The Aesthetics of Rock

By Richard Meltzer

Book Overview

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.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0306802872
• ISBN13: 9780306802874
• Release Date: March 1987
• Publisher: Da Capo
• Length: 384 Pages
• Weight: 0.94 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.0" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

A Classic

R. Meltzer may not have actually invented rock criticism, but he created a writing style approximating the way music sounds. With words jumping from the page, flowing from idea to idea, ranging from stylistic jams to short tight bursts like perfectly crafted two-and-a-half minute poptunes. Who else would've lead his tome with a literal printing of the lyrics of "Surfin' Bird"? There was nothing being written about rock music remotely close to "The Aesthetics of Rock." Nearly 40 years later, there still isn't. Before there was Lester, there was Meltzer, and he's still standing. And writing. It's a good thing. PS - Buy his other works, too.

A masterpiece

Richard Meltzer has been going on for years about how he invented rock criticism. He probably did, but that's a bit like saying you invented prog-rock - I love prog-rock, or at any rate some of it, but I don't really care who invented it, cause so much of it is just plain awful. His genius is that he is a great WRITER, on a word-to-word basis. "The Aesthetics of Rock" was considered for years as some sort of prank; I once had a rubbishy hack book called "Atrocities of Rock & Roll", or something, which poked mindless fun at it for being unreadable and pretentious. It's no more unreadable than James Joyce. What Meltzer did was to treat rock, or pop, or whatever, as a field worthy of being looked at, if not always taken entirely seriously, and it mattered nothing to him whether the record under examination was by the Beatles or by the Standells - he was looking for whatever all this stuff had in common. (Personally I think Joe Carducci succeeded better in his wickedly funny "Rock and the Pop Narcotic", but then Carducci had a much wider field to write about, since his book came out in the 90s and Meltzer's book stops around about 1968.) To read Meltzer applying Heidegger to doo-wop is to have the structure of your brain rewired in new and interesting ways. His actual career as a paid-up rock critic was short and, well, sour, although he nobly championed the Minutemen in later years; but by then he had ceased to be on anyone's guest list. He is a great American writer and this is the opus that gave him, if not exactly fame and fortune, at least notoriety. You owe it to yourself to check it out, and also his wonderful anthology "A Whore Just Like The Rest", in which he savagely tears into Greil Marcus' patronising introduction. A Meltzer could never happen now, when rock writers (I won't dignify them with the name of "critic") have to be industry ... in order to get any work at all; but at least he's still alive, still sane, still as honest as anyone could hope for, and still writing.

Still Great After 30 Years

The temptation is strong, when reviewing a Richard Meltzer book, to slip into his style of writing. I will resist that, and maintain a dull tone. This is the funniest book I have ever read about rock music; it is also one of the few that I've read more than once. Anybody who's read more than a few serious, scholarly, University-press-published books on rock will find this to be a refreshing alternative. Meltzer's 1988 collection of essays, "L.A. Is the Capital of Kansas," appears to be out of print, but is also well worth seeking out.

It doesn't do what your expect, and thats a good thing.

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.