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1. Real Life Rock Top 10

   Real Life Rock Top 10

   Lucinda bids Dylan good morning, Patti Smith greets Baghdad, and Greil Marcus says goodbye

   Greil Marcus

   Published: June 30, 2004

   1) Leah Garchik, June 14 (San Francisco Chronicle) Regarding George W. Bush declaring the day of Ronald Reagan's funeral a national holiday, bold-faced names columnist Garchik...

2. Real Life Rock Top 10

   Real Life Rock Top 10

   Hughes kisses the devil, Wainwright flirts with activism, and Houston makes out all right

   Greil Marcus

   Published: May 5, 2004

   1)-2) Eagles of Death Metal, Peace Love Death Metal (AntAcidAudio); Dock Boggs, Country Blues: Complete Early Recordings (1927-29) (Revenant) Featuring a member of Queens of...

3. Real Life Rock Top 10

   Real Life Rock Top 10

   Special absurdity of the media present, ineffability of the aesthetic past edition

   Greil Marcus

   Published: April 14, 2004

   1) Salon, "Letters," regarding the pending removal of Bob Edwards as host of NPR's Morning Edition (March 30) The bemusement Edwards has for 25 years offered ordinary...

4. Real Life Rock Top 10

   Real Life Rock Top 10

   Lou Reed struts like Brando; a NASCAR Nazi salute; and voting isn't just for old people

   Greil Marcus

   Published: March 24, 2004

   1) Mendoza Line, "It's a Long Line (But It Moves Quickly)," on Fortune (Cooking Vinyl) From people hiding in present-day America--just as the Mekons of Fear and Whiskey and...

5. Real Life Rock Top 10

   Real Life Rock Top 10

   American musical taste gets bland; Robert McNamara gets angry; the President gets naked

   Greil Marcus

   Published: March 3, 2004

   1) Michael Pitt and the Twins of Evil, "Hey Joe," from The Dreamers: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (Nettwerk America) This movie about three young people making a whole...

6. Real Life Rock Top 10

   Real Life Rock Top 10

   Electrelane get their guns, David Denby misfires, and Two Poets should be shot

   Greil Marcus

   Published: February 11, 2004

   1) Electrelane, The Power Out (Too Pure) In 200l these British women released the almost all-instrumental Rock It to the Moon, and you couldn't begin to say what it was. This...

7. Real Life Rock Top 10

   Real Life Rock Top 10

   Mr. Airplane man call out from Memphis, Sacred Harp Singers reclaim the bible belt, and Hootie's reputation heads south

   Greil Marcus

   Published: January 14, 2004

   1) Mr. Airplane Man, C'mon DJ (Sympathy for the Record Industry) A Boston duo--Margaret Garrett, guitar, Tara McManus, drums and organ--recording in Memphis, then calling out...

8. Real Life Rock Top 10

   Real Life Rock Top 10

   Natalie Merchant does an about-face; Joe Strummer's countenance appears on the wall; Stephen Tyler loses his head

   Greil Marcus

   Published: December 24, 2003

   1) Natalie Merchant, The House Carpenter's Daughter (Myth America, P.O. Box 170, Bellows Falls, VT) The songs are from Fairport Convention, The Anthology of American Folk...

9. Real Life Rock Top 10

   Real Life Rock Top 10

   Lynne Truss delivers us from our sins, Johnny Cash finds redemption, and Kurt Cobain loses Nirvana in the afterlife

   Greil Marcus

   Published: December 3, 2003

   1) Johnny Cash with Joe Strummer, "Redemption Song," from Johnny Cash, Unearthed (American/Lost Highway) The title of this five-CD set--four discs of outtakes from the...

10. Real Life Rock Top 10

    Real Life Rock Top 10

    Jack Black touches kids' souls, Martina McBride touches a nerve, and Kobe Bryant touches the ladies

    Greil Marcus

    Published: November 12, 2003

    1) & 2) Brooks & Dunn, "Red Dirt Road" (Arista) and Martina McBride, "Independence Day," (RCA, 1994), on The Bear, 95.7 FM (San Francisco, Oct. 20) As melody,...

11. Real Life Rock Top 10

    Real Life Rock Top 10

    Placebo rediscover cro-magnon relics; culturcide revive 1985; Randy Newman says the past ain't what it used to be

    Greil Marcus

    Published: October 22, 2003

    1) The Fiery Furnaces, Gallowsbird's Park (Rough Trade) Brooklynites Eleanor and Matthew Friedberger offer hilarious sibling-loathing liner notes and songs that seem to come...

12. Real Life Rock Top 10

    Real Life Rock Top Ten

    The old, the tired, the rejuvenated, and the dead

    Greil Marcus

    Published: October 1, 2003

    1) Neva Chonin, "Sex Pistols' Lydon tries, but can't revive rage on reunion tour at Warfield" (San Francisco Chronicle, Sept. 5) "What can you say about a 25-year-old legend...

13. Real Life Rock Top 10

    Real Life Rock Top Ten

    Nirvana sing about the blackout, Bigfoot shines some light on human nature, and Sinéad's snarl glows in the dark

    Greil Marcus

    Published: August 27, 2003

    1-4) Lady J on KALX-FM (Berkeley, August 18) Mondays 9 to noon is Lady J's shift at the same college station that figures in Jonathan Lethem's new novel, The Fortress of...

14. Real Life Rock Top 10

    Real Life Rock Top 10

    Pearl Jam goes on hunger strike, JFK buys you a spaghetti dinner, and Jeff Bridges asks Bob Dylan to swallow his pride

    Greil Marcus

    Published: August 6, 2003

    1) Hem, Rabbit Songs (Dreamworks reissue) From Brooklyn, this set of nihilist love letters--originally released independently in 2001--keeps company with Van Morrison's Astral...

15. Real Life Rock Top 10

    Real Life Rock Top Ten

    Patti Smith nominates Ralph Nader; Penelope Houston stumps for Howard Dean; Liz Phair endorses copulating barbies

    Greil Marcus

    Published: July 16, 2003

    1) Patti Smith at Martin Luther King Jr. Park, Berkeley (June 15) Smith and Boots Riley of the Coup were performing in support of International A.N.S.W.E.R., a group affiliated...

16. Real Life Rock Top 10

    Real Life Rock Top Ten

    Ben Harper summons god and Johnny Rotten proves he's still the antichrist

    Greil Marcus

    Published: June 25, 2003

    1) John Mellencamp, Trouble No More (Columbia) Old songs, old singer, fresh sound: Mellencamp turns Dicky Do and the Don'ts' obscure 1959 doo-wop "Teardrops Will Fall" into...

17. Real Life Rock Top 10

    Real Life Rock Top 10

    David Thomas channels the ghosts of Edward Hopper, Orson Welles, and his own past

    Greil Marcus

    Published: June 4, 2003

    1)-10) David Thomas, "Disastodrome!" (Freud Playhouse, UCLA, Los Angeles, February 21, 22, 23) It was a version of a Raymond Chandler mystery, with tough, cool, and...

18. Real Life Rock Top 10

    Real Life Rock Top 10

    Neko Case kills you softly with her song; The Be Good Tanyas wait around to die; Patricia Tallman confronts the living dead

    Greil Marcus

    Published: May 14, 2003

    1) The New Pornographers, "The Laws Have Changed," from Electric Version (Matador) Neko Case pipes in the background like an organ. Then, as a multiple exposure, she's high...

19. Real Life Rock Top 10

    Real Life Rock Top 10

    Paul McCartney leaves us feeling white, Delillo makes critics see red, and Luc Sante remembers the blues

    Greil Marcus

    Published: April 23, 2003

    1) Nineteen Forty-Five, I Saw a Bright Light (Daemon) The first time you hear this, it might sound ordinary; the third or fourth time it can be shattering. There is the...

20. Real Life Rock Top 10

    Real Life Rock Top 10

    The Raveonettes pull out the big guns, A.R.E. Weapons sing one for America, and the Dixie Chicks start a war

    Greil Marcus

    Published: April 9, 2003

    1) A.R.E. Weapons, A.R.E. Weapons (Rough Trade) New York City, very self-mocking about their street smarts, very anguished about the street, and utterly expert in a way that...