Love and Mercy, the new movie about Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys, is a deeply moving, often brilliant film. It makes up for all the crummy rock music biopics that have come before. Those films follow the predictable three act “Behind the Music” story arc: band gets big, gets drugged, then gets redeemed, through…
Marty Balin Live at the Throckmorton Theatre
I keep getting tangled up in strange loops of time. I’ve told the true fairy tale of how I came to Mill Valley in the summer of 1970, vowed to live there and then found myself doing just that, 44 years later. But that was last month. Whatever time-release spell enchanted me wore off, leaving…
Pete Seeger 1919-2014
Sometime in the early sixties my father took me to see Pete Seeger at the local High School. It was my first concert, and the first time I’d seen a banjo. What I remember most of that night is my father’s loud baritone as he sang along with Pete, “Oh you can’t scare me, I’m…
Authenticity and the 60s
(NOTE: This post is a follow up to my article in salon.com:http://www.salon.com/life/feature/2011/06/18/father_after_death_open2011) “Teach your children well. Their father’s hell did slowly go by. And feed them on their dreams….” –Graham Nash Frank Sinatra is haunting Mrs. Muse and me. Not our house. We don’t wake to the sound of a ghostly rat pack stumbling around…
I was a teenage Beatle
One afternoon in January of 1964 I went to my best friend Bobby’s house after school. I heard a racket coming from upstairs, a sound unlike anything I’d ever heard. “What’s that?” He shook his head, little sisters. “Abby. She’s been playing that song nonstop since yesterday,” Over at Bobby’s the next afternoon that song was still…
Satisfaction and Mad Men
Like many, I’m a big fan of AMC’s “Mad Men.” I have long been disappointed by all the books and movies that fail to capture the spirit of the 1960’s. It’s one of my motivations for writing, to try to do that myself. From the first episode Mad Men evoked in me chilling moments of remembrance – not…
Joni’s Blue
I’ve heard it said that it’s easier to learn from art that’s less than great. The same is true of criticism. It’s easy to describe the machinery in flawed works. Works of genius are tougher – the very things that make them great are those leaps beyond what’s been done before, beyond what follows the formulas…
Song of the Century
What’s the greatest song of the 20th century? Rolling Stone says it’s “Like a Rolling Stone.” Many days I’m inclined to agree. But it depends on the day, on my mood. When I’m down and want commiseration it’s “A Case of You.” When I’m up it’s “Chelsea Morning.” And “Let’s not forget the motor city!”…
Dusty Springfield
The oldest stained glass windows of Chartres Cathedral, made in the 12th century, glow with panes of a deep special blue. It’s a color whose formula no artist or scientist has been able to recreate…
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