Copper

Toys 'R' Us Is Dead

Back in Copper #56, Industry News featured a Jeremiad of sorts, “Debt Is Death (Sometimes)”. One of the poster children for crippling debt mentioned in that piece was Toys ‘R’ Us.  While perhaps not a great...

Gut Punches and Heavenly Strains

A few years ago, my old Spica TC-50s finally came to the end of the line. John Bau’s brilliantly constructed wedges from New Mexico could have lasted a bit longer, but the tweeters were...

C.P.E. Bach Sonatas

Clavier-Sonaten für Kenner und Liebhaber (Keyboard Sonatas for Experts and Amateurs) is one of the most significant titles of any music book in history. This collection by J.S. Bach’s second surviving...

Salisbury Cathedral

Go Your Own Way

Feb 4th 1977 was the day that saw, amongst a BUNCH of other stuff I’m SURE, the release of Fleetwood Mac‘s 11th studio album Rumours. Little did anyone know that it was going...

Obsessed With Stereo

I think about my system too much. I mean, really too much. As I’ve written many times, it was stable for more than 20 years. That’s a really long while in anybody’s...

Bird Brains

Acclaimed British biographer Jenny Uglow has published a new study of Edward Lear, that eccentric Victorian whose playful verse has always delighted children, and the child in all of us. Lear was...

Part Deux

[Or: Another Mess O’ Messiaen—-Ed.] This column usually follows a fairly predictable path: first a few words about some music, then a brief clip illustrating the point. Today, let’s switch that...

Guitar Influences, Part 6: Jerry Garcia (an uni...

I was going to write about my new fave guitarist Tommy Emmanuel but, in light of the comments made by several readers (both pro & con) regarding Jerry Garcia in...

Queen, After the '70s

When they officially formed as Queen in 1973, the four skilled musicians in the band – Freddie Mercury (vocals, piano), Brian May (guitar), John Deacon (bass), and Roger Taylor (drums)...

Escape

“Line up against that wall” said the Captain to my uncle Fred. “Platoon. Get ready, take aim…” Act One. On one of the numerous attempts to escape Germany in the...

Me and Kenny Dalglish

I was born in Glasgow, Scotland.  At age 10 my family moved to Leeds, in England.  Three years later we moved to Leicester … my father and brother still live...