Biography
Radio broadcasts from late-1960s Top 40, 1970s free-form FM, and the early-1980s college radio surge formed Denise Sullivan's rock & roll preferences. Journalism entered her life in the 1970s once a chance meeting with a Fleetwood Mac member during a family vacation prompted an article for her high school newspaper. A four-year airshift at University of San Francisco station KUSF preceded a shift into the record industry that included stints at an indie and a major plus ownership of a small retail record store. Full-time writing returned in 1991 and continues to deliver pleasure through encounters with new and vintage discs. Interviews have followed with numerous major and minor rock, folk, and punk figures that range from Ray Davies, Ike Turner, and Elvis Costello to Charlie Louvin and Shonen Knife. Residence in San Francisco supports her role as columnist for the Contra Costa Times. Da Capo Press issued the second edition of her book R.E.M.: Talk About the Passion in 1998. Coffee, anything Beatles, Neil Young's music, and Martin Scorsese's pictures rank among her enthusiasms. Jangle rock, singer/songwriter rock, classic rock, and roots of alternative define her rock specialties. Desert island picks comprise The Beatles White Album, Let It Be, The Beach Boys Pet Sounds, The Clash London Calling, Cheap Trick In Color, Bob Dylan Blood on the Tracks, The Replacements Let It Be, Big Star #1 Record, Peter Case The Man with the Blue Postmodern Fragmented Neo-Traditionalist Guitar, Prince Sign O'the Times, Neil Young After the Goldrush, Comes a Time, Patti Smith Horses, Bruce Springsteen Darkness on the Edge of Town, Spiritualized Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space, The Byrds Mr. Tambourine Man, The Kinks School Boys in Disgrace, Public Enemy It Takes a Nation of Millions, Jesus and Mary Chain Psychocandy, Teenage Fanclub Bandwagonesque, Roxy Music Manifesto, The Buzzcocks Singles Going Steady, dB's Stands for Decibels, Otis Redding Otis! The Definitive Otis Redding, Soft Boys Underwater Moonlight, Led Zeppelin Physical Graffiti, Ike & Tina Turner River Deep - Mountain High, Nick Drake Five Leaves Left, NWA Straight Outta Compton, Rolling Stones Exile on Main St., Waterboys Fisherman's Blues, R.E.M. Automatic for the People, V/A A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector, Phil Spector Back to Mono (1958-1969) box set, Beck Odelay, Jefferson Airplane Surrealistic Pillow, The Jimi Hendrix Experience Axis: Bold as Love, Joni Mitchell Court and Spark, Dream Syndicate Days of Wine and Roses, Paul and Linda McCartney Ram, X Los Angeles, Stevie Wonder Talking Book, Elvis Costello Get Happy, David Bowie Station to Station, The Rutles The Rutles, Velvet Underground & Nico The Velvet Underground & Nico, Thin Lizzy Jailbreak, Aerosmith Pump, Leonard Cohen Songs of Leonard Cohen, The Chambers Brothers Shout! The Time Has Come, John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, Sonic Youth Daydream Nation, Television Marquee Moon, The Allman Brothers Live at Fillmore East, Dr. Dre The Chronic, Nick Lowe Labour of Lust, James Brown Startime box set.
Albums