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Posts Tagged San Francisco

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February 24, 2021 by Simon Sweetman

R.I.P. Lawrence Ferlinghetti

Lawrence Ferlinghetti has died. He was 101, a month off turning 102 in fact. What a life. The poet and publisher would have been important had he never written a word himself – he was a founder and co-owner of the legendary San Francisco bookstore and imprint City Lights and as a publisher he was […]
Posted in Blog, Miscellany · Tagged A Coney Island of The Mind, Author, Beat Poets, Beats, Bookstore, City Lights, Eulogy, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Poet, Poetry, Publisher, R.I.P., R.I.P. Lawrence Ferlinghetti, San Francisco, The Last Waltz, Writing ·

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February 8, 2020 by Simon Sweetman

The Vinyl Countdown # 177

Jeanette MacDonald,Jeanette MacDonald Sings San Francisco And Other Silver Screen Favorites (1970) Jeanette MacDonald was a screen and stage star of the 1930s and 1940s. She starred in some 29 films, mostly musicals. From there to concert tours, to stage-musicals and theatre roles…amazing really…or, as my wife put it: “This is fucking awful!” Sample Track: […]
Posted in Blog, The Vinyl Countdown · Tagged Jeanette MacDonald, Jeanette MacDonald Sings San Francisco And Other Silver Screen Favorites, LP, Musical, Musicals, Record, San Francisco, Sings San Francisco And Other Silver Screen Favorites, Stage, The Vinyl Countdown, The Vinyl Countdown # 177, Theatre, Vinyl, You can support Off The Tracks via PressPatron ·

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November 17, 2019 by Simon Sweetman

The Jeff Beck Group: Twilight of the Idols

The Jeff Beck Group Twilight of the Idols: Classic Broadcasts From San Francisco and London – 1967-1968 Code 7 – Shockwaves Here in one place – and with mostly very reasonable sound quality – is a set of BBC Sessions and some live radio broadcasts from the Fillmore West in San Francisco; charting the early […]
Posted in Blog, Reviews · Tagged Aynsley Dunbar, BBC, Bootleg, Fillmore West, Jeff Beck, Jeff Beck Group, Live, London, Micky Waller, Radio, Reissue, Rod Stewart, Ron Wood, San Francisco, The Jeff Beck Group, The Jeff Beck Group: Twilight of the Idols, Twilight of the Idols, Twilight of the Idols: Classic Broadcasts From San Francisco and London – 1967-1968, You can support Off The Tracks via PressPatron ·

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February 21, 2018 by Simon Sweetman

The 1001 Albums Challenge # 35: Quicksilver Messenger Service – “Happy Trails”

Yeah-yeah, I know they’re important in the scheme of things (or a footnote at least) – in fact I wrote about them as part of a piece about the key San Fran bands but I have to admit, and here’s the place to do it, I’ve just never cared/got the buzz about Quicksilver Messenger Service. […]
Posted in Blog, Miscellany · Tagged 1001, 1001 Albums, 1001 Albums Challenge, 1001 Albums To Hear Before You Die, 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, 1969, Happy Trails, Hippie, QMS, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Quicksilver Messenger Service – “Happy Trails”, San Fran, San Francisco, Sixties, The 1001 Albums Challenge, The 1001 Albums Challenge # 35, The 1001 Albums Challenge # 35: Quicksilver Messenger Service – “Happy Trails”, You can support Off The Tracks via PressPatron ·

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December 27, 2017 by Simon Sweetman

The 1001 Albums Challenge # 22: The Beau Brummels – “Triangle”

Another great revelation here, another reason to do this challenge, to read this book and make sure I check out the albums I haven’t previously hear. I know The Beau Brummels as reference only. If I’d ever previously heard any of their music I’d never stopped to identify it; I’m sure I’ve never head them. […]
Posted in Blog, Miscellany · Tagged 1001, 1001 Albums, 1001 Albums Challenge, 1001 Albums To Hear Before You Die, 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, 1967, 22, Beau Brummels, Pop, Psychedelic, Randy Newman, San Fran, San Francisco, Sixties, The 1001 Albums Challenge, The 1001 Albums Challenge # 11, The 1001 Albums Challenge # 22, The 1001 Albums Challenge # 22: The Beau Brummels, The 1001 Albums Challenge # 22: The Beau Brummels – “Triangle”, The Beau Brummels, The Beau Brummels – “Triangle”, Triangle ·

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December 12, 2017 by Simon Sweetman

The 1001 Albums Challenge # 21: Moby Grape – “Moby Grape”

Funny that I’d never heard this album, only in that I love Skip Spence, the mythology – that amazing solo album of his and so usually, when something like that comes along you work your way back through everything – and yes I’d heard of Moby Grape and heard some of their stuff, and Jefferson […]
Posted in Blog, Miscellany · Tagged 1001, 1001 Albums To Hear Before You Die, 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, 1967, America, Hippie, Jefferson Airplane, Moby Grape, Moby Grape – “Moby Grape”, Oar, San Francisco, Sixties, Skip Spence, The 1001 Album Challenge, The 1001 Albums Challenge, The 1001 Albums Challenge # 21, The 1001 Albums Challenge # 21: Moby Grape – “Moby Grape”, West Coast ·

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December 11, 2017 by Simon Sweetman

The 1001 Albums Challenge # 20: Country Joe and the Fish – “Electric Music For The Body And Mind”

It’s getting a bit stuck-record, I know, but things will change as we move into the seventies, eighties and nineties – but so far I’m liking pretty much everything I hear. And so it is with this album – and sure, I knew of Country Joe And The Fish, but really only from Woodstock and […]
Posted in Blog, Miscellany · Tagged 1001 Albums, 1001 Albums Challenge, 1001 Albums To Hear Before You Die, 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, 1967, Country Joe and The Fish, Country Joe McDonald, Electric Music For The Body and Mind, Hippie, San Francisco, Sixties, The 1001 Albums Challenge # 20, The 1001 Albums Challenge # 20: Country Joe and the Fish – “Electric Music For The Body And Mind”, The Fish, West Coast ·

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July 11, 2017 by Simon Sweetman

Joan Didion: South and West

South and West: From a Notebook Joan Didion Knopf; First Edition edition “We tell ourselves stories in order to live”, Didion famously wrote. Here you could imagine a wag in her publisher’s office suggesting “We sell stories in order to make a living” – for this slim volume, this set of notes “from a notebook” […]
Posted in Blog, Reviews · Tagged Book, Book Review, Essays, Joan Didion, Joan Didion: South and West, Knopf, New Orleans, Non-FIction, Notebook, Notes, Patty Hearst, Road Trip, San Francisco, Slim Volume, South, South and West: From a Notebook, Travel, Travel Writing, West ·

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March 30, 2017 by Simon Sweetman

It Was The Best Gig Ever # 13: The Roots, San Francisco 2012

Me and my brother-in-law drove down to San Francisco – left the rest of the family back in rural California, decided to take a couple of days out for ourselves. The aim, at first, was to see The Cult. But we drove down with no tickets, no accommodation, and turned up to find it sold […]
Posted in Blog, Miscellany · Tagged 2012, America, Best Gig, DJ Set, Holiday, It Was The Best Gig Ever, It Was The Best Gig Ever # 13, It Was The Best Gig Ever # 13 The Roots, Questlove, San Francisco, San Francisco 2012, The Roots ·

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March 1, 2017 by Simon Sweetman

Stubs: #201 – Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco, USA, 2016

It was a pretty great 40th birthday last year – and I wrote a wee bit about it here. Suddenly, just the other day I thought about it again, specifically the trip to the Contemporary Jewish Museum – which was showing an amazing Stanley Kubrick exhibition. I was listening to a podcast with a film […]
Posted in Blog, Miscellany · Tagged 201, 2016), 40th Birthday, America, Contemporary Jewish Museum, Exhibition, Film, Holiday, Museum, San Fran, San Francisco, Saturday, Stanley Kubrick, Stub, Stubs, Stubs # 201, Stubs: #201 – Contemporary Jewish Museum, USA ·

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January 24, 2017 by Simon Sweetman

The Start of the San Fran Sound: The West Coast Bay Area Hippie-Dippie 1960s

British rock critic Nik Cohn, writing with an outside perspective, put it simply when looking at the San Francisco Sound: “In America, acid really mattered”. Using the proceeds from his novel, One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, the writer Ken Kesey initiated the Acid Tests; bankrolling experiments conducted by Dr. Timothy Leary – parties fuelled […]
Posted in Blog, Miscellany · Tagged 1960s, America, Bay Area, Big Brother & The Holding Company, California, Grateful Dead, Hippies, Janis Joplin, Jefferson Airplane, Monterey, Quicksilver Messenger Service, San Fran, San Francisco, San Francisco (Be Sure To Wear Some Flowers In Your Hair), Scott McKenzie, The Start of the San Fran Sound, The Start of the San Fran Sound: The West Coast Bay Area Hippie-Dippie 1960s, The West Coast Bay Area Hippie-Dippie 1960s, West Coast ·

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August 23, 2016 by Simon Sweetman

Sweetman Podcast: Episode 29 – Sylvie Simmons

Welcome to episode 29 of Sweetman Podcast brought to you by Phantom Billstickers. This one is a chat with Sylvie Simmons – that’s Sylvie Simmons the music writer, Leonard Cohen biographer and MOJO staff writer, legendary rock writer who was on the tour bus with Black Sabbath and Van Halen, who published the first interview […]
Posted in Blog, Podcasts · Tagged America, Americana, Authors I Admire, Authors I Admire # 5, Britain, England, ep.29, Episode 29, Heavy Metal, Interview, Mojo, Music Journalism, Music Journalist, Podcast, Rock Writer, San Francisco, Simon Sweetman, Sweetman Podcast, Sweetman Podcast: Episode 29 – Sylvie Simmons, Sylvie, Sylvie Simmons, U.S.A, Uke, Ukulele, Writer, Writing ·
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