Music and Soundtrack Features

Fifty-five years ago on August 15, 1969, 500,000 people gathered in upstate New York for the Woodstock Music & Art Fair — a long, heady weekend that lives on as a landmark soundtrack and film that deftly capture the counterculture zeitgeist.

Gavin Harrison knows what he wants, and he knows how to get it. The critically celebrated, session-bred progressive-oriented British drummer vaulted into superstar status during his jaw-dropping eight-year stint as a member of Porcupine Tree, and he's since moved even further up the wide-acclaim foodchain thanks to all the mind-bending work he's done during his current, ongoing gigs behind the kit with both King Crimson and The Pineapple Thief. The thing is, Harrison pays little or no heed to the constant praise for his innovative drumming, nor does he spend much time ruminating over his impeccable legacy.

Fifty years on, Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon remains one of the most important recordings of the rock era. Here’s why it will continue to endure, long after we’ve all gone on to join the great gig in the sky.

Paul and Ringo join their 1967 counterparts in the “Hello Goodbye” music video - © Apple Corps, Ltd.

It starts with Paul and George tuning up their acoustic guitars, during the February 1995 sessions for the recently-released final Beatles tune, “Now and Then.” Before long, we’re being reminded of just whom their brother, John, misses every so often and why, in a way that both stirs our hearts and also makes us smile.

It's not a complete misnomer to observe the audience for King Crimson music tends to skew more towards the male side of the listening ledger—but that statement in no way means their forward-thinking music holds little or no sway with female music aficionados and audiophiles alike. In fact, far from it.

For many Beatles fans, Revolver is their favorite album. A balance of great songwriting and first dips into experimentation and change even place the 1966 LP above Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and Abbey Road for some. The album was a clear step forward into new kinds of music, fresh sounds, and pioneering recording techniques. Following in line with Special Edition packages of Sgt. Pepper, Abbey Road , The Beatles (a.k.a. The White Album), and Let It Be, Apple Corps, Ltd/Capitol Records/UMe today released a series of new special editions of Revolver featuring the original mono mix and a new stereo remix by Giles Martin (son of original producer Sir George Martin) and engineer Sam Okell plus a Dolby Atmos mix of the album, now available via download. Matt Hurwitz explores the creation and lasting legacy of the work that marked a turning point in the evolution of the world’s greatest band.

Talk about peaking at the exact right time. Scottish art-rockers Simple Minds had just hit their stride with February 1984's transitional Sparkle in the Rain and scored an unexpected No. 1 single in the summer of 1985 with the Breakfast Club soundtrack-only smash hit "Don't You (Forget About Me)"—and it was all precursor to the production power that propelled their October 1985 longplayer, Once Upon a Time, into one of the biggest albums of the MTV Decade.