Beautiful Visions
Van Morrison turns eighty.
David Cohen
· 11 min read
Music
A collection of 50 posts
It’s All Too Much
The Beatles phenomenon is being mined for more meaning than the people at its centre ever intended to convey.
George Case
· 7 min read
Censoring John and Yoko
A new boxset edits out one of John Lennon’s most controversial songs.
Christian Kriticos
· 13 min read
His Satanic Majesty Retires
A tribute to the man who helped to revolutionise modern rock music and reality TV.
Dave Thompson
· 12 min read
It Don’t Worry Me
Robert Altman’s ‘Nashville’ is fifty.
Matt Hanson
· 7 min read
Disco Inferno
Disco Demolition Night was an early episode of culture and counterculture being saddled with far greater political significance than they deserved.
George Case
· 10 min read
The Art of Not Quite Listening
Ian Penman has published an eccentric new book about Erik Satie, a French surrealist composer and celebratory nuisance with a tiny oeuvre and massive influence.
Thomas Larson
· 9 min read
Glamourising Violence at Glastonbury
Bob Vylan’s “death to the IDF” chants at Glastonbury reveal how Britain’s economic despair has radicalised a generation and threatens to revive ancient hatreds.
John Aziz
· 8 min read
How The Blues Brothers Saved American Music
The Blues Brothers (1980) fostered a renewed appreciation of some of the best music America has ever produced.
Jacob Bielecki
· 12 min read
The Emperor’s New Score
Classical music was one of the first fields to impose the self-censorship that now pervades so many areas of intellectual and cultural life.
Nicholas McRoberts
· 5 min read
Something I Need
A tribute to groundbreaking pop star Melanie Safka (1947–2024).
Dave Thompson
· 15 min read
Slim Shady’s Blues
Eminem’s music helped him to cope with his own suffering. It also helped his listeners cope with theirs.
Samuel Kronen
· 10 min read
The Thunder from Down Under
If Bach was the sound of God whistling while he worked, AC/DC was the sound of God ordering another round in a strip club on Saturday night.
George Case
· 9 min read
Unmasked and Anonymous
A brief history of Bob Dylan on screen.
Benjamin Kerstein
· 18 min read
Ghosts of Electricity
The magisterial incomprehensibility of Bob Dylan’s ‘Visions of Johanna.’
Thomas Larson
· 8 min read