Uncut Magazine 311 (April 2023) Led Zeppelin

Uncut Magazine 311 (April 2023) Led Zeppelin

Led Zeppelin, David Crosby, Nina Simone, Paul Weller, Mark Eitzel, The Roches, Pulp, Faust, Jana Horn, Jeff Beck, Willie Nelson and Chuck D all feature in the new Uncut, dated April 2023 and in UK shops from January 12 or available to buy online now. This issue comes with an exclusive free 15-track CD of the month’s best new music.

LED ZEPPELIN: Heavy band, heavy year. By 1973, Led Zeppelin were on their way to becoming the biggest rock’n’roll band in the world. Embarking on an American tour to promote their new album Houses Of The Holy, they shattered box office records, rewriting the blueprint for rock’n’roll tours as they went. Peter Watts climbs aboard the Starship to hear tales of glorious, transcendent music – but also unsolved robberies, giant mirrorballs, cake fights during John Bonham’s 25th birthday party and motorbike rides down hotel corridors. “As the venues got bigger, they got better,” recalls one confidant. “They blasted you into the middle of next week.”

OUR FREE CD! DANCING DAYS: 15 tracks of the month’s best new music, starring Lonnie Holley, Robert Forster, Shana Cleveland, Steve Mason, The Long Ryders, The Hold Steady, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Mac DeMarco and more…

Inside the issue, you’ll find:

DAVID CROSBY: With the passing of David Crosby, we’ve lost one of the talismanic figures from music’s fecund 1960s and ’70s. Blessed with an unmistakable voice and bewitching harmonic gifts – not to mention a fiercely opinionated temperament – Crosby was a fearless, forward-thinking songwriter who survived bust-ups, freakouts, addiction and prison to enjoy a miraculous final act. In tribute, we revisit Uncut’s candid interviews with the mercurial, musical outlaw, drawing on his own words to tell his incredible story.

NINA SIMONE: From jazz superstar to civil rights activist and beyond, Nina Simone’s 1960s were a dazzling, defiant decade of profound transition and accomplishment. On the eve of what would have been Simone’s 90th birthday, we chart her journey from Greenwich Village folk clubs to her ascension as the High Priestess of Soul. “She was able to pull down a kind of psychic energy,” hears Stephen Deusner.

NUGGETS: Over 50 years on from its release, Nuggets remains one of the most influential and beloved compilation albums of all time. But what of the bands who appeared on Lenny Kaye’s original anthology? Nick Hasted tracks down 10 of the Original Artyfacts to discover what happened next. Stand by for stories of Beatles tour supports, getting high with Gram Parsons, exploding stages and JFK conspiracies told to us by… a messianic rabbi, a car dealer and a building contractor among others. “We played hard, people danced hard and everybody drank beer,” remembers one former bowl-haired mysterioso. “We rock’n’rolled ’til the crack of dawn.”

PAUL WELLER: Paul Weller reflects on his remarkable life in music in a new book, Magic: A Journal Of Song. In this exclusive extract, Weller revisits the inspiring early days of his ascent to mod magnificence with The Jam: “Folk music in its truest sense…”

JEFF BECK: The guitarist’s guitarist, remembered by his former Yardbirds bandmates.

MARK EITZEL: The former American Music Club mainman talks musicals, mushrooms, Lou Reed and why he’d tell his younger self “to get my fucking head out of my own fucking ass”

THE ROCHES: The making of “Hammond Song”. Comes with added Robert Fripp.

FAUST: The complex musical history of the German experimentalists.

In our expansive reviews section, we take a look at new records from Lonnie Holley, The Long Ryders, Shana Cleveland, Chip Taylor and more, and archival releases from Elvis Costello & Burt Bacharach, The Strokes, Dave Brubeck, and others. We catch Lucinda Williams and The Delgados live; among the films, DVDs and TV programmes reviewed are Fight The Power: How Hip Hop Changed The World and This Is Sparklehorse; while in books there’s Karen Carpenter and Lou Reed‘s Tai Chi revelations!

Our front section, meanwhile, features Pulp, United States Of America, Willie Nelson and Andrew Waslyk while, at the end of the magazine, Chuck D shares his life in music.

Check out the Uncut website.