Thank You, Chris

Lefty sent me his well-read copy of "Kill Your Idols", the collection of music reviews designed to get the average music fan to "appreciate" her/his understanding of the classics in a different light. Pure revisionism, this tome of disengenuine essays attempts to smear some of rock and roll's mighty monolithic albums solely for the sake of doing so. Not that some "classics" aren't worthy of a couple of cheap shots in the name of common sense analysis but to denigrate for the sake of simply writing an essay (stated so in the foreward) makes the reading of each essay nothing more than a reason to go out and purchase the essay's subject if not already owned by the reader. From the book (and I'm only on the fourth or fifth album), here's what I've learned:

1. if the album or the rock style is old, it's crap.
2. if the artist or style of music is popular in an interstate region, it's crap.
3. if the artist or album can be heard on a radio, it's crap.
4. if the artist or album is featured in the book, there is something better than the subject of the essay by the artist.
5. if the artist is still alive, the album's still crap.
6. crap is still good but one needs to understand the crapiness of such crappy crap.

Now, I must say that the book is a great read and I enjoy the different authors' take on their subjects. It also helps to know like the back of one's hand the subjects written about in order to smirk and throw the book or raise your eyebrows wondering, "what? he's splitting hairs here". It's also great because some points I can easily use when teaching certain albums for my rock history course. Now, this all being said, there are tons of classic rock and roll albums and artists that I struggle still to find the brilliance of. I'm also reading 33 1/3's Greatest Hits which is a wonderful read though just a tad shy of hagiography for some of the book's subjects. Without poring over too many topics tonight (we've got to get to bed), I still can't for the life of me, understand the genius of Ray Davies and The Kinks. I also can't wrap my head around the early Stones or Who for that matter, either, so I'm wondering whether there's an unconscious prejudice or something. Or, maybe I just hate that mid-60s stuff. Who knows? I'll surely delve into more and other topics as I continue to read through these two books. Also picked up the new book, "Laurel Canyon", the history of the microcosm of the hills outside of L.A. that brought fame and inspiration to a whole generation of musicians who will probably have chapters written about them in the second volume of Kill Your Idols if they aren't already in the first.