An idiosyncratic blog dedicated to the precursors, the practioners, and the descendants of power pop.
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Tuesday, August 10, 2021
I'm Really Proud of This One, Even If I Don't Know If I Still Agree With All of It
From the February 1976 issue of the Magazine Formerly Known as Stereo Review.
Terrific, I think, and it's definitely going into my forthcoming book.
Great piece that still hits the mark today with one exception, and this exception is the use of the term passion, whose use is fitting in your essay but overused and watered down by its overuse today.
Passion today is ascribed to everything from knitting tea cozies to being remunerated for work-related customer service, and is part of a tendency to replace hard words for soft ones for emphasis (come on, how can you have a passion for seeded rye), and a tendency to replace soft terms for harder ones (as instead of because, and reach out to instead of call are two examples that come to mind).
Hm, that piece is tickling long-dormant brain cells, which means I may well have read it at the time.
As I recall, whatever your differences as critics, you, Christgau and Bangs were united in pushing the "rock doesn't need to prove anything to anybody" idea, which was a breath of fresh air in the days of Yes, King Crimson and Baron Von Tollbooth and the Chrome Nun.
I still remember bringing the first Ramones album back to the flat I shared with my 2 college buddies -- fans of the Dead, Hot Tuna, Yes, etc. where long songs were de rigeur and MEANING was IMPORTANT! -- and watching their heads explode at this music that violated all of the criteria by which they measured rock'roll.
It wasn't long after that I caught them sneaking it onto the turntabble.
Yes, Patti's music was gloriously contradictory. I wouldn't have it any other way.
A nest perfect encapsulation of where rock & roll was at in 1975.
ReplyDeleteCaptain Al
Great piece that still hits the mark today with one exception, and this exception is the use of the term passion, whose use is fitting in your essay but overused and watered down by its overuse today.
ReplyDeletePassion today is ascribed to everything from knitting tea cozies to being remunerated for work-related customer service, and is part of a tendency to replace hard words for soft ones for emphasis (come on, how can you have a passion for seeded rye), and a tendency to replace soft terms for harder ones (as instead of because, and reach out to instead of call are two examples that come to mind).
Hm, that piece is tickling long-dormant brain cells, which means I may well have read it at the time.
ReplyDeleteAs I recall, whatever your differences as critics, you, Christgau and Bangs were united in pushing the "rock doesn't need to prove anything to anybody" idea, which was a breath of fresh air in the days of Yes, King Crimson and Baron Von Tollbooth and the Chrome Nun.
I still remember bringing the first Ramones album back to the flat I shared with my 2 college buddies -- fans of the Dead, Hot Tuna, Yes, etc. where long songs were de rigeur and MEANING was IMPORTANT! -- and watching their heads explode at this music that violated all of the criteria by which they measured rock'roll.
It wasn't long after that I caught them sneaking it onto the turntabble.
Yes, Patti's music was gloriously contradictory. I wouldn't have it any other way.
Yet another thank you.
ReplyDeleteYou led me to (or helped me appreciate more deeply).
Patti Smith
Bruce
Procol Harum
The Kinks
The Who (I was at that '73 Philly show you raved about)
Mott
and several others that will come to mind as soon as I send this.
Still pull out some of those old SR copies I kept all these years.
Grateful still
Vince