Comments on: An Experiment in Conservative Cultural Criticism: Carl’s Rock Songbook, Year One

By: The Conservative Pop Culture Gap » Postmodern Conservative | A First Things Blog

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 14:32:25 +0000

[...] the day of vindication of Paul Cantor, Brian Anderson, and our Peter Lawler, not to mention my Carl’s Rock Songbook is at hand, right? Let us all turn to sites like Acculturated, and if we’re Catholic, [...]

By: Paradoxes of Conservative Pop Culture Studies, pt. 1 » Postmodern Conservative | A First Things Blog

Mon, 11 Feb 2013 16:03:24 +0000

[...] my Rock Songbook about to get underway again, I’d like to make a few observations about how I see it fitting, and [...]

By: GhaleonQ

GhaleonQ — Fri, 11 May 2012 07:45:02 +0000

Carl, I’m still not that much on board with what you’re selling (your analysis of what’s happened and whether it’s good or not), but I find it fascinating.

When you get the time, how about taking on this meaty My Bloody Valentine interview? Shields is a great talker, and he seems to connect rock (krautrock, britpop, early shoegaze) elements with what you consider rock’n'roll (he did analog takes on electronic hip-hop that was emulating past soul records in its sound). That his band is a lot of people’s favorite doesn’t hurt his claims.

By: danbk

danbk — Mon, 07 May 2012 16:50:04 +0000

Carl Scott,
I’m afraid i can’t be of much help in recommending boomer (or other) rock critics. I’m about your age, and haven’t read really read any in years. I went through a period in late adolescence where i read alot of Rock critics, especially Marsh and Christgau, who are also some of the more blatantly (left) political ones. College taught me that Ideas and history are much more interesting and important than pop music, so I have only kept up sporadically with either music or any writing about it. Yet, it often takes me by suprise how powerful the music can still be, even when you think you’ve grown indifferent to it.
I’ve long looked myself for better musicological analysis of rock, but haven’t found much. I tend to be suspicious (dismissive?) of lyric analysis, which probably isn’t fair, so I can’t help you there either.
I actually haven’t read Marcus’s “Mystery Train”, although I did read one of his essay collections. He made less of an impression on me than Marsh and Christgau, who both have brasher, more “American” writing styles. Essay collections from the two, Marsh’s “Fortunate Son” and Christgaus “Grown up all wrong” are suprisingly still in print. Whether they are worth your time, I don’t know. If you are like me, your “serious reading” list is likely to be longer than your lifetime has left, so any pop music reading will be optional. Marsh writes from an angry “old left” working-class polemical bent, and has a particular fondness for american-roots oriented stuff. Christgau is famous for writing very short, haiku-like record reviews, dense with cultural references, ideas, and riddles. It’s perhaps a fascinating minor literary form he’s developed. His end-of-the year “Pazz and Jop” summary essays when he was at the village voice are also good. They are available free, as are most of his album reviews, on his website.
I liked the Martha Bayles book, although since my tastes have always run “blacker” than most rock fans and I was already familiar with the conservative cultural commentary, it pretty much told my what i already knew.
Looking forward to more song book entries..

By: Carl Eric Scott

Carl Eric Scott — Sat, 05 May 2012 20:42:13 +0000

Interesting…danbk, but I probably give the impression that I read more rock criticism than I really do. I vaguely remember reading Marsh and Christgua in Rolling Stone and they are not particularly fond memories–but I have not read the anthologies that give you their best pieces. Bangs I like, but if I ever address his work in the Songbook it would probably be to criticize his lionization of Iggy and shock-tactics. Robert Palmer I despise, or rather, have a ton of issues with, while respecting his leg-work. There, it’s a matter of my having real issues with some of the dominant Boomer-critic narratives that get established–in Palmer’s case, in the PBS history of rock and roll. I like some of what Greil Marcus does.

Writers that are more about books than reviews are more my thing. Martha Bayles is my favorite, and I really love Geoffrey O’Brien’s Sonata for Jukebox. But I do need to learn who the best close analysts of lyrics are, and if there were a critic who did more formal music analysis, that would be interesting too. Any recommendations?

By: danbk

danbk — Fri, 04 May 2012 19:30:02 +0000

Carl,

I’ve enjoyed reading the songbook entries, which bring up what might be a little bit of an obvious but maybe senstive question: what was your experience of, and what do you think of the main boomer critics? Marsh, Christgau, Bangs, etc. ?
Did you get anything from them? Does their (at least for Marsh and Xgau) doctrinaire left-slant ruin their work for you? etc. I called this question “sensitive” because I’m not sure you want to name them by name, but such a discussion seems inevitably looming/inherent in this project.

By: Carl Eric Scott

Carl Eric Scott — Fri, 04 May 2012 16:46:16 +0000

Dan, yep, that’s the obvious song to think about, which I did talk about in that post: http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/postmodernconservative/2011/11/21/carls-rock-songbook-27-are-there-anti-abortion-rock-songs/

Anymouse, I don’t believe in Neo-Cons. None exist. Not at least, in the bogeyman way they’ve been described since around 2004.

But more seriously, a big part of my moving rightward in the mid-to-late 90s happened through essays found in publications like The New Republic, Dissent, The Atlantic, etc., essays that would lead me to even read ones from The Public Interest. I guess that makes me something of a neo-con in the original sense of the term.

By: Dan

Dan — Fri, 04 May 2012 04:31:00 +0000

Are there anti-abortion rock songs? Check out the Sex Pistols’ song “Bodies.” It’s pretty grisly.

By: Anymouse

Anymouse — Thu, 03 May 2012 21:59:46 +0000

So you are one of those NeoCons, huh? j/k

By: Carl Eric Scott

Carl Eric Scott — Wed, 02 May 2012 04:36:56 +0000

Yes, when I was a college radio DJ my air-name was Karl Marx. I always presented it ironically, occasionally trotting out some Russian-accented phrases of ridiculous anti-capitalist propaganda, but not-so-ironically, I was also attending meetings of the Democratic Socialists of America in those days. The official M. Harrington line was that Lenin spoiled Marx…I don’t think I fully bought that, as my pacifist inclinations and Christian faith made a full admiration of Marx, what little I knew about him, impossible. But the letter X was cool in those days, and so was shocking Reagan Republicans with the name.

I’m glad you liked the Robert Pacilio post, Paul. He was a great one.