The soundtrack of my life goes back a long way. Here are six longreads about music, for the love of it.
music
My Time with Kurt Cobain
“Despite Kurt’s torment—or in a determined attempt to overcome it—Nirvana made life-affirming music. It made me feel better.”
But Who Tells Them What To Sing?
“And thus another Hollywood tradition was born: film choruses belting out perfectly nonsensical prose with utter conviction.”
Last Resort, Part 1: Let’s Go to Angola
“His father, a broke music promoter, had convinced him they could turn their lives around by arranging a complicated but lucrative hip-hop concert on New Year’s Eve in Angola. It was more complicated than they’d imagined.” The first installment of a three-part story, in partnership with Epic Magazine.
The Dolly Moment
“Only a society that willfully believes itself ‘post-racist’ could produce such a queen.”
Why Mother Maybelle Carter’s Work Was Never Done
“In a few years’ time, however, she became a different kind of working woman: a musician by trade and one of the hardest working women in country music.”
Earl King Deserves His Due
Earl King’s “discs were among the rare ones where the words were as important as the music, where blues guitar was balanced with second-line piano, and where the B-sides were as strong as the A-sides.”
Shelved: Yoko Ono
On Yoko Ono’s 1974 album “A Story,” and stepping out from behind the ever-present shadow of John Lennon.
I Will Always Love You: A Dolly Parton Reading List
Happy birthday, Dolly Parton! Here are seven longreads about the American singer-songwriter.
Longreads Best of 2020: Music Writing
Music has been a salve this year, helping us cope with the myriad challenges that 2020 brought. Here are some favorite pieces of music writing we picked in 2020.
