1968 marked a turning point in the way recordings are made. The earliest recording equipment was crude, clumsy, and primitive. By the late 40s, the technology had advanced significantly, making sophisticated, highly commercial records the new normal. Recording studios replaced the back porches and hotel rooms where many early records...
Looking at Bruce Springsteen’s long and successful career, most of his fans probably think he’s had an easy life. He’s won numerous Grammys, attracted a legion of loyal followers, and has an entire magazine devoted to documenting his every move. He’s considered one of the most important singer-songwriters and exciting...
Going home without my burden Going home behind the curtain Going home Without the costume that I wore I couldn't do anything else on the day I heard that Leonard Cohen had died but listen to him sing. I first learned his name in 1965, when I was a college...
Are song lyrics poetry? It depends. Are song lyrics literature? This is the better question than whether they’re poetry. Norman Mailer, who never won a Nobel prize, once said in his usual uncharitable way, “If Dylan’s a poet,” he wrote years ago, “then I am a basketball player.” Dylan is...
He could have chosen a Minnesota home for his archives and it would have surprised no one. His hometown of Hibbing was probably a bit too small to house the scholars and Dylan fans from every part of the world that would have made the trip. Duluth, the city of...
This video is funny to watch. Being a vinyl record collector and music lover, I found it entertaining to watch the Slow Mo Guy's spin a record to oblivion at 12,500 frames per second... Check it out.
Roger Waters is a social critic by temperament but he doesn't spare himself from criticism. He has said straight out that playing arenas is all about making money.“But, er, I felt at the same time that it was a situation we'd created ourselves through our own greed, you know, if...
Who’s buying all the vinyl? It’s not just aging hippies nostalgic for the days when they rolled joints on the back of album covers. Somewhat surprisingly, the millennials, people who weren’t born until vinyl was considered passé, are leading the way. They aren’t buying them as an investment in their...
If Woody Guthrie was Bob Dylan’s model, Leonard Cohen’s was Federico Garcia Lorca. Cohen made his entrance from the more sophisticated realm of poetry rather than the more uncomplicated world of folk music. After Woody, Bob discovered Rimbaud and began writing lyrics that owed more to the surrealists than the...
