“Well my hands are shaky and my knees are weak / I can’t seem to stand only own two feet / Who do you thank when you’ve had such luck?” Elvis Presley, “All shook up” (1956)
To mark UK DHM this year, here are easy links to some of my research about disability and popular music from over the past decade or so. Polio and pop? Jazz as a ‘disabled’ music? Karen Carpenter and EDs? Punk rock and or as disability? Rock music as deafening?
Shakin’ all over, with ideas! Free (open access) scholarship from disability studies, just a click away.
Karen Carpenter, anorexia nervosa (Kim Gordon on Karen: “what’s it like being a girl in music?”)
Polio and pop (Neil Young .. Joni Mitchell .. Ian Dury .. Steve Harley)
Jazz as “disabled” music (“Shall we say that jazz is … predicated on disability?” Its freaky, leaky, squeaky, even geeky sounds)
Punk rock (Johnny Rotten, Ian Curtis, Ian Dury)
2024 bonus: this piece is now available in Greek translation
Rock music as deafening culture
Introduction to Shakin’ All Over: Popular Music and Disability (2013)