Page Tuner: “Mo’ Meta Blues: The World According to Questlove”

Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson likes music criticism. A lot. Throughout the length of his impressively arch, anti-formulaic pseudo-autobiography, he nearly spends more words on the subject of music criticism than the art form itself. As a kid, he grew up worshipping not just records, but the reviews of those records. Basically, he was part of the first generation of omnivorous music nerds, the kind of which now rule the insanely divergent cultural mass that we call the internet. As a musician, writer, and curator, he was made for these times.

Advertisement

68 Songs for Neil Young’s 68th Birthday

To me, Neil Young is the greatest musician who will ever live. He chases down ghosts and makes them sing. He wrenches beauty from brutality. He connects delicate fragments like a wise old spider. He’s a touchstone of authenticity in this false, confusing world. He’s the prairie wind, blowin’ through our heads. He’s just the coolest, most fearless artist of our time.

He’s given us so much over the years that it is difficult to appreciate the scope of his musical output. To prove that point, here’s 68 songs from his staggeringly varied and enormous catalogue, in celebration of his 68th birthday.

Changes: David Bowie Is @ AGO

Icons can influence people in indirect, peripheral ways. Artists who achieve some measure of cultural ubiquity quickly become diffuse and viral, influencing fashion and music and informing the hive-mind concept of what it is to be “cool”. Sometimes you end up becoming a fan without even realizing it.

Awesome Tune: “Heavy Love” by Neil Young

“Eldorado” by Neil Young, only released in Japan and Australia.

In 1989, Neil Young released “Eldorado”, a weird five-song EP that was only released overseas.

Motion Pictures: “Sound City”

“Sound City” is Dave Grohl’s offering to the Gods of Rock. It’s a beautiful, life-affirming film that honours both rock and roll itself, and one of its greatest temples.

Page Tuner: “Wunderkind” by Nikolai Grozni

There’s an enigmatic quote that’s often used in critical discussions: “Talking about music is like dancing about architecture.”

PAGE TUNER: The Playboy Interviews with John Lennon & Yoko Ono

I’ve spent the last month devouring music books. One of my recent finds was an old, weather-beaten original copy of “The Playboy Interviews with John Lennon & Yoko Ono” (a limited pressing, later republished as All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono). I actually had read it years ago, but as I’ve aged, so have my views of John. He’s arguably the most influential musician of all time; another Beatles book I have read described him as “Saint John, Patron Saint of Angry Young Rockers”, which I think accurately summarizes his legacy in popular culture.

Which One’s Pink?

Today is the 60th birthday of Sir Bob Geldof. He started his career as the leader of The Boomtown Rats, an Irish punk rock band from the late 1970s/early 1980s. He is of course better known as the founder of Live Aid, a concert which ushered in the era of the modern mega-festival with celebrities extolling dubious social messages. But for me, Geldof will alway be Pink, the lead character in Pink Floyd’s demented film version of their blockbuster album ‘The Wall’.