Project of Pop

The Blues Project is a band from the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City that was formed in 1965 and originally split up in 1967. Their songs drew from a wide array of musical styles. They are most remembered as one of the most artful practitioners of pop music, influenced as it was by folk, blues, rhythm & blues, jazz and the pop music of the day…

Four-hour, 3-CD overview of the American music scene in 1967. A dazzling cornucopia of psychedelia, garage punk, folk-rock and sunshine pop that acted as the soundtrack to the Summer of Love (US division).

All-star tribute albums are popping up as frequently as gourmet coffee houses, saluting the music of such artists as Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix to KISS and the Carpenters. But “The Songs of ‘West Side Story’ ” is different. Instead of paying homage to a performer, the album honors one of the most successful musicals in Broadway and film history. “The Songs of ‘West Side Story,’ ” due Jan. 30 on RCA Victor Records, brings together more than two dozen pop stars from rock, country, R&B; and jazz to offer their versions of the celebrated works by composer Leonard Bernstein and lyricist Stephen Sondheim.

There's a reason why many consider Iggy Pop the ‘Godfather of Punk’: every single punk band of the past and present has either knowingly or unknowingly borrowed a thing or two from Pop. With his outrageous and sometimes dangerous stage antics and the relentless rock & roll that accompanied them, Iggy Pop prefigured Seventies punk (and also Nineties grunge). Acting as an eternal misfit and a saboteur of all convention, Iggy has parlayed twisted social commentary, raw-power vocal style, and survival smarts into a long career characterized by some commercial success, sizable critical notice, and huge amounts of respect all over the pop landscape.

On reflection, it's no wonder that so many artists were available for Total Lee: The Songs of Lee Hazlewood. Hazlewood occupies a position in posterity similar to that of the Velvet Underground–ignored by the world at large, but disproportionately adored by fellow musicians. Hazlewood's only glimpse of popular appeal occurred when Nancy Sinatra had a worldwide hit with his "These Boots Are Made For Walking"–a karaoke standard ignored by the 16 artists who appear on this tribute album. What is startling about this fine collection is that a lot of the artists here seem endearingly unable to separate their admiration for Hazlewood's songs from Hazlewood's myth: for most young men who've ever picked up a guitar, Hazlewood's life of meandering from town to town, girl to girl, bottle to bottle, has a certain aspirational quality, and may be the reason why every male artist on this album finds himself, consciously or not, adopting Hazlewood's signature consumptive drawl: The Webb Brothers, Jarvis Cocker and Richard Hawley, Calexico and Erlend Oye are more impersonation than interpretation, but nonetheless engaging.