The Early Years I played Bruce Springsteen’s album Nebraska over and over when I was in high school. It’s a dark, meditative album full of rage and sadness, which soothed me. I was sixteen, and had just moved to a … Continue reading →
This is the first of a two-part look at songs (“Wreck on the Highway” and “Percy’s Song”) about road crashes and their aftermath … The meaning of life is that it stops. — Kafka Impact Shards of shattered windshield, mangled … Continue reading →
Ever since the Concert for Bangladesh organized by George Harrison there have been countless concerts and recordings in tribute to a musical style or an artist. The next two weeks we will sample some of the very best. This week … Continue reading →
A dillar a dollar a ten o clock scholar blow off his legs and then watch him holler. — Dalton Trumbo: Johnny Got His Gun I saw it. — Francisco Goya Bayonet and Musket In 1807, Napoleon Bonaparte launched a … Continue reading →
Stephen Colbert is ending his long-running comedy show, The Colbert Report, tonight. Although, not a music show per se, the Report has been home to plenty of artists, such as Pete Seeger, Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Costello, Dom Flemons, Emmylou Harris, … Continue reading →
Neil Young, New York 1970 photo by Joel Bernstein This is the fourth and final post of our initial discussion of Neil Young’s “Ohio.” Here are the first, second, and third posts. I know, I know. On the fourth post … Continue reading →
Bruce Springsteen performed a tribute to the late singer-songwriter Victor Jara on September 12 in Chile. The performance was part of the Wrecking Ball tour, and fell coincidentally on the 40th anniversary of the Chilean military coup which led to … Continue reading →
This is the third post in a series on Bruce Springsteen’s “American Skin (41 Shots)” and related songs. Read the first post here, and the second one here. “We don’t want to bring our politics to ya…” Remember that quote … Continue reading →
We decided to extend the discussion of Bruce Springsteen‘s “American Skin (41 Shots)” into two weeks. As a coincidence, we launch this post on The Boss’s 64th birthday–a celebration, of sorts, of his extraordinary body of work, developing many of … Continue reading →
We’re focusing this week on Bruce Springsteen’s “American Skin (41 Shots).” If you have any concerns about us calling this song a murder ballad, I encourage you to read here, here, and/or the postcript below. It’s going to take us a … Continue reading →
