About this Event
Join legendary music critic and cultural historian Greil Marcus in conversation with Tony and Grammy-award winning actor, writer, and producer Daveed Diggs for the 50th-anniversary celebration of Mystery Train: Images of America in Rock ’n’ Roll Music.
First published in 1975, Mystery Train is a landmark work of music journalism that forever changed how we understand rock ’n’ roll—not as youth culture or counterculture, but as American culture itself.
Lauded by Bruce Springsteen as his #1 must-read music book and named one of TIME’s all-time best nonfiction books, Marcus’s genre-defining exploration of artists like Elvis Presley, the Band, Sly Stone, and Randy Newman still resonates across cultural thought today.
Marcus and Diggs, each a groundbreaking creative force in his own right, will revisit the book’s enduring legacy and discuss why music continues to define the American ethos.
About the book
This is the original book to take these rock legends and place them in the American culture of their time. First released in 1975, Mystery Train‘s complex analysis of the relationship between rock ‘n’ roll music and America is given new life in a 50th anniversary edition with updated discographies and new introductions by Greil Marcus and Dwight Garner.
Rather than providing a general overview of influential bands and artists, Marcus’s definitive book focuses on just six: virtually unknown early rock ‘n’ roller Harmonica Frank; the country blues singer Robert Johnson; and some of the better-known musicians who followed—The Band, Sly Stone, Randy Newman, and Elvis Presley.
Fifty years on, Mystery Train remains a seminal work for generations of readers and music lovers.
About Greil Marcus
Greil Marcus was born in San Francisco in 1945. In 1969, he became the first Records Editor at Rolling Stone. He has written many books, including Lipstick Traces (1989) and What Nails It (2024). Since 1986, his column "Real Life Rock Top Ten" has migrated through a dozen outlets, from The Village Voice to Substack. Between 2000 and 2019, he taught at Berkeley, Princeton, the New School, Minnesota, NYU, and the Graduate Center in New York. He lives in Oakland.
About Daveed Diggs
Daveed Diggs is an actor, singer, producer, writer, and rapper. He is the vocalist of the experimental hip hop group Clipping. Diggs originated the role of Marquis de Lafayette/Thomas Jefferson in the 2015 musical Hamilton by Lin-Manuel Miranda which he won a Grammy and Tony for. He also cowrote, produced, and stars in the film Blindspotting.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Oakstop - California Ballroom, 1736 Franklin Street, Oakland, United States
USD 27.24 to USD 50.34
