Brian Wilson was the bandleader and primary songwriter of the Beach Boys; writing for Allmusic, William Ruhlmann says that Brian Wilson “is arguably the greatest American composer of popular music in the rock era”.  In the beginning, there were fun songs about surfing and cars and girls, as well as a (more or less) friendly rivalry with Jan & Dean that prefigured the more contentious Beatles vs. Stones debates.  It is no secret that Jan Berry – a wunderkind in his own right – wasn’t happy that the Beach Boys copied the surf sounds that Jan & Dean pioneered. 

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Brian Wilson brought in a talented collaborator for his project, Van Dyke Parks.  In Allmusic, William Ruhlmann says of him:  “In a field where the term ‘genius’ is handed out freely, Van Dyke Parks is the real article.  As a session musician, composer, arranger, lyricist, and singer, he’s contributed significantly to several decades’ worth of inimitable masterpieces credited to other artists, as well as generating two or three masterpieces of his own.” 

(June 2013/2)

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Buffy Sainte-Marie’s first album, It’s My Way! (1964) is described by William Ruhlmann for Allmusic as “one of the most scathing topical folk albums ever made. . . .  Even decades later, the album’s power is moving and disturbing.”  

(August 2013)

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In the article about Cris Williamson in Allmusic, William Ruhlmann offers this concise introduction:  “Just as baseball historians can only speculate about how players in the old Negro leagues would have fared in the absence of segregation in the major leagues prior to the arrival of Jackie Robinson in 1947, so music historians may ponder what status Cris Williamson might have assumed if she had emerged at a time when admitted homosexuals were not subject to exclusion from major record labels.  By the 1990’s, openly gay women artists Melissa Etheridge, Indigo Girls, and k.d. lang were able to maintain major-label contracts and sell records in the millions (although none of them had proclaimed their sexual orientation when they were signed in the 1980’s).” 

 

(January 2014)

 

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William Ruhlmann, writing for Allmusic contrasts the two best known Christian musicals:  “Though Godspell could be thought of as copying Jesus Christ Superstar, there was a crucial difference in viewpoint between the two works – Superstar was a skeptical, secular look at Jesus, while Godspell was devout, merely updating and musicalizing Christ’s story.”  

 

(October 2014)