Category Archives: Writing

The Rewarding Influence of Richard Hell

Posted on by Musicofourheart

Last month I wrote an extensive A-Z music journalist series. The tree of music journalism I planted continues to harvest fruit.

I commenced InterWeb reading this morning with Robert Christgau’s Barnes and Noble Review column Rock & Roll &. I was rewarded with a thought-provoking essay about Richard Hell’s new book, I Dreamed I Was a Very Clean Tramp.

The more I dug into Richard Hell, Television, his (s)exploits and writing prowess the more intrigued I became.

I have tried to find  copy of the book at my local Barnes & Noble Stores so I can give you a closer perspective but no luck thus far.

I add this book to my ever-increasing music book reading list.

There is a tie-in event with Richard Hell, Fashion and Punk that I also want to share with you. The exhibit takes place at the Metropolitan Museum of Art May 9-August 14, 2013.

PUNK: Chaos to Couture will examine punk’s impact on high fashion from the movement’s birth in the early 1970s through its continuing influence today. Featuring approximately one hundred designs for men and women, the exhibition will include original punk garments and recent, directional fashion to illustrate how haute couture and ready-to-wear borrow punk’s visual symbols.

Focusing on the relationship between the punk concept of “do-it-yourself” and the couture concept of “made-to-measure,” the seven galleries will be organized around the materials, techniques, and embellishments associated with the anti-establishment style. Themes will include New York and London, which will tell punk’s origin story as a tale of two cities, followed by Clothes for Heroes and four manifestations of the D.I.Y. aesthetic—Hardware, Bricolage, Graffiti and Agitprop, and Destroy.

Presented as an immersive multimedia, multisensory experience, the clothes will be animated with period music videos and soundscaping audio techniques. - Description Courtesy of Metropolitan Museum of Art 2013

A book, Punk: Chaos to Couture, by Andrew Bolton, with an introduction by Jon Savage, and prefaces by Richard Hell and John Lydon (a.k.a. Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols), will accompany the exhibition. This publication will be illustrated with photographs of vintage punks and high fashion. Published by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the $45 catalogue (hard cover only) will be distributed worldwide by Yale University Press.

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John Densmore, The Doors: Unhinged and Record Store Day 2013

Posted on by Musicofourheart

I was looking on The Record Store Day Website for The List 2013 when I found something much more valuable.  John Densmore, drummer for The Doors has written and self-published a new book, The Doors: Unhinged, available on April 17, 2013 (CreateSpace and Kindle Direct). There will be a special hardcover edition available  exclusively for sale at independent Record Store Day retailers, April 20, 2013.  John Densmore is conducting a book tour to be held at various record stores across the United States.

The book was self-published with Amazon’s CreateSpace an on-demand publishing platform. I am vehement about this distribution method of distribution. My plan is to self-publish a book this way in the future.

The premise of John Densmore’s book is the “greed gene”, and how that part of the human psyche propels us toward the accumulation of more and more wealth, even at the expense of our principles and friendships and the well-being of society. In effect no amount of money seems to be enough for even the wealthiest people.

This is an important societal characteristic to check. It’s at the heart of the Occupy movement which denotes the classic struggle between the haves and have-nots.

photo

I recall when John Densmore sued The Doors of the 21st Century. I was upset for the rift amongst The Doors. I had seen Ray Manzarek and Robbie Krieger twice live as that namesake band. I liked the moniker and how it felt to see them perform with Ian Astbury on vocals and Ty Dennis on drums. I originally sided with Ray and Robbie in the matter. But after closer examination of the issue and the understanding of honoring Jim Morrison’s wishes, I realized friendship and integrity trump greed.

I’ll am eager to read John Densmore’s interpretation of the lawsuit to get a better understanding about his sentiments and belief. The music press served as a “filter” for what transpired and I feel its best to read this from John’s point of view. I am hoping I can meet John Densmore at one of the record store tour events and get a signed copy of the hardcover edition.

The Record Store Day Official List was published on Wednesday March 20. You can find it here.

The Doors will once again have a Record Store Day Release Exclusive. A special 7″ release in the Warner “Side By Side” series. Side A is The Doors’ “Soul Kitchen” and Side B includes X’s cover of the song, produced by Ray Manzarek. This one is on milky clear colored vinyl and limited to 3000 copies,

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Music Journalism A-Z – Summary

Posted on by Musicofourheart

I hope you found the February 2013 Music Journalism A-Z series of value. I enjoyed coordinating the research and providing the information about varied music journalists this month.

My impetus for putting together this series was to set the stage for the EMP Pop Conference 2013 multi-city event April 18-21, 2013. It will be anchored at EMP Museum in Seattle with satellite location events at NYU in New York; USC in Los Angeles; Tulane University in New Orléans; and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland. It’s quite the extravaganza for digital music wonks ;)

I am participating as a member of the professional music blogging community and a music journalist. I will be attending the NYU event, April 18-19 2013. I attended the Pop Conference 2012, Sounds of the City last year at NYU which continues to energize my pursuit of written music knowledge.

I am working with  Tavia Nyong’o and the NY City Program Committee. I will share information about the event via this blog soon so please stay tuned as registration opens on March 15th!

NEW YORK, NYU

Date: April 18-19, 2013
Details: After the Deluge is New York’s theme. The New York City installment of the 2013 EMP Pop Conference will be held at New York University April 18–19, 2013, sponsored by the Department of Performance Studies and the Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music. The two-day event will feature a set of discussions and events curated by a distinguished program committee of scholars and journalists. Our postdiluvian title is meant to be open-ended. It will invite reflection on music and the city and region before, during, and after Superstorm Sandy. It will draw focus to the much smaller scale of this year’s event, after the IASPM/EMP extravaganza of 2012. And lastly, it will invite consideration of how we handle—as critics and consumers—the excesses and scarcities of music in our present moment.
Proposals: There is no open call for papers, as NYU is curating this event.

To attend: Registration will open on March 15. Please contact the conference organizer Tavia Nyong’o at tavia.nyongo@nyu.edu if you are interested in learning more. The schedule includes eight panels with additional events and keynote presentations.

Contact: Tavia Nyong’o, tavia.nyongo@nyu.edu
Program Committee Members: Tavia Nyong’o (Conference Chair, New York University), Gustavus Stadler (Editor, Journal of Popular Music), Wayne Marshall (Co-Editor, Reggaeton [Duke UP]), Deborah Kapchan (New York University), Imani Kai Johnson, (University of California), Daphne Brooks (Princeton University), Maura Johnston (former Music Editor, Village Voice), Steve Waksman (Smith College), Daphne Carr (General Editor, Best Music Writing)

I want to highlight program committee member’s  Maura Johnston digital journalism achievements. Maura has taken the bold, necessary step to offer a weekly magazine, Maura. It is available via iTunes subscription. I subscribed today ;)

Maura embodies my core belief as a digital music journalist. If the existing publishing hierarchy gets in the way of your published work, build your own magazine and drive subscription. If you build it they will come.

Johnston, who teaches music writing at the New York University’s Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music and does freelance work (including a regular column at MSN Entertainment), created Maura because “I’ve always wanted to do my own thing. I’ve been proud of the work I’ve done in full-time jobs, but I had a difference of opinions with my hierarchy.”

The publication, Maura features themed issues (“Desire” and “Static” were recent ones), and articles about current events, media and entertainment.

Read this insightful Web article at Digital Journal by Cate Kustanczy, to learn more about Maura Johnston’s significance: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/343410#ixzz2MF6XuIK2

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Music Journalism A-Z – Additional Authors

Posted on by Musicofourheart

I have looked high and low for a music journalist whose last name begins with X. I could not find anyone.

David Byrne speaking at the 2006 Future of Mus...

David Byrne speaking at the 2006 Future of Music Policy Summit hosted by the McGill University Schulich School of Music in Montreal, Canada (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

So I decided to take this opportunity and go back through the alphabet of music journalists that I didn’t get to write about first time. I had some tough choices to make for the Music Journalism A-Z series when I decided I would only feature one music journalist by first letter of their last name.

There are many other music journalists that deserve major recognition for their accomplishments and invaluable insights.

The first music journalist I want to mention  is David Byrne. Most people freely associate him as a musician, songwriter, or as a visual artist. He writes a regular journal that I subscribe to,  David Byrne’s Journal. David Byrne is a technology leader who assuaged our collective consciousness. He articulates a much-needed voice  of expression for artistic intelligentsia. He has authored nine books to date.

  • True Stories (1986)
  • Strange Ritual, Chronicle Books (1995)
  • Your Action World (1999)
  • The New Sins (Los Nuevos Pecados) (2001)
  • David Byrne Asks You: What Is It? Smart Art Press (2002)
  • Envisioning Emotional Epistemological Information with DVD (2003)
  • Arboretum, (2006)
  • Bicycle Diaries (2009)
  • How Music Works (2012)

The letter C proved challenging as there were two other music journalists of renown I wanted to write about, Robert Christgau and Nate Chinen.

Christgau is the cornerstone of music criticism and his Consumer Guide has helped me purchase  fantastic recordings over the decades.

Nate Chinen constantly turns me on to new jazz sources via his blog and music reviews in the New York Times.

English: on the

English: on the “Music in the ’00s” panel, 2010 Pop Conference, EMPSFM, Seattle, Washington. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The next music journalist I wanted to circle back to is David Fricke, Senior Editor at Rolling Stone. He authors the “Fricke’s Picks” column in the Rolling Stone record review section.

He is responsible for the 100 Greatest Guitarists Of All Time special edition issue and column that gets a lot of views on my music blog post as a two-part series that I wrote about last year.

The letter G had several music journalists I could have also written about and that have my undying respect. Those journalists include Gary Giddins, Mikal Gilmore, Ralph J. Gleason and Peter Guralnick. I had just written about Peter Guralnick in January so I faded on him for this month.

Gary Giddins has been a long-time columnist for the Village Voice and unarguably the world’s preeminent jazz critic who has won an unparalleled six ASCAP–Deems Taylor Awards, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a Peabody Award in Broadcasting, as well as a lifetime achievement award from the Jazz Journalists Association. He’s also received the Raiph J. Gleason Music Book Award.

Mikal Gilmore is a friend on Facebook. I enjoy his posts and love the articles he writes for Rolling Stone Magazine. He has two interviews with Bob Dylan that are must reads in the latest Rolling Stone Special Issue.

Ralph J. Gleason had a powerful influence on me as a music author of depth and substance. He contributed for many years to the San Francisco Chronicle, was a founding editor of Rolling Stone magazine, and was co-founder of the Monterey Jazz Festival. He represented both pop and jazz music with equal intensity. I especially love his liner notes for the pivotal jazz recording Bitches Brew by Miles Davis.

I debated for too long about featuring Nat Hentoff for the letter H. I struggled to do him justice in my draft blog post. I thoroughly enjoy his music sociopolitical bent. He is a jazz subject matter authority and my kinda liberal ;)

Richard Meltzer wrote one of my all time favorite rock music epics, The Aesthetics of Rock. I’m on my second copy now ;)

It was a total toss of the coin between Robert Palmer and Jon Pareles of the New York Times. I can’t get enough of Mr. Pareles writing. I’m drawn to his prose like a moth to a flame.

Jon Pareles Writer Jon Pareles (L) interviews singer/musician Chris Cornell at the New York Times TimesTalk during the 2012 NY Times Arts & Leisure weekend>> at The Times Center on January 7, 2012 in New York City.

I still feel like I could write about 25 more music journalists in this post. What a great well of knowledge to draw upon.

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Music Journalism A-Z – Paul Williams

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Paul Williams

Paul Williams is the Father of Rock Criticism. He created the first magazine of pop music criticism and rock culture, Crawdaddy!, when he was a seventeen year-old college student. I loved reading that magazine growing up.

Mostly self-penned in the beginning, and then a vehicle for such incandescent writers as Sandy Pearlman, Richard Meltzer, and Jon Landau, Crawdaddy!chronicled rock’s growing self-awareness and communicative power, helping to coalesce a nascent progressive underground which would irrevocably change the music, and provide a template for any aspiring writer. I should know. Finding issue #7 at a “head shop” on St. Mark’s Place in the winter of 1966 was a life-changing experience, showing me a new way to understand the music I loved, and how I might repay the favor through my own words.

— Lenny Kaye

In 1995, Paul Williams suffered a traumatic brain injury in a bicycle accident, leading to early onset of dementia, and a steady decline to the point where he now requires full-time care.

The burden on his immediate family has been immense.

You can find out more about how Paul is doing by reading his wife Cindy Lee’s blog, Beloved Stranger, about her life with a brain injured spouse.

Then, if you can, please visit the donation page they have set up, and contribute.

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Music Journalism A-Z – Aidin Vaziri

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Aidin Vaziri

I love to cultivate new music influences. One benefit in blogging this series is to learn more about music journalists I have not experienced yet like Aidin Vaziri.

Aidin Vaziri is a Pop Music Critic for the San Francisco Chronicle. He was featured in the book  ”Best Music Writing 2009,” that was edited by Greil Marcus.

Click on the buttons to read his blog and past SF Chronicle articles.

Many of the music journalist’s I have covered have written for the New York Times so it’s refreshing to read the West Coast perspective. San Francisco is such a vibrant music city. Aidin writes about music with conviction and honesty. He’s a straight shooter.Aidin Vaziri

Aidin is adept at interviewing many famous musicians passing through San Francisco. Since turnabout is fair play he was interviewed by The Bold Italic an online San Francisco Magazine. Click on his picture below to read how he parries and thrusts with the questions for a change ;)

Aidin

You can keep up with Aidin Vaziri via Twitter here

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Music Journalism – A-Z – Jaan Uhelszki

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Jaan Uhelszki

Jaan Uhelszki is an American music journalist and co-founder of the music magazine CREEM. Like Gloria Stavers and Lillian Roxon whom I have featured in this series she is one of the first women to work in rock journalism.

america's only (mostly) living staff

In 1976 she left CREEM and moved to Los Angeles to work for Record World magazine. She would go on to become founding news editor of online magazine Addicted to Noise before heading up Microsoft Music Central’s news department.

She holds the unique distinction in being “the only journalist to have ever performed in full makeup with Kiss”?

Uhelszki has been a contributing editor for Rolling Stone Online. She presently works as Relix’s editor-at-large. Jaan is also a regular contributor to my favorite UK music magazines Uncut and Classic Rock. She has also contributed articles to The Morton Report.

Uhelszki writes liner notes for Sony Legacy Recordings, Rhino Records, and Time-Life. She has written essays for Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees The Pretenders, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Patti Smith, and The Stooges. Jaan Uhelszki regularly appears as a music authority on VH1’s “Behind the Music” series, as well as on radio shows and at industry panels and workshops, where she works as a media trainer.

From Linked In…

Media Trainer

Jaan Uhelszki Media

2000 – Present (13 years)Berkeley, CA

Specializing in training musicians, actors, and executives how to master the interview and avoid the pitfalls. Part therapy, part self-empowerment, part charm school all designed to enhance your verbal and non-verbal communication skills and make you a more compelling you. One-on-one sessions all individually tailored for your particular needs. You would be shocked to know who I’ve trained.

Music Journalism – A-Z – Nick Tosches

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Nick Tosches

Writing in a lineage that includes Dante, William S. Burroughs, Charles Bukowski, Hubert Selby, Jr., and Hunter S. Thompson, Nick Tosches may be America’s last real literary outlaw. 

nick tosches

Nick Tosches is an American journalist, novelist, biographer, and poet. Tosches began his writing with poetry and rock-’n'-roll magazines. He wrote for CREEM, Fusion, and Rolling Stone. Like many of the music journalists featured in this series he started on very common publication grounds.

Books

Nick Tosches first book was released in 1977 under the title Country: The Biggest Music in America.  The book is arranged like a fan’s scrapbook, leaping across time and subject

Nick Tosches’s next book, Hellfire a biography about Jerry Lee Lewis considered by many his music book masterpiece.

‘

The number one greatest music book ever ‘Observer’

Quite simply the best rock and roll biography ever written ‘Rolling Stone’

A collection drawn from 30 years of his writings, The Nick Tosches Reader, published in 2000 by Da Capo Press.

Nick Tosches joined Vanity Fair as a contributing editor in 1996.

Nick Tosches

Music Journalism A-Z – Lillian Roxon

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Lillian Roxon

In 1959 at the age of 27 Lillian moved to New York starting off as a freelancer for ‘Weekend’ and moving on to become the first Australian journalist to gain a high-profile in the States. In 1962 they offered her  the New York correspondent’s position for The Sydney Morning Herald, a job she kept for the next ten years.

Her organic writing style flowed into print form in an easy to follow way. She was a sharp critic with a keen ear that discerned well for the large metropolitan audience who read her weekly writings.

I religiously read Lillian Roxon’s music column in the New York Daily News. This was before I graduated to reading the New York Times later in college.

She held court in the late sixties/early 70s  in the infamous back room of Max’s Kansas City. She fit in well among the celebrities of the era.

Lillian Roxon wrote the first definitive rock encyclopedia, Lillian Roxon’s Rock Encyclopedia.  The New York Times described it as ‘the most complete book on rock music and rock culture ever written’ and it effectively became the template for many of the music books that followed. I owned and loved that book, I dog earred the pages I read and referred to it so often. It served as a major reference for me in programming the FM radio shows I did in the 70s.

Lillian Roxon's Rock Encyclopedia

Tributes

Lillian Roxon, The Mother of Rock Journalism Web Article

http://www.voicesofeastanglia.com/2012/01/lillian-roxon-the-mother-of-rock-journalism.html

In 2002 Robert Milliken’s book ‘Mother of Rock: The Lillian Roxon Story’ was published.

Book Cover: Mother of Rock: The Lillian Roxon Story

In 2010 Paul Clarke’s documentary ‘Mother of Rock’ premiered at the Melbourne Film Festival. It seems a feature film is also now in development as a lasting tribute to a woman who broke down many barriers and was a pioneer in her own unique way.

‘This book is dedicated to Lillian, who lives with nobody but a colony of New York roaches, whose energy has never failed despite her anxieties and her asthma and her overweight, who is always interested in everybody, often angry, sometimes bitchy, but always involved …’—Germaine Greer,The Female Eunuch

Music Journalism A-Z – Robert Palmer

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Robert Palmer

There are several music journalists considered the “dean” of music critics. The music journalist community looked favorably upon Robert Palmer in that leadership role.

There was a period of my life where I voraciously read the New York Times along with Rolling Stone Magazine. It was during that time I became captivated by the knowledge imparted by Robert Palmer.

Robert Palmer had an incredible knack in adding jet fuel to my interests. I read his writings with a desired relish that made me very learned in the process. I believe this had to  do with his transferable music interpretive skills.

In the early 1970s, Palmer became a contributing editor for Rolling Stone. He became the first full-time rock writer for The New York Times a few years later in 1976, serving as chief pop music critic at the newspaper from 1981 to 1988.

Blues Musicologist

Fat Possum Records

Fat Possum Records (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The part of Robert Palmer’s career that interests me the most was when he began teaching ethnomusicology and American music courses at colleges, including at the University of Mississippi. He made tremendous strides as a blues musicologist.  He produced blues albums for Fat Possum Records with artists like R. L. Burnside and Junior Kimbrough.

The book he wrote Deep Blues is a standout publication in the study of the blues. Robert Palmer had a rich analytic side strongly complemented by an ability to synthesize information into discernible form.  His definitive style compels the reader to immerse themselves in the delta and south side blues experiences.

Deep Blues became a living documentary. This is perhaps the best blues documentary.It was filmed in the Northern Mississippi hill country, where Fred McDowell is the figurehead of local tradition.

Deep Blues (1992) Poster

Musician

Robert Palmer was a practitioner of music, which set him apart from many music journalists who wrote about music but lacked that  intricate  detail of performing it with scope and precision.  He and fellow musicians Nancy Jeffries, Bill Barth, and Luke Faust formed a psychedelic music group blending jazz, folk, and blues with rock and roll, called The Insect Trust. The band recorded its first, self-titled album on Capitol Records in 1968. He played alto sax and clarinet.

The Insect Trust and album Hoboken Saturday Night

Tributes

Robert Palmer’s daughter Augusta from the first of his four wives put together a film of discovery and connection with her estranged father entitled, The Hand of Fatima.

An excellent first anthology of Robert Palmer’s writing curated by Anthony DeCurtis who was Robert Palmer’s editor at Rolling Stone in the 90s. Blues & Chaos: The Music Writing of Robert Palmer

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