Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Gen Xers tweak geezers' sacred cows
Albuquerque Tribune ^ | 7/9/04 | J.M. Baról

Posted on 07/09/2004 1:17:06 PM PDT by qam1

Like any organized religion, rock 'n' roll has its own dogma.

Rolling Stone magazine is the gospel.

Any male singer with big lips is worth glorifying.

To be a true guitar player, one must learn the intro to "Stairway to Heaven."

Elvis Presley was, is and always will be king.

With those tenets come a slew of albums as holy as the Bible. "Born in the U.S.A.," "Tommy," "The Dark Side of the Moon" and - amen, hallelujah - "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band."

But it's time, says a restless group of music critics, to look those canons straight in their beady little platinum eyes and flick them off their pedestals.

In the new book, "Kill Your Idols: A New Generation of Rock Writers Reconsiders the Classics," that's exactly what they do: debunk - no, annihilate - the myth of rock ¹n' roll righteousness.

"Rock 'n' roll's the devil's music, right? So it's absurd to treat it like a religion and have this canon that it's made of saints that we can't criticize," the book's creator and co-editor Jim DeRogatis says in that jaded, edgy tone only a rock music critic can get away with.

Thirty-four music writers - mostly in their 20s and 30s and mostly under the Spin/Rolling Stone readers' radar - took on the challenge of debunking society-in-general's cherished albums.

"Call it a spirited assault on a pantheon that has been foisted upon us, or a defiant rejection of the hegemonic view of rock history espoused by the critics who preceded us," DeRogatis writes in the introduction.

One of the book's contributors is Leanne Potts, a former Tribune reporter who now writes about pop culture for Albuquerque's morning newspaper.

Her target of choice? Lynyrd Skynyrd's debut album "Pronounced Leh-nerd Skin-nerd."

What? How could one of the most memorable rock albums in history, one that includes "Gimme Three Steps," "Simple Man" and "Free Bird" - hello! "Free Bird"! - be on anyone's worst-album ever list?

For Potts, 38, her contempt for the 1973 album is less about its sound - although she writes that Ronnie Van Zant's lyrics "lack the sort of telling details that make a good song great" - and more about the Southern stigma that came with it.

"I didn't like the whole American-by-birth, Southern-by-grace-of-God ethos that had come to be associated with Southern rock bands like Skynyrd," writes Potts, who was born and raised in Alabama.

"I wanted none of Skynyrd's talk of down-home values. It sounded like Moral Majority code speak, and this teenaged member of Greenpeace and fan of musical minimalists such as the Ramones and Devo was having none of this Confederate-flag-waving, axe-wielding mob of rednecks in bell-bottoms."

And just like that, Potts buzz-saws through an institution no critic has had the gall to berate under his or her breath, let alone in a much-anticipated 300-page paperback - a book that received tyrannical criticism on the Internet weeks before its release.

Potts admits she was only 7 when the album came out and didn't start listening to it intently until she was 15 - a ploy to impress her Skynyrd die-hard boyfriend.

But she resents the notion that just because she didn't grow up with the baby boomers, she wouldn't know what Lynyrd Skynyrd or any other music of the time was all about.

"It sticks in my craw that rock is so skewed to the boomers," Potts says. "Like 'You don't know; you weren't there,' in this condescending tone, like we were born too late.

"Skynyrd's album is the one I thought of partly because of the southern connection. Because they were classic rock and because I lived in the South, they were gods. They were always there."

One of the writers - DeRogatis' wife, Carmel Carrillo - chose not to efface an album. She instead came up with a list of songs each of her ex-boyfriends cherished, therefore killing their idols.

It's important to note that just because the writers protest their least favorite album doesn't mean they dislike that band. DeRogatis, for example, who targets the Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," says one of his all-time favorite albums is the Fab Four's "Revolver."

The majority of the book is criticism of albums from the '60s and '70s, a few '80s and '90s releases, and one from 2003.

So what's the gripe with classic rock?

"The business of canonizing things is a real particular baby boomer trait," DeRogatis says from his home office in Chicago. "It's the generation most reluctant to give up their youth and their place in history.

"Gen X never believed the hype."

DeRogatis, a 39-year-old pop music critic at the Chicago Sun-Times, shopped the book's concept for a couple of years but soon realized publishers weren't interested in books of all-negative reviews.

"But one of my favorite books is my colleague Roger Ebert's collection of all his pans," says DeRogatis, who finally landed with Barricade Books. "When I read a negative review it makes me think about my own perspective. I'm looking for another idea. I'm looking to be challenged."

Delve into DeRogatis' history as a writer, and it's no wonder he took on such an edgy project. According to reports, in 1996 DeRogatis was fired as a senior editor at Rolling Stone magazine for writing a blazing critique of a Hootie and the Blowfish album. His review was replaced by a much happier one.

"I'll confess that in the midst of editing this collection, I had a brief crisis of conscience when I wondered if this book was too much of a childish exercise - the rock-critic equivalent of the bratty kid wiping his snot on the blackboard in feeble protestation of the injustices of third-grade life," he writes.

But in the end, "Kill Your Idols" happened, and DeRogatis "couldn't be prouder."

"It was a labor of love," he says. "It's an odd thing to say about a book about bands these writers hate."

So does even DeRogatis have his own sacred cows?

"I may have had a problem if someone in the book tried to take apart Kraftwerk or Black Sabbath or Velvet Underground," he admits.

For Potts, two of her all-time favorite albums are U2's "The Joshua Tree," and Nirvana's "Nevermind" - two albums that showed up in the book.

But she's OK with it.

"I love the spirit of argument," she says. "I don't understand people who get angry about music. Part of the benefit of music is we sit around and talk about it."

*** TARGETED IDOLS

The following albums are taken to pasture in "Kill Your Idols."

"Pet Sounds," the Beach Boys (1966)

"Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," the Beatles (1967)

"Smile," the Beach Boys (1967)

"Sweetheart of the Rodeo," the Byrds (1968)

"Tommy," the Who (1969)

"Kick Out the Jams," the MC5 (1969)

"Trout Mask Replica," Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band (1969)

"Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs," Derek and the Dominos (1970)

"Ram," Paul and Linda McCartney (1971)

"Untitled ('IV')," Led Zeppelin (1971)

"Harvest," Neil Young (1972)

"Exile on Main St.," the Rolling Stones (1972)

"Desperado," the Eagles (1973)

"Pronounced Leh-nerd Skin-nerd," Lynyrd Skynyrd (1973)

"The Dark Side of the Moon," Pink Floyd (1973)

"GP/Grievous Angel," Gram Parsons (1973/1974; rereleased in 1990)

"Blood on the Tracks," Bob Dylan (1975)

"Born to Run," Bruce Springsteen (1975)

"Horses," Patti Smith (1975)

"Exodus," Bob Marley & the Wailers (1977)

"Rumours," Fleetwood Mac (1977)

"Never Mind the Bollocks . . . Here's the Sex Pistols," the Sex Pistols (1977)

"Double Fantasy," John Lennon/Yoko Ono (1980)

"Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables," Dead Kennedys (1980)

"Imperial Bedroom," Elvis Costello and the Attractions (1982)

"Born in the U.S.A.," Bruce Springsteen (1984)

"The Best of the Doors," the Doors (1985)

"The Joshua Tree," U2 (1987)

"It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back," Public Enemy (1988)

"Nevermind," Nirvana (1991)

"Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness," Smashing Pumpkins (1995)

"OK Computer," Radiohead (1997)

"Yankee Hotel Foxtrot," Wilco (2003)


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News
KEYWORDS: babyboomers; disco; genx; glam; metal; music; punk
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 141-160161-180181-200 ... 361-366 next last
To: Melas
I have a full brain, thank you. A generation is normally defined as being twenty years. It has nothing to do with places or events. By your definition, Gen X began in 1959, kids born in 1972 are Gen Y, and we are now past Gen Z.

The standard accepted dates for the baby boom generation is 1946- 1965. Just accept the shame of being a boomer and move on.

161 posted on 07/09/2004 5:24:56 PM PDT by SoCal Pubbie
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 152 | View Replies]

To: qam1

Add me to the ping list please.


162 posted on 07/09/2004 5:25:13 PM PDT by Straight Vermonter (06/07/04 - 1000 days since 09/11/01)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Xenalyte
Yeeeeaaaahhh!

Much love to my brunette peeps!

Much love.

(Chest tap. "Peace" sign.)

163 posted on 07/09/2004 5:25:28 PM PDT by The Scourge of Yazid (I'm flying. High in the sky. Like a kite. Or, a stone cold doper. One or the other.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 160 | View Replies]

To: SoCal Pubbie
Yeah, but none of you folks will ever measure up to the reputation of:

GENERATION ECCH!

164 posted on 07/09/2004 5:26:52 PM PDT by The Scourge of Yazid (I'm flying. High in the sky. Like a kite. Or, a stone cold doper. One or the other.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 161 | View Replies]

To: qam1

All of rock is overblown, and the genre died when they opened the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, IMHO. But these guys are just trying to sell books.


165 posted on 07/09/2004 5:27:10 PM PDT by SoCal Pubbie
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 156 | View Replies]

To: Xenalyte
Look at that mack daddy GO! He sure knows how to handle that axe, eh?

He's right up there with Randy in my opinion.

166 posted on 07/09/2004 5:30:06 PM PDT by humblegunner
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 157 | View Replies]

To: humblegunner
SEGER!!!

167 posted on 07/09/2004 5:32:25 PM PDT by The Scourge of Yazid (I'm flying. High in the sky. Like a kite. Or, a stone cold doper. One or the other.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 166 | View Replies]

To: cardinal4
I was a Dead Head for years! No flames, admittedly they were(are) an acquired taste..

They always reminded me of that old slogan for Brylcreem: A Little dab'll do ya.

168 posted on 07/09/2004 5:38:39 PM PDT by uglybiker (I misspell ekxentric on purpose just to be different)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: Melas
Sorry, I'm not. Actually, I looked it up after typing my reply, and there is no real agreement as to exact time frame for the baby boom. The American Heritage Dictionary for example: Baby Boom-- A sudden, large increase in the birthrate, especially the one in the United States after World War II from 1947 through 1961.

That's approximately correct. Technically, the date of conception (not birth, birth can actually throw you off!) controls the classification.

We began sending troops home for discharge on May 25, 1945 following the fall of Germany. The Baby Boom Generation includes children conceived on or after sunrise on August 1, 1945 and none of those were born until 1946, the first being born (prematurely) on the afternoon of February 26, 1946 just south of Chatanooga (that's in Tennessee).

So, that's when it began. Now then, all babies conceived between August 1, 1945 and before midnight on September 29, 1960, the night that Chubby Checker danced the Twist on American Bandstand (Dick Clark's TV show) are members of the Baby Boom Generation. So, like you say, the last ones were actually born in 1961, but only the first half of 1961.

169 posted on 07/09/2004 5:39:58 PM PDT by Scenic Sounds (Sí, estamos libres sonreír otra vez - ahora y siempre.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 152 | View Replies]

To: qam1
The only notable thing about this list is that these kids have already granted Yankee Hotel Foxtrot sacred cow status.

That it winds up on this list only two years after being rejected by Wilco's label says more about the quality of this record than these kids can ever tear down.

170 posted on 07/09/2004 5:40:33 PM PDT by lugsoul (Until at last I threw down my enemy and smote his ruin on the mountainside.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: humblegunner
None of 'em beat Yngwie! I mean, with hair like that, he HAS to be an axeman superb.


171 posted on 07/09/2004 5:44:38 PM PDT by Xenalyte (No one will be sitting in sackcloth and ashes wailing, "Oh, if only we had listened to Art Bell!")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 166 | View Replies]

To: SoCal Pubbie

If a generation is normally defined as being 20 years, as you claim, good luck in explaining why your definition starts in a year that ends with 6. Some generation got robbed somewhere.


172 posted on 07/09/2004 5:44:54 PM PDT by Melas
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 161 | View Replies]

To: qam1
Add me to your ping list.

I agree with the general idea of this article. Most of my faves tend to be the early recordings of a band.They also span decades and Centuries. Music should be about the artist and not just be a contemporary icon.
"Born in the U.S.A.," who cares "Tommy," The full-blown rock opera about is as dumb as they come but it did launched the band to international superstardom. Hailed as a breakthrough upon its release, it's critical standing has diminished somewhat in the ensuing decades, because of the occasional pretensions of the concept. Who's Next is truer than Tommy who's next was it for them. "The Dark Side of the Moon" way overproduced 'Pipers at gate of dawn' is their best without Syd they lose the edge.
Even a band like Rush has now done a tribute to classic rock...interesting songs it include an Arthur Lee song one that surprised me.


FEEDBACK
Release: June 2004

Summertime Blues
Heart Full of Soul
The Seeker
For What It’s Worth
Shapes of Things
Mr. Soul
Crossroads
Seven and Seven Is
173 posted on 07/09/2004 5:45:18 PM PDT by freeforall
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: The Scourge of Yazid
SEGER!!!

MAIDEN!!!


174 posted on 07/09/2004 5:46:47 PM PDT by humblegunner
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 167 | View Replies]

To: SoCal Pubbie
The standard accepted dates for the baby boom generation is 1946- 1965. Just accept the shame of being a boomer and move on.

Lol, I just caught that part. The amusing thing is that I would have loved to have been a boomer instead of Gen-X!!!

175 posted on 07/09/2004 5:48:28 PM PDT by Melas
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 161 | View Replies]

To: Melas

Probably my grandparents' generation. They were "Lost" anyway. ;-)


176 posted on 07/09/2004 5:49:05 PM PDT by Betis70
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 172 | View Replies]

To: The Scourge of Yazid


Word.
177 posted on 07/09/2004 5:49:37 PM PDT by Xenalyte (I'm thinkin' of a master plan . . .)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 163 | View Replies]

To: humblegunner
Oh my.

This could get ugly.

Think I'll have to call in:

FEAR!!!!

178 posted on 07/09/2004 5:50:07 PM PDT by The Scourge of Yazid
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 174 | View Replies]

To: Xenalyte
For shizzle, on the bowwow bizzle my nizzle!
179 posted on 07/09/2004 5:51:48 PM PDT by The Scourge of Yazid
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 177 | View Replies]

To: qam1

Last night I got home from having a few pints, cracked open another, and cranked up Led Zep I. I can only imagine what a revelation it was when it debuted back in '69, when I was only 2 years old. It still sounds fresh today, at least to my ears. Plant's vocals, Page's guitar, Bonham's drums and Jones's bass, what a combo. Probably the greatest rock band of all time, IMHO.


180 posted on 07/09/2004 5:53:34 PM PDT by -YYZ-
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 156 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 141-160161-180181-200 ... 361-366 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson