You Don’t Have to Go Blind: Songs About Fame

Inspired by some recent criminal activity in the Christian rock world, this week on A Symposium of Popular Songs, we’re listening to songs about fame—mostly its negative aspects.

Inspired by some recent criminal activity in the Christian rock world, this week on A Symposium of Popular Songs, we’re listening to songs about fame—mostly its negative aspects. Send me your song recommendations at symposiumofsongs@gmail.com!

  • 0:00

    David Bowie, “Fame” (Young Americans, 1975)

  • 6:30

    Reading: Mike Rimmer, “Newsboys: Ex-Lead Singer John James Speaks About His Fall and Restoration”

  • 10:20

    Swirling Eddies, “All the Way to Heaven” (Outdoor Elvis, 1989)

  • 14:38

    Reading: Homer, Iliad

  • 15:31

    Reading: Homer, Odyssey

  • 17:28

    Elton John, “Candle in the Wind” (Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, 1973)

  • 21:58

    Reading: J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye

  • 22:53

    Reading: John Irving, A Widow for One Year

  • 25:06

    Siouxsie and the Banshees, “Kiss Them for Me” (Superstition, 1991)

  • 29:35

    Carpenters, “Superstar” (Carpenters, 1971)

  • 34:43

    Reading: Neil Gabler, Life: The Movie

  • 37:24

    Lily Allen, “The Fear” (It’s Not Me, It’s You, 2009)

  • 41:27

    Reading: Tom Payne, Fame 

  • 44:22

    R.E.M., “E-Bow the Letter” (New Adventures in Hi-Fi, 1996)

  • 49:43

    U2, “Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me” (Batman Forever, 1995)

  • 55:50

    The Baseball Project, “Buckner’s Bolero” (High and Inside, 2011)

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A stack of three Local Culture journals and the book 'Localism in the Mass Age'

Michial Farmer

Michial Farmer is a poet, essayist, and history teacher. He is the author of Imagination and Idealism in John Updike’s Fiction (Camden House, 2017) and the translator of Gabriel Marcel’s Thirst (Cluny, 2021). He lives in Atlanta.

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