Why subscribe?

Night Beat is a long-running account of the times and events that shaped my life as a music writer.

I was born in 1951 in Portland, Oregon. On my thirteenth birthday—February 9th, 1964—I witnessed the Beatles make their advent in America on the Ed Sullivan Show. After that, I was swept into popular music and its meanings from my adolescence into my adulthood, and well into the generations that followed.

In 1974, at age 23, I would begin writing professionally about that music—its sounds, and the events and culture surrounding those sounds. Not just rock, R&B and blues-related music, but also jazz—both historical and contemporary, including jazz vocalists—and folk and roots forms. Three years later, I began work for Rolling Stone. There, I conducted interviews with Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Mick Jagger, Sinead O’Connor and Jerry Garcia among others. I also wrote about the lives and deaths of David Bowie, the Ramones, John Lennon, George Harrison, Frank Sinatra, Merle Haggard, Leonard Cohen, Charlie Watts, Jerry Lee Lewis, Aretha Franklin, and Duane and Gregg Allman. In recent years, I have written prodigiously about the Beatles, Bob Dylan and the Rolling Stones, all of whom—as Night Beat will attest—have figured as major touchstones for me since the early 1960s. I don’t expect that standard to change anytime in the future. I still have much to learn from these artists: their lives and theirworks.

Over the years, in addition to shadowing the music, I also loved, I lost love, I married, and I changed cities. What’s more, I saw family and friends thrive and die, and did the same myself. I didn’t exactly die, but I came close enough several times. Now, at age 74, well….

At age 74, that is why I have started this newsletter: to pay witness to the triumphs and tragedies of those years. I’m off to a good head start here by benefit of much of my earlier work for Rolling Stone, Downbeat and elsewhere, plus there is all that I have written new for this Substack feed. It will take a long time for these stories to unfold, but I trust—or at least hope—that they will prove worth the attention of those who choose to follow this feed. I am grateful to anybody who extends an interest. Hopefully, I might persuade a couple of other writers to lend their voices here as well—covering subjects beyond music, including books, film and thought.

At times, the chronology in my larger ongoing story will necessarily leapfrog between some segments—which is to say, subjects might occasionally veer out of flow. I’ll add transitional notes and comments when necessary.

One final note: In contrast to my regular ongoing commentaries on Facebook, I will not be writing here about daily political concerns. That is, unless the whole damn thing appears to be going bottom-up and demands of me some sort of urgent—if futile—stab at conscience and sanity.

There will be a lot to read here in the many months ahead, but that should be okay: It’s taken me a lifetime to write it.