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Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies Author Robert Christgau

Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies Author Robert Christgau Country United States Language English Subject Albums, capsule review, discography, music journalism, popular music, rock music Published 1981 by Ticknor & Fields Media type Print Pages 472 ISBN 089919026X Followed by Christgau's Record Guide: The '80s Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies is a music reference book by American music journalist and essayist Robert Christgau. It was first published in October 1981 by Ticknor & Fields. The book compiles approximately 3,000 of Christgau's capsule album reviews, most of which were originally written for his "Consumer Guide" column in The Village Voice throughout the 1970s. The entries feature annotated details about each record's release and cover a variety of genres related to rock music. Many of the older reviews were rewritten for the guide to reflect his changed perspective and matured stylistic approach, informed by an interest in the aesthetic and political dimensions of popular music and a desire to communicate his ideas to readers in an entertaining, provocative way. The guide was critically well received, earning praise for its extensive discography, Christgau's judgment and colorful writing. Reviewers noted his opinionated tastes, analytical commentary, pithy language, and critical quips. The book appeared on several expert lists of popular music literature. A staple of rock-era reference works, Christgau's Record Guide became widely popular in libraries as a source for popular music studies and as an authoritative guide for fellow critics, record collectors, and music shops. Christgau's Record Guide has been reprinted several times in book form and later on Christgau's website in its entirety. Two more "Consumer Guide" collections have been published, compiling his capsule reviews from the 1980s and the 1990s, respectively. Background Preparation Content and scope Publication history Contemporary reception Popular press Academic journals Legacy and influence See also References Bibliography Further reading Contents External links In 1969, Robert Christgau began reviewing contemporary album releases in his "Consumer Guide" column, which was published more-or-less monthly in The Village Voice, and for brief periods in Newsday and Creem magazine during the 1970s.[1] His method was to select about 20 albums to review in capsule format, averaging approximately 50 words each, and to assign each album a letter grade rating on a scale from A-plus to E-minus.[2] The column was a product of The Village Voice's deal with Christgau—allotting him one 2,500-word piece per month—and his desire to provide prospective buyers with ratings of albums, including those that did not receive significant radio airplay.[3] Some of Christgau's early columns were reprinted in his first book, Any Old Way You Choose It, a 1973 anthology of essays previously published in the Voice and Newsday.[4] Among the most revered and influential of the earliest rock critics, Christgau wrote the "Consumer Guide" with confidence in his tastes, conviction that popular music could be consumed intelligently, and interest in finding new understandings of the aesthetic and political dimensions in popular culture's intersection with the avant- garde.[5] As a journalist, he wanted to convey his findings in a way that would entertain and provoke readers.[6] In the late 1970s, Christgau conceived of a book that would collect reviews from his columns through that decade. He began to pitch Christgau's Record Guide to publishers in early 1979 and received a publishing deal shortly thereafter. He soon realized that the proposed book would not adequately represent the decade unless he significantly revised and expanded his existing columns. He believed his existing body of reviews overlooked important musical artists and would likely comprise less than two-thirds of the needed material for the book. In July of that year, he took a vacation from The Village Voice and left New York City for Maine with his wife, fellow writer Carola Dibbell, to work on the book. They chartered a boathouse and brought with them a stereo system and numerous LP records. As Christgau recalled in his memoir Going Into the City (2015), "I had hundreds of records to find out about, hundreds to find, hundreds to re-review, hundreds to touch up."[7] Christgau continued working on the book after his return to New York. He was aided significantly by access to the record library of his neighbor, fellow journalist Vince Aletti, who owned all of James Brown's scarcely catalogued Polydor LPs from the 1970s. Beginning with Brown, Christgau re-examined the discographies of major artists in a chronological manner to curtail a sense of hindsight in the writing. "When possible", he said, "I piled on the changer artists I actually felt like hearing that day in a ploy intended to scare up the excited little feeling in the pit of my stomach without which I am loath to give any album an A."[8] The work intensified in 1980; from the beginning of February to the end of July he spent every day preparing the book. Recounting in his memoir, he said he worked 14 hours daily while "in book mode", which "was so grueling that for most of 1980 I was barely aware of the music of the moment, the only such hiatus in what is now fifty years."[9] Christgau's intense immersion into preparing the book also put a strain on his marriage to Dibbell, as did their efforts to overcome infertility. In his words, the guide almost ruined his personal life: "We postponed further parenthood strategization. We hardly ever went out. The apartment sank to new depths of disarray as LPs and paper migrated into the dining room. And since I was home every minute with the stereo on, my life partner could never be alone, with herself or with her work."[10] Dibbell's admission of an affair at the time led to a brief separation before she and Christgau reunited with a stronger commitment to each other, reflected in the book's dedication: "TO CAROLA – NEVER AGAIN."[11] As they mended their relationship, Christgau Background The book originated from Christgau's column in The Village Voice (former headquarters pictured). Preparation slowed down his work pace in August 1980 while allowing Dibbell to "provide the tough edits I needed".[12] In his memoir, he paid tribute to her influence on his work: "Her aesthetic responsiveness was unending ... no one affected my writing like Carola".[11] Christgau finished the guide in mid-September, submitting the manuscript a few weeks late of his publisher's deadline.[13] Christgau's Record Guide collects approximately 3,000 "Consumer Guide" reviews of albums through the 1970s.[14] The reviews are arranged alphabetically by artist name and accompanied by annotations for each record. Christgau regraded some older albums to reflect his changed perspective, while omitting other records and text from the original columns in favor of new material.[15] Much of the material was previously unpublished, as more than half of the original reviews were expanded and extensively revised by Christgau for the guide, especially those covering the decade's first half.[16] "Much of the early CG material was rewritten for the book for a reason", Christgau explained: "I didn't evolve my current high-density stylistic approach until 1975 or so".[17] He wanted to retain parts of the original text as much as possible, "not just to poach language but to inject what sense of the moment I could".[8] The book covers albums from a variety of rock-related genres including hard rock, heavy metal, punk rock, funk, disco, soul, blues, country, and reggae.[18] With regard to its scope, Christgau said he "tried to grade every '70s rock album worth owning".[19] The reviews often feature analytical commentary on the aesthetic or cultural significance of the music, as well as critical one-liner jokes. For example, his review of the Leonard Cohen album Live Songs (1973) states Cohen "risks turning into the Pete Seeger of romantic existentialism", while the Doobie Brothers' Takin' It to the Streets (1976) is panned in a single sentence: "You can lead a Doobie to the recording studio, but you can't make him think."[20] The book is appended with introductory essays by Christgau, including a historical overview of rock and an explanation of his grading system; an A-plus record is defined as "an organically conceived masterpiece that repays prolonged listening", while "E records are frequently cited as proof that there is no God."[21] The last section of the book, titled "A Basic Record Library", lists the albums he regarded as the essential records of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, respectively.[2] Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies was first published in October 1981 by Ticknor & Fields in New Haven, Connecticut.[22] It was released at a time when bookstores saw an influx of rock music reference books as publishers competed with one another for the market.[23] The book was published in the United Kingdom the following year through the London- based Vermilion imprint, and was reprinted in 1985 by Houghton Mifflin in New York.[24] In 1990, Christgau's Record Guide was reprinted by Da Capo Press under the title Rock Albums of the Seventies: A Critical Guide.[25] In the reprint's introduction, Christgau said he had revised some of the uploads/Geographie/ christgau-x27-s-record-guide-rock-albums-of-the-seventies.pdf