“Most music lovers are apt to know Mr. Kerman’s work primarily from his incendiary first book, Opera as Drama, published in 1956. Drawing on essays he had written in the late 1940s for the Hudson Review, the book proposed a simple yet radical view of opera: that it is the composer whose vision above all shapes the dramatic essence of a work. “Mr. Kerman elaborated … Continue reading Joseph Kerman
That night, after I interviewed Hoffman, I went back to my hotel room and had a dream about Lester, something that happens with some regularity. In every dream, he isn’t dead, but instead has been hiding out somewhere. Waiting. This time, I asked him where he had been. He told me Florida. “I’ve just been waiting for you to get it right,” he told me. … Continue reading Lester & Philip
Amiri Baraka, Polarizing Poet and Playwright, Dies at 79. Margalit Fox, L.A. Times. His political awakening was soon manifest in his work. His first major book, “Blues People,” published in 1963, placed black music, from blues to free jazz, in a wider sociohistorical context. Writing in The New York Times Book Review, the folklorist Vance Randolph said, “The book is full of fascinating anecdotes, many … Continue reading Amiri Baraka
By Phil Dellio When film critic Stanley Kauffmann died a few weeks ago, Scott was in the midst of a series of posts devoted to rock critics who, at some point in their careers, expressed a declining interest in writing about music. Did Kauffmann ever experience something similar, I wondered? He began at The New Republic in 1957, and he was still at it when he … Continue reading Calmly Disagreeing: Stanley Kauffmann (1916-2013)
Still coming across a lot of interesting stuff re: Lou Reed, but rather than continue to jam the site with separate Lou Reed posts, I’ll just gather all the interesting ones I can find in this post. (And I’ll ‘bump’ it via the comments box if more get added.) There’s just too many good ones I don’t want to lose track of. If you come … Continue reading Reed Obits
“If there was nothing visible in Warhol’s sculpture to distinguish it from an ordinary object, Mr. Danto wondered, what made it art? At a time when more and more artists were creating works lacking traditional artistic qualities, this was an urgent question. “Leaving aside that Warhol’s sculpture was made of silk-screened plywood, not cardboard, the defining feature of the sculptural ‘Brillo Box’ was, in Mr. … Continue reading Arthur C. Danto
Frank Kogan: “Eventually, in New York, in the early ’80s, I finally went back and got on top of the ‘Sister Ray’ groove. Was the first groove I’d ever mastered, and it was actual power. But back in the ugly college ’70s I felt the guy more. He was a truth teller who didn’t like himself much, which brought out the wrong truths — he … Continue reading On New Dylans and Self-Dislike
I’m not embarrassed to say — and hardly alone, I suspect – that my first meaningful encounter with Lou Reed was via Lester Bangs. I had heard of Reed before then, was familiar with “Walk on the Wild Side,” which I thought was just a slightly more offbeat radio song than the dozens of offbeat radio songs then dominating the airwaves (though something or someone … Continue reading Lou Reed
Posted on The New Republic this morning: We are saddened to report that Stanley Kauffmann, our film critic of more than five decades, died early this morning at St. Luke’s Hospital in New York at age 97. We will be adding to this tribute throughout the day. The link above contains tributes by James Wolcott, David Denby, and David Thomson (with more to come). I’ve … Continue reading Stanley Kauffmann, 1916-2013
I can’t say I often make it through comments threads at Christgau’s Expert Witness blog, but this one’s a doozy for two reasons: 1) The Dean drops a bombshell: “Just woke up so I won’t go into too much detail at the moment, but now I can make it official. As rumored, Expert Witness will be no more at MSN as of October 1. As … Continue reading Big (Sad) Day at Expert Witness
RockCritics.com 