Category: music
- What’s in a Song? IIA Fool for You by Ray Charles He held the needle above the record, preparing to lower it into the proper groove. “This song is about fucking,” he said. My friend Stan Hahn had been telling me for weeks about a huge collection of jazz records his father had, and a Hi Fi system (the year was ...Read more
- What’s in a Song?“One Night” by Elvis Presley I’m inspired to write about songs by The Philosophy of Modern Song, by Bob Dylan, but also by three books written by the great Al Young, Bodies & Soul, Kinds of Blue, and Things Ain’t What They Used to Be. Young in particular is an inspiration. He would write about anything, ...Read more
- Science as ReligionI Am a Part of Infinity: The Spiritual Journey of Albert Einstein by Kieran Fox. Basic Books. 322 pp. $30.00 **** The basic premise of this book is that Albert Einstein’s life’s work stemmed from an essentially religious feeling of awe and wonder at the workings of the universe. Kiernan Fox cites an early moment when ...Read more
- Sheer DestructionA Clockwork Orange a novel by Anthony Burgess. Norton. 213 pp. $15.95. ***** In the early seventies, there were three movies that took violence in cinema to a whole new level: The Wild Bunch, Straw Dogs, and A Clockwork Orange. My wife and I saw Straw Dogs, which portrayed Dustin Hoffman as a confirmed pacifist who ...Read more
- John Wilson. Great Writer.The Pianoplayers a novel by Anthony Burgess. Arbor House. 208 pages. **** Anthony Burgess is one of my great literary heroes. Born in 1917—the same year as my father—he was a middle-aged itinerant teacher who had done some writing on the side (he’d actually published four novels; only for Burgess would that be considered a sideline) ...Read more
- A Star Is Not BornFlora and Son a film by John Carney. With Eve Hewson, Oren Kinlan, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Paul Reid. Streaming on Apple TV. ***** Flora and Son is a delightful movie about a woman who, for no good reason, wants to take up music, and a failed, somewhat broken ex-performer who takes the time to teach her. It ...Read more
- The Spirit Behind the StoryThe Color of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute to his White Mother by James McBride. Riverhead Books. 295 pp. ***** I was so overwhelmed by The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store that I decided to reread James McBride’s memoir of life with his mother, The Color of Water. I knew his own situation influenced the novel, ...Read more
- Extending the LineHolding the Note: Profiles in Popular Music by David Remnick. Knopf. 304 pp. $20.87 ***** I have no idea how David Remnick does it. He’s the editor of the New Yorker, which, the last time I looked, was a full-time job. But he also churns out books on a variety of subjects, everything from Barack Obama ...Read more
- Art Imitating LifeChampion an opera by Terence Blanchard. Libretto by Michael Cristofer. With Eric Owens, Ryan Speedo Green, Ethan Joseph, Latonia Moore. ***** I have never reviewed an opera and certainly don’t have the qualifications. I’ve only been attending for a few years, and know little about the art form. I sometimes think television reviewers watch so much ...Read more
- War Is AbsurdThe Banshees of Inisherin a film by Martin McDonagh. With Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Kerry Condon, Barry Keoghan. Streaming on HBO Max. **** I can’t remember ever saying this before, but I enjoyed thinking about this movie more than actually watching it. The watching was sometimes excruciating, especially because my wife kept jumping up and leaving ...Read more
- Human ConsciousnessMrs. Dalloway a novel by Virginia Woolf and The Hours a novel by Michael Cunningham. A Combined Edition. Picador. 417 pp. (more or less). $20.00. ***** I haven’t read much Virginia Woolf and don’t have any particular excuse. She was all the rage in the seventies and eighties, when her diaries and letters were coming out. ...Read more
- Portrait of the Artists Through a Boozy HazeEarly Novels and Stories by James Baldwin: Go Tell It on the Mountain, Giovanni’s Room, Another Country. Library of America. 970 pp. In the midst of the endless current theorizing about race and sexuality and gender identity, and talk of all the books we must read (I hate to be told I must read a book), ...Read more
- Things Will Never Be That Way AgainSound of Metal a film by Darius Marder. With Riz Ahmed, Olivia Cook, Paul Raci, Lauren Ridloff. ***** I almost stopped watching Sound of Metal during the first five minutes. I’m not a fan of heavy metal and didn’t want to spend two hours listening to what I heard in those early minutes. I didn’t need ...Read more
- What Violence BegetsQueen and Slim a film by Melina Matsoukas. With Daniel Kaluuya, Jodie Turner-Smith, Bokeem Woodbine. Written by Lena Waithe ***** This is a stupendous movie, another absolute must see, by a group of people I hadn’t encountered before (which may be a failing on my part). The acting, directing, and cinematography are all marvelous, but the ...Read more
- Family ReunionThe Irishman a film by Martin Scorsese. With Robert DeNiro, Al Pacino, Joe Pesci, Anna Paquin, Ray Romano. ***** Toward the end of The Irishman, the former union boss and mobster Frank Sheeran (Robert DeNiro) is looking through some photos in a nursing home while a nurse takes his blood pressure. He asks her if she knows ...Read more
- How Could She Doubt It?Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice a film by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman. With Bonnie Raitt, Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris, Jackson Browne. **** I missed much of the music of my generation. I was still in touch with mainstream culture through my college years (1966-70), and continued to listen to the radio while I ...Read more
- Whose House Is It?The Last Black Man in San Francisco a film by Joe Talbot. With Jimmie Fails, Jonathan Majors, Danny Glover, Tichina Arnold. ****1/2 The Last Black Man in San Francisco was for me a study in faces, the deeply expressive faces of not only its lead actors, but also every actor in the film, from the street ...Read more
- Get Out Your HandkerchiefsPavarotti a film by Ron Howard. With Placido Domingo, Zubin Mehta, Jose Carreras, Bono. ***** Pavarotti is an unabashed example of cinematic hagiography, which tells the life story of Luciano Pavarotti through a group of loving admirers. The film mentions a couple of illicit affairs—including the notorious one that led to his divorce and second marriage—and ...Read more
- Frankie and Johnny Were SweetheartsJazz a novel by Toni Morrison. Plume/Penguin. 229 pp. $11.95 As I move chronologically through Toni Morrison’s fiction and arrive at her sixth novel, I’ve come to various conclusions: I think of her as a Southern writer. Actually, she grew up on Lorain, Ohio, and never lived in the South. (Lorain, as she describes it in the ...Read more
- Go For the MusicA Star Is Born a film by Bradley Cooper. With Bradley Cooper, Lady Gaga, Sam Elliott, Andrew Dice Clay, Dave Chappelle. **** The first thing I should say is that—somewhat to my surprise—I liked this movie from beginning to end. Bradley Cooper’s Jack was a warm and compelling character; the entire cast was great, including various ...Read more
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All Shook UpWhat's in a Song? IIWriting for his LifeWhat’s in a Song?Mixed Feelings
View Other Essays by Topic
aging (127)American literature (226)art (123)Buddhism (171)Christianity (132)creative process (262)death and dying (144)meditation (125)movies (167)music (42)race (110)religion (196)sex (187)spirituality (174)the art of narrative (266)Uncategorized (21)world literature (23)