,” a cover of a Bessie Banks record.

Hayward was initially contacted by Mike Pinder the Moody Blues’ keyboardist, who had received Justin’s letter and demo discs from Eric Burdon of the Animals where Hayward  answered an ad in the Melody Maker. At the same time bassist/vocalist John Lodge replaced another founding member, Clint Warwick, joining another co-founder, drummer Graeme Edge.  Ray Thomas, a vocalist and flute player was then enlisted for their unique sonic mixture.  

Hayward penned “Fly Me High,” a Moody Blues’ Decca single in 1967, and then “Leave This Man Alone,” and collaborated with Pinder on his “Love And Beauty,” the first Moodies record to incorporate the mellotron. This instrument is early version of sampling keyboards.

Harvey Kubernik and Justin Hayward 2012 interview

Q: Take me to the process of writing “Tuesday Afternoon” and then doing it for The Days Of Future Passed LP.     

A: We had the idea for a stage show and then it really came from Mike who had written a song, ‘Dawn is a Feeling’ which I really loved. And then we got round to sort of thinking about this would be quite a good idea for a sort of thematic stage show about the day in the life of one guy. And I just sort of chose, ‘I’m gonna do the afternoon.’  And I had already done ‘Nights in White Satin’ written and recorded.

“So I went back to where my parents lived in the west country in England and with a guitar and went out that afternoon sat in the side of the field and smoked a joint and then came back with ‘Tuesday Afternoon.’ That was about it. I thought it was kind of a cheeky little song that wouldn’t really mean much.  

Q: You debuted “Tuesday Afternoon” on a BBC radio session, before it was done with the band and the London Festival Orchestra conducted by Peter Knight.

A: It meant a lot to do the BBC after going professional. Totally. But I think it comes from us being a kind of reliable bread and butter live band for the BBC. We did a lot of ‘Easy Beat’ and ‘Saturday Club’ sessions for the Beeb. And they were very kind to us. But, you know, they got their monies worth out of us. They hardly paid us. (laughs).

Q: Did your early tunes like “Tuesday Afternoon” and ‘Nights in White Satin” even as you first wrote them and cut them with the Moodies always have such inherent cinematic qualities? Even without the orchestration, they are quite visual numbers. For example, your mono recording of “Nights in White Satin” is included in the bonus disc of the 2006 deluxe edition 2CD set of Days Of Future Passed.

A: I wish I could say I thought of it in those terms. But it was probably more to do with just the sort of, I hope this doesn’t sound too pretentious, I’m sure it is, the kind of search for enlightenment that young people do, and psychedelic experiences that I was going through. And it has more to do with that probably than thinking of it in a contrived way, you know, in a film sort of way. Interestingly enough, Tony Clarke used to think like that all the time.

Q: “Tuesday Afternoon” and “Nights in White Satin” were eventually recorded with the orchestra. Not the original game plan when you wrote them.

A: Not at all. But I have to say the single version of ‘Tuesday’ and the single version of ‘Nights in White Satin’ do not have any orchestra on it. It’s just a Mellotron.

“But I was at the session when they did the orchestra sessions. And they did it in one take. They had already laid out the songs on a four-track machine and they were bouncing to another four track. And so they did one run-though with the orchestra and then the take itself. And so I was astounded when I heard this stuff. And Mike had already done the spoken word stuff. So it was astounding to listen to that.

“But in truth, I thought we were making a kind of arty album that I might get invited to a cocktail party and might meet some nice lady from The Observer, and that’s about it. That was as far as a thought. So I wasn’t completely overwhelmed by it. I thought it was a limited appeal album. And really, the people who were in charge of it were the Decca stereo people. It was their album. A demonstration record. And we weren’t even asked into the control room.

Q: What role did the mellotron, even back then, play or impact your songwriting process and then recreating the Moodies sound on stage?

A: Well, Mike and the mellotron made my songs work. That’s the simplest way I can put it. When he was playing piano it was difficult for me to try and find something that would be percussive on the piano and that would be interesting. And particularly because Mike had already played, you know, the greatest piano single ever, so that was going to be an impossible act to follow. But when he found the mellotron, suddenly my songs worked, you know. When I played the other guys ‘Nights in White Satin’ they weren’t that impressed until Mike went on the mellotron and then everyone was kind of interested. (laughs). Because it really started to hang together from the mellotron.

Q: Days Of Future Passed and your tunes on it, owing partially to radio airplay and constant rotation, have achieved anthem-like status.

A: I don’t think there’s another album like Days Of Future Passed. And really, if you want to test your stereo system chose it because it’s still is one of the great quality studio recorded albums. And the engineer and the production had a lot to do with it.

“It’s just absolutely beautiful. And I would recommend it. The appeal of it was that we went our own way. The appeal was that we did think it was a small limited appeal album. And a lot of people who listen to it feel that way about it. ‘It’s just for me.’ It’s not a worldwide kind of thing. Not everybody liked it. It wasn’t universally liked. So I still like the fact that it was for an exclusive kind of audience. And only certain people would really appreciate or have the patience for it. And I think that’s it, really. That we went our own way and created our own identity with it.

Q: After Days Of Future Passed landed on the charts and sold, it was quite apparent being in this band was going to be your life. And the Moody Blues continued with another album. How do you even create a follow-up to this work? 

A: And the second album we were alone. But fortunately, Decca gave us Derek Varnels and Tony Clarke. And we had a load of songs, including ‘Legend Of a Mind,’ and maybe it might had been ‘Voices In The Sky,’ were done at the time of Days Of Future Passed. Our tracks don’t take up much time when you put them all together, like on Days of Future Passed.

“So, we already had a couple of things, And out of that came this thing that Mike used to do this thing on the piano. And the second album came out of that. And we had a theme early on that we write to and that was it. And then it coincided with our first tour of America. And we decided, well we didn’t decide, it was that we were everybody’s support band. That was the way we worked. We would support anybody and go on tour opening up. We always figured opening up was the best place to be. We’d be back in the hotel by 9:00 pm. Luckily, In Search of the Lost Chord, and ‘Ride My See-Saw’ and ‘Voices in the Sky’ took off.  

Q: I saw the band live a couple of times in the L.A. area in 1969 and 1970, once with Spirit, and I know on occasion there were some technical problems with the Mellotron on stage. These were primitive days in the technological recreation of studio sound. Were there any comical situations where the Mellotron broke down or slowed a show of yours?

A: Even at our Isle of Wight festival show that (director) Murray Lerner shot, there were real problems with the voltage. ‘Cause the voltage affected the mellotron. So if the voltage fluctuated so did the mellotron’s pitch. That’s one. (laughs). There’s a couple of things like that where I’ve mixed live and you hear things that obviously the audience is never gonna hear.

“And then the other one was doing our very first gig for Bill Graham at the Fillmore East and then for the mellotron to pack up in the first song. And for Mike to spend the first set with his head in the back of the mellotron was devastating. I just remember the blues guy, John Mayall, who was also on Decca, and extremely pissed off that we were above him on the bill. (laughs). I just remember him looking across and seeing him in the wings laughing his head off at Mike. And he knew Mike well. And so bless him..

Q: I seem to remember in 1969 the Moody Blues played a Love-In in Los Angeles.   

A: Yes.

Q: I always enjoyed that on your albums there were bits of spoken word and narration integrated in some of the songs. Recitation and talk. Was that part of the process when you were preparing the projects or doing pre-production?

A: It wasn’t so much by design. It was Graeme wanted to contribute. He was a good lyric writer. He was good at spoken word. He was a poet. And we had to get it in there somehow. And he would often try and bring the whole album theme together with his spoken word stuff. And he did that very well. So that’s where that came from.

“Then also that album called The Zodiac Cosmic Sounds on Elektra Records. (incorporating moog synthesizer from Paul Beaver and narration by Cyrus Faryar). That really turned us on. And we have to give that album some credit for really influencing us.       

Q: From your Question of Balance LP, I used to spin a Mike Pinder song, “How Is It (We Are Here)” that followed your “Question.”

A: Oh yes!

Q: Are you even aware that decades ago, those songs chronicled the world of physical existence, and others, like your tune “Cities,” were a comment on ecology and planetary concerns. Akin to the Doors’ “When the Music’s Over.” Some local radio stations used to couple the recordings together. Man, you were making an impact beyond the chart hits. The ecology theme was translating back to us teenagers in Hollywood. 

A: I was absolutely aware of that. I was a country boy and I never really, apart from a couple of times in my life for a few weeks, I never really, you know, lived in the city before. So I was very much in my mind. I love the English countryside. And London was a big kind of frightening place. But I knew it held the future. You had to be in London to get anything done. But it didn’t stop me kicking it.                            

Q: On your 2012 U.S. tour, what is it like singing and performing songs from Days Of Future Passed that you initially wrote and recorded just after being a teenager, and now 45 years later it is you as an adult doing them.  Is the song or the message the same or different? I know you’ve embraced your back catalog, and active in re-mastering and income streams, but are these songs and the recordings now another experience for you?

A: Well, now that’s a good question. Because I think they are relevant today. There’s a naivety about them that I would not, and this is the same for all of us in the band, that I would not have the courage to write today. And it’s as simple as that. I’d be afraid of writing it or exposing something that would be to kind of criticism. So, I’d play it a lot safer now.

Q: What was it like the last few decades overseeing re-mastering and reissues of your first batch of albums?

A: My first reaction was when we went back (1972) to do the Quadraphonic, the 5.1 version of Days Of Future Passed which could only come from the Quad that the late Tony Clarke and engineer Derek Varnals had done it in Quad at the time. In the same studio with the same echoes with the same notes. And Derek Varnals was always good at keeping notes. And I was just astounded. I just thought, ‘How on earth did we do that?’ Because most of it was live and we were bouncing. You had to get it right and then bounce or to double-track the vocals or anything. And my reaction was, how on earth did we do it? I just don’t know, really. It’s like listening to another group of people. I’m far enough away now to be able to separate.

Photo courtesy of Carl Lender/Wikicommons, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.The post Happy Birthday Justin Hayward of The Moody Blues   first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

Here’s exactly what Amazon, Spotify, Apple and other streaming services want to pay songwriters for 2028–2032Spotify, Apple, Amazon, Pandora, and Google have filed their rate proposals in Phonorecords V
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Why Mick Fleetwood Wore Wooden Toilet-Chain Balls on the ‘Rumours’ CoverEver wondered why Mick Fleetwood is holding wooden toilet-chain balls on Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours cover? Discover the bizarre story behind his unusual good-luck charm.

Raye says ticket scalpers used AI bots to create ‘hundreds of thousands of fake registrations’ as 1.8M sign up for 5,000 Royal Albert Hall seatsPresale registration for the show ran through a sign-up page hosted by fan marketing platform co:brand.
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Sony Music Vision Presents Queen BudapestSony Music Vision presents Queen Budapest, the first Western stadium rock show to take place behind the Iron Curtain, and the final filmed Queen live performance. Queen Budapest was released globally in cinemas and IMAX the first week of October for a limited time only, in partnership with Trafalgar Releasing.

An announcement from Legacy/Sony Music Vision described Queen’s Budapest concert film and November products.    

“Filmed on July 27, 1986, at Budapest’s Népstadion during the band’s ‘The Magic Tour’, Queen Budapest captures the band's final filmed performance with Freddie Mercury at their live peak, just five shows before their final show. The film features hits such as We Will Rock You, We Are the Champions, Under Pressure and BohemianRhapsody, along with an acoustic take on the traditional Hungarian folk song Tavaszi Szél Vizet Áraszt.

“The concert was a groundbreaking moment, as Queen became the first Western rock band to perform a stadium show behind the Iron Curtain during a period of profound cultural and political change. In addition to 80,000 tickets selling out, an estimated 45,000 people listened to the group outside, with some fans having travelled from as far away as Russia and Poland. The show was filmed on 35 mm film by Hungary’s best cameramen using 17 cameras and 25 miles of film. The Hungarian government approved the entire operation, which was a first for a Communist State.

“Queen Budapest will be released to mark the 40th anniversary of this pivotal moment in the band’s history, and the film has been meticulously restored in 4K from the original filmed 35mm footage by Sir Peter Jackson’s Park Road Post Production facility in New Zealand, with newly remixed audio from the original multitrack recordings.

Queen Budapest will also be released as a multi-format audio package via Legacy Recordings, the catalogue division of Sony Music, internationally, and Hollywood Records in the U.S. and Canada on November 6.

The soundtrack, newly remixed from the original multitrack by Queen’s studio team, will be released alongside the Blu-Ray, DVD, CD & Digital editions as a 3LP vinyl set for the very first time. 

Queen Budapest is directed by János Zsombolyai. Sony Music Vision is the distributor.”

Queen Budapest CD Track ListingCD 11. One Vision2. Tie Your Mother Down3. In The Lap Of The Gods… Revisited4. Seven Seas Of Rhye5. Tear It Up6. A Kind Of Magic7. Under Pressure8. Another One Bites The Dust9. Who Wants To Live Forever10. I Want To Break Free11. Looks Like It’s Gonna Be A Good Night – Improv12. Guitar Solo13. Now I’m Here

CD 21. Love Of My Life2. Tavaszi Szél Vizet Áraszt3. Is This The World We Created…?4. (You’re So Square) Baby I Don’t Care5. Hello Mary Lou (Goodbye Heart)6. Tutti Frutti7. Bohemian Rhapsody8. Hammer To Fall9. Crazy Little Thing Called Love10. Radio Ga Ga11. We Will Rock You12. Friends Will Be Friends13. We Are The Champions14. God Save The Queen

My public profile has been way more visible after being filmed along with Queen co-founders, guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor, in their 2012 Queen at 40 documentary, directed by Matt O’Casey for BBC Television and issued and expanded as Queen: Days Of Our Lives The Definitive Documentary of the World’s Greatest Rock Band as a 2014 DVD and Blu-Ray via Eagle Vision regularly broadcast on cable TV outlets.

I was subsequently quoted describing Queen on www.brianmay.com,  “As American journalist Harvey Kubernik put it, ‘it wasn’t rock ‘n’ roll, it was Broadway.’” 

As Freddie himself said, “A concert is not a live rendition of our album. It’s a theatrical event.”  

Queen’s 1976 stage repertoire included an encore of Cy Coleman and Dorothy Fields’ song “Big Spender” initially done on the boards by Shirley MacLaine in the Broadway musical Sweet Charity.  Mercury first heard Shirley Bassey’s 1967 version of the tune on BBC Radio and then by Liza Minnelli. “Big Spender” is on Queen Live at Wembley ’86.  

I saw Queen perform three times during the seventies and interviewed Freddie Mercury twice-once in Beverly Hills for the now defunct Melody Maker and in London during 1975 and ‘76.   

Our first conversation was at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. It was a Special Melody Maker report Killer Queen Slay America!

Mercury regally waltzed into the room, stuck out his hands, and greeted fellow journalist Justin Pierce and me with “Hello darlings. What do you think of my black fingernail polish?” 

I replied to him, “Freddie, I grew up in Hollywood. I know what kind of paint color real stars wear. So, while in L.A., why don’t you go over to Ball Beauty on Fairfax Ave? My cousin Shelia Kaye and Cher get their makeup supplies at that shop. It’s near Norty’s Music Center. Ask one of the women at your Elektra Records label office on La Cienega Blvd. to drive you there.”           

Mercury poured a glass of champagne and announced, “Please put the tape machine on.” Freddie thoroughly enjoyed trumpeting Queen and discussing the machinations of their mid-seventies career. 

We must have spent the first 10 minutes talking about performers Liza Minnelli and Judy Garland.

I saw Judy sing in 1963 at her CBS-TV Judy Garland Show taping in Television City in a memorable duet with Barbra Streisand. In 1975 I sat next to Liza at a Rolling Stones 1975 Fabulous Forum concert. Freddie had seen Minelli at the London Palladium in the very early seventies.

Mercury was stunned. “If you come to London, do call my publicist Tony Brainsby. We must do this again.” And we did, but this time he was wearing green nail polish.  

Freddie had an air of confidence and mega-stardom destiny about him. The boy had a keen sense of the pop music process and about being a star on and off the stage.

I spoke with Freddie about a recording session he, Taylor, and May cut of “I Can Hear Music” b/w “Goin’ Back” under the pseudonym Larry Lurex. It was around the time of the recording of Queen’s debut album (for legal reasons, they couldn’t call it a “Queen” single). 

I had a delightful chat with Brian May after a Queen show at a party Elektra Records tossed in Hollywood, where Brian mentioned he saw the Jimi Hendrix Experience a few times.

May recalled in 1967 he was on the entertainment committee at Imperial College in London who booked the trio for a cheap rate. Before Queen and Smile, Brian was in 1984, who opened a show for Hendrix or played at a venue with him.   

In my conversation with the visionary A&R man and former record label executive at UNI/MCA and later 20th Century Records, Russ Regan, he lamented that one failure in the music business was not acquiring Queen in 1973 for a North American deal, losing out in a bidding war to Jac Holzman at Elektra.

Regan gave The Beach Boys their name and at UNI inked Elton John to the company and Barry White to 20th Century. “I loved Queen’s songwriting, harmonies and the sound I heard on the tape sent to me.”     

I think it’s time again, after 50 years, to write about Queen and Freddie Mercury, utilizing my Stateside 1975 interview with him, reminding the world about this talented, charismatic performer, and truly charming character.     

Harvey Kubernik Freddie Mercury 1975 Interview    

It was mid-afternoon in Beverly Hills as Freddie Mercury peered over the spacious swimming pool of the Hilton Hotel and reflected on Queen’s latest tour of the States.

“The tour has been going just great. The only drawback has been the problems with my voice, which I’ve been over-taxing. But since I’ve been taking care of it and resting more, it’s been fine. The problem is that when you do a tour, you try to schedule the concerts as close as possible.

“Therefore, it’s like a constant workout. However, at this moment it’s raring to go and at the conclusion of this tour, we’re going to take a rest in Hawaii, which we really deserve. From there it’ll be on to Japan and Australia.”

The success story of Queen is remarkable when one considers the time in which they’ve become one of the world’s most popular bands. In Japan, they were recently voted one of the top three bands in the world, and that’s without even doing one date in the Orient.

What does Freddie see as being the key to their phenomenal following? “I can’t pinpoint it, but there’s something about our music that’s different and unlike anybody else’s.

“I believe that’s our major strong point. But there’s other ingredients. Besides the fact that our timing has helped, there is the fact that we take risks. We’re not one of those groups that go through every stage, for we skipped a few hurdles and we’re willing to take the chances that brought us to our level of acceptance.

“This American tour is a perfect example. To undertake this kind of massive tour is not unheard of, but it is a risk. People were constantly telling us about the American economy and how the biggest groups are having trouble filling venues.

“And for us to come on as strong as we are, headlining after only half a previous tour, shows how confident we are, or what you can put across unless you were a headliner.             

“And now we’ve proved we can do it. Here we are, the first time in L.A. and we’ve sold out two shows, and it’s simply an amazing feeling.”

That feeling is bound to be even greater on subsequent tours for Queen who are only now breaking into the American record charts with their single recording of “Killer Queen” from Sheer Heart Attack.

The gentleness and buoyancy of the tune is in marked contrast to the high level of energy that characterizes their first two albums.

It is only on the third album that the diversity really became apparent. However, Mercury really doesn’t look at it as a great change: “The thing I hate is trying to pinpoint everything for everybody.

“People always ask questions like, ‘Why did you write such and such a lyric and what does it mean? That’s now what it’s all about. The one thing the British press has been trying to do for years is to pinpoint and categorize. It really annoys us.

“We came out with ‘Keep Yourself Alive’ as a single, which is raunchy, and then we decided on ‘Killer Queen’ for a later release. The first thing they do is go up to you and ask ‘What are you up to?’ This is our music and it’s up to the individual to interpret it. It’s not up to us to come out with a product and label it.

“It would be boring if everything was laid out and everybody knew what it was all about all the time. I like people to make up their interpretation.

“They also want to categorize my stage image. I remember back in an interview where I said, ‘I play on the bisexual thing.’ Of course I play on it. It’s simply a matter of wherever my mood takes me. If people want to know and ask me if I’m gay, I tell them it’s up to themselves to find out. I’m just being my flamboyant self and having a good time,” he smiled.      

Even though Mercury prefers not to try and analyze Queen’s music, he discussed their cumulative work in a logical manner: The first LP was very raw and full of freshness.

“It was simply a reflection of what we’d been doing for so long and we just wanted to get it out of our system. On the second album we found out that even though we had a formula we didn’t necessarily have to keep it.

“Therefore, we dabbled at other things. Sheer Heart Attack was something different again. We wanted to make it interesting for ourselves as well as the listener. Hopefully, we succeeded on both counts. When we’re on stage we try to do the same thing.

“We’re perfectionists. Although all of us write, it doesn’t necessarily mean that every song composed will appear on an album.

“Having all the members write adds to our versatility, and that’s another strong point. On the last album we wanted to create a certain feel, and did. However, there were so many ideas and things that we wanted to do and have yet to carry out.

“You simply can’t do everything on one album. Lots of groups eventually burn themselves out due to lack of new ideas. But at this point, there’s no way we’re going to burn out. In fact, presently we’re stronger than ever.

“We do rock ‘n’ roll, and our presentation is just a way of putting across the music. We view albums and concerts as two spheres of work. There’s a different level in the studio as compared to when you’re on stage. But when we’re before an audience we let loose,” Freddie underscored.

Mercury was at the end of the US tour. It was interesting to know how he felt the English music market differs from the American.

“Even though singles may have been more important at one time in Britain, I feel that the stress on the singles and the albums is becoming pretty even. If you play too much on singles you can quite easily become a singles group.

“At that point it’s almost impossible to revert back to albums. I feel we’re in a fortunate position for we’ve only released four singles, including our new one. Therefore, we’ve achieved a balance. I think the same thing is true in America, though we’ve had to rely on response to our albums to carry us through. It wasn’t really till ‘Killer Queen’ that we received mass exposure on a commercial level.

“Back home, you have to be very careful of what you say or do because you’re in a position of immense responsibility. In fact, it can sometimes get ridiculous.

“We have this black-and-white theme that we carry out in England and it’s very strong. It has even got to the point where the audiences dress and look like me to a tee. They’re very faithful and it’s beautiful. On this tour, in Dallas, there was even a fan dressed with black makeup on one side of his face and white on the other, and it was marvelous.”

As for his own musical tastes Mercury says: “I listen to all kinds of music from Hendrix to Liza Minelli, all the way back to Mae West. I also enjoy Flo & Eddie when I hear them on the radio. They’re simply a riot.

“I also enjoy Joni Mitchell tremendously, and am constantly awed by her vocal phrasing as well as the amazing things she writes. She’s simply beautiful.”

Besides devoting the last few years to Queen, band members took time to record a single, “I Can Hear Music” and “Goin’ Back” pressed up under the name Larry Lurex.

In the early '70s, Robin Geoffrey Cable was a house engineer at Trident Studios in London, owned by Queen's initial manager Norman Sheffield. At one point, Cable was at work on his own musical project, but he enlisted Freddie Mercury, Brian May and Roger Taylor to add some parts. A pseudonym was devised for Mercury. "Robin liked the idea of spoofing Gary Glitter and the Glam Rock movement, so he came up with 'Larry Lurex!'" May recalled following Cable's passing in 2020. "So, in a sense our first ever release on vinyl was under the name 'Larry Lurex.'"

I’d never associate members of Queen with Brill Building songwriters Jeff Barry, Ellie Greenwich, Phil Spector, Gerry Goffin and Carole King or expect cover versions of The Ronettes and The Byrds. I had to ask Freddie, how did this collaboration come about?

“It was simply a by-product. We’d already completed our first album [at Trident Studios], and a producer friend [Robin Cable] told us about this record he wanted to put out just for fun.

“He said he wanted us to do it, but we told him he couldn’t use our name. Actually there were quite a number of studio musicians on it besides ourselves. It was in the days of Gary Glitter and Alvin Stardust.

“We never took it quite seriously since it didn’t have anything to do with Queen. It was only when we achieved popularity and people started figuring out that it was us that anybody was interested. It was just something rock stars dabble in once in a while, and I was quite pleased with the outcome.”    

(Harvey Kubernik is the author of 21 books, including 2009’s Canyon Of Dreams: The Magic And The Music Of Laurel Canyon, 2014’s Turn Up The Radio! Rock, Pop and Roll In Los Angeles 1956-1972, 2015's Every Body Knows: Leonard Cohen, 2016's Heart of Gold Neil Young and 2017's 1967: A Complete Rock Music History of the Summer of Love.

Sterling/Barnes and Noble in 2018 published Harvey and Kenneth Kubernik’s The Story Of The Band: From Big Pink To The Last Waltz. In2021 they wrote Jimi Hendrix: Voodoo Child for Sterling/Barnes and Noble.  Otherworld Cottage Industries in 2020 published Harvey’s Docs That Rock, Music That Matters.

His writings are in several book anthologies, most notably The Rolling Stone Book Of The Beats and Drinking With Bukowski.   Harvey wrote liner notes to the CD re-releases of Carole King’s Tapestry, The Essential Carole King, Allen Ginsberg’s Kaddish, Elvis Presley The ’68 Comeback Special, The Ramones’ End of the Century and Big Brother & the Holding Company Captured Live at The Monterey International Pop Festival.

During 2006, he spoke at the special hearings initiated by The Library of Congress held in Hollywood, California, discussing archiving practices and audiotape preservation. In 2017, Kubernik appeared at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio, as part of their Distinguished Speakers Series).

Photo by Denis O’ReganThe post Sony Music Vision Presents Queen Budapest first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

The 10 Kurt Cobain Songs That Never Got the Attention They DeservedBeyond Nirvana’s biggest hits, discover 10 underrated Kurt Cobain songs that showcase the band’s raw energy, hidden gems, and overlooked musical brilliance.

A Song That Changed My Life: Son Lux on Radiohead’s “Everything in Its Right Place”The Band Members: Ryan Lott, keyboards, vocals; Rafiq Bhatia, guitars; Ian Chang, drums

The Storyteller: Ian Chang

The Song: An unnerving, compressed warmth emanates from the first keystrokes of the detuned Sequential Prophet-5 synth in Radiohead's "Everything in Its Right Place.” These thick, muted analog tones reverberate until vocal glitches give way to Thom Yorke’s disembodied fantômatique vocals, which ultimately bleed through, leaving the listener suspended within a jarring, dissociative state.

This deceptive cadence of unresolved hypnotic sonics sends shivers up the spine; like static, these tones are left fritzing and ungrounded, unable to connect to the mind — a subtle signal, a psychic warning that things are very much out of line. It is a chilling soundscape, an environment where emotions are gridlocked and detached worldly observations serve as a brilliant way of introducing the chthonic internal atmosphere heard throughout Kid A. 

A sharp departure from their earlier alt-rock anthems — including the iconic, violent guitar chuck that ignites the guttural operatic cries in “Creep” or the orchestral melancholy of “Karma Police” — this solemn stylistic deviation heralded the arrival of a starker, more introspective electro-ambient chapter for the revered art-rock titans. The band’s experimental production process of constructing sound worlds through structural deconstruction creates a dazzling audio labyrinth where a suspended sonic space is as unsettling and haunting as it is gorgeous and sublime.

The Background: Viewing songwriting as a massive auditory puzzle, composer-producer Ryan Lott launched Son Lux as a solo experimental electronic-meets-classical endeavor — a musical canvas where scattered pieces of sounds found everywhere are captured, meticulously assembled through synthesizers and software, and eventually reworked and painted into live compositions of pretty anxious post-rock.

This solo sonic dissectologist journey eventually reached outward — reverberating and resonating with the chameleonic guitarist Rafiq Bhatia and super fluid sensory drummer Ian Chang. Brought together on the road, the two musicians permanently integrated into the project, expanding Son Lux into an unconventional trio dedicated to seizing and recording fractured auditory bits and found sound of all musical sorts. By augmenting these intricate layers on stage, they transformed their studio creations into an immersive, living performance.

This boundary-pushing chemistry culminated in mammoth amounts of material, spawning sprawling multi-album conceptual arcs and hours of dense aural world-building. Throughout these expansions, Son Lux’s work maintained a distinctly eerie, uncanny quality that touched the synapses of neuroscience—experimenting with how sound loops and acoustic shifts register in the brain before cognition even kicks in. By 2022, their uniquely chaotic yet cohesive arrangements garnered the attention of directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (The Daniels), tasking the band with the otherworldly, Oscar-nominated score and song for Best Picture winner Everything Everywhere All at Once.

Following a few more years of expanding their sonic palette—a stretch that included scoring additional films both individually and collectively, alongside various other side releases—the band capped off this prolific stretch with the intricately crafted songs of their recent 2026 release, Out Into. For drummer Ian Chang, this new assemblage of boundary-eliminating tracks marks yet another evolution in a career dedicated to cataloging sounds. It is an artistic pathway that can be mapped back to a specific, formative encounter: a quiet retreat within a music store filled with aisles stacked with jewel cases and vinyl.

The Story: Prior to creating music by analyzing the variant frequencies of sound, or having constructed entire cinematic multiverses, Ian Chang’s relationship with music began as a means of escapism. During the twilight era of massive music storefronts, Chang embraced the lovely moments of solitude, wandering through endless aisles of records and CDs, waiting for an arresting visual to disrupt his drift. For him, it was a striking album cover featuring a landscape of stark white icebergs outlined in blood-blackened red that ultimately pulled Chang toward a headphone listening rack. He recalls how that visual became his gateway to other universes:

“It was a very different time in music consumption! I was 12 or 13 the first time I heard "Everything in Its Right Place" by Radiohead. I was living in Hong Kong at the time, and one of my favorite things to do was to go to HMV to learn about music by spending time at the listening stations. I loved checking out the artwork, reading about the artist, and diving into the sound world.”

This immersive ritual highlights a cornerstone of musicology—the multimodal perception of the visual-to-auditory experience. It is the way an arresting optic can act as a psychological trigger to intensify a connection with heard melodies and harmonies, binding the event into an interconnected sensory awakening, a memory:

“I remember the artwork for Kid A caught my eye, prompting me to give the album a spin. This was my first introduction to Radiohead, which in retrospect was a bit of a strange introduction to them, but it was a formative experience for sure. I remember listening to this opening track multiple times before moving on to the rest of the album.”

Stepping into that unfamiliar audio universe without predictable melodies was a crash course in hearing a sort of strangeness in music, a realization of how songs can tap into adjacent, parallel, and at times scary realities. This emotional upheaval was so tantalizing it encouraged Chang to play the opening track on a continuous loop, as he recalls:

“I felt completely bewildered at first! At that point in my life, I was pretty musically omnivorous, but I hadn’t heard anything like this at all; it was borderline uncomfortable. I admit that there were a number of songs on the album that I couldn’t get into at the time, but "Everything in Its Right Place" really hit me right away.  It’s maybe the first song I heard where I experienced the feeling of something haunted and otherworldly.”

As Chang leaned further into that unsettling atmosphere, the macro-shock of what exists out there in the world through a song gave way to an acute curiosity; he began trying to isolate the exact sonic elements that made him realize these strange audio worlds could be real.

“The first thing that really grabbed my attention was all the mangled babbling vocal textures at the beginning.  It was maybe my first introduction to how production can create a surreal listening experience,” Chang recalls.  “The combination of all the elements really impacted me emotionally. The lyrics, harmony, soundworld, and Thom’s voice hit me just at the point in my life when the veil on the ills of society was being lifted. In a way, it soundtracked my transition out of innocence. It provided a lot of new and uncomfortable thoughts and emotions… a sonic space for them to steep in.” 

This insightful awakening stayed with him as an enduring memory — one that weirdly put focus on how much of the world, both musically and existentially, remained unresolved. A few years later, that lasting impression led Chang into a sharp micro-analysis of its production — a creative fascination with engineering alien sounds that would ultimately define his future identity in Son Lux. He explains:

“It wasn’t until I was 15 or so that I went back and figured out what was going on under the hood of this song. I learned about the KAOSS pad that they used to create the vocal effect at the beginning, and the interesting, changing meter of the song, as well as the haunting chord movements.”

By demystifying the technical machinery, Chang expanded his unique way of composing — an exhaustive foray into analyzing these atmospheric landscapes that completely reshaped his artistic worldview.

“There is an incredible minimalism to the arrangement of this song that was very inspiring to me. Up until encountering this song and album, I mostly thought of music in terms of melody, harmony, and lyrics,” says Chang.  But as he adds, “this really blew my mind and got me to think more deeply about the power of arrangement and production, and how it can be as impactful to the feeling of a recording as any of the other elements I mentioned before.”

Moreover, this revelation connected directly back to that initial spark — the sudden awareness that there was something so much more going on in what he was hearing, and parallel to that, the world outside.

“As a band, Son Lux often comes at songwriting first through sculpting sound and production, rather than harmony, melody and lyrics, so this lightbulb moment marked a shift in my perspective on music that influences how I make music to this day.”

For Chang, that shift became an ongoing artistic pursuit to capture the same elusive, emotional visual-meets-auditory memory that struck him so profoundly in Hong Kong decades ago.  And now, laying out that master puzzle piece is part of his auditory ethos:

“I would say that a lot of Son Lux’s music is indebted to this song and to Radiohead in general. The feeling of haunting beauty that this song gives is something that we are often chasing.”

Photo Credit. Anna Powell Denton

The post A Song That Changed My Life: Son Lux on Radiohead’s “Everything in Its Right Place” first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

Songwriters drop ‘alright, alright, alright’ sample lawsuit against Travis Scott and Sony MusicThe notice of voluntary dismissal does not say whether they reached a settlement with Travis Scott or Sony Music.
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Classical Reviews September 2026Explore this month’s new classical releases, featuring Anne-Sophie Mutter, Joe Hisaishi, John Holiday, and more, with fresh takes on classical music and timeless traditions.

New Music Critique of Alexa KateContact: alexakatemusic@gmail.com

Web: alexakate.com

Seeking: Label, Booking, Management

Style: Pop

“The most important thing to me is that connection,” Alexa Kate says on her website. “Music creates a space where people can feel like they fit in. I’ve always just wanted to make people feel less alone.”

That connection is apparent on the songs she submitted. With “Good for Long,” she finds a way make herself vulnerable with some delicately expressive vocals and lyrics, before revealing the catchiest of choruses.

“The Aftermath” is less reliant on traditional pop structure, preferring to build a mood that fully envelops the listener. That songwriting dexterity hints at great things to come.The post New Music Critique of Alexa Kate first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

"Voice of a Generation" by Marquis H.K.(paperback) $33.99

Yep, MC has gone punk rock crazy with our books this month, thanks to this string of releases from the Earth Island imprint. Voice of a Generation is tagged “80s UK punx in their own words,” and that’s pretty much exactly what it is. It’s as much about the characters as it is the music; we learn (or, if you were there, remember) some of the larger-than-life people that were integral to the British punk scene during that decade.

Some of them are no longer with us, so it’s gratifying to know that their legend has been preserved for posterity. The photos, including a lot of mohawks, are magnificent.

The post "Voice of a Generation" by Marquis H.K. first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

The Return of Sugar is Oh-So SweetThe return of Sugar is something that many of us never dared dream of. For decades now, alt-rock icon Bob Mould has seemed content to go out and record as a solo artist, and that's been more than good enough. His albums have generally been great. "Listenable" at worst. But the point is, his fans have been content.

But last year, Mould put Sugar back together. For the uninitiated, Sugar was the band that Mould formed after the breakup of the semi-legendary Hüsker Dü, which existed from 1979-'88. Sugar formed in 1992 and only lasted three years, releasing the Copper Blue album, the Beaster mini-album, and the File Under: Easy Listening album. There was also the Besides record of b-sides, odds, and sods. And that was it. They were done. Mould, co-vocalist and bassist David Barbe, and drummer Malcolm Travis all went their own, separate ways.

They're back, and that's great news for lovers of dark-yet-melodic alt-rock. At the Hollywood Palladium at the end of September, a too-cool-for-school, hyper-hip crowd seemed reluctant to show their excitement, but the gentle hum of anticipation in the air betrayed them.

The set offered just about everything you'd want to hear from Sugar; all four of the aforementioned records were well represented. "Hoover Dam" from the debut was a highlight, as was "Changes," and both came quite early in the set. The tracks from Beaster, including a brilliant "JC Auto" were typically crunchy. That record is often considered Sugar's "awkward" sophomore effort, but it's this writer's favorite in their arsenal.

Crowd pleaser "If I Can't Change Your Mind" brought the evening to a close, after a solid two hours of '90s nostalgia that actually sounded fresh. Importantly, Mould and the guys looked like they were having a blast throughout, so hopefully this reunion isn't going to be short-lived.

The post The Return of Sugar is Oh-So Sweet first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

From Sony Music’s 260,000 deepfake takedowns to Suno’s live music expansion… it’s MBW’s Weekly Round-UpThe biggest headlines from the past few days...
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10 Great Funk Albums That Were Completely Ignored When They Came OutDiscover 10 overlooked funk albums that deserve a second listen, from deep funk and psychedelic soul to Afro-funk and P-Funk gems.

Soulwax Shines in HollywoodSince 1995, Belgian sibling duo Soulwax, aka Stephen and David Dewaele, have been redefining what it means to be an electronic music group. While they also perform celebrated DJ sets as 2manydjs, the genre-defying, experimental project known as Soulwax has made an art of confounding expectations and defying genre-rules since they came into being in '95 with the 2nd Handsome Blues EP. The debut Leave the Story Untold album followed in '96, and they never looked back.

At Hollywood's Fonda Theatre on a warm evening in September, Soulwax performed two sets on consecutive nights, and we were there for the first. The first thing that jumped out was the elaborate set-up; the stage looked like a scene from Star Trek--a mass of giant boards with huge knobs and dials.

The next thing you couldn't help but notice was the trio of drummers suspended above them, which serves to beef up the sound while proving aesthetically spectacular.

Soulwax didn't perform anything from the first two albums, but we did get four tracks form 2004's beloved Any Minute Now, including "E Talking," and a manic "I Love Techno." "Do You Want to Get Into Trouble?" from 2017's From Deewee was a set highlight, though the pair leaned heavily on material from last year's All Systems are Lying.

The crowd, a mix of old ravers and young, curious electro-heads, lapped it all up. Because, honestly, there really is nothing like a Soulwax show.

The post Soulwax Shines in Hollywood first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.