Holding the Note: Profiles in Popular Music

NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • The Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and editor of The New Yorker gathers his writing on some of the essential musicians of our time—intimate portraits of Leonard Cohen, Buddy Guy, Mavis Staples, Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen, Patti Smith, and more.

The greatest popular songs, whether it’s “Respect” sung by Aretha Franklin or “Blind Willie McTell” performed by Bob Dylan, have a way of embedding themselves in our memories. You remember a time and a place and ...