Rocking My Life Away

by DeCurtis, Anthony

• ISBN13: 9780822324195
• ISBN10: 0822324199
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1999-10-01
• Publisher: Duke Univ Pr

Summary

Rocking My Life Away represents nearly twenty years of writing by one of the premier critics of popular music in America today. In these pieces from Rolling Stone, the New York Times, and other publications, Anthony DeCurtis reveals his ongoing engagement with rock & roll as artistic forum, source of personal inspiration, and compelling site of cultural struggle. Including significant new work-liner notes commissioned for the Phil Spector box set and a spirited discussion with Peter Buck of R.E.M. about rock criticism, for example-DeCurtis also ventures with insight and power beyond the world of rock & roll. A joint profile of the political writers Neil Sheehan and Taylor Branch and provocative looks at the work of novelists Don DeLillo and T. Coraghessan Boyle round out this eclectic collection.

Author Biography

Anthony DeCurtis is a contributing editor at Rolling Stone and executive editor at CDNOW. In 1988 he received a Grammy Award in the "Best Album Notes" category.

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
Acknowledgments	xv
The Classics
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band/The Beatles	3	(3)
Plastic Ono Band/John Lennon	6	(3)
``(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction''/The Rolling Stones	9	(2)
Exile on Main Street/The Rolling Stones	11	(3)
Blood on the Tracks/Bob Dylan	14	(2)
Bob Dylan's Blue Highways: The Bootleg Series, Vols. 1-3	16	(5)
It's a Thursday Night in Athens, Georgia
The Athens Scene	21	(7)
R.E.M.'s Brave New World	28	(13)
Rock Criticism and the Rocker: A Conversation With Peter Buck	41	(24)
Lives and Deaths
Blues Legends	65	(6)
Eric Clapton: A Life at the Crossroads	71	(13)
Kurt Cobain: 1967--1994	84	(3)
No Mercy: Leonard Cohen's Tales from the Dark Side	87	(7)
Jerry Garcia: Don't Look Back	94	(3)
Robyn Hitchcock: A Wry Poet to the Devoted	97	(3)
John Lennon: The Man	100	(7)
John Mellencamp's Void in the Heartland	107	(11)
Father of Bluegrass Is Dead at 84: Bill Monroe	118	(6)
Free at Last	124	(7)
Artist of the Year: The Rolling Stones	131	(9)
Phil Spector: Back to Mono (1958--1969)	140	(9)
Sting	149	(12)
10,000 Maniacs Break Loose	161	(11)
U2: Zoo World Order	172	(13)
Wu-Tang Family Values	185	(10)
Recordings
The Bristol Sessions: Various Artists	195	(2)
Autobiography of Mistachuck: Chuck D	197	(2)
Woody Guthrie's Dust Bowl Ballads and Library of Congress Recordings	199	(2)
Ice-T Fires: Black Rage, Dope Beats	201	(3)
Flying Cowboys: Rickie Lee Jones	204	(2)
One From the Heartland: John Cougar Mellencamp's Scarecrow	206	(5)
Life After Death: The Notorious B.I.G.	211	(2)
Graham Parker Squeezes New Sparks: The Mona Lisa's Sister	213	(3)
Songs for a Blue Guitar: Red House Painters	216	(1)
Their Way: Frank Sinatra and Johnny Cash	217	(4)
The Dream Fades: Bruce Springsteen's Born in the U.S.A.	221	(3)
New Bruce: Lose Your Illusions	224	(3)
10,000 Maniacs: This Side of Paradise	227	(2)
U2: ``Zooropa,'' Mon Amour	229	(4)
In the Crosshairs
Music's Mean Season	233	(6)
Opinion: Cop Killer	239	(2)
Opinion: Country Music	241	(2)
Opinion: Mark David Chapman	243	(2)
The Next Multiplatinum Cash Cow	245	(8)
Opinion: Broadway Production of Tommy	253	(4)
Culture Watch, Culture Wars
I'll Take My Stand: A Defense of Popular Culture	257	(7)
Anarchy in the U.S.S.R.?	264	(11)
Erotic Terrorism: The Enemy Is Us	275	(2)
Pop Goes to College	277	(6)
Popular Music: Political and Social Realities Can Be Discovered in Serious Criticism of the Medium	283	(6)
Postmodern Romance	289	(7)
Village Idiots	296	(2)
Talking Big: Can Eric Bogosian Tune In and Turn On without Selling Out?	298	(4)
A Punk's Past Recaptured: T. Coraghessan Boyle	302	(5)
The Product: Bucky Wunderlick, Rock & Roll, and Don DeLillo's Great Jones Street	307	(10)
Dharma Bums and other Friends: Ginsberg's Photos	317	(2)
An Ambitious History Lesson: Greil Marcus's Lipstick Traces	319	(3)
Hot Writers: Neil Sheehan and Taylor Branch	322	(10)
Epilogue: The Naked Transcript	332	(3)
Index	335