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The latest articles on PleaseKillMe.com – music, art, culture, fashion, poetry and movies from the 60s through today. This Is What’s Cool!

THE LOST TESTAMENT OF SAM BUTERA: THE RISE & FALL OF ‘THE WILDEST SHOW IN VEGAS’

Burt Kearns·February 16, 2021

Sax player and arranger Sam Butera was ‘Keith Richards to Louis Prima’s Mick Jagger’ once he joined the great trumpeter, singer and bandleader in Las Vegas in 1954. With vocalist Keely Smith, the group leaped into national consciousness on the...

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PINK FAIRIES: THE COSMIC ROCK FUZZ OF PUNK’S PIONEERS

Adam Ganderson·February 15, 2021

The story of the Pink Fairies is like a trip down a rabbit hole into a psychedelicized wonderland that includes characters like Lemmy Kilmister and Hawkwind, Mick Farren and The Deviants, Twink, Larry Wallis, Steve “Peregrin” Took, Sandy Sanderson, the...

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JONI MITCHELL: THE FIRST FIVE YEARS

Richie Unterberger·February 11, 2021

Despite being regarded as one of her generation’s greatest singer-songwriters, Joni Mitchell labored in relative obscurity for years before Reprise released her debut album, Songs to a Seagull (1968). Prior to that, she was writing and performing prolifically, while her...

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ASTOR PIAZZOLLA-THE TANGO ASSASSIN AT 100

John Kruth·February 10, 2021

The Argentine musical master Astor Piazzolla (1921-1992) was a disrupter, in the manner of Stravinsky, the Dadaists, Bob Dylan and, yes, even the Sex Pistols (or, at least, Malcolm McLaren). He embodied both the beauty and the beastliness of life....

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HOW HOLLYWOOD HANDLED THE HIPPIES, PART II: BIKERS, BAD TRIPS, LOVE-INS

Jim Allen·February 9, 2021

Hollywood brass had discovered bikers long before the hippies (see Brando in The Wild One, 1953) but they really got their motors runnin’ once everyone started growing their hair down to their shoulders in the 1960s. Toss in some bad...

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SKULL FORMING: TIM WRIGHT AFTER PERE UBU

Elliott Sharp·February 8, 2021

Years ago, the celebrated composer and multi-instrumentalist Elliott Sharp got to know and perform with Tim Wright, the original bassist and co-founder of Cleveland’s ur-punk Pere Ubu, member (with Arto Lindsay) of DNA and solo artist. At one point in...

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JUNIOR KIMBROUGH’S JUKE JOINT: KEEPING DIRTY BLUES ALIVE

Bob Pomeroy·February 4, 2021

During the 1990s, a legendary but crumbling juke joint in the northern Mississippi hills kept the ‘dirty blues’ of Sonny Boy Williamson, Howlin’ Wolf and Fred McDowell alive. It was run by a Memphis bluesman named David “Junior” Kimbrough. After...

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BLOOD & GUTS: LIFE & DEATH AS A FORENSIC INVESTIGATOR

Amy Haben·February 3, 2021

The plots of Forensic Files, the CSI franchise, Endeavour, The Fall—and all these other popular TV shows and miniseries in the past few years—revolve around the work of police forensic investigators. Amy Haben got to know one member of this...

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SECRET TREATIES: PRODUCER MURRAY KRUGMAN ON BLUE ÖYSTER CULT, THE DICTATORS & MORE

Anthony Petkovich·February 2, 2021

Murray Krugman was one-half of a dynamic duo (with Sandy Pearlman) that helped shape the sound of the Seventies, twirling knobs for both Blue Öyster Cult and (PKM fave) the Dictators. Krugman, unlike Pearlman, stayed mostly in the background, giving...

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DIARY OF A DAMNED SOUL: THE ENDURING INFLUENCE OF ARTHUR RIMBAUD

Ingrid Marie Jensen·February 1, 2021

It could be argued that the French poet Arthur Rimbaud (1854-1891) was the first punk. Instead of using music, he used language, to break open the possibility of derangement of the senses through words. His influence is seen in the...

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THE LONG NIGHT OF JOHN MARTYN

Fiona McQuarrie·January 28, 2021

Before his late-career decline, John Martyn was one of the most innovative figures in the British folk-rock firmament, a forerunner of, and influence on, the freak folk movement of the 1990s. One of the few friends and confidants of the...

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JOHN TAYLOR: STILL IN THE PLEASURE GROOVE WITH DURAN DURAN

Crispin Kott·January 27, 2021

John Taylor is the bass guitarist in Duran Duran, a band that stormed out of the New Romantic movement in the early ‘80s with a series of songs, albums and videos now considered classics. Duran Duran will release their 15th...

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RUBBERHEAD: AKRON’S LASTING IMPACT ON CHUCK STATLER, GODFATHER OF MUSIC VIDEO

JP Olsen·January 26, 2021

Chuck Statler started his long career in innovative and influential music video by collaborating with his classmates and fellow-pranksters at Kent State University, Mark Mothersbaugh and Jerry Casale of Devo. It all began with the landmark DEVO: In the Beginning...

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ONSTAGE, BACKSTAGE: PHOTOGRAPHER MICHAEL GRECCO CAPTURED BOSTON’S PUNK AND POST PUNK SCENES

Alan Bisbort·January 25, 2021

Michael Grecco picked the right time to be in Boston. As an undergrad at BU studying photojournalism, he began exploring the clubs of The Hub with his camera and was soon snapping on assignment from alternative and mainstream press venues....

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Jack Kerouac based his muse/lover “Mardou Fox” in The Subterraneans on Alene Lee, a mixed race (Black/Cherokee) bohemian writer and intellectual who was a part of the NYC Beat circle of Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso and Lucien Carr. Despite her intimate connection to these writers, the real Alene Lee is nowhere to be found in most accounts and biographies—partly due to her own reticence to speak. Erika Blair did some digging and presents a more rounded portrait of this fascinating woman. Read more!

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SAM CUTLER: LIFE WITH THE STONES, THE DEAD & OTHER WONDERFUL REPROBATES

ALL THE RAJ: HOW ‘NORWEGIAN WOOD’ UNLEASHED THE ‘INDIAN INVASION’

THE KNACK … AND HOW TO GET IT: AN INTERVIEW WITH PRESCOTT NILES

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PLEASE READ ME: THE BEST OF PKM FOR 2021, PART II

UTOPIA PARKWAY: THE ENDURING MYSTERY OF JOSEPH CORNELL

RUTH UNDERWOOD: A MOTHER OF INVENTION

VIN DIESEL, ARTHUR RUSSELL AND ME

THE LONESOME DEATH OF DANNY RAPP: THE FRONT MAN FOR DANNY & THE JUNIORS

DIRECTOR KEVIN CONNOR: FROM HELL TO HALLMARK!

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THE LOST TESTAMENT OF SAM BUTERA: THE RISE & FALL OF ‘THE WILDEST SHOW IN VEGAS’

PINK FAIRIES: THE COSMIC ROCK FUZZ OF PUNK’S PIONEERS

JONI MITCHELL: THE FIRST FIVE YEARS

ASTOR PIAZZOLLA-THE TANGO ASSASSIN AT 100

HOW HOLLYWOOD HANDLED THE HIPPIES, PART II: BIKERS, BAD TRIPS, LOVE-INS

SKULL FORMING: TIM WRIGHT AFTER PERE UBU

JUNIOR KIMBROUGH’S JUKE JOINT: KEEPING DIRTY BLUES ALIVE

BLOOD & GUTS: LIFE & DEATH AS A FORENSIC INVESTIGATOR

SECRET TREATIES: PRODUCER MURRAY KRUGMAN ON BLUE ÖYSTER CULT, THE DICTATORS & MORE

DIARY OF A DAMNED SOUL: THE ENDURING INFLUENCE OF ARTHUR RIMBAUD

THE LONG NIGHT OF JOHN MARTYN

JOHN TAYLOR: STILL IN THE PLEASURE GROOVE WITH DURAN DURAN

RUBBERHEAD: AKRON’S LASTING IMPACT ON CHUCK STATLER, GODFATHER OF MUSIC VIDEO

ONSTAGE, BACKSTAGE: PHOTOGRAPHER MICHAEL GRECCO CAPTURED BOSTON’S PUNK AND POST PUNK SCENES

SAM CUTLER: LIFE WITH THE STONES, THE DEAD & OTHER WONDERFUL REPROBATES

ALL THE RAJ: HOW ‘NORWEGIAN WOOD’ UNLEASHED THE ‘INDIAN INVASION’

THE KNACK … AND HOW TO GET IT: AN INTERVIEW WITH PRESCOTT NILES

POLY STYRENE: BREAKING DOWN THE BONDAGE

WE NEVER LEARN: GUNK PUNK IN THE 1990S