Chuck Prophet's latest album, Temple Beautiful, isn't the first rock & roll homage to San Francisco, but it's the best. Riff to rhyme, you can tell how long it has taken him to get here. From Green on Red in the '80s to his work with everyone from Kim Carnes to Alejandro Escovedo, Prophet has distilled a lifetime into these songs (co-written with poet klipschutz) parties and riots in the Castro, museums of broken hearts and unsung heroes of strip clubs and baseball. He's a rock & roller who deserves the term genius, but he and his band wear their brilliance lightly and throw everything they have into these songs: an insurrection in the street.
Listen For: Prophet's between-song banter. If he ever hangs up the Telecaster, he could own (or at least get a loan from) the comedy circuit.
