A little behind the beat on this, but when Kozinn makes remarks like this, you can bet people take notice: A couple of weeks ago Giles Martin stopped in New York on his way to London, and invited me to hear his "Love" mixes on a five-channel surround system at Magno Studios. I was knocked out by some, but I was absolutely floored by the pristine quality and fine definition of the sound. With the compression of the original 1960's productions stripped away, voices and instruments seem real, as if they were in the room. The new mixes wrap you in … [Read more...]

TAKE ME TO THE COUNTRY I had read about this record, but I didn't really expect it to be this good: James Talley's 1975 debut Got No Bread, No Milk, No Money, but We Sure Got a Lot of Love (reissued by Cimarron). It's kind of heartbreaking to think how much talent slips through the system like this. He could be Merle Haggard's cousin. DON'T LICK THIS TAR-BABY File under unfortunate headlines: The Dark Side of Chuck Berry (Ding-A-Ling jokes are way too obvious, kids...) HAPSLAPPY CLICKS LaLa.com is oddly addictive, and once CDs start … [Read more...]

Scott's response to the Observer's list, which has some very odd bedfellows, as Brits usually do. For RCD, TMW gets sandwiched between DISCO FEVER and GLENN GOULD, which pretty much sums up my high school persona: 19. Tell Me Why (Tim Riley): For all the zillion Beatle books that have been published, I think only three have mattered to me: Paperback Writer, the Ian MacDonald title chosen by the Observer, and this, a U.S. counterpart to the MacDonald book--a song-by-song rundown that is slightly more musicological (though not dauntingly so) and … [Read more...]

SCARED YOU'LL GET A WOODY? I mean really: you call this a LEAD?!?-- It has been many years since Westerns were essentially black-and-white, cut-and-dried stories of good versus evil: morality tales with lots o horses and guns and one of everything else—a sheriff, an outlaw, an embattled hero, a town drunk, a whore with a heart of gold, a honky-ton piano, and a schoolteacher from Illinois, who found out shortly after arriving in town that, for worse and for better, there was more to life tha book learnin’... Since the past 12 months … [Read more...]

V. Oh yes, I do recall that statement about Turner. I dunno though... I just don't see her as being relevant any more. What do people talk about when they talk about her--how she survived Ike (but what does that say about her being with him and staying with him in the first place) and her legs. I don't find that very interesting or significant in terms of feminism today. I think of Janis Joplin as being more significant with feminism in rock n' roll than Tina, regardless of a lack of songwriting. She showed that she could do anything with the … [Read more...]

IV. Don't remember feminism coming up before the final chapters...? That whole section on Tina Turner, where I call her an earlier and more important force for feminist values than Gloria Steinem? That didn't ring any bells? As far as I'm concerned, "feminism" is still CATCHING UP with Tina Turner. "And if Springsteen is the only modern living feminist male rocker you could think of to write about, that's really sad..." Honestly it's like every time you start pointing out the distance between male and female perceptions, the distance … [Read more...]

Until i heard CCH Pounder on yesterday's Fresh Air, I hadn't realized that FX's the Shield had won a Peabody Award, those things they give out to Jon Stewart. This year's list includes SOUTH PARK, Brian Williams and the whole Katrina gang, and Scully as Dedlock in BLEAK HOUSE. But can anyone argue persuasively that David Kelley's BOSTON LEGAL ranks with Martin Scorsese's NO DIRECTION HOME? QUOTE OF THE WEEK Guyana's Pounder tells TG that she'd never been called a "n*****r" until she acquired an American accent. MARIJUANA STOCK SOARS Mark … [Read more...]

III. I agree--"gender" has become a buzzword, especially in academia, and in gay circles. So, were you trying to address the idea that men have no role models and how men relate to feminism? Because I don't recall reading anything like that. In fact, I was startled how little feminism came up when discussing men. It did more so in that last chapter...maybe I just don't remember it, or maybe it's because "feminism" wasn't so mainstream before the mid-70s. I can understand skipping the gay stuff, but then feminism must be repeated for every … [Read more...]