Ten Charlie Watts performances that cut me to pieces. R.I.P. 1. “Honky Tonk Women” – In which the drummer adds an entirely new dimension to Stonesiness, injecting funk and swing into their hard rock stomp (there were hints of this in “Under My Thumb”), his spacious rhythm in effect sharing duties with Keith’s guitar as the lead instrument. The tension between the two poles (rock/swing) … Continue reading 10 x Charlie
Artforum gathers obits from Christgau, Greg Tate, Molly Haskell, J. Hoberman et al. The photo by Sylvia Plachy of Alexander Cockburn leading an editorial meeting is terrific; it provides the sort of romantic anti-romantic vision of what it must have been like to work at the Voice, at least in the minds of every writer who dreamt of doing such a thing. (I was lucky, … Continue reading “The destruction of the Village Voice” (Artforum)
Music Writer Roy Carr Has Died Roy Carr’s illustrated records from the seventies (Stones, Beatles, and Bowie all grace my collection) were enormously inspiring to me at a young age–a bridge in many ways to the criticism which eventually took over (really) my life for several years. The Stones book in particular: I think I memorized every page of the thing, from the unbelievable photos … Continue reading Roy Carr
Jerry Hopkins, biographer of Jim Morrison, is dead at 82. Mr. Hopkins produced an eclectic range of work that was largely about rock music but that also included books and articles about exotic food, sex, travel and Hawaiian musical instruments (I never did read No One Here Gets Out Alive, but I certainly recall how big a deal both it and the Doors seemed at … Continue reading Jerry Hopkins (1935-2018)
Sadly, the first new post here in a long time is to acknowledge the death of former Creem editor (and one of the magazine’s second-wave stalwarts) John Kordosh. Iman Labedi writes: “This is a ridiculously sad story to have to write, but my friend and Creem editor John Kordosh passed away suddenly last night, and everyone in my immediate writing circle is devastated by the … Continue reading Remembering John Kordosh of Creem
Sorry to hear about the death of Charles M. Young today. From the Friends of Chuck blog: Today sometime near noon our friend of a lifetime passed away in his hospice room. He was fortunate that his brother John and niece Makita were here for the last five days to spend a great deal of time with him. They came to say good bye to … Continue reading Charles M. Young, 1951-2014
“During the early 1970s, he focused on his stage-management of Andy Warhol’s 1971 London stage production, Pork at Camden’s Roundhouse, Childers recorded the legacy of a theatrical cross over between rock music and gay culture. In 2012 he released a book titled Drag Queens, Rent Boys, Pick Pockets, Junkies, Rockstars and Punks. It featured images of Debbie Harry, Wayne County and Jackie Curtis, as well … Continue reading Leee Black Childers
“Poptimism now not only demands devotion to pop idols; it has instigated an increasingly shrill shouting match with those who might not be equally enamored of pop music. Disliking Taylor Swift or Beyoncé is not just to proffer a musical opinion, but to reveal potential proof of bias. Hardly a week goes by in music-critic land without such accusations flying to and fro.” – Saul … Continue reading On the “Pernicious Rise of Poptimism”
Matt Zoller Seitz mourns the loss and assesses the damage: What really depresses me about Owen’s firing isn’t just that a fine writer got axed from a magazine that he helped define. It’s that the journalism industry, if you can even call it that anymore, is unwilling or unable to support writers like Owen, or Lisa [Schwarzbaum], or… I was about to list other critics … Continue reading On the Firing of Owen Gleiberman from Entertainment Weekly
“Most music lovers are apt to know Mr. Kerman’s work primarily from his incendiary first book, Opera as Drama, published in 1956. Drawing on essays he had written in the late 1940s for the Hudson Review, the book proposed a simple yet radical view of opera: that it is the composer whose vision above all shapes the dramatic essence of a work. “Mr. Kerman elaborated … Continue reading Joseph Kerman
