Got a question for Christgau?

and alicia keys there but not gillian welch => completely invalideanery.

http://www.robertchristgau.com/

that pompous idiot ! calls himself the Dean. He is so out of touch with what is really happening in music it is laughable !
-- DJ Martian, Saturday, July 6, 2002 5:00 PM (5 years ago)

Wolcott was fortunate to be at The Voice when Robert Christgau was busy creating the best pop music section in the country. We hear about Christgau’s sonic-boom breakup with Ellen Willis and his penchant for conducting some editing sessions at home, in his underwear.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/06/books/review/lucking-out-my-life-getting-down-and-semi-dirty-in-seventies-new-york-by-james-wolcott-book-review.html

So, is Wolcott telling the truth?

definitely

Lester Bangs complained Christgau would run to put on clothes when his gay neighbor came by, while Lester still had to look at his "saggy ass" (or something like that) when he came over.

Doublechecked, it was Vince Aletti who was denied naked-xgau privileges.

Ha

http://www.robertchristgau.com/icon/wfp-avoid.gif

So Christgau Consumer Guides are now just viewable only through the $5 a month, 12 months a year paid version of his substack?

That is what it appears to me

from this morning's Xgau Sez email:

The irrepressible Alfred Soto recently posted his favourite 20 instrumentals in rock. Seems like he had a lot of fun doing it. How about yours? — Christian Iszchak, Norfolk, England

Without committing to play till the ninth inning, I did what I could to check out most of Soto’s picks and was surprised at how few of them worked for me. To choose the biggest disappointments because my tastes clearly run more r&b-let’s-call-it than Soto’s, neither Sly’s “Sex Machine” nor JB’s “Time Is Running Out Fast” made me say anything like “How the fuck did I forget that”? The Neil Young, the Bowie, even the Sugar just didn’t reach deep enough. But “Tel-Star,” “Frankenstein,” and not quite as undeniably the Stooges’ “L.A. Blues” certainly qualify, as of course does Funkadelic’s indelible “Maggot Brain,” which Carola and I recall first grokking while we were parking our car in an Akron driveway in 1978 and staying in our seats till it was over, enthralled. Almost as crucial is the Meters’ “Cissy Strut.” I’d never registered Yo La Tengo’s “Spec Bebop” and loved it. I’d replace Eno’s “Becalmed” with his “Sky Saw.” Pink Floyd’s “One of These Days” would probably place. Rush’s “YYZ,” which it’s quite possible I’d never heard in my life, also might. But I think Soto was wrong to leave out all “jazz”—Miles Davis’s 27-minute “Right Off,” which leads Jack Johnson, is extraordinary and indelibly rock-derived, and not just because it builds off bassist Michael Henderson’s “Honky Tonk” riff. Which brings us to the ‘50s, which Soto ignores altogether. As I’ve written more than once, it was the hour I spent as a 14-year-old playing side one of my Bill Doggett 45 “Honky Tonk” on repeat that transformed me into the person who became a rock critic. Side two was the hit, one of the best-selling instrumentals of all time, but I always insist that both sides form one composition, still one of my favorite tracks ever. One of Soto’s commenters mentions that he also omitted Link Wray’s equally influential “Rumble,” where you can hear noise guitar being born. And from the ‘50s I’d add New Orleans sax man Lee Allen’s “Walking with Mr. Lee”—and also, just to be contrary, Count Basie’s 1956 hit version of “April in Paris,” another 45 I bought, which Billboard calculated peaked at number 28 but was bigger in NYC I guess.

omg

Congratulations to Alfred on getting Xgau to listen to Rush!

'Tis a far, far nobler thing, etc.

my tastes clearly run more r&b-let’s-call-it than Soto’s

I...have my doubts.

"Sky Saw" has lyrics, Bob, duh.

Congratulations to Alfred on getting Xgau to listen to Rush!

o_O

I...have my doubts.

― but also fuck you (unperson), Wednesday, July 28, 2021 10:36 AM (seven minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

My K. Michelle collection was most offended.

Congratulations to Alfred on getting Xgau to listen to Rush!

LOL, that deserves some kind of trophy!

Consumer Guide Reviews:
A Farewell to Kings [Mercury, 1977]
The most obnoxious band currently making a killing on the zonked teen circuit. Not to be confused with Mahogany Rush, who at least spare us the reactionary gentility. More like Angel. Or Kansas. Or a power-trio Uriah Heep, with vocals revved up an octave. Or two. D

Yes, I meant after he had already reviewed them so poorly... seeing as someone suggested he re-listen to Judee Sill, to whom he gave a B and a B+, to which he replied, "I vaguely remember those records, life's too short to bother".

"YYZ" is from their most popular album, released in 1981. He hadn't heard it before, which definitely suggests he actively avoided them after slamming Kings.

He answered one of my questions in that forum and ignored two other, better ones; I know how Rush feels.

haha

"Sky Saw" has lyrics, Bob, duh.

Super weird, because it's literally the first song on an album he gave (and has kept) an A+, too.

my tastes clearly run more r&b-let’s-call-it than Soto’s

I...have my doubts.

― but also fuck you (unperson), Wednesday, July 28, 2021 9:36 AM (forty-nine minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

that's why they call him terence trent d'ean of rock critics

I love that he actually liked "YYZ" too, 40 years late. If only someone had told him earlier that Rush started bringing in some jazz fusion influences after the album he panned.

"YYZ" is just so much fun, even he apparently can't deny it.

I'd call "Sky Saw" an instrumental with negligible lyrics, like "Tequila" or "Maggot Brain".

Really? It seems like a complete sung verse to me, pretty different from something like "Wipeout".

Well, for example, I remember seeing some kind of lyric/art book he released in the 80s with artwork matched to each of his songs, and the "Sky Saw" page had no lyrics.

Same with "Here Come the Warm Jets".

Still seems like a weak case for it to be a top Eno (or top rock) instrumental. There's a verse of lyrics, sung to a melody, right in the middle of the song, feeling to me like at least a sort of key moment in the song, if not quite a climax.

We need a Soto vs. Xgau debate at Town Hall!

or, what karl said in 10x fewer words than i used

It's generally a complete archive of what he wrote (i.e. he'd probably want to include as much as he can if not everything), and it's clear from his Q&A's that his opinions all evolve over time, so it becomes a bit of a morass in terms of how he'd handle past reviews that he'd change now, whether for regrettable statements or different views. I know some other critics with their own archival sites will put a small disclaimer when republishing a lengthy review, but that's usually a paragraph for a feature-length piece. I want to say there's no perfect solution - just engaging in dialogue about something he wrote before may be the best way about it. At least it allows for a thorough discourse with him on something he wrote in the past.

The last line of the Betty Davis review should never have been typed, but as for the rest of what he said...he's right, she mostly sucks.

Like I said, I've no problem with a person who thinks she sucks (I agree or is at least a footnote worth studying and citing, no more) or is bored by Flack, but he gets weird about Black artists when they don't meet his ideals of (a) transgression (b) domesticity.

Yeah, I agree about that. His argument that he grants them the same disrespectful hauteur he grants white acts doesn't hold up at all, because his bored response to Flack and Hathaway doesn't track with his adoration of bland-as-fuck singer-songwriters.

Wasn't sure which of the 150 Christgau threads to bump for discussion of the new documentary THE LAST CRITIC, but I saw it in a screening at Big Ears the other day and enjoyed it greatly. It's part bio, part love story (his and Carola's obviously very loving relationship is a central feature throughout), part contemplation of music and criticism in general, part a tribute to his role in helping many other writers find their footing at the Voice. You get to spend a lot of time in the Christgau-Dibbell homestead, which is every bit as crammed and crowded as you'd expect with records, CDs, books, etc. And it quotes lots and lots of reviews. One of the most fun bits is having other writers read some of their favorite consumer guide reviews out loud. Also, pretty funny Thurston Moore appearance. Those early disses still rankle him.

I have no idea what kind of broad appeal it may have, but for people who spend time on a message board with 150 Christgau threads, it definitely delivers.

I really want to see it, just not sure if it'll make it up here.

One of the most fun bits is having other writers read some of their favorite consumer guide reviews out loud.

I don't want to say they stole this idea from my friend's A+ clip--it's an obvious thing for them to do--but they might have! I think he first posted it two-plus years ago, before it disappeared over copyright for a while.

Huh wasn't aware of that. Yeah, it's a good bit either way. And it was fun to see it in a movie theater packed with Big Ears music nerds, who laughed loudly at the various quoted zingers.

I wish it would screen down here.

Did the doc include negative voices? I'm curious to know if the makers interviewed younger negative voices, some of whom are on this board.

Nobody contacted me...

There was nobody too negative, most of the writers were people who worked with/for him, and most seemed genuinely fond of him even when they talked about what a brutal editor he was. Some of them make clear that they don't always share his taste, and one of the younger women (I wanna say it was Jessica Hopper, but can't 100 percent remember) said something like, "I often don't like the way Bob writes about young sexy women." But overall it's mostly a lovefest. Which didn't bother me really, it's basically a tribute.

(And even at that, she goes on to offer as a counterpoint his very good review of Taylor Swift's Fearless.)

I saw Jessica online at the Austin screening a few weeks ago; her review of his memoir, I remember, hurt him for that reason.