In 1976, the revolutionary singer-songwriter LAURA NYRO returned from self-imposed exile. But her comeback confounded expectations, shifting away from the impassioned intimacies of her early albums to embrace more radical perspectives. Fifty years on, Nyro’s collaborators revisit her striking second act. “She was a hip American from the Bronx,” one friend and producer tells Rob Hughes. “But her soul was old.”

Fifty years on from their first successes, Roger McGuinn, the 12-string architect of THE BYRDS , tells Uncut about their exceptional first 18 months – and his relationship with Gene Clark. As the young group make their jet-powered escape from the folk think tank, we hear about making the scene on the Strip, outraging Iowa and a muted response in the United Kingdom. But ultimately how “Eight Miles High” became the spectacular conclusion of the band’s first era. “I almost left The Byrds entirely to go and be in this space band With Dino Valente,” McGuinn tells John Robinson

How Eno-supervised jams and a playful tale of obsessive relationships yielded the Manchester veterans’ biggest hit to date. Just don’t wear those dresses on American TV!

SEVENTY YEARS AGO NEXT MONTH, HEARTBREAK HOTEL WAS THE SONG THAT MADE ELVIS PRESLEY A STAR AND LIT A SPARK IN A GENERATION OF FUTURE HEROES. BUT ITS STRANGELY GLOOMY CONTENT FLAGGED A TRAGIC BACK STORY, WHILE ELVIS'S RECORDING DISMAYED THE LABEL THAT HAD RISKED BIG MONEY TO SIGN HIM. JIM IRVIN GETS A ROOM.

From the bayou to Woodstock and back – the easygoing adventures of Bobby Charles. By John Mulvey.

It was 1965 with bells on, the year the singles charts got wilder, heavier, druggier. Twelve months of traumas, transgressions and transvestism, experiments and explosions. How 20 revolutionary platters from 1966 revealed "the secrets of space and time". "Intensity was the keynote," says JON SAVAGE.