Scottish guitarist, singer and songwriter. Rafferty was best known for his solo hits "Baker Street", "Right Down the Line" and, with the band Stealers Wheel, "Stuck in the Middle with You". Born into a working-class family in Paisley (Scotland), his mother taught him both Irish and Scottish folk songs as a boy; later, he was influenced by the music of The Beatles and Bob Dylan. He joined the folk-pop band The Humblebums - whose line-up included Billy Connolly - in 1969, but left in 1971 and recorded his first solo album "Can I Have My Money Back". Rafferty and Joe Egan formed the group Stealers Wheel in 1972, producing several hits. In 1978, he recorded his second solo album, "City to City", which includes "Baker Street", his most popular song and a radio mainstay…

In 2016, America's eternally popular prog juggernaut Kansas returned to studio recording for the first time since their 2000 reunion outing Somewhere to Elsewhere. The resultant The Prelude Implicit also marked debuts for lead vocalist/keyboardist Ronnie Platt, and guitarist Zak Rizvi. Remarkably, it reflected the band's vintage sonic signature and songwriting/arranging chops without craven nostalgia. Four years on, Absence of Presence builds on the strengths of its predecessor, yet goes far deeper into the prog aesthetic…

Styx kept themselves busy in the 21st century, launching a tour like clockwork every year, but they abandoned recording new material after 2003's Cyclorama. Arriving 14 years after that record, The Mission announces Styx's return in a grand fashion…

Monster is indeed R.E.M.'s long-promised "rock" album; it just doesn't rock in the way one might expect. Instead of R.E.M.'s trademark anthemic bashers, Monster offers a set of murky sludge powered by the heavily distorted and delayed guitar of Peter Buck. Michael Stipe's vocals have been pushed to the back of the mix, along with Bill Berry's drums, which accentuates the muscular pulse of Buck's chords…

Fragile was Yes' breakthrough album, propelling them in a matter of weeks from a cult act to an international phenomenon; not coincidentally, it also marked the point where all of the elements of the music (and more) that would define their success for more than a decade fell into place fully formed…

During the final years of the 20th century, then Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy founded an instrumental prog rock supergroup with guitarist/bandmate John Petrucci, keyboardist Jordan Rudess (then of Dixie Dregs), and King Crimson bassist/Chapman Stick master Tony Levin. They issued two highly acclaimed studio outings and toured through 2008. Apparently, the mandatory downtime imposed by the global COVID-19 pandemic provided the individuals with the necessary scheduling space to write and record together for the first time in 22 years. Socially distanced in a New York studio, the band composed and recorded LTE3 in July 2020…

Stage Fright, the Band's third album, sounded on its surface like the group's first two releases, Music from Big Pink and The Band, employing the same dense arrangements with their mixture of a deep bottom formed by drummer Levon Helm and bassist Rick Danko, penetrating guitar work by Robbie Robertson, and the varied keyboard work of pianist Richard Manuel and organist Garth Hudson, with Helm, Danko, and Manuel's vocals on top…

The best Beach Boys album, and one of the best of the 1960s. The group here reached a whole new level in terms of both composition and production, layering tracks upon tracks of vocals and instruments to create a richly symphonic sound…

This estate-approved collection of Davis' three Blue Note 10-inch albums, plus all alternate takes issued on subsequent 12-inch albums and CD reissues features a total of 26 tracks recorded for Blue Note Records on three dates in 1952, '53 and '54…

War is Roger Waters' great muse, the impetus for so much of his work, including the semi-autobiographical 1979 opus The Wall. The Final Cut, his last album with Pink Floyd, functioned as an explicit sequel to The Wall, but 1992's Amused to Death acts as something of a coda, a work where Waters revisits his obsessions – both musical and lyrical – and ties them together with the masterful touch of a mature artist…

Kick is the sixth studio album by Australian rock band INXS, released in October 1987 through WEA in Australia, Mercury Records in Europe and Atlantic Records in the United States and Canada…

Sliding out of perhaps the greatest winning streak in rock history, the Stones slipped into decadence and rock star excess with Goats Head Soup, their sequel to Exile on Main St. This is where the Stones' image began to eclipse their accomplishments, as Mick ascended to jet-setting celebrity and Keith slowly sunk deeper into addiction, and it's possible hearing them moving in both directions on Goats Head Soup, at times in the same song…

Released on John Lennon's 80th birthday, Gimme Some Truth: The Ultimate Mixes is designed as a deluxe celebration of Lennon's solo catalog….

All Things Must Pass is the third studio album by English rock musician George Harrison. Released as a triple album in November 1970, it was Harrison's first solo work after the break-up of the Beatles in April that year. It includes the hit singles "My Sweet Lord" and "What Is Life", as well as songs such as "Isn't It a Pity" and the title track that had been overlooked for inclusion on releases by the Beatles…