Pirate Radio 13

12/08/2025

12/08/2025

Happy 76th birthday to Tom Waits! 🥃
Songwriting, says Waits, is like “bird-watching,” or “looking for insects. If you don’t know what you’re doing, you’ll spend all day and find nothing. Same thing with songs. You’ve got to sneak up on them.”
And there’s a particular recipe for making an album. “You write two songs, you put ‘em in a room and they have kids. Songs travel along the same line that jokes and stories do. They get written down, forgotten, and resurrected. You tear the wings off them for a while and they grow new ones. Songs are kind of like your memory of something, your homeland, or what you had for dinner last night; something for your kids. We all do it naturally, and kids do it better than any of us. So in a sense, it’s kind of like children’s work.”

Maher, Paul. Tom Waits on Tom Waits: Interviews and Encounters

Photo: LUKAS GÖBEL

12/08/2025

Remembering Jim Morrison (December 8, 1943 – July 3, 1971)
The Doors were among the most intense and revolutionary bands of the Sixties (or any decade, for that matter). The impact of their meteoric career has resonated far beyond their brief half-decade as a recording and performing entity. Their words and music captured the Sixties zeitgeist with undeniable power. A cult of personality continues to surround Jim Morrison, their tempestuous lead singer. Morrison was a brooding, charismatic frontman in the classic mold of Elvis Presley and Mick Jagger. Yet he was given to more extreme and confrontational forms of behavior than those icons.
Only six years passed from the Doors' formation in 1966 to Morrison's death in 1971. During that time, the group released six studio albums and left a smoldering trail of memorable and often controversial concert performances that cemented Morrison's legend.The Doors comprised vocalist Jim Morrison, keyboardist Ray Manzarek, guitarist Robby Krieger and drummer John Densmore. Their music combined classical elocution with jazzy improvisation and infused heady psychedelic rock with the earthiness of the blues. As Manzarek put it in a 1997 interview: "We just combined the Apollonian and the Dionysian. The Dionysian side is the blues, and the Apollonian side is classical music. The proper artist combines Apollonian rigor and correctness with Dionysian frenzy, passion and excitement. You blend those two together, and you have the complete, whole artist."

Source: Rhino
Photo: Jim Marshall

12/08/2025

Janis Joplin and Johnny Winter at Madison Square Garden (1969)

Photo source (Instagram): psychedelic_caravan

12/08/2025

Alice Cooper, his girlfriend Cindy Lang, John Lennon, and May Pang at an after-party for the premiere of the off-Broadway show Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band on the Road in New York City. . The photo was taken during John Lennon's "Lost Weekend" period, a 18-month separation from Yoko Ono.

12/06/2025

ZZ Top in Tennessee, 1973. Photo by Tom Hill This picture was taken around the time of the release of their breakthrough album, Tres Hombres.

12/06/2025

12/04/2025

Johnny Winter

12/04/2025

Janis Joplin, 1968. Photo by Baron Wolman. The photo was part of a series taken for Eye magazine and was captured at the home of Spaulding Taylor in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district, which was the heart of the counterculture movement at the time.

12/04/2025

It is with profound sadness that we share the news of the passing of Stephen Lee Cropper, who died peacefully in Nashville today at the age of 84.

Steve was a beloved musician, songwriter, and producer whose extraordinary talent touched
millions of lives around the world. As the legendary guitarist for Booker T. & the M.G.‘s and the architect of the Stax Records sound, he helped create some of the most enduring songs in music history, including “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay,” “Soul Man,” “Knock on Wood,” and “In the Midnight Hour.” A Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Inductee, Grammy Award winner, and
Songwriters Hall of Fame honoree, Steve’s influence on American music is immeasurable.

While we mourn the loss of a husband, father, and friend, we find comfort knowing that Steve
will live forever through his music. Every note he played, every song he wrote, and every artist
he inspired ensures that his spirit and artistry will continue to move people for generations.

Steve is survived by his loving wife, Angel Cropper; his children Andrea and Cameron Cropper, Stevie, and Ashley, along with countless musicians and fans whose lives he transformed through his extraordinary gift.
The family thanks everyone for their love, support, and respect for their privacy during this difficult time.