Unedited video of the November 2025 edition of “Conversations with our Curator,” featuring Jay Sweet on “Ray Brown: His Life and Music.” The book is the first full-length biography of Ray Brown, one of the most outstanding practitioners of bass playing in jazz music. Brown’s career spans the most popular and creative eras of jazz, from 1940 to the dawn of the 21st century. During his early professional career, Ray Brown first toured with territory bands, and by 1946, he was hired by Dizzy Gillespie to play in his small group and big band. At this time, Brown became the first call New York bassist to accompany other bop musicians like Charlie Parker and Bud Powell. He also served as the bassist with Norman Granz’s Jazz at the Philharmonic and frequently recorded with an impressive stable of jazz musicians. In 1947 Ray Brown married legendary singer Ella Fitzgerald and soon divided his time by working as the leader of Fitzgerald’s trio while playing with Gillespie, Jazz at the Philharmonic, and as a guest accompanist.
Unedited video of 1 of 2 November 2025 editions of “Conversations with our Curator,” featuring Alan Light on “Don’t Stop: Why We (Still) Love Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours.”
The author of “The Holy or the Broken” and former editor-in-chief of Vibe brings his “thoughtful and illuminating” (The New York Times) insight to Fleetwood Mac’s iconic album Rumours, celebrating its story, mythology, and enduring impact.
On January 1, 1975, struggling young singer-songwriter Lindsey Buckingham was invited to join the veteran blues band Fleetwood Mac. He agreed on the condition that his girlfriend, an equally unknown vocalist named Stevie Nicks, also be included. Within two years, Rumours was born—and went on to become one of the most popular albums of all time.
Almost five decades later, it is the only classic rock record that still attracts young listeners and continues to top sales and streaming charts. In Don’t Stop, award-winning journalist and bestselling author Alan Light unravels the enduring allure of Fleetwood Mac’s monumental album. Since its 1977 release, Rumours has captivated generations with its unparalleled blend of romantic turmoil and musical genius. Light explores the album’s transformation from a pop phenomenon to a cultural touchstone, and its unique ability to remain relevant in today’s rapidly changing music scene.
Drawing on in-depth interviews with current artists inspired by Fleetwood Mac, as well as fans who have only recently discovered the album, Light investigates what keep Rumours at the forefront of popular culture, from Glee to Saturday Night Live to Daisy Jones & the Six. Through insightful analysis and storytelling, Don’t Stop celebrates the album’s trail blazing sound and diverse voices, and the emotional depth that continues to fascinate audiences. From the incredible soap opera behind the album’s creation to its embrace in the age of TikTok, this book presents a kaleidoscopic view of a landmark work that has transcended its time.
Unedited video of the October 2025 edition of “Conversations with our Curator,” featuring Allison Bumsted on “TeenSet, Teen Fan Magazines, and Rock Journalism: Don’t Let the Name Fool You.” Ultimately,the bookillustratesin 1964, TeenSet’s role in popular music journalism has been overlooked and underappreciated. Teen fan magazines, often written by women and assumed to be read only by young girls, have been misconstrued by scholars and journalists to lack “seriousness” in their coverage of popular music. TeenSet, Teen Fan Magazines, and Rock Journalism: Don’t Let the Name Fool You disputes the prevailing conception that teen fan magazines are insignificant and elevates the publications to their proper place in popular music history.
Analyzing TeenSet across its five-year publication span, Allison Bumsted shows that the magazine is an important artifact of 1960s American popular culture. Through its critical commentary and iconic rock photography, TeenSet engaged not only with musical genres and scenes, but also broader social issues such as politics, race, and gender. These countercultural discourses have been widely overlooked due to a generalization of teen fan magazines, which have wrongly presumed the magazine to be antithetical to rock music and as unimportant to broader American culture at the time.
Bumsted also examines the leadership of editor Judith Sims and female TeenSet staff writers such as Carol Gold. By offering a counternarrative to leading male-oriented narratives in music journalism, she challenges current discourses that have marginalized women in popular music history. Ultimately,the bookillustrates that TeenSet and teen fan magazines were meaningful not only to readers, but also to the broader development of the popular music press and 1960s cultural commentary.
Unedited video of the September 2025 edition of “Conversations with our Curator,” featuring William Patrick Tandy on the literary magazine, “Beach Badge.” Beach Badge is your entrée to the salt-encrusted, sand-clogged magic, mayhem, and mystery of the New Jersey Shore, as told by those who have lived it. From blistering August sands to the damp gauze of a winter sky, Beach Badge collects the experience of local and benny alike in the form of personal stories, essays, and other artwork about or inspired by life at the shore…
See more at: https://eightstonepress.com/beach-badge/.
Unedited video of the August 2025 edition of “Conversations with our Curator,” featuring 2x GRAMMY award-winner author, archivist, and educator Ricky Riccardi on “Stomp Off, Let’s Go: The Early Years of Louis Armstrong.”
In “Stomp Off, Let’s Go,” Riccardi tells the enthralling story of the iconic trumpeter’s meteoric rise to fame. Beginning with Armstrong’s youth in New Orleans, Riccardi transports readers through Armstrong’s musical and personal development, including his initial trip to Chicago to join Joe “King” Oliver’s band, his first to New York to meet Fletcher Henderson, and his eventual return to Chicago, where he changed the course of music with the Hot Five and Hot Seven recordings.
While this period of Armstrong’s life is perhaps more familiar than others, Riccardi enriches extant narratives with recently unearthed archival materials, including a rare draft of pianist, composer, and Armstrong’s second wife Lillian “Lil” Hardin Armstrong’s autobiography. Riccardi similarly tackles the perceived notion of Armstrong as a “sell-out” during his later years, highlighting the many ways in which Armstrong’s musical style and personal values in fact remained steady throughout his career. By foregrounding the voices of Armstrong and his contemporaries, “Stomp Off, Let’s Go” offers a more intimate exploration of Armstrong’s personal and professional relationships, in turn providing essential insights into how Armstrong evolved into one of America’s most beloved icons.
Unedited video of the special October 2024 edition of “Conversations with our Curator,” featuring Steven Hyden, author of “There Was Nothing You Could Do: “Born in the USA” and the End of the Heartland.”
About the book:
On June 4, 1984, Columbia Records issued what would become one of the best-selling and most impactful rock albums of all time. An instant classic, Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the U.S.A. would prove itself to be a landmark not only for the man who made it, but rock music in general and even the larger American culture over the next 40 years.
In “There Was Nothing You Could Do,” veteran rock critic Steven Hyden shows exactly how this record became such a pivotal part of the American tapestry. Alternating between insightful criticism, meticulous journalism, and personal anecdotes, Hyden delves into the songs that made—and didn’t make—the final cut, including the tracks that wound up on its sister album, 1982’s Nebraska. He also investigates the myriad reasons why Springsteen ran from and then embraced the success of his most popular (and most misunderstood) LP, as he carefully toed the line between balancing his commercial ambitions and being co-opted by the machine.
But the book doesn’t stop there. Beyond Springsteen’s own career, Hyden explores the role the album played in a greater historical context, documenting not just where the country was in the tumultuous aftermath of Vietnam and Watergate, but offering a dream of what it might become—and a perceptive forecast of what it turned into decades later. As Springsteen himself reluctantly conceded, many of the working-class middle American progressives Springsteen wrote about in 1984 had turned into resentful and scorned Trump voters by the 2010s. And though it wasn’t the future he dreamed of, the cautionary warnings tucked within Springsteen’s heartfelt lyrics prove that the chaotic turmoil of our current moment has been a long time coming.
How did we lose Springsteen’s heartland? And what can listening to this prescient album teach us about the decline of our country? In “There Was Nothing You Could Do,” Hyden takes readers on a journey to find out.
Unedited video of the May 2025 edition of “Conversations with our Curator,” featuring Michael C. Gabriele on “New Jersey Folk Revival Music: History & Tradition.”
New Jersey shaped folk revival music into an art form. The saga began with the bawdy tunes sung in colonial-era taverns and continued with the folk songs that echoed through the Pine Barrens. “Guitar Mania” became a phenomenon in the 1800s, and twentieth-century studio recordings in Camden were monumental. Performances by legendary artists like Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Joan Baez and Bob Dylan spotlighted the state’s folk revival movement and led to a flourishing community of folk organizations, festivals and open-mic nights at village coffeehouses. Author Michael Gabriele traces the evolution and living history of folk revival music in the Garden State and how it has changed the lives of people on stage and in the audience.
Unedited video of the May 2025 edition of “Conversations with our Curator,” featuring Michael C. Gabriele on “New Jersey Folk Revival Music: History & Tradition.”
New Jersey shaped folk revival music into an art form. The saga began with the bawdy tunes sung in colonial-era taverns and continued with the folk songs that echoed through the Pine Barrens. “Guitar Mania” became a phenomenon in the 1800s, and twentieth-century studio recordings in Camden were monumental. Performances by legendary artists like Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Joan Baez and Bob Dylan spotlighted the state’s folk revival movement and led to a flourishing community of folk organizations, festivals and open-mic nights at village coffeehouses. Author Michael Gabriele traces the evolution and living history of folk revival music in the Garden State and how it has changed the lives of people on stage and in the audience.
Unedited video of the April 2025 edition of “Conversations with our Curator,” featuring John Massaro, author of “Shades of Springsteen.”
One of the secrets to Bruce Springsteen’s enduring popularity over the past fifty years is the way fans feel a deep personal connection to his work. Yet even as the connection often stays grounded in details from his New Jersey upbringing, Springsteen’s music references a rich array of personalities from John Steinbeck to Amadou Diallo and beyond, inspiring fans to seek out and connect with a whole world’s worth of art, literature, and life stories.
In this unique blend of memoir and musical analysis, John Massaro reflects on his experiences as a lifelong fan of The Boss and one of the first professors to design a college course on Springsteen’s work. Focusing on five of the Jersey rocker’s main themes—love, masculinity, sports, politics, and the power of music—he shows how they are represented in Springsteen’s lyrics and shares stories from his own life that powerfully resonate with those lyrics. Meanwhile, paying tribute to Springsteen’s inclusive vision, he draws connections among figures as seemingly disparate as James Joyce, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Thomas Aquinas, Bobby Darin, and Lin-Manuel Miranda. Shades of Springsteen offers a deeply personal take on the musical and cultural legacies of an American icon.
Unedited video of the March 2025 edition of “Conversations with our Curator,” featuring Dewar MacLeod, author of “Making the Scene in the Garden State: Popular Music in New Jersey from Edison to Springsteen and Beyond.”
“Making the Scene in the Garden State” explores New Jersey’s rich musical heritage through stories about the musicians, listeners and fans who came together to create sounds from across the American popular music spectrum. The book includes chapters on the beginnings of musical recording in Thomas Edison’s factories in West Orange; early recording and the invention of the Victrola at Victor Records’ Camden complex; Rudy Van Gelder’s recording studios (for Blue Note, Prestige, and other jazz labels) in Hackensack and Englewood Cliffs; Zacherley and the afterschool dance television show Disc-o-Teen, broadcast from Newark in the 1960s; Bruce Springsteen’s early years on the Jersey Shore at the Upstage Club in Asbury Park; and, the 1980s indie rock scene centered at Maxwell’s in Hoboken. Concluding with a foray into the thriving local music scenes of today, the book examines the sounds, sights and textures of the locales where New Jerseyans have gathered to rock, bop, and boogie.
Unedited video of the February 2025 edition of “Conversations with our Curator,” featuring Josh Davidson, author of “In Cahoots in Asbury Park.”
“In Cahoots, in Asbury Park” is the story of one of the most important cities in music history, from the perspective of one band, Cahoots, and their closest counterparts and fans in the Asbury Park music scene. The book begins with the stories of two musicians whose careers literally began on separate side of the railroad tracks that divide Asbury Park in half at Springwood Avenue. In July 1970, Cahoots’ bassist, John Luraschi, was on the roof of The Upstage music club, surrounded by armed musicians who set out to protect the club, where artists such as Bruce Springsteen, Steven Van Zandt and “Southside” Johnny Lyon honed their craft, before becoming music legends. Luraschi felt indebted to the club’s owners, Tom and Margaret Potter, who provided him with a venue for self-expression after he lost his parents in his early 20s. On the west side of the tracks, Ernest “Boom” Carter benefited from the guidance and mentorship of the jazz legends that performed at its many establishments, such as the Orchid Lounge and Turf Club. From the front of Asbury Park High School, Carter, who later played drums on Springsteen’s song “Born to Run,” watched the rioters destroy everything the African-American community had built, in response to de facto segregation on the east side of the city. The book provides a thorough account of Asbury Park’s musical heritage, told in third person through the eyes of those who experienced and lived it. The book completely outlines the entire careers of Cahoots’ key members and traces how each met and together carved out a slice of the Asbury sound.
Unedited video of the January 2025 edition of “Conversations with our Curator,” featuring June Skinner Sawyers, author of “We Take Care of Our Own: Faith, Class, and Politics in the Art of Bruce Springsteen.”
“We Take Care of Our Own” traces the evolution of Bruce Springsteen’s beliefs, beginning with his New Jersey childhood and ending with his most recent works from Springsteen on Broadway to Letter to You. The author follows the singer’s life, examining his albums and a variety of influences (both musical and nonmusical), especially his Catholic upbringing and his family life, to show how he became an outspoken icon for working-class America—indeed for working-class life throughout the world. In this way, the author emphasizes the universality of Springsteen’s canon and depicts how a working-class sensibility can apply to anyone anywhere who believes in fairness and respect. In addition, the author places Springsteen in the historical context not only of literature (especially John Steinbeck) but also of the art world (specifically the work of Thomas Hart Benton and Edward Hopper). Among the themes explored in the book include community, a sense of place, America as the Promised Land, the myth of the West, and, ultimately, mortality.
Unedited video of the special September 2024 edition of “Conversations with our Curator,” featuring Drs. Ken Womack & Ken Campbell on “Bruce Songs: The Music of Springsteen Album by Album, Song by Song.”
Bruce Songs: The Music of Bruce Springsteen, Album-by-Album, Song-by-Song is an authoritative guide coauthored by renowned music scholar Kenneth Womack and music historian Kenneth L. Campbell and offering an in-depth exploration of Bruce Springsteen’s musical legacy. Covering Springsteen’s entire discography, from Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. to Only the Strong Survive, this unique book combines historical context, literary analysis, and meticulous research.
Unlike any other resource, it provides detailed analyses of each album, essays on their historical significance, and a chronological examination of every studio song. Discover the stories behind the recordings and gain insight into Springsteen’s creative process.
Unedited video of the special October 2024 edition of “Conversations with our Curator,” featuring Steven Hyden, author of “There Was Nothing You Could Do: “Born in the USA” and the End of the Heartland.” In “There Was Nothing You Could Do,” HyHyHydends issued what would become one of the best-selling and most impactful rock albums of all time. An instant classic, Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the U.S.A. would prove itself to be a landmark not only for the man who made it, but rock music in general and even the larger American culture over the next 40 years.
In “There Was Nothing You Could Do,” veteran rock critic Steven Hyden shows exactly how this record became such a pivotal part of the American tapestry. Alternating between insightful criticism, meticulous journalism, and personal anecdotes, Hyden delves into the songs that made—and didn’t make—the final cut, including the tracks that wound up on its sister album, 1982’s Nebraska. He also investigates the myriad reasons why Springsteen ran from and then embraced the success of his most popular (and most misunderstood) LP, as he carefully toed the line between balancing his commercial ambitions and being co-opted by the machine.
But the book doesn’t stop there. Beyond Springsteen’s own career, Hyden explores the role the album played in a greater historical context, documenting not just where the country was in the tumultuous aftermath of Vietnam and Watergate, but offering a dream of what it might become—and a perceptive forecast of what it turned into decades later. As Springsteen himself reluctantly conceded, many of the working-class middle American progressives Springsteen wrote about in 1984 had turned into resentful and scorned Trump voters by the 2010s. And though it wasn’t the future he dreamed of, the cautionary warnings tucked within Springsteen’s heartfelt lyrics prove that the chaotic turmoil of our current moment has been a long time coming.
How did we lose Springsteen’s heartland? And what can listening to this prescient album teach us about the decline of our country? In “There Was Nothing You Could Do,” Hyden takes readers on a journey to find out.
Unedited video of the August 2024 edition of “Conversations with our Curator,” featuring Holly George-Warren on her books, “Janis: Her Life and Music” (2019) and “Behind the Seams: My Life in Rhinestones” (2023).
From hollygeorgewarren.com:
Janis Joplin has passed into legend as a brash, impassioned soul doomed by the pain that produced one of the most extraordinary voices in rock history. But Holly George-Warren provides a revelatory and deeply satisfying portrait of a woman who wasn’t all about suffering. Janis was a perfectionist: a passionate, erudite musician who was born with talent but also worked exceptionally hard to develop it. She was a woman who pushed the boundaries of gender and sexuality long before it was socially acceptable. She was a sensitive seeker who wanted to marry and settle down—but couldn’t, or wouldn’t. She was a Texan who yearned to flee Texas but could never quite get away—even after becoming a countercultural icon in San Francisco.
From dollyparton.com:
Featuring behind-the-scenes stories from Dolly’s life and career, and the largest reveal of her private costume archive, this gorgeously photographed book spotlights her most iconic looks from the 1960s to now. The sky-high heels, famous wigs, bold makeup, eye catching stage clothes—she shares them all. Along the way, Dolly discusses memorable outfits from her past, from the clothes her mother would sew out of feed sacks (including her “Coat of Many Colors”) and the bold dresses and hairdos that shook up Nashville, to the bunny suit on the cover of Playboy, evening wear at Studio 54, costumes from her most famous film and TV roles, and the daring styles that continue to entertain and inspire today.
Unedited video of the special September 2024 bonus edition of “Conversations with our Curator,” featuring Nick Corasaniti talking about his book, “I Don’t Want to Go Home: An Oral History of the Stone Pony.”
Unedited video of the August 2024 edition of “Conversations with our Curator,” featuring Holly George-Warren on her books, “Janis: Her Life and Music” (2019) and “Behind the Seams: My Life in Rhinestones” (2023).
From hollygeorgewarren.com:
Janis Joplin has passed into legend as a brash, impassioned soul doomed by the pain that produced one of the most extraordinary voices in rock history. But Holly George-Warren provides a revelatory and deeply satisfying portrait of a woman who wasn’t all about suffering. Janis was a perfectionist: a passionate, erudite musician who was born with talent but also worked exceptionally hard to develop it. She was a woman who pushed the boundaries of gender and sexuality long before it was socially acceptable. She was a sensitive seeker who wanted to marry and settle down—but couldn’t, or wouldn’t. She was a Texan who yearned to flee Texas but could never quite get away—even after becoming a countercultural icon in San Francisco.
From dollyparton.com:
Featuring behind-the-scenes stories from Dolly’s life and career, and the largest reveal of her private costume archive, this gorgeously photographed book spotlights her most iconic looks from the 1960s to now. The sky-high heels, famous wigs, bold makeup, eye catching stage clothes—she shares them all. Along the way, Dolly discusses memorable outfits from her past, from the clothes her mother would sew out of feed sacks (including her “Coat of Many Colors”) and the bold dresses and hairdos that shook up Nashville, to the bunny suit on the cover of Playboy, evening wear at Studio 54, costumes from her most famous film and TV roles, and the daring styles that continue to entertain and inspire today.
Unedited video of the July 2024 edition of “Conversations with our Curator,” featuring Warren Zanes on his new book, “Deliver Me from Nowhere: The Making of Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska.”
Without Nebraska, Bruce Springsteen might not be who he is today. The natural follow-up to Springsteen’s hugely successful album The River should have been the hit-packed Born in the U.S.A. But instead, in 1982, he came out with an album consisting of a series of dark songs he had recorded by himself, for himself. But more than forty years later, Nebraska is arguably Springsteen’s most important record—the lasting clue to understanding not just his career as an artist and the vision behind it, but also the man himself.
Nebraska is rough and unfinished, recorded on cassette tape with a simple four-track recorder by Springsteen, alone in his bedroom, just as the digital future was announcing itself. And yet Springsteen now considers it his best album. Nebraska expressed a turmoil that was reflective of the mood of the country, but it was also a symptom of trouble in the artist’s life, the beginnings of a mental breakdown that Springsteen would only talk about openly decades after the album’s release.
Warren Zanes spoke to many people involved with making Nebraska, including Bruce Springsteen himself. He also interviewed more than a dozen celebrated artists and musical insiders, from Rosanne Cash to Steven Van Zandt, about their reactions to the album. Zanes interweaves these conversations with inquiries into the myriad cultural touchpoints, including Terrence Malick’s Badlands and the short stories of Flannery O’Conner, that influenced Springsteen as he was writing the album’s haunting songs. The result is a textured and revelatory account of not only a crucial moment in the career of an icon but also a record that upended all expectations and predicted a home-recording revolution.
Unedited video of the June 2024 edition of “Conversations with our Curator,” featuring Laura Flam & Emily Sieu Liebowitz on their new book, “But Will You Love Me Tomorrow: An Oral History of the ’60s Girls Groups.”
The girl group sound, made famous and unforgettable by acts like The Ronettes, The Shirelles, The Supremes, and The Vandellas, took over the airwaves by capturing the mixture of innocence and rebellion emblematic of America in the 1960s.
As songs like “Will You Love Me Tomorrow,” “Then He Kissed Me,” and “Be My Baby” rose to the top of the charts, girl groups cornered the burgeoning post-war market of teenage rock and roll fans, indelibly shaping the trajectory of pop music in the process. While the songs are essential to the American canon, many of the artists remain all but anonymous to most listeners.
With more than 100 subjects that made the music, from the singers to the songwriters, to their agents, managers, and sound engineers—and even to the present-day celebrities inspired by their lasting influence– “But Will You Love Me Tomorrow: An Oral History of 60s Girl Groups” tells a national coming-of-age story that gives particular insight into the experiences of the female singers and songwriters who created the movement.
Unedited video of the May 2024 edition of “Conversations with our Curator,” featuring Ken Womack on his new book, “Living the Beatles’ Legend: The Untold Story of Mal Evans.”
This is the first full-length biography of Mal Evans, the Beatles’ beloved friend, confidant, and roadie – an invaluable member of the band’s inner circle. A towering figure in horn-rimmed glasses, Evans loomed large in the Beatles’ story, contributing at times as a performer and sometime lyricist, while struggling mightily to protect his beloved “boys.” He was there for the whole of the group’s remarkable, unparalleled story: from the Shea Stadium triumph through the creation of the timeless cover art for Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and the famous Let It Be rooftop concert.
Leaving a stable job as telecommunications engineer to serve as road manager for this fledgling band, Mal was the odd man out from the start—older, married with children, and without any music business experience. And yet he threw himself headlong into their world, traveling across the globe and making himself indispensable.
In the years after the Beatles’ disbandment, “Big Mal” continued in their employ as each embarked upon solo careers. By 1974, he was determined to make his name as a songwriter and record producer, setting off for a new life in Los Angeles, where he penned his memoirs. But in January 1976, on the verge of sharing his book with the world, Evans’s story came to a tragic end during a domestic standoff with the LAPD.
For Beatles devotees, Mal’s life and untimely death have always been shrouded in mystery. For decades, his diaries, manuscripts, and vast collection of memorabilia was missing, seemingly lost forever—until now.
Working with full access to Mal’s unpublished archives and having conducted hundreds of new interviews, Beatles scholar and author Ken Womack affords readers with a full telling of Mal’s unknown story at the heart of the Beatles’ legend. Lavishly illustrated with unseen photos and ephemera from Mal’s archives, “Living the Beatles’ Legend: The Untold Story of Mal Evans” is the missing puzzle piece in the Fab Four’s incredible story.
Unedited video of the April 2024 edition of “Conversations with our Curator,” featuring Jim Cullen on “Bridge and Tunnel Boys: Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel, and the Sound of the American Century” and “Born in the USA: Bruce Springsteen and the American Tradition.”
“Bridge and Tunnel Boys” compares the life and work of Long Islander Joel and Asbury Park, New Jersey, native Springsteen, considering how each man forged a distinctive sound that derived from his unique position on the periphery of the Big Apple.
“Born in the U.S.A.,” a pioneering book in the field of Springsteen scholarship when it first appeared in 1997, remains one of the definitive studies of Springsteen’s work and its impact on American culture. 2024’s new, third edition of “Born in the U.S.A.” is fully revised and updated, incorporating discussion of Springsteen’s wide output in the 21st century.
Unedited video of the March 2024 Women’s History Month edition of “Conversations with our Curator,” featuring Lorraine Mangione & Donna Luff on “Mary Climbs In: The Journeys of Bruce Springsteen’s Female Fans.”
How have the women in Springsteen’s songs changed over time? And how do they speak to women listening? In “Mary Climbs In: The Journeys of Bruce Springsteen’s Women Fans,” Lorraine Mangione and Donna Luff explore the perspectives of women in Springsteen’s audience and in his music. Refuting outdated ideas of Springsteen as an artist who speaks mainly to men, they delve into women fans’ perspectives on how Springsteen’s music speaks to them as women, as well as their relationship to female characters in his songs. They also consider iconic female characters in Springsteen’s songs and how his portrayals of women have evolved over his career. Insights from fans and Springsteen scholars inform this timely conversation about women in Springsteen’s work from both sides of the artist-fan relationship.
Unedited video of the February 2024 edition of “Conversations with our Curator,” featuring David Hamilton Golland on his new book, “Livin’ Just to Find Emotion: Journey and the Story of American Rock.”
Since exploding on the scene in the late 1970s, Journey has inspired generations of fans with hit after hit. But hidden under this rock ‘n’ roll glory is a complex story of ambition, larger-than-life personalities, and clashes. David Hamilton Golland unearths the band’s true and complete biography, based on over a decade of interviews and thousands of sources.
When Steve Perry joined jazz-blues progressive rock band Journey in 1977, they saw a rise to the top, and their 1981 album Escape hit #1. But Perry’s quest for control led to Journey’s demise. They lost their record contract and much of their audience. After the unlikely comeback of “Don’t Stop Believin’” in movies, television, and sports stadiums, a new generation discovered Journey.
A professional historian, Golland dispels rehashed myths and also shows how race in popular music contributed to their breakout success. As the economy collapsed and as people abandoned the spirit of Woodstock in the late 70s, Journey used the rhythm of soul and Motown to inspire hope in primarily white teenagers’ lives. Decades later, the band and their signature song remain classics, and now, with singer Arnel Pineda, they are again a fixture in major stadiums worldwide.
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