Holding the Note

Starred review from May 29, 2023
New Yorker editor Remnick (Lenin’s Tomb) delves into the lives and art of musical greats in this standout collection of pieces published in the magazine. Remnick’s conversations with such luminaries as Patti Smith, Bob Dylan, and Luciano Pavarotti occurred late in the artists’ careers, when each was “grappling, in music and in their own lives, with their diminishing gifts and mortality,” though the drive to create never abated. “How the Light Gets In,” published a month before Leonard Cohen’s 2016 death, explores the so-called godfather of gloom’s personal and artistic particularities, from his reluctant, sometimes anxiety-ridden relationship with performing to his religious devotions (a lifelong “spiritual seeker,” Cohen practiced Judaism, but spent years in a Zen monastery). “Soul Survivor” traces Aretha Franklin’s gospel roots, while “We Are Alive” probes the “darker currents” of Bruce Springsteen’s psyche and how they’ve fueled his creative drive: “you cannot underestimate the fine power of self-loathing,” says Springsteen, who also speaks of a “need to remake myself, my town, my audience—the desire for renewal.” Remnick’s close observational details add texture, but what’s most remarkable is his ability to give due at once to the artists’ larger-than-life musical legacies and their all too human fallibilities. Music fans will revel in this peek behind the curtain.