Seth Rogovoy, a contributing editor at the Forward, is the author of Bob Dylan: Prophet Mystic Poet (Scribner) and Within You Without You: Listening to George Harrison (Oxford University Press).
Seth Rogovoy
By Seth Rogovoy
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Music Leonard Cohen, ‘Master of Erotic Despair’ Takes His Leave
Rock-poet Leonard Cohen, the “master of erotic despair” and the writer of dozens of modern classics that have been performed and recorded by everyone from John Cale to Judy Collins, Willie Nelson, U2 and Rufus Wainwright, died on November 7, at age 82. The official announcement was made on November 10 after a private funeral….
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Culture The Secret Jewish History of the Rocky Horror Picture Show
“Rocky Horror” is the cultural phenomenon that simply refuses to die. Rather, since its first incarnation as a 1973 stage musical in London, “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” has been continuously reborn on the silver screen, in subsequent Broadway stage productions, and now, as a 21st-century direct-to-TV film. “The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Let’s Do…
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Culture Phil Chess, the Jewish Hitmaker Who Helped Create Rock ‘n’ Roll, Dies at 95
One day after his greatest discovery, Chuck Berry, turned 90, the legendary hit man Phil Chess passed away at the age of 95 (on October 19). Chess and his brother, Leonard Chess, cofounded their record label in Chicago in the late 1940s, through which they played a huge role in shepherding the careers of blues…
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Music How Jewish Record Men Helped Chuck Berry Invent Rock ‘n’ Roll
More than any other singular individual – including Elvis Presley, Little Richard, and Jerry Lee Lewis – it was Chuck Berry, who turns 90 years old today, who put together the disparate musical elements, the teen-focused lyrics, and the showman’s persona that created the template for all rock ‘n’ roll music that followed. The Beatles,…
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Culture Yes, Bob Dylan Writes Literature. Next Question?
Bob Dylan’s been a perennial contender for the Nobel Prize for Literature for many years, but I don’t think any of us really thought he’d ever win. Now that he has, the question remains, what’s left? He’s already won all the other awards – medals of honor and freedom from the American and French governments,…
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Culture Paul Simon’s Secret Jewish Life
Modern klezmer music got its biggest boost in audience and record sales when, in the 1990s, classical violinist Itzhak Perlman rediscovered the music of his ancestors, got in touch with the leading lights of the revival, brought them with him to Poland to “find” the roots of the music, made a documentary, headlined an all-star…
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Culture Was This Hippie Yenta the Zelig of Rock ‘n’ Roll?
Reading between the lines of the new documentary “Danny Says,” about music industry insider Danny Fields, it’s not quite clear if Fields was simply a Zelig of rock ‘n’ roll — linked in one way or another to the Beatles, the Doors, Cream, Lou Reed, Iggy Pop, MC5, and the Ramones — or a phenomenal…
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Culture A Year After His Death, Theodore Bikel Continues To Defy Typecasting
It’s been just a little over a year since Theodore Bikel died — he passed away a year ago July at age 91 — and as such, his legacy has yet to be cemented. This is undoubtedly due in part to the difficulty of encapsulating the legacy of a veritable Zelig – an Austrian-born Zionist…
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