Elizabeth Nelson
@paranoiacs.bsky.social
Singer-songwriter for the Paranoid Style, contributor to the New York Times, Washington Post, the New Yorker, the Atlantic, The Ringer, Pitchfork, LGM.
Speaking of "Easy Rider,": NEW ELIZABETH NELSON ALERT
Elizabeth Nelson@paranoiacs.bsky.social · 4d ago"The paradoxes kept piling up, the prison of freedom growing ever more impossible to escape." For the Pitchfork Sunday Review, I wrote about 1969's sorrowful, game-changing 'Easy Rider' soundtrack. pitchfork.com/reviews/albu...
"The paradoxes kept piling up, the prison of freedom growing ever more impossible to escape." For the Pitchfork Sunday Review, I wrote about 1969's sorrowful, game-changing 'Easy Rider' soundtrack. pitchfork.com/reviews/albu...
Every discerning fan of popular music should register that ticket sales are growing scarce for the one-time-only-historical-anomaly Lisa Walker & Elizabeth Nelson house tour package occurring next week in venues ranging from the midwest to the Atlantic. Grab a seat at Undertow Music while you can.
This has become one of my fav Van songs. It's only recently I learned that it's "about" a literal stairway leading to his gf's flat in the Vanlose district of Copenhagen. But damn if he doesn't make sound like the most mystical, wonderful, pathway to enlightenment. www.youtube.com/watch?v=IA9E...
Van Morrison - Vanlose Stairway
YouTube video by Xavi Somolinos
youtube.com
The critical revisions on Astral Weeks following Ryan Walsh’s book have made it feel out of fashion to call Van a genius, and his personality doesn’t help, but come on, the guy wrote St. Dominic’s Preview
Once read an excellent interview with James Hunter, who toured with VM for a spell. Hunter figured his role was to be a Jack the Lad counterbalance to all the guru types hanging around. Probably much like Georgie Fame.
Happy birthday to the dazzling, baffling enigma that is Van Morrison, whose direct line to the ecstatic mysteries of human spirituality seems at times to run alongside a visceral dislike of actual human beings. In 2014, I fruitlessly tried ranking his LPs for Stereogum. stereogum.com/1674114/van-...
In what was a phenomenal capstone to an amazing birthday weekend, my fabulous in-laws Kelly and Mike threw me the best party ever, wherein my dear old friend Tom Frank gifted me with this vintage "I'm For Nixon" cap. Sometimes your cup just overflows. Love and thanks to everyone.
She has to have her Young Fresh Fellows tape back now
Elizabeth Nelson@paranoiacs.bsky.social · 4w ago"The tumbling riffs, the earth-scorching guilt, the shadow of Kinks-style neurosis everywhere." Over at my substack I attempt to remember 1985's 'Topsy Turvy' by the Young Fresh Fellows, one of the great overlooked LP's of the decade. theparanoidstyle.substack.com/p/where-is-g...
"The tumbling riffs, the earth-scorching guilt, the shadow of Kinks-style neurosis everywhere." Over at my substack I attempt to remember 1985's 'Topsy Turvy' by the Young Fresh Fellows, one of the great overlooked LP's of the decade. theparanoidstyle.substack.com/p/where-is-g...
Where Is Groovy Town?
Six Reflections on the Young Fresh Fellows’ 1985 Masterpiece ‘Topsy Turvy’
theparanoidstyle.substack.com
Come because you love @paranoiacs.bsky.social and Scott McCaughey, stay for the Mark Eitzel/@wesleystace.bsky.social story theparanoidstyle.substack.com/p/where-is-g...
Where Is Groovy Town?
Six Reflections on the Young Fresh Fellows’ 1985 Masterpiece ‘Topsy Turvy’
theparanoidstyle.substack.com
Followed by the wakeup plea of "Blackbird".
Chris Frey@sactochris.bsky.social · last mo.I'm So Tired has long been my favorite Beatles song.
The 'White Album' is ultimately about every kind of fatigue: physical, spiritual, political and cultural. A soundtrack to the sad indulgences of the 60's yielding only false prophets and dark portents. You say you want a revolution. It's been a long, long, long, time. www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9vU...
Long, Long, Long (Remastered 2009)
YouTube video by The Beatles - Topic
youtube.com
I feel this exact way about how they grooved up Whole Lotta Love at Knebworth 79
Chic's Tony Thompson played drums for them at one point in the 1980s.
Beamed in from an alternate universe where Led Zep's major goal was to be as funky as The Meters rather than louder than The Who, “Trampled Under Foot” is five minutes of blissful, cathartic groove hinting at the truly rad disco band they might have eventually become. www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qhS...
Led Zeppelin - Trampled Under Foot (Live at Earl's Court 1975) [Official Video] [HD]
YouTube video by Led Zeppelin
youtube.com
This series also includes posts from @paranoiacs.bsky.social @douglaswolk.bsky.social and many others (with many more to come).
LeeAnn Wombat@jonnyauping.bsky.social · last mo.i wrote a short essay about willie nelson’s “crazy” for hilobrow’s Patsy Your Enthusiasm series if you want a few min read before you dig into some college football or whatever you’re getting today www.hilobrow.com/2026/08/22/p...
Happy 73rd birthday to Joe Strummer, the individual who perhaps more than any other inspired and clarified for me what it is I wanted to do with my life. Reposting an essay I wrote about the 40th anniversary of London Calling for The Ringer. Oh mi corazon. www.theringer.com/2019/12/17/m...
The Siren Sound of the Clash’s ‘London Calling,’ 40 Years Later
Released in 1979, the Clash’s third album changed everything—punk rock, the band that made it, and the fans who worshiped it. Decades later, its rich, eclectic, propulsive sound hasn’t aged a minute, ...
theringer.com
👀
Elizabeth Nelson@paranoiacs.bsky.social · last mo.The alleged experts said it couldn't happen, but here we are: the great Lisa Walker from Wussy and I are headed out on a roving tour of venues ranging from the Midwest to the Atlantic Coast. Twinned icons, telling songs and singing stories. Don't miss out. Tix here! undertowshows.com/collections/...
The alleged experts said it couldn't happen, but here we are: the great Lisa Walker from Wussy and I are headed out on a roving tour of venues ranging from the Midwest to the Atlantic Coast. Twinned icons, telling songs and singing stories. Don't miss out. Tix here! undertowshows.com/collections/...
The real heads can hang out afterwards and listen to me harangue Cohen about how much I loathe his Phillies.
Jason Cohen@cohenesque.bsky.social · last mo.Sure you could see Willie Nelson and Neil Young for almost $300, or you could see two equally legendary songwriters, Elizabeth Nelson @paranoiacs.bsky.social and Lisa Walker @wussymusic.bsky.social, at this house show I am hosting (and at some place cooler than my house). Tickets on sale now
I find 'Linden Arden Stole The Highlights' to be the single most transporting song in the entire Van Morrison catalog. Part noir-mystery and part eulogy for a drinking man, gambler and pious believer, coded with language as beautiful as Joyce himself. A saint's fable. www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xWu...
Linden Arden Stole the Highlights
YouTube video by Van Morrison - Topic
youtube.com
And Depeche Mode was Billy Gibbons' big inspiration for 'Eliminator'. Two of the great boogie bands ever. May the circle be unbroken.
Scott Lemieux@lemieuxlgm.bsky.social · last mo.When THE INTERROGATOR was coming out @paranoiacs.bsky.social told be that ELIMINATOR was a huge direct influence on the sound of the record, confirming my longheld belief that it deserves its critical reappraisal every bit as much as TRANS itself
