o   Bruce Pollock an ASCAP-Deems Taylor award winner is the author of fifteen books on rock & roll and three novels. He was the editor of the reference book POPULAR MUSIC: AN ANOTATED INDEX OF AMERICAN POPULAR SONGS (Gale Research Co.) He has interviewed over 100 prominent songwriters about their craft, in publications ranging from Playboy, Entertainment Weekly, The Saturday Review, and Musician, to the websites Songfacts.com and Guitar Tricks.com. He is the founding Editor in Chief of the magazine GUITAR: For the Practicing Musician, and a former A&R producer at BMG and Sony-BMG Music. He has been a Guest Lecturer at Fairfield University, teaching a course on the History of Rock ‘n’ Roll and is now a Music Supervisor for films, documentaries and TV.

Laura passed away on April 8, 1997. I talked to her a few years before that.

MY FAIRFIELD NEIGHBOR CHRIS FRANTZ HAS A BOOK COMING OUT. HERE’S A PIECE ABOUT OUR CHAT IN A DOWNTOWN COFFEE HOUSE. Chris Frantz, drummer for Talking Heads, wants you to know one thing. “A lot of people thought David Byrne was the goose that laid the golden egg. It wasn’t really like that. He was… Continue reading A Cup of Coffee with Chris Frantz

We moved to the block in 1985, only a couple of years after I had been hired as the first editor of GUITAR for the Practicing Musician, a publication which would go on to become one of the most popular music magazines of the decade. My neighbor, John Mayer, was then about eight or nine… Continue reading Recalling My Old Neighbor, John Mayer

If Keith Richards had been a sounder sleeper, perhaps his greatest hit would never have been written. Similarly, if he’d been a just a regular mortal leafing through that magazine a couple of years later, perhaps he might have missed one of his finest titles. But the success of “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” transformed… Continue reading A Pleasant Afternoon with Keith Richards

HERE’S MY RECENT INTERVIEW WITH STEPHAN MOCCIO, CO-WRITER OF THE MILEY CYRUS HIT, “WRECKING BALL.” The thing that every songwriter dreams of is what is known in the trade as “a window of opportunity.” That period of time when it seems like every song you write is cut, every cut you deliver is a single,… Continue reading The Story Behind “Wrecking Ball” by Miley Cyrus

LOU REED THINKS he’s gone as deep as he wants to go for his own mental health. If he got any deeper, he’d wind up disappearing. Or so he says. It was last August when I got the word from one of the leading ladies on his office staff. “Lou Reed does not want anyone… Continue reading An Uncomfortable Evening with Lou Reed

READ MY ARTICLES AT SONGFACTS.COM AND GUITARTRICKS.COM http://www.songfacts.com/blog/playingmysong/http://live.editiondigital.com/e/183csqdnb/guitar-tricks-insider-march-/-april-issue#!page48