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In 1975, Greil Marcus's Mystery Train changed the way readers thought about rock 'n' roll and continues to be sought out today by music fans and anyone interested in pop culture. Looking at recordings by six key artists--Robert Johnson, Harmonica Frank, Randy Newman,the Band, Sly Stone, and Elvis Pr... More

For nearly thirty years, Greil Marcus has written a remarkable column called "Real Life Rock Top Ten. " It has been a laboratory where he has fearlessly explored and wittily dissected an enormous variety of cultural artifacts, from songs to books to movies to advertisements. Taken together, his mus... More

Greil Marcus delves into three distinct episodes in the history of American commonplace song and shows how each one manages to convey the uncanny sense that it was written by no one. In these seemingly anonymous productions, we discover three different ways of talking about the United States, and th... More

A deep dive into how F. Scott Fitzgerald’s vision of the American Dream has been understood, portrayed, distorted, misused, and kept alive Renowned critic Greil Marcus takes on the fascinating legacy of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. An enthralling parable (or a cheap metaphor) of the Ameri... More

The legendary critic and author of Mystery Train &“ingeniously retells the tale of rock and roll&” (Publishers Weekly, starred review).   Unlike previous versions of rock &’n&’ roll history, this book omits almost every iconic performer and ignores the storied events and turning points everyone know... More

A fan from the moment the Doors’ first album took over KMPX, the revolutionary FM rock & roll station in San Francisco, Greil Marcus saw the band many times at the legendary Fillmore Auditorium and the Avalon Ballroom in 1967. Five years later it was all over. Forty years after the singer Jim Morr... More

"Van Morrison," says Greil Marcus, "remains a singer who can be compared to no other in the history of modern popular music. " When Astral Weeks was released in 1968, it was largely ignored.<P><P> When it was rereleased as a live album in 2009 it reached the top of the Billboard charts, a first for... More

Legendary critic Greil Marcus takes the helm for the landmark tenth edition of Da CapoOCOs annual compendium of the best in music writing"... More

Greil Marcus saw Bob Dylan for the first time in a New Jersey field in 1963. He didn't know the name of the scruffy singer who had a bit part in a Joan Baez concert, but he knew his performance was unique. So began a dedicated and enduring relationship between America's finest critic of popular mu... More

His foremost interpreter revisits more than forty years of listening to Dylan?weaving individual moods and moments into a brilliant history of their changing times... More

A funny, fierce, and uninhibited musical chronicle of the convulsive past six years from one of our finest cultural critics "A one-of-a-kind guide to rock music’s resonance in every aspect of our lives.”—David Kirby, Wall Street Journal “A smart set of suggestions for further reading, viewing, an... More

Acclaimed cultural critic Greil Marcus tells the story of Bob Dylan through the lens of seven penetrating songs  &“Marcus delivers yet another essential work of music journalism.&”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)  &“Just as Dylan allows a song to carry him away, readers will be transported by the sh... More

Catch a train to the heart of rock ?n? roll with this essential study of the quintessential American art form. First published in 1975, Greil Marcus?s Mystery Train remains a benchmark study of rock ?n? roll and a classic in the field of music criticism. Focusing on six key artists?Robert Johnson, H... More

Greil Marcus, author of Mystery Train, widely acclaimed as the best book ever written about America as seen through its music, began work on this new book out of a fascination with the Sex Pistols: that scandalous antimusical group, invented in London in 1975 and dead within two years, which sparked... More

In 1978, Greil Marcus asked twenty writers on rock-including Dave Marsh, Lester Bangs, Nick Tosches, Ellen Willis, and Robert Christgau-a question: What one rock-and-roll album would you take to a desert island? The resulting essays were collected in Stranded, twenty passionate declarations to such ... More

Gilbert Seldes, the author of The Stammering Century, writes: This book is not a record of the major events in Ameri­can history during the nineteenth century. It is concerned with minor movements, with the cults and manias of that period. Its personages are fanatics, and radicals,... More

Stanley Booth, a member of the Rolling Stones' inner circle, met the band just a few months before Brian Jones drowned in a swimming pool in 1968. He lived with them throughout their 1969 tour across the United States, staying up all night together listening to blues, talking about music, ingesting ... More

It was the twang heard 'round the world: Rockabilly was born out of country, bluegrass, jazz, and the blues in the 1950s, becoming rock ’n’ roll and ruling the world. Here’s the story of Elvis Presley’s first Sun records that inspired all. And here’s Carl Perkins, Gene Vincent, Eddie Cochran, J... More

Bruce Springsteen might be the quintessential American rock musician but his songs have resonated with fans from all walks of life and from all over the world. This unique collection features reflections from a diverse array of writers who explain what Springsteen means to them and describe how they... More