Odds and Ends 011

The first Rolling Stone Record Guide really looks like it was chosen by a committee.  They decided to be fair in totally meaningless and ridiculous ways, like giving each ex-Beatle one five star album (Plastic Ono Band, Band on the Run, All Things Must Pass, and Ringo).  No Rolling Stones albums after Beggars Banquet got five stars.  Very cautious about punk and disco too.  Dave Marsh made clear in The Heart of Rock and Soul that he favours singles over albums and that is bound to be a problem if you're putting together an album guide.  I don't know much about John Swenson's work outside Record Guides.  He also edited the early 80s Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide, which was an update of the jazz section

I remember seeing the Rolling Stone book and the UK version of our host's 70s book in Dublin in the early 80s but I was still in school and couldn't afford to get them till later.  I didn't see any Xgau reviews between the summer I was in New York, 1986, when I got the 70s book, and when I got the 1980s book in 1990 or 1991.  Living in Ireland we had no access to the Voice or Creem.  I then didn't see any more Xgau reviews till Tower Records opened in Dublin and started selling the Voice, a week or two late.  I'd flick through to see if it had a Consumer Guide.  More regular access didn't start till the Internet era.

There were remarkably few histories or critical overviews available.  There were occasional "top album" polls in magazines.  I remember an early 80s "Top 200 albums" book from the UK but can't remember what it was called.  Album 200 (chronologically speaking) was Pelican West by Haircut One Hundred (I kid you not). 

I got the Trouser Press book in the late 80s, before Xgau's 80s book came out.  It helped fill in a lot of gaps, and was an interesting contrast/complement to Xgau's 80s book when it came out.  The Trouser Press Guide was definitely a bit pale, as sharpsm says below, but that was the genre they had decided to concentrate on.

I never saw the Trouser Press magazine.  There is a line (I think from Mark P's Sniffing Glue fanzine, quoted in Caroline Coon's book about punk, 1988) exhorting readers to do an extra large gob into it.  That seems to have been pretty unfair, and was probably at least in part reflex anti-Americanism

"We went to the Mining Museum while we were there. It was pretty interesting really."

There's an outstanding documentary called "Butte, America" that seems more relevant every minute --


http://butteamericaf​ilm.org/

I don't question Ira Robbins' right to put whatever he wants on a favorites lists, only his taste and intelligence in constructing the list he did. There's not having much ear for black music, and then there's denying reality.

The only answer I can think of to sharpsm's comment is that anyone has the right to put whatever he wants on a list.  I'd rather he exclude Chic honestly than include them as a sop.  Does the absence of black artists make it suspect? Yes, and time isn't kind to such a list; if not outright racist, it sure looks provincial. But that doesn't mean the list doesn't have its uses, especially in light of the limits of Rolling Stone back then. Anyway, Trouser Press was never going to have any kind of major distribution. 

"so be on your best behavior."

Had a nice combined Mother's Day and Father's Day here.  Whole family came over. Fresh flowers. Ham steak and whole chicken on the grill, corn-off-the-cob and red peppers, wild Maine blueberry frozen yogurt. No raised voices. Wildest music was Stan Getz. Yep, yep.

Sorry, guys, but really. "Lily-white" doesn't begin to describe those IR/TP lists. I mean, Prince and Arthur Alexander are the only black guys who've ever made a great album in the rock era? And not a single black act put out a great album in the '70s? That's not just ignorant, it's offensive. And before you chalk it up to the times, let me assure you that I and a lot of other people would have been offended by such a list in January of 1980 if we'd seen it (thank God for miniscule distribution). I ask you, would Rolling Stone have coughed up a list of great albums of the '70s without mentioning What's Going On or There's A Riot Going On or, you know, ANYTHING by Stevie Wonder?

Thanks, gdash!

JeffC77, fellow dad gdash here. A whole bunch (Terry Gilliam to the other Monty Pythoners as they flew over the ocean - "Look, guys, a whole bunch of water.") of the Sir Douglas regular-issue elpees are good.  Mendocino, Together After Five, Saldana, Borderwave, get 'em all. Some CDs came out on Arcadia, with notes by Ed Ward. The one comp I have is on Sundazed, Mono Singles '68 - '72; best they've ever sounded. There's also a tremendous performance of "Who'll Be the Next in Line" on YouTube, Sahm endearingly doing Jagger doing Davies. The band cooks.

Cam, in the past you've mentioned reading Creem...did that come later?  I guess I was lucky - in Oregon and the Midwest it was a staple of nearly every magazine rack, from minimart to bookstore.   That and RS were my essentials then (plus, when I got desperate between issues, some of those badly-printed magazines that specialized in printing the lyrics to current hits).   I didn't run across Trouser Press until mid-81, and it did help me make a bit more sense of punk.  What I remember about it is the friendly tone of a lot of the writing, which helped draw one in.

Those lists of 70s albums made me chuckle for another reason.  For the good and bad of it, it pretty much forms the core of the Go-Betweens chatboard gang's early listening.    Good in that there's s**tloads of great stuff there, bad because, as you say Cam it's lily white.   Pretty much the only off-white music that gets mentioned on the board is a bit of old ska, reggae and blues.   I'm not trying to be mean - nearly everybody on the board over there's a great fella (even the diehard punk who despises the Beatles while loving hundreds of bands who loved and were inspired by the Beatles).  It's just that I feel very grateful for this community, too.

Montana -- Hi Milo!

A fan was talking to Chuck Cleaver while he was packing up after the show. Chuck said, "Yeah, we played Butte. We went to the Mining Museum while we were there. It was pretty interesting really." Loved that.