Tim Riley’s latest book is What Goes On: The Beatles, Their Music, and Their Time (2019), co-written with Walter Everett, from Oxford University Press. He writes the free riley rock report on Substack.
Tim Riley
Articles
Bending the Arc of History
A new biography of Howard Zinn functions less as a detailed portrait of a man than as an inspirational manual for contemporary endurance.
The Deadline Dickens
A new biography of Garry Trudeau offers a wealth of detail but fails to come to grips with the limits of his comic strip’s satire.
Almost Candid
Tim Riley listens for the unspoken ironies of Cameron Crowe’s career via his new memoir, ‘The Uncool.’
Bold Whispers, Ironic Subtexts
Tim Riley reviews the Guarneri Quartet’s “Complete RCA Album Collection.”
I Will Not Waste Chalk
Tim Riley reviews Alan Siegel’s “Stupid TV, Be More Funny: How the Golden Era of ‘The Simpsons’ Changed Television—and America—Forever.”
The Young Dead
Tim Riley considers Preston Lauterbach’s “Before Elvis: The African American Musicians Who Made the King.”
More Than Life Itself
Tim Riley reviews a new 27-disc box set of live recordings by Bob Dylan and the Band.
You’ve Got to Let This Razor Blade into Your Life
Tim Riley reviews Robert Hilburn’s “A Few Words In Defense of Our Country: The Biography of Randy Newman.”
