Category Archives: Rock and Roll

The Perfect Strength of Tina Turner

Anna Mae Bullock was a badass. Anna Mae was only 4 or 5 when her parents moved from their home just outside Memphis so they could work in Knoxville, TN. Anna Mae was separated from her two older sisters, and forced to live with her strict, religious grandparents for several years. Her mother was aContinue reading “The Perfect Strength of Tina Turner”

The Sometimes Perfection of “Against the Wind”

Bob Seger could be a great songwriter. Sometimes. If Bruce Springsteen was the spokesman of every person working a 9-5 shift at the local factory, Seger was the spokesman of every person who ever wore a leather vest and wanted to head out west on a motorcycle so he could escape his job/woman/commitments. Whereas JohnContinue reading “The Sometimes Perfection of “Against the Wind””

Four Dead in Ohio

On May 4 1970, four students were assassinated by the United States National Guard on the Kent State University campus in Kent, Ohio while peacefully protesting the Viet Nam war. On May 19, 1970 (15 days later), Neil Young saw an article in Life magazine about the shooting, and immediately picked up his guitar andContinue reading “Four Dead in Ohio”

This Perfect Life (Part 1)

When I first connected to music, to music that was introspective, provocative, and meaningful, I was a young teenager. I was a teenager who didn’t know much about life, love, or pain. A teenager who didn’t know much about what made a life of substance. So I listened to music. I listened to music thatContinue reading “This Perfect Life (Part 1)”

(Nothing But) Flowers, by The Talking Heads

It was 80 degrees here in Chicago the other day, Friday, October 20th. On the same day in 1988, the year “(Nothing But) Flowers” by The Talking Heads was released, it was 50 degrees. Whether you believe in global climate change or not, that is a difference of 30 degrees in 30 years. The Talking HeadsContinue reading “(Nothing But) Flowers, by The Talking Heads”