Modern Classics: Carina del Valle Schorske on Cat Power's "Manhattan"
b'Recently the hosts of Switched on Pop kept seeing the same byline next to their favorite pieces of music writing. A moving profile of Bad Bunny? There was the name. A searing critique of West Side Story? There it was again. An elegy on love, loss, and an Aretha Franklin and Smokey Robinson duet? By now it was committed to memory: writer and translator Carina del Valle Schorske. So we knew we had to invite Carina to participate in our Modern Classics series and learn what this brilliant writer would place in her modern pop pantheon.\\xa0\\n\\n\\nCarina\\u2019s pick, the 2012 song \\u201cManhattan\\u201d by Cat Power, presents an opportunity to analyze an artist we\\u2019ve never discussed on the show before, and a song that sparks associations with New York City\\u2019s rich musical history. Cat Power, aka Chan Marshall, released \\u201cManhattan\\u201d on her 2012 album Sun, and the song\\u2014on which Marshall recorded every instrument herself\\u2014has become an unlikely sleeper hit in the Cat Power catalog. Perhaps that\\u2019s because, as Carina tells it, the song is a celebration and elegy at once, trying to capture the beat of a city that is constantly in flux, but with an inescapable iconicity.\\xa0\\n\\n\\n\\u201cManhattan\\u201d isn\\u2019t the only piece of urban musical alchemy Carina brought to the show. Cat Power\\u2019s ode to the borough syncs up in surprising ways with the 1978 salsa track by Willie Col\\xf3n and Rub\\xe9n Blades, \\u201cBuscando Guayaba.\\u201d Together, the songs stake out a twisting path across genre, time, and language, but along on the same streets.\\n\\n\\nSongs Discussed\\n\\nCat Power - Manhattan\\n\\nRub\\xe9n Blades and Willie Col\\xf3n - Buscando Guayaba, Pedro Navaja\\n\\nElla Fitzgerald - Manhattan\\n\\nStevie Wonder - Livin\\u2019 for the City\\n\\nAlicia Keys and Jay Z - Empire State of Mind\\n\\n\\n\\nCheck out Carina\\u2019s profile of Bad Bunny, her essay on Aretha Franklin and Smokey Robinson, and more writing at her website.\\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices'