Ben Greenman
Timothy McSweeney
New York, NY, United States
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Past articles by Ben:
Tracking Friendships On Maple Street
In the wake of the failure of Bob’s weekly hang with Steve, and Sharon’s recent decision to stop spending time with Dahlia, we are now seeing a fur... → Read More
Van Morrison Discusses How Music Used to Be More Spontaneous and Communal
As the singer-songwriter approaches his mid-seventies, he’s making records that continue to breathe life into the soul and R. & B. music that first inspired him, decades ago. → Read More
Prince’s Purple Downpour: A Review of the Expanded “Purple Rain”
Ben Greenman writes about the deluxe reissue of Prince’s iconic album “Purple Rain,” a remastered four-disk set that includes rarities and outtakes. → Read More
The Unique Problem Posed by Prince’s Unreleased Songs
Prince left behind hundreds of unreleased songs, and while many are unfinished sketches, others are fully fleshed-out compositions. → Read More
Reckoning with My Love for Prince
When I encounter someone else who is devoted to Prince’s music, I tend to turn away, eager to return to the safety of private joy. → Read More
Prince’s Racial Revolution
In a forthcoming biography, Ben Greenman examines Prince’s songs for evidence of what the late artist believed about race. The answer, he discovered, changed from song to song. → Read More
The Grammys Missed an Essential Part of Prince
Bruno Mars’s performance was at best a simulacrum of the late legend. → Read More
McSweeney’s Internet Tendency: Ben Greenman’s Graphs About Charts and Charts About Graphs: Graph #16.
Bay Area readers, see Dave Eggers and Tucker Nichols read from This Bridge Will Not Be Gray and Some Recollections of a Busy Life: Monday, November 30, 6pm at Books Inc. Opera Plaza and Sunday, December 6, 3pm at the Golden Gate Bridge Welcome Center. → Read More
McSweeney’s Internet Tendency: List: A Review of Bob Dylan’s Massive New Box Set — The Complete Takes.
THE DYLAN MOTHERLODE (Take 1, early version) For Bob Dylan fans interested in getting drunk on Dylan’s mid-sixties heyday, the new box set The... → Read More
Life Without Letterman
I rediscovered Letterman after he announced his retirement, and I would wake up the next morning with shards of the show lodged in my mind. → Read More
Life Without Letterman
I rediscovered Letterman after he announced his retirement, and I would wake up the next morning with shards of the show lodged in my mind. → Read More
Nothing Compares 2 Sinéad O’Connor
Though “Nothing Compares 2 U” is the best known of her songs, it isn’t the most her. → Read More
Bob Dylan, Extending the Line - The New Yorker
Dylan’s speech this past weekend in Los Angeles was a combustible mix of old resentments and musical gratitude. → Read More
Bob Dylan’s Sinatra Album - The New Yorker
The ten songs on the record are drawn from the mid-century songbook, giving Dylan an opportunity to demonstrate his kinship with that era. → Read More
CeeLo’s Strange New TV-Theme-Song Album - The New Yorker
As an act of psychological and pop-cultural provocation, “TV on the Radio” is both extreme and effective. → Read More
Let’s Take It to the Page - The New Yorker
It’s not just a figure of speech to say that writing a book with George Clinton was a dream come true. → Read More
A Legitimately Magical Prince Album - The New Yorker
“Art Official Age” is easily Prince’s most coherent and satisfying record in more than a decade. → Read More
Tim Fite’s New Album “iBeenHACKED”
Ben Greenman on Tim Fite, whose latest album is a satirical meditation on the encroachment of technology into modern life. → Read More
Takes: Ian Paisley - The New Yorker
“His tone, even at sixty-eight, is a marvel: a great rumbling; the sound of terror, it seemed to me—the voice that sentences the damned.” → Read More
Pop Notes: “FREEMAN” - The New Yorker
Aaron Freeman has outlived Gene Ween and delivered a solo record with a number of superlative songs. → Read More