Like Young

by Francis Davis

"Modern jazz and rock 'n' roll, both of which were once identified with youthful insurrection, have reached middle age. So have many longtime listeners - including Francis Davis, the peerless music and cultural critic for the Atlantic Monthly, who admits early in this new collection that he, "once thought Britney Spears was a porn star and Daisy Fuentes was one of those women third world novelists I really ought to try reading."". "As in his previous collections - in the Moment, Outcats, and Bebop and Nothingness - Davis here captures the heat and the larger sociological meanings of jazz. Moving from Billie Holiday to Ornette Coleman to Sun Ra, he examines a wide range of jazz both old and new, on stage and screen. But what makes Like Young Davis's most personal book, as well as his most surprising are the chapters on such pop icons as Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, Burt Bacharach, and Lou Reed. Using himself as an example, going beyond character sketch and detached inquiry, Davis pinpoints