Encores

Starting next week, we revisit four of Malcolm’s favorite episodes from the Revisionist History archives, all about music. See omnystudio.com/listener https://omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:06Malcolm Gladwell?

  Pushkin.

• 0:15Malcolm Gladwell?

  Over the years that I've been doing Revisionist History, I've done a number of episodes about music, and they're some of my favorites. And in going back and listening to those episodes, I realize they're all about versions of the same thing. Well, actually, that's way too vague.

• 0:32Malcolm Gladwell?

  About the way that specific songs burrowed into my consciousness 10, 20, 30, even 40 years ago, and have stayed there ever since. Which is odd, because I'm not musical. I don't play an instrument. I don't even know what a chord is. But there is almost nothing that brings me more joy than sitting down with a musician. So I thought we'd reprise four of my favorite music episodes from the archives of Revisionist History. A trip to Nashville to talk about sad songs. Another trip to Nashville to talk about Elvis, of course.

• 1:10Malcolm Gladwell?

  A third is based around a magical afternoon I spent with Randy Newman. Can I prevail on you to steal a little bit of "Marie"?

• 1:16Speaker 01

  Sure.

• 1:17Malcolm Gladwell?

  So I love that song so much.

• 1:19Speaker 01

  Thank you very much.

• 1:21Malcolm Gladwell?

  And the last of them took me to the Met, to a pub in North London, to the story of Leonard Cohen's masterpiece, "Hallelujah."

• 1:33Malcolm Gladwell?

  Come, join us for a walk down Revisionist History memory lane.