Books

“I can take them any way I please. On a crosswalk, in a bathtub, off a church pew. With a sudden fall, a chunk of food in the windpipe, a violent fever. In a sudden sharp breath, in prolonged agony, in their sleep. Up to me. I’ve never known why. I slip out of one night and into the next, nights like this, an unending blur of them, like white...

“Three great forces rule the world: Stupidity, Fear, and Greed,” Albert Einstein told us - and it’s easy to see he nailed it.
We see all three, all around us, all the time.

The second of these, fear, is a natural feature of the human mind - and a valuable survival time, in our Paleolithic past. Today, however, it is the weapon most often wielded...

The place of Kansas in classic rock is forever fixed, and songs like “Carry On Wayward Son”, “Dust in the Wind” and “Point of Know Return” will play on satellite radio for all time. But to any serious fan, Kansas isn’t just a top-shelf classic rock band; they are a top-shelf progressive rock band – America’s first and best.

That’s what the...

In the beginning, there was Surak – “The greatest of all who ever lived on our planet, Captain,” according to Spock, “The father of all we became.”

In Star Trek lore, Surak was a Vulcan philosopher-scientist who created the philosophy of reason that ultimately set his people on a less violent and more serene path. It happened around Earth’s 4th...

“Three great forces rule the world: Stupidity, Fear, and Greed,” Albert Einstein told us - and it’s easy to see he nailed it.
We see all three, all around us, all the time.

The first of these, stupidity, enables the others: if not for personal and institutional stupidity, the greedy couldn’t leverage the fear that allow the greedy to do the harm...

It’s nearly impossible to think of the Beatles in the context of their times without thinking of their politics: their positions on the Establishment, the counterculture, the Vietnam War, the Feminist Movement, the class struggle – we remember it all.

And yet… the fact is, they were constrained from sharing their political opinions either in...

It’s nearly impossible to think of the Beatles in the context of their times without thinking of their politics: their positions on the Establishment, the counterculture, the Vietnam War, the Feminist Movement, the class struggle – we remember at all.

During their eight years recording together as a band, they delivered 14 songs that had...

The Beatles left an indelible mark not only on music, but on the culture in which they created it. In a time of great and sudden change, they led a generation into new territory, redefining the social landscape as a place where men and women could try on new roles. They led this change through their music, their public personae, and - under...

There have been few darker days in American history than January 6, 2021.

There have been few darker periods than the eight years following June 15, 2015, when Donald Trump descended the golden escalator in Trump Tower to announce his candidacy for the presidency of the United States. There have been few periods as precarious, as the nation’s...

The first book in the series - “Red Brains, Blue Brains: The Psychology of MAGA” - covered authoritarianism generally, but its focus was more on the moment – the season of Donald Trump and his MAGA movement, which still threatens to persist at this writing. This second book seeks to expand the discussion beyond Trump and MAGA, peering into the...

The first entry in the Red Brains, Blue Brains series – The Psychology of MAGA – explored the psychological and neurological foundations of political thought, highlighting how those who lean hard into authoritarianism and patriarchy are not simply advocating a particular worldview, but following impulses in their brains and social responses that...

The Rock Candy series combines pop-music scholarship with a sense of fun and entertainment. This entry surveys the best of what is not-so-commonly known about the Beatles, with broad commentary on their creativity, innovation, cultural experimentation, and the scope of their impact on modern music and culture.

He’s flamboyant. He’s outrageous. He’s as over-the-top as any pop/rock star has ever been. But Elton John is also a consummate musician, a creative force that redefined what music could be. With Bernie Taupin, he is second only to Lennon and McCartney in the pantheon of great songwriters. Rock Candy presents Elton in easily-digested bits and...

From their humble schoolboy origins in England’s workaday Sheffield to the pinnacle of rock superstardom, Def Leppard has forged its own path, defying the expectations of critics, the music industry, and even their own fanbase. Rock Candy takes up the Leppard story and follows the British heavy metal quintet from its earliest rehearsals through...

The music of the Millennials - people born after 1982 and before 2000 - is unlike anything that had ever come before it.

It was a mash-up of punk from the Seventies, heavy metal from the Eighties, and grunge from the Nineties, all wrapped up in ‘alternative’, whatever that still means. It was messy, it was emotional, it was glorious - and it all...

The Rock Candy series continues with Boston: The Classic Years, 1976-1988.

Few bands in classic rock history left a crater as big as Boston did when they hit. Their pristine sound was as hard and gritty as anything ever heard on the radio, yet as clear as the midnight sky. The fiery guitars of Tom Scholz and the celestial vocals of Brad Delp were...

The first volume of Rock Candy: The Beatles was written almost 15 years ago, concurrent with the first edition of The Quotable Beatles and To the Toppermost of the Poppermost. As a result, many quotes from the former and songs from the latter were included in Rock Candy, to add to its variety.

The same is true today, with this second Rock Candy...

The Seventies were a distinct and provocative chapter in the history of rock, and of the bands that emerged in that era, none was more distinct and provocative than Boston. Tom Scholz’s unlikely basement brainchild blasted out of radios across the US with unprecedented energy and melodic integrity and staggering harmonic power, oozing musical...

You never know, when a band first hits the radio, whether the music or the band are going to be timeless.

As big as the Beatles were in 1964, 1965, no one really thought about whether or not we’d still be playing their music 40, 50, 60 years on. And it’s not just the Beatles. We’re still listening to Led Zeppelin. And Queen. And Pink Floyd.

And...

When they were together, the Beatles put out 28 #1 hit singles - a record that remains unbroken, almost years later. Astonishingly, they proceeded to accumulate 20 more as solo artists, a feat likewise never duplicated. All 48 songs are documented in this accessible, trivia-filled compendium, a must-have for lovers of the band’s timeless music.