Randy Newman on Jackson Browne (on Everyman)

Jeff Helgeson sent this along when Stayin Alive helped him put some Randy Newman puzzle pieces together: 

After reading Stayin’ Alive, I now know why Jackson Browne matters to Randy Newman. Newman’s song, “Piece of the Pie” was always an enigma. The main point is hard to miss: “Jesus Christ it stinks here high and low,” Newman sings over a carnival of piano and wind instruments, “The rich are getting richer/I should know/While we’re going up/You’re going down.” 

Blogging for Michael Moore about David Frum

When I first saw Roger and Me in 1989, I could barely hold it together. It was as if someone was giving voice to everything I had felt for much of the 1980s. He not only re-invented a film genre, he shattered a growing silence about working people. I've been a fan, a critical one perhaps, ever since. I know he tools with his narratives,  plays with facts, and inserts a lot of needless film tricks, which makes him an example of "left wing irrationality" for some as Kevin Mattson called him in Dissent (and for which I wrote a defense of Moore).

Rust on Rust

The Cleveland Plain Dealer put Stayin' Alive on the cover of its book section, calling it "an engrossing new book" by someone with "an ear for the power and poetry of vernacular speech." That's nice. The reviewer gets a couple of details about the book wrong, but nails the spirit of the thing right on the head. The introduction quotes Dwight Yoakam ("And after all those years of payin' union dues / It sure didn't seem to count for much when we got our layoff news") and the cover image is of Born in the USA, which together make everything OK. The text is here: 'Stayin' Alive' by Jefferson Cowie charts how it all went wrong for the U.S. working class. 

Never Made it as a Working Class Hero

My ten year old son Aidan is a big Green Day fan. While I'd never confuse Green Day's stadium rock with punk (as the band seems to want us to do), I've grown mildly interested in their sound. When their song "21st Century Breakdown" came out last year, however, I was pretty astounded as it appeared that writer and lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong had gotten his hands on advanced copy of Stayin' Alive. The energy and ideas of the song aren't derived from academia, however, but from Armstrong's autobiography, his politics, John Lennon, and maybe a little Bruce juice. Armstrong, born in '72, was

Higher in Education does not mean Higher in Thought

Perhaps there is an inverse relationship betwen the quality of ideas and how far up the education pyramid one goes. I don't really believe that, but a few recent comments and reviews of Stayin' Alive may suggest as much. 

We begin with an innocent blue-collar blogger who wrote an angry letter to the editor after an interview I did, about which he voiced disdain at Mr. Ivy League Professor claiming to speak about "the working class" (especially by talking about disco).  It's a wonderful expression of animosity toward a group of people, those in the higher ed racket, who have done absolutely nothing for him or his people besides trying to count the number of footnotes that can dance on the head of a pin. Some quality populist rage here. He said he wanted to read a book my dad, who worked hard for a living, would have written--not me. All fair enough. Ironically, I think the tone of his arguments can be explained by what happened in the 70s. Nonetheless, I believe he was a little surprised when I commented on his blog, urging him to give the book a try. You can read more here: Rock and Confusion.