“Both John and I had a great love for music hall, what the Americans call vaudeville… I very much liked that old crooner style, the strange fruity voice that they used, so […]
Honey Pie: Paul McCartney, music hall crooner
Jim Booth
Novelist, college professor, rock musician - are we getting the band back together? Maybe....
Twilight of the gods: a musicologist considers the work of the Beatles…
Mellers’ exploration of the Beatles as a group and as solo artists is rich in insight; anyone who wants to understand both the musicology and the psychology of the Fab Four owes […]
A geography of rock: pt 2, the Northeast – NY, Philly, Boston, art, money, and soul…
“Out of some subway scuttle, cell or loft A Bedlamite speeds to thy parapets, Tilting there momently, shrill shirt ballooning, A jest falls from the speechless caravan.” – Hart Crane (Read part […]
Hey Bulldog: John Lennon, rocker…
“Hey Bulldog” provides us with the only film of the Beatles recording a song, amazing as that sounds. “I remember ‘Hey Bulldog’ as being one of John’s songs and I helped him […]
Sweet Jane gets tag teamed…and still wins….
It seems Jane Austen is getting hit on both sides, but all this attention, exploitative and dismissive, merely really proves what will continue to be true: Jane Austen’s stature and power remain […]
A geography of rock, part 1: Styx, REO Speedwagon, Kansas and the dangerous expanse of the Midwest…
Expansive, windy music produced by Arena Rock icons whose members for the most part grew up in an expansive, windy environment… “I was born upon the prairie, where the wind blew free, […]
Baby You’re a Rich Man: how does it feel…?
For a song that often gets lost in the canon of the Fabs,”Baby You’re a Rich Man” is a pretty remarkable piece of work. “How does it feel to be one of […]
Some people hate higher ed…but they love their teams….
“While 58 percent of Republicans believe colleges and universities have a negative impact on the direction of the United States, I sincerely doubt they feel the same way about their alma maters, their […]
Back in the USSR: because everything old becomes new again, right…?
“Back in the USSR,” once the target of self-righteous conservative anger, has come back to mock conservatives nearly 50 years later. “It’s tongue in cheek…. I remember trying to sing it in my […]
I’m So Tired: of a lot of stuff…
“…and curse Sir Walter Raleigh/He was such a stupid git….” – John Lennon “…and the time will come when you see we’re all one/And life flows on within you and without you….” […]
Progressive Culture | Scholars & Rogues 