Our Man on the Aisle

Most of us know Jim Fusilli as the creator of the marvelous New York-based Terry Orr private-eye series and as a contributor to several recent anthologies.

But as it happens, Fusilli is also the rock music critic for The Wall Street Journal, and as Sarah Weinman pointed out, his review of the Led Zeppelin reunion concert in Greenwich, England, appeared online beyond the reach of the Journal’s firewall (although a story in The New York Times suggested that new owner Rupert Murdoch may dismantle the damned barrier soon).

I had occasion to talk with Jim during Bouchercon 2005 not about mysteries, but about his musical assignments for the Journal. I remember commending him on the piece he wrote about Brian Wilson’s long-awaited (and even longer-rumored) Smile album, and the concert Wilson performed in London in 2004. Jim’s eyes lit up as he told me about that sublime evening. As it turns out, I was in London at the same time, and had I known this show was going down, I’d have willingly inflicted some serious credit-card damage in an attempt to round up enough cash to enrich some scalper.

Here’s a marvelous piece of Jim Fusilli’s music writing. Let’s hope that someday all of his Wall Street Journal pieces will be collected in an anthology.

(Hat tip to Sarah Weinman.)