This is an edition of The Wonder Reader, a newsletter in which our editors recommend a set of stories to spark your curiosity and fill you with delight. Sign up here to get it every Saturday morning.
The lives of famous musicians have always inspired intense curiosity from fans and the press alike, sometimes to an unhealthy degree. A peek inside—learning where these artists sleep and what they eat, what music carries them through long nights, what their biggest fears are—can feel like finally glimpsing the unknowable. It makes them, and their art, feel just a little more human. Today’s newsletter explores the inner lives of well-known artists.
On Musicians’ Lives
What the Band Eats
By Reya Hart
Memories of the meals I ate growing up with the Grateful Dead
Read the article.
How the Beatles Wrote ‘A Day in the Life’
By Nicholas Dawidoff
Fifty years after its release, the sprawling closing track on Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band remains a testament to the group’s ambitious songwriting.
Read the article.
The Improbable, Unstoppable Rise of Goose
By Charlie Warzel
Meet the jam band that just might persuade you to love a jam band.
Read the article.
Still Curious?
- How a band falls apart, according to Stereophonic: The Tony-winning play explores the heartbreak and turmoil that sometimes accompany great music, Elise Hannum writes.
- “The songs that shaped my life”: Last year, Jeff Tweedy reflected on Joni Mitchell’s wisdom, Otis Redding’s invitation, and the Beatles’ schematic of love.
Other Diversions
- Amazon Haul is an omen.
- The secret to thinking your way out of anxiety
- What the internet age is taking away from writers
P.S.
I recently asked readers to share a photo of something that sparks their sense of awe in the world. Phil Kunkel, 72, from St. Cloud, Minnesota, writes, “I looked out of our hotel room window” In Arizona’s Monument Valley “just in time to catch the early morning magic of daylight beginning to appear behind the amazing rock formations for which the Valley is known.”
I’ll continue to feature your responses in the coming weeks.
— Isabel