“Our next story has to do with what may be the last great mystery of the music business…”
Brian Williams interviews Greil Marcus and Langdon Winner
Archive for the ‘Rolling Stone’ Category
Masked Marauders on NBC
Posted by s woods on April 6, 2013
Posted in Greil Marcus, Rolling Stone, YouTubes | Leave a Comment »
There is little
Posted by s woods on March 11, 2013
Critical language has for the most part been borrowed from other fields — few writers have been able to shake their liberal arts educations. The few new terms (tight, together, heavy) are vague and undiscriminating. A rock erudition has been established, and writers talk casually of ‘influences’ and ‘development,’ but it is all very distant. There are more reviewers, whose main function is commercial, than critics whose concerns are truly aesthetic. There is little rock criticism; change the names and it could be jazz or movies or art. And the bitch is that without other precedents, this bad writing is setting the precedents, and one more clean slate in the planet’s history is getting fucked up beyond all recognition.
- Michael Lydon, review of Paul Williams’s Outlaw Blues in Rolling Stone, April 19, 1969
Gee, if this doesn’t make you feel misty-eyed for the “golden age” of rock criticism, I don’t know what will.
Posted in Archival, Paul Williams, Quotes, Rolling Stone | 1 Comment »
Critical Collage: Rush vs. the Critics
Posted by s woods on March 5, 2013
A by no means comprehensive or conclusive survey of a Canadian power trio who once upon a time (much less so now) got under the skins of more rock critics than any other rock or pop artist going.
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- Creem, June 1981
“For the record, those three are drummer Neil Peart, who writes all the band’s lyrics and takes fewer solos than might be expected; guitarist Alex Lifeson, whose mile-a-minute buzzing is more numbing than exciting; and bassist, keyboardist and singer Geddy Lee, whose amazingly high-pitched wailing often sounds like Mr. Bill singing heavy metal. If only Mr. Sluggo had been on hand to give these guys a couple good whacks…”
- Steve Pond, review of Rush live in Los Angeles, Rolling Stone, 1980
Geddy Lee’s high-register vocal style has always been a signature of the band – and sometimes a focal point for criticism, especially during the early years of Rush’s career when Lee’s vocals were high-pitched, with a strong likeness to other singers like Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin. A review in the New York Times opined that Lee’s voice ‘suggests a munchkin giving a sermon.’ Although his voice has softened over the years, it is often described as a ‘wail.’ His instrumental abilities, on the other hand, are rarely criticized.
- Wikipedia entry on Rush
- Mark Coleman and Ernesto Lechner, The New Rolling Stone Album Guide, 2004
Posted in Archival, Canada, Chuck Eddy, Classic Music Mag Covers, Creem, Critical Collage, Dear Ed., History of Rock Criticism, Links, PDFs and Scans, Quotes, Rockism, Rolling Stone | 3 Comments »
Someone With a True Grasp of the Reality
Posted by s woods on February 12, 2013
Many thanks for Ralph Gleason’s review of Albert Goldman’s Ladies and Gentlemen, Lenny Bruce… I didn’t know Lenny Bruce… but I am acquainted with Albert Goldman and his ambition to stake out a monopoly position for himself in a culture of which he is no more a part than I am; and I have been hoping that someone with a true grasp of the reality would judge the book for what it was worth, which Ralph indeed did.
- Joseph Heller, letter to Rolling Stone, August 1974
Posted in Archival, Quotes, Rolling Stone | Leave a Comment »
Would-be English Kings
Posted by s woods on February 6, 2013
These would-be English Kings of Heavy Metal are eternally foiled by their stupidity and intractability. In the early Seventies their murky drone was all the more appealing for its cynicism — the philosophy that everything is shit, and a flirtation with pre-Exorcist demonic possession. Time has passed them by: their recent stuff is a quaint bore.
- Ken Tucker on Black Sabbath, The Rolling Stone Record Guide, 1979
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Bubblegum Satanism
Posted by s woods on February 6, 2013
What Black Sabbath fan hasn’t plotted revenge on that scumbag Nick Tosches, whose infamous Rolling Stone review of Paranoid railed about Black Sabbath’s ‘bubblegum Satanism,’ and then went on to attack lead singer (in reality of Black Widow) Kip Treavor???
- Wayne Davis, “Further Thoughts on Those Marvelous Loud Heavies,” photocopied pages from unknown fanzine, 1972
[Tosches' review]
Posted in Archival, Quotes, Rolling Stone | Leave a Comment »
Journey
Posted by s woods on January 31, 2013
“‘Who’s Crying Now,’ the hit single off Journey’s hit LP, isn’t super hip, super deep or even real, real hooky. But it does sound good. What I’m talking about is the way the song’s soft, soapy bass redeems its soft, dopey sentiment by diving beneath tiny fillips of acoustic guitar and bubbling up around a dream-sized dollop of fat harmonies. Every shimmery cymbal tick pays tribute to the state of modern engineering. Same goes for the sting in Neal Schon’s electric-guitar solo, which is what finally drives the tune up, out and home.
“Would that one could say the same for the rest of the record…”
- Deborah Frost reviews Journey’s Escape, Rolling Stone, 1981
Posted in Archival, Record Reviews, Rolling Stone | Leave a Comment »
Donna Pistols
Posted by s woods on January 26, 2013
The Future of Everything, ca. Jan 1978, Rolling Stone
Posted in Advertising, Critical Collage, Disco, Punk, Rolling Stone | 1 Comment »
