riley rock report

The Riley Rock Report brings exciting concepts to life, creating a connection that makes the world feel more intimate. Every two weeks on Friday, Riley shares a complimentary newsletter that ties rock music history to today's happenings. It highlights the genre with thoughtful critiques, audio storytelling, and modern interviews. Explore 60 years of rock through the archives of the Boston Phoenix, featuring never-before-seen content on legends like The Beatles and Bob Dylan, alongside classical music pieces, NPR segments, book reviews, and articles on icons from Buddy Holly to Prince and Tina Turner.

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The Future's Not What It Used To Be

2 weeks ago | rileyrockreport.substack.com | Tim Riley

I spoke with Cornell’s Jeremy Braddock about his new book Firesign: The Electromagnetic History of Everything as Told on Nine Comedy Albums (California University Press). We started with some of the more obvious Beatle connections and talked through the catalog. If you haven’t sampled these albums yet, start with Bozos, widely considered the most accessible yet spine-cracking. He runs a juicy Substack with FT interviews and asides called Giant Slide 19 Holes Underground Parking.
Teardrop Mandolin, Cornball Fervor

1 month ago | rileyrockreport.substack.com | Tim Riley

Most people recognize David Lindley’s cartoon outburst from Jackson Browne’s “The Load-Out/Stay” medley from Running on Empty (#20, 1978), if not the Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs surf-doo-wop source from 1960. I saw him multiple times in Boston and Newport, and allmusic.com lists sessions for acts as varied as James Taylor, Linda Ronstadt, Rod Stewart, Lonnie Mack, and Iggy Pop. This review ran in the Boston Phoenix in 1988.
Hearing Elvis Presley's Memphis

1 month ago | rileyrockreport.substack.com | Tim Riley

Historian Preston Lauterbach works the backstreets of rock’s story, the many accidental and circuitous paths the music takes before congealing into a popular style. With Before Elvis, he lands a major statement about how Presley immersed himself in the Memphis of 1948-1945, what he heard on the radio, in churches, and in clubs.
Substacker Chris Dalla Riva Without Tears

2 months ago | rileyrockreport.substack.com | Tim Riley

Chris Dalla Riva at Can’t Get Much Higher published a list of favorite music books from the new century, and we sent in reinforcements. This led to a series of scrapes where he ran my Led Zeppelin piece and readers balked. Then my astrological chart (so cuspy) triggered me to invite him to answer a series of rando questions I keep in a mayonnaise jar on Funk and Wagnall’s porch. Note: that Jelly Bowl reference required a reluctant, last-minute waiver…Any pre-rock heroes you still listen to?
From Sweden With Hidden Costs

2 months ago | rileyrockreport.substack.com | Sven Carlsson |Tim Riley

When you watch the Netflix Playlist series you get a standard-if-sturdy startup story with legal hurdles and tech geeks coding outside the lines. The labels carry all that golden booty, and they will make Daniel Ek pay. Ek accomodates the gatekeepers and takes over the world; it’s almost weird he didn’t attend last month’s inauguration.
2024 Year In Review, Part 2

Jan 17, 2025 | rileyrockreport.substack.com | Tim Riley

RECENCY BIAS OBSCURES two toxic ethical bombs that led the year straight down the clown hole, sullied the journalism profession, and foreshadowed another campaign season where polls upstaged stakes. Two once-prominent journalists traded in their self-respect for access.
2024 Year in Review, part 1

Jan 3, 2025 | rileyrockreport.substack.com | Tim Riley

SINGLE/COVER OF THE YEAR“Good Luck, Babe,” Sabrina Carpenter (covering Chappell Roan)ALBUMSTIE: Black Keys: Ohio Players [Trophy Edition] (Nonesuch) and Dwight Yoakam:Brighter Days (VIA)Listening to the new Black Keys album, you forget all about their annus horribilis and crypto benefit rebound (just like we forget how 1990s Grammy darling Toni Braxton went broke with hit records on the charts before she got lupus).
The MC5 and Proto-Punk Fever

Dec 20, 2024 | rileyrockreport.substack.com | Tim Riley

High Time, MC5. Atlantic, 1972/Rhino CD, 1992. review source and publication date unknownOn December 12, Rob Tyner (1944 – September 18, 1991), the lead singer for Detroit’s MC5, would have turned 80. He shared a birthday with Lester Bangs, who wrote the indelible pan of Kick Out the Jams for Rolling Stone (a “ridiculous, overbearing, pretentious album; and maybe that's the idea, isn't it?”). This sealed both band and its critic’s quixotic reputations.
Altamont: Prophecy and Sinkhole

Dec 6, 2024 | rileyrockreport.substack.com | Tim Riley

Just a Shot Away, by Saul Austerlitz. St. Martin's Press, 2018from truthdig, September 21, 2018December 6 marks the 55th anniversary of the Altamont show featured in Gimme Shelter, the exploitation film from that Rolling Stones debauch. It’s worth reiterating how foul the band’s response remains.In Keith Richard’s A Life memoir from 2010, he still blames the “boneheaded” San Fransisco City Council.
Reversal of Fortune

Nov 2, 2024 | rileyrockreport.substack.com | Tim Riley

Nick of Time, Bonnie Raitt. (Capitol 1989) Boston Phoenix, June 16, 1989So many great tracks across a six-decade career, and you still want that fabled country album. As Jeremy Irons (as Claus Von Bülow) says in the film, “You have no idea…” BONNIE RAITT'S COME-HITHER blues purr and spine-cracking gospel growl have always outclassed her various bands, producers, and too many of her songwriters.