From Publishers Weekly
In this collection of 28 excellent essays-penned by some of the usual suspects (Greil Marcus, Simon Reynolds) as well as upstarts (Kate Sullivan, Kelefa Sanneh)-editor Lethem (Motherless Brooklyn) more than achieves his goal of producing "a book of encounters... an invitation to an impossible, gabbling conversation, a party line, where every voice is unforgettable." While the book's subtitle is perhaps misleading and overly ambitious (there are no essays on classical music, blues or reggae, and only a couple on jazz and country), there is barely a weak essay in the collection. David Gates on the improbable 2001 mania for bluegrass legend Ralph Stanley, Lenny Kaye's powerful and maudlin-free obituary/tribute to Joey Ramone and Steve Erickson's idiosyncratic "Top 100" songs related to his beloved Los Angeles are among the stronger entries. This volume also takes a few risks that more than pay off: selecting the Onion's fake news reports titled "God Finally Gives Shout-Out Back to All His Niggaz" and "Marilyn Manson Now Going Door-to-Door Trying To Shock People" not only provides hilarious counterpoint to many of the book's heartfelt essays but also poignantly illuminates just how much musical trends define the general culture at large.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
The annual Da Capo collection of disparate scrivenings on pop music covers not quite everything from Afrobeat to Zydeco, but certainly everything from pillar to post. Mark Jacobson has at the current disposition of Bob Dylan in "Tangled Up in Bob." Kate Sullivan casts a critical eye at Jennifer Lopez and her metal Wonderbra in "J. Lo vs. K. Sul," calling Lopez "a one-woman freak show" before cutting to the pith of contemporary celebrity worship: "She might as well be wearing a [sign reading] I AM RICHER, HOTTER, AND BETTER ORGANIZED THAN YOU . . . YOU ROTTING CORPSE OF A NOBODY." Pioneer rock critic Greil Marcus lumbers down from his aerie with some trademark mumbo jumbo about Kelly Hogan, calling her a torch singer and citing a half-dozen similar performers in only three pages. Exhilarating stuff, and accompanied by several other such incisive assessments as well as two excerpts from
The Onion, "God Finally Gives Shout-out Back to All His Niggaz" and a Marilyn Manson feature.
Mike TribbyCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
