Overview

Rebel Musix, Scribe on a Vibe collects the extraordinary output of Vivien Goldman from 1975 onwards; spanning a time when punk burnt its scalding flame to scorch our musical earth and clear it for new genres, like post-punk and hip-hop. One of only a handful of women writing in the Golden Age of music journalism, Vivien was the first, most elegant and passionate chronicler of reggae, funk, free jazz and Afrobeat; a pioneer when music was a wild frontier business, lawless and exhilarating, with new epiphanies emerging as the counterculture mutated. The sheer breadth of pieces here is overwhelming, from early encounters with Brian Eno, Robert Wyatt and Can; to rebels like Britain's first she-punks, The Raincoats and The Slits; covering British groups like the Sex Pistols, The Clash and Aswad; America's Public Enemy, Curtis Mayfield and George Clinton; and Jamaica's Lee 'Scratch' Perry and Dennis Brown. They rub up against contemporary profiles of New York's downtown royalty (Patti Smith, Talking Heads, Richard Hell), alongside legendary interviews with Vivien's friends Fela Kuti, Ornette Coleman and Bob Marley, who reigns over this collection like a benign and timeless deity. Vivien single-handedly changed the course of music writing and this collection reshapes some of her major pieces into a new narrative of the principal radical artists of the late twentieth century, in the process reaffirming that her reputation as 'The Punk Professor' will live on.

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9781399601740

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Punk! New Wave! Reggae! Vivien Goldman never fails to get the inside scoop. She is the messenger who reveals the truth about our music and ultimately, ourselves. Viva Vivien! * Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth * A friend, an ally, a fellow musician and creative who is articulate, on point, a trailblazer and a necessary pioneer. Thank you for all your words. * Gina Birch * People talk about Brian Eno, Robert Wyatt, Can, Betty Davis, The Sex Pistols, George Clinton, Grace Jones all the time - but Vivien Goldman actually spoke to them. Whilst they were making that music we are still talking about. Essential reading: the making of history as it was happening. Vivien was there. And 'Launderette' is one of the best singles ever. Read it * Jarvis Cocker * Vivien Goldman has the uncanny ability to shapeshift into differing cultures, to hear the musical world through the prism of an inclusive celebration of song as it unlocks emotion. In these collected works from the seventies and eighties, she reveals the inner world of genre that transcends borders, becomes global, and speaks to us of our common humanity * Lenny Kaye *

Punk! New Wave! Reggae! Vivien Goldman never fails to get the inside scoop. She is the messenger who reveals the truth about our music and ultimately, ourselves. Viva Vivien! * Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth * A friend, an ally, a fellow musician and creative who is articulate, on point, a trailblazer and a necessary pioneer. Thank you for all your words. * Gina Birch *

Author Information

Vivien Goldman is a British writer, musician, broadcaster and educator. She has published seven books and was one of the first writers to champion artists like Bob Marley and Fela Kuti. Now she teaches about them and other Rebel Musix as a long-serving New York University Professor.

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