“A young woman in the spring and summer of 1967 was walking toward a door just as that door was springing open. A stage was set for her adulthood that was so […]
Carole, Joni, and Carly: sometimes it’s hard to be a woman…
Jim Booth
Novelist, college professor, rock musician - are we getting the band back together? Maybe....
Love Me Do – the first one…
“Love Me Do” was their first song, but it was far from perfect… “‘Love Me Do’ is Paul’s song. He wrote it when he was a teenager. Let me think. I might […]
The most famous novel set in NC, according to the Internet
There are some laudable choices: Alabama, Misissippi, Montana, Missouri, New York… But Nicholas Sparks? “Nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing.” – Oscar Wilde, The Picture of […]
A Hard Day’s Night…in search of the lost chord
One chord can change your life. “There was no reason for Michael to be sad that morning, (the little wretch); everyone liked him, (the scab). He’d had a hard day’s night that […]
Positively 4th Street: positively Shakespearean…
Bob Dylan will pick up his Nobel Prize shortly while on tour in Sweden. Joan Baez was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this year. Whether they ever got […]
Good Day Sunshine…ah, spring, when one’s fancy turns to…
Songs like “Good Day Sunshine” indicate that the wit and whimsy that originally endeared the Beatles to millions would not disappear. “It was really very much a nod to The Lovin’ Spoonful’s […]
A few words about Pete Shotton…
It wasn’t easy being John Lennon’s friend, and Yoko didn’t make things any easier. “If anyone was doing the hanging on, it was John. He hung on to me, always had done. […]
Jane Austen, alt-right heroine…say what…?
“I do not want people to be very agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them a great deal.” – Jane Austen Various news sources, both here in America and […]
Chuck Berry and the Beatles: standing on the shoulders of a giant and all that…
According to one source, the Beatles covered at least 15 Chuck Berry songs. “If you tried to give rock and roll another name, you might call it ‘Chuck Berry’.” – John Lennon […]
Dancing about architecture: trying to read Paul Morley’s Words and Music…
I could offer several excuses for why I quit Words and Music, a book I had high hopes for (Morley is one of the great experts on contemporary pop), but the simple […]
Progressive Culture | Scholars & Rogues 