Chris examines Bob Dylan's rather wonderful THINGS HAVE CHANGED
Category: Articles
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THE BEATLES: Who Could Ask For More: Overview and Chapter Summary
WHO COULD ASK FOR MORE: RECLAIMING THE BEATLES …When asked by a journalist whether the group intended writing any anti-war songs, John – without a moment’s hesitation – replied tartly that ALL their songs were anti-war songs. These songs articulated both the immense fear that lay just beneath the surface of the supposedly...
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RICHARD THOMPSON Sweet Warrior
Richard Thompson can transport you to places in his songs like no-one else. Drawing his inspiration from folk songs, oral tales, tattered history books, half remembered stories, bizarre websites and advertising catalogues, Thompson is a master of time and space. Many of his best songs place you in a specific historical context, then move...
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BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN Magic: A Review
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN: MAGIC: A REVIEW BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN: MAGIC Bruce Springsteen’s Magic is a journey into the darkness of the ‘American night’; a portrait of a country mired in confusion, its value-systems broken down, its soul in torment. As a writer, Springsteen is often misunderstood. This is partly because he often casts his narratives in...
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THE BEATLES: Extract from ‘Who Could Ask For More’ Two: Hey Jude
HEY JUDE This is the second extract from my forthcoming book Who Could Ask For More: Reclaiming The Beatles. This extract features what may well be their finest hour, and explores how it focuses on the relationship between Paul and John In 1968 The Beatles, along with the youth culture that they spoke for and...
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MOVIE: Children of Men: Contemporary Distopia
I saw a film today, oh boy…. It’s only once every few years that you walk out of a film and you are so gobsmacked that you can hardly speak. It happened to me a couple of days ago on my first viewing of Alfonso Cuaron’s Children of Men, adapted from the novel by P.D....
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BOB DYLAN: Spirit On The Water
After the apocalyptic thunder subsides, a soft, jazzy shuffle takes us back to the beginning of all things: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty. Darkness was on the surface of the deep. God’s Spirit was hovering over the surface of the waters. God said,...
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BOB DYLAN: Thunder On The Mountain
…Everybody got to wonder What’s the matter with this cruel world today… MODERN TIMES begins, as it ends, in an apocalyptic landscape. The earth itself is in tumult. Volcanoes, hurricanes and whirlwinds scour the land. The power is cut. It’s like Hell’s Kitchen. Everything is broken. Hot stuff everywhere. For the singer, the writing is...