Some of my past writing on music
As you all wait with baited breath on the first case study in a series of 100 - on Ween’s Quebec, going through final edits and to be shared tomorrow - I give you some temporary satiation with some of my past online-published work on music and counterculture - largely from Red Wedge, a vital Marxist cultural publication that is presently not publishing. I do wish my many articles for the student and alternative print media from when I was an undergraduate and a young person was accessible online. The first piece listed, to add some music nerd gossip, subtly plays out a beef I had with the hack “rock scholar” Rob Bowman, professor at York University, who attempted to block my PhD defense. It’s also perhaps the most real distillation of my methodology as a cultural critic.
The Poverty of Descriptivism, Red Wedge
Painting the Passports Brown: Listening to Dylan During COVID-19, New Politics
In its Right Place: Critique in the age of Spotification, Red Wedge
Reclaiming the Dead, Red Wedge
Between Thought and Expression: Utopia and Improvisation, Red Wedge
Problematic Boogie: On David Bowie, Red Wedge
Reverence to Irreverence/Irreverence to Reverence: An Anti-Obituary of Paul Krassner, Red Wedge
Wanna Define? So Say So! David Byrne’s Utopia, Red Wedge
Make Queen Queer Again!, Red Wedge
On Dylan: The Joker and the Thief, Red Wedge
The Brown-eyed Handsome Man in Outer Space: On Chuck Berry, Red Wedge