Beginning to see the light....

I reported here awhile back that Ellen Willis's rock-criticism best-of OUT OF THE VINYL DEEPS (2011) seemed a little thin & hard 2 get in2. & dated.
& I was wrong. MayB it just needed 2 wait 4 the Right Time.
Having read a good chunk of it now, I can report that -- sure, it's dated -- there's way 2 much on Dylan & the Stones, & there's also a kinda toothless attempt 2 prove that Woodstock wasn't the Hippie Heaven it's so often been claimed 2 B down thru the years. But hey, it was the '60s.
I can also report that Willis nails some things perfectly, & there R parts that make me laff out-loud.
Ellen Willis wasn't the only woman rock critic of the late '60s/early '70s -- also writing at the time were Janet Maslin & M. Mark & Ellen Sander, & Patti Smith took a few shots at it, & there were a few others. But Willis was part of rock criticism's 1st wave, a colleague of Lester Bangs & Dave Marsh & Robert Christgau & Greil Marcus, all of whom R mentioned or quoted in this book.
Willis Bcame well-known as rock critic 4 THE NEW YORKER, & later wrote 4 ROLLING STONE & THE VILLAGE VOICE. VINYL DEEPS collects her music writing from her 1st published piece on Dylan in '67, 2 a review of Dylan's LOVE AND THEFT for Salon.com in 2001. Willis died in 2006.
Most of the book is from her NEW YORKER columns, along with other late-'60s/early-'70s stuff. There R also pieces on Creedence Clearwater Revival & Janis Joplin that she did for the ROLLING STONE ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF ROCK, liner notes, etc.
But her NEW YORKER columns R sharp & funny & intimate -- there's a funny piece about Willis dancing around her apartment 2 the 1st 5 Creedence albums in an effort 2 fight off depression. There's her Xcellent long piece from Marcus's STRANDED about the Velvet Underground's Complete Works. She nails a review of Dylan's BLOOD ON THE TRACKS. There's a long writeup from Lou Reed's ROCK AND ROLL DIARY -- in fact, Reed is in this book a lot.
& tho much of Willis's work follows the Xpected stars, she covers some off-the-wall stuff 2: There's a review of Van Dyke Parks' SONG CYCLE; a long writeup on Moby Grape; a couple pieces on Mott the Hoople; & a coupla mentions of a group called Eyes & their main songwriter Ms. Clawdy.
Summa this stuff made me laff in suprise -- 4 instance a chapter on "Bowie's Limitations," where Willis claims that "Part of the problem is Bowie's material." I laffed 4 quite awhile at that 1, cos I've never been that big a Bowie fan....
I have some complaints: Willis misses the best songs on ZIGGY STARDUST & ABBEY ROAD & MOTT & some others; there is WAY 2 much Dylan & Stones & Van Morrison & Janis. (But their fans won't mind.) That Woodstock piece REALLY doesn't BITE hard enuf, tho the material's there. & there isn't enuf (4 me) about what Willis thot about societal issues apart from music. This is an intresting person, who went in2 teaching & writing about feminism after she thot she'd written herself out on rock&roll. There's a big gap at the end of this 230-pg book & there was room 4 more of what Willis wrote after 1980.
But as the 4 editors/assemblers (1 of 'em's Willis's daughter) promise, the book is sorta a time-capsule of the period. There's some good stuff here. If I find more, I'll let U know....

Wish I could say I was having the same luck re-reading Carl Belz's THE STORY OF ROCK, which I discovered as a 10th-grader in the dark bowels of the Meridian (Idaho) Mid-High School Library, while skipping PE class 17 days in a row at the end of 1974 cos I didn't wanta face the humiliation of wrestling my classmates.
1st I read Arthur C. Clarke's 2001 & CHILDHOOD'S END, then stumbled over THE STORY OF ROCK, where I was thrilled 2 discover that some1 else thot The Beatles' WHITE ALBUM was the greatest record of all time, a complete history of popular music condensed on2 2 long-playing vinyl discs....
I bought this book hoping 2 locate that long review again, & it ain't here. Or perhaps it was revised out of this Revised Second Edition. If I locate this vein of gold & somehow get transported back 2 my 15th year I'll try 2 pass the word along....

Bogged down in my re-read of 1984 at the point just B4 Winston & Julia get arrested. Can't quite bring myself 2 trudge thru the pamphlet that bad-guy O'Brien gave the 2 doomed lovers, THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF OLIGARCHICAL COLLECTIVISM. MayB I'll just skip that & get 2 the good (bad) stuff that happens in Room 101.... Along with the grim & gritty future world portrayed here (the scarcity of essentials could B straight out of a Philip K. Dick novel), I was also suprised by the sex! I didn't remember NE of THAT from the 1st time thru....

Have also lately tried 2 read Lisa Tuttle's LOST FUTURES, Thomas M. Disch's CAMP CONCENTRATION, Philip K. Dick's VALIS, little bits & pieces of Kathy Acker's best-of & Barry N. Malzberg's GALAXIES, probly some others I can't even remember. Haven't stuck 2 NE of these yet. Had no trouble finishing re-reading Thomas Harris's RED DRAGON, which isn't as painful (tho is still just as gripping) as I'd thot when I read it 20 years ago.... Also been re-reading a few fave short stories: Gwyneth Jones's "Red Sonja and Lessingham in Dreamland," James Patrick Kelly's "Breakaway, Backdown," Gregory Nicoll's "Dead Air," Michael Blumlein's "The Brains of Rats," Terry Bisson's "Scout's Honor," Allen Steele's "Doblin's Lecture," Joanna Russ's "Invasion," Kim Newman's "The Man Who Collected Barker"....

Hottest part of the Summer here, in the mid-80s every day & warm at nite. & what's up with you-all...?