Mystery Train

Zusatztext Praise for Mystery Train : "His tinkering has kept it relevant through six editions! but his writing and ideas have rendered it ageless. I've been reading it for years; when I lent it to a friend I missed it so much I bought a second copy. Mystery Train is more than rock criticism. It explores the meaning of America through rock 'n' roll. The chapter on Robert Johnson opens with the end of The Great Gatsby. Woodrow Wilson and D. H. Lawrence turn up in the Elvis section. A moment on the Band's debut album inspires this: 'You couldn't ask for a more perfect statement of the conviction that America is blessed! or of the lingering suspicion that it is cursed.' The Marcus worldview the notion that pop culture matters as much as history and literature is perfectly distilled in the prologue! where he connects the immortal sweep of art to Little Richard."Manny Fernandez! Houston bureau chief " Mystery Train changed a lot of things for me. Most basically! it plugged me into a lifetime's worth of listening. Because of it! I erased 'English lit' as my college major and inked in 'American lit.' It remains the book I can't help measuring critical writing against...I plan to give a copy of Mr. Marcus's book to each of my children when they leave for college. It speaks intimately to a part of the cultural heritage that! in my haphazard way! I've tried to give them."Dwight Garner! The New York Times "Gets as close to the heart and soul of America and American music as the best of rock 'n' roll." Bruce Springsteen Perhaps the finest book ever written about pop music. Alan Light! The New York Times Book Review ! 2005 Greil Marcus developed an ability to discern an art movement! or an entire country! lurking inside a song. The New Yorker ! 2004 Probably the most astute critic of American popular culture since Edmund Wilson. D.D. Guttenplan! London Review of Books ! 2007 The 1975 appearance of Greil Marcus' first book! Mystery Train ! was an explosion as unexpected and indelible as the first records Elvis Presley had cut almost exactly twenty years before. Mark Rozzo! Los Angeles Times' Book Review ! 2006 Informationen zum Autor Greil Marcus Klappentext The perfect gift for music fans and anyone who loves artists like Elvis Presley, Randy Newman, Sly Stone, Robert Johnson, and Harmonica Frank. In 1975, Greil Marcus's Mystery Train changed the way readers thought about rock 'n' roll and continues to be sought out today by music fans and anyone interested in pop culture. Looking at recordings by six key artists-Robert Johnson, Harmonica Frank, Randy Newman, the Band, Sly Stone, and Elvis Presley-Marcus offers a complex and unprecedented analysis of the relationship between rock 'n' roll and American culture. In this latest edition, Marcus provides an extensively updated and rewritten Note and Discographies section, exploring the recordings' evolution and continuing impact. Leseprobe CROSSING THE BORDER When the Band surfaced in 1968 with Music from Big Pink they had been playing rock 'n' roll music for more than half as long as there had been such a thing. What mattered most, though, was that they had put in their years together, as a group. A rock 'n' roll group is a banding together of individuals for the purpose of achieving something that none of them can get on their own: money, fame, the right sound, something less easy to put into words. But what begins as a marriage of convenience sometimes takes on its own value. An identity comes into being that transcends individual personalities, but does not obscure themin fact, it is the group, sometimes only the group, that makes individuals visible. The Beatles, after all, were the most satisfying and complex testament to the limits of self-reliance most of us have ever k...

Praise for Mystery Train:
"His tinkering has kept it relevant through six editions, but his writing and ideas have rendered it ageless. I’ve been reading it for years; when I lent it to a friend I missed it so much I bought a second copy. Mystery Train is more than rock criticism. It explores the meaning of America through rock ’n’ roll. The chapter on Robert Johnson opens with the end of The Great Gatsby. Woodrow Wilson and D. H. Lawrence turn up in the Elvis section. A moment on the Band’s debut album inspires this: 'You couldn’t ask for a more perfect statement of the conviction that America is blessed, or of the lingering suspicion that it is cursed.' The Marcus worldview — the notion that pop culture matters as much as history and literature — is perfectly distilled in the prologue, where he connects the immortal sweep of art to Little Richard."—Manny Fernandez, Houston bureau chief

"Mystery Train changed a lot of things for me. Most basically, it plugged me into a lifetime’s worth of listening. Because of it, I erased 'English lit' as my college major and inked in 'American lit.' It remains the book I can’t help measuring critical writing against...I plan to give a copy of Mr. Marcus’s book to each of my children when they leave for college. It speaks intimately to a part of the cultural heritage that, in my haphazard way, I’ve tried to give them."–Dwight Garner, The New York Times

"Gets as close to the heart and soul of America and American music as the best of rock 'n' roll." –Bruce Springsteen
 
“Perhaps the finest book ever written about pop music.” –Alan Light, The New York Times Book Review, 2005
 
“Greil Marcus developed an ability to discern an art movement, or an entire country, lurking inside a song.” –The New Yorker, 2004
 
“Probably the most astute critic of American popular culture since Edmund Wilson.” –D.D. Guttenplan, London Review of Books, 2007
 
“The 1975 appearance of Greil Marcus’ first book, Mystery Train, was an explosion as unexpected and indelible as the first records Elvis Presley had cut almost exactly twenty years before.” –Mark Rozzo, Los Angeles Times’ Book Review, 2006

Auteur

Greil Marcus

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The perfect gift for music fans and anyone who loves artists like Elvis Presley, Randy Newman, Sly Stone, Robert Johnson, and Harmonica Frank.

In 1975, Greil Marcus's Mystery Train changed the way readers thought about rock 'n' roll and continues to be sought out today by music fans and anyone interested in pop culture. Looking at recordings by six key artists-Robert Johnson, Harmonica Frank, Randy Newman, the Band, Sly Stone, and Elvis Presley-Marcus offers a complex and unprecedented analysis of the relationship between rock 'n' roll and American culture. In this latest edition, Marcus provides an extensively updated and rewritten Note and Discographies section, exploring the recordings' evolution and continuing impact.

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CROSSING THE BORDER

When the Band surfaced in 1968 with Music from Big Pink they had been playing rock ’n’ roll music for more than half as long as there had been such a thing. What mattered most, though, was that they had put in their years together, as a group. A rock ’n’ roll group is a banding together of individuals for the purpose of achieving something that none of them can get on their own: money, fame, the right sound, something less easy to put into words. But what begins as a marriage of convenience sometimes takes on its own value. An identity comes into being that transcends individual personalities, but does not obscure them—in fact, it is the group, sometimes only the group, that makes individuals visible. The Beatles, after all, were the most satisfying and complex testament to the limits of self-reliance most of us have ever known; they were also proof of the limits of a common bond. Groups are images of community. …