Greg
Columbus
For the rock fanatic who loves the MUSIC more than their sense of superiority — 3 years ago
The cover of the book defines Rock Snob thusly:
“n. Reference term for the sort of pop connoisseur for whom the actual enjoyment of music is but a side dish to the accumulation of arcane knowledge about it.” This perfectly fits my feelings for the sort of music lover who will rave about an artist until the general public catches on and then whine about them “selling out”.
It’s laid out like an actual dictionary in that many terms will use the Rock Snob word “in context” at the end of an entry to help the novice better grab onto the meaning.
The entry for “Cosmic” notes it’s a ‘Musically meaningless adjective deployed by rock writers to ascribe a mysterious otherness to the actually quite straightforward country music played by GRAM PARSONS and other lysergically-inclined, NUDIE-suited,anti-Nashville mavericks in the late sixties and early seventies. Words showing up in capitals denote a cross-reference to another term.
While die-hard music fans will likely know most of this, there are some nuggets here and there even for the knowledgeable. (Did you know Steely Dan sessionman extraordinaire Jeff “Skunk” Baxter was an adviser to Congress and the Pentagon on ballistic missile defense?)
Especially worthwhile for taking the occasional pot-shot at the musical “hipper-than-thou”’s sacred cows as in proclaiming Big Black a “not very good” hardcore band, the La’s a “short-lived Liverpool band unaccountably accorded legendary status by Snobs”, and a list titled “It’s Better than it Sounds!” which debunks some of the highly touted Snob faves like Badfinger, Delaney and Bonnie and the “Paisley Underground” and grudgingly admitted that a few Snob acts really SHOULD be wider appreciated. (They’ve placed Syd Barrett, Nick Drake, Love, and Television among them.)
Probably worth buying for the aspiring music enthusiast but only a decent one-time read for the middleweight Snob. (Serious Snobs, of course, won’t deign to read it.)
