Articles

In August of this year, Beach Boys co-founder Brian Wilson released Brian Wilson Re-Imagines Gershwin, a tribute album to a number of George Gershwin’s most popular songs.   In a press release announcing a public performance of the new album, Wilson noted, “Along with Irving Berlin, ... read more

Leonard Cohen was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2008, forty-one years after Songs of Leonard Cohen first appeared to the world.   Since his first book of poetry was published in 1956, Cohen has constantly teetered between poet, author, song-writer and performer.    W... read more

Plenty of Beatles fans make the case that John Lennon was the Beatles’ true talent.  For these Lennon purists, Paul was just a pretty boy who wrote simple lyrics and a few nice melodies.  Lennon was the one who pushed the music in new directions and created the songs that captured the ... read more

In D.A. Pennebaker’s classic documentary Don’t Look Back, a young Bob Dylan is asked by a British journalist if he is religious.   Dylan responds, “I don’t see anything to believe in.   I can’t see anything anyone’s offered me to believe in, to put all my trust and faith in... read more

I never recognized a Jewish theme in Vampire Weekend’s music until I picked up their most recent album, Contra.   The opening song—Horchata—describes the drinking of a traditional Spanish beverage in the middle of December.    The song, which has had many interpretations—f... read more

“If anyone was the fifth Beatle, it was Brian Epstein”-Paul McCartney At face value, the story of the Beatles seems irrelevant to Jewish history.   However, delving deeper into the Beatles narrative, one discovers that there was one Jewish chap who played an integral, if not central ... read more