Grown Up All Wrong: 75 Great Rock and Pop Artists from Vaudeville to Techno

by Robert Christgau

Two generations of American music lovers have grown up listening with Robert Christgau, attuned to his inimitable blend of judgment, acuity, passion, erudition, wit, and caveat emptor . His writings, collected here, constitute a virtual encyclopedia of popular music over the past fifty years. Whether honoring the originators of rock and roll, celebrating established artists, or spreading the word about newer ones, the book is pure enjoyment, a pleasure that takes its cues from the sounds it chronicles.

A critical compendium of points of interest in American popular music and its far-flung diaspora, this book ranges from the 1950s singer-songwriter tradition through hip-hop, alternative, and beyond. With unfailing style and grace, Christgau negotiates the straits of great music and thorny politics, as in the cases of Public Enemy, blackface artist Emmett Miller, KRS-One, the Beastie Boys, and Lynyrd Skynyrd. He illuminates legends from pop music and the beginnings of rock and roll―George Gershwin, Nat King Cole, B. B. King, Chuck Berry, and Elvis Presley―and looks at the subtle transition to just plain “rock” in the music of Janis Joplin, the Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, Aretha Franklin, James Brown, and others. He praises the endless vitality of Al Green, George Clinton, and Neil Young. And from the Rolling Stones to Sonic Youth to Nirvana, from Bette Midler to Michael Jackson to DJ Shadow, he shows how money calls the tune in careers that aren’t necessarily compromised by their intercourse with commerce.

Rock and punk and hip-hop, pop and world this is the music of the second half of the twentieth century, skillfully framed in the work of a writer whose reach, insight, and perfect pitch make him one of the major cultural critics of our time.

Genres: Music, Essays, Nonfiction, History

512 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1998

About the author

Robert Thomas Christgau (born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. He began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and later became an early proponent of musical movements such as hip hop, riot grrrl, and the import of African popular music in the West.

Christgau spent 37 years as the chief music critic and senior editor for The Village Voice, during which time he created and oversaw the annual Pazz & Jop critics poll. He has also covered popular music for Esquire, Creem, Newsday, Playboy, Rolling Stone, Billboard, NPR, Blender, and MSN Music, and was a visiting arts teacher at New York University.

Reviews

[Liam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Robert Christgau, usually referred to nowadays as the "Dean of American Rock Critics" (or music journalists, or whatever) is, in fact, a legend of music journalism. The essays collected in this book were written over the course of nearly three decades, though they were updated, edited and otherwise "tweaked" as the author felt necessary during the preparation of the book. I have not ever been a regular reader of his work, even when I was myself a young music journalist during the early 1990s- I don't think I'd ever seen a copy of the 'Village Voice' in those days. Notwithstanding that fact, though, even I have been aware for many years that Mr. Christgau enjoyed a very good reputation as a writer, and had been one of those individuals who first established the accepted form of coverage for popular music after the advent and rise of rock'n'roll. In terms of style, technique and erudition there was nothing in this book which would tend to belie that reputation. That does not mean, however, that I agreed with everything he wrote here.
While my own tastes in music are not dissimilar, particularly in terms of breadth and scope, I found that in many cases this apparent basic commonality began to unravel, and to reveal quite serious differences of opinion as the focus was tightened down to one band, musician or recording. Obviously, there is nothing wrong with that- it is only to be expected. Unlike Mr. Christgau, I was never successful enough as a journalist to make my living at it. In addition, he is nearly thirty years my senior, which obviously has an effect on taste, perspective etc. However, during my own life I have played, studied, thought about and written about music more than enough to be every bit as sure of my views as is Mr. Christgau of his. Most of those differences of opinion (one of them can be seen in the note that I posted while roughly half-way through the book*) can probably be ascribed to the fact that I am a musician who briefly dabbled in music journalism, while Mr. Christgau is a professional music critic. Of course, I agreed with what he wrote in many cases as well, and either way these essays made interesting reading. Frequently exhausting, but interesting. I'm not used to having to work so hard while reading about music, which is probably why it took so long for me to finish this book...
During my extremely short (roughly six years) career in music journalism, one thing that invariably provided a great deal of amusement for not only myself but also various colleagues was the frequently hilarious over-the-top compulsion of many if not most music writers to show off their (sometimes quite impressive) vocabularies and levels of erudition, no matter how short the piece they were writing. I was at least as guilty as most others in that regard, but I suspect that Robert Christgau may be the all-time champion...



*[On p. 193, Christgau states that rock'n'roll (or possibly punk rock; he's talking about the New York Dolls, so it isn't entirely clear) "was supposed to be a definitively white style"(!). Say fucking what? That's got to be one of the stupidest things ever written by someone who should damned well know better...]

[Jacob Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Robert Christgau isn't necessarily a bad writer. It's just that I find him an absolute da. Means well. Kinda warm and welcoming and to some degree knows their history. You're happy to hear him out but there's no avoiding the fact it's all pretty boring.

[M. D. Hudson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Christgau has all the rock journalist's faults -- hopelessly self-reflexive, addicted to purple pose and purple posing. He is constantly touting himself as a sensitive feminist sort of guy and yet every time he discusses a female rocker you can practically feel his gaze moving up and down and across her boobs. This book was intermittantly interesting, but mostly a slog. God, when he describes hearing some bit of rock news just as he was, so he tells us, about to make love to his wife...yuck. Sometimes I am so glad I missed the Sixties and Seventies in any meaningful way.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Make that read what I like. Start with Pavement -- of course -- and enjoyed it despite nothing really new. Then stepped over to Public Enemy (quite a little spanking Christgau tried to give Griff and Chuck), followed by some Grandmaster Flash, The Replacements, James Carter, Nat King Cole, and the guy who I got the book in the first place -- Freedy Johnson. (Note: I've never heard Freedy Johnson, just thought that he (maybe she? before I knew better) played crappy events with weak bands so I never thought to try. Then my favorite music blog for downloading, Captian's Dead, wrote something about a classic album -- Can You Fly -- of his/hers? I looked to see if DPS had it and this Christgau book came up.

I still haven't heard Can You Fly and don't think I like Freedy, but I enjoyed this book. I like the music criticism as it spanned the scenes. Christgau is quite the prick, as the Sonic Youth vignette points out: I don't attend their shows after that put out a call to assasinate me.

So if Thurston and Kim have problems with the guy, I do too. But I enjoyed the writing. I'll return to some of other sections -- Richard Hell, Skynard!, The Sex Pistols -- one day.

And this book gets the bonus star for having the style to place Ray Parker Jr in with these other acts.

[Chris Lilly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Here's a respected critic who, I discover, loves Pavement and the New York Dolls, and thinks Robert Quine is the best guitarist in the world of Rock. This much overlap with my own superlative taste should have made this book a joyous read. Instead, I felt quite early on that Mr. Christgau was an opinionated jerk with whom it would be a major trial to attend any sort of gig. My worry is that people who like Pavement, the New York Dolls, Robert Quine, and their own superlative taste, may be equally jerkish.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad a little full of himself

[Nick Schneider · Rating 2 out of 5]

He had me until he claimed Charlie Watts of the Rolling Stones is widely considered to be the greatest rock n' roll drummer which is...so...very....wrong....