Tag: Music history
-
Rotten: No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs
Review: Ever get the feeling you’ve been cheated? Those were the last words spoken by Johnny Rotten as a Sex Pistol. Johnny Rotten was the pseudonym of John Lydon, the front man for the Sex Pistols and this is his story. Much has been written about the Sex Pistols, Sid Vicious, Sid and Nancy but… Read more
-
NYT Essential Library: Jazz
Review: An impulse buy that really showed its age. Published in 2002 in the days of compact discs, before streaming, before even iTunes or the iPod. The subtitle is A Critic’s Guide to the 100 Most Important (Jazz) Recordings and it was exactly that. Now in 2024 the whole world of music is an entirely… Read more
-
Year of Wonder
Review: This was a Christmas gift and a nice premise, that is one reads a page each day and listens to the musical selection being discussed. That I made it to the end of July is a testament to my perseverance and courage because this was awful. At first I figured I would be the… Read more
-
The History of the Blues
Review: This was excellent. Not too technical, no “augmented for the syncopated declension on the minor chord.” When needed the author spelled it out musically, but in such a way as to be understandable to a non-musician. What they call narrative history nowadays, in that it’s very readable just like a novel. Every third guy… Read more
-
The Rest is Noise
Review: 591 pages, but as the Byzantine Emperor (Constantin’s illustrious successor Justinian) declared “Solomon I have bested thee!” Meaning I thought Life of Johnson was the most odious tome I had ever struggled through, but then this. I learned a lot: Strauss, Mahler, Bartok, and lots of history illuminated for me that I never learned… Read more
-
Wagnerism: Art and Politics in the Shadow of Music
Review: DNF. After a month I’m on page 423 of 770 and I’m tappin’ out. Great read, but so dense and scholarly. Wagner, Wagner everywhere, but not a drop to think. Essentially the author finds Wagner and Wagner references everywhere: because he’s looking for them. Learned a lot, and a fabulous reference for me Too… Read more