5. Rock & Roll Hall of Fame
Thank you for a wonderful first week.
The first 2023 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee I saw was Missy Elliott and:
My request today is for each of you to listen to “Lose Control” and just throw ass. The power this song has could overthrow a minor oligarchy.
Kid Fury (my beloved) delivering what can only be called a sermon in Missy’s honor on The Read is well worth a listen, always.
I love Missy Elliott and if I ever got to see her live I would burst into tears. She is a legend. I am thrilled she is being regarded as such.
The other inductee close to my heart is Bernie Taupin. You’re like “who the fuck is Bernie Taupin?” Fair. Except you’re actually wrong and I may fight you. Bernie Taupin is Elton John’s decades-long songwriting partner, and wrote every Elton lyric tattooed on your heart. As a songwriter myself, there has not been a single producer meeting I’ve taken where I didn’t say “I just want to be Bernie Taupin and write songs for singers with actual talent to take on, make a bunch of money, and fuck off to live a life of anonymity running a Pomeranian farm.” (Not in a dog breeder way, just in a way where I get to hang out with a lot of Pomeranians.) Bernie is nothing short of a minor deity to me: “you can’t plant me in your penthouse/I’m going back to my plough” is a lyric I think about almost every day.
Elton’s version is a miracle. So too is this version by Yola:
Congratulations, Bernie. And thank you.
I want to thank each of you for subscribing to and reading this newsletter. I intended to post sporadically here as a way to force myself to write, but I have not been able to stop brainstorming new entries and it has been a joy to get up wanting to write, having fun doing it, taking pleasure in it instead of impostor syndromic dread. Thank you to Chloe Brooks and Caleb Elgut for becoming paid subscribers - for now, I do not have a specific paid package of content, but with your feedback this is something I can develop. Thank you to the other 75(!!) of you who have made my heart sing this week by agreeing to listen to me more often than you already have to.
Please send your feedback and suggestions for content: ask if I’ve seen a certain movie you’d love my thoughts on, music I’m listening to, celebrity gossip, my favorite pop culture growing up, podcast recommendations, just about anything. I am thinking of 2-4 posts a week, some being Quickies and some being more conventional blog entries, and I would love your insights here, too. Thank you all. It means…a lot.
Love you,
Tara
P.S. Before you venture out into what I hope is a safe and fun weekend, please consider making a donation towards the family and memorial costs for Jordan Neely, who was publicly lynched (there is no other way to say it) this week in New York City. I have the below video set to play at 0:42, so we can watch Jordan in a moment of life and passion. May he and his loved ones be covered and receive justice. And may his memory be a blessing.