Email Author Michael Simmons

2010 Stories by Michael Simmons

• FRIDA PEOPLE

  published December 9, 2010

  Instead of analyzing Frida Kahlo as an icon, radical, libertine — and incidentally an artist — sister painter/author/feminist Judy... More >>

• PETER AND GORDON AND EVERYBODY ELSE

  published December 2, 2010

  Few credit them, but British Invasion duo Peter and Gordon's close harmonies, hooky melodies and strummed acoustics were folk-rock before the term... More >>

• PUNKY REGGAE BOOK PARTY

  published December 2, 2010

  1973 was the year the one-two toke of Jamaican reggae hit American hippies. One was the release of antihero crime musical The Harder They... More >>

• WE'RE JUST WILD ABOUT HARRY

  published November 18, 2010

  "When Harry went for the high note, it was like a trapeze artist," percussionist Ray Cooper says of singer Harry Nilsson. On top of possessing one... More >>

• FIGHTING THE VAMPIRE SQUID

  published November 11, 2010

  Matt Taibbi inherited the Gonzo Throne at Rolling Stone from Dr. Thompson after the latter saw the future and, to paraphrase L. Cohen, knew... More >>

• THE REVENGE OF THE INFORMED

  published November 4, 2010

  Oct. 2, 1999, has gone down in Michael Simmons autobiographical lore as Black Saturday, for it was the day that I took the inaugural on-ramp to... More >>

• MONDAY BECOMES ELEKTRA

  published November 4, 2010

  Named after the Greek demigoddess who was the go-to hep kitty for artistic muses, Elektra Records was founded 60 years ago by Jac Holzman.... More >>

• BUMS RAP

  published November 4, 2010

  What you are reading is called language. It's a kind of language called English that originally came from a land called England, but when the... More >>

• BEST PULLING DOWN THE PANTS OF THE PIGGIES

  published October 7, 2010

  Left-wing activism is not always politically correct nattering nabobs of negativity hectoring people about cigarettes and cheeseburgers. There've... More >>

• BEST ROLLING TOME

  published October 7, 2010

  If Bob Dylan in America was a painting and not a 400-page book, it might resemble the cover of Sgt. Pepper with Bob at center... More >>

• PEACE, FREEDOM AND BIG NUTS

  published September 30, 2010

  Paul Krassner has led a remarkable life: Lenny Bruce's collaborator, editor of The Realist , co-founder of the Yippies, stand-up agitator... More >>

• BUT WHAT ABOUT THE CHERRY TREE?

  published September 30, 2010

  "The truth," Lenny Bruce once noted, "is what is, not what you want it to be." Of course the pillars of upright 'n' tight society proceeded to... More >>

• 'SCUSE ME WHILE I MISS THIS GUY

  published September 16, 2010

  The King Kasuals were a covers band playing the Chitlin Circuit in 1962. One day the singer pointed out to the guitarist that the latter had... More >>

• IT'S A GAS X 3

  published September 9, 2010

  While it clearly wasn't from one show, cuz Jagger's jump suit jumps from white to black and back between songs, Ladies & Gentlemen ... The... More >>

• Swing Low, Sweet Mavis

  published August 26, 2010

  It was only a couple of weeks ago that I had an epiphany, one that's no doubt so embarrassingly obvious that I'm somewhat ashamed to cop to it,... More >>

• Swingin' With Ray

  published August 26, 2010

  A quintessential American music, Western Swing is the shotgun wedding of big-band swing and hillbilly fiddle music. The King of Western Swing was... More >>

• I was a Texas Jewboy

  published July 29, 2010

  My first live sighting of Richard "Kinky" "Big Dick" Friedman was at Max's Kansas City in New York in 1973. He was headlining... More >>

• ELVIN HAS LEFT THE BUILDING

  published July 22, 2010

  There are only 11 authentically hip people on the planet at any random moment, and that list is fluid. There are also the few one meets per... More >>

• White Like Me

  published July 1, 2010

  From where I squint, Josh Alan Friedman is the finest American writer of books. (For you who travel solely on thecyberhighway, books are... More >>

• HOW TO TAKE ACID, BY MICHAEL SIMMONS

  published June 24, 2010

  Gather round kiddies and Uncle Mikey will tell you of a time when many of us old codgers believed that the evolution of the species could be --... More >>

• WHEN BANDS WERE BIG AND SO WERE MEN

  published June 24, 2010

  Artie Shaw is one of the most captivating Americans of the 20th century, top shelf in a centenary lousy with geniuses. The poor Jewish kid from... More >>

• CAN'T WE JUST ALL AGREE THAT L.A. SUCKS? (EXCEPT FOR YOU, HOLLYWOOD BOWL)

  published June 17, 2010

  New Yorkers like myself, who've found themselves stranded in Los Angeles against our sanity, have many descriptions for the place. "Where the sun... More >>

• Carlene Carter

  published June 17, 2010

  When Nashville was flooded this past Mayday, over 30 people were killed and many more lost homes, recording studios, and musical instruments. Few... More >>

• HOW ALTER IS YOUR KOCKER?

  published June 10, 2010

  HOW ALTER IS YOUR KOCKER? (Say it five times fast.) Drew Friedman is the master American caricaturist of our time. Not only are his portraits of... More >>

• THE DOCTOR WILL SEE YOU NOW

  published June 10, 2010

  Dr. John, a.k.a. Mac Rebennack, is one of New Orleans' greatest piano pounders, most singularly identifiable vocal stylists, and flame keeper of... More >>