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clarehitchens's review
I liked this, although as with any collection of essays I liked some better than others. What I liked most was a look at the albums and artists we now consider classic from the perspective of someone hearing them in their time and who wasn't easily impressed. I'd like to read more of her feminist essays.
wrightfi's review
3.0
I found this book quite up and down structurally. Her stuff on Dylan and The Stones was great, I also loved the Woodstock piece and Jonie’s blue, but I felt like the quality of content was really up and down and didn’t always flow.
Whilst I liked a lot of Dylan, I found some of it repetitive- especially regarding discussions of his work post blonde on blonde and pre blood on tracks/desire. She restructured the same idea 3 or 4 times in her pieces. Which is fine and I wouldn’t notice in essays separated by years, but one after the other was quite obvious and thus is a problem with the editors as this book was compiled after her passing.
Whilst I liked a lot of Dylan, I found some of it repetitive- especially regarding discussions of his work post blonde on blonde and pre blood on tracks/desire. She restructured the same idea 3 or 4 times in her pieces. Which is fine and I wouldn’t notice in essays separated by years, but one after the other was quite obvious and thus is a problem with the editors as this book was compiled after her passing.
interrobang's review
4.0
I liked this so much that it just reminded me how much I usually hate reading music criticism.
From the intro: "Ellen would surely agree that we won't see a revival of revolutionary sentiment until we learn to make it fun. In that respect, Ellen, Emma Goldman, and Abbie Hoffman are part of a lost tradition - radicals of desire."
One great sentence: "Using other people's and other eras' forms, making sure we heard the innocence or the silliness or the melodrama, Midler communicated her need to love and be loved, but without stripping herself naked."
The end of an article about Grand Funk Railroad that seems prophetic: "The fragmentation of the rock audience is just one symptom of social and political developments that cut pretty deep; I doubt whether one person or one band, no matter how potent, can put it back together— not now, anyway. And when we're ready for the next cultural upheaval, the catalyst may not be teenagers— or even music."
From the intro: "Ellen would surely agree that we won't see a revival of revolutionary sentiment until we learn to make it fun. In that respect, Ellen, Emma Goldman, and Abbie Hoffman are part of a lost tradition - radicals of desire."
One great sentence: "Using other people's and other eras' forms, making sure we heard the innocence or the silliness or the melodrama, Midler communicated her need to love and be loved, but without stripping herself naked."
The end of an article about Grand Funk Railroad that seems prophetic: "The fragmentation of the rock audience is just one symptom of social and political developments that cut pretty deep; I doubt whether one person or one band, no matter how potent, can put it back together— not now, anyway. And when we're ready for the next cultural upheaval, the catalyst may not be teenagers— or even music."
jodiwilldare's review
5.0
If you care at all about Rock & Roll or Pop music you should read Out of the Vinyl Deeps: Ellen Willis on Rock Music. If you ever subscribed to Spin or Rolling Stone you should read Out of the Vinyl Deeps. If you ever searched for most of your adult-life for a smart, female perspective on being a Rock & Roll fan and all but gave up on it, you should read this book.
To say Out of the Vinyl Deeps changed my life sounds like hyperbole, but it’s not. I don’t listen to music the same way after reading Ellen Willis. And I definitely don’t read music criticism the same way.
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To say Out of the Vinyl Deeps changed my life sounds like hyperbole, but it’s not. I don’t listen to music the same way after reading Ellen Willis. And I definitely don’t read music criticism the same way.
read more.
annieeditor's review
3.0
I like music, all kinds of music, but it's more in the vein of saying, "Oh, I really like this song," when it comes on the radio, but then five minutes later I can't remember what the song is called or who sung it. I only remember what it was I liked about the song.
So, I don't read a lot about music, a topic that produces endless amounts of material for the fanatics. Willis was obviously one of those fanatics, but I think what she was more interested in were the parts of music that stick with us than being an expert. Her writing reflects the culture of the seventies, and my favorite essays were the ones about music and feminism in that time period. It's history, but since it wasn't history to her when she wrote it, there's a vividness that makes her writing universal. Although at the same time, she does reference musicians who have been lost to posterity.
There was one very frustrating reference to a singer whose song "Night Vision" describes in such a way that I felt a strong need to hear, or to at least read the lyrics, only to find out that the singer never signed up with a record deal and it would be impossible for a non-music-expert-fanatic to find.
So, I don't read a lot about music, a topic that produces endless amounts of material for the fanatics. Willis was obviously one of those fanatics, but I think what she was more interested in were the parts of music that stick with us than being an expert. Her writing reflects the culture of the seventies, and my favorite essays were the ones about music and feminism in that time period. It's history, but since it wasn't history to her when she wrote it, there's a vividness that makes her writing universal. Although at the same time, she does reference musicians who have been lost to posterity.
There was one very frustrating reference to a singer whose song "Night Vision" describes in such a way that I felt a strong need to hear, or to at least read the lyrics, only to find out that the singer never signed up with a record deal and it would be impossible for a non-music-expert-fanatic to find.
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