Comments on: This Month In Rock Writing: May

By: s woods

s woods — Thu, 29 May 2008 13:00:01 +0000

By the way, I recently re-read Wolcott’s entertaining “Noise Boys” piece. Aside from some interesting things he says about Meltzer in particular, it’s hard not to detect a hint of sour grapes in it, but the biggest flaw of the article is his one-line dismissal of newer writers emerging at the time (he mentions Eddy, Greg Tate, and RJ Smith). It’s like those names provide cover for him: mention them so he can appear to be paying attention, but dismiss them out of hand to bolster his argument that the fun was all over. (It’s like the piece is half-finished. To say that the current state of something is rotten, you need to do more than just point to what was good before — in this case, Meltzer and Bangs — you also need to point out some of what specifically is wrong with NOW.) That’s how I read it, anyway.

By: s woods

s woods — Thu, 29 May 2008 12:45:02 +0000

I thought it was interesting that you referred to John Mendel{s}(s)ohn as one of the “Noise Boys.” I guess I can see that in a way — he seemed like one of the way-out-there guys in the early 70s — though he himself does vehemently deny it in his rockcritics interview (http://rockcriticsarchives.com/interviews/johnmendelssohn/johnmendelssohn.html):

Steven [Ward]: “The Noise Boys” were a group of rockcrits from the early ‘70s dubbed such by James Wolcott. Lester Bangs, Richard Meltzer and Nick Tosches were part of that group, but so were you.

John: No, I wasn’t! Not for a minute! Different coasts. Different, you know, aesthetics. Different personal habits. Different everything! This Wolcott fellow calls ‘em Noise Boys? I call ‘em the Bukowski Wannabe School, and I say to hell with ‘em. Which isn’t to imply that I wasn’t occasionally awed by the work of the first- and third-named personages.

By: A.C. Rhodes

A.C. Rhodes — Wed, 28 May 2008 22:41:42 +0000

Posting late @ night. Doh! Thx.

By: Andrew Hamlin

Andrew Hamlin — Wed, 28 May 2008 20:12:54 +0000

Begging pardon, but I think you mean *Acker* Bilk and Jaan *Uhelszki*.

By: Richard Riegel

Richard Riegel — Mon, 26 May 2008 19:27:07 +0000

I believe John Mendels(s)ohn’s birth year is actually 1947. Yeah, here it is in his I, Caramba — “I was born several weeks premature in the middle of May in the same year as David Bowie and Iggy Pop . . . ” They’re all 61 if they’re a day (as is your reporter, for that matter.)

Good rundown of May r’n'r events, though I’m also quite partial to the 1941 edition of that month, which gifted us with both Eric Burdon (11th) and Robert Zimmerman (24th). Both have regifted us many times over since then, Zimmie with a few forever fruitcakes along the way.