Elizabeth Nelson

So psyched about the newest episode of my podcast 'Known Associates' featuring the brilliant Steve Jenkins, director of the Bob Dylan Center. Tune in for an amazing talk about Tulsa, Woody Guthrie, the mission and the fact that Bob will never enter his own museum. southwestreview.com/volume-111-n...

This was a rad one! Talked with Dylan Center director Steven Jenkins all about Tulsa's rich and complicated history, the amazing work they are doing with the Dylan archives and how the man himself has been seconds away but never stepped once inside his own museum! And more! Listen here!!

None other than @paranoiacs.bsky.social called this the "best song of 1989" - www.theringer.com/2019/09/18/m... and it might be the best song to sum up our mid 2020's malaise. 'Empire Of The Senseless' indeed. www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbeH...

Terrific stuff here, as always. I saw Rod Stewart live once, at the Indiana State Fair, August 1984. Absolutely killer set, at the end of which he booted dozens of soccer balls out to the crowd. Set list did not, alas, include "Maggie May," but he did do "Young Turks," thank god.

"Here's the thing about "Maggie May:" I’m not sure that any cock-swinging rock & roll high-era frontman has ever made himself quite so vulnerable." Musing on substack about one of my fave songs by the man who will ALWAYS be the one for me: Sir Rod Stewart. theparanoidstyle.substack.com/p/wake-up

While on tour with Lisa Walker from Wussy, I've been negligent about promoting so many things I'm thrilled with. First is the second season of my podcast "Known Associates" starting with the wondrous raconteur Jonathan Lethem. Dylan, Portis and gossip. Jump in. southwestreview.com/known-associ...

The Replacement's 'Tim' is as powerful an evocation of working class life as any by Springsteen or Pulp. Resentment and joy dwell in every detail: bus-courtships, scared-but-stalwart-single-mothers, and the watering holes where must nights dreams both blossom and die. www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIgv...

Holmes vs. Ken Norton, Sr. is legitimately one of the most electric finishes to a fight of all time. (Every video I see of Round 15 is in very poor quality, but that is absolutely Sylvester Stallone on his feet between Roberto Duran and Chevy Chase at ringside.)

The heavyweight champ no one recalls is Larry Holmes from Easton, PA. 19 successful defenses. Came one short of Marciano's 49-0 record, after losing a controversial decision to Michael Spinks. Battered Ali, hurtfully, in a retirement ritual. Battered Gerry Cooney too. www.youtube.com/watch?v=6s2r...

so good

You laugh the first time you hear it; and by the second time through you find yourself smiling and humming it, the third time through you’re spreading the gospel

He shoulda made like six of these tbh

no lies detected

Love to spend the night with Peggy Day.

My sentiments exactly.

Loved it from the start, much to the horror of most Real Bob Heads. Side one is mixed, side two is perfect. Just like Bookends by S&G.

'Nashville Skyline' is the unique situation when Bob Dylan acts like it's perfectly normal that his new LP is a wildly horny 28-minute Country & Western album wherein he sings like a particularly hash-drunk Dean Martin. Eventually, we agree that it's utterly flawless. www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZhL...

“Waiting for the End of the World:” Elvis Costello’s ‘My Aim Is True’ on its 49th Anniversary: from @paranoiacs.bsky.social www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2026/10/wait...

“Trapped between the doctor and the magistrate!” ICYMI! Over at Pitchfork, I gave my final ruling on Elvis Costello’s brilliant ‘My Aim Is True' on the occasion of its box set reissue for its 49th anniversary. pitchfork.com/reviews/albu...

'It positively marinates in social, romantic and political outrage, overlapping into a mosaic of grievance that would take decades to untangle." Over at Pitchfork, I reviewed the rad new 49th anniversary addition of Elvis Costello's debut 'My Aim Is True.' pitchfork.com/reviews/albu...

Speaking of "Easy Rider,": NEW ELIZABETH NELSON ALERT

cool review of Easy Rider soundtrack from @paranoiacs.bsky.social: pitchfork.com/reviews/albu...

"The paradoxes kept piling up, the prison of freedom growing ever more impossible to escape." For the Pitchfork Sunday Review, I wrote about 1969's sorrowful, game-changing 'Easy Rider' soundtrack. pitchfork.com/reviews/albu...

Every discerning fan of popular music should register that ticket sales are growing scarce for the one-time-only-historical-anomaly Lisa Walker & Elizabeth Nelson house tour package occurring next week in venues ranging from the midwest to the Atlantic. Grab a seat at Undertow Music while you can.

This has become one of my fav Van songs. It's only recently I learned that it's "about" a literal stairway leading to his gf's flat in the Vanlose district of Copenhagen. But damn if he doesn't make sound like the most mystical, wonderful, pathway to enlightenment. www.youtube.com/watch?v=IA9E...

The critical revisions on Astral Weeks following Ryan Walsh’s book have made it feel out of fashion to call Van a genius, and his personality doesn’t help, but come on, the guy wrote St. Dominic’s Preview

Once read an excellent interview with James Hunter, who toured with VM for a spell. Hunter figured his role was to be a Jack the Lad counterbalance to all the guru types hanging around. Probably much like Georgie Fame.

Happy birthday to the dazzling, baffling enigma that is Van Morrison, whose direct line to the ecstatic mysteries of human spirituality seems at times to run alongside a visceral dislike of actual human beings. In 2014, I fruitlessly tried ranking his LPs for Stereogum. stereogum.com/1674114/van-...

In what was a phenomenal capstone to an amazing birthday weekend, my fabulous in-laws Kelly and Mike threw me the best party ever, wherein my dear old friend Tom Frank gifted me with this vintage "I'm For Nixon" cap. Sometimes your cup just overflows. Love and thanks to everyone.

Dot Dash knows.

She has to have her Young Fresh Fellows tape back now

Long live the YFF! Love the article, thank you.

"The tumbling riffs, the earth-scorching guilt, the shadow of Kinks-style neurosis everywhere." Over at my substack I attempt to remember 1985's 'Topsy Turvy' by the Young Fresh Fellows, one of the great overlooked LP's of the decade. theparanoidstyle.substack.com/p/where-is-g...

Come because you love @paranoiacs.bsky.social and Scott McCaughey, stay for the Mark Eitzel/@wesleystace.bsky.social story theparanoidstyle.substack.com/p/where-is-g...

Followed by the wakeup plea of "Blackbird".

The 'White Album' is ultimately about every kind of fatigue: physical, spiritual, political and cultural. A soundtrack to the sad indulgences of the 60's yielding only false prophets and dark portents. You say you want a revolution. It's been a long, long, long, time. www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9vU...

I feel this exact way about how they grooved up Whole Lotta Love at Knebworth 79

Chic's Tony Thompson played drums for them at one point in the 1980s.

Beamed in from an alternate universe where Led Zep's major goal was to be as funky as The Meters rather than louder than The Who, “Trampled Under Foot” is five minutes of blissful, cathartic groove hinting at the truly rad disco band they might have eventually become. www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qhS...

This series also includes posts from @paranoiacs.bsky.social @douglaswolk.bsky.social and many others (with many more to come).

Happy 73rd birthday to Joe Strummer, the individual who perhaps more than any other inspired and clarified for me what it is I wanted to do with my life. Reposting an essay I wrote about the 40th anniversary of London Calling for The Ringer. Oh mi corazon. www.theringer.com/2019/12/17/m...

The alleged experts said it couldn't happen, but here we are: the great Lisa Walker from Wussy and I are headed out on a roving tour of venues ranging from the Midwest to the Atlantic Coast. Twinned icons, telling songs and singing stories. Don't miss out. Tix here! undertowshows.com/collections/...

The real heads can hang out afterwards and listen to me harangue Cohen about how much I loathe his Phillies.

My very favorite Van record, that’s for sure.

"Streets Of Arklow" for me, but it's all good....

All of side 1, really.

I find 'Linden Arden Stole The Highlights' to be the single most transporting song in the entire Van Morrison catalog. Part noir-mystery and part eulogy for a drinking man, gambler and pious believer, coded with language as beautiful as Joyce himself. A saint's fable. www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xWu...

Thesis, sequencers