A rock star who spends his summers in his home village of 40 old people, in a bleak and remote grey landscape, planting trees during the day and collaborating on songs with his father during the long Icelandic evenings.
Continue reading...Rock
212: Bon Iver (Justin Vernon), ‘Towers’
Justin Vernon sure knows how to impale an earworm on a melodic hook. Even Taylor Swift thinks so.
Continue reading...140: Randy Newman, ‘Sail Away’
In which the head honcho on a slave ship gives his wards a motivational chat about the New World awaiting them:
Continue reading...127: The Band, ‘Tears of Rage’ (“Music from Big Pink”)
As intimate as lovers, as self-effacing as monks, as synchronized as guys who have been on the road together for six years.
Continue reading...126: Bob Dylan, ‘Tears of Rage’ (The Basement Tapes)
Dylan’s “King Lear”–a daughter’s love denied.
Continue reading...141: Joni Mitchell, ‘I Don’t Know Where I Stand’
Joni’s second album. She knows where she stands.
Continue reading...135: Kaveret, ‘Medina Ktana’ (Little Country)
My nominee for Israel’s national anthem.
Continue reading...132: James Taylor, ‘Enough To Be On Your Way’
Losing a sibling. A pain that never passes.
A pop song is just a pop song, and a life is a life. But in our real lives, the two are intertwined, each person with his own background music.