The sweetness vanished from the man’s face like paint washed away by the Oklahoma storm. He didn’t take his hand out of his hoodie pocket, but he took two steps backward, his muddy boots slipping slightly on the slick grease near the diner’s grease trap. The two newly arrived bikers didn’t shout. They didn’t rev … Read more
The Machine Awakens The rain didn’t let up. It just turned colder, shifting from the heavy, roaring drops of a summer storm into a relentless, freezing mist that clung to the asphalt of Harland County. Inside the Ironbell, the air grew thick with the smell of damp leather, stale black coffee, and a cold, quiet … Read more
The silence on my street was absolute. My neighbor’s house remained dark, but I knew eyes were pressed against the glass. Lily’s grip on my shirt tightened so much I could hear the fabric stretch. My mind was still trapped in a tunnel of smoke and eight-year-old grief, remembering the frantic, heartbreaking rush to St. … Read more
The history of Led Zeppelin’s relationship with other people’s music is the most documented and most vigorously debated plagiarism story in rock history, and it is complicated by a fact that the straightforward plagiarism narrative does not fully accommodate: that what Zeppelin did with the material they took was, in almost every case, something that … Read more
The silence that followed Eleanor’s whisper was heavier than the June heat pressing against the windowpane. Outside, the distant, faint wail of a siren began to bleed through the afternoon air—the police I had called only minutes ago, back when I thought the monster in the hallway was trying to hurt the gentlest soul in … Read more
In 1987, Elvis Costello and Paul McCartney began a songwriting collaboration that produced Flowers in the Dirt — the McCartney album that many critics consider his strongest post-Beatles work and that represented a creative reinvigoration that the preceding decade of McCartney’s solo career had not consistently demonstrated. The collaboration was professional in its origin — … Read more
Tom Waits and Bruce Springsteen occupy positions in American music that are adjacent in their geography — both drew from the specific tradition of the American outsider, the person living at the margins of the prosperity that the country’s mythology promises, the man in the bar at last call or the woman in the factory … Read more
Music has always been more than entertainment. At its best, it challenges power, questions injustice, and gives ordinary people a voice when words alone aren’t enough. Some protest songs are tied to a specific moment in history, while others become timeless because the issues they address—war, inequality, racism, corruption, and freedom—never truly disappear. Decades after … Read more
Few artists can say they moved Sting to tears by performing one of his own songs—but Lady Gaga did exactly that. During the Kennedy Center Honors, Gaga delivered a breathtaking rendition of Sting’s 1993 solo hit, If I Ever Lose My Faith in You. From the moment she stepped onstage, the audience was captivated by … Read more
Few rock vocalists have earned as much admiration as Steve Perry, and one unforgettable performance explains why. During Journey’s 1981 stop in Houston, Texas, Perry delivered a stunning live rendition of Don’t Stop Believin’ that many fans still consider even more powerful than the original studio recording. Released earlier that year on the band’s blockbuster … Read more