Tim Riley on Muck Rack

Tim Riley

Verified
(He/Him)
Boston
As seen in: Emerson College, Here & Now Anytime, riley rock report, The New York Times, HuffPost, Goodreads, The Atlantic, The Conversation, The Courier-Mail, The San Diego Union-Tribune, WBUR-FM (Boston, MA), Upworthy, Arizona Daily Star and
Covers:  rock music, multimedia, criticism, rock, journalism, pop culture, classical, podcast, politics, npr, music, music history
Doesn't Cover: Eggplant
jumping streams, still undead

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Tim Riley’s Biography

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NPR CRITIC, EMERSON COLLEGE PROFESSOR and AUTHOR TIM RILEY reviews pop and classical music for the NEW YORK TIMES, the Los Angeles Review of Books, truthdig.com, NPR's ON POINT and HERE AND NOW, and many other publications. He was trained as a classical pianist at Oberlin and Eastman.

Since 2009, he has taught digital journalism at Emerson College in Boston. Brown University sponsored Riley as Critic-In Residence in 2008, and Jon Pareles hailed his first book, Tell Me Why: A Beatles Commentary…

Tim Riley’s Journalist Portfolio

Blacklivesmatter and Altamont

Blacklivesmatter and Altamont

review of JUST A SHOT AWAY by Austerlitz

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Lennon - By Tim Riley - Book Review

Lennon - By Tim Riley - Book Review

Challenging for biographers? Disorienting? Just a bit. Albert Goldman, whose demonically readable book "The L…

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13 Top Boston Area Professors, Deans, Directors & Presidents to Follow on Twitter & Why

13 Top Boston Area Professors, Deans, Directors & Presidents to Follow on Twitter & Why

Tim Riley — @triley60 — Riley is also a journalism professor, but one over at Emerson College. And he’s not o…

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Rock's Backpages - Riley archives

Rock's Backpages - Riley archives

Yo La Tengo: Fakebook (Bar None) Review by Tim Riley, Boston Phoenix , September 1990 Yo La Tengo's pop mothe…

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John Lennon: A Life And Legacy

John Lennon: A Life And Legacy

The musical heirs to John Lennon. We'll look at the Beatle's life and living legacy. In another time of turmo…

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Adrift in Cosmic Quarantine: Randy Newman Turns 77 - Los Angeles Review of Books

Adrift in Cosmic Quarantine: Randy Newman Turns 77 - Los Angeles Review of Books

RANDY NEWMAN'S SONGS carry a scorpion's sting, but he sings them with a piquant charm. He recently performed …

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Articles

Doonesbury Kills Satire

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By Tim Riley Verified
| riley rock report
When asked if he had read Kendall’s biography yet, Garry Trudeau said it sat atop his pile of summer beach reads, “Where my shrieks of mortification will mix with the screeches of the sea gulls…” This review runs next week in the Los Angeles Review of Books, June 25, 2026 GARRY TRUDEAU ARRIVED in the daily funny pages in 1970 with rock and roll’s moral clarity in his ears: a refusal to accept the consoling lies of the establishment, a willingness to make older readers uncomfortable, and an...
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Don't Tell A Soul: Replacements Dress Down

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By Tim Riley Verified
| riley rock report
Opening act The Replacements left 1989 arena crowds queasy, dropped an irresistible lyric, and took Nashville's stage wearing the headliner's wife's dress In June 1989, we watched the tanks roll into Tiananmen Square, with no inkling that the Berlin Wall would collapse by November. Rock was entering that final checkpoint between mainstream respectability and corporate indomitability.
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Sequencing Lennon's Double Fantasy

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By Tim Riley Verified
| riley rock report
Producer Jack Douglas (1945-2026) Goes Off-Script Crazy Yank Jack Douglas, best known for producing John Lennon’s last album Double Fantasy in 1980, gave me a long talk for my Lennon biography when I interviewed him back in 2008. He didn’t seem to care whether or not it went against the “official” narrative. Neither did photographer Bob Gruen. But Yoko Ono edits both these primary sources’ remarks quite differently when they sit for her projects.
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Interview

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What was your first job as a journalist?

City Newspaper, Rochester, NY, weekly: neighborhood reporter, summer 1984

Have you ever used a typewriter?

Yes, fondly.

How is social media changing news?

Faster, less reliable, more focus on current DAILY events, less historical context.

Awards

Kirkus Top Biographies

2011 - Nonfiction

Best Nonfiction of 2011 Eric Liebetrau, Editor Choosing any “best-of” list is always a monumental undertaking, a task guaranteed to involve plenty of discussion, heated debate and perhaps even controversy. This year proved no less difficult, mainly due to the remarkable number of outstanding books published in 2011. Of course, you won’t hear any complaints from me—exposure to such important literature is the most rewarding part of my job. In addition to a selection of dynamic new voices, 2011 brought impressive new work from a cadre of heavy hitters—David McCullough, Joan Didion, Stephen Greenblatt, Claire Tomalin, Erik Larson, Candice Millard, Jonathan Lethem and many others. I personally believe each of the books on this list is significant, and I hope you agree. There are 63 books in 5 categories, alphabetized by title.

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Los Angeles Press Club Award

2016 - Cultural Criticism

Tim Riley’s book review of author Peter Guralnick’s “Sam Phillips: The Man Who Invented Rock ’n’ Roll,” became Truthdig’s third book review to win first place at a L.A. Press Club awards competition. “Like his masterful biographies of Elvis Presley and Sam Cooke,” Riley wrote, “Guralnick’s “’Sam Phillips: The Man Who Invented Rock ’n’ Roll’ traces a charismatic figure through a cockeyed career.” Riley’s category, best online cultural critic, also featured nominees from The New York Times, the Daily Beast and Asian Journal Press.

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