Favourite Pieces Of Music Writing

*And* his son thinks David Beckham has, in himself, killed intelligent political debate in this country.

Collectively, Chuck Eddy's _Stairway to Hell_ and Simon Reynolds' _Blissed Out_ were revelations for me. And when it comes to musicians doing the writing themselves, Marc Almond's autobiography is a treat and a half. Honorable mention goes to Gregg Araki, who wrote music reviews in the _LA Weekly_ in the late eighties when not making his early films -- he had some good ones.

In the meantime, Tom, Ally, Mike Daddino and Josh have all written things about music that have made me insane with jealousy at their talent, producing bitter thoughts in my head. BUT ONE DAY THEY'LL PAY. Er, maybe?

I am having a hard time coming up with a specific piece, I mainly think of all of the great writers I have come across...mainly from the Melody Maker: Reynolds, Price, Parkes, Kulkarni, et. al...And a few others, like Ian Penman and David Cavanagh. And to echo Ned, most of the great writing I've come across recently is from the net, Tom, Mike and Tim's writing especially.

Wish there were more good female writers, I loved the article Barbara Ellen did with the Manics in the NME but apart from that I'm having a hard time thinking of anything that stands out. Apart from Caitlin Moran annoying me.

But...I just re-read it and hands down the best thing ever is Ian Penman's essay on Tricky. Utterly mindblowing. (Can be found on The Wire's website btw)

When it comes to female writers, of the early nineties MM crowd, I always like Cathi Unsworth and Ngaire-Ruth a lot, they were fun to read, and Cathi in particular didn't hold back when she thought something sucked (usually anything British and weedy). And my friend Jen Vineyard's a very good writer, bless her.

sigh.

and i'll put in the good word for the wrongly snubbed otis wheeler too.

When you do write, it is usually quite good; funny,heartfelt and classy, without ever getting pointlessly bitchy and bitter.

There, is that good enough? What a crybaby! ;-)

Oh, and I while I'm at it I should have also mentioned Josh in there the first time.

The Bangs/Reed tete-a tetes in the early Seventies. I was probably about 12 when I read them. They seemed so scary and confrontational-I was thrilled.

Bangs again (hohum, I know) on the racist tendencies of NY Scenemakers. Can’t remember the title, it’s in the anthology. Very compassionate, soul-searching, self-deprecating, a little confused. All the things I love about him. I identified strongly.

Oh, it’s New York again. I was so happy when NY Rocker appeared on the scene. Hey, they like pop! They like disco! They like noise! They like fags! Such a relief after that macho stoopid Punk Magazine bullshit. Can’t remember specific articles, though, sorry. But the attitude was very right on. Actually I remember one particularly scathing interview with 18-year old Lydia Lunch where she dissed every other female punk singer, with the exception of Siouxsie and Exene. Exene Cervenka, give me a fucking break.

A Thurston Moore Tour Diary. From Forced Exposure, I think? I’m usually not particularly interested in these things, but this one was very funny and anarchic. Come to think of it, I like everything I’ve ever read by Thurston.

As for recent stuff (yeah, there are big gaps in my rock reading-I wish I was more familiar with the NME/MM writers you all refer too) did anyone else love Momus’ Synthetic Pierrot essay on his website as much as me? It pretty much defined my taste these days and took it to another level. Although I imagine he was joking in parts. Just who is this Electronic Harlequin? Does he really exist? And can we do a Mylene Farmer Search and Destroy? Anyway, love on ya, Nick. And my ex-roommate Kristian Hoffman sends his regards, too.

Maybe there should be a music writing by musicians thread.

The Savage/Kureishi guide: tho there's no Penman in it (Sav and IP are deepest enemies from WAY back). NME did a take-that-Rolling-Stone- Guide pop culture sampler in c.1982/3: _Cool for Cats_, ed.Tony Stewart. Until abt 77, NME put out an ANNUAL! Stocked alongside Beano or Topper or Judy Annuals! It collected best pieces of the year... Dr C, d'you remember that? David, you? I think Morley's Bolan obit got into the final one (not that it was any good: he was like 19, and his utter God had just guttered... plus of course his dad committed suicide the same month, which none of us knew till last year).

Clinton Heylin did one too, didn't he? But he hates the UK rock press — at least, the Pretentious-till-we-Shed-the-Last-Drop wing, who fashioned us ("us"). (OK, "Me".)

Morley/Penman/Reynolds/Roberts - good, but not as good as some folks round here think. It's the music that matters.

1st: didn't he give the first Raincoats LP an iffy review? Strike One.

Then he and Garry Bushell wrote a JOINT review of 'Vibing Up the Senile Man', pointing out that it was wanky avant-garde toss and everything punk had been invented to eradicate, and why the FUCK did Mark Perry — who had after all sent them personal copies — think that they were going to help him foist it on the world (not exact words, probably, as I crumpled and tossed it 23 years ago...)?

And I stopped buying Sounds forever. And — ten years later — Sounds shut its doors forever. Hurrah!!

I've no idea where McCullough went. Bushell was already evil, and already clambering: part of my rage went to the fact that DM had shared a byline with him. (Checks heart: I'm actually still angry.)

Nah...writing about music first, then drinking, then footie, then maybe music ;)

re: that Heylin anthology. I has some good stuff, like that Bangs meets Hendrix-beyond-the-grave thing. But in the end useless in a Limeys-don't-know-shit sort of way.

Now as for Savage vs. Penman...interesting, what's the deal with that? And did this Morley fellow ever do an anthology?

Sav vs Penman: not interesting, no, more tiresome — just two big sharks in a too small playground-pond.

Incus had a better logo than Ogun's ho-hum African Mask: a bone in the ear, but it also looked like a small dog looking over its shoulder at us, having just done a big poo. Fraid I always found this amusing.

1. Roberts' review of the first Sundays LP, January 1990

2. Reynolds' interview with Lloyd Cole, February 1990

They can go down in history for that. And the other stuff, of course.

Given the state of the indie music scene, I don't think they have a lot of options besides writing about chart music to a certain extent.

Problem is: people above were lionizing Simon Price of all People!! I am a culture-vulture when it comes to biographies/journalism: Simon Price's book on the Manic Street Preachers was the worst pile of drivelin history of all hacking. There's a line in that book where he describes Riichey Manic's increased popularity in 1994. Price quote: "It was a case of OH WE DO LIKE TO BE BESIDE THE SUICIDE."Is that 'so bad its good'/ or maybe somthing very very poor indeed? Email me your answers.

However, his articles in the Melody Maker could be pretty witty and insightful.

This is just terrific. From 1957:

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,862551,00.html

"umbrous, ill-ventilated underground caverns"

"the sickly orange-juice tastes of musical illiterates"

!!!

that's brilliant

and the writer doesn't even get a credit?!

Howard Phillips Lovecraft?

just got reminded of this piece (i think i first read it in a de capo) by slate's longform thing:

http://www.gq.com/entertainment/music/200401/rock-music-jesus?printable=true

always loved that piece. my fave part:

Belief and nonbelief are two giant planets, the orbits of which don't touch. Everything about Christianity can be justified within the context of Christian belief. That is, if you accept its terms. Once you do, your belief starts modifying the data (in ways that are themselves defensible, see?), until eventually the data begin to reinforce belief. The precise moment of illogic can never be isolated and may not exist. Like holding a magnifying glass at arm's length and bringing it toward your eye: Things are upside down, they're upside down, they're right side up. What lay between? If there was something, it passed too quickly to be observed. This is why you can never reason true Christians out of the faith. It's not, as the adage has it, because they were never reasoned into it—many were—it's that faith is a logical door which locks behind you. What looks like a line of thought is steadily warping into a circle, one that closes with you inside. If this seems to imply that no apostate was ever a true Christian and that therefore, I was never one, I think I'd stand by both of those statements. Doesn't the fact that I can't write about my old friends without an apologetic tone just show that I never deserved to be one of them?

he's the best. in the u.s. there are none better. at what he does.

nobody even comes close.

He just wrote a good essay on Cuba.

link? i'm up for reading a good essay on Cuba.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/23/magazine/where-is-cuba-going.html?pagewanted=all&_moc.semityn.www

Uh, I thought that Cuba article meandered and ultimately did not say too much new and insightful (I got bored with it and may have missed something. Although admittedly I was trying to read it after having finished the David Carr interview with Neil Young in the same issue, so maybe I need to give it another shot).

i didn't finish the cuba thing either. will finish later. though yeah not my fave thing by him. i read the neil young thing the other day and thought it was really boring. neil is kinda boring.

I liked it a bunch, especially the interaction between him and the in-laws.

Yeah, seemed like a good collection of illustrative anecdotes; I also liked his description of wondering what his daughter would think of being Cuban and what that would mean for difference between them.

I suppose I can't separate my feelings from it.

How dare you be Cuban. (Loved your blog response to it.)

aw thanks!

he kinda blamed cuban exiles in miami for inadvertently keeping castro in power, no? the whole thing is ridiculous. this country is ridiculous.

no, the family stuff was good, and if you have roots there i can definitely see it being illuminating. i just don't think its his strongest piece. and it DOES meander and ramble.

link to blog here, als.

http://humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com/2012/09/23/our-men-in-havana/

Nice.

The photos of Cuba in the NY Times piece were gorgeous.

^^^ yes

As long as we're talking Cuba -- and this has to do with music too!

http://gawker.com/5943543/the-punks-on-g-street-tracking-cubas-rebellious-youth-50-years-after-the-revolution

http://oneweekoneband.tumblr.com/post/38958539772/one-direction-little-things-did-you-know-that

what i love best about this is her mastery of the tone of mingled disgust and desire and delight, of hyperbolic ambivalence, WHAT IS THIS I DON'T EVEN, #everythingisembarrassing: it's a language i've only seen women use, on tumblr (and before that, a little, on livejournal). I've heard it spoken a bit but only by people already familiar with the internet use. That feeling of being personally affronted by your own reactions - whether to a song, a band, a person - of being aghast at yourself and overjoyed by it, of something that requires high-flown and/or extreme description that's simultaneously 100% serious and 100% facetious.

a language in which you can describe a person as wearing "gravely upsetting tank tops"! a language in which it is possible to express the fact that a song that you kind of despise is precisely the song that affects you the most.

yeah isabel's one of my favorite writers, i wish she did it professionally or regularly in some capacity. whenever she tries it's just O_O

this piece on pfork from years ago has turned into something fairly influential on the direction of my music interests ever since, and by proxy my life.

shoutout to nitsuh. i know they used to post here. definitely one of the best pieces i've ever read.