A Whore Just Like the Rest: The Music Writings of Richard Meltzer

click here for more details, find new or used items	Richard Meltzer Our price £12.99 (£13.50) New from £9.68 Used from £8.50 Pages: 425 (Paperback) ISBN: 0306809532 Pub: Da Capo Press Inc Pub date: 2000-03-24 Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 352835

Reader Reviews:

OK Richard, through gritted teeth, 's okay I spose (2/2 people found this helpful)

Meltzer has a hell of a lot to answer for. I mean, he puffs himself up as the FIRST REAL rock music reviewer, and then goes and defines everything that is wrong (no, INSUFFERABLE) about rock music criticism. Bangs was opinionated, but at least there's passion now and then. Meltzer hates everything, and uses his "journalism" (well, his "gonzo-ism" anyway) to score cheap points, brag of his sexual conquests (ooo-eee the perks of the road, "professional ladies" laid on by the record company) and delight us with his exploits in LA dirty vid booths. Rarely bothered to actually listen to the band he was supposed to be reviewing, or span off on an irrelevant stream of consciousness based on some track title or what's depicted on the cover. Coughed up a whole lifetime's of immature puke interspersed with ho-ho literary escapades that those of us able to put two words together used to amuse ourselves with briefly in sixth form, then GREW UP. Like silly games with rearranging the words, doing daft lists instead of reviews, UTTERLY inappropriate USE OF capitals and so on. This stuff sucks so hard its teeth are in the back of its throat.

AND YET

And yet. After six hundred pages of this childish whining I kinda felt like I knew the guy. Not only knew him, but liked him. Not only liked him, but thought he was the kind of guy who'd amuse me for more than two minutes over a couple of pints or a bad meal. Not just the usual whack about what bands he saw WAY BACK WHEN and what Patti Smith's anatomy looks like and all the rest of it. But somewhere in all the dumb game-playing and role-playing and cheap shots there was a character bursting out of the page. And that's worth a million straight-laced earnest reviews by spotty little Quality Music Paper Wannabes with media studies degrees.

Lester Bangs had a character too...but Meltzer's got a whole bunch of them. I wish he'd lay into Blue Oyster Cult more, because even though I love the band (I know, I'm WARPED) it's great to get the whole sorry poop on your heroes (or at least, the guys you think aren't as BAD AS ALL THE REST). "Unknown Tongue" is a parody, right? Someone's sniggering behind your back, Rick. And though between them, Meltzer and Bangs sum up everything that stinks about "celebrity" music journalism (y'know, like Julie Birch maybe, it's all me me me, lookit ME), and get the whole HERO thing skewed the wrong way (mad rockers are the coolest...so mad reviewers are the coolest...sure, right, okay), you can forgive him the whole lot for the outrageous "review" of John Cage on page 469, which is EXACTLY the kind of thing that could deflate a few Musicologist bubbles while summing up what's wrong with The Wire. In summary, this is a great book, but not of rock journalism.

And now for the review in the style of one of those Old Testament genealogies...but then again, NO.

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