Da Capo Best Music Writing 2002: The Year's Finest Writing On Rock, Pop, Jazz, Country, & More [Paperback]

Jonathan Lethem (Author), Paul Bresnick (Author)

Book Description

Series: Da Capo Best Music Writing | Publication Date: October 1, 2002

It's here: the third and latest volume in the series that you have come to rely upon for your music-reading fix. The 2002 volume will celebrate the year's best writing about music and its culture, as selected by Jonathan Lethem, best-selling novelist, music hound, and self-confessed closet rock-writer. With pieces on a dazzling array of topics from more than a hundred sources, the collection brings you remarkable essays by journalists and authors who are as serious about writing as they are about music. It's required reading for anyone who loves either art. Past contributors have included: David Rakoff Mike Doughty Lorraine Ali Greil Marcus Richard Meltzer Robert Gordon Sarah Vowell Nick Tosches Anthony DeCurtis William Gay Whitney Balliett Lester Bangs Rosanne Cash Susan Orlean Eddie Dean Selwyn Seyfu Hinds Alec Wilkinson David Hajdu

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this collection of 28 excellent essays-penned by some of the usual suspects (Greil Marcus, Simon Reynolds) as well as upstarts (Kate Sullivan, Kelefa Sanneh)-editor Lethem (Motherless Brooklyn) more than achieves his goal of producing "a book of encounters... an invitation to an impossible, gabbling conversation, a party line, where every voice is unforgettable." While the book's subtitle is perhaps misleading and overly ambitious (there are no essays on classical music, blues or reggae, and only a couple on jazz and country), there is barely a weak essay in the collection. David Gates on the improbable 2001 mania for bluegrass legend Ralph Stanley, Lenny Kaye's powerful and maudlin-free obituary/tribute to Joey Ramone and Steve Erickson's idiosyncratic "Top 100" songs related to his beloved Los Angeles are among the stronger entries. This volume also takes a few risks that more than pay off: selecting the Onion's fake news reports titled "God Finally Gives Shout-Out Back to All His Niggaz" and "Marilyn Manson Now Going Door-to-Door Trying To Shock People" not only provides hilarious counterpoint to many of the book's heartfelt essays but also poignantly illuminates just how much musical trends define the general culture at large.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

The annual Da Capo collection of disparate scrivenings on pop music covers not quite everything from Afrobeat to Zydeco, but certainly everything from pillar to post. Mark Jacobson has at the current disposition of Bob Dylan in "Tangled Up in Bob." Kate Sullivan casts a critical eye at Jennifer Lopez and her metal Wonderbra in "J. Lo vs. K. Sul," calling Lopez "a one-woman freak show" before cutting to the pith of contemporary celebrity worship: "She might as well be wearing a [sign reading] I AM RICHER, HOTTER, AND BETTER ORGANIZED THAN YOU . . . YOU ROTTING CORPSE OF A NOBODY." Pioneer rock critic Greil Marcus lumbers down from his aerie with some trademark mumbo jumbo about Kelly Hogan, calling her a torch singer and citing a half-dozen similar performers in only three pages. Exhilarating stuff, and accompanied by several other such incisive assessments as well as two excerpts from The Onion, "God Finally Gives Shout-out Back to All His Niggaz" and a Marilyn Manson feature. Mike Tribby
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Da Capo Press; Revised edition (October 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0306811669
• ISBN-13: 978-0306811661
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,461,664 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Francisco Franco is still dead..., November 30, 2003

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m_noland "m_noland" (Washington, DC United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Da Capo Best Music Writing 2002: The Year's Finest Writing On Rock, Pop, Jazz, Country, & More (Paperback)

...and Frank Zappa is still wrong: rock music journalism does not have to be people who can't write interviewing people who can't speak for people who can't read. This installment of the Da Capo "Best Music Writing" series features a wide range of pieces both stylistically and in terms of subject matter. Nik Cohn's article "Soljas" on the New Orleans rap scene, originally published in Granta, is an astonishing piece of writing and would deserve to be in a collection of "Best Writing of 2002," music-oriented or not. Three other contributions are striking for their biographical writing, illuminating broader, non-musical themes: RJ Smith on the LA enigma Korla Pandit, Michael Hall on Texas psychedelic rocker Roky Ericson, and Matthew C. Duersten on jazz diva Anita O'Day. There are more traditional musicological contributions (David Cantwell "Help Me Make It Through the Night") and humorous satire from the Onion. A very enjoyable volume. Would make a good gift for anyone interested in popular music or just good writing.

5.0 out of 5 stars worth it for the Rosanne Cash essay, October 14, 2005

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FilmPhile (West Coast) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Da Capo Best Music Writing 2002: The Year's Finest Writing On Rock, Pop, Jazz, Country, & More (Paperback)

brilliant writing by a brilliant under-appreciated artist/writer/ songwriter who transcends the limits of many genres, boundaries, expectations

0 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A series which hand-picks the year's best music writing, December 6, 2002

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Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Da Capo Best Music Writing 2002: The Year's Finest Writing On Rock, Pop, Jazz, Country, & More (Paperback)

Da Capo Best Music Writing 2002 is the third volume in a series which hand-picks the year's best writing about music, covering all genres and providing a host of literary articles reflecting on music's personalities, evolution, and content. From a survey of the underground New Orleans rap scene from an insider's stand to a composer of haiku for Eminem and details on Bob Dylan and Louie Armstrong, Da Capo Best Music Writing 2002 holds something for everyone.