Posts From Jeff Burger

Jeff Burger

Jeff Burger, whose website is byjeffburger.com, has covered popular music as a writer and editor throughout his journalism career. His reviews, essays, and reportage on that and many other subjects have appeared in more than 75 magazines, newspapers, and books. He regularly reviews new releases and deluxe reissues for Best Classic Bands. Burger wrote one of the first interview-based profiles of Bruce Springsteen to be published in a national magazine. He has interviewed many other music-world luminaries as well, including Steve Van Zandt, Roger McGuinn, John Sebastian, Wolfman Jack, Tom Waits, Foreigner’s Mick Jones, Billy Joel, Steve Forbert, Tommy James, the Righteous Brothers, Gordon Lightfoot, Deep Purple’s Tommy Bolin, and members of Steely Dan and the Marshall Tucker Band. He has also interviewed many other public figures, such as Suze Orman, Daymond John, James Carville, Donald Trump, Sir Richard Branson, F. Lee Bailey, and Cliff Robertson. His books include Dylan on Dylan: Interviews and Encounters, Lennon on Lennon: Conversations with John Lennon, Leonard Cohen on Leonard Cohen: Interviews and Encounters, and Springsteen on Springsteen: Interviews, Speeches, and Encounters, all of which are published in the U.S. and Canada by Chicago Review Press. The books have been republished in numerous other countries. Burger has been the editor of several periodicals, including Business Jet Traveler, from which he retired in 2024. During his 20 years at that publication, it received more than 120 major editorial awards, including multiple wins for the world’s Best Consumer Travel Magazine in the annual Folio:Eddie competition. Burger lives in Ridgewood, New Jersey. His wife, Madeleine Beresford, is a puppeteer and former preschool director and teacher. The couple have two grown children.

Creedence Clearwater Revival’s 1970 Royal Albert Hall Show Finally Surfaces: Review

Though the group would begin to splinter less than a year after the Royal Albert Hall show, you’d never know it from that performance.

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Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Alternate Collection’: Fascinating Variations on 6 Best-Selling Albums

Some of the recordings (especially many of the concert tracks) are as good as—or arguably even better than—the familiar ones.

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Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Only the Strong Survive’: A Soulful Side Trip

The new album—more a heartfelt tribute to the music Springsteen grew up with than an attempt to reinvent it—is a home run.

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The Jimi Hendrix Experience Heats Up the L.A. Forum: Review

Throughout the well-recorded album, which draws from their first three albums, the guitar pyrotechnics range from excellent to astonishing.

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Guns N’ Roses’ ‘Use Your Illusion’ (Super Deluxe): A Big Statement Gets Bigger

In his best moments, Axl Rose sings up a storm and is a compelling stage presence. And the rest of the band is on fire.

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The Grateful Dead: ‘American Beauty’—The Cream of the Crop

At least half of its songs are recognized as Dead classics: “Box of Rain,” “Friend of the Devil,” “Sugar Magnolia,” “Truckin’” and “Ripple.”

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Billy Joel ‘Live at Yankee Stadium’ Hits Some Homers

Performing in the city of his birth to more than 50,000 admirers, Joel exudes a sense of triumph and validation—and understandably so.

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Bob Dylan’s ‘The Philosophy of Modern Song’ Book: Like a Complete Unknown

Whether he’s on a tangent or not, Dylan is virtually always colorful. He wonders if one song was recorded through a “tomato can telephone.”

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The Beatles’ ‘Revolver’ Box Set: Was It Their Most Ambitious Adventure?

The music sounds noticeably brighter and sharper than before, and the vocals and instruments can be distinguished more clearly.

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Mark Knopfler’s ‘Studio Albums 2009–2018’: Review

The subject matter and musical approaches are all over the place, but the albums feel cohesive and the performances are first-rate.

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