The greatest popular songs have a way of embedding themselves in our memories. In this book, David Remnick writes about some of the most influential musicians, songwriters, and performers of the past fifty years. He portrays a series of musical lives-Leonard Cohen, Buddy Guy, Mavis Staples, Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen, Patti Smith, and more-and their unique encounters with the passing of that essential element of music: time. From Cohen's performing debut, when his stage fright was so debilitating he couldn't get through "Suzanne," to Franklin's iconic mink-drop at the Kennedy Center, this book delivers intimate portraits of some of the greatest creative minds of our era, written with a passionate lifelong attachment to their music and an acute appreciation of how it has shaped us.