Let’s Dance – Nile Rodgers, SRV, Serious Moonlight
In 1983 EMI America released Let's Dance, David Bowie's commercial peak with Nile Rodgers producing and a young Stevie Ray Vaughan on lead guitar.
Afterlife Interview with Elliott Smith
On a Portland street where rain turns neon into watercolor, Riffs and Beats finds Elliott Smith with a small acoustic.
Wilson Pickett – Land of 1000 Dances
Pickett's first FAME Studios cut in May 1966 turned Chris Kenner's dance list into his biggest pop hit, powered by Muscle Shoals and the Memphis Horns.
Serge Gainsbourg – Dirty talk with an arranger’s ear
Lucien Ginsburg became Serge Gainsbourg in postwar Paris cabarets, then turned three-minute songs into arguments that followed people home.
Air – Talisman
Nicolas Godin and Jean-Benoît Dunckel cut Talisman in about four hours, in the middle of the Moon Safari sessions, after another piece refused to move. Godin later called it a pivot, one of the fastest tracks they made.
LOtUSFLOW3R – Target triple pack, Crimson and Clover
In March 2009, Prince launched LOtUSFLOW3R online and as a Target-exclusive three-CD pack with MPLSound and Bria Valente's Elixer.
Blur – Song 2
Blur’s Song 2 (1997): Coxon’s scare-the-label brief, woo-hoo, two-minute loud cut, US breakthrough.
Queen – Stadium theatre with studio craft
In July 1985 at Wembley, Freddie Mercury walked Live Aid like a living room and dragged 72,000 voices into the chorus.
Festivals or clubs: which concert format makes the stronger memory?
Open-air crowds versus four walls and a low ceiling.
Sting – Shape Of My Heart
In 1992, at Lake House in Wiltshire, Dominic Miller played four chords by the fire and Sting took the demo into the garden.