Three new Greil Marcus-related pieces regarding Marooned: The Next Generation of Desert Island Discs (edited by Phil Freeman).

• Everything’s bigger than life for legendary rock critic Greil Marcus... “In a Marcus sentence, every idea is a universe, and every song is a seismic disruption of the tectonic plates of American culture. Do not try this at home.” [Toledo Blade]
• A conversation with… “It’s wrong to force these questions. It’s a completely false choice. I have probably 20 different records I can argue are the greatest. At any given time I feel that the sum total of what human beings can create is contained in the Chiffons’ ‘One Fine Day’ or the Clash’s ‘Complete Control.’” [Toledo Blade]
• Desert Island Dick: (By Kevin John) … “It’s as though Marcus can’t recognize the many vital communities created and reinforced by modern music because they aren’t the globe-spanning movements of his imagination. Or in other words, he doesn’t get it, so it must be ungettable. Ugh.” [Chicago Reader]

All links directly from the Marooned blog, which has more info about the book, plus more links and stuff.

Listening: Kinks, “See My Friends”

Think I’m gonna start things off here by (slowly) catching up with a few interesting books that have come out recently–none of which I’ve read yet, of course, but all of which look, um, “interesting.”

First up: Michael Awkward’s Soul Covers: Rhythm and Blues Remakes and the Struggle for Artistic Identity, described as “an engaging look at how three very different rhythm and blues performers—Aretha Franklin, Al Green, and Phoebe Snow—used cover songs to negotiate questions of artistic, racial, and personal authenticity. ” Haven’t seen any actual reviews of this yet, though I did skim the introduction, and it looks more promising–a little less dry–than that description implies (it struck me as being a very personal book, but I could be wrong).