Rob Hughes

Captain Beefheart was an eccentric but hugely influential artist tortured by his failure to break into the mainstream. These are his best albums

The Rolling Stones’ secret weapon throughout their golden period looks back on his time with the band

His four-track concept rock masterpiece is a primer for revolutionary thinking that’s as relevant now as it was in 1971

Tom Morello might be Mr Politics, but the Rage Against The Machine guitarist is proud to fly the geek flag

From The Who’s forgotten singles to unsung solo gems, these are 10 classic Pete Townshend songs you’ll never hear on CSI

As Sheryl Crow airs her most socially charged songs yet on new album Evolution, she looks back on her long and winding road

Graham Bond told people he was the son of Aleister Crowley. His life was blighted by drugs. And on May 8, 1974, he died under a train in North London

Bill Nelson on Jimi Hendrix, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and the brilliant five-album career of art-rockers Be-Bop Deluxe

A song whose key line its writer Mike Scott says “floated into my mind as if by magic”, it's still The Waterboys’ signature track and a magic moment live

Written in response to two journalists who said it was good that Keith Moon was dead, it's one of rock’s most spiteful songs

You’ve got to have big balls to do an album of covers of songs from rock’s crown jewels. Or be totally bonkers

Moby Grape co-founder Skip Spence wrote his album Oar in a psychiatric ward after threatening his bandmates with an axe. Years after his death, artists still acknowledge its influence

Too punk to be pop, too loads of other things to be punk, The Stranglers had dozens of hits by doing it their own, unique, way

The story of Poltergeist's 2013 album Your Mind is a Box (Let Us Fill It With Wonder)

Echo & The Bunnymen's Ocean Rain divided opinion upon release in 1984, but time has only deepened its supernatural beauty

Housekeeping box set illustrates that when Tim Bowness and Wilson refused to compromise, it was a strength rather than a weakness – even if one of them couldn’t listen to their early work for 20 years

How the melodic sophistication of R.E.M.'s second album Reckoning served as a pre-echo of their 90s success

The life and times of Michael Chapman, the cult singer and guitarist beloved of David Bowie, Elton John and Sonic Youth

Named in honour of Chrissie Hynde’s baby daughter Natalie, Learning To Crawl was also an applicable metaphor for Pretenders 2.0

If acoustic hymns, weird gospel and “some real ripping guitar” floats your boat, climb aboard

Multi-genre organ master’s fervent hope is that he opened a channel between rock and jazz: ”And it kind of worked out…”

Moody Blues man Justin Hayward picks his records, artists and gigs of lasting significance

Ministry return as a band rather than just Al Jourgensen, and there's both venom and truth in new album Hopiumforthemasses

The story of Jethro Tull's "lost" album, the so-called Chateau D'Isaster tapes