Shelf Life: The Oxford American Book of Great Music Writing
January 30, 2009 at 5:50 pm by Wyatt Williams in A&E
GENRE: A brick-sized collection of music journalism from a decidedly Southern magazine
THE PITCH: Trendy bands and celebrity fluff pieces aren’t welcome here. OA editor and founder Mark Smirnoff wants this writing to pay “tribute to how music seeps into us.”
BLUES SISTERS: The writing is most successful when it veers far from the confines of music history, like Carol Ann Fitzgerald’s memoir-ish tale of lesbian attraction and Bessie Smith. “I slept while she rubbed my back in motel beds. Her hands clenched and declenched, just shy of hurting. We burned candles that smelled like pumpkin pie. Bessie was on repeat,” she says.
SEX PISTOLS IN ATLANTA: Mark Binelli tells the story of the Sex Pistols’ first U.S. show at a strip mall in Atlanta. Afterwards the band heads to a bar, but Sid Vicious disappears into the night. “Vicious finally turned up at Piedmont Hospital,” Binelli explains. “After scoring some heroin, he’d gotten bored and carved the words GIMME A FIX into his chest.”
STEVE MARTIN ON FAILED MUSIC ASPIRATIONS: “Obsession is a great substitute for talent.”
ALLMAN BROTHERS IN MACON: John T. Edge quotes roadie Red Dog Campbell about Mama Louise Hudson’s soul-food restaurant, “At the H&H, they didn’t care if we were black, white, or purple. Mama didn’t say anything if we were trippin’ our asses off. Now, she might tell me to come in the back door instead of the of the front when I was messed up, but really she just fed us fried chicken and loved us.”
LUCINDA WILLIAMS IN HER OWN WORDS: “I never felt self-conscious or intimidated by the fact that my father and his friends were poets. I wrote for fun the way most kids would be out playing ball.”
HYPE: “Perhaps the liveliest literary magazine in America,” New York Times on Oxford American.
THIS AIN’T ROLLING STONE: Despite wasting the few pages of his introduction to prove the obvious point that Rolling Stone magazine has become “crapola,” Smirnoff has accomplished something great with this book. Stubbornly against the interests of an industry preoccupied by fads, he’s putting the spotlight on good writing and good music instead.
The Oxford American Book of Great Music Writing edited by Mark Smirnoff. University of Arkansas Press. $34.95. 466 pp.
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