The Baby Boomer Experience: Today and Tomorrow

  Sylvester Stallone  was not born to be a star — which made him the perfect choice to play the titular  Rocky  Balboa in his breakthrough 1976 film,  Rocky . Prior to making his Oscar-winning blockbuster, Stallone spent years roughing it as a no-name actor in New York, appearing in a handful of low-profile films throughout the early '70s (including the 1970 softcore pornographic film  The Party at Kitty and Stud's , which he later called "horrendous"). He first earned critical acclaim by starring alongside Perry King and Henry Winkler in 1974's  The Lords of Flatbush , a low-budget drama following four teenage, leather jacket-wearing miscreants around the streets of Brooklyn. To keep reading this article, click here.

  The stand-ups of today are still feeling the shockwaves of Richard Pryor’s impact on the artform. The late comedian, writer and actor was, like his contemporaries Lily Tomlin and George Carlin, a key figure in moving the medium beyond the setup/punchline delivery into more freeform storytelling that left ample room for improvisation and allowing material to evolve naturally.  And he was the kind of comic mind that found joy in comedy that appealed to both our intelligence and our basest instincts. That’s why an early album like  Craps (After Hours)  can feature tracks like “President Nixon” and “Religion” alongside “Snappin’ Pussy” and “Fartin’.”  What girds all of Pryor’s work, no matter how frivolous, is his understanding of what he represented to his audience. This was a black man who survived unfathomable abuse and horrors growing up, an addiction to cocaine as an adult and the casual and blatant racism in America.  When he had a microphone in his hand and an audience in front of

  Ever since the dawn of man, humans have been looking for ways to make themselves feel better. Going beyond food, shelter and clothing…humans enjoy feeling good. Music, perhaps beating on a log with a stick, has long been one of the methods of soothing the savage beast. Another soothing method, of course, has been drugs in their many forms. Hundreds of songs about alcohol and marijuana, “hootch” and “grass,” respectively, have been written. The song “Feelin’ Good,” recorded by Ry Cooder, has the lyric “Feelin’ good, feelin’ good…all the money in the world spent on feeling good.” That about sums it up, no? To keep reading this article, click here.

  The rock concert: we put on our favorite band shirt and wait for the lights to go down to watch the performers who created the soundtracks of our lives. That experience is like no other. Marc Myers takes us on a journey from the genesis of the term “rock ‘n’ roll” to the epic  Live Aid  relief benefit in  Rock Concert: An Oral History as Told by the Artists, Backstage Insiders, and Fans Who Were There.  In his book, Myers shares the stories of the artists who were at the front of the stage, like Joan Baez, Roger Waters, Todd Rundgren, and Ronnie Spector. Additionally, you’ll hear from concert promoters, stagehands, club owners, graphic designers, sound engineers, and others who worked to bring the concert experience together. To keep reading this article,  click here.