Curated playlist
American folk rock musicians
- Bob DylanAt a 1966 Manchester concert, Bob Dylan told his band to play loud after a heckler called him Judas.
- Bruce SpringsteenBruce Springsteen threw the first acetate of his own album Born to Run into the swimming pool of his hotel in 1975. The record was being mastered while the band toured, and he was furious at what he heard. He briefly considered scrapping…
- Neil YoungIn April 2026, Neil Young announced a new studio album called Second Song, and three of its tracks were songs he had written in 1963. They had remained unreleased ever since. That detail suits a man who has spent his career refusing to…
- Paul SimonPaul Simon, the American singer-songwriter and guitarist, nearly gave one of his best-known songs the wrong name. While writing music for the film The Graduate, he toyed with calling a new song "Mrs. Roosevelt." Art Garfunkel passed the…
- Charles MansonOn the first day of testimony in his 1970 murder trial, Charles Manson arrived with an X carved into his forehead.
- Jerry GarciaJerry Garcia, the lead guitarist of the Grateful Dead, left behind roughly 15,000 hours of recorded guitar work. That estimate comes from the Bay Area guitarist Henry Kaiser, who calls Garcia the most recorded guitarist in history. Kaiser…
- Jackson BrowneJackson Browne stood on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame stage in 2004 while Bruce Springsteen paid him a compliment that cut two ways. Springsteen reminded the room that the Eagles had been inducted first, then told Browne, "You wrote the…
- Joan BaezJoan Baez was singing at a music festival called Bratislavská lýra in Communist Czechoslovakia in May 1989 when someone cut off her microphone. From the stage, she had just greeted members of Charter 77, a dissident human-rights group.…
- James TaylorJames Taylor, the American singer-songwriter and guitarist, was the last act on the bill at the Newport Folk Festival on the 20th of July 1969. Thousands of fans had stayed through the rain just to hear him. He got through only 15 minutes.…
- Roger McGuinnRoger McGuinn was born James Joseph McGuinn III on the 13th of July 1942, and he chose his first name from a list of ten. When he started with the Byrds, he went by Jim, a name he thought too plain. In 1965 he became involved with Subud, a…
- Jeff BuckleyJeff Buckley finished exactly one studio album before he died, and it was called Grace. It came out in 1994. Decades later, Rolling Stone placed it on three separate lists of the 500 greatest albums. In 2014, the Library of Congress added…
- Jimmy BuffettJimmy Buffett's first album, Down to Earth, sold just 324 copies after it appeared in August 1970. Decades later, he had sold over 20 million certified records worldwide. James William Buffett became a singer-songwriter, a bestselling…