Re: [bomp] Before I Get Old by Dave Marsh

[jumpinginthenight <jumpinginthenight@xxxxxxxxx>]

Yeah the other Shaw! Arnold wrote HONKERS & SHOUTERS, WORLD OF SOUL, DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN POP/ROCK.  Don't forget Lester Bangs! You hit the nail on the head. Nick Tosches' UNSUNG HEROES OF ROCK n ROLL  is the bible. I was at Simon & Schuster when FLOWERS IN THE DUSTBIN pubbed, sort of wrongheaded. 
Greil Marcus started out well but geez lost it around the time he started working for that art magazine and publishing the worthless real life top 10 in the Village Voice.
Charlie Gillet in SOUND OF THE CITY seemed to care a great deal for songs with those Latin changes, you know "louie Louie" bands.
ItsBoss9@aol.com wrote:

I just read "Before I Get Old" by Dave Marsh, which
has to be the least interesting bio on an extremely
interesting band ever written. It drove home how much
I've always hated Marsh's writing. Marsh managed to
make the Who seem boring and mediocre, even in the
60s. Any better books out there on them? Just thought
I'd ask the group. 

I suffered through that thing, but I'll tell you, at least he does mention 
everything that happened, including Great Shakes commercials... he was pretty 
complete, though dull. When I was finished with the book, though, I'd felt I'd 
gotten something out of it, but I should have gone over it with a highlight 
pen so that I could remember the best parts without ever having to read it over 
again. Lots of great clues to unreleased music and other one-off things. I 
always considered MAXIMUM ROCK 'N' ROLL more about the pictures. Rolling Stone 
magazine put out a little magazine-styled book on the Who, soft-cover and 
perfect-bound, in I think 1975 that I cherish to this day, basically collecting 
all their articles on the Who, but it has a great interview with Keith Moon and 
lots of fun pictures.

That generation of writers, by the way, is pretty much married to overlooking 
NUGGETS, Rockabilly or Mod frame of mind.... let alone 40s R&B... it all 
starts with Bill Haley for them. Nick Tosches is the only one of 'em who stands 
apart from the pack and doesn't buy into the dullness thing. I do like Steve 
Propes and Jim Dawson's great WHAT WAS THE FIRST ROCK 'N' ROLL RECORD, which I 
think is an essential purchase... those guys don't miss the boat either, 
though for Tosches, Dawson and Propes, its pretty much a pre-Beatles thing. When I 
had lunch with Tosches, he did seem to like Bob Dylan a lot, though.

I'm currently grappling with wether or not I like the Greil Marcus books, 
though I do find LIPSTICK TRACES enlightening. I've been trying to get into his 
book on Dylan's Basement Tapes (forgot the title, something about 
REPUBLIC???), but the yawns start to come... even though I love the Basement Tapes.

Arnold Shaw is kinda overlooked these days, but he did a few good ones, 
especially his book on 52nd Street, originally called THE STREET THAT NEVER SLEPT, 
but now re-titled. THE JAZZ AGE is also essential to understanding where all 
those songs came from, it's about the '20s. (Arnold) Shaw did Rock 'n' Roll 
books too.

Domenic Priore

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