Everything Is Broken

George Harrison’s very first song for the Beatles was an introvert’s manifesto George Harrison enjoying tea time in New York City in February 1964 (New York Daily News Archive/Getty Images) Today — Wednesday, February 25, 2026 — would have been George Harrison’s 83rd birthday. Harrison died in November 2001 at the young age of 58.

Brian Wilson, the composer-musician and all-around musical visionary best known as the creative leader of the Beach Boys, died yesterday at age 82. A few years back, I wrote an appreciation of the Beach Boys' album Pet Sounds, which is widely regarded as Wilson’s crowning achievement and one of the greatest albums of the rock era.

IN THE PAST MONTH OR TWO, I’ve seen several plays in New York City – Glengarry Glen Ross by David Mamet; Curse of the Starving Class by Sam Shepard; and Humpty Dumpty by Eric Bogosian. The first two were revivals of well-known plays by giants of late-20th century American drama; the third, though written in 2003, is not a revival, as it was receiving its first staging in Manhattan. THE SHEPARD DEBUTED IN LONDON in 1977; the Mamet dates back to 1983; the Bogosian, as noted, to 2003.

I SOMETIMES LIKE to go back and listen to the Top 10 from the years of my youth, adolescence, and early adulthood. I am often surprised by how many great songs populated the Top 10 in the 1960s and 1970s in any given week. (There was also a fair share of mediocre pop fluff and novelty material.) I also enjoy how the various hits tell a collective story about the musical culture of the time.