Synopses & Reviews
The urge to connect with that which transcends our experience, be it a higher power, another person or some artistic ideal or aspect of nature, is one of the things that makes us human. People view the object of this quest, as well as what it means to achieve it, differently. Yet regardless of how it is understood, the urge to participate in or belong to something greater and more lasting than ourselves—a feeling born of an awareness of our mortality—is what defines us as spiritual beings. Though often dismissed as ephemeral or, worse, demonic, popular music has given voice to this quest for transcendence since its beginnings. Pop singers are rarely as outwardly spiritual as, say, their gospel counterparts; they're forever pointing beyond themselves, though, be it to some better future, some higher ideal, or to some vision of deliverance. Fontella Bass's "Rescue Me," the Four Tops's "Reach Out (I'll Be There)," Jimmy Cliff's "Many Rivers to Cross," Afrika Bambaataa's "Looking for the Perfect Beat," and U2's "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" are but a handful of popular recordings from the past few decades that express a longing for something more. What, other than transcendence, is Jimi Hendrix talking about in "Purple Haze" when he shouts, "'scuse me, while I kiss the sky"? Or Van Morrison, in "Caravan," when he implores us to crank our radios and sail away with him into the mystic? Heard in the right light, secular and even carnal records have the power to speak to transcendental concerns, galvanizing their historical and cultural moments. Regardless of their spiritual leanings, all of the subjects discussed in this book (including Public Enemy, Madonna, Sleater-Kinney, Tricky, Johnny Cash, Nine Inch Nails, Moby, Marvin Gaye, Eminem, Polly Harvey, Bruce Springsteen and Sly & the Family Stone) make music that expresses a basic striving for transcendence. Artists' stories and personalities inform these discussions, but only in as much as they illuminate the struggles and concerns that run through their music. I'll Take You There is a beautifully written, wide-ranging and illuminating examination of some of the most potent popular music ever recorded.
Synopsis
The urge to connect with that which transcends our experience, be it a higher power, another person or some aspect of nature, is one of the things that makes us human. People view the object of this quest differently, as well as what it means to achieve or experience it. Yet regardless of how its understood, the urge to participate in or belong to something greater and more lasting than ourselvesa feeling born of an awareness of our mortality is what defines us as spiritual beings. Though often dismissed as ephemeral or, worse, satanic, popular music has given voice to this quest for transcendence since its beginnings.
Synopsis
The urge to connect with that which transcends our experience, be it a higher power, another person or some artistic ideal or aspect of nature, is one of the things that makes us human. People view the object of this quest, as well as what it means to achieve it, differently. Yet regardless of how it is understood, the urge to participate in or belong to something greater and more lasting than ourselves—a feeling born of an awareness of our mortality—is what defines us as spiritual beings. Though often dismissed as ephemeral or, worse, demonic, popular music has given voice to this quest for transcendence since its beginnings. Pop singers are rarely as outwardly spiritual as, say, their gospel counterparts; they're forever pointing beyond themselves, though, be it to some better future, some higher ideal, or to some vision of deliverance. Fontella Bass's "Rescue Me," the Four Tops's "Reach Out (I'll Be There)," Jimmy Cliff's "Many Rivers to Cross," Afrika Bambaataa's "Looking for the Perfect Beat," and U2's "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" are but a handful of popular recordings from the past few decades that express a longing for something more. What, other than transcendence, is Jimi Hendrix talking about in "Purple Haze" when he shouts, "'scuse me, while I kiss the sky"? Or Van Morrison, in "Caravan," when he implores us to crank our radios and sail away with him into the mystic? Heard in the right light, secular and even carnal records have the power to speak to transcendental concerns, galvanizing their historical and cultural moments. Regardless of their spiritual leanings, all of the subjects discussed in this book (including Public Enemy, Madonna, Sleater-Kinney, Tricky, Johnny Cash, Nine Inch Nails, Moby, Marvin Gaye, Eminem, Polly Harvey, Bruce Springsteen and Sly and the Family Stone) make music that expresses a basic striving for transcendence. Artists' stories and personalities inform these discussions, but only in as much as they illuminate the struggles and concerns that run through their music. I'll Take You There is a beautifully written, wide-ranging and illuminating examination of some of the most potent popular music ever recorded.
Table of Contents
CONTENTS Author's Note and Acknowledgments Prologue...I Want to Take You Higher Introduction...Cleaning Windows: Restlessness, Records, and Transcendence Section I...Mystics: Contemplatives, Sensualists, and Empaths Chapter 1...Dwellers on the Threshold: Van Morrison, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, and P.M. Dawn Chapter 2...Sexual Healing, or Something Like Sanctified: Marvin Gaye, Al Green, Madonna, and PJ Harvey Chapter 3...My Love I Bring: Sinead O'Connor, Buddy and Julie Miller, and Moby Section II...Naysayers: Dystopians and "Idiots" Chapter 4...The Great Wrong Place in Which We Live: Nine Inch Nails, Tricky, Joy Division, and New Order Chapter 5...License to Ill: The Stooges, the Sex Pistols, PiL, and Eminem Section III...Prophets: Voices of Uplift, Resistance, and Possibility Chapter 6...Keep on Pushing: Curtis Mayfield, Johnny Cash, and U2 Chapter 7...Fight the Power: Spearhead, the Mekons, and Public Enemy Chapter 8...Dance to the Music: Sly & the Family Stone, Bikini Kill, Liberation Rock, Sleater-Kinney, and Le Tigre Epilogue...Hungry Heart Bruce Springsteen Notes Bibliography Selected Discography Index