Part 2 of Yaffee review from @airmailweekly .....If, like me, you grew up with a Rolling Stone subscription, these stars felt invincible, with unlimited budgets and indomitable swagger. It looked like all the celebrities were part of one big blowout, and sometimes, in Goldsmith’s book, that seems to be the case, where Tina Turner is having a party, and Bob Geldof, Joan Baez, and Sting are holding back the self-righteousness with magnums of champagne. Imagine that it’s 1986, and you’re at the table with a pixie Chrissie Hynde, Mick Jones (not that one; the other one), and Paul Shaffer, drinking beer on tap and blinding each other with their shiny blazers, except for Hynde, who doesn’t care, because it’s all pretending anyway. As a kid, it almost looked like posing for the pictures was more important than the actual music. That’s not true for the real artists here—Goldsmith’s lens captured Bill Evans, Paul Simon, Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, Wynton Marsalis, Lou Reed, Laurie Anderson, Leonard Cohen, Tom Waits, Philip Glass, and Dylan, for God’s sake. But, for some, posing was the point, just a taste for the 99 percent. There’s Prince and there’s Hynde, peering at you, way, way up there. You will never get into this kingdom. You don’t have the password. Or maybe you do. Calling something a coffee-table book is a euphemism when the subject is the 80s. Imbibe the apropos substance, gaze at the stars, and feel invincible. —David Yaffe Music in the ’80s, by Lynn Goldsmith, to be published by Rizzoli on September 27. David Yaffe is a professor of humanities at Syracuse University. He writes about music and is the author, most recently, of Reckless Daughter: A Portrait of Joni Mitchell. #thankyou #photographer #portraits #lens #1980s #rizzoli #airmail #davidyaffee