Clarence Clemons is dead. I know Carl does not have a high opinion of Bruce, but surely just about the most memorable moment in the so-called history of rock is a live performance of JUNGLELAND, thanks to young man Springsteen’s ambition to outdo Dylan by rooting his poetry in the real longings and places of almost-desperate young men, to the sheer intensity of the Big Man’s playing of the sax, and to the majestic sound of the E Street Band as a whole.
Notes on Anosmia
One morning several years ago, as my wife, Wendy, and I were having breakfast together, I had…
Empire of Unreality
Shiva Naipaul (1945–1985) was the author of three novels and two books of mordant dispatches from places…
The Dreadful Christ of Pär Lagerkvist
It’s dangerous to meet a god,” says the disgraced Pythia in Pär Lagerkvist’s The Sibyl. Her observation…