Interlude II: Together Through Life
Looking back at the series so far
Remember when TV shows used to do clip-show episodes? I always used to think that you knew the writers were low on ideas or were off on annual leave when a series hit those kinds of episode, but it’s struck me in writing this recap piece that these Interludes are the Substack equivalent of the old fashioned clip show.
The first one of these posts came just before 2004’s guitar-centric post, and if you’d like to go back and revisit that one you can find it here.
I can’t quite believe that we’re now two thirds of the way through this series. Having set out back in mid-April to write about the last 30 years of music, we now only have 10 more years to go. We’re hurtling towards the present day at an alarming rate, and to the time when I will have to come up with something new to write about.
Whilst I try and think of something, let’s take a quick look back at the years between this weeks clip-show style recap and the last one.
2004: Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge - My Chemical Romance
As mentioned above, this post was all about guitar music. Franz Ferdinand, The Libertines, the Kings of Leon, Green Day and My Chemical Romance all made up the main body of the piece following a brief rock and roll intro.
2005: Extraordinary Machine - Fiona Apple
This was the first Together Through Life post to be written outside of the UK! I was in America to see Celisse, Mavis Staples, Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson at the 4th July Picnic in Camden, NJ when I wrote this piece. Perhaps I should have written a review for that show. Maybe I still will!
Earlier in the year, I’d listened to some of Kate Bush’s Aerial for the first time and had originally intended to listen to the rest and use it as the springboard to write this piece about her first album in thirteen years; a collection of of first thoughts and impressions of the album. But listening to it on the plane to the States, I realised that I don’t love Aerial all that much - and certainly not enough to skip out on some sightseeing to write about it - so decided to focus more on a 2005 album that I do love: Fiona Apple’s extraordinary Extraordinary Machine.
2006: Modern Times - Bob Dylan
This was the first album that Bob Dylan released after I became a fan, so this post wove together my introduction to Dylan and early impressions of him with a review and overview of the record. The post also covered releases from My Chemical Romance, Paolo Nutini and Amy Winehouse as well as touching on Taylor Swift’s eponymous debut album.
Wilco are one of my favourite bands. I love them. I love all their albums and their live shows and their interviews and anything they do. But every year they had an album out up to this point there was always something else I’d rather be writing about. When we got to 2007 it felt like the perfect time to show them my whole love.
2008: Harps and Angels - Randy Newman
Alongside the 1999 Fiona Apple and 2001 Bob Dylan entries, this was one of my favourites to write in the series so far. People don’t talk about Randy Newman enough and about how great he is, so I was pleased to see this one going down so well when it went out. Amazingly, it even got shared on Substack by Newman’s label, Nonesuch Records, and was the most read piece I had released until…
2009: Together Through Life - Bob Dylan
By far and away the most clicked on and interacted with post out of any of these so far, this became my first essay to hit 1,000 clicks. Dylan is always the biggest draw as far as these bits of writing go, so it was only fitting that the one that got the most attention was about the album that gave the newsletter its name in the first place.
I would have expected a lower hit rate on this post in most weeks, let alone in the week following on the heels of the successful 2009 entry. I did not expect that there would be too much interest in or demand for a post about Rihanna from the new subscribers who had joined off the back of two long reads about Randy Newman or Bob Dylan.
But I do think I did a good job of making this engaging to such an audience, framing Man Down through the lens of the long line of murder ballads from musical history.
There were also a few paragraphs here about My Chemical Romance, Janelle Monáe, Kanye West and Taylor Swift if Rihanna alone wasn’t enough to keep the Newman and Dylan fans away!
2011: 50 Words for Snow - Kate Bush
Carrying over the concept from 2005, this was written whilst listening to Kate Bush’s 2011 album 50 Words for Snow for the first time. After an intro about other great late career albums, this post feautures a track-by-track analysis of the record and then briefly touches on other albums from that year by The Strokes, Wilco and Tom Waits.
Another long post, this one used Taylor Swift’s Red and Bob Dylan’s Tempest as a framework with which to compare the two artists and their live performances. Having seen them both in concert this year - Swift on the Eras Tour and both Dylan’s Rough and Rowdy Ways World Wide and Outlaw tours - I’d been wanting to write about the two very differing experiences of seeing them live for a while, and a year in which they both released new albums felt like the perfect excuse.
It was also a pleasure to write about the releases that year from Fiona Apple, Leonard Cohen, Bobby Womack, Lana Del Rey and Bruce Springsteen.
There’s not much more than needs to be said about what a genius Paul McCartney is, but I wanted to write a few words about him anyway. Some of the posts in this series have been plenty long - at around 25 minutes, I am always grateful when you stick with me - but I wanted to keep this one punchy and compact, just like all the best Beatles and pop songs, at about 3 minutes and change.
We’re on the home straight now, but there are still plenty more posts to come, starting later this week with one about Lana Del Rey’s first really great record, Ultraviolence. After that, we’ll look at Courtney Barnett’s wonderful and wonderfully titled Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit.
And then, the artist and the album that I’ve been looking forward to writing about for the whole series, probably more than any other really, Leonard Cohen’s swansong, You Want It Darker. Hope I can do that one justice. From there, there will be features on Hurray for the Riff Raff and the Arctic Monkeys, Japanese Breakfast and Angel Olsen as well as a wide array of supporting casts and characters in the “Elsewhere in the Year…” sections.
Outside of the main series, I’m thinking about doing a paid-for sister-series called Together Through LIVE - a similar concept of exploring these same thirty years, but through the lens of the live albums released in that time-frame. I’d make these paid as it would take up more time to research the releases than this main series has. Paid subscribers could also make requests - in a sub-series tentatively titled Freebird, get it? - where I’d write about any year or release of their choosing. These subscriptions would cost no more than £5 per month - let me know in the comments or over e-mail if this is something you’d be interested in.
Then, after that, who knows. Some music book and live reviews perhaps and then we’ll see what else jumps out at me to write about. Maybe those rumoured new Fiona Apple, Tom Waits and Bob Dylan albums will all make an appearance and give us all something to write and talk about!