The Nose: Legacies Of Lennon And Musical Senescence
In advance of John Lennon's 70th we explore how musicians change over time.
OK, so it turns out we weren't the only people who figured out that tomorrow was John Lennon's 70th birthday, but I think the conversation you're about to hear will be pretty special.
Alex Ross, music critic for the New Yorker, has written a new book whose first chapter explores, in ways appropriate for today, the porous membrane between rock and roll and, for want of a better term, "serious music."
All music becomes classical music in the end, he writes. I hope today's show will be a little bit like what Ross says the iPod shuffle feature is: a way of crashing through stylistic barriers and acknowledging that music is music. So we'll start with Lennon, but don't be surprised if, assisted by Steve Metcalf and Brian Slattery, we wander from there to Brahms to Louis Armstrong to Nursrat Fateh Ali Khan. Music is music. Lennon on his good days would agree.
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In assessing Lennon's later creative work, we must take into account the remarkable synergy that was the Lennon-McCartney duo - each did his best work during those wonderful years together - McCartney's later work was (and is) pallid, too.
E
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