Tim Riley

Tim Riley’s latest book is What Goes On: The Beatles, Their Music, and Their Time (2019), co-written with Walter Everett, from Oxford University Press. He writes the free riley rock report on Substack.

Articles

Bold Whispers, Ironic Subtexts
Tim Riley reviews the Guarneri Quartet’s “Complete RCA Album Collection.”
Tim RileyAug 27
- Music
I Will Not Waste Chalk
Tim Riley reviews Alan Siegel’s “Stupid TV, Be More Funny: How the Golden Era of ‘The Simpsons’ Changed Television—and America—Forever.”
Tim RileyJul 30
- Television
The Young Dead
Tim Riley considers Preston Lauterbach’s “Before Elvis: The African American Musicians Who Made the King.”
Tim RileyFeb 6
- Music
- Biography & Autobiography
More Than Life Itself
Tim Riley reviews a new 27-disc box set of live recordings by Bob Dylan and the Band.
Tim RileyDec 22, 2024
- Music
You’ve Got to Let This Razor Blade into Your Life
Tim Riley reviews Robert Hilburn’s “A Few Words In Defense of Our Country: The Biography of Randy Newman.”
Tim RileyOct 22, 2024
Heartbreak Supernova: On Carrie Courogen’s “Miss May Does Not Exist”
Tim Riley reviews Carrie Courogen’s “Miss May Does Not Exist: The Life and Work of Elaine May, Hollywood’s Hidden Genius.”
Tim RileyJun 25, 2024
- Biography & Autobiography
- Film
Waving or Drowning: On Bradley Cooper’s “Maestro”
Tim Riley reviews “Maestro” and puts Bradley Cooper’s account against the real-life biography of Leonard Bernstein.
Tim RileyDec 28, 2023
One Gig Is Worth 10 Rehearsals: On Ray Padgett’s “Pledging My Time”
Tim Riley reviews Ray Padgett’s “Pledging My Time: Conversations with Bob Dylan Band Members.”
Tim RileyDec 17, 2023
A Poet of the Anticipation of Joy: On Laurie Winer’s “Oscar Hammerstein II and the Invention of the Musical”
Tim Riley reviews Laurie Winer’s “Oscar Hammerstein II and the Invention of the Musical.”
Tim RileyJul 6, 2023
- Biography & Autobiography
- Music
How Much Faith Is Left?: On Warren Zanes’s “Deliver Me from Nowhere”
Tim Riley reviews Warren Zanes’s “Deliver Me from Nowhere: The Making of Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Nebraska.’”
Tim RileyJun 9, 2023
“Cats Are Indescribably Wonderful, Shostakovich’s Fugues Less So”: On Elizabeth Wilson’s “Playing with Fire: The Story of Maria Yudina, Pianist in Stalin’s Russia”
Tim Riley reviews Elizabeth Wilson’s new biography “Playing with Fire: The Story of Maria Yudina, Pianist in Stalin’s Russia.”
Tim RileyAug 4, 2022
- Biography & Autobiography
- Music
Who Needs a “National” Music?: On Joseph Horowitz’s “Dvořák’s Prophecy: And the Vexed Fate of Black Classical Music”
Horowitz’s book brims with detailed examples but its larger argument is unconvincing.
Tim RileyJan 28, 2022
- Music
The Darwin of the Classics
A new biography of Milman Parry, who transformed our understanding of Homer, and oral culture in general.
Tim RileyMay 3, 2021
- Biography & Autobiography
Adrift in Cosmic Quarantine: Randy Newman Turns 77
The great singer-songwriter has spent a lifetime turning bluesy snark into pop gold.
Tim RileyNov 28, 2020
- Music
The Gigantor of Art
Alex Ross’s new book on Wagner teases out the great conductors many contradictions.
Tim RileySep 15, 2020
- Music
No Success Like Failure
Tim Riley reviews a new biography of Nick Lowe.
Tim RileyAug 22, 2019
- Biography & Autobiography
- Music