This post is an experiment. I normally never listen to music when I write. Like many musicians music can never really serve as background for me. I can’t help listening to it, and it’s distracting to my words. Right now I’m listening to Ingrid Michaelson’s new album Lights Out. I’ve been spending a lot of…
Nerina Pallot – Best New Artist of the 00s
You’d think that after the Beatles we Americans would pay attention when someone starts making wonderful sounds across the pond. Not so. Nerina Pallot (pronounced with a silent T) has been a star in the UK for the last ten years. She’s virtually unknown here. It took the British blogger Martin Warminger, the Music Obsessive,…
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…
Guilty Pleasures: 70s Songs I Hate to Love
Here are mine – what are yours? 1. “Rock the Boat” (Hues Corporation) I played this song every night for four months in a Top Forty Funk band. It was my favorite song of that gig, which says a lot about the wretched state of music in the mid-70s. It’s catchy but sleazy, like a…
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…
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…
Unfashionable Music – The Genius Of Burt Bacharach
It’s hard in the heat of any given moment to tell flash-in-the-pan hits from songs that will last. But from the distance of almost fifty years it’s safe to ask: who were the great songwriters of the 60’s? Dylan, Lennon/McCartney, Marvin Gaye and all the Motown guys, Joni Mitchell. And Burt Bacharach, who may be…
Ten Lost Romantic Gems of the ’60s
Without resorting to research, I tried to remember ‘60s love songs I hadn’t heard in years due to their falling off the radar. Half of these I used to sing, the others remain stuck in my heart. 1. “A Woman is a Prism (And Not Made of Stone)” (Eric Andersen) This old folkie might be…
Musical Athleticism
I am no fan of music athleticism, be it in rock, jazz or classical music. By athleticism I mean aspiring to and celebrating music on the basis of its being high, fast and tortuous, and therefore very difficult to perform. Musical athleticism should not be confused with virtuosity, the general mastery of an instrument. The…
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