Topics include: Detroit as the crossroads of American music; performing venues, record stories, studios; Motown and “rock ‘n’ roll”; music, labor and radical politics. Suggested reading:  “The Great Levi Stubbs,” Rock & Rap Confidential, (2008, reprinted in Counterpunch)

Topics include: The tension between listening and considering music in its political/cultural contexts; the challenge of hearing innovation in relation to sources; the evolution of musical styles; how Dave inspired new paths to hearing rock and pop music. Suggested reading: “Introduction,” “The Lonesome Death of Florence Thompson,” Fortunate Son, Dave Marsh (1985);“I Heard It Through […]

Topics include:  The state of music writing before the mid- to late 1960s; the original visions of the pioneer magazines; music and the New Left/counterculture; women in the “boy’s club.” Suggested reading:  “Lesley Gore: They Don’t Own Her,” Let It Rock, (1975); “Big (Fleetwood) Mac: The Cover Story,” Rolling Stone (1978); “Perils of Rock Criticism,” […]