Writing in Elsewhere
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AROUND THE CORNER, OUT TO THE EDGE, a memoir by JONATHAN BESSER
4 Jan 2023 | 4 min read | 1
This is a very sad book. Not because of its melancholy contents. Far from it, there is fun and laughter throughout. But because Jewish New York-born composer Jonathan Besser – who moved to New Zealand in 1972 when he was in his early Twenties – died in February 2022. He never lived to see his interesting memoir published. It is sad too because the Auckland he... > Read more
Wellington Harbour, by Besser and Prosser
A MONTH AT THE BACK OF MY BRAIN by KEVIN IRELAND
28 Nov 2022 | 2 min read
When reading Kevin Ireland's 2021 collection of poems Just Like That, it was easy to imagine a mischievous twinkle in the author's eye as he alighted of phrase or line with a glissando between meaning and wit. Not so with this slim but dense and thoughtful third volume of his memoirs which explore memories, the passage of time, old friendships with some people long gone and still... > Read more
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MODERN SONG by BOB DYLAN
19 Nov 2022 | 5 min read
Anyone who had listened to programmes in Bob Dylan's Theme Time Radio Hour will doubtless hear his voice and cadences while reading this uneven collection of short essays on 66 diverse songs which he has, apparently, been writing for over a decade. What is immediately apparent is that the title of the book and many of the songs are like Hitchcock's MacGuffins, canny misdirections before the... > Read more
NIRVANA: THE COMPLETE ILLUSTRATED HISTORY by ANDREW EARLES and VARIOUS WRITERS
16 Nov 2022 | 2 min read
With Christmas looming this large format, exceptionally well-illustrated 200 page hardback might just be one for the young teen in the house discovering rock music, even if that music might be – like that by Nirvana – 30 years old. Here 11 separate contributors (whose comments and perspectives sometimes overlap) offer both an overview of the band's career starting with the... > Read more
Aero Zeppelin
CHARLIE'S GOOD TONIGHT by PAUL SEXTON
8 Nov 2022 | 3 min read
Given his circumspect nature, reluctance to engage with the expectations of the rock'n'roll lifestyle and his preference for staying at home rather than touring, you don't hold out much hope for a biography of Rolling Stones' drummer Charlie Watts who died in August 2021. Even an authorised one with family cooperation as this is– by longtime British music journalist Sexton, who most... > Read more
Down the Road Apiece, by the Rolling Stones (1964)
NEEDLES AND PLASTIC; FLYING NUN RECORDS, 1981-1988, by MATTHEW GOODY
8 Nov 2022 | 4 min read
In the first few pages of this excellent, readable and informative book, the author Matthew Goody -- an assiduous researcher and clear writer -- outlines some of the problems when attempting this detailed survey of the early years of Flying Nun. Rather than an overview with anecdotes, Goody has drilled down into a chronological account of every release on the label in that period . . . but... > Read more
Anything Could Happen, by the Clean (1981)
THE DARK CRACKS OF KEMANG; THE BAJAJ BOYS IN INDONESIA by JEREMY ROBERTS
6 Nov 2022 | 4 min read
When Elsewhere previously wrote about Jeremy Roberts it was 2015, on the publication of his poetry collection Cards on the Table. At that time the former Auckland poet/performer was back living and teaching in Jakarta. We can say “back” because this thick memoir covers, in much detail and with digressions, his first year there in 2013. Single again after the end of a... > Read more
THE ROLLING STONES; ALL THE SONGS, THE STORY BEHIND EVERY TRACK by PHILIPPE MARGOTIN and JOHN-MICHEL GUESDON
9 Oct 2022 | 2 min read
Let's be honest, who knew that there was a story behind every Rolling Stone song? Of course we can discern important themes, especially in their early years: Play With Fire (class consciousness); Get Off Of My Cloud (consumerism), Satisfaction (consumerism, sex), Under My Thumb (role-reversal, misogyny), Mother's Little Helper (prescription drugs) and so on. Later there would be Street... > Read more
The Under Assistant West Coast Promotion Man (1965)
JUMPING SUNDAYS; THE RISE AND FALL OF THE COUNTERCULTURE IN AOTEAROA NEW ZEALAND, by NICK BOLLINGER
11 Sep 2022 | 2 min read
In Greg McGee's 1981 play Foreskin's Lament, a central character bellows, “the effect of the Sixties on the great miasma amounted to an extra inch of whisker on the end a Taranaki farmer’s side-board.” This blunt refutation of a self-believing generation – now defined as “boomer” – doubtless gave uncomfortable pause to lapsed radicals and... > Read more
CULTURE IN A SMALL COUNTRY, by ROGER HORROCKS, REVIEWED (2022): The tyrannies of scale and isolation
29 Aug 2022 | 1 min read
In some small way, Nick Bollinger had it easy for his current and excellent Jumping Sundays: The Rise and Fall of the Counterculture in Aotearoa New Zealand. His subject was defined by what it wasn't. Auckland academic/writer/critic Roger Horrocks has it tougher with Culture in a Small Country: The Arts in New Zealand because his premise is so loaded and subjective it can be deployed into... > Read more
JUMPING SUNDAYS; THE RISE AND FALL OF THE COUNTERCULTURE IN AOTEAROA NEW ZEALAND (extract) by NICK BOLLINGER
26 Aug 2022 | 4 min read
Award-winning Wellington author, broadcaster, critic and the incoming Lilburn Research Fellowship scholar for 2023 Nick Bollinger has written an excellent book about a seemingly inchoate area in our recent history. It is Jumping Sundays: The Rise and the Fall of the Counterculture in Aotearoa New Zealand. It has been reviewed by Graham Reid at Kete Books here, but we are pleased to be... > Read more
Gimme Shelter
TRAITOR KING; THE SCANDALOUS EXILE OF THE DUKE AND DUCHESS OF WINDSOR by ANDREW LOWNIE
12 Aug 2022 | 2 min read
While there is understandable interest in the fame and foibles of the self-exiled Meghan and Harry couple, nothing they have done comes even close to the appalling former Edward VIII (who had been the British monarch for less a year when he abdicated, known to most as David) and Wallis Simpson, his new wife. As the Duke of Windsor, he chose her over royal duties but – as is clear in... > Read more
LENNON, THE MOBSTER AND THE LAWYER: THE UNTOLD STORY by JAY BERGEN
20 Jun 2022 | 2 min read
Although the author seems to possess that uncanny and unlikely ability to recall and quote lengthy conversations many decades after the events, this is still a fascinating account of the courtroom showdown between John Lennon and the old-school, Mob-connected record company grifter Morris Levy who ripped off artists, put his name on songs to get publishing credit and used the threat of... > Read more
SEASONS, by WILLIAM DIREEN
2 Jun 2022 | 2 min read | 1
One of Elsewhere favourite writers is the American poet, essayist and translator Gary Snyder, who is still with us at 92. Although sometimes considered a Beat Poet, Snyder always had a quieter and more reflective mind, much influenced by Buddhism and specifically the Zen poets and philosophers. He appeared as Japhy Ryder in Jack Kerouac's barely disguised autobiographical novel The... > Read more
MIKE McCARTNEY, PHOTOGRAPHER (2022): Pop history in the lens
24 May 2022 | 2 min read
Before he was Mike McCartney he was Mike McGear. But before that he was Mike McCartney. That brief interval when he went by the name McGear was when the band his older brother Paul was in started to get big. Very big. Wanting to separate himself from the light cast by Paul and the Beatles, and to stake his own claim, he was Mike McGear in the Liverpool group the Scaffold whose style was... > Read more
COVER STORY: 100 BEAUTIFUL, STRANGE AND FRANKLY INCREDIBLE NEW ZEALAND LP COVERS. VOL. ONE by STEVE BRAUNIAS
3 Jan 2022 | 4 min read
In this informative album-sized collection of local record covers, writer Steve Braunias wisely doesn't try to make the case for much of the music wrapped in the covers he has chosen. Far too frequently writers, critics and commentators fall for the myth of Kiwi exceptionalism, that what we do is the equal if not better than others. But Braunias' wry eye and sharp humour – often... > Read more
THE MEDITATIVE ADVENTURES SONGBOOK (2016-2021) by Dr NOEMIE M NOURS (2021): Bear with us, this is fascinating
18 Dec 2021 | 2 min read
One of the most interesting and some might say unusual, interviews Elsewhere published this past year was with musician/artist and translator Noemie M Nours from Sweden, also known as Noemie Dal and who releases albums as noemienours. We came across her on her fourth album Tardigrade Bounding which remains strange, charming, fascinating and . . . different. She described her... > Read more
Tidal Molt, from Tardigrade Bounding
JUST LIKE THAT: NEW POEMS by KEVIN IRELAND
4 Dec 2021 | 4 min read
One of the many advantages of the literary life is that it can continue into what we charitably call “advanced years”. When many retire from employment they are obliged to find things to fill their waking hours: petanque, U3A, gardening, even more golf, a book club . . . Writers are their own book club. And for those once again taking their thoughts to the keyboard, the... > Read more
PAUL McCARTNEY; THE LYRICS by PAUL McCARTNEY. Ed by PAUL MULDOON (2021)
20 Nov 2021 | 6 min read | 1
When it came to promoting his albums, Paul McCartney – after a bad start – became more canny. The grave misstep came when he wrote his own Q&A to go out with his solo debut McCartney in 1970. By saying he couldn't foresee a time when he'd write with Lennon and had no plans to work with the Beatles again, he was immediately cast as the one who walked away. That all three... > Read more
Paperback Writer
THE GOSDEN YEARS by BILL GOSDEN. Ed. GAYLENE PRESTON and TIM WONG
20 Nov 2021 | 4 min read
When Bill Gosden received a cancer diagnosis in June 2017 he was encouraged by friends and colleagues to write a memoir about his remarkable career. Gosden – who had been at the helm of New Zealand film festivals for almost 40 years, astutely picking what went on cinema screens – chose not to. He used his time to travel and reconnect with friends overseas. But Wellington's... > Read more