Jumping off the Page by Marty Weil
Book Description
Jumping Off The Page uses ephemera as a portal to fascinating and seldom explored aspects of history and pop culture. Each of the three chapters of this eBook begins with a piece of ephemera–America’s cultural flotsam.
The topics selected for inclusion in Jumping Off The Page enable the reader to peer into eccentric windows of our society. The fascination travels beyond the ephemera itself to its meaning in a larger context, including:
Essay #1: Springsteen: The Record Promotion, the Album, and the Rock Photographer
This essay explores the cultural impact of the album and the controversy surrounding the title track of Born in the USA, which was misrepresented by Ronald Reagan during the 1984 Presidential Campaign, as well as the controversy surrounding the cover photograph. It also touches on the career of legendary photographer Annie Leibovitz, who took iconic photographs of Springsteen.
Book Review
This book is a quick read but a very interesting one. There are three separate sections in the book dealing with diverse subjects and there is an originality in the way the information is portrayed. The first section, the Catalogue, the Gun Maker and the Lincoln Park Traps give an personal insight into history that you will not find in any of the history books, well certainly not any that I have read.
The section dealing with Bruce Springsteen’s album, ‘Born in the U.S.A.’ was for me a revelation, to the extent I had to download the lyrics and study them. I was then left with a very different perspective on the artist and his music from what I had before. The writer Quotes Springsteen;
I write two kinds of songs: songs of hope, and songs of eternal damnation’, which put his work neatly into perspective for me.
This is a really original compilation and the writer has an Ephemera notepad blog which has lots of American vintage Ephemera that has inspired his writing. I have no problem recommending this as a good read, with only one small criticism in that to justify the kindle price it could have been a bit longer.
Jumping off the Page by Marty Weil,
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