The Album Paul Simon Made After the Worst Years of His Life — That Simon & Garfunkel Fans Never Forgave Him For

Art Garfunkel has never fully forgiven Paul Simon for Graceland. That is not the standard narrative about the album — the standard narrative is one of triumph, of creative reinvention, of a middle-aged musician traveling to South Africa and finding in township music a sound that revitalized his career and produced one of the most … Read more

The Night Jimi Hendrix Played a Concert and Eric Clapton Walked Out Halfway Through — Then Quit Music for Three Months

The date was January 1967. The venue was the Bag O’Nails club in London. Eric Clapton was 21 years old and had already been called God — literally, in graffiti on a London Underground wall: “Clapton is God” — by a British public that had decided he was the greatest guitarist alive and that the … Read more

The Moment Freddie Mercury Walked Into a Room and Made Every Other Singer Alive Feel Like an Amateur

There are voices and then there are forces of nature that happen to live inside human beings. The distinction matters because forces of nature cannot be fully explained by the things that explain voices — training, technique, range, control. Those things can be measured and taught and improved. What Freddie Mercury had included all of … Read more

Five John Lennon Songs He Wrote When He Was Completely Broken — And They Became His Greatest Work

John Lennon

There is a version of artistic suffering that is romanticized and dishonest — the idea that pain automatically produces greatness, that misery is a prerequisite for genius. John Lennon’s story is not that story. His story is more specific and more uncomfortable than that. It is the story of a man who, at several precise … Read more

Carey Hart Fires Back After Online Trolls Target His 14-Year-Old — Praises Pink for Shutting Down the Hate Without Mercy

Life in the spotlight has never been easy for Pink and her husband Carey Hart, but things became especially intense when online criticism targeted their 14-year-old child over parenting decisions that quickly exploded across social media. What started as a simple family moment turned into a storm of judgment from strangers online. Thousands of people … Read more

Taylor Swift Turns Into a Total Fangirl While Singing “You’re So Vain” Live With Her Idol Carly Simon

For most artists, sharing a stage with one of their musical heroes would be nerve-racking. For Taylor Swift, it turned into one of the most unforgettable fangirl moments of her career when she performed the legendary breakup anthem “You’re So Vain” live alongside its creator, Carly Simon. The moment happened during Taylor’s Speak Now tour … Read more