I can’t say I’m familiar with the writing of Montreal Gazette rock critic, Juan Rodriguez, but the paper is currently giving him more-than-ample space to reflect on his life as a rock writer, for which, in the shrinking-word-count world in which we live in, they should certainly be commended. Juan Rodriguez’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Life is a seven-part series running in the Gazette between now and March. Along with Rodriguez’s essays, the series includes playlists and archived photos. The first instalment was a good read mostly for Rodriguez’s musings on early rock radio, the second goes up sometime today, and the fourth instalment (still a couple weeks away) is titled, “The Critic Must Die”–so there’s more to look forward to.
This recent musing by Rodriguez*, what do you know, contains excellent bits on Sgt. Pepper, plus a great quote from Meltzer:
“A lot of what happened in the ’60s felt very miraculous, like it was coming out of nowhere. You didn’t have ‘rock-surround’ yet. There was no full map, but it was certainly in massive discontinuity (with) what had been encouraged before, in terms of artistic output. It wasn’t even like anyone was making art — it was just an emanation of self, like breathing, sweating.”
* from part 2
RockCritics.com 