DeRogatis Music & Media in Chicago Fall 2017 Syllabus

Music & Media in Chicago

A “Big Chicago” First-Semester Experience 48-1103

“Come and show me another city with lifted head singing so proud to be alive and coarse and strong and cunning...”—Carl Sandburg

Section 01, Mondays 9-11:50 a.m.; Section 02, 12:30-3:20 p.m. Main Lecture: Film Row Cinema, 1104 S. Wabash Ave., Room 813

SEE THE FILE ON CANVAS FOR YOUR ASSIGNED BREAKOUT GROUPS AND WHERE YOU WILL MEET WITH THEM DURING MOST WEEKS FOR THE LAST HOUR OF OUR CLASS

Jim DeRogatis, Instructor Department of English, Columbia College Chicago; 33 E. Congress Avenue Contact: Email preferred: [email protected]. Office hours: Room 2K, English Department, third floor, 33 E. Congress Mondays 3:30 to 5 p.m.; and by appointment (including during the breakout sessions).

Required Materials The device of your choice (phone, tablet, laptop) to access the Internet when asked during Monday lectures, plus regular Internet and computer access at home.

Columbia College Chicago seeks to maintain a supportive academic environment for students with disabilities. Students who self-identify as having a disability should present their documentation to the Services for Students with Disabilities (SSD) office. After the documentation has been reviewed by the SSD office, a Columbia College accommodation letter will be provided to the student. Students are encouraged to present their Columbia accommodation letters to each instructor at the beginning of the semester so that accommodations can be arranged in a timely manner by the College, the department, or the faculty member, as appropriate. Accommodations will begin at the time the letter is presented. Students with disabilities who do not have accommodation letters should visit the office of Services for Students with Disabilities, Room 304 of the 623 S. Wabash building (312-369-8296).

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Course Description

Music & Media in Chicago will provide an overview of the past, present, and future of the many genres of music thriving in Chicago. It will examine how this city put its stamp on the development of these sounds as they spread around the world, as well as introducing the tools of the historian, sociologist, musicologist, and cultural critic via lectures, video, film, online and dead-tree readings, and vibrant discussions. The class also will review the past, present, and future of Chicago media—newspapers, magazines, radio, television, and the blogosphere—examining the city's journalism culture and infrastructure, and, as with music, providing an understanding for an informed and critical reading of these texts so students can become active and involved citizens participating to the fullest extent in everything this extraordinary metropolis has to offer. Students should expect to do some writing for each class, providing their reactions to and analysis of their choice of one of several examples of the music or media being discussed that week, and in some sessions sharing their work with the class or in breakout groups.

Learning outcomes

The learning outcomes for all of the required first-year freshman experience “Big Chicago” courses are as follows:

• Students will emerge being able to demonstrate an understanding of the City of Chicago as “text” and as a site of questioning, creativity, and exploration. • Students will be able to identify frameworks/epistemologies for new and/or deeper ways of thinking for understanding the urban context and communities that surround Columbia College Chicago. • Students will participate in a robust one-to-many/many-to-many learning environment using a combination of large-scale presentation and peer-to- peer (face-to-face and online) learning activities. • Students will experience aspects of the city of Chicago first-hand and reflect on those experiences with a cohort of student peers.

The learning outcomes specific to Music & Media in Chicago are:

• Students will identify important developments and traditions in Chicago’s rich musical history. • Students will identify key milestones in the development of Chicago journalism. • Students will use critical texts from a variety of disciplines in their investigations of issues raised in the course. • Students will explain how music and media in Chicago reflect and contribute to the history, geography, cultural institutions, neighborhoods, and socio- economic divisions of the city. • Students will hone the skills of informed critical readings of music and media “texts.”

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Course Rationale

Students arriving at Columbia College Chicago are embarking on a journey that will shape and inform their professional careers and indeed the rest of their lives, not only through the courses they pursue in their chosen disciplines and the studies they undertake in the School of Liberal Arts & Sciences, but through their interactions with students in every field at this school as well as with the vital and vibrant city that surrounds it. Music & Media in Chicago will provide an overview of Chicago’s extraordinarily rich musical scenes and diverse genres as well as the many media outlets in print, broadcast, and online that report on and shape the dialog about myriad cultural, political, and social issues in this complicated and unique city. Most importantly, the course will lay the groundwork for knowledgeable and inspired readings of musical and media “texts,” creating a foundation and imparting the skills for deep interdisciplinary critical thinking by honing research, writing, and discussion skills and the utilization of digital tools, aiding and informing students in their future studies, career pursuits, and lives in this city by the lake or wherever their paths may lead.

Music is by far the largest entertainment industry in Chicago—generating $84 million annually and employing 13,000 people, according to a 2007 study by the University of Chicago Economics Department—yet it does not always get the respect and appreciation it deserves from city government or the public. It will in our class, from blues, gospel, soul, R&B, and classical music, to rock, hip-hop, alternative country, and house music. Similarly, vital to being a connected and engaged Chicagoan is understanding the media here, which, as is the case worldwide in the wake of the digital revolution, is on troubled and unfamiliar new ground. But at its best, Chicago journalism upholds a strong tradition of groundbreaking and dare we say artful work, from Upton Sinclair and The Jungle in 1906 to the many iterations of Ben Hecht’s The Front Page, and from Studs Terkel and Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative exposes to Bozo the Clown and This American Life.

Student Experience

The course will be divided into two sessions every Monday: The full-class lecture for the first part, followed by a smaller-group breakout work and discussion session. Students are expected to attend every Monday lecture (14 classes) and complete every weekly assignment via the Canvas Learning Management System. Students will be assigned to breakout groups, and these groups will meet as scheduled in files posted on Canvas, every other week, six times during the semester.

Each Monday lecture by the instructor will examine one or more of Chicago’s musical genres and/or journalistic/media institutions, charting their history and development; examining how this city shaped and informed them; the impact they made on Chicago in turn; how they were shaped and informed by the rest of the world, spreading beyond the city’s borders, and introduce some of the most notable

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The group breakout session will be devoted to discussions and writing per assigned groups consisting of in-depth examinations of the texts for that week’s topic and the subjects of that week’s written assignment. Graduate-student teaching assistants will lead these smaller-group sessions based upon prompts from the instructor, and students will hone their individual written responses to one of those texts of their choice. Students who are not scheduled for a breakout work and discussion session on that particular Monday will examine these texts via Canvas, choose one, and produce their written responses on their own time, leaving after the lecture.

Additionally, every week during part of the Monday lecture, selected students will present to the entire class some of the best reaction pieces to the music or media texts, as determined by the teaching assistants and the instructor, providing further insight into these topics as well as models for everyone to improve their work.

Policies and requirements

Writing: As might be expected in a class taught by a prominent music critic, journalist, and lecturer in Columbia’s English Department, students will do some writing for every class, producing a 250-word personal reaction/reading to a musical or media text, including a solid thesis backed up by context, evidence, and insight, as will be explained during the first class session. Indeed, the writing will be our primary tool for judging students’ learning. That having been said, these written pieces will be assessed and graded not on the mechanics of the writing—we will leave that to other classes and instructors to come—so much as on the student’s efforts in deeply engaging with the text and sharing their own personal insights given their particular backgrounds, experiences, and passions or fields of expertise. The weekly written assignments will be graded by the teaching assistants based upon the instructor’s rubric, which follows in this syllabus, in a process that will be supervised by the instructor.

Reading: Again, as befits a class taught by a critic, journalist, and English teacher, students will do some reading for every class. These assigned readings will be provided on Canvas—students are not required to purchase any books for the class—but a thorough reading of these pieces will be assured by short weekly quizzes, which also will record attendance.

Research and digital rhetoric: Students will learn to maximize the tools available on the Internet and elsewhere for informed critical readings of the texts examined in class, and they will be encouraged to use their multi-media tools to inform or enhance their weekly responses to the texts as they so desire.

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Participation and attendance: The success of the course as a whole depends on the vigorous but respectful participation of everyone involved, during the Monday lectures as well as the breakout groups. Although we will not have a grade specifically for participation in discussions, especially worthy and enthusiastic contributions will be noted and rewarded. The biggest part of participation is, of course, attendance. Students may miss two classes—lectures and breakout sessions—without penalty. Every absence thereafter will result in the grade determined via the formula to follow dropping one letter (an A to a B, a B to a C, etc.). Six absences are an automatic failure.

More about the writing for this class

In particular, a word about plagiarism: DON’T. But you already knew that. Regurgitating the words of others and passing them off as your own will result in failing the assignment, probably failing the class, and possibly facing disciplinary action. And it just ain’t worth it.

That having been said, the writing you do in this course sometimes will involve using the words and ideas of other writers, so careful acknowledgment of source material should be a priority. If you need help with correctly acknowledging sources, talk to the instructor or your teaching assistant or consider a visit to the Writing Center (see below).

Meanwhile, here are some general rules for incorporating the ideas of others.

1. Citations should include enough information for a reader to find the source, but they do not have to follow academic style. We will discuss this in class. 2. When in doubt, cite! 3. When you have questions, ask your instructor or teaching assistant!

The Learning Studio is a valuable resource for writers at all levels of ability. Writing consultants will read and discuss your work with you at any point in your composing process. (They will not, however, proofread or edit your work for you.) You should drop by or make an appointment any time you feel an extra read- through from a fresh pair of eyes would be useful. You can reach them at:

33 E. Congress, first floor; (312) 369-8130 Read more about the Learning Studio here: http://students.colum.edu/learning-studio/

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More on our Monday lectures

Please remember to come to class prepared, having read the week’s assigned readings, and bringing the device of your choice (phone, tablet, laptop) to access the Internet when asked in class. There will be a short quiz every Monday on the readingx via goSoapBox!

More on the Breakout Sessions

For the Class Breakout Sessions, our class is divided into eight groups: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, and H. Four groups will alternate meeting on the specified dates. You should check the course schedule that follows or consult canvas to check which breakout group you are part of and when and where your group will meet. Each group will be assigned a Graduate Teaching Assistant, and she or he is your contact for questions about these sessions, which are designed to encourage discussion of the artistic texts we’ll be examining and to help you hone your writing about them.

All of these meetings are in the 1104 S. Wabash building immediately following the Monday lecture. SPECIFIC ROOMS CAN BE FOUND ON CANVAS.

Group A: 9/18; 10/2; 10/16; 10/30; 11/13; 11/27. Group B: 9/18; 10/2; 10/16; 10/30; 11/13; 11/27. Group C: 9/18; 10/2; 10/16; 10/30; 11/13; 11/27. Group D: 9/18; 10/2; 10/16; 10/30; 11/13; 11/27.

Group E: 9/25; 10/9; 10/23; 11/6; 11/20; 12/4. Group F: 9/25; 10/9; 10/23; 11/6; 11/20; 12/4. Group G: 9/25; 10/9; 10/23; 11/6; 11/20; 12/4. Group H: 9/25; 10/9; 10/23; 11/6; 11/20; 12/4.

ATTENDANCE ATTENDANCE WILL BE TAKEN AT BOTH THE LECTURE AND THE BREAKOUT SESSION, AND SKIPPING EITHER WILL COUNT AGAINST YOUR GRADE.

LATE WORK NO WRITTEN WORK FOR THE WEEKLY ASSIGNMENT WILL BE ACCEPTED AFTER THE DEADLINE POSTED ON CANVAS, WHICH MEANS NO GRADE FOR THAT WORK AND THE POTENTIAL OF SERIOUS DAMAGE TO YOUR OVERALL GRADE FOR THE CLASS.

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A Rubric for Reviewing Your Written Responses

Yes! Yes, but… No, but… No Thesis: Is there a good, solid one? Organization: Do you build in a logical manner from there? Context: Do you tell us who, what, when, and where, etc.? Evidence: Do you back up your opinions with good examples? Voice: Does your writing have style, flair, and verve? Insight: Do you deliver your unique ideas and emotional reaction? Is the G.U.M. solid? (Grammar, usage, and mechanics)?

Grade Formula

Weekly written 92-100 A 78-79 C+ responses: 70% 90-91 A- 72-77 C Weekly 88-89 B+ 70-71 C- quizzes/attendance: 82-87 B 68-69 D+ 30% 80-81 B- 60-69 D Total: 100%

Quizzes: The weekly quizzes will be based on the assigned readings in the class schedule. DO THE READING BEFORE CLASS TO ASSURE YOU’LL BE READY FOR THE IN-CLASS QUIZZES!

Attendance: To reiterate, students may miss two classes without penalty (though they are strongly encouraged not to!). Every absence thereafter will result in the grade determined via the formula above dropping one letter (an A to a B, a B to a C, etc.). Six absences constitute an automatic failure.

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CLASS SCHEDULE (SUBJECT TO CHANGE; CONSULT CANVAS!)

Week 1, Mon. 9/11 Introduction to Music & Media in Chicago: the syllabus; instructions for our written responses (the thesis, context, evidence, and insight); projected learning outcomes.

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Week 2, Mon. 9/18 The blues ain’t just “Sweet Home Chicago”—what the genre is, what it isn’t, and why you should care.

Breakout Sessions: Groups A, B, C, and D meet.

READING DUE BEFORE CLASS: Excerpt from Mike Rowe, Chicago Blues: The City & the Music (Da Capo, 1975).

WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT (POST TO CANVAS BEFORE THE NEXT MONDAY LECTURE): Please write your 250-word reaction piece on ONE of these four artists and videos posted on Canvas: Howlin’ Wolf, “Meet Me in the Bottom”; Koko Taylor, “I’m A Woman”; Muddy Waters, “Got My Mojo Workin’,” or Otis Rush, “I Can’t Quit You Baby.”

______Week 3, Mon. 9/25 It all comes from the church: Gospel music in Chicago.

Breakout Sessions: Groups E, F, G, and H meet.

READING DUE BEFORE CLASS: Excerpt from Greg Kot, I’ll Take You There: Mavis Staples, the Staple Singers, and the Music That Shaped the Civil Rights Era (Scribner, 2014)

WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT (POST TO CANVAS BEFORE THE NEXT MONDAY LECTURE): Please write your 250-word reaction piece on ONE of these four artists and videos posted on Canvas: Albertina Walker, “I Can Go to God in Prayer”; Mahalia Jackson, “How I Got Over”; Thomas Dorsey, “Precious Lord, Take My Hand”; the Staple Singers, “Respect Yourself.”

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Week 4, Mon. 10/2 The roots of Chicago journalism, how it developed as the city did, and its storied tradition.

Breakout Sessions: Groups A, B, C, and D meet.

READING DUE BEFORE CLASS: Excerpt from Nelson Algren, Chicago: City on the Make (60th Anniversary Edition, University of Chicago Press, 1983); excerpt from Upton Sinclair, The Jungle (Simon & Brown, 2012; originally published in 1906), and excerpts from Studs Terkel, Working (The New Press 2004, originally published in 1972).

WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT (POST TO CANVAS BEFORE THE NEXT MONDAY LECTURE): Please write your 250-word reaction piece on ONE of the readings by the legendary Chicago writers that had been assigned for this class and posted on Canvas: Excerpt from Nelson Algren, Chicago: City on the Make (60th Anniversary Edition, University of Chicago Press, 1983); excerpt from Upton Sinclair, The Jungle (Simon & Brown, 2012; originally published in 1906), and excerpts from Studs Terkel, Working (The New Press 2004, originally published in 1972).

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Week 5, Mon. 10/9 Cadillac Records: The Chess label’s role in popularizing electric blues and the birth of rock ’n’ roll, and its stars.

Breakout Sessions: Groups E, F, G, and H meet.

READING DUE BEFORE CLASS: Excerpt from Nadine Cohodas, Spinning Blues Into Gold: The Chess Brothers and the Legendary Chess Records (St. Martin’s Press, 2000).

WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT (POST TO CANVAS BEFORE THE NEXT MONDAY LECTURE): Please write your 250-word reaction piece on ONE of these three artists and videos posted on Canvas: Bo Diddley, “Bo Diddley”; Chuck Berry, “Maybellene,” or Etta James, “Something’s Got A Hold on Me.”

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Week 6, Mon. 10/16 Rock in Chicago, the ’60s through the ’80s—riots in the streets, horn-driven schlock, and a punk rebellion.

Breakout Sessions: Groups A, B, C, and D meet.

READINGS DUE BEFORE CLASS: Lester Bangs reviews Chicago at Carnegie Hall (1972); Jim DeRogatis on Big Black and Naked Raygun.

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WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT (POST TO CANVAS BEFORE THE NEXT MONDAY LECTURE): Please write your 250-word reaction piece on ONE of these five artists and videos posted on Canvas: Big Black, “Cables”; Chicago, “Saturday in the Park”; the Buckinghams, “Kind of a Drag”; Naked Raygun, “Rat Patrol”; Ministry, “Just One Fix.”

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Week 7, Mon. 10/23 CLASSICAL MUSIC AND JAZZ Classical music and jazz in Chicago. Guest speakers: Wynne Delacoma (classical) and Lloyd Sachs (jazz).

Breakout Sessions: Groups E, F, G, and H meet.

READINGS DUE BEFORE CLASS: Time magazine article on George Solti, 1973; “Chicago as Jazz City” by Lloyd Sachs.

WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT (POST TO CANVAS BEFORE THE NEXT MONDAY LECTURE): Please write your 250-word reaction piece on ONE of these three videos posted Canvas: George Solti with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in rehearsal and performance; Sun Ra Arkestra at the Chicago Jazz Festival, 1981; Von Freeman at the New Apartment Lounge.

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Week 8, Mon. 10/30 Dead-tree media: the great Chicago newspapers and magazines, past and present.

Breakout sessions: Groups A, B, C, and D meet.

READING DUE BEFORE CLASS: Wayne Klatt, “The Pirates,” excerpt from Chicago Journalism: A History (McFarland & Co., 2009).

WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT (POST TO CANVAS BEFORE THE NEXT MONDAY LECTURE): Please write your 250-word reaction piece on ONE of the following four readings by or about legendary Chicago journalists posted on Canvas, and consider in part whether or not they continue the tradition of Algren, Sinclair, and Terkel: Three by Mike Royko (from One More Time: The Best of Mike Royko, Chicago University Press, 2000) OR Three by Bob Greene (Chicago Tribune) OR excerpts from Roger Ebert, Life Itself: A Memoir (Grand Central Publishing, 2011) OR two articles about Ethel Payne.

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Week 9, Mon. 11/6 House music in Chicago: uplift for the disenfranchised, and dancing toward a

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Breakout sessions: Groups E, F, G and H meet.

READINGS DUE BEFORE CLASS: Stuart Cosgrove, “History of Chicago House Music” (liner notes essay) and “Frankie Knuckles: 1955-2014” (Chicago Tribune obituary).

WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT (POST TO CANVAS BEFORE THE NEXT MONDAY LECTURE): Please write your 250-word reaction piece on ONE of these three artists and videos posted on Canvas: Frankie Knuckles, “The Whistle Song”; Cajmere featuring Dajae, “Brighter Days”; Steve “Silk” Hurley, “I Can’t Turn Around.”

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Week 10, Mon. 11/13 Two giants of Chicago soul and R&B: Curtis Mayfield and R. Kelly, one a towering hero and the other… well, we’ll talk about it. Plus: the immortal Chaka Khan.

Breakout Sessions: Groups A, B, C, and D meet.

READINGS DUE BEFORE CLASS: “Music World Mourns the Death of Curtis Mayfield” (three tributes to the soul giant); “Read the ‘Stomach-Churning’ Sexual Assault Accusations Against R. Kelly in Full” (by Jessica Hopper, The Village Voice, 2013).

WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT (POST TO CANVAS BEFORE THE NEXT MONDAY LECTURE): Please write your 250-word reaction piece on ONE of the videos posted by these three artists on Canvas: Curtis Mayfield, “Superfly” OR “Pusherman;” R. Kelly, “Bump N’ Grind” OR “Ignition (Remix),” OR Chaka Khan with Rufus, “Stop On By.”

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Week 11, Mon. 11/20 Hip-hop in Chicago: Where the heck did Kanye come from? (No, not Mars.)

Breakout Sessions: Groups E, F, G, and H meet.

READINGS DUE BEFORE CLASS: DeRogatis, “Three Chicago Hip-Hop Heroes” (Chicago Sun-Times features on Kanye West, Common, and Lupe Fiasco).

WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT (POST TO CANVAS BEFORE THE NEXT MONDAY LECTURE): Please write your 250-word reaction piece on ONE of the videos posted by these four artists on Canvas: Kanye West, “Hey Mama” (live); Common, “The Light”; Lupe Fiasco, “Kick Push,” or Chief Keef, “Earned It.”

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Week 12, Mon. 11/27 Exiles in Guyville: Alternative rock and insurgent country in Chicago.

Breakout Sessions: Groups A, B, C and D meet.

READINGS DUE BEFORE CLASS: Jim DeRogatis on the Smashing Pumpkins, Urge Overkill, and Liz Phair (Excerpts from Milk It! Collected Musings on the Alternative Music Explosion of the ’90s, Da Capo, 2003), and “Wilco’s ‘Hotel’ Suite” by Jim DeRogatis (Chicago Sun-Times, 2001).

WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT (POST TO CANVAS BEFORE THE NEXT MONDAY LECTURE): Please write your 250-word reaction piece on ONE of the videos posted by these four artists on Canvas: the Smashing Pumpkins, “Tonight, Tonight”; Urge Overkill, “Sister Havana”; Liz Phair, “Fuck and Run”; Wilco, “Ashes of American Flags.”

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Week 13, Mon. 12/4 The whole world is watching: Chicago on television and radio.

Breakout Sessions: Groups E, F, G and H meet.

READINGS DUE BEFORE CLASS: Two articles on Chicago film and television production; “His American Life: A Look at Ira Glass,” and “Oprah Winfrey: A Triumph of Avoiding the Traps.”

WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT (POST TO CANVAS BEFORE THE NEXT MONDAY LECTURE): Please write your 250-word reaction piece on ONE of these radio broadcasts posted on Canvas: WLS “The National Barn Dance” parts one AND two, OR “This American Life” episode 84, Nov. 21, 1997, “Harold.” OR Write your 250- word reaction to the interview with television great Oprah Winfrey, also posted here.

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Week 14, Mon. 12/11 CONCLUSION

A final discussion on many of the topics we’ve discussed throughout this class, and a look toward the future of music and media in Chicago.

No breakout sessions.

NO READINGS, BUT PLEASE COME WELL-ARMED WITH ANY LINGERING QUESTIONS SO WE CAN HAVE A FUN AND ENGAGING CONVERSATION AND Q&A! THANKS!

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About the Instructor

Born in Jersey City, New Jersey, the year the Beatles arrived in America, Jim DeRogatis began voicing his opinions about popular music shortly thereafter. A second love of journalism led him to major in that subject and minor in sociology at New York University. In the Fall of 2009, he began teaching Reviewing the Arts—a course that hones students’ abilities to intellectually convey their emotional responses to a work of art—in the Professional Writing Program of the English Department at Columbia College Chicago. He has been an assistant professor at Columbia since Fall 2010, additionally teaching an advanced course in reviewing the arts where students dive even deeper into critical writing to produce long-form essays and present their work in the digital realm; the English seminar Journalism as Literature, and the “Big Chicago” course Music & Media in Chicago.

DeRogatis started his journalism career with five years as a beat and investigative reporter at The Jersey Journal, a daily newspaper located just across the Hudson River from Manhattan. He has been a professional rock critic since 1990, though he began writing about music even earlier, during high school, by contributing to underground fanzines. He has been an assistant editor at Request magazine in Minneapolis; deputy music editor at Rolling Stone in New York, and pop music critic at The Chicago Sun-Times, where he spent 15 years covering the music scene beside his hero Roger Ebert, who reviewed film. During his stint at the Sun-Times, he charted the rise of artists such as Common, Kanye West, Liz Phair, the Smashing Pumpkins, and Wilco, in addition to reporting darker stories such as the trial of R&B superstar R. Kelly and the corporate consolidation of the concert industry. He continues to write music journalism and criticism for his blog at WBEZ.org, the Web site for Chicago Public Media.

WBEZ also is the home base of Sound Opinions, a weekly hour-long talk show hosted by DeRogatis and Greg Kot, the rock critic at The Chicago Tribune. The show features music news, reviews, and interviews and performances by guests ranging from Radiohead to Run the Jewels and Yoko Ono to Robert Plant. It airs on 120 public radio stations nationally and as well as podcasting via soundopinions.org.

DeRogatis has written or co-written nine books, including Let It Blurt: The Life and Times of Lester Bangs, America's Greatest Rock Critic; The Velvet Underground: An Illustrated History of a Walk on the Wild Side; Staring at Sound: The True Story of Oklahoma's Fabulous Flaming Lips; Turn On Your Mind: Four Decades of Great Psychedelic Rock; Milk It! Collected Musings on the Alternative Music Explosion of the '90; The Beatles vs. the Rolling Stones: Sound Opinions on the Great Rock ’n’ Roll Rivalry, and Kill Your Idols A New Generation of Rock Writers Reconsiders the Classics. He jokes that he is not a musician, but he is a drummer, and he lives on the North Side of Chicago with his wife Carmél Carrillo, an entertainment editor at the Tribune.

Follow me on Twitter @JimDeRogatis, join me on Facebook, and podcast or stream Sound Opinions at soundopinions.org.

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