Richard Meltzer’s comrade-in-words (and bars) Nick Tosches died last Sunday. What follows is a chapter from Meltzer’s novel, The Night (Alone), which is, per the author, “a spot-on take on my life with Nick in New York (1970-75).” Meltzer told your editor he tried to “‘fictionalize’ it as much as possible, so the Allman Brothers are called ‘British band Grudge.’” And he went on: “You could also throw in that Nick was THE ONLY BROTHER (AND TRUEST COLLEAGUE) I’VE EVER HAD.”
Music
Several Levels At High Decibels (Joni Mitchell sings “Coyote”)
“What do you think?” says Joni, an hour and a half into Martin Scorsese’s Rolling Thunder Revue. “I think you gotta come on the stage right now,” says Bob, sexy and imposing. “OK, I’m coming.”
Big Thief: Not Another Brooklyn Band
Big Thief is an alt-folk band from Brooklyn, but their spirit isn’t tied to that place. Usually, “Brooklyn band,” scares me off.
Black History Soundtrack
Sparked by outrages on the southern border, The Rev. William Barber will speak in Raleigh, North Carolina tomorrow where he’ll aim to update Frederick Douglass’s most famous speech: “What to the Slave is the Fourth of the July?” Rev. Barber’s address is titled: “What to the Immigrant and People of Color is the Fourth of July?” He’ll be speaking at the Pullen Memorial Baptist Church and the name of that institution reminded me of a hero of black music who grew up in Raleigh’s Baptist community. Don Pullen made blue-black music as profound as Douglass’s testament.
For Rev. Barber (and every citizen), three shots of Pullenspiration…
The Kate Smith Perplex
i’m a simple man by Nature
from my “subject position” or point of view Don’t Compare Identify
Homegoing & Tom DeMott’s Hidden Obit
I gave the following talk and reading from my brother Tom’s prose at his Memorial after we screened Thanksgiving—our sister Joel’s movie (unsynched but fully in the flow) of a DeMott family celebration ca. 1970. I jumped off from the rapturous sequence in the movie where Jo used a great Motown track “Truly Yours” to soundtrack images of little sister Megan dancing and Tom listening/looking like a rock dream—saved (barely) from male model fineness by his broken nose…
Dreams Fade Into the Everblue: Lori McKenna’s Bygone Humanism
“Here is what I know” is the first line of “A Mother Never Rests,” the opening track off country singer Lori McKenna’s latest LP. “Even when she’s sleeping she’s still dreaming about you”–her voice is weary yet sure of wisdoms both received and earned. McKenna dives into the laundry-list of domestic chores and anxieties expected of a mother in red-state America.
Isiah Thomas, Smokey Robinson & Jesse Jackson at Aretha Franklin’s Homegoing Service
Sisters who sang at Aretha’s funeral are getting much respect, per the # of YouTube views, but there were men there who were worthy too…
Isiah Thomas’s moving eulogy comprehended Aretha’s messages to the grassroots (and to Detroit, capital of the 20th Century) even as he took in her universality.