The Man Who Stole the World

by John Waters

Bowie was a canary in the coal mine of post-1960s culture, plumbing its depths and soaring above almost everyone else. Continue Reading »

12 Jun 2018

Why Rock Couldn't Stay at the Commune

by Carl Scott

It’s very cool, very punk-rock, folk-rock, and all the other rockin’ signifiers of hip radicalism, to be going to a commune. Or to hang-out at one for a season. But to actually stay for good is not what rock-tuned set wants.How do we know that? Well, tell me about a rock song that celebrates . . . . Continue Reading »

4 Mar 2014

Saving Rock and Roll

by Stephen H. Webb

Rock and roll has a rebellious sound. I write that hesitantly, because there is really no such thing as rock and roll, in terms of having a permanent nature or ongoing essence. Speed, loudness, and distorted acoustical effects do not a musical genre make. Rock is a mishmash of various musical . . . . Continue Reading »

4 Mar 2014

Progressive Rock Redeemed

by Brendan P. Foht

On February 9, I had the pleasure of finally seeing one of my favorite bands for the first time—a progressive rock supergroup called Transatlantic. Because all of my friends are too respectable for such things, I made my journey to the concert alone. For a progressive rock supergroup, however, Transatlantic has an excellent pedigree: The band was founded in 1999 as a side project of four progressive rock musicians from America and Europe (hence the name Transatlantic): Neal Morse, then of Spock’s Beard; Mike Portnoy, then the drummer for Dream Theater; Roine Stolt, the lead guitarist of The Flower Kings; and Pete Trewevas, the bassist from Marillion. Continue Reading »

21 Feb 2014

Carl’s Rock Songbook #76: Rap and the Summer of ‘89

by Carl Scott

A slight change of plans here—I had wanted to talk about this recent Conor Friedersdorf piece about the lack of conservative rap critics as part of a three-part essay called “Paradoxes of Conservative Pop-Culture Studies,” but I realized that to really to do that, I would have to . . . . Continue Reading »

18 Feb 2013

Carl’s Rock Songbook #64: Robert Fripp and Laura Jane

by Carl Scott

This is an odds n’ ends post. I’m going to do ONE more post on rock films, soon enough, and then give that series a rest for a while. High-time for the songbook to get back to SONGS. This week I came across a two interesting tidbits. First, my good friend, philosophic advisor, and loyal . . . . Continue Reading »

21 Sep 2012

Carl’s Rock Songbook #63: ALMOST FAMOUS, Pt. 5

by Carl Scott

Having written one , two , three , four ALMOST FAMOUS-driven posts and now this one, I obviously do think it is an excellent film. Its one weakness is a certain complacency, underlined by its ending. I don’t have a problem with happy endings per se, but the one it provides really is too easy. . . . . Continue Reading »

18 Sep 2012

Carl’s Rock Songbook #61: ALMOST FAMOUS, Pt. 3, Lesser Rock Fame

by Carl Scott

The last Songbook post considered rock Fame and its relations to Celebrity and Honorable Ambition with plenty of help from political philosophy, and a little from ALMOST FAMOUS, too; moving back to the film (which is proving rich enough for, look out, two more parts after this!), this part will be . . . . Continue Reading »

8 Sep 2012

Carl’s Rock Songbook #60: David Bowie, “Fame”

by Carl Scott

We left off the analysis of ALMOST FAMOUS at the key point, where we were about to get into what it says about Rock and Fame. That is a complicated subject, because you need to consider the phenomenon of Fame itself, before you get into what Rock does with it. Bowie’s deliberately sour song is . . . . Continue Reading »

3 Sep 2012

Studies Show My Rock Songbook Is Right

by Carl Scott

The pop music of the last 50 years really has become progressively bereft of musical variety.  So says this Spanish analysis of gobs of pop songs . So Martha Bayles is right.  Geoffrey O’Brien’s nightmare last chapter of Sonata for Jukebox is right.   And me too, I . . . . Continue Reading »

1 Aug 2012