Hold On to Your Dreams: Arthur Russell and the Downtown Music Scene, 1973 – 1992
Hold On to Your Dreams is the first biography of the musician and composer Arthur Russell, one of the most important but least known contributors to the downtown New York music scene during the 1970s and 1980s.
With the exception of a few dance recordings, including “Is It All Over My Face?” and “Go Bang! #5”, Russell’s pioneering music was largely forgotten until the issue of two albums in 2004 triggered a revival of interest, which gained momentum with the release of additional albums and the documentary film Wild Combination.
Based on interviews with more than seventy of his collaborators, family members and friends, Hold On to Your Dreams provides vital new information about this singular, eccentric musician and his role in the boundary-breaking downtown music scene.
Tim Lawrence traces Russell’s odyssey from his hometown of Oskaloosa, Iowa, to countercultural San Francisco, and eventually to New York, where he lived from 1973 until his death from AIDS-related complications in 1992.
Refusing definition while dreaming of commercial success, Russell wrote and performed new wave and disco as well as quirky rock, twisted folk, voice-cello dub, and hip-hop inflected pop. “He was way ahead of other people in understanding that the walls between concert music and popular music and avant-garde music were illusory,” comments the composer Philip Glass. “He lived in a world in which those walls weren't there."
Lawrence follows Russell across musical genres and through such vital downtown music spaces as the Kitchen, the Loft, the Gallery, the Paradise Garage and the Experimental Intermedia Foundation. Along the way, he captures Russell’s openness to sound, his commitment to collaboration, and his uncompromising idealism.
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“A monumental work.” Kris Needs
“The broadest and most insightful study of the whole musical [downtown] scene so far. [...] Russell has inspired a book that helps us understand a thrilling twenty-five years of American cultural history.” John Rockwell, Bookforum
“A vital document of the man and the times he lived in. It is nothing less than justice being done.” Bernard Keenan, The Quietus
“Written with crystal clarity but never overly dry despite Lawrence’s academic background, this is a gripping portrait both of a unique artist and a time of spectacular cultural flux.” Joe Muggs, Word
“Lawrence’s writing style mirrors Russell's musical approach, fusing divergent disciplines and catering to different audiences in a single work. Serious scholars and academics will be pleased with the depth of research, and fans will enjoy the illustrations and anecdotes of Russell's life.” Joshua Finnell, Library Journal
“With Hold On to Your Dreams, the outline of an outstanding and prescient artist can now be more clearly made out.” Ken Hollings, The Wire
“Russell’s unprecedented genre-merging deserves this kind of exploration, and Lawrence approaches with a delicacy and direct intimacy reminiscent of the music itself.” Oxford American
“Elegantly composed, deftly researched [,] Lawrence’s writing is up to the task of telling this narrative in a way that makes the pathos of Russell's life a deeply compelling window onto the ‘Downtown’ music scene of the 1980s and 90s.” Gustavus Stadler, Social Text
“In his rigorously researched investigation of musician and composer Arthur Russell, cultural theory lecturer Tim Lawrence effortlessly explores his subject and in so doing shines fresh light on the darkened recesses of both New York’s downtown music scene and the popular cultural landscape of Russell’s times. And despite Russell’s relative obscurity, the book leaves you in no doubt as to how influential this maverick music figure has been.” Martin James, Times Higher Education
“A worthy addition to the legacy of this authentic, uncompromising and important sound experimentalist.” Alan Waters, Signal to Noise
“Excellent” Simon Reynolds, Blissblog
“Hold on to Your Dreams sets a new standard for musical biography by virtue of its research methodology and focus on seemingly minor figures. Lawrence makes a strong case for the importance of Russell’s music to our understanding of late-twentieth-century cultural life and, perhaps most importantly, shows the value of historical biography written with an emphasis on musical mediation and social networks." Ryan Dohoney, Journal of the Society for American Music
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“Hold On to Your Dreams tells the story of an artist whose life becomes more intriguing with every turn. Inspiring and written with love, this book takes us to the roots of Arthur Russell’s music, from the streets of New York to the cornfields of Iowa.” Jens Lekman, Musician
“Tim Lawrence has written a fascinating and insightful biography of a sensitive and searching soul. Arthur Russell was a personal artist whose musical vision led him to coexist in seemingly incompatible worlds. Through the lens of Arthur Russell’s life (never clouded with material success or celebrity), Tim Lawrence gives us a sharp and singular portrait of late-twentieth-century American life. A fine read, with a depth and detail that resonate with Arthur Russell’s sparkle and wit.” Peter Gordon, Love of Life Orchestra
“With rich and animated detail, Tim Lawrence tracks Arthur Russell’s insatiable drive to integrate so-called serious music and pop. This definitive biography is both an engrossing record of Russell’s musical ambitions and a compelling account of the fertile downtown scene that supported his admirable dreams.” Matt Wolf, director of Wild Combination: A Portrait of Arthur Russell
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Finn Johannsen, Rewind: Tim Lawrence on "Go Bang #5", PDF , November 2010
theartdesk Q&A: Tim Lawrence, PDF, December 2009
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Historian Tim Lawrence on Arthur Russel's Strange Revival, Electronic Beats, November 2015
24 --> 24 Music, Sleeping Bag Records/Traffic Entertainment Group, January 2011
Epiphanies: Dinosaur L 24 → 24 Music, Wire, September 2010
Icons: Arthur Russell, Attitude, October 2009
Connecting with the Cosmic: Arthur Russell, Rhizomatic Musicianship, and the Downtown Music Scene, 1973-92, Liminalities, October 2007
‘I Want to See All My Friends At Once’: Arthur Russell and the Queering of Gay Disco, Journal of Popular Music Studies, 2006
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Interview with Tim Lawrence on Arthur Russell, Radio NZ, October 2014