Nine Inch Nails lynchpin Trent Reznor is an unlikely inclusion in Time magazine's annual list of the 25 most influential Americans. "Reznor's music is filthy, brutish stuff, oozing with aberrant sex, suicidal melancholy and violent misanthropy," claims the accompanying article, "but to the depressed, his songs proffer pop's perpetual message of hope." Other entertainment figures in the list are producer Kenneth 'Babyface' Edmonds, X-Files creator Chris Carter, movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, actress and talk show host Rosie O'Donnell, and comic strip hero Dilbert.
I won’t be seeing Dylan on his UK tour until Sunday at Wembley Arena, so I asked Damien Love to be a guest blogger and review the show for us. Damien is a veteran Uncut contributor, the author of a great biography of Robert Mitchum and a longstanding Dylan fan.
HAPPENINGS TEN YEARS TIME AGO
April 9 to 15, 1997
Singer-songwriter Laura Nyro dies of ovarian cancer, aged 49. Although a much-respected cult figure in her own right, a handful of Nyro's songs became million-sellers when recorded by others, including Barbra Streisand ("Stoney End"), The Fifth Dimension ("Wedding Bell Blues", "Stoned Soul Picnic") and Three Dog Night ("Eli's Comin'").
HAPPENINGS TEN YEARS TIME AGO
March 12 to 18, 1997
Jermaine Stewart, the 80s soul star whose biggest hit was "We Don't Have To Take Our Clothes Off", dies of AIDS-related liver cancer, aged 39. Initially finding fame as a dancer on the long-running TV show Soul Train, Stewart also sang backing vocals for the likes of The Temptations, Tavares, Shalamar and Culture Club.
HAPPENINGS TEN YEARS TIME AGO
February 26 to March 4, 1997
On the eve of the release of their album Pop, U2 announce details of their forthcoming PopMart tour, from a makeshift stage in the lingerie section of a K-Mart department store in downtown Manhattan. "We believe in trash, we believe in kitsch," The Edge tells reporters. "That's what we're all about at the moment."
I suspect few records released in 2007 are going to provoke as much argument as this second Arcade Fire album, "Neon Bible". A week before the official release date, you can already feel it coming, as inexorable as the tidal waves and imprecations of doom that fill Win Butler's lyrics.
