August 2009 Archives

"The majesty of rock, the tragedy of roll..." from musictoob

REGRETS: I'VE HAD A FEW
My first brush with colored vinyl was also my first record: a yellow 45 rpm of the Andrew Sisters singing "When the Red Red Robin Comes Bob Bob Bobbing Along." And I remember a records store on the Hill in Boulder that had a hanging display of the Dave Mason Alone and Together wax, which like everything else in those days, was out there. One of those clerks gave me a lecture on Bob Dylan: how Highway 61 Revisited was the greatest album of all time, how the Monkees were overrated, how John Denver was the ultimate phony, hence dead. Once I became a critic, I was so cynical about this new product Madonna launched on white vinyl I actually traded it in. I'm still catching on to her irony.

Here's a whole book devote to the stuff, obsessive like you never imagined. Under "essential" in the dictionary.

Chuck Eddy riffs on the alternate line-up. Pareles was there: of course. But he doesn't let on how old he was. Or how much the Manson stuff hung in the air, which is weird since Squeaky's getting paroled. Too much mist around this subject in general: How did Gail Collins manage to review those two books without even mentioning the Vietnam war, even after that (ugh) David Crosby quote?

Also: more on past and present