Richie Unterberger (born January 19, 1962)[ citation needed ] is an American author and journalist whose focus is popular music and travel writing.
Richie Unterberger (born January 19, 1962)[ citation needed ] is an American author and journalist whose focus is popular music and travel writing.
Unterberger attended the University of Pennsylvania, where he wrote for the university newspaper The Daily Pennsylvanian and in the early 1980s was a deejay on the Penn radio station, WXPN-FM. [1] Just prior to graduating in late 1982, he started reviewing records for Op magazine, which marked the start of his career as a freelance writer. [2] [3]
From 1985 to 1991, Unterberger was an editor for Option . [4] Since 1993, he has been a prolific contributor to AllMusic, the on-line database of music biographies and album reviews, for which he has written thousands of entries, and many of his on-line contributions have been printed in the AllMusic guide series. Unterberger contributes to various local and national publications, including Mojo , Record Collector , Rolling Stone , Oxford American , and No Depression . He has written liner notes for dozens of CD reissues from labels like Rhino Records, Collectors' Choice, and Sundazed.
Unterberger's books draw extensively on first-hand interviews with musicians and their associates. [5] [6] [7] [8]
Unterberger has given talks on music and popular culture at public libraries in San Francisco, Berkeley, and San Mateo County, California. He is also a speaker at area bookstores, including The Booksmith in the Haight Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco.
Unterberger has also written on travel, including The Rough Guide to Seattle (1996), and co-authored The Rough Guide to Shopping with a Conscience (2007), a book about ethical products, investment, and related topics. He has traveled to more than thirty countries and is an advocate of independent travel and alternative culture.
His nephew, Andrew, formerly wrote for Stylusmagazine.com, [9] and in 2007 was part of the winning team on VH1's World Series of Pop Culture. [10] He has been a staff writer or featured contributor on music and sports blogs. [11] [12] [13]
His books include:
Psychedelic rock is a rock music genre that is inspired, influenced, or representative of psychedelic culture, which is centered on perception-altering hallucinogenic drugs. The music incorporated new electronic sound effects and recording techniques, extended instrumental solos, and improvisation. Many psychedelic groups differ in style, and the label is often applied spuriously.
The Electric Prunes are an American psychedelic rock band, formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1965. Much of the band's music was, as music historian Richie Unterberger described it, possessed of "an eerie and sometimes anguished ambiance." Their most successful material was by songwriters Annette Tucker and Nancie Mantz, though the group also penned their own songs. Incorporating psychedelia and elements of embryonic electronic rock, the band's sound was marked by innovative recording techniques with fuzz-toned guitars and oscillating sound effects. In addition, guitarist Ken Williams' and singer James Lowe's concept of "free-form garage music" provided the band with a richer sonic palette and exploratory lyrical structure than many of their contemporaries.
Folk rock is a genre of rock music with heavy influences from English folk and American folk music. Combining the elements of folk and rock music, it arose in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom in the mid-1960s. In the U.S., folk rock emerged from the folk music revival. Performers such as Bob Dylan and the Byrds—several of whose members had earlier played in folk ensembles—attempted to blend the sounds of rock with their pre-existing folk repertoire, adopting the use of electric instrumentation and drums in a way previously discouraged in the U.S. folk community. The term "folk rock" was initially used in the U.S. music press in June 1965 to describe the Byrds' music.
"Mr. Tambourine Man" is a song written by Bob Dylan, released as the first track of the acoustic side of his March 1965 album Bringing It All Back Home. The song's popularity led to Dylan recording it live many times, and it has been included in multiple compilation albums. It has been translated into other languages and has been used or referenced in television shows, films, and books.
The Psychedelic era was the time of social, musical and artistic change influenced by psychedelic drugs, occurring from the mid-1960s to mid-1970s. The era was defined by the proliferation of LSD and its following influence in the development of psychedelic music and psychedelic film in the Western world.
Thomas Harvey "Sean" Bonniwell was an American singer-songwriter/guitarist, who was known as the creative force behind the 1960s garage rock band, The Music Machine.
Record Collector is a British monthly music magazine. It was founded in 1980 and distributes worldwide.
Autumn Records was a 1960s San Francisco-based pop record label. Among the notable acts on its roster was The Beau Brummels, a band who released a pair of top 20 singles, "Laugh, Laugh" and "Just a Little".
Verve Forecast is a record label formed as a division of Verve Records to concentrate on pop, rock, and folk music.
The Other Half was an American psychedelic garage rock band, based in San Francisco, and active in the mid-to-late 1960s. The band gained interest after one of the Nuggets compilations in the 1980s included their single, "Mr. Pharmacist".
Richard P. Havens, 1983 is a 1968 double album set by folk rock musician Richie Havens featuring a combination of studio recordings and live material recorded in concert during July 1968. The album combined original material with several of the covers for which Havens was known. Notable songs include the singles "Stop Pushing and Pulling Me" and "Indian Rope Man", the latter of which has been multiply covered under its own name and in retooled identity as "African Herbsman." The genre-bending album was critically and commercially well-received, reaching #80 on the Billboard "Pop Albums" chart. Initially released on the Verve label, it has been reissued multiple times in various formats, including by Verve subsidiary Verver Forecast/PolyGram and Australian label Raven Records. It has also been compiled with albums Mixed Bag and Something Else Again in multi-cd set Flyin' Bird: The Verve Forecast Years on the Hip-O Select/Universal label.
Triangle is the fourth studio album by American rock band the Beau Brummels. Produced by Lenny Waronker and released in July 1967, it was the band's first album to include songs that vocalist Sal Valentino and guitarist Ron Elliott composed together. The band incorporated fantasy elements and surreal characters into the album's song titles and lyrics, and worked with a variety of session musicians to create Triangle's psychedelic musical style. The Beau Brummels were reduced to a trio—Valentino, Elliott, and Ron Meagher—at the time Triangle was recorded, as former group members Don Irving (guitars) and John Petersen (drums) left the band following the release of the group's previous album, Beau Brummels '66.
"Good Time Music" is a song originally recorded by American pop rock band the Lovin' Spoonful in 1965. Written by John Sebastian, it appeared on the 1966 Elektra Records compilation What's Shakin'. Author Richie Unterberger characterizes the song as "a sort of manifesto of the group's optimism in its jaunty rhythms and celebration of the return of good time music to the radio."
The Best of the Beau Brummels 1964-1968, sometimes titled The Best of the Beau Brummels: Golden Archive Series, is a compilation album by American rock band The Beau Brummels. Released in 1987 by Rhino Records, the album features 18 songs, including the band's biggest hit singles—"Laugh, Laugh", "Just a Little", "You Tell Me Why", and "Don't Talk to Strangers"—as well as songs which never appeared on an album before this collection, such as the 1967 single "Here We Are Again".
San Fran Sessions is a box set compilation which collects 60 demos, outtakes, rarities and unissued performances recorded by The Beau Brummels from 1964 to 1966. The three-disc set, released by Sundazed Records on June 11, 1996, includes alternate takes of the band's singles "Laugh, Laugh" and "Just a Little", as well as early versions of songs that were likely targeted for their never-completed third album on Autumn Records.
H. P. Lovecraft is the debut album by the American psychedelic rock band H. P. Lovecraft. It was released in October 1967 by Philips Records.
Blackburn & Snow were a folk rock duo popular early in the mid-1960s San Francisco music scene in the United States. The duo consisted of guitarist-singer Jeff Blackburn and vocalist Sherry Snow.
"Leaves That Are Green" is a song written and originally recorded by Paul Simon for his 1965 album The Paul Simon Songbook. It was later re-recorded with Art Garfunkel for the 1966 album Sounds of Silence, adding an electric harpsichord, rhythm guitar, and bass. It was also the B-side to the hit song "Homeward Bound".
"Talk Talk" is the debut single of American garage rock band The Music Machine. It was released in November 1966, and produced the band's only Top 20 hit on the Billboard Hot 100. The song was included on their debut album, (Turn On) The Music Machine.
"Get Me to the World on Time" is a song written by Annette Tucker and Jill Jones for the American garage rock band, The Electric Prunes. The song was released in May 1967 following the success of the band's previous single, "I Had Too Much to Dream ". Although the follow-up did not have the same success, "Get Me to the World on Time" still charted at number 27 on the Billboard Hot 100. The single also fared slightly better in the UK, where it reached number 42.
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