Gamers gather for retro glory in New Hampshire

Lifestyle Features

Cork it, Corgan

Could be Verse: Poetry ripped straight from the headlines

By JAMES PARKER | June 14, 2007

Lines Upon Hearing the Smashing Pumpkins’ Single “Tarantula,” Their First New Material Since 2000

Billy Corgan, your vocal organ offends my tender ears.
I thought you were gone, but I was wrong, and you’re back,
   after seven years.
How gifted you are when you play the guitar, and how charming your
   changes of key;
But you sing like a weed on which dogs have peed — or that’s how it
   sounds to me.

Topics: Lifestyle Features , Billy Corgan, The Smashing Pumpkins

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[ 06/03 ] Always, Patsy Cline @ Ogunquit Playhouse

ARTICLES BY JAMES PARKER

FINDING OUT WHAT MAKES THE MEAT PUPPETS TICK WITH A NEW ORAL HISTORY | May 30, 2012
As half-assed a form as it can be, the rock-band oral history is a folk form nonetheless, with a great claim to authenticity.

THEY AIN'T HEAVY, THEY'RE THE KIRKWOOD BROTHERS | May 31, 2012
Finding out what makes the Meat Puppets tick with a new oral history

GETTING TO KNOW PHILIP LARKIN WITH A NEW EDITION OF HIS POEMS | April 26, 2012
"A smash of glass and a rumble of boots/Electric trains and a ripped-up phonebooth/Paint-spattered walls and the cry of a tomcat/Lights going out, and a kick in the balls." These lines are not by Philip Larkin, of course — they're by Paul Weller.

BLACK SABBATH ARE BACK — IN PRINT AND ON FILM | November 14, 2011
The literature on Black Sabbath — already extensive — will continue to grow, as we try, try, try again to wrap our poor noggins around the irreducibly cosmic fact of this band.