Ray Manzarek: The Key to the Doors
Sean MurphyWhen it comes to this great American band’s legacy, the best thing about the Doors is also the worst thing about the Doors: Jim Morrison. Blessed with one of the…
The Ballad of Bonnie & Clyde or, Art Improving Upon Life (Revisited)
ON THIS DAY On May 23, 1934, bank robbers Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were shot to death in a police ambush as they were driving a stolen Ford Deluxe…
Wagner at 200 or, Get Your Götterdämmerung On
Or, If Loving Wagner is Wrong, I Don't Want To Be Reich. (More on one of the most complex and controversial composers ever, who was born 200 years ago today,…
Ray Manzarek, R.I.P.
I knew I'd have to deal with this one of these days. So many of my favorite old-school rock legends died when I was young, or before I was born…
Improving Upon Perfection, Part Five: Five Covers from The Black Keys
(Parts 1-4 of this series here, here, here, and here.) Before they became the Black Keys of Leon (a development that was equal parts unfortunate and inevitable) The Black Keys…
This Week in Music: 1983
I don't know what you were up to but I was partying like it was 1983. Due to the miracles of technology, we can see precisely how I was living,…
Pet Sounds: The Kind of World Where We Belong
5/16/66. A day that changed music, forever, for the better. A case could, and probably should, be made that we ought to refer to rock music as "BP" and "AP"…
The Greatness of the Gatsby
Kathryn Schulz has seized the occasion of the newest—and probably not the last—screen adaptation of The Great Gatsby to take the great American novel down several pegs. Indeed, she is…
Ten Songs That Never Fail
With the emotional baggage associated with things like Mother's Day and my birthday, it's nice --and necessary-- to step back and fully appreciate my family and friends. This was my…
Every Time I Scribble A Thought With Artistic Intent
I’m fortunate, in a sense, to be the type of person that gets more sentimental about the times I read a certain book or heard a particular album than I…