Greetings, friends. I am working on a new book that explores personal history, American History (going back 60+ years), and weaves all that into a tapestry that interacts with my reflections on 100 great Bob Dylan songs. I am very excited about this newest project. In the meantime, I continue to promote my first book, MUSIC TITANS – 250 GREATEST RECORDING ARTISTS OF THE PAST 100 YEARS. Thank you for your kind support. Stay well. -Steve
Tag: recording classics
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Greetings and blessings, all. This week my book, MUSIC TITANS – 250 GREATEST RECORDING ARTISTS OF THE PAST 100 YEARS, celebrates its one-year anniversary of publication. I want to thank everyone who bought and/or read it. It continues to sell, mostly on Amazon, in dribs and drabs. Here are a few of the publicly posted comments the book has received—
“I Love this Book!
Steve Williams’ new book is a crime of musical passion. Let’s face it, music is like sushi bars – everyone has their favorite, and we’re passionate about protecting and defending our choices.
Not so much a list, this book is an homage to music, Williams’s love for most of his life… “—Jeffrey Weber, (Grammy award winning producer and author)“Music Titans is an absolute masterpiece!… From Sinatra’s melodious tunes to Taylor Swift’s cultural influence, from the timeless classics of Tin Pan Alley to Tupac Shakur’s poetic prowess, Williams seamlessly blends empathy and intellectual insight in his penetrating analysis…”— Peter S. Burke, music publisher
“…full of enough factual information that the mind boggles…”— Record Producer Bill Bentley
“Music Titans is a must-read for any music enthusiast and I would certainly recommend it.” (5 Stars) – K.C. Finn for Readers’ Favorite
“I was really impressed by the amount of work that has gone into this…If you love music and music history, you will enjoy this look at some of the best. I suggest reading it while listening to the music of some of the great artists portrayed here.”— BonnieD of Bonnie Reads and Writes
MUSIC TITANS remains available at multiple online sites. Thanks, again, for your continued support in spreading the word. — Steve
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I watched the SNL 50th Anniversary Special last night and was happy to see the 83-year-old Paul Simon teamed with 25-year-old Sabrina Carpenter performing “Homeward Bound” to open the show. Simon’s been a regular musical guest and host on SNL over the years; so, in his, and the show’s, honor, here’s a PAUL SIMON excerpt from MUSIC TITANS – 250 GREATEST RECORDING ARTISTS OF THE PAST 100 YEARS—
Paul Simon originally rose to fame as half of the ’60s folk rock duo Simon & Garfunkel, celebrated for such culturally important hits as “The Sound of Silence,” “Mrs. Robinson,” and “Bridge Over Troubled Water”… His solo work began in earnest with the 1972 release Paul Simon. It was a major success on both sides of the Atlantic and featured the reggae inflected “Mother and Child Reunion.” His next two albums, There Goes Rhymin’ Simon and Still Crazy After All These Years,continued his hot streak with the lively reminiscent track “Kodachrome,” the gospel tinged ” Loves Me Like a Rock,” the meditative secular hymn to perseverance in the face of personal and national trial, “American Tune,” and his humorous take on breaking up, “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover.” Soon after, however, the hits began to dry up.
In 1986, at a personal and creative nadir, Simon was introduced to a mixtape of South African township music. Determined to continue his penchant for experimenting with different musical genres, he flew to Johannesburg and began working on a new album. This was a particularly controversial move since there was a cultural boycott against South Africa because of the brutal policy of racial segregation known as apartheid that was practiced there. Perhaps to offset breaking the boycott, Simon paid local musicians 12 times the going rate and, with the backing of a South African Black musicians’ union, proceeded despite heavy criticism and death threats. The result, Graceland, was an astounding blend of a capella Zulu choral music, up-tempo local street sounds, American pop, with Louisiana zydeco and Tex-Mex elements mixed in there as well. “World music,” they called it, and though it remained controversial‑‑cultural appropriation, said some; a bridge between the developed and the developing worlds, said others—it was a commercial and critical triumph, Simon’s biggest seller and most critically celebrated record.
Four years later, he was back with another take on world music, this time mixing African, Brazilian, and North American sources to produce the less accessible, but still striking The Rhythm of the Saints…Simon is no longer a hit maker. No matter—he is the only artist to have LPs nominated for a best album Grammy in five consecutive decades, winning three times. A two-time member of the Rock Hall of Fame and a Kennedy Center honoree, Paul is also the first recipient of the coveted Library of CongressGershwin Prize…
Suggested Songs:
Duncan (1972)
American Tune (1973)
Still Crazy After All These Years (1976)
Graceland (1986)
MUSIC TITANS remains widely available wherever books are sold online.
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Here is an excerpt on the best-selling American band, The EAGLES, as we in the Philadelphia area celebrate the Super Bowl winning football Eagles. This excerpt is taken from my music history/reference book, MUSIC TITANS – 250 GREATEST RECORDING ARTISTS OF THE PAST 100 YEARS—
In the 1970s, no other American band so captured the zeitgeist as did the Eagles. They took a narrow genre, country rock, and made it mainstream, transforming country music itself in the process. Along the way, they released two of the most iconic, best-selling albums of all time.
Originally, they were four separate musicians who had migrated to L.A.; they came together to back Linda Ronstadt and formed a band, signing with David Geffen’s Asylum. Glen Frey, rhythm guitarist, and Don Henley, drummer, wrote most of the songs and handled most of the lead vocals. Bernie Leadon played guitar and brought a country sensibility while Randy Meisner added bass. Their 1972 debut featured “Take It Easy,” which put them on the musical map… Don Felder joined the band in ’74, bringing his considerable guitar skills to the mix, and, the following year, the Eagles broke through with One of These Nights, which featured three Top 10 hits. Leadon soon departed over creative and personal differences, to be replaced by the harder-rocking Joe Walsh. In early ’76, they released Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975), and the album surprised the world, leaping off the shelves and continuing to sell for years, eventually vying with Michael Jackson’s Thriller for the title of all-time U.S. bestseller. Later that year, they released their fifth LP, the superlative Hotel California. The title track has become mythic, with its lyrical exploration of the underbelly of the American Dream, its iconic intro, and its Walsh-Felder dual lead guitar outro, which was deemed by Guitarist magazine the finest guitar solo in history…
Through much of the ’70s, the Eagles gave rock fans who were uncomfortable with the glam of Bowie, the metal of Zeppelin, and the disco of the clubs somewhere to go musically, but, as the decade waned, punk and new wave emerged. Perhaps the Eagles could have dominated the charts for decades, perhaps not, but internal conflicts were pulling the band apart…Henley once quipped they’d reunite when “Hell freezes over.” Sure enough, in 1994, back together, they released the LP Hell Freezes Over and resumed touring. In 2016, co-leader Frey died; there have been other lineup changes, including the 2023 passing of Meisner, but, as of this writing, the Eagles carry on.
Suggested Songs:
Desperado (1973)
One of These Nights (1975)
New Kid in Town (1976)
Hotel California (1977)
MUSIC TITANS remains on sale in both paperback and eBook formats through Amazon, B&N, BookBaby, and other online stores. Thanks for reading.
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I watched the Grammys last night, as I always do. Like many older folks, my musical tastes generally run toward artists who were at their peak several decades ago. The Grammys help me catch up on what music is trending now! It wasn’t always so; at one time, when Grammy voters tended to be a bit older and grayer, they were often notoriously behind the day’s musical trends. For example, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band won the award for the 1967 Album of the Year— that was the first huge recognition of the sea change that had been occurring in popular music since, at least, 1955. Now, though, with a younger, more diverse, Recording Academy, I tune in to see the likes of the delightfully talented Chappel Roan (Best New Artist). In fact, the Grammys, in recent years, gave me my first look and listen to Lorde, Billie Eilish, and Olivia Rodrigo.
I was very moved by the opening number “I Love L.A.”, Randy Newman’s classic, albeit with an appropriate lyrical makeover. Having spent most of the ‘70s and half of the ‘80s living in Los Angeles, and not too far from the fire zone, it was very moving to see the fund-raising efforts for the recent victims.
I realize that I may be in the distinct minority here, and I recognize that Kendrick Lamar is an enormous talent, one of the greatest hip-hop artists in history, but I don’t quite get the adulation heaped on his award winning (Song and Record of the Year) “Not Like Us”. It’s a brutal, hold nothing back, attack on the hugely successful Canadian rapper Drake, the most telling blow in the ongoing public feud between the two recording giants. I don’t know if the allegations that Kendrick and Drake have thrown at one another are true or not, but it seems to me that we are in dangerous waters, and we’ve seen before how these things can end.
Finally, I was happy to see Beyonce take home the coveted Album of the Year Grammy for Cowboy Carter. I know she took some flack in some circles, initially, for presuming to “go country”, but, as she and others have pointed out, genre is, too often, used to try and box artists in. Some of the all-time greats— Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, Elvis, Bob Dylan, Linda Ronstadt, Joni Mitchell, Paul Simon—sometimes defied expectations, and took heat for it, at the time, only to be recognized, years later, as ground breakers. Beyonce’s album is truly deserving, imho— a mixed genre tour-de-force that also helps shine a light on both African-American roots in the genre and on some of the Black country artists of yesteryear- DeFord Bailey, Charlie Pride, Linda Martell; even the great Ray Charles who ventured there.
My music history book, MUSIC TITANS – 250 GREATEST RECORDING ARTISTS OF THE PAST 100 YEARS, features many of the artists mentioned above, and remains available at Amazon, BookBaby, B&N, and other sites. Thanks for reading.
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It has been one year since my music history book, MUSIC TITANS – 250 GREATEST RECORDING ARTISTS OF THE PAST 100 YEARS, released in eBook format (the paperback came out in March 2024). I am not a best-selling author (not close), and it would be a huge stretch, even, to call my book a hit. Still, MUSIC TITANS has remained fairly consistently among Amazon’s Top 5% selling titles (there are millions of books out there). It is well regarded (4.4 on Amazon and 4.73 on Goodreads), and has even been picked up by several library systems.
For those who don’t know, I looked at 100 years of recorded music (1923 to 2023), artists from all genres, and three broad metrics (Popularity- total records sold; live music or concert attraction; longevity as a consequential artist. The second metric was Influence- musical and cultural, both in their own time and long-term. The third metric was major Awards and Honors won). Using a point system, I then came up with my ranked list of the 250 “greatest”- Not necessarily my favorites. I let the three criteria and the total number of points define who is on the list. Of course, people can and do and should disagree with who is on and who is not on the list. I don’t pretend that this is a definitive or scientific ranking. I often have second guessed myself, feeling like I undervalued or over valued certain artists. I did, though, do a lot of reading and research, as well as listening, and I assure you that all the true, no doubt about it, giants are here- Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, Glenn Miller, Frank Sinatra, Miles, Hank, Elvis, Streisand, the Beatles, the Stones, Dylan, Led Zeppelin, Queen, Willie, Dolly, Aretha, Michael, Marley, Madonna, Eminem, and so-on. MUSIC TITANS is meant to be educational, but it is also meant to be fun, to provoke discussion and debate, but also to promote listening.
I hope you read it (if you haven’t already), tell your friends about it, and let me know your thoughts. It is still widely available at Amazon, BookBaby, Barnes & Noble, etc. Thanks!
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After a holiday season bump, my book, MUSIC TITANS – 250 GREATEST RECORDING ARTISTS OF THE PAST 100 YEARS, has settled back down but is still available on Amazon, BookBaby Bookshop, Barnes & Noble, and countless other sites. I want to thank everybody who has bought and/or read the book. If you liked it, please tell others, helping me to spread the word. Stay well and thank you!
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With the current success of the BOB DYLAN biopic, A Complete Unknown, it seems an auspicious time to feature an excerpt from my Dylan profile taken from my book MUSIC TITANS – 250 GREATEST RECORDING ARTISTS OF THE PAST 100 YEARS-
In January 1961, a scruffy Minnesota college dropout made his way to the wintery streets of Greenwich Village, New York. Sleeping on borrowed couches and rifling through his hosts’ album and book collections, the 19-year-old Robert Zimmerman, who had begun calling himself Bob Dylan, began to hit the local coffee bars and clubs, Cafe Wha? and Gerde’s Folk City on Hootenanny and open-mic nights, singing mostly Woody Guthrie and traditional folk tunes. Joan Baez later put it into song, “You burst on the scene already a legend… ” Not quite, but, by year’s end, Dylan was headlining at Gerde’s, had received a glowing review in The New York Times, and was signed by legendary talent scout John Hammond to Columbia Records.
Dylan’s 1962 recording debut was inauspicious enough, a collection of mostly folk covers that failed to sell, but, by 1963, he was being hailed as the king of modern folk and a songwriting genius. The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, with its iconic cover photo of Bob and girlfriend Suze arm in arm in the Village, features at least five genuine classics: “Blowin’ in the Wind,” perhaps Dylan’s most famous composition, covered hundreds of times, most famously by Peter, Paul, and Mary, who sang it at the 1963 March on Washington; “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall,” repeatedly linked to the Cuban Missile Crisis, though it was written before; “Masters of War,” with its timeless, no-holds-barred attack on the nameless politicians and industrialists who profit from war; “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right,” a bittersweet breakup lament; and the timeless love ballad, “Girl from the North Country.”
It was, however, in 1965-1966, in the space of 15 months, when Dylan recorded and released his unrivaled trio of classic rock and blues albums, with their surreal, poetic pyrotechnics, that he became a genuine recording superstar, the epitome of the hip New York artist and cultural/generational leader, admired and emulated even by the Beatles. “Like a Rolling Stone,” which “sounded like somebody’d kicked open the door to your mind,” said Bruce Springsteen; “Subterranean Homesick Blues,” in many ways a prototype rap; “Mister Tambourine Man,” with its poetic exploration of drug-induced or musically stimulated consciousness; “Desolation Row,” Dylan’s urban emulation of Eliot’s The Waste Land; the joyful longing of ” I Want You;” “Just Like a Woman,” with its painful sense of lost love—these, and so many other celebrated songs, come from this fertile period…
…It is probably safe to say that no other recording artist has been so honored this past century. In a few short decades, Dylan has gone from being hounded by Newsweek to being taught in universities from Stanford to Harvard and having his lyrics quoted by Supreme Court Justices. Dylan has had two Broadway plays utilizing his music; he has won Grammys, an Oscar, a Pulitzer, a Presidential Medal of Freedom, equivalent French and Spanish honors, even the prestigious Nobel Prize for Literature. Academics now speak his name in the same breath with Shakespeare and Virgil, but Dylan himself would be the first to say not to take anybody else’s word for it—go and listen for yourself.
Suggested Songs:
Blowin’ in the Wind (1963)
Like a Rolling Stone (1965)
Desolation Row (1965)
Tangled Up in Blue (1975)
Mississippi (2001)
MUSIC TITANS continues to be available online (Amazon, BookBaby, B&N, Walmart, and more) in paperback and eBook formats at reduced prices.
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Yesterday I went to the movies and saw Timothee Chalamet playing a young Bob Dylan in A COMPLETE UNKNOWN. Dylan is one of the truly iconic artists profiled in my book, MUSIC TITANS – 250 GREATEST RECORDING ARTISTS OF THE PAST 100 YEARS.
Chalamet was brilliant in the role; he had Dylan’s voice and mannerisms down, and all the songs were recorded live with Tim singing and playing both guitar and harmonica. I also liked the fact that Dylan was portrayed as a real human being, warts and all, not as some sort of plaster saint. We live in a time of musical biopics, some, of course, better than others. Among the artists featured in my book that have been the subject of outstanding screen depictions are James Brown, Ray Charles, Judy Garland, Queen’s Freddie Mercury, Johnny Cash, and Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys. A few years back we saw award winning performances of Loretta Lynn and Tina Turner; we’ve also seen actors doing creditable work as Elvis, Elton, Aretha, Whitney, Tupac, Biggie, N.W.A, Little Richard, Billie Holiday, Patsy Cline, Jim Morrison, Amy Winehouse, Bob Marley, Buddy Holly, Woody Guthrie, Charlie Parker, and more. And, as I write, there are even more biopics on the way- Michael Jackson, the Beatles, Joni Mitchell, Bruce Springsteen, and Janis Joplin are all in various stages of preparation or production.
Enjoy the movie, enjoy the music, continue to enjoy the holidays; hope you enjoy my book, too (still available at Amazon, BookBaby, and widely online). Happy New Year!
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In a couple of days it will be Christmas; it will also mark the start of Hanukkah. So, I really do want to say Happy Holidays, however you celebrate, and wish you a blessed, healthy, fun, and joyous time. Thank you for remembering and supporting me and my book, MUSIC TITANS. I hope to continue catching up with you in 2025. May we all find peace.
Greatest Recording Artists 