Wit
I know there is a large literature on wit, but while writing the previous post it struck me that we use the term to name two essential things: 1) Basic smarts, the ability to have your wits about you; 2) the ability to use language against itself in order to stand against conventional wisdom. So [...]
Rollin’ & Tumblin’
For me, Muddy Waters is the one essential blues artist. Of course, the idea that there could be a quintessential blues singer is absurd, but I put my finger down on McKinley Morganfield because he takes the Delta blues & its whole rural mythology & transforms it into an urban music that both affirms & [...]
James Brown 1933 - 2006
When I first heard James Brown on the radio when I was in junior high school, he did not, let us say, speak to my sensibilities. The fault was entirely mine, or at least the fault of my experience growing up white in working class Southern California suburbia. I was listening to the Beatles & [...]
Speaking Truth to Dylan
With the caveat that he “is not a music blogger,” AKMA, in an end of year post on pop music, writes:
I was not as impressed with this year’s Bob Dylan album, Modern Times, as I was with Love and Theft. When I heard Love and Theft, I heard a new chapter in Dylan’s work, and [...]
When You Get Up to the City
Reading about this study of songbirds in European cities, a tune began niggling at my memory. Apparently, male great tits sing higher, quicker & louder in an urban setting than do their country cousins. Then I got it. I was thinking of Mose Allison’s lyric, “If You’re Goin’ Up to the City.” Mose sings from [...]
« go back
