Afbeelding auteur

Over de Auteur

Werken van John McMillian

Gerelateerde werken

The Radical Reader: A Documentary History of the American Radical Tradition (2003) — Redacteur, sommige edities146 exemplaren

Tagged

Algemene kennis

Officiële naam
McMillian, John Campbell
Geboortedatum
1970-06-18
Geslacht
male

Leden

Besprekingen

I’ve always thought that the “Beatles vs Stones” argument was a pointless discussion. Sure you may have a preference for one group’s music over the other, but the two aren’t mutually exclusive. Then at a business event a few weeks ago I heard two people having this exact discussion.

I pulled this off the shelf hoping it might provide some insights into why this is something that is still discussed. Unfortunately it didn’t really. It’s more of a joint biography of both groups careers during the sixties that while it often quotes the bands themselves as saying they had nothing but friendship and mutual respect for each other it repeatedly goes back to its central thesis in trying to prove a non-existent rivalry between them. Basing the thesis on media reporting, fan magazines, and marketing ploys designed to sell records while ignoring , or dismissing, evidence from primary sources just irritated me.… (meer)
 
Gemarkeerd
gothamajp | 4 andere besprekingen | Nov 4, 2022 |
In a revelatory look back at a unique period in music history, John McMillian’s Beatles vs. Stones nicely lays out the rivalry between the world’s two biggest bands. While they respected each other, they were also each intent on outdoing the other. But, as McMillian points out, the Beatles always seemed to be one step ahead, with the Stones quickly mimicking a paler response to each move the Beatles made: “As Tears Go By” after “Yesterday”; “Street Fighting Man” after “Revolution”; “Their Satanic Majesties Request” after “Magical Mystery Tour”, to name just a few. The author covers it all - the Beatles‘ and Stones’ roots, personas, internal dynamics, recordings, tours, management, and more - in this dual biography of the bands, dueling for musical and popular supremacy.… (meer)
 
Gemarkeerd
ghr4 | 4 andere besprekingen | Dec 24, 2019 |
American Epidemic: Reporting from the Front Lines of the Opioid Crisis is a very highly recommended collection of powerful published articles on the opioid crisis. This is a heart-breaking eye-opening examination of the devastation caused by the increasing addiction to opioids and an essential introduction to the crisis.

This collection is a must read. It will focus your attention on what matters, what is happening right now. In the introduction John McMillian writes: "In 2018, drug overdose deaths in the United States set a new record. There were more than 70,000 of them, mostly due to opioids." He continues: "Let’s put this in perspective. Seventy thousand is far more than the number of Americans who died in 2017 from car accidents (40,100), or guns (39,773), or suicide (47,173). It is more than the number of American servicemen killed during the entire Vietnam War (58,220). It is far more than all of the American deaths from 9/11, the Iraq War, and the Afghanistan War, combined (39,396, as of March, 2019). Drug overdoses are now the leading cause of death for Americans under fifty. Life expectancy in the United States has diminished over the past three years - a phenomenon that is unprecedented since World War II." Where is the outrage?

I know two families who have had a child die due to an opioid addiction. I can't be the only one. Why is this very real and growing catastrophe being overlooked in favor of "maybe" crises. What is actually stealing childhoods and causing harm? These pieces published between 2012 and 2018 cover the crisis and the very real people who are affected and who are dealing with this epidemic - users, families, medical personal, and law enforcement. The well-written and informative articles cover the crisis in different areas of the country, although the epidemic is worse in certain sections. Contributors include: Leslie Jamison, Beth Macy, Tom Mashberg and Rebecca Davis O'Brien, Sam Quinones, Susan Dominus, Eli Saslow, Eric Eyre, Sarah Resnick, Germna Lopez, Christopher Caldwell, Margaret Talbot, James Winnefeld, Joe Eaton, Katharine Q. Seelye, Andrew Sullivan, Gabor Maté, Johann Hari, Adi Jaffe, Maia Szalavitz, and Julia Lurie.

I had several sections highlighted from my reading but I want to share two. One is from Christopher Caldwell in First Things (April 2017): "The culture of addiction treatment that prevails today is losing touch with such candor. It is marked by an extraordinary level of political correctness. Several of the addiction professionals interviewed for this article sent lists of the proper terminology to use when writing about opioid addiction, and instructions on how to write about it in a caring way. These people are mostly generous, hard-working, and devoted. But their codes are neither scientific nor explanatory; they are political."

The second is based on the fact that the brain isn't fully developed until people are in their mid-twenties, which made what James Winnefeld wrote in "Epidemic," from The Atlantic on November 29, 2017 eye-opening: "Because the brain is so adaptable while it’s still developing, it’s highly susceptible to dependencies, even from non-opioids such as today’s newly potent marijuana strains. We now understand that early marijuana use not only inhibits brain development; it prepares the brain to be receptive to opioids. Of course, like opioids, marijuana has important medical applications, and it seems to leave less of a mark on a fully matured brain. It’s worth examining whether it would make sense to raise the legal marijuana age to 25, when the brain has fully matured."

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of The New Press.

http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2019/10/american-epidemic.html
… (meer)
 
Gemarkeerd
SheTreadsSoftly | Oct 14, 2019 |
Were they friends? Rivals? Frenemies?

Yes, all of the above. And above all, they were the two most influential bands in the Sixties.

The popular view of the bands early on was that they were desperate rivals fighting it out for the hearts of teens everywhere. And much later, that it was all a publicity ruse, and they were thick as thieves and had no envy between them.

The reality is somewhere in the middle, this book says.

The Rolling Stones of course owe a lot to the Beatles, not the least of which their first hit, “I Wanna Be Your Man.” John and Paul finished it off for them as easily as tossing off a joke, and so there was the start of a little bit of jealousy as Mick and Keith struggled to write anything at all.

Along the way, John Lennon said the Stones did everything the Beatles did, just a couple of months later (and for awhile, that was true). Mick Jagger sniffed that he didn’t care about the Beatles, but it’s clear he sought their approval at times.

The Beatles hit it big and the Stones a notch or two below. The Beatles were four working-class boys who made nice for the masses, and the Stones were five middle-class boys who toughened it up for their fans.

It’s all here, the affairs, the drugs, the rumors. And the fact that the Beatles needed to go away for the Stones to show what they could really do. And the Stones came out with four iconic albums – Sticky Fingers, Beggars Banquet, Exile on Main St. and Let It Bleed -- as the Beatles were slowly vacating the stage.

The book also notes that while the Beatles may have ended too soon (debatable), the Stones have gone on far too long (affirmative), succumbing to all sorts of excess, disco, never-ending oldies tours, and all the rest.

Still, you gotta have both to have a feel for the music of the Sixties and what came after.

For more of my reviews, go to Ralphsbooks.
… (meer)
 
Gemarkeerd
ralphz | 4 andere besprekingen | Dec 31, 2018 |

Prijzen

Misschien vindt je deze ook leuk

Gerelateerde auteurs

Statistieken

Werken
4
Ook door
2
Leden
204
Populariteit
#108,207
Waardering
3.9
Besprekingen
6
ISBNs
17
Talen
3

Tabellen & Grafieken