David Stubbs

Last updated

David Stubbs (born 13 September 1962 in London) is a British music journalist. He grew up in Leeds and in the early Eighties was a student at the University of Oxford where he was a close friend of Simon Reynolds. The two were part of the Oxford-based collective that in 1984 launched the pop journal Monitor and then in 1986 both joined Melody Maker as staff writers.

Contents

Stubbs remained at Melody Maker for a dozen years. He combined his serious writing career with writing the humorous "Talk Talk Talk" section, which featured the character of 'Mr Agreeable.' [1]

Career

Stubbs has written for Vox magazine, the NME (late 1990s and early 2000s), and as editor of The Wire , [2] Uncut , The Guardian , The Times and the football magazines Goal and When Saturday Comes , where in the guise of the "Wing Commander", Stubbs covered England's ill-fated World Cup campaign, followed by their failure to qualify for Euro 2008; the reports were sufficiently popular for Stubbs to augment them with further characters. [1] He has also contributed to many of the themed special editions of Uncut. He has written about musicians such as Jimi Hendrix [3] and Eminem in the Stories Behind Every Song series.[ citation needed ]

In 2009, his book on 20th century avant-garde music was published, entitled Fear of Music: Why people get Rothko but don't get Stockhausen (Zero Books, Winchester: UK, 2009), [4] which was the subject of an evening of lectures at the Tate Britain. [1] The title may have been taken from the third studio album by Talking Heads, Fear of Music . He was among 42 who contributed essays to the bestselling The Atheist's Guide To Christmas , which also featured Richard Dawkins, Derren Brown, David Baddiel and Charlie Brooker. [1]

In 2014, Stubbs published a comprehensive critical history of German krautrock of the 1970s, Future Days: Krautrock and the Building of Modern Germany. This was followed in 2018 by a similarly large-scale study of electronic music, Mars by 1980. [5]

Publications

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jimi Hendrix</span> American guitarist (1942–1970)

James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American guitarist, songwriter and singer. Although his mainstream career spanned only four years, he is widely regarded as the greatest and one of the most influential electric guitarists in the history of popular music, and one of the most celebrated musicians of the 20th century. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame describes him as "arguably the greatest instrumentalist in the history of rock music."

<i>Electric Ladyland</i> 1968 studio album by the Jimi Hendrix Experience

Electric Ladyland is the third and final studio album by the Jimi Hendrix Experience, released in October 1968. A double album, it was the only record from the Experience with production solely credited to Hendrix. The band's most commercially successful release and its only number one album, it was released by Reprise Records in the United States on October 16, 1968, and by Track Records in the UK nine days later. By mid-November, it had reached number 1 on the Billboard Top LPs chart, spending two weeks there. In the UK it peaked at number 6, where it spent 12 weeks on the British charts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Can (band)</span> German experimental rock band

Can were a German experimental rock band formed in Cologne in 1968 by Holger Czukay, Irmin Schmidt (keyboards), Michael Karoli (guitar), and Jaki Liebezeit (drums). The group featured several vocalists, including the American Malcolm Mooney (1968–70) and the Japanese Damo Suzuki (1970–73). They have been widely hailed as pioneers of the German krautrock scene.

Avant-garde music is music that is considered to be at the forefront of innovation in its field, with the term "avant-garde" implying a critique of existing aesthetic conventions, rejection of the status quo in favor of unique or original elements, and the idea of deliberately challenging or alienating audiences. Avant-garde music may be distinguished from experimental music by the way it adopts an extreme position within a certain tradition, whereas experimental music lies outside tradition.

Krautrock is a broad genre of experimental rock that developed in West Germany in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It originated among artists who blended elements of psychedelic rock, avant-garde composition, and electronic music, among other eclectic sources. Common elements included hypnotic rhythms, extended improvisation, musique concrète techniques, and early synthesizers, while the music generally moved away from the rhythm & blues roots and song structure found in traditional Anglo-American rock music. Prominent groups associated with the krautrock label included Neu!, Can, Faust, Tangerine Dream, Kraftwerk, Cluster, Ash Ra Tempel, Popol Vuh, Amon Düül II and Harmonia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">All Along the Watchtower</span> 1967 song by Bob Dylan

"All Along the Watchtower" is a song by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan from his eighth studio album, John Wesley Harding (1967). The song was written by Dylan and produced by Bob Johnston. The song's lyrics, which in its original version contain twelve lines, feature a conversation between a joker and a thief. The song has been subject to various interpretations; some reviewers have noted that it echoes lines in the Book of Isaiah, Chapter 21, verses 5–9. Dylan has released several different live performances, and versions of the song are included on some of his subsequent greatest hits compilations.

<i>Radio-Activity</i> 1975 studio album by Kraftwerk

Radio-Activity is the fifth studio album by German electronic music band Kraftwerk, released in October 1975. The band's first entirely electronic album is also a concept album organized around the themes of radioactive decay and radio communication. All releases of the album were bilingual, with lyrics in both English and German. The album was accompanied by single release of the title track, which was successful in France and Belgium.

"Little Wing" is a song written by Jimi Hendrix and recorded by the Jimi Hendrix Experience in 1967. It is a slower tempo, rhythm and blues-inspired ballad featuring Hendrix's vocal and guitar with recording studio effects accompanied by bass, drums, and glockenspiel. Lyrically, it is one of several of his songs that reference an idealized feminine or guardian angel-like figure. At about two and a half minutes in length, it is one of his most concise and melodically focused pieces.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hey Joe</span> Song written and composed by Billy Roberts

"Hey Joe" is an American song from the 1960s that has become a rock standard and has been performed in many musical styles by hundreds of different artists. The lyrics tell of a man who is on the run and planning to head to Mexico after shooting his unfaithful wife. In 1962, Billy Roberts registered "Hey Joe" for copyright in the United States.

<i>Tago Mago</i> 1971 studio album by Can

Tago Mago is the second studio album by the German krautrock band Can, originally released as a double LP in August 1971 on the United Artists label. It was the band's first studio album to feature Damo Suzuki after the 1970 departure of previous vocalist Malcolm Mooney. Recorded in a rented castle near Cologne, the album features long-form experimental tracks blending rock improvisation, funk rhythms, and musique concrète techniques.

Curtis Knight, born Mont Curtis McNear, was an American musician who is known for his association with Jimi Hendrix.

<i>Live at Woodstock</i> (Jimi Hendrix album) 1999 live album by Jimi Hendrix

Live at Woodstock is a posthumous live album by Jimi Hendrix released on July 6, 1999. It documents most of his performance at the Woodstock Festival on August 18, 1969, and contains Hendrix's iconic interpretation of "The Star-Spangled Banner" and other songs from the original festival film and soundtrack album.

George Chkiantz is a British recording engineer, based in London, who has been responsible for the engineering on a number of well-known albums, many of which are considered classics, owing in part to the quality of the recordings.

"1983… " is a song recorded in 1968 for the third studio album, Electric Ladyland, by the Jimi Hendrix Experience. Written and produced by Jimi Hendrix, the song features flute player Chris Wood of the band Traffic, and at over 13 minutes in duration is the second longest track released by the group.

"May This Be Love" is a song written by Jimi Hendrix for the Jimi Hendrix Experience debut album Are You Experienced (1967). It is a soft ballad that demonstrates Hendrix's ability to write thoughtful lyrics and subtle melodies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Drifter's Escape</span> 1967 single by Bob Dylan

"Drifter's Escape" is a song written by Bob Dylan that he recorded for his 1967 album John Wesley Harding. Columbia Records released it as a single in the US and the UK in 1969 as the B-side to "I Threw It All Away". The song was recorded in four takes on October 17, 1967. CBS Records International also issued the song paired with "John Wesley Harding" in some markets.

Experimental rock, also called avant-rock, is a subgenre of rock music that pushes the boundaries of common composition and performance technique or which experiments with the basic elements of the genre. Artists aim to liberate and innovate, with some of the genre's distinguishing characteristics being improvisational performances, avant-garde influences, odd instrumentation, opaque lyrics, unorthodox structures and rhythms, and an underlying rejection of commercial aspirations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hear My Train A Comin'</span> Song written by Jimi Hendrix

"Hear My Train A Comin'" is a blues-based song written by Jimi Hendrix. Lyrically, it was inspired by earlier American spirituals and blues songs which use a train metaphor to represent salvation. Hendrix recorded the song in live, studio, and impromptu settings several times between 1967 and 1970, but never completed it to his satisfaction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Psychedelic funk</span> Music genre

Psychedelic funk is a music genre that combines funk music with elements of psychedelic rock. It was pioneered in the late 1960s and early 1970s by American acts like Sly and the Family Stone, Jimi Hendrix, and the Parliament-Funkadelic collective. It would influence subsequent styles including '70s jazz fusion and the '90s West Coast hip hop style G-funk.

<i>Romantic Warriors IV: Krautrock</i> 2019 American film

Romantic Warriors IV: Krautrock is a trilogy of feature-length documentaries about progressive music written and directed by Adele Schmidt and José Zegarra Holder. RW4 focuses on the progressive rock music from Germany popularly known as Krautrock, although the integration of Krautrock into the progressive rock genre is a purely American notion. In Europe, the conventional wisdom is that Krautrock can be considered at most as the connection between psychedelic rock and progressive rock. The term "Krautrock" was applied after-the-fact by British journalists, and in fact the German bands share very few similarities.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "David Stubbs Author Profile". Zero Books. Archived from the original on 26 May 2018. Retrieved 26 May 2018.
  2. "Live 8: ¿fiesta o compromiso?". BBC News (in Spanish). BBC Mundo. 2 July 2005. Archived from the original on 6 March 2016. Retrieved 24 May 2018.
  3. "Jimi Hendrix". Archived from the original on 4 October 2011. Retrieved 24 May 2018.
  4. Stubbs, David (2009). Fear of Music: Why People Get Rothko But Don't Get Stockhausen. John Hunt Publishing. p. 135. ISBN   978-1-8469-4179-5. Archived from the original on 30 January 2024. Retrieved 12 August 2021.
  5. "Mars By 1980 book to chart evolution of electronic music". www.soundonsound.com. Archived from the original on 1 October 2020. Retrieved 19 November 2019.