Issue 2

NEW WRITERS, NEW TOPICS EXTEND TERRAIN

Welcome.

You are reading the second edition of Chapter&Verse and I hope that you will find material of interest in a journal which aims to patrol the beat between popular music and the written word – where rock and rap, reggae and country, jazz and blues share a relationship with the novel or short story, poetry or criticism, academic or journalistic.

The second issue, to follow our launch last spring, introduces a number of new writers and certainly extends the vision that characterised the premiere edition into territory so far unexplored, good news for this young publication and, I feel, for you as a reader, new or returning.

Among those voices unveiled in this C&V are Lee Barron whose consideration of heavy metal band Venom and their association with Milton’s “Paradise Lost” opens up fresh avenues of enquiry. Meanwhile, Justin Cober-Lake takes on a giant of the jazz saxophone in John Coltrane and considers his links to African-American poets like Amiri Baraka.

Nathan Wiseman offers a broader contemplation on the nature of writing about popular music, while Roy Burkhead provides the first section of a two part article on Roseanne Cash and Steve Earle and the literary seeds they have sown in their careers. Last but not least, Patrick Dailly enjoys a reprise as he investigates intriguing overlaps between W.H.Auden, rockers Rush and the popular song.

In the Review section, David Meltzer’s recently published, epic poem Beat Thing is considered and, in a new feature entitled Retrospect, where earlier books and recordings earn a re-assessment, Paolo Hewitt’s 1992 club culture novel Heaven’s Promise is under the microscope.

In addition, I am pleased to draw your attention to our new Archive resource, where you find articles from the debut issue, including work by Simon Frith, Sheila Whiteley and Patrick Webster.

You can also find out more our writers, past and present, by visiting the Contributors page and more about the journal’s Editorial Board by going to the About Us section.

NOTES FOR CONTRIBUTORS

If Chapter&Verse is of interest to you and you have articles - or ideas for articles - that might fit the brief, do write to the Editor, Simon Warner, at journal@chapterandverse.org.uk

Please note that the third issue of Chapter&Verse is scheduled for Spring 2005. Potential contributors to that edition should be aware that there is a January 10th, 2005 deadline for proposals which should come, initially, in the form of a 200-300 word abstract. Proposed submissions will then be considered by members of the Editorial Board. If you would like your submission to be refereed, please advise the Editor in advance.

Articles should range in length from 3,000-6,000 words, but longer pieces may be accommodated. Shorter contributions - reviews of relevant works in print, recordings or live events or comment pieces, for example - are also invited with a suggested length of 1,000-1,500 words. Do contact the journal if you have suggestions for items you might wish to cover.

The section Restrospect aims to consider, in around 500-1,000 words, a book or recording that has been significant or influential or even under-reported in this field. Suggestions and submissions are invited. For example, you may want to consider a piece of cult fiction (by, say, Colin MacInnes or Hunter S. Thompson, Stewart Home or Douglas Coupland) or an album inspired by literary sources (say David Bowie’s Diamond Dogs, the Kerouac tribute Kicks Joy Darkness or Stan Tracey’s Under Milk Wood) or a spoken word collection that incorporates a musical element.

NOTES TO PUBLISHERS/RECORD LABELS

If you have items – printed or recorded – which you feel may be of interest to Chapter&Verse, do contact the Editor at journal@chapterandverse.org.uk or phone on +44 (0)1422 824414.

Books or recordings for review can be mailed to:

Simon Warner
Editor (Reviews)
Chapter&Verse
School of Music
University of Leeds
LEEDS LS2 9JT
United Kingdom

EDITORIAL INFORMATION

EDITOR

Simon Warner teaches popular music at the University of Leeds in the UK. He has been a rock reviewer with the The Guardian, published the book Rockspeak: The Language of Rock and Pop in 1996, and writes for various websites including the "Anglo Visions" column for Pop Matters (popmatters.com). His next volume, Text and Drugs and Rock'n'Roll: The Beats and Rock from Kerouac and Ginsberg to Dylan and Cobain, has just been commissioned by Continuum.

EDITORIAL BOARD

David Amram
Jazz musician and composer of more than one hundred orchestral, chamber and operatic works, whose ground-breaking collaborations with Jack Kerouac are recalled in his memoirs Vibrations and Offbeat.

Daphne A. Brooks
Assistant Professor of English and African-American Studies at Princeton University and author of two forthcoming books, Bodies in Dissent (Duke UP) and Jeff Buckley's Grace (Continuum Press).

Sarah Champion
Editor of the Chemical Generation short fiction collections Disco Biscuits and Disco 2000.

Michel Delville
Teaches on the Modern English Literature and American Literature programme at the University of Liege in Belgium.

Oliver Double
The first person in the country to receive a PhD for a thesis on stand-up comedy, for 10 years he worked as a professional comedian. He now teaches at the University of Kent, UK, and has a particular interest in spoken word and performance poetry.

Simon Frith
Professor of Film and Media at the University of Stirling, UK, and author of Sound Effects and Performing Rites, he has also been a rock critic with numerous publications.

Bruce Horner
Director of Composition in the Department of English of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He is co-editor of the volume Key Terms in Popular Music and Culture.

David Meltzer
Poet, novelist, folk performer, rock artist with Serpent Power and editor of Reading Jazz and Writing Jazz., he teaches humanities at the New College of California, San Francisco.

Thom Swiss
Professor of English at the University of Iowa and co-editor of Key Terms in Popular Music and Culture and Mapping the Beat, he is also a widely published poet in print and online.

Sarah Zupko
Founder and editor of the webzine PopMatters (popmatters.com) and the website Sarah Zupko's Cultural Studies Center (popcultures.com). Based in Chicago, she is an Internet executive at Tribune Media Services.

Issue 1 Editorial Information