Uncle Bob Wants You...to wear black.
Regards, Ivan
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)
Uncle Bob Wants You...to wear black.
Regards, Ivan
Regards, Ivan
I checked into it, and while it's better, I didn't feel like I was a part of generation Jones either. The following is from the guy who wrote "Generation Jones":
Pontell, 42, is the author of "Generation Jones," set for a May release by Vanguard. He says the members of the generation were too young to participate in the social and political whirlwind that was the late 1960s, though most of them were old enough to understand what was going on, and wanted in on some of the action.
I think that's the key right there. An awareness of the events of the era. I had no awareness of any of the events of the 1960's. Unless you consider napping an event. I feel the way this guy feels about the 60's, about the disco era. I was old enough to be aware of the Disco era, but too young to participate. For example: I couldn't get in to the theater to see Saturday Night Fever, because I was too young.
On the other hand, I remember clearly being 13 years old and standing in line to see Star Wars. I remember the Bicentential like it was yesterday with stars and stripes everywhere. Hell, I even remember going to see the Freedom Train when it came to town.
My wife was born in 1959 (barely, 12-31-59) and even she doesn't feel connected to the baby boomers. However, when I showed her the generation Jones stuff a bit ago, she felt a connection to that supposed generation. She was old enough to have lived through the disco thing as a participant, not a spectator too young to participate.
To make a long story short. My views that I'm solidly generation X has been thoroughly solidified. Screw the numbers...all my experiences are those of generation x, and that's what really defines a generation.
Dat's the way I likes 'em!
I suck . . . but not as much as SKYNYRD SUCKS!
Well you can drive yourself crazy thinking about it, Because no matter how you divide the generations up the very end of one generation is always going to have more in common with the very beginning of the next generation than the beginning of their own (i.e. when comparing someone born in 1964 to someone born in 1965 vs 1946)
I haven't looked up the exact numbers but taking my best guesstimate from what I know if we defined generations by the majority of the parents generation the breakdown would be
Baby Boomers 1946-1960
Generation Jones 1961-1971
Gen-X 1972-1982
Gen-Y 1983-1995
Which ironically if those were the dates accepted, Me being born in 1970 I would knock myself out of my own Xer ping list.
But it could be correct, Because most of my friends my age had parents more like the Foremans as opposed to the Keatons and me personally born in 1970, I've noticed that in "outlook on life" (For lack of better words)I have more in common with people a couple years older than people who are a couple of years younger, It's more than just a maturity thing because I'm still single while most people my age and a little bit older are married so I should have more in common with people slightly younger.
What did one Dead Head say to the other after the drugs wore off?
Man, this band sucks.
Clear is the best color.
Dat's some real fine cloudiness dat color's got there.
Matches my personality, ya might say.
>>Whenever I hear Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Lynyrd Skynyrd (and most Southern rock), I want to scream, and I always turn the station.
Why are you two listening to stations that play music you don't like?
Get XM.
Opaque is OK but no match for Clear.
Not Oxy Clear, just Clear.
CleaN as a whistle.
Ping over here
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1169790/posts
I am going to have to disagree with some of my fellow Gen Xers on this.
I personally think the Beatles are over rated, but so was Nirvana. Dark side of the Moon is a great album and I can listen to Lynyrd Skynyrd
without any hesitation. Free Bird? Mr. Breeze. Obviously this chic has an issue with Southern and is critiquing that instead of the music.
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.