Category Archive for:

Music


Sam Cooke A Change is Gonna Come

Dreaming Freedom: Sam Cooke’s โ€œA Change Is Gonna Comeโ€

Ciarรกn Oโ€™Rourke

|

Itโ€™s a truism, but nevertheless may be worth repeating: that music and literature of a radical bent can encapsulate the possibilities of their social moment in a way that manifestos and movement histories, no matter how subversive their authorsโ€™ politics, are sometimes just unable to match.

CATEGORY:

A Rainy Night in Georgia

Mike Morgan

|

In 1977, I was a signaler (radio operator) in the South African Army, the infantry. I was stationed in a camp called Mpacha, which was a few hundred yards from the border of Zambia in the ...

CATEGORY:

On Sixto Rodriguez โ€“ The Sugar Man

Mike Morgan

|

Sixto Rodriguez, the Detroit singer and songwriter, died on August 8, 2023. He was 81 years of age. What follows is a short essay I wrote about him in July, 2012, the day after seeing the ...

CATEGORY:

A Small Slice of Private Life

Jenny Morgan

|

For a few years in the late 1970s and early 1980s, I had the good fortune to be in a relationship with Clem Maharaj, a former jazz drummer from Trinidad whose mother had taken the precaution ...

Special Treatment

Christian Alexander

|

1990’s Chicago was not Thatcher’s Britain of the 1980’s. The music of The Specials, while of a specific context, still contained elements which would resonate quite loudly across the sea of time and space, and allowed ...

CATEGORY:

Hybrid Moments

Jarrod Shanahan

|

On September 17th, 2022, I witnessed something long believed to be impossible: a reunion of โ€œThe Original Misfits,โ€ founder, songwriter, and vocalist Glenn โ€œDanzigโ€ Anzalone, bassist Jerry โ€œOnlyโ€ Caiafa, and guitarist Paul โ€œDoyleโ€ Caiafa. Danzig and ...

CATEGORY:

American decline? Imperial reckoning. 40 years of Combat Rock by The Clash

Christian Alexander

|

Interrupting all programs, but we’reย putting out this transmissionโ€ฆa review of the 40th anniversaryย reissue of The Clash’s Combat Rock. August 21st is Joe Strummerโ€™s birthday. He would have been seventy years old.ย  He died twenty years ago. ...

CATEGORY:

One Million Dollars

Bill Carney

|

In February 2011, my Brooklyn-based, French-language rock band, Les Sans Culottes, was asked to perform at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in Chelsea. The band would perform a couple of songs between various improv skits and ...

CATEGORY:

EDDY GET READY, ROCK STEADY!: The Equals, Eddy Grant, and Trump

Mike Morgan

|

Most people who are old enough remember the reggae singer Eddy Grant for his popular radio song in 1983 called Electric Avenue.ย ย  Fewer know about his earlier seminal London rock combo, the Equals.ย  Eddy Grant is ...

CATEGORY:

Shotgun Writer

Mike Morgan

|

Throughout my unheralded scribing life, I have tried to write cogently about rock and roll.ย  I donโ€™t know if Iโ€™ve ever done a decent job, some might say so now and again, but there is always ...

CATEGORY:

123 Next