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34+ Works 5,061 Members 71 Reviews 19 Favorited

About the Author

Greil Marcus is the author of "Invisible Republic," "Dead Elvis," "Lipstick Traces," & "Mystery Train." His pieces have appeared in a wide range of publications, including "Artforum," "Interview," "The New Yorker," "The New York Times," & "Esquire." He will be teaching at Princeton & Berkeley in show more fall 2000. (Publisher Provided) Greil Marcus was born in San Francisco, California in 1945. He received an undergraduate degree in American studies from the University of California, Berkeley. He has been a rock critic and columnist for Rolling Stone, Creem, The Village Voice, Artforum, and other publications. He has written several books including Mystery Train: Images of America in Rock 'n' Roll Music, Lipstick Traces: A Secret History of the 20th Century, Dead Elvis: A Chronicle of a Cultural Obsession, and When That Rough God Goes Riding: Listening to Van Morrison. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Image credit: Experience Music Project Pop Conference, April 30, 2006.
Photo by Joe Mabel.
(Wikipedia)

Works by Greil Marcus

The Dustbin of History (1995) 176 copies
Stranded: Rock and Roll for a Desert Island (1709) — Editor — 150 copies
Listening to Van Morrison (2010) 117 copies

Associated Works

Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung (1988) — Editor — 1,139 copies
One-Way Street (1928) — Preface, some editions — 249 copies
Hellfire: The Jerry Lee Lewis Story (1982) — Preface, some editions — 232 copies
Chronicle, Volume 1 (1976) — Liner Notes, some editions — 199 copies
The Stammering Century (1928) — Introduction, some editions — 190 copies
Granta 76: Music (2001) — Contributor — 155 copies
Kill All Your Darlings: Pieces, 1990-2005 (2007) — Introduction, some editions — 118 copies
McSweeney's Issue 34 (McSweeney's Quarterly Concern) (2010) — Contributor — 110 copies
Give Our Regards to the Atomsmashers! Writers on Comics (2004) — Contributor — 106 copies
The Dylan Companion: A Collection of Essential Writing About Bob Dylan (1990) — Contributor, some editions — 95 copies
The Basement Tapes Complete: The Bootleg Series, Vol. 11 [sound recording] (1975) — Liner Notes, some editions — 81 copies
Rock of Ages (1972) — Liner Notes, some editions — 24 copies
Crowds (2006) — Contributor — 21 copies
Anthology of American Folk Music (1952) — Contributor — 20 copies

Tagged

20th century (58) America (35) American history (45) American literature (31) anthology (55) architecture (33) art (88) beat (32) biography (120) Bob Dylan (142) CD (46) criticism (188) cultural history (54) cultural studies (78) culture (70) dada (36) Disney (40) Dylan (101) Elvis (30) essays (214) fiction (32) Granta (29) Greil Marcus (33) history (271) literary criticism (39) literature (48) music (1,272) music criticism (68) music history (40) non-fiction (461) philosophy (42) pop culture (131) punk (115) read (74) rock (146) rock and roll (128) rock music (92) to-read (306) unread (38) USA (69)

Common Knowledge

Members

Reviews

 
Flagged
AnkaraLibrary | 12 other reviews | Feb 23, 2024 |
Like all Marcus collections, it contains examples of him at his insightful, thought-provoking best and at his blustery, bullshitting worst, at times in the same long, rambling sentence. For some reason, every subject he writes about has to somehow be made into an exemplar of the American democratic experiment or an artist testing the boundaries of freedom or expression. The smallest throwaway moment in a song can be the launching point for pages and pages of ruminations on God and/or the blues. When he's on to something this can be amazing, but the more he writes like this the more he risks turning into a parody of himself. Every note is not a life or death matter, even for a singer as weird and gifted as Van Morrison. The high points are easily worth the lows, though, and not enough people have written in depth about Morrison, a guy overdue for some serious critical study. Biggest disappointment with this book: only two mentions of "Veedon Fleece," his greatest album after "Astral Weeks." It's a minefield of literary and Celtic mythological references that I thought would surely attract Marcus.… (more)
 
Flagged
ecdawson | 5 other reviews | Jan 22, 2024 |
The usual limitations - meandering, digressive text to the extent it is mannered and unnecessarily fractured. The usual strengths - vast knowledge and a golden touch in picking out illuminating arcana. Not biographical by any definition but I doubt anyone who has read Marcus before would have expected that.
 
Flagged
djh_1962 | 1 other review | Jan 7, 2024 |

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Statistics

Works
34
Also by
21
Members
5,061
Popularity
#4,947
Rating
3.9
Reviews
71
ISBNs
184
Languages
8
Favorited
19

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