There’s no question that Andy Warhol is one of the cultural giants of the 20th century. His influence on pop culture verges on saturation. As a pop icon, he has often cropped up as a supporting character in the biographies of other luminaries. He’s been … Continue reading Starlight
It may seem absurd today that it used to take guys like Paul Simon to filter the music of literally anywhere else in the world to American ears, but it very much used to take the efforts of guys like Paul Simon to make Americans … Continue reading Spirit Voices
If ‘spinning away’ means some kind of head trip, Cale and Eno will take you there. Brian Eno is the kind of superproducer whose projects all tie into one big visionary web. John Cale is the antithesis of a superproducer; everything he works on is … Continue reading Spinning Away
I keep coming back to Geoffrey Oryema’s Exile album because it can evoke so many moods. I don’t, of course, know what most of his songs are about, but understanding words is overrated. This songs, for example, is called ‘Solitude’ though that’s just the English … Continue reading Solitude
You gotta wonder what it is the Pet Shop Boys have to be so mournful about all the time. No matter how uptempo their beats are, in their hearts they’re always sad. I’m sure that in real life Chris Lowe and Neil Tennant are very … Continue reading So Hard
When the occasional urge to listen to hard-driving punk rock kicks in, I put on some Social Distortion. It doesn’t happen very often, but sometimes a little angry music can be very satisfying. It’s one a very few things I’ve held over from my ex. … Continue reading So Far Away
“There’s only one good thing about a small town, there’s only one good use for a small town – you hate it, and you know you have to leave.” There’s only one valid statement about small towns, and Lou Reed just said it. Lou was … Continue reading Smalltown
