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Title: A Whore Just Like the Rest: The Music Writings of Richard Meltzer by Richard Meltzer ISBN: 0-306-80953-2 Publisher: DaCapo Press Pub. Date: May, 2000 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $18.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4 (11 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Good Writing, Some Of It About Music Sort Of
Comment: Make no mistake: this is a Richard Meltzer anthology, not an anthology of music writing. It's a funny and fine autobiography, produced piecemeal through the various obscure journals that indulged Meltzer over the years.
As for music, there doesn't seem to be anyone Meltzer even remotely likes, except for Jim Morrison, and I wish Meltzer had a less embarassing idol than that "crooner in the rock mileau." Also, I was annoyed with Meltzer's potshots at music writers who became bigger than he did, specifically, Bangs and Christgau. He did it before Bangs, Meltzer reminds the reader, as if Bangs didn't do it better. As for his criticism of Christgau, it's strange, to say the least, for Meltzer, who makes a point of NOT listening to anything he reviews, to accuse the Village Voice reviewer of not listening hard enough. Huh?
Still, a fun book.
Rating: 3
Summary: A mixed bag
Comment: Joe Carducci and Byron Coley are better interpreters of rock music. Lester Bangs was certainly a better writer. If you're looking for good rock writing/good rock interpretation you're not going to find it here, Blue Oyster Cult lyrics or no BOC lyrics.
Meltzer's consistently ambivalent position about what he was doing, married to some rather bogus notions about what rock music actually is (I suspect he's the prime founder of the "rock music is attitude" school) make the first half of the book incredibly annoying, as well as a real chore to get through. Meltzer seemed to interpret rock writing as basically license to get away with as much as possible -- as such you can't rely on his work for anything except a glimpse into his skull. I find it amusing that he consistently cracks on Robert Christgau -- I'm no fan of Christgau's myself, but strip away the stylistic quirks and the two men have much in common (both men are former "angry young rebels" who've become crusty old fuddy-duddys; both men are more interested in the surfaces being presented than the music beneath them; both men have ultimately very conventional outlooks lurking underneath the bohemianism).
I'm giving this three stars, though. For one thing, Meltzer's pieces have become legendary, and it's damn nice to have such a representative selection available. For another, Meltzer did improve as a writer, and the second half of the book is far superior to the first. Meltzer is quite interesting on jazz music -- I would have liked to have seen more of that sort of thing. (I remember he published some jazz reviews in Forced Exposure.)
Final verdict? If you're "hip" enough to know who Richard Meltzer is, you'll probably want this volume. There are good things to be found here, just less than I'd hoped.
Rating: 1
Summary: I was enjoying the scuzz
Comment: until Meltzer blithered out the most vitriolic, senseless, self effacing, guilt plagued indictment of white people Ive ever had the displeasure to get vertigo from. I threw the book straight into the trash after that. A bitter man, and a wasted talent who has done nothing of any worth whatsoever. Meltzer may have the rock game nailed dead, but I cant stomach an ex-rockwriter slandering 500 years of civilization wholesale just because he cant find a better place to live than LA, even if I am half his age. A dimbulb Dadaist flinging offal like a chimp at anything and anyone that gets more attention than he does. What a disappointment.
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