Gary Kamiya on Ronald Reagan's 1964 campaign speech for that other Barry: The Speech tapped into the primordial American myth: untrammeled individuality. There must be a territory for Huck Finn to light out to, a promised land where authority--or government--does not reach. In this always-beckoning … [Read more...]
TAKE THE CANNOLI
The Annotated Godfather Script, by Jenny M. Jones (Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers) Even better than it looks. How art is composed of freak accidents, near-misses and poor management, blow by blow. … [Read more...]
TAG LINE OF THE MONTH
"The majesty of rock, the tragedy of roll..." from musictoob … [Read more...]
IF VINYL COULD TALK
REGRETS: I'VE HAD A FEW My first brush with colored vinyl was also my first record: a yellow 45 rpm of the Andrew Sisters singing "When the Red Red Robin Comes Bob Bob Bobbing Along." And I remember a records store on the Hill in Boulder that had a hanging display of the Dave Mason Alone and … [Read more...]
WOODSTOCK NATION
Chuck Eddy riffs on the alternate line-up. Pareles was there: of course. But he doesn't let on how old he was. Or how much the Manson stuff hung in the air, which is weird since Squeaky's getting paroled. Too much mist around this subject in general: How did Gail Collins manage to review those two … [Read more...]
CLASSICAL COVER ART SEMIOTICS
Related articles by ZemantaMixing music and politics (netnewmusic.net)Salonen departs (therestisnoise.com)Chopin Shostakovich Mahler review (telegraph.co.uk)Beethoven tweets to accompany orchestra's concert (cbc.ca) … [Read more...]
AND NOW: FOR THE DELETED SCENES
Image via WikipediaOR: WHY ALL HISTORY IS POLITICAL Though Europe thrives, its writers and politicians are preoccupied with death. The mass killings of European civilians during the 1930s and 1940s are the reference of today's confused discussions of memory, and the touchstone of whatever common … [Read more...]
STEELY DAN: AJA, ROYAL SCAM
Image via WikipediaSo after I arm wrestled with the sound collecting for the radio story and got to my seat, the band had found a respectful groove, and they were truly nerdy like you'd expect. Totally engrossed in their instruments, very little eye contact, and tossing off classic licks with … [Read more...]
MORE MJ: LEGACY ISSUES
Image via Wikipedia It's impossible to say anything original about Michael Jackson, so I won't even try. As a celebrity and a media presence, for so much of his life, he cannot be extricated from all the words and images and sounds that he generated, or that were (and still are being) generated … [Read more...]
MJ: DEEP CULTURAL DISCOUNT
THE TWO EASIEST media responses to the death of a public figure are reverence or ridicule, and Michael Jackson made both easy. A singer of breathtaking suppleness and soulfulness, one whose early work with the Jackson 5 the rock critic Dave Marsh called "the last great moment of soul as we knew it," … [Read more...]
Chuck Berry, Meet Django
Rock'n'roll was once a working-class occupation. Elvis Presley, Little Richard, Billy Fury and Johnny Hallyday saw music as a way out and up, like sport, hell-fire preaching or trade union politics. That Fury and Hallyday didn't grow up picking cotton or shining shoes mattered very little. They … [Read more...]
BEFORE THE DELUGE
From Noise Addicts, an impressive list, especially since many of these do not involve chemicals or gunplay. In fact, the subtext is really: business as usual. To participate, submit your favorite 1) missing celebs 2) producers 3) dead celebs, or 4) other non-musician industry beggars. "And please, … [Read more...]
BEST MJ TRIB — SO FAR
Michael Jackson via last.fm"...in 1979, with Off The Wall, he invented modern pop as we know it. He'd been around for years, making the occasional solo record, but for literally millions of us, it was a de facto debut album from a kid -- a kid! Like us! -- we were hearing for the first time. It was … [Read more...]
APPETITE FOR SELF-DESCTRUCTION
Cover via Amazon Early in "Appetite for Self-Destruction," Knopper quotes former Warner Records and EMI CEO Joe Smith as observing, "This business ain't full of Martin Luther Kings." It says something about the emotional power of music that anyone would expect sainthood in its executives, but in the … [Read more...]
RESEGREGATING THE CHARTS
"The Beatles hit white America like the biggest thing to happen maybe ever, and they hardly hit black America at all..." Elijah Wald in TIME, talking about How The Beatles Destroyed Rock'n'Roll (Oxford). Erik Himmelsbach, LA Times Michealangelo Matos, AV Club … [Read more...]