“The Last Time I Saw Richard”. . . is a Romantic tour-de-force with respect to lyrics, composition, and performance. In the folk song tradition, Mitchell sings to her own musical accompaniment, and there is no other instrument playing in the recording; yet, the melodic and harmonic complexity of the song makes for a performance farContinue reading ““All Romantics Meet the Same Fate Someday”: Joni Mitchell, Blue, and Romanticism”
Tag Archives: Romanticism
“Work Me, Lord”: Janis Joplin’s Kozmic Blues
Like the more traditional blues before her, Joplin’s soulful white blues, her “kozmic blues,” is similar to Romantic poetry, as it is charged with radical praxis; it is an unwaveringly personal music that conveys much about Joplin emotionally, and in turn, the sociocultural climate of the flower children in the mid- to late-1960s. The radicalContinue reading ““Work Me, Lord”: Janis Joplin’s Kozmic Blues”
Aria Ligi’s Hymn to Equity
My endorsement video for Aria Ligi‘s new collection of poems Hymn to Equity, a poetic response and tribute to the poetry of William Wordsworth.
Jane Williams, Rolling Stone: Reconstructing British Romanticism’s Guitar God(dess)
A major prototype of the British rock icon or guitar God, I will contend, is British Romanticism’s most famous guitarist, Jan Williams (1798-1884). . .in 1822, Shelley bought her a guitar and presented it with a poem, “With a Guitar, to Jane”. . . that instrument’s connotations in early modern and Romantic-era Britain, now largelyContinue reading “Jane Williams, Rolling Stone: Reconstructing British Romanticism’s Guitar God(dess)”
New Site Redesign
I’ve changed the title of this website to “The Philosophy of Contemporary Song” to better reflect site content over the next year. With a new title comes a new look. I’ll be blogging more soon about my latest book, Women in Rock, Women in Romanticism, then about Bob Dylan’s The Philosophy of Modern Song andContinue reading “New Site Redesign”
The Philosophy of Contemporary Song 