Dave Marsh

Marsh on Tina Turner's Acid Queen:

The material also seems ill-chosen, given the enormous body of work from which to choose. For instance: Why Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love,” the original of which relies almost entirely upon the dynamic interplay between guitar and voice to succeed, rather than Bad Company’s “Feel Like Making Love,” which, while expressing the same blatant sexuality, at least possesses a real melody?

The four Ike Turner originals on side two are at least written in an idiom that the singer comprehends. If the best of them, “Baby — Get It On,” relies upon vocal discourse between the duo reminiscent of nothing so much as Sonny & Cher in blackface, it’s still not nearly so pathetic as this once-great singer pushing herself through a series of songs without either desire or understanding.

Yeeeeesh....

http://d28hgpri8am2if.cloudfront.net/book_images/onix/cvr9781982197162/kick-out-the-jams-9781982197162_xlg.jpg

Kick Out the Jams
Jibes, Barbs, Tributes, and Rallying Cries from 35 Years of Music Writing
By Dave Marsh

Spanning three decades worth of astute, acerbic, and overall astounding music writing, Kick Out the Jams is the first large-scale anthology of the work of renowned critic Dave Marsh. Ranging from Elvis Presley to Kurt Cobain, from Nina Simone to Ani DiFranco, from the Beatles to Green Day, the book gives an opinionated, eye-opening overview of 20th century popular music—offering a portrait not just of an era but of a writer wrestling with the American empire.

Every essay bears the distinct Dave Marsh attitude and voice. That passion is evident in a heart-wrenching piece on Cobain’s suicide and legacy; a humorous attack on “Bono’s bullshit;” an indignant look at James Brown and the FBI; deep, revelatory probes into the work of underappreciated artists like Patty Griffin and Alejandro Escovedo; and inspiring insight into what drives Marsh as a writer, namely “a raging passion to explain things in the hope that others would not be trapped and to keep the way clear so that others from the trashy outskirts of barbarous America still had a place to stand—if not in the culture at large, at least in rock and roll.”

If you want to explore the recent history of pop music—its politics as well as its performers—Kick Out the Jams is the perfect guidebook.

https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Kick-Out-the-Jams/Dave-Marsh/9781982197162

a book investigating why collections like this 100000% never use prog bands as touchstones would be interesting