Book Reports: A Music Critic on His First Love, Which Was ReadingIn this generous collection of book reviews and literary essays, legendary Village Voice rock critic Robert Christgau showcases the passion that made him a critic—his love for the written word. Many selections address music, from blackface minstrelsy to punk and hip-hop, artists from Lead Belly to Patti Smith, and fellow critics from Ellen Willis and Lester Bangs to Nelson George and Jessica Hopper. But Book Reports also teases out the popular in the Bible and 1984 as well as pornography and science fiction, and analyzes at length the cultural theory of Raymond Williams, the detective novels of Walter Mosley, the history of bohemia, and the 2008 financial crisis. It establishes Christgau as not just the Dean of American Rock Critics, but one of America's most insightful cultural critics as well. |
Contents
Why Postmodern Minstrelsy Studies Matter | |
Ken Emersons DooDah | |
David B Coplans In Township Tonight | |
Charles and Angeliki Keils Bright Balkan Morning | |
Legs McNeil and Gillian McCains Please Kill | |
Payback IceTs Ice and Tommy Jamess Me the Mob and Music | |
Common terms and phrases
academic aesthetic African African-American albums American Aretha Aretha Franklin artists audience band believes Berman blackface Bob Dylan bohemia Born to Run bourgeois called celebrates Charles collection Consciousness Coover crucial Crumb Dylan Eagleton early especially essay fans feel fiction Frith Greil Marcus guitar Guralnick Hell hip-hop human ideas inspired intellectual James jazz Jerry Lee Lewis John journalistic Jump Jim Crow kids kind less Lester Bangs Lhamon literary lives means Meltzer memoir minstrel minstrelsy modern Mosley musicians narrative never Noble Review novels Patti Smith political popular culture popular music prose published punk record rock and roll rock criticism Sam Cooke seems Seigel sense sexual Sharlet singers social songs Springsteen story style tell theory there's thing Tosches turned Village Voice Williams Williams's Willis women words writing York young