Pros: short, chatty chapters, full of gossip and dripping with angry, tossed off and heartfelt opinions
Cons: If you like modern music and love your iPod, he will try your patience.
The Bottom Line: If you love classic rock, want a true fan's guide to the best singles by the best bands, but must have a high tolerance for an acid tongue.
seric26's Full Review: Dave Thompson - I Hate New Music: The Classic Rock...
First, a list:
12. Rolling Stones—Sympathy for the Devil 16. Fleetwood Mac—Rhiannon 18. Peter Frampton—Show Me the Way 20. Blue Oyster Cult—Don't Fear the Reaper 23. Rolling Stones—Brown Sugar 28. Boston—More than a Feeling 29. Rod Stewart—Maggie may 30. Fleetwood Mac—Go Your Own Way 33. Lou Reed—Sweet Jane 35. Led Zeppelin—Rock and Roll 36. Pink Floyd—Money 37. Elton John—Funeral For a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding 40. Elton John—Bennie and the Jets 43. Rolling Stones—Gimme Shelter 46. Pink Floyd—Wish You Were Here 49. Santana—Black Magic Woman 50. Golden Earring—Radar Love 51. Bachman Turner Overdrive—You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet 53. Led Zeppelin—Kashmir 58. Steely Dan—Do it Again 62. Norman Greenbaum—Spirit in the Sky 63. Kansas—Carry on Wayward Son 76. Led Zeppelin—Immigrant Song 79. Neil Young—Cinnamon Girl 81. Lou Reed—Walk on the Wild Side 88. Neil Young—Southern Man 91. T. Rex—Bang a Gong 92. Heart—Magic Man 93. Thin Lizzy—The Boys are Back in Town 94. Kinks—Lola
At the end of Dave Thompson's book, in Appendix Two, he offers a list of 100 songs that belong on every iPod (devices, btw, he has nothing but disdain for). These are the thirty or so I'd actually let onto mine. So perhaps you get a gist of two things by reading the above: the general nature of the music Thompson values, and its overlap with me as someone more interested in his bad attitude than his taste in songs.
Thompson's about ten years older than me, and his musical era of choice can be summed up like this: 1968-1976. That, to him, is classic rock, and also (most likely) coincides with his own coming-of-age years as a music fan.
Mine is actually (probably) more like 1977-1989, all of it much "too late" for Thompson as far as music that matters, and comprising nothing more than faint echoes of earlier classics. I was a mere babe when Heart and Fleetwood Mac and the Eagles were having big chart hits, and I probably remember and preferred the Supremes and Abba and Bread much more clearly.
So Thompson's book is, in a way, useless to me. It's the curmudgeonly opinions of a baby boomer who wants things still to rock the way they used to. He's got no time for Radiohead (whom he characterizes as daft King Crimson wannabees), no interest in Pearl Jam (he thinks Vedder should learn to enunciate), disdain for Phish (boring Deadheads without even the hooks of Grateful Dead songs), and agrees with everyone that as far as R.E.M. goes, the Byrds did it better – you name a current band, and he slags them off with outrageous and facile one-liners. He gives slightly more credence to Nirvana, but not much. And he almost seems to warm up to early New Wave like the Cars and the B-52's and Tom Petty … but mostly because they debuted on the right side of the 1970s.
Well, fine. His grumpiness is so intense it's eminently readable, and even better, Thompson's recounting of the glory days of rock albums are filled with the sort of worshipful detail that only a real record collector could achieve. His insights into his favorite things are frequently gripping observations (in that aforementioned list, he also gives the best second of each song—the moment the lead kicks in, the vocal flourish, the first chorus that makes the listener marvel at its greatness, etc.), and he's serious about improving your iPod, even though the idea of downloading music (paying for "nothing" in his words) seems insultingly alien to him. CDs don't fair very well in Thompson's view either, but at least they remain objects that exist in space and time.
The chapters are short and pointed rants, but the ranting is of the sort that's as informative as it is bitter. He knows all the old stories, and like a good reporter, he also knows what really happened. And you can't really fault the man's taste – that list above includes glam rock, acid rock, psychedelia, California pop, prog rock, blues takeoffs, twee confessionals (and that discounts sixty-some other tracks). Though he overlaps with what is overplayed on classic rock stations, all of it is very personally chosen and expansively appreciated (though the general omission of Bowie is quite suspect).
Will someone else come up with an equally compelling 1980s list one day, and someone else with a post-grunge parable, defending Vedder to their last breath? Of course they will, because we all love the music we grew up with most. This is one long screed by a writer purposefully pulling the blinders on tighter; but if you've got the patience for his self-acknowledged BS, it's a worthwhile and entertaining love letter to some really great rock music. PS: Yes, I know it's weird that there are no Beatles on my list, but there were none on his either, for this simple reason: he could do a top 100 of ONLY Beatles songs, and so could all of you, so why bother? They're the gray eminence that he wisely just takes off the playing board completely (though just to be quirky, he declares Sgt. Pepper his least favorite of their albums).
Free standard shipping on orders above $199. The Classic Rock Manifesto. General Book (not sheet music). With Hardcover. 5.88x8.5 inches. 230 pages. ...More at ActiveMusician
Led Zeppelin, the Doors, Fleetwood Mac, Rush, Pink Floyd, Peter Frampton, the Beatles, the Who, Elton John (but only the good stuff), the Rolling Ston...More at HotBookSale
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