Louder than bombs
Subtitle: a life with music, war, and peace
By: Ed Vulliamy ; with illustrations by Shirley Hughes
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Published: 2020
Place of publication: Chicago
Language: eng
Number of pages: 497
ISBN-13: 9780226715544
Subjects: Music; Anecdotes; Foreign correspondents; Biography; War correspondents; Reporters and reporting; MUSIC / General
Work titles: When words fail
Description: Part memoir, part reportage, Louder Than Bombs is a story of music from the front lines. Ed Vulliamy, a decorated war correspondent and journalist, offers a testimony of his lifelong passion for music. Vulliamy's reporting has taken him around the world to cover the Bosnian war, the fall of the Berlin Wall and collapse of Communism, the Iraq wars of 1991 and 2003 onward, narco violence in Mexico, and more, places where he confronted stories of violence, suffering, and injustice. Through it all, Vulliamy has turned to music not only as a reprieve but also as a means to understand and express the complicated emotions that follow. Describing the artists, songs, and concerts that most influenced him, Vulliamy brings together the two largest threads of his life--music and war. Louder Than Bombs covers some of the most important musical milestones of the past fifty years, from Jimi Hendrix playing "Machine Gun" at the Isle of Wight Festival in 1970 to the Bataclan in Paris under siege in 2015. Vulliamy was present for many of these historic moments, and with him as our guide, we see them afresh, along the way meeting musicians like B. B. King, Graham Nash, Patti Smith, Daniel Barenboim, Gustavo Dudamel, and Bob Dylan. Vulliamy peppers the book with short vignettes--which he dubs 7" singles--recounting some of his happiest memories from a lifetime with music. Whether he's working as an extra in the Vienna State Opera's production of Aida, buying blues records in Chicago, or drinking coffee with Joan Baez, music is never far from his mind. As Vulliamy discovers, when horror is unspeakable, when words seem to fail us, we can turn to music for expression and comfort, or for rage and pain. Poignant and sensitively told, Louder Than Bombs is an unforgettable record of a life bursting with music.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Intro; title: Contents; title: Overture: Sarajevo, 1 August 1993 (Haydn, String Trio Op. 8 No. 6); title: 1. Hendrix Comes East (Isle of Wight Festival, 1970); title: 2. What on Earth Is Going On? (Origins and Essence); title: 3. Double Entendre: Shostakovich Goes West (Fifth Symphony, Leningrad Philharmonic, Jansons, BBC Proms, London, 1971); title: 4. State and De Soto: 'Down to the Crossroads' (B.B. King, Indianola, Mississippi, 2013); title: 7" Single: Viva Verdi! Una Vita Italiana; title: 5. 'No Time for Love' (Planxty: National Stadium, Dublin, 1973; title: Christy Moore, Knightsbrook Hotel, Trim, County Meath, 2016); title: 6. Floating Anarchy Radio: 'You Can't Un-ring the Bell!' (Planet Gong, Rougemont Gardens, Exeter, 1977); title: 7" Single: Rock Against Racism; title: 7" Single: Diamonds and Rust: Joan Baez and Bob Dylan; title: 7" Single: Dvořák in Iowa; title: 7. Fuck the Wall! (Berlin, 1989, and Plastic People of the Universe, Uničov, Czech Republic, 2009); title: 8. Through the Wire (Music from Terezín, Nash Ensemble, Wigmore Hall, London, 2010); title: 9. Symphony under Siege (Shostakovich, Seventh Symphony, Leningrad Radio Orchestra, August 1942); title: 10. Radio Wall: Rock Under Siege (Ilijaz Delić: National Theatre, Mostar, October 1993; title: Amira Medunjanin, St George's Hall, Liverpool, 2012); title: 7" Single: La Louisiane; title: 12" Extended version: 'I Think You'd Better Wake Up, the World Trade Center's on Fire!'; title: 11. Al-Malwiya; title: the Spiral (Led Zeppelin, 'Kashmir', O2, London, December 2007); title: 7" Single: Singing Like a Saxophone; title: 12. Please Step into the Next Hall, Comrades! (Shostakovich: Moscow, Cheryomushki, Mariinsky Opera, Gergiev, London, 2006); title: 7" Single: La Discothèque; title: 13. Strauss Is Cooler Than Salsa (The 'Alpine' Symphony, Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra, Caracas, 2007, El Sistema); title: 7" Single: Beethoven in Juárez; title: 14. Through the Wall (Music for al-Nakba, Sebastia, West Bank, 2008; title: Brahms: Fourth Symphony, West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, Barenboim, BBC Proms, London, 2008); title: 7" Single: Postcard from Rome; title: L'Ange Voyageur; title: 7" Single: Postcard from the Recovery Ward, 2013; title: 15. Drones over Wasteland (John Cale, Barbican, September 2014); title: 16. When Words Fail (Schubert: Die Winterreise, Paul Lewis and Mark Padmore, Wigmore Hall, London, 2012); title: 7" Single: Postcard from Amsterdam; title: 7" Single: Postcard from the Night Train; title: Finale: 'We Can Change the World' (Graham Nash, Paris, 2015-2016; title: Marianne Faithfull, Bataclan theatre, Paris, November 2016); title: Notes; title: Recommended Recordings; title: Bibliography; title: Acknowledgements; title: Index