“The language of friendship is not words but meanings.” – Henry David Thoreau One of my oldest friends died a few weeks ago. Mike and I first met when were were 7 […]
A kind of requiem – with milk and cookies and a white guitar…
The Savoy Truffle: you know that what you eat you are…
George has a laugh at Eric Clapton’s expense. “‘Savoy Truffle’ on The White Album was written for Eric [Clapton]. He’s got this real sweet tooth and he’d just had his mouth worked […]
Walter Becker: every word was true… (S&R Honors)
Walter Becker and his partner Donald Fagen created some of rock’s darkest music, giving voice to the disenchanted, the cynical, those who, to paraphrase, want a name when they lose. “All night […]
I Me Mine: George lets go of the little i…
George looks past desire to find happiness. “I Me Mine is the ego problem. There are two ‘I’s: the little ‘i’ when people say ‘I am this’; and the big ‘I’ – […]
I Feel Fine: John Lennon, rule breaker…
“That’s me completely. Including the electric guitar lick and the record with the first feedback anywhere. I defy anybody to find a record – unless it’s some old blues record in 1922 – that […]
Honey Pie: Paul McCartney, music hall crooner
“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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Progressive Culture | Scholars & Rogues 