Before we hit the weekend, here's another new book that I should have posted about ages ago. In Shakespeare and Popular Music, Adam Hansen (Senior Lecturer in English at the University of Northumbria, UK) offers a fantastic survey of the surprising places where the Bard has popped up in contemporary music.
Going through the index gives you a great sense of the range of this book: Johnny Cash and the Beatles are here, so’s Dylan, plus Miles Davis and Duke Ellington, Jay-Z and the Kaiser Chiefs, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Radiohead, Waylon Jennings and the Sex Pistols... I could go on. Surely that’s something to suit everyone’s tastes?
As usual, we have a free preview of the book available on the link above and you can find more information about the book, including a full table of contents, here.
As it is Friday, I can’t help posting a musical link to take us into the weekend, taking my cue from some of the examples discussed in the book (although I should warn you before you click through that my music taste has cleared a room on many occasions). I was going to send you in the direction of the Birthday’s Party’s incendiary Hamlet (Pow, Pow, Pow) but I thought that might be a bit much for some tastes. Instead, I recommend checking out one of my best recent musical discoveries, London rapper Akala and his stunningly rapid-fire song Comedy, Tragedy, History.
Have great weekends!
David
Senior Editor,
Continuum Literary Studies
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