Rolling in the Deep, 10/27/13

bluemaskI had several pieces on the Rolling Stone website in the past week. First and foremost was a list I assembled of twenty Lou Reed tracks, in memory of his passing. I tried to strike a balance between the most iconic moments in his career and great stuff on YouTube that people might have forgotten or never known, and to pay as much tribute to him along the way as I could. There’s a lot of songs about death in his catalog, more than I had realized; he always wrote about it unflinchingly. Yeah, I cried while I was doing it. Rest in peace, Lou. Another (non-tragic) list was a slideshow that drew from Rock ‘n’ Roll Billboards of the Sunset Strip, by photographer Robert Landau. It’s an amazing time capsule of rock promotion from the sixties to the eighties–check it out. My feature of Jared Leto, frontman of Thirty Seconds to Mars and actor (most recently turning in an excellent performance in Dallas Buyers Club) can be found in the print magazine or online. And I compiled a list of Paul McCartney’s twelve weirdest songs, a fun exploration of the mad-genius side of a Beatle who doesn’t get enough credit for his sonic experimentation. (For that piece, I received nominations from Scraps deSelby, Patrick Doyle, James Hannaham, Tom Nawrocki, and Simon Vozick-Levinson–I am profoundly grateful to all of them for turning me on to deep cuts that I might have otherwise missed.)

posted 27 October 2013 in Links and tagged , , , , . 4 comments

4 Comments on Rolling in the Deep, 10/27/13

  1. Tom Nawrocki Says:

    You’re welcome! I loved seeing “Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey” on the list, as an indication that McCartney is such a genius he can even make the weird stuff into pop hits.

  2. Scraps Says:

    I didn’t know Lou Reed had died. That’s a blow.

    I’m reading up on Lou, before I go and read Christgau, which will be… interesting. Anyway, in my “everything reflects on me” way: my father was born 7 days before Lou. My mother was born 46 days after Lou. In 1942. Lou was born between. My parents. There’s not much room between. Um.

    Well.

  3. Scraps Says:

    indication that McCartney is such a genius he can even make the weird stuff into pop hits

    Or the name “Paul McCartney” on weird stuff makes people at least listen. (Even now, “the Beatles” makes pop radio every once in a while play “I Am the Walrus”.)

  4. ken Says:

    Isn’t Mary one of his kids? (Or maybe just Linda’s?) They lived on a farm; maybe”Mary Had a Little Lamb” was meant literally.

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