Q&A with Lawrence Schulman, author of UNFETTERED: Words on Music by a Hi-Def Critic in an MP3 World, Volume II
1. What is UNFETTERED: Words on Music by a Hi-Def Critic in an MP3 World, Volume II about?
It consists of all my writings since FREE, that is post-2024. These include sound recording reviews, book reviews, and articles that are or will be published in the ARSC Journal, and also a Coda, an Afterword, and a talk on FREE. Some of the artists I have recently written about are Jacques Tati, Bobby Darin, Carly Simon, Harold Arlen, Maurice Chevalier, Patsy Cline, Gloria Gaynor, The Mills Brothers, George Michael, and others.
2. How did you come up with the title?
Ah. I love to create titles, whether they be for books, chapters or talks. Now that I am writing a lot of things that are non-Garland, I have much less to do with the fans. This has liberated me from being a “one-woman man” and all the nonsense that goes on in the fan community. In that sense, I have “unfettered” myself from a lot of angry, hateful people who think they are protecting their goddess from the evil world outside. Thus the title, which Ben Ohmart, head of BearManor Media, and I came up with.
3. How does UNFETTERED differ, if it does, from FREE, your previous Words on Music opus? And is there a Volume III in the works?
UNFETTERED is of course a continuation of FREE, the first volume. So, it is all new to book publication. I think another difference is my style of writing, which might I humbly say, has gotten better and sharper. I have also written a lengthy Introduction which doesn’t shy away from some of the professional turmoil and those who perpetuated it on me over the years. Lastly, my friend Joe Marchese, owner of the label Second Disc Records and journalist at the website TheSecondDisc, has contributed a brilliant Foreword. There is indeed a Volume III in the works, which for now I am calling FROM THE GARDEN OF LUXEMBOURG, but first I have to sell a whole lot of copies of UNFETTERED before any contract can be signed. Volume III would be the last volume of the triptych.
4. UNFETTERED contains some unpublished chapters, including a talk on FREE and a Coda called All About Yves. Can you tell us about these?
Like for FREE, I have included several unpublished texts such as my talk on FREE and an Afterword for the forthcoming book by the late John Meyer that is his play adaptation of Heartbreaker. A few of these texts were abridged for space reasons in the ARSC Journal, and are here printed in full. All About Yves is the Coda and has never been published. It is the most personal piece I have ever written, and might shock quite a few. It is about why I left New York for Paris in 1971 and my life there for the first fifteen years. I included it in the book because everything I have ever written is based on the ruins of those first fifteen years, and thus important to understand. It doesn’t show on my face, but that experience is an essential part of me that I have hidden for years. Save my spouse, I have never told anyone the story and I had to get it out of my system. When I am no longer around, if I didn’t publish it, it would die with me. I didn’t want that to happen.
5. Do you have any other book projects in the works?
Yes, I do. First, I am hoping my Garland book will be published in French, and I am currently in contact with a French publisher. The second, more ambitious project is called THE CANDID JUDY GARLAND, which would be a coffee-table book of Garland photos that are entirely non-professional. That is, nothing from the films, concerts, or TV; just “on the street” shots. My goal is to present a more human side of her that the public has not seen. Alice Speilburg, my agent at the Speilburg Literary Agency, is currently making the rounds and I hope to sign a contract soon.
6. Although you still write about Judy Garland, the vast majority of the chapters in the new book are on other people and subjects. Have you abandoned Garland? And what is your relation to the Garland fan community?
I have abandoned nobody, but some people have abandoned me. Why? I feel I am more a Garland historian than a Garland fan. The difference is that a historian tries to tell things as they are; a fan worships Garland. This has led to innumerable problems too long to recount. One thing: I do not understand the anger and hate in the Garland fan community. It permeates them and isn’t pretty. I am not the only one to have observed this disturbing phenomenon, but no one has ever been able to explain it.
7. Your Introduction starts with a sentence in which you state that for the new book “the gloves are off.” Can you elaborate on that?
Certain people over the years have abused my kindness, and I wanted to return the favor.
8. You have given talks on Judy Garland and FREE. Is there an UNFETTERED talk in the works or perhaps one on Peter Allen, whom you wrote a book about? And do you have any media appearances planned?
Insofar as Peter Allen, I would love to give a talk on him. However, there simply isn’t much commercially issued video out there that I could use for it. I could use YouTube, where there is an abundance of clips, but in order to use them for a talk, they would have to be restored because what one sees on YouTube cannot be projected onto a screen with satisfactory resolution. Restoration takes money, and unless some individual or company underwrites such restoration, I cannot give such a talk on my own, I am sorry to say. Regarding FREE, I have given a talk on the book at the Jesup Memorial Library in Bar Harbor, Maine and the Northeast Harbor Library in Northeast Harbor, Maine. For now, there is no talk on UNFETTERED on my schedule, although I will be interviewed about the book by Rob Caldwell for his program 207 on WCSH-TV Portland, Maine in January or February 2026. I will give another interview on the book with Jonathan McKenney, who has a radio show called Passionate People on WMPG 90.9FM in Portland, Maine. There is, however, a talk I will give in Greenwich, Connecticut on April 15, 2026 called “New Standards for a New Century: Pop Music Today.” Lastly, on my recent stay in Paris, I recorded a one-hour radio show in French called 42e rue devoted to Peter Allen and my book. It will air on February 1, 2026 on France-Musique, one of the stations of French public radio, and be available online right away.
9. All of your BearManor books have been highly praised and done quite well. Do you write for the public or for yourself?
For me.
10. There is some sketchy biographical information published about you online and elsewhere, but can you give us more details about Lawrence Schulman, the person? I was born in the Bronx on June 11, 1950, and my parents’ names were Sylvia and William Schulman. My older sister’s name is Phyllis Ann Schulman and we are estranged. I attended P.S. 89, Junior High School 135, and Christopher Columbus High School, where I was Editor-in-Chief of the school newspaper The Admiral, and wrote an award-winning editorial against the war in Vietnam. To accept the award, I had to fly in a small plane to upstate New York (I believe to St. Bonaventure). For the paper, I had a regular column called Out and About, and once met New York Mayor John Lindsay for it (see photo below) and also Mort Lindsey, who conducted the orchestra on The Merv Griffin Show. Lindsey conducted for Judy Garland in the 1960s. I saw Judy Garland in concert in 1965 at the Forest Hills Stadium in Queens and in 1967 at her opening night at the Palace in New York, which I have written about. I attended Stony Brook University starting in 1967, graduated in 1976 (long story), and left New York for Paris in 1971 and stayed there until 1997. I left for Paris in 1971 because of L-O-V-E (see UNFETTERED Coda). I worked for the late French mega-rockstar Claude François in the mid-1970s as his secretary/chauffeur, and fortunately it didn’t last very long. We spoke in English so that he could improve his language skills to make records in English. I am gay and never came out because I had nothing to come out of. Do straights have to come out? I did a semester at the Sorbonne in the mid-1970s and studied video and film editing at CREAR in Gouvieux, France in the early 1990s. My uncle won the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1969, and we had the same opinion of each other. I am proud to say that since 1994 I have written sound-recording and book reviews as well as four original articles for the ARSC Journal, the most recent of which on Peter Allen won the 2024 ARSC Journal Best Article Award. My forthcoming article for them, which will be published in the Spring of 2026, is entitled “Carly Simon: A Transgenre Artist Crosses Over to the Great American Songbook, or How a Hot Knife in Cold Butter Became a Cool Diva in White-Hot Gloves.” I have also translated reviews about high-resolution recordings for the website OpusHD.net for the past twenty years. In 2023, I translated from French a book on Judy Garland entitled in English Judy Garland: Splendor and Downfall of a Legend by Bertrand Tessier. I am bilingual and of dual French-American nationality. I have lived on Mount Desert Island in Maine since 1997 and am blissfully happy to be there with my spouse, Alain Lucien Falasse, who has been my loving partner for 40 years now and my spouse for 12. I go back to Paris once or twice a year, am happy to be there, and am happy to come home. My friend Margaret is 104 and I intend to equal or go beyond her. I was born Jewish but am now atheist. I have an agreement with the University of California, Santa Barbara in which, upon my passing, they have agreed to house my entire Garland collection as a donation. My spouse and I will be buried at the Brookside Cemetery in Somesville, Maine, where we already have a plot and stone. The rest is up in the air…