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I'll Take You There Bill Friskics-Warren

I'll Take You There By Bill Friskics-Warren

I'll Take You There by Bill Friskics-Warren


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Condition - Like New
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Summary

A guide to some of the popular music. Regardless of their spiritual leanings, the subjects discussed in this book (including Public Enemy, Madonna, Johnny Cash, Nine Inch Nails, Marvin Gaye, Eminem, and Bruce Springsteen) make music that expresses a basic striving for transcendence. The artists' stories and personalities inform these discussions.

I'll Take You There Summary

I'll Take You There: Pop Music and the Urge for Transcendence by Bill Friskics-Warren

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 it's 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, "satanic," popular music has given voice to this quest for transcendence since its beginnings. Pop singers are rarely as outwardly spiritual as, say, gospel acts; however, they're forever pointing beyond themselves, be it to some higher ideal or 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," Al Green's "Tired of Being Alone," and U2's "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" are but a handful of radio hits 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 sings, "'scuse me, while I kiss the sky"? Bruce Springsteen's "Hungry Heart" might be about a guy who walks out on his family, and that's a far from honorable response to his situation, but the record's protagonist also expresses a deep yearning for what's lacking in his life. Heard on a jukebox or radio, the song's chorus can take on meaning beyond the particulars of it's narrative, ringing out like a cry for just about anything that could fill the void it's listeners might be experiencing. Heard in the right light, secular and even carnal records have the power to speak to transcendental concerns, occasionally to the point of galvanizing their historical or cultural moments. Regardless of their spiritual leanings, all of the subjects discussed in this book (including Public Enemy, Madonna, Johnny Cash, Nine Inch Nails, Marvin Gaye, Eminem, Polly Harvey, Van Morrison and Bruce Springsteen) 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 guide to some of the most potent popular music ever recorded.

About Bill Friskics-Warren

Bill Friskics-Warren was lecturer in Church and Society at Vanderbilt University. He as written about popular music for the New York Times, Newsday, the Washington Post, the Nashville Scene, No Depression, the Oxford American and Rock & Rap Confidential, among other publications.

Table of Contents

Author's Note/Acknowledgements; Prologue: I Want to Take You Higher; Chapter 1; Cleaning Windows: Restlessness, Records and Transcendence; Part One: Mystics: Contemplatives, Sensualists and Empaths; Chapter 2; Dwellers on the Threshold: Van Morrison, Jimmie Dale Gilmore and P.M.; Dawn; Chapter 3; Sexual Healing, or Something Like Sanctified: Marvin Gaye, Al Green, Polly; Jean Harvey and Madonna; Chapter 4; My Love I Bring: Sinead O'Connor, Buddy & Julie Miller and Moby; Part Two: Naysayers: Dystopians and "Idiots"; Chapter 5; The Great Wrong Place in Which We Live: Nine Inch Nails, Tricky, Joy; Division and New Order; Chapter 6; License to Ill: The Stooges, the Sex Pistols and Eminem; Part Three: Prophets: Voices of Uplift, Resistance and Possibility; Chapter 7; Keep On Pushing: Curtis Mayfield, Johnny Cash and U2; Chapter 8; Fight the Power: Spearhead, the Mekons and Public Enemy; Chapter 9; Dance to the Music: Sly & the Family Stone, Riot Grrl, Sleater-Kinney and Bruce Springsteen; Epilogue: I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For; Discography and notes; Index.

Additional information

GOR011504166
9780826417008
0826417000
I'll Take You There: Pop Music and the Urge for Transcendence by Bill Friskics-Warren
Used - Like New
Hardback
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
2005-11-15
252
N/A
Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
The book has been read, but looks new. The book cover has no visible wear, and the dust jacket is included if applicable. No missing or damaged pages, no tears, possible very minimal creasing, no underlining or highlighting of text, and no writing in the margins

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