Hi, Greil, all best things in the New Year. 1/ Ruth Seymour's obit eventually brought me here https://www.kcrw.com/music/shows/bent-by-nature/pere-ubu-worlds-in-collision-acoustic-live-1991 . A bit of "Ubu Unplugged" for your files, on the off chance you missed it back then, and in case you ever give David and gang the 'Rough God'-style full book treatment. David even provides a potential title "The Platonic Ideal of Ralph Kramden". (Deirdre mentions Weill, but the accordian number also brings Vigo's "L'Atalante" to mind.)
Greil, I'm surprised to see you write that Under the Red White and Blue was ignored. I feel like I read a bunch of reviews when it came out, but maybe its publication in the early days of the pandemic affected its reception? I honestly can't even recall the thrust of those reviews, but that doesn't much matter. I've read the book twice. I agree it's a good distillation of what you can do.
The Dustbin of History, though — yeah, I'll admit I had it on my shelf for a decade before I actually read it, which at this point was close to 15 years ago. And the whole time I was reading it, I was wondering why I'd waited so long. Thanks for turning me on to those Eric Ambler novels!
Greil, I just received your latest missive with shout outs to both Crimson and Clover and Tony Glover, which sparked this memory. Mark Trehus is a former record store owner and avid record collector (he bought the former Oarfolkjokeopus from Peter Jesperson.) He was a good friend of Tony Glover’s. He told me this funny little story. When Tony started his late night show on KDWB radio show in the Twin Cities in the late sixties, he called Dylan to tell him about it. Dylan suggested he call the show Crimson and Glover. You gotta love it. Regards, Paul Metsa
To Billy I. just sharing with you that I was knocked out by the Stax box as well. And I'm sure Mr. Marcus would agree that what matters the most is that it speaks to us rather than relying on his opinion (which I always respect even if I don't always agree).
For what it’s worth, I particularly loved the Geeshie Wiley portion of Three Songs. That, plus John Jeremiah Sullivan’s piece about Geeshie and Elvie Thomas in the NYT magazine, was what led my wife and me to name our cat Geeshie back in 2015. She was the best cat ever. She passed on in 2019, but still lives in our hearts; and also, that’s her in my profile photo.
I read the Village Voice religiously from the time I was able to find it in my upstate New York hometown library until its demise. I remember the sometimes needlessly contentious town square of its letters pages, and I wish I'd seen your letters to yourself. I would've laughed my ass off, and similarly hoped that perhaps other writers might take the hint. But I'm an optimist.
On a different note maybe by being placed at the very end of John Wesley Harding, Down Along the Cove and I'll Be Your Baby Tonight actually serve as a fitting foreshadowing of the whole of Nashville Skyline.
I never meant to cause you annoyance by the types of questions you’ve taken issue with as passive. Just for context, any such question I asked was inspired by my reading the Notes section of your most recent edition of Mystery Train. I never hoped for simple answers (like yes or no) but rather more of the challenge I’d found and enjoyed in your words. However since I realize now these kinds of questions aren’t to your specifics here, I will do my best to keep them more towards your preferences going forward. I guess you can always let me know if I slip again.
The retired English teacher in me needs to point out that the phrase "murder most foul" is from Hamlet!
Greil, I'm surprised to see you write that Under the Red White and Blue was ignored. I feel like I read a bunch of reviews when it came out, but maybe its publication in the early days of the pandemic affected its reception? I honestly can't even recall the thrust of those reviews, but that doesn't much matter. I've read the book twice. I agree it's a good distillation of what you can do.
The Dustbin of History, though — yeah, I'll admit I had it on my shelf for a decade before I actually read it, which at this point was close to 15 years ago. And the whole time I was reading it, I was wondering why I'd waited so long. Thanks for turning me on to those Eric Ambler novels!
Greil, I just received your latest missive with shout outs to both Crimson and Clover and Tony Glover, which sparked this memory. Mark Trehus is a former record store owner and avid record collector (he bought the former Oarfolkjokeopus from Peter Jesperson.) He was a good friend of Tony Glover’s. He told me this funny little story. When Tony started his late night show on KDWB radio show in the Twin Cities in the late sixties, he called Dylan to tell him about it. Dylan suggested he call the show Crimson and Glover. You gotta love it. Regards, Paul Metsa
To Billy I. just sharing with you that I was knocked out by the Stax box as well. And I'm sure Mr. Marcus would agree that what matters the most is that it speaks to us rather than relying on his opinion (which I always respect even if I don't always agree).
For what it’s worth, I particularly loved the Geeshie Wiley portion of Three Songs. That, plus John Jeremiah Sullivan’s piece about Geeshie and Elvie Thomas in the NYT magazine, was what led my wife and me to name our cat Geeshie back in 2015. She was the best cat ever. She passed on in 2019, but still lives in our hearts; and also, that’s her in my profile photo.
I read the Village Voice religiously from the time I was able to find it in my upstate New York hometown library until its demise. I remember the sometimes needlessly contentious town square of its letters pages, and I wish I'd seen your letters to yourself. I would've laughed my ass off, and similarly hoped that perhaps other writers might take the hint. But I'm an optimist.
On a different note maybe by being placed at the very end of John Wesley Harding, Down Along the Cove and I'll Be Your Baby Tonight actually serve as a fitting foreshadowing of the whole of Nashville Skyline.
That’s how I see it. I think they fit just fine at the end of John Wesley Harding.
I never meant to cause you annoyance by the types of questions you’ve taken issue with as passive. Just for context, any such question I asked was inspired by my reading the Notes section of your most recent edition of Mystery Train. I never hoped for simple answers (like yes or no) but rather more of the challenge I’d found and enjoyed in your words. However since I realize now these kinds of questions aren’t to your specifics here, I will do my best to keep them more towards your preferences going forward. I guess you can always let me know if I slip again.
Just brilliant to read this exchange about the Stranded classes. Absolutely uplifting.
Gardner Campbell's letter had me moving closer to the screen wondering what happened next--the teaching memoir as suspense thriller.
Yes, that was really one of the best things I've ever read here.
So happy you are writing this. I got a kick that you could be your own critic.