Real Life Rock: The Complete Top Ten Columns, 1986-2014
Rock Solid Journalism
SUPPORT TRUTHDIG
In 2026, amid chaos and the nonstop flurry of headlines, Truthdig remains independent, fact-based and focused on exposing what power tries to hide.
Support Independent Journalism.
Related Stories
Arts & Culture
As the filmmaker readies for his Festival of Disruption in Los Angeles, one of his most compelling fever dreams deserves another look.
A former staff writer at the alternative newsweekly reminisces about the paper’s golden age in the 1980s.
Allen Barra sits down with cultural critic Greil Marcus to discuss “Real Life Rock,” a book compilation of Marcus’ “Real Life Rock Top Ten” columns written between 1986 and 2014, and “Three Songs, Three Singers, Three Nations,” his collection of William E. Massey Sr. Lectures in History of American Civilization 2013 at Harvard University.
Author Greil Marcus doesn't explain these 10 songs (including one sung by Amy Winehouse, shown) or their power to thrill him; he tries to re-create in prose how it might have felt to perform them.Author Greil Marcus doesn't explain these 10 songs (including one sung by Amy Winehouse, above) or their power to thrill him; he tries to re-create in prose how it might have felt to perform them.
Arts & Culture
As the filmmaker readies for his Festival of Disruption in Los Angeles, one of his most compelling fever dreams deserves another look.
A former staff writer at the alternative newsweekly reminisces about the paper’s golden age in the 1980s.
Allen Barra sits down with cultural critic Greil Marcus to discuss “Real Life Rock,” a book compilation of Marcus’ “Real Life Rock Top Ten” columns written between 1986 and 2014, and “Three Songs, Three Singers, Three Nations,” his collection of William E. Massey Sr. Lectures in History of American Civilization 2013 at Harvard University.
Author Greil Marcus doesn't explain these 10 songs (including one sung by Amy Winehouse, shown) or their power to thrill him; he tries to re-create in prose how it might have felt to perform them.Author Greil Marcus doesn't explain these 10 songs (including one sung by Amy Winehouse, above) or their power to thrill him; he tries to re-create in prose how it might have felt to perform them.