Love In Vain

ROBERT JOHNSON WAS ONLY 31 YEARS DEAD WHEN

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ROLLING & TUMBLING

IT'S BEEN TOUGH TIMES FOR THE ROLLING STONES - HEALTH SCARES, LOSING CHARLIE, PLUS AN ALBUM THEY COULD NEVER SEEM TO FINISH. BUT WITH A NEW DRUMMER, NEW PRODUCER AND NEW URGENCY THEY GRASPED THE NETTLE, BECAUSE WHO KNOWS WHAT TOMORROW MIGHT BRING? "WE NEEDED SOME REAL," THEY TELL DANNY ECCLESTON, "SO WE GOT AS REAL AS WE COULD GET."

"IT'S THE RAW SHIT!"

PRODUCER ANDREW WATTON WHAT HE DID, AND DIDN'T DO, TO MAKE HACKNEY DIAMONDS WHAT IT IS.

MOJO FILTER

YOUR GUIDE TO THE MONTH'S BEST MUSIC EDITED

Big bang theory

Pop records fronted by percussionists gave Latin soul label Tico a distinctive drive. By Jim Irvin.

THIS MONTH'S CONTRIBUTORS INCLUDE…

Mark Seliger Mark’s iconic music portraits, famously showcased

ALL BACK TO MY PL ACE

THE STARS REVEAL THE SONIC DELIGHTS GUARANTEED TO GET THEM GOING...

Theories, rants, etc.

MOJO welcomes correspondence for publication. Write to us at: MOJO, H Bauer Publishing, The Lantern, 75 Hampstead Road, London, NW1 2PL. E-mail to: mojoreaders@bauermedia.co.uk

Exile In Margaritaville

Florida bard Jimmy Buffett left us on September 1.

NOVEMBER 1971 …Kevin Ayers meets Gong, uptown

In vino veritas: Kevin Ayers outside Abbey

What is The KLF’s Ukraine connection?

Let us answer your rock-related questions and solve other related conundrums.

Martin Rev and Suicide

A chance encounter in cold NY bohemia lit the fuse; 45 years later they said so long in London.

Amusements Never End

THE HOT NEWS AND BIZARRE STORIES FROM PLANET MOJO

A MONKEE SINGS R.E.M.? MICKY DOLENZ TALKS THE ART OF THE COVER VERSION

There’s the Monkee, your adventure for today: Micky

Mike Skinner

The Streets’ UK rap auteur talks country music, raving in your forties and making movies.

SONGWRITING LEGEND MIKE STOLLER CELEBRATES 70 YEARS IN MUSIC!

AS IF IT WASN’T enough to be the

Brian Auger

The R&B/jazz/rock organ lifer bows to Donny Hathaway’s Live (Atlantic, 1972).

PHOENIX ROOTS NOISE ROCKERS MEAT PUPPETS RAGE AGAIN

In the flesh: Meat Puppets (from left) Cris

ALLISON RUSSELL REDRAWS THE BOUNDARIES OF AMERICANA

Allison Russell: “there’s no way for me to

ABANDONED HARPS! PULP CONNECTIONS! BAS JAN TUNE IN TO THE ART-PUNK SPIRIT OF ’79

AS BAS JAN do their best Joy Division

MOJO PLAYLIST

The month’s best guitar summits, synthy prog and commune reggae.

THE MOJO INTERVIEW

Ross Halfin, Shawn Brackbill Flying high with the Eagles, his rock’n’rolling madness masked tragedy and insecurity. So how did 2023’s Ringo Starr and VetsAid stalwart get so reliable, so responsible? “I’m part of something now,” says Joe Walsh

WE HAVE NO SECRETS

CARLY SIMON's first three albums are treasures of the singer- songwriter era, their songs inextricably entwined with her life and her loves, with James Taylor, Bob Dylan, Cat Stevens and Mick Jagger. It was a long time ago, but as she tells SYLVIE SIMMONS in an ultra-rare interview, "my memory is good, and I've got my diaries, about 2,000 pages

THE GOOD NOISE BIBLE

THURSTON MOORE'S NEW BOOK IS AS MUCH ABOUT THE WILD AND GNARLY ARTISTS WHO INSIRED HIM AS IT IS ABOUT SONIC YOUTH. THE BAND THAT MADE HIS NAME WHAT YOU WON'T FIND IS THE SKINNY ON HIS MARRIAGE TO KIM GORDON. "I DID'T WANT TO BE HAVING THIS NARRATNE BATTLE." HE TELLS ANDREW MALE.

"ONCE IN A WHILE EVERBODY HAS A BAD DAY

THURSTON MOORE DIDN'T WANT HIS BOOK T BE "MY FORTUITOUS MEETINGS WITH ROCK STARS" EXCEPT FOR THESE ONES…

TOUCHED BY THE HAND OF BOB

A NEW BOOK, BOB DYLAN: MIXING UP THE MEDICINE,

THE MILLION DOLLAR BASH

DYLAN-WHISPERER GREIL MARCUS ON THE 1960 MADISON PARTY TAPE: ADOCUMENT OF THE BARD’S BECOMING.

MOJO PRESENTS

Taking soul, gospel and R&B into the future, BL ACK PUM AS are the odd couple dream team with The Rolling Stones’ stamp of approval. Their second album promises next-level scenes, as long as their clashing personalities don’t generate too much friction. “It’s what makes the creative sparks fly,” they tell ANDREW PERRY.

PUM A TRAINERS

Four records that inspired Eric Burton and Adrian Quesada’s partnership.

Behind The Shades

In the mid-’70s Graham Parker came out of nowhere, with a fistful of killer songs and a hell of a band. And if he never enjoyed the fame of his flashier new wave contemporaries, he left with the kudos and, as his new album underlines, a career. “I shouldn’t have survived,” he tells Sylvie Simmons . “But I did.”

Spark of Life

Five essential Graham Parker albums, by Mat Snow.

SLY AND THE FAMILY STONE’S FRESH HELL

Bringing rock, funk and soul into interracial harmony, super-swaggering polymath Sly Stone changed the course of popular music with 1971’s There’s A Riot Goin’ On. But, derailed by endless dunes of cocaine, mob tactics and selfsabotage, 1973’s Fresh was his last creative stand, given added guignol by a doomed showbiz wedding on-stage at Madison Square Garden. “You can’t really fathom how deep that shit was,” remember friends and colleagues. “Sly said, ‘I have done too much wrong, I don’t think God will take me back…’”

Later, alligator

The Louisianan was born on the bayou and still lives there, but does his fourth album offer any chance of escape? By David Hutcheon. Illustration by Andy Bourne.

“Alligators don’t care who they eat.”

David Hutcheon speaks to Robert Finley.

Tom-tom club

Post-punk drummers assemble for dark-side supergroup. By Victoria Segal.

Laura Veirs ★★★★

Memo to self: Laura Veirs gets archival on

Cool threads

Inscrutable Aussies change lanes on their 25th album in 13 years

Jeffrey Martin ★★★★

Thank God We Left The Garden

JAZZ

Mike Reed ★★★★ The Separatist Party WE

Sofia Kourtesis ★★★★

Woman in black: Sofia Kourtesis dials up the

Flying colours

South African pianist reclaims ‘rainbow nation’ via improvs with California’s cosmic jazz force. By Andy Cowan.

Glen Hansard ★★★★

All That Is East Is West Of Me

UNDERGROUND

Arnold Dreyblatt & The Orchestra Of Excited Strings

FILTER ALBUMS EXTR A

Chris Abrahams/ Oren Ambarchi/ Robbie Avenaim ★★★★

EXTENDED PLAY

Margo Price Strays II As a songwriter,

Love in a cold climate

Mitchell’s rarities series reaches her prolific years at David Geffen’s Asylum label, beginning in a stone cabin in British Columbia. By David Fricke.

Nirvana ★★★★

Winging it: Kurt Cobain – far from spent

Okie computer

The laid-back maestro’s first eight albums, remastered. By John Mulvey.

New Order ★★★★

Substance 1987 WARNERS. CD/DL/LP Greatest hits (again), now

Worker’s playtime

Celebrating 40 years of graft and great songwriting. By Mat Snow.

It’s all too much

Skewed views on The Quiet One from voluminous author.

What a day that was

Talking Heads’ radiant 1984 concert film returns to cinemas

Semi precious

Prince’s uneven 13th LP gets the super-deluxe box set treatment.

Vanishing Point

This month’s rescuee from music’s dead letter office: proto dream-pop for spies.

Adrian Sherwood

The Godfather of UK bass culture’s finest productions

Take It To The Stage

Win! MACH 20 in-ear monitors from Westone Audio.