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Somebody once asked a gospel singer if he was an entertainer or a preacher. He answered, “Yes.” Michael Lasser’s talks at museums, universities, and libraries all over the country are, likewise, a mix of substance and entertainment, serious purpose and lighthearted irreverence. After all, he says, “I’m talking about popular songs, not the future of the Republic.” That doesn’t mean he isn’t serious about American songs and the men and women who wrote them. As he explains: |
“One of the most telling moments happened at the end when you asked if anyone had questions. One visitor said, ‘Yes. Is there any more!’”
Melinda Georgeson |
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"I do think
popular music has something valuable to tell us about ourselves if we
stop and listen to it. It opens a revealing and entertaining window on
American attitudes for the last 150 years. For the last 25 of those
years, I've been talking about popular music as social history--about
songs and the America they reflect." |
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"All the Old Familiar Places": Love Songs of Depression and War Saturday, February 11,
2012 "Let's All Be Americans Now": Popular Music and the Melting Pot Sunday, February 19,
2012 "Nice Work if You Can Get It": What Work Songs Say About Us Tuesday, February 21, 2012 "To See as Songwriters See" Friday, March 9, 2012,
Jewish Songwriters and the Making of American Song Tuesday, March 20, 2012 "Harlem on My Mind": Songs for Americans in Paris Sunday, April 1,
2012
Riding the Rainbow/Writing the Rainbow: The Lyrics of Yip Harburg Tuesday, April 3,
2012 Twentieth Century Love: Modernism & American Popular Song Tuesday, June 14,
2012 Ragtime Tuesday, July 17,
2012 "Halfway to Heaven": Songs from the Time of the American Impressionists Thursday, September
9, 2012 "All of the Old Familiar Places": Love Songs of Depression and War Sunday, September
23, 2012 "You'll Rule This Land with Me": Jay Gatsby's Dream and the Popular Songs of the Twenties Saturday, November
10 or 17, 2012
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