In The End, The Sign Of Aretha

James Taylor May Be An All-american Boy But He Isn't Horatio Alger, And The Lionizing Of Many Rock Stars By The Rock Press Has As Much To Do With Old Fashioned Rags-to-riches Stories As Does The Straight Culture's Deification Of Its Idols.

Carole King's Second Album, 'tapestry,' Has Fulfilled The Promise Of Her First And Confirmed The Fact That She Is One Of The Most Creative Figures In All Of Pop Music. It Is An Album Of Surpassing Personal-intimacy And Musical Accomplishment And A Work Infused With A Sense Of Artistic Purpose. It Is Also Easy To Listen To And Easy To Enjoy.

'dance To The Music' Was Just Sly Stone Being His Natural Crazy Self Right From The Beginning. The Man Was An Original And His First Am Hit Was Nothing If It Wasn't The Example Per Excellence Of The Sly Stone Music Machine.

Bob Dylan May Be The Charlie Chaplin Of Rock N' Roll. Both Men Are Regarded As Geniuses By Their Entire Audience. Both Were Proclaimed Revolutionaries For Their Early Work And Subjected To Exhaustive Attack When Later Works Were Thought To Be Inferior. Both Developed Their Art Without So Much As A Nodding Glance Toward Their Peers.

On First Listening, Joni Mitchell's 'court And Spark,' The First Truly Great Pop Album Of 1974, Sounds Surprisingly Light; By The Third Or Fourth Listening, It Reveals Its Underlying Tensions.