Rock Candy

The first volume of Rock Candy: The Beatles was written almost 15 years ago, concurrent with the first edition of The Quotable Beatles and To the Toppermost of the Poppermost. As a result, many quotes from the former and songs from the latter were included in Rock Candy, to add to its variety.

The same is true today, with this second Rock Candy...

The Rock Candy series continues with Boston: The Classic Years, 1976-1988.

Few bands in classic rock history left a crater as big as Boston did when they hit. Their pristine sound was as hard and gritty as anything ever heard on the radio, yet as clear as the midnight sky. The fiery guitars of Tom Scholz and the celestial vocals of Brad Delp were...

From their humble schoolboy origins in England’s workaday Sheffield to the pinnacle of rock superstardom, Def Leppard has forged its own path, defying the expectations of critics, the music industry, and even their own fanbase. Rock Candy takes up the Leppard story and follows the British heavy metal quintet from its earliest rehearsals through...

He’s flamboyant. He’s outrageous. He’s as over-the-top as any pop/rock star has ever been. But Elton John is also a consummate musician, a creative force that redefined what music could be. With Bernie Taupin, he is second only to Lennon and McCartney in the pantheon of great songwriters. Rock Candy presents Elton in easily-digested bits and...

The Rock Candy series combines pop-music scholarship with a sense of fun and entertainment. This entry surveys the best of what is not-so-commonly known about the Beatles, with broad commentary on their creativity, innovation, cultural experimentation, and the scope of their impact on modern music and culture.

The music of the Millennials - people born after 1982 and before 2000 - is unlike anything that had ever come before it.

It was a mash-up of punk from the Seventies, heavy metal from the Eighties, and grunge from the Nineties, all wrapped up in ‘alternative’, whatever that still means. It was messy, it was emotional, it was glorious - and it all...