Do you ever read one of Christgau's reviews and go, What the hell is he talking about?

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A good percentage of this dude's reviews are just simply out in left field so far that I can't figure out what his point is. Anyone else feel the same way?

― Jim Reckling (Jim Reckling), Tuesday, 7 February 2006 00:05 (7 years ago) Permalink

Everybody feels like you do. But most won't admit to it. Certainly not here.

― juana, Tuesday, 7 February 2006 00:08 (7 years ago) Permalink

i've been waiting for someone to call him on that

― gear (gear), Tuesday, 7 February 2006 00:09 (7 years ago) Permalink

i often wish his writing were more obtuse.

― Susan Douglas (Susan Douglas), Tuesday, 7 February 2006 00:14 (7 years ago) Permalink

All the time. I've never liked his reviews. More often they seem like a self-important tromp through the thesaurus, rather than having something substantive to say about the music.

― Joe (Joe), Tuesday, 7 February 2006 00:15 (7 years ago) Permalink

He's clear as a bell. We don't always agree, but c'est la vie.

I have no idea what you mean by "out of left field." Care to elaborate?

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Tuesday, 7 February 2006 00:21 (7 years ago) Permalink

Ask Frank Kogan

― m coleman (lovebug starski), Tuesday, 7 February 2006 00:25 (7 years ago) Permalink

Pick a review, chances are very good that it is so obtuse that it makes no sense.

― Jim Reckling (Jim Reckling), Tuesday, 7 February 2006 00:30 (7 years ago) Permalink

Here ya go, good luck figuring this piece of crap out:

Metal and Shells [PVC, 1985]
When what the Brits call pop isn't popular, it's usually rock and roll chamber music if it's any good at all. This U.S. debut, a best-of that highlights the soulful ache in the vocals and the quirky opacities in the lyrics and does what it can for a modest tune sense, honors that suspect notion. It's not stylized, and not static either, but it's pretty subtle, and its half-finished edges and kinetic lyricism are best appreciated in tranquility if not repose. Where it can be expected to unfold for quite a while. A-

― Jim Reckling (Jim Reckling), Tuesday, 7 February 2006 00:33 (7 years ago) Permalink

goddammit jess, where are you

― gear (gear), Tuesday, 7 February 2006 00:34 (7 years ago) Permalink

http://ilx.wh3rd.net/searchresults.php?board=2&mode=threads&q=&titlepart=christgau&name=&email=&username=&dateafter=&datebefore=&catid=all

― gear (gear), Tuesday, 7 February 2006 00:38 (7 years ago) Permalink

I think Christgau follows grammar rules that only he understands. I always felt the problem was no one has edited his writing besides himself since about 1972.

― Fastnbulbous (Fastnbulbous), Tuesday, 7 February 2006 00:40 (7 years ago) Permalink

What's so hard to understand about the Go-Betweens review, Jim? He's saying that opaque English music (the Go-Be's are Australian, but whatever) is not his cup of tea, but these guys make it work.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Tuesday, 7 February 2006 00:40 (7 years ago) Permalink

I'll be damned if that is what I see him getting at in that review. I guess I am just smart enough to translate him.

― Jim Reckling (Jim Reckling), Tuesday, 7 February 2006 00:42 (7 years ago) Permalink

for god's sakes dont email him

― james van der beek (dubplatestyle), Tuesday, 7 February 2006 00:43 (7 years ago) Permalink

please jess, for the love of god, do something

― gear (gear), Tuesday, 7 February 2006 00:44 (7 years ago) Permalink

ENGLISH PEOPLE CAN'T RAWK, SAITH THE DEAN.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Tuesday, 7 February 2006 00:45 (7 years ago) Permalink

EMPEROR HAS NO CLOTHES SHOCKAH!

Maybe he thinks if he writes incomprehensibly enough people won't figure out that he doesn't really have anything to say.

― lykvun stratta, Tuesday, 7 February 2006 00:51 (7 years ago) Permalink

I think you guys need to take a literacy test.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Tuesday, 7 February 2006 00:52 (7 years ago) Permalink

rock fans dumb as rocks shockah

― j blount (papa la bas), Tuesday, 7 February 2006 00:53 (7 years ago) Permalink

(if you can't parse this you've got problems)

Lou Reed, The Blue Mask

After this becomes a cult classic, in a week or so, noncultists are gonna start complaining. "My Dedalus to your Bloom/Was such a perfect wit"? And then bringing in "perfect" again for a rhyme? What kind of "spirit of pure poetry" is that? One that honors the way people really talk. Never has Lou sounded more Ginsbergian, more let-it-all-hang-out than on this, his most controlled, plainspoken, deeply felt, and uninhibited album. Even his unnecessarily ideological heterosexuality is more an expression of mood than a statement of policy; he sounds glad to be alive, so that horror and pain become occasions for courage and eloquence as well as bitterness and sarcasm. Every song comes at the world from a slightly different angle, and every one makes the others stronger. Reed's voice--precise, conversational, stirring whether offhand or inspirational--sings his love of language itself, with Fernando Saunders's bass articulating his tenderness and the guitars of Robert Quine and Reed himself slashing out with an anger he understands better all the time.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Tuesday, 7 February 2006 00:56 (7 years ago) Permalink

Desist.

― Joe (Joe), Tuesday, 7 February 2006 01:00 (7 years ago) Permalink

― gear (gear), Tuesday, 7 February 2006 01:01 (7 years ago) Permalink

The first few lines of that one are good, the rest meh. Telling me he's never sounded more Ginsbergian, plainspoken, courageous, coverstaional, and more understanding of his anger doesn't inspire me to buy the rekkerd.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Tuesday, 7 February 2006 01:02 (7 years ago) Permalink

CONVERSATIONAL, ROFL

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Tuesday, 7 February 2006 01:02 (7 years ago) Permalink

But hey, I generally like his CG reviews more than that'un.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Tuesday, 7 February 2006 01:03 (7 years ago) Permalink

I like his old reviews, I just feel like he's lost the plot these days.

― polyphonic (polyphonic), Tuesday, 7 February 2006 01:04 (7 years ago) Permalink

I am certain you are way smarter than me Alfred. Jesus Christ.

― Jim Reckling (Jim Reckling), Tuesday, 7 February 2006 01:05 (7 years ago) Permalink

90% of the time I have no idea what he's talking about. With that said, I look forward to his column each month, he's turned me on to more great music than any person alive.

Right now I'm digging Wussy from his latest Consumer Guide. The Dean does it again.

― kornrulez6969 (TCBeing), Tuesday, 7 February 2006 01:06 (7 years ago) Permalink

Hi Dere I Don't Understand Teh English Language

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Tuesday, 7 February 2006 01:34 (7 years ago) Permalink

Robert Christgau : music :: Alan Greenspan : money

― joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Tuesday, 7 February 2006 02:07 (7 years ago) Permalink

he keeps it from inflating?

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Tuesday, 7 February 2006 02:12 (7 years ago) Permalink

No: he talks about it in endlessly debatable non-sequiturs but everyone listens.

― joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Tuesday, 7 February 2006 02:14 (7 years ago) Permalink

he does puncture the occasional bit of irrational exuberance.

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Tuesday, 7 February 2006 02:19 (7 years ago) Permalink

The classic Christgau sentence usually contains two (or more) contrary ideas linked by punctuation or conjunctions, "When what the Brits call pop isn't popular, it's usually rock and roll chamber music if it's any good at all," for example. Or (at random) "Where the Chicago-based volume one [HISTORY OF HOUSE MUSIC VOL. 2: NEW YORK GARAGE STYLE]honors disco and spawned techno, the Gotham-based volume two honors funk and spawned nothing." There must be a rhetorical term for that, but I'm too drunk and too lazy right now to look it up. I imagine he developed the habit from writing to very short word limits, but he's refined it to a Zen-master degree. "Believes in reincarnation, wishes the Pope had a bigger dick," is still the finest sentence he's ever written.

― Paul Ess (Paul Ess), Tuesday, 7 February 2006 02:20 (7 years ago) Permalink

right, it's compact. dense, but everything you need to understand it is right there. sometimes i think he's flat wrong, and sometimes too clevah by half, but he's plenty clear. you just have to actually read him.

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Tuesday, 7 February 2006 02:23 (7 years ago) Permalink

This U.S. debut, a best-of that highlights the soulful ache in the vocals and the quirky opacities in the lyrics and does what it can for a modest tune sense, honors that suspect notion.

This is classic Christgau syntax: not technically wrong, but batshit insane nonetheless. It takes you two-three reads to realize that "honors that suspect notion" connects back to "this U.S. debut" ACROSS the entire pile-up of stray mini-thoughts in the middle. The first time I read it, I thought "honors" was a plural noun and "suspect" was a verb!

― joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Tuesday, 7 February 2006 02:25 (7 years ago) Permalink

Telling me he's never sounded more Ginsbergian, plainspoken, courageous, coverstaional, and more understanding of his anger doesn't inspire me to buy the rekkerd

Really? But those are things that would make me seek out the album. I want to hear what Ginsbergian Lou Reed sounds like, hell, just to see if I agree or not. I think Christgau's got a great turn of phrase, and density's just part of his style. It's not a bad thing. He just wants to make you work for it. Obtuse is Heidegger. Christgau's clear as a bell comparitively.

xpost...or what Gypsy said.

― VegemiteGrrl (VegemiteGrrl), Tuesday, 7 February 2006 02:27 (7 years ago) Permalink

It took me one read and less than two seconds to get the referent, and it never occurred to me that suspect was a verb.

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Tuesday, 7 February 2006 02:36 (7 years ago) Permalink

You can have my diploma.

― joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Tuesday, 7 February 2006 02:37 (7 years ago) Permalink

There must be a rhetorical term for that, but I'm too drunk and too lazy right now to look it up.

Antithesis?

― Joe (Joe), Tuesday, 7 February 2006 02:40 (7 years ago) Permalink

not technically wrong, but batshit insane nonetheless

A little prolix, maybe, but very sane, if you ask me. And I really suspect Christgau's prose has a lot to do with writing to strict word limits. I've written exhibit copy before and when you need to fit everything you want to say into 100 words or less, you'll happily bend the fuck out of syntax.

That said, Gypsy is OTM. RC's often too clever by half and I frequently disagree with him (but what I like is I can usually tell when I'll disagree with him), but he isn't unintelligble.

― Paul Ess (Paul Ess), Tuesday, 7 February 2006 02:40 (7 years ago) Permalink

Antithesis?

Yes!

― Paul Ess (Paul Ess), Tuesday, 7 February 2006 02:46 (7 years ago) Permalink

I really wonder whether ppl who have trouble parsing Xgau are able to walk and chew gum at the same time

― Thomas Tallis (Tommy), Tuesday, 7 February 2006 02:54 (7 years ago) Permalink

And to you, Thomas, I bequeath my writing career. I will earn my keep picking up flattened squirrels on I-95.

― joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Tuesday, 7 February 2006 03:00 (7 years ago) Permalink

I'm sorry, I'm really hard-pressed to understand what's opaque about that first review. Is 'repose' a 'big word'? Some of his reviews take work, but this one read clear as a bell in a single take.

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Tuesday, 7 February 2006 03:01 (7 years ago) Permalink

I could quote the recent dismissal of Antony & The Johnsons, thus reopening an ugly debate, but that brief piece featured his best and worst writing. Either way, it's crystal-clear.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Tuesday, 7 February 2006 03:07 (7 years ago) Permalink

shhh! Don't wake the beast!

― del unser (van dover), Tuesday, 7 February 2006 03:16 (7 years ago) Permalink

I have trouble understanding him sometimes. Sometimes I don't even know if he likes an album or not, unless I see the grade.

― Harrison Barr (Petar), Tuesday, 7 February 2006 04:00 (7 years ago) Permalink

I'm sorry, I'm really hard-pressed to understand what's opaque about that first review. Is 'repose' a 'big word'? Some of his reviews take work, but this one read clear as a bell in a single take.

I don't think people are necessarily talking about "difficulty" in the sense of "big words."

1. Xgau can be syntactically jumbled (as noted, this may be because of word limits and format). For example, the first sentence is arguably run-on and has a comma splice (especially if you're American). A semi-colon would be more appropriate, or a conjunction that makes clear that the two parts of the sentence are in some sort of opposition. While we're at it, we could put in a comma before "any good at all," and maybe reverse the order of the last phrase to let the emphasis fall where it should. So: "When what the Brits call pop isn't popular; instead, if it's any good at all, it's usually rock and roll chamber music." In general, Xgau underuses conjuctions that can help position his sentences in relation to each other.

2. Further, Xgau sometimes becomes obtuse because his choice of verbs are unintuitive. For example, in the second sentence, saying that a "debut album" "highlights the soulful ache" is odd to my ears. Not wrong, but odd. I think that an album can have soulful vocals, but we don't normally say that an album highlights something that is part of it.

3. But the biggest "difficulty" of the above paragraph probably comes from the way Xgau sets up oppositons that aren't immediately obvious. Yes, it's "clear" that he means for "stylized" and "static" to be opposed to "subtle," "kinetic" and "half-finished." Some of those oppositions make sense ("static" vs "kinetic") but others, not so much (how is "subtle" and "stylized" opposed, or are they not meant to be?). Xgau confuses the oppositions further by the use of the conjunction "but." He's saying that the album is NOT stylized nor static -- so it IS subtle and kinetic, right? But his use of "but" makes it sound garbled, and makes the opposition even less obvious.

― brittle-lemon (brittle-lemon), Tuesday, 7 February 2006 04:28 (7 years ago) Permalink

Skipping 263 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

sorry it's just hard to take yet another "i've believed for years that christgau gets by on being the guy who graded albums first - god knows how everyone's glad for grading in music reviews - but please feel free to describe in elaborate detail how i am wrong" thread revive seriously

― da croupier, Sunday, 5 August 2012 15:09 (9 months ago) Permalink

i like xgau's essays, especially the long ones on chuck berry and al green in that old rolling stone history book. they're earnestly argued and really insightful. he wrote a great piece about john lennon's last album, too. i've never gotten that much out of his cryptogram-wisecrack style in his short reviews, but i think i just hate the format -- i don't like it when chuck eddy does it, or even marcus in that 'treasure island' piece at the end of the 'stranded' book.

― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Monday, 6 August 2012 06:47 (9 months ago) Permalink

Do you ever read one of Christgau's reviews and go to the bathroom?

― buzza, Monday, 6 August 2012 06:53 (9 months ago) Permalink

Christgau has definitely been a touchstone. For me, it's never about having similar tastes -- but rather the extent to which a writer is willing to identify and ascribe certain ideas and beliefs to the subject matter and defend them. And where so many critics seem to coast on observations alone, Christgau has always been too much of a curmudgeon to allow himself that particular leisure. A-

― Naive Teen Idol, Monday, 6 August 2012 11:39 (9 months ago) Permalink

Marcus's discography at the end of Stranded is pretty much my favourite piece of rock-critic writing ever. (xxpost) A friend and I have developed a whole shorthand around it, cryptic references that the other person picks up on immediately. "The Rolling Stones would have killed to make this album" (especially when wildly misapplied), pulling your car over to the side of the road when you hear something for the first time (especially when wildly misapplied), etc. Plus it's where I first encountered so many records I'd never heard of before--Hackamore Brick, Savage Rose, Colonel Jubilation, Jesse Winchester, many others. Not that all of them turned out to be quite as advertised.

― clemenza, Monday, 6 August 2012 12:36 (9 months ago) Permalink

I pretty much never have a clue what he means in the little capsule reviews; they seem to be deliberately insular so that only people in his 'gang' (which is a very weird, metaphysical kidn of gang, if it's a gang at all) can tell what he's on about. But I'm British, and he put something I wrote in a book, so he's not a big deal / alright with me in theory.

― Sick Mouthy (Scik Mouthy), Monday, 6 August 2012 13:43 (9 months ago) Permalink

NTI otm. phil too.

"The Rolling Stones would have killed to make this album"
"Eric Clapton would have paid to hold his coat" or something like that. I used to know a lot of it by heart too, but it's been a while.

― Zing Can Really Hang You Up the Most (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 6 August 2012 14:14 (9 months ago) Permalink

Christgau's a much bigger influence on me than Marsh (and Marcus is a bigger influence than either) but Marsh pulls me in more different directions than maybe any other critic I can think of. It really is something close to a love-hate relationship (the fact that he continues to make me think about this and to care is in and of itself a reason to tip the scales towards love rather than hate). Sometimes I think he's wonderful, other times far from it. That's not an interesting point in and of itself, I know, but for some reason I just don't experience the same wild mood swings with Marcus or Christgau. Both can write stuff that infuriates me, but for some reason my overall feelings about them are fairly consistent; I get mildly irritated but nothing like frothing mad when they write something I think is narrow-minded. Maybe more to the point, I'm totally okay with their particular prejudices (even when I don't share them) but for some reason I'm much less okay with Marsh and his prejudices. The Roxy review in Heart of Rock and Soul and the Neil review in Rolling Stone Illustrated History are two prime offenders -- writing I'd actually label "disastrous," a term I don't find myself ever applying to the other two, for some reason. Again, I think they are just more consistent writers, and certainly my own feelings towards them tends to the level-headed. (By the way, I'm the guy who did the Marsh interview quoted above. I regret a bit that I was somewhat in fawning mode at the time -- I'm not the world's most confident interviewer, let's just say -- but I'll note that Marsh was incredibly fun and kind to chat with, and I wish I had let my own guard down some and gone into some of my issues, as I'm sure he would have been more than game to delve into them as well.)

― Chickie Levitt, Monday, 6 August 2012 14:24 (9 months ago) Permalink

Took a while to remember that the album clemenza's quote refers to is the soundtrack to The Harder They Come. I did not google, I just sat in the o.g. loge waiting for it to come to me.

― Zing Can Really Hang You Up the Most (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 6 August 2012 15:51 (9 months ago) Permalink

And the Clapton line is re:Lowman Pauling of the "5" Royales.

― Jeremy Spencer Slid in Class Today (C. Grisso/McCain), Monday, 6 August 2012 16:02 (9 months ago) Permalink

Yes. I did eventually google that after the fact to see how close I got in the wording and ended up on Xgau's msn site, where someone had posted it in the comment section of reviews of both a "5" Royales comp and a tribute to them by Steve Cropper, which I listening to right now

― Zing Can Really Hang You Up the Most (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 6 August 2012 16:24 (9 months ago) Permalink

I've caught myself a few times recently only half-remembering a Stranded one-liner, i.e., I knew the gist of the line but was unable to immediately place the entry and/or quote it verbatim. Personal progress or early signs of senility?

― Chickie Levitt, Monday, 6 August 2012 16:30 (9 months ago) Permalink

Skill-testing question for James and C. Grissom (I know Levitt knows the answer): which song compelled Marcus to pull his car over to the side of the road and sit there, overcome with doom and foreboding and rock-critic momentousness? (Not sure if he remembered to signal first or not.)

― clemenza, Monday, 6 August 2012 16:55 (9 months ago) Permalink

I have no recollection of that one at all.

― Zing Can Really Hang You Up the Most (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 6 August 2012 16:58 (9 months ago) Permalink

"Eve Of Destruction"

― da croupier, Monday, 6 August 2012 17:01 (9 months ago) Permalink

No...not 100% sure it was from Stranded; could have been something he mentioned in Mystery Train. (You might actually be joking about "Eve of Destruction," but he did include that in the discography!)

― clemenza, Monday, 6 August 2012 17:07 (9 months ago) Permalink

The one I'm thinking of is from Mystery Train, though he's definitely touched on the pulling-over-to-the-side-of-the-road theme a few times.

― Chickie Levitt, Monday, 6 August 2012 17:15 (9 months ago) Permalink

Can we get a hint? Was it something by The Kinks or Randy Newman?

― Zing Can Really Hang You Up the Most (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 6 August 2012 17:17 (9 months ago) Permalink

Early '70s, #1 single, over six minutes long.

― clemenza, Monday, 6 August 2012 17:19 (9 months ago) Permalink

must be so awkward to be riding shotgun when that happens

― da croupier, Monday, 6 August 2012 17:19 (9 months ago) Permalink

I'm thinking of that scene in Seinfeld with Kramer and the panicky car salesman..."The road, Mr. Marcus--the road!!!"

― clemenza, Monday, 6 August 2012 17:20 (9 months ago) Permalink

I'm sure no one cares about this, but I often see Greil Marcus at my favorite coffee shop, and he always orders two espressos in tiny little paper cups. I see him walking up the street holding these tiny cups, bleary eyed, waiting for the light to change. It cracks me up.

― pun lovin criminal (polyphonic), Monday, 6 August 2012 17:22 (9 months ago) Permalink

must be so awkward to be riding shotgun when that happens

― da croupier, Monday, August 6, 2012 1:19 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I'm thinking of that scene in Seinfeld with Kramer and the panicky car salesman..."The road, Mr. Marcus--the road!!!"

― clemenza, Monday, August 6, 2012 1:20 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i'm thinking of the "desperado" episode

― Author ~ Coach ~ Goddess (s1ocki), Monday, 6 August 2012 17:24 (9 months ago) Permalink

You're right--perfect. That's a great story about the coffee shop. If Marcus and I shared coffee shops, I'm pretty sure he'd be changing coffee shops before long. ("I know you're in rush, Greil, and you look a little bleary-eyed, but that 'Surfin' Bird' entry in Stranded, what did you mean by...")

― clemenza, Monday, 6 August 2012 17:28 (9 months ago) Permalink

Early '70s, #1 single, over six minutes long.

"Hocus Pocus" by Focus? #1 in Scandinavia, I'm told.

― Chickie Levitt, Monday, 6 August 2012 17:54 (9 months ago) Permalink

Focus, "Hocus Pocus": The European prog assault broke down so many doors that in the Netherlands anything became possible, and surfacing along with a lot of generally well behaved young men and women was a whole new strain of Teutonic, highly ambitious, dryly objectivistic mellotron jams...

But no. (And only 3:18 in its single edit, according to Wikipedia.)

― clemenza, Monday, 6 August 2012 18:06 (9 months ago) Permalink

Early '70s, #1 single, over six minutes long.

"American Pie"?!?!?!?!?!

― David Allan Cow (Dan Peterson), Monday, 6 August 2012 18:22 (9 months ago) Permalink

"American Pie" would cause me to pull over to the side of the road to vomit.

― EZ Snappin, Monday, 6 August 2012 18:24 (9 months ago) Permalink

No--there can't be more than a couple more. This one was just under seven minutes as a single, and almost twelve minutes in its album form.

― clemenza, Monday, 6 August 2012 18:25 (9 months ago) Permalink

Papa Was A Rollin' Stone

― da croupier, Monday, 6 August 2012 18:26 (9 months ago) Permalink

That's it--was just about to add that it was a cover. I'll see if I can track down Marcus's original quote.

― clemenza, Monday, 6 August 2012 18:27 (9 months ago) Permalink

Okay, I botched it a bit--it wasn't actually Greil who pulled over:

"More than one person I knew pulled off the road and sat waiting, shivering, as the song crept out of the box and filled up the night."

It is from Mystery Train--it's such a Kael line. So actually there was a whole series of people pulling over to the side of the road...I love it, notwithstanding that it's been a running joke with me for three decades now.

― clemenza, Monday, 6 August 2012 18:34 (9 months ago) Permalink

*pulls over to side of the road and reads thread*

― Author ~ Coach ~ Goddess (s1ocki), Monday, 6 August 2012 18:34 (9 months ago) Permalink

And yet, he never paid tribute to Lucinda Williams for writing a song called "Side of the Road."

― clemenza, Monday, 6 August 2012 18:36 (9 months ago) Permalink

Have been waiting for that one.

― Zing Can Really Hang You Up the Most (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 6 August 2012 18:50 (9 months ago) Permalink

i've never pulled over on the side of the road to listen to a song, but i can drive and listen at the same time

― Elrond Hubbard (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, 6 August 2012 19:09 (9 months ago) Permalink

Stevie Nicks pulled over on the side of the road upon hearing "1999."

― a regina spektor is haunting europe (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 6 August 2012 19:11 (9 months ago) Permalink

should stevie nicks have been driving in 1982

― da croupier, Monday, 6 August 2012 19:12 (9 months ago) Permalink

I did it once in 1986, the first time I heard "I Wanna Be a Cowboy." I collected my thoughts after about three minutes and resumed driving.

― clemenza, Monday, 6 August 2012 19:14 (9 months ago) Permalink

Stevie Nicks pulled over on the side of the road to toot upon hearing "1999."

― a regina spektor is haunting europe (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 6 August 2012 19:15 (9 months ago) Permalink

don't these ppl have jobs to get to? sheesh.

― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Monday, 6 August 2012 19:18 (9 months ago) Permalink

Nicks' job in 1982 was to snort coke.

― a regina spektor is haunting europe (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 6 August 2012 19:18 (9 months ago) Permalink

I actually remember the moment I heard "Papa Was a Rolling Stone" for the first time. Jim DeRogatis and Bill Wyman played it on the original (pre-Greg Kot) Sound Opinions show in ... 1995? It aired late at night and I was listening in my bedroom. I think I may have actually e-mailed DeRo (in the nascent days of AOL, mind you) to tell him how much I enjoyed it.

― Trewster Dare (jaymc), Monday, 6 August 2012 19:43 (9 months ago) Permalink

All kidding aside, "Papa Was a Rolling Stone" was certainly a pull-to-the-side-of-the-road sort of record, if anything was. Indeed, I was eight when that song was on the radio, and I have a very specific memory of hearing it in bed one night and it scaring the shit out of me -- that and "Nights in White Satin." So, anyway, Marcus's method of conveying how monumental the thing sounded is one of the main things that drew me towards his writing, for sure.

― Chickie Levitt, Monday, 6 August 2012 19:53 (9 months ago) Permalink

Really late back to this thread, but didn't Marcus also pull over (or perhaps got into an accident) the first time he heard "Ode To Billy Joe"?

While I was away from ILX today, I dug out my copy of Any Old Way You Choose It, which collects a bunch of early Xgau pieces ('73-back). I wasn't a really a fan, but this book turned me around to him, or at least to him as an essayist. There's a bunch of quality personal-style rock crit that has a strong sense of place, a real good feeling of how and what it must have been like to take part in the day-to-day transition from the '60s to the '70s.

― Jeremy Spencer Slid in Class Today (C. Grisso/McCain), Monday, 6 August 2012 22:16 (9 months ago) Permalink

i'm gonna start pulling over every time i hear a new song on the radio just for the stories

― Diary of a Whiney Kid: Dog Days (some dude), Monday, 6 August 2012 22:21 (9 months ago) Permalink

what is the urban equivalent of pulling over?

― Iago Galdston, Monday, 6 August 2012 23:15 (9 months ago) Permalink

pooping on the subway

― Elrond Hubbard (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, 6 August 2012 23:24 (9 months ago) Permalink

sadly for me, then, i have seen someone "losing their shit" on/in the subway multiple times

― Iago Galdston, Monday, 6 August 2012 23:43 (9 months ago) Permalink

Dave: Oh I have tremendous problems. I think I basically--first of all, I think he hates rock 'n' roll. I don't even think he makes much of a secret about it. If you actually look at his reviews, he doesn't like rock bands.

this must be why he reserves all his A+ ratings for jazz outfits like the new york dolls, the ramones & the clash

― Campari G&T, Thursday, 9 August 2012 01:00 (9 months ago) Permalink

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