Cultural Critic

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April 9, 2016 by Simon Sweetman

Greil Marcus: The History of Rock’n’Roll in Ten Songs

The History of Rock’n’Roll in Ten Songs Greil Marcus Yale University Press T-Bone Burnett is quoted, in this book, “Listen, the story of the United States is this: One kid, without anything, walks out of his house, down the road, with nothing but a guitar and conquers the world.” It’s a good quote – but […]

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December 16, 2015 by Simon Sweetman

Sweetman Podcast: Episode 11 – Alan Stuart

It’s the final post of the year regarding the podcast – the final episode for 2015, here we have episode eleven – a chat with Alan Stuart. I met Alan years ago when I worked in music retail. He was a regular customer, we’d chat about blues and British bands from the 60s. We still […]

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November 30, 2015 by Simon Sweetman

Five Films That Stay With Me: Andrew Paul Wood

Andrew Paul Wood is a Christchurch-based writer, cultural critic and freelance curator. He writes for The Press, the Listener, Urbis, Architecture New Zealand, and a host of others. Recent work includes a translation into English of the New Zealand poems of German-Jewish poet Karl Wolfskehl, Under New Stars: Poems from the New Zealand Exile (Holloway, 2012, edited by Friedrich Voit), and a […]

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September 10, 2014 by Simon Sweetman

Authors I Admire: #4 Clive James

He won’t be with us for much longer. And I’m really sad about that. It’s a little strange, yes, to be getting ready to mourn someone you didn’t actually know, never met. And though it might also be strange to essentially eulogise someone still living I’ve often thought that – in a lot of ways […]