This infamous book has enjoyed a lively underground reputation since its first publication in 1970. Richard Meltzer (a. k. a. R. Meltzer) took his training as a young philosopher and applied it with unalloyed enthusiasm to the lyrics, sound, and culture of rock and roll. Never before had anyone noticed the relationship between the philosophy of Heidegger and a tune by Little Anthony and the Imperials, heard the cries of agony in the Shangri Las' Remember (Walkin' in the Sand), or transcribed every "papa-ooma-mow-mow" in the Trashmen's Surfin' Bird. From Dionne Warwick to Plato, Jim Morrison to Bert Brecht, Conway Twitty to Miguel de Unamuno, Meltzer subverts high and low culture in his search for meaning, emotion, and codes in popular music. At once an earnest investigation and a crypto put-on, the book can be read for its nuggets of information and insights or for its humor. Here with Greil Marcus's new introduction, yet another generation of readers can be outraged and inspired.
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About the Author
Richard Meltzer is the author of over a dozen books, including "A Whore Just Like the Rest"-winner of the ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award-and innumerable articles. He lives in Portland, Oregon.
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By viddy42
Format:Paperback
I enjoyed this enormously. Although written in a dense philosophical style, and whilst it has Plenty of real insight, it clearly does not take itself, or its field seriously. My reading of it (qua reading) is that it is rather taking the michael out of aesthetic philosophy by analysing material with a weight which the material clearly does not merit. The joke is on the philosophy rather than on the music. On the other hand there are moments of (ur-)insight which are quite deep. If you read this entirely seriously however, and don't see the jokes (which are numerous and pervasive) then I rather think you've missed the point... One for the serious follower of philosophical nonsense.
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I must admit that the first pages of the book were certainly fascinating. But, I don't know when, I started to feel kind of upset. Sometime later after that undefined moment, I started to feel even more upset. Call me whatever if you want to, but I didn't understand what the author was trying to tell me, taking for granted that he was trying to transmit a message (to me, it's just a bunch of ideas, some of them certainly interesting, some other... I don't know). At first, it's iluminating, it real food for thought. But, little by little, paragrapahs succeed each other without logic. The author tries to creates clever puns, but all he gets is make my longing for the end of the book bigger and bigger (I wanted to finish it in order to reach some kind of conclussions). And... the footnotes!!! They're irritating, boringly long. Getting to the end of some footnotes was an excruciating experience.
I must also say, on the other hand, that there are some very interesting points of view of songs like "I'm The Walrus". Very illuminating too, from my modest point of view, his comments on the early Rolling Stones, on Dylan, on The Doors. Very curious too the parallelisms he establishes between Beatles and Stones. Perhaps, the most attractive thing about this text is that it was written then... at a time when The Beatles, officially, still existed; when Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, etc, were still alive. I think that is its greatest value.
I don't think I will ever read it again or recommend it. There are however some fragments -excluding, of course, the agonizing footnotes- about aspects like Death in rock, or Nostalgia which to me are certainly excellent.
I must also say, on the other hand, that there are some very interesting points of view of songs like "I'm The Walrus". Very illuminating too, from my modest point of view, his comments on the early Rolling Stones, on Dylan, on The Doors. Very curious too the parallelisms he establishes between Beatles and Stones. Perhaps, the most attractive thing about this text is that it was written then... at a time when The Beatles, officially, still existed; when Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, etc, were still alive. I think that is its greatest value.
I don't think I will ever read it again or recommend it. There are however some fragments -excluding, of course, the agonizing footnotes- about aspects like Death in rock, or Nostalgia which to me are certainly excellent.
By Alex W
Format:Paperback
Dreadful disappointment. I took this on holiday and was bored to tears. It reads like the incoherent, discontinuuos ramblings of a first-year arts student, someone up all night with a Dictionary of Philosophical Quotations and a pile of Beatles records. The ideas make no sense and you could literally pull this book apart, shuffle the pages, and it would do no harm to the structure. (That is not a recommendation all you BS Johnson fans.) It may have been the first book to consider rock from this perspective, but if so, it's no more than a blueprint showing future writers what *not* to do.
There's plenty of room for philosophy, art theory and rock to come into dialogue, but here they just talk over each other.
There's plenty of room for philosophy, art theory and rock to come into dialogue, but here they just talk over each other.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
Written in an age where rock critics were still in diapers and hungry for that which was R n'R, Meltzer explores the burgeoning music scene of '66-'68 and uses all the words at his disposeal to get at the heart of the great musical beast wiht as crude and delicate a knife as possible:that of a kid running through a candy store who has the ability to find what doesnt work , could work and eventually does work (on a good day). It's more unusual than a normal book with the sort of title it has, and the rock world benefits and is sadly struck dead (now, at least) with immesne amounts of tragic justice which it does/doesn't deserve. But man, I tell ya, that there music he speaks of is good for every single reason he finds. Read it if you can see what's in the typing.
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