The pop-music critic for Life, Albert Goldman also wrote for the New York Times, Commentary, and several other magazines. Freakshow collects over 50 pieces that examine entertainment and pop culture of the sixties, written with a fan's adoration and a cynic's eye for self-indulgence and willing exploitation. His subjects include rock stars (Jim Morrison, Mick Jagger, Elvis, and many more), jazz musicians (John Coltrane and others), blues legends (such as B. B. King), comedians (e.g. Lenny Bruce and Rodney Dangerfield), novelists (Philip Roth and Tom Wolfe), and topics that defy categorization—Tiny Tim, the Rockettes, and psychedelics. Writing in flamboyant, idiosyncratic prose, Goldman's account of pop's most explosive ten years is as provocative and alarming as ever.
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Editorial Reviews
Review
If I had to recommend one book on pop culture this would be it. (Jack Kroll Newsweek )
Goldman comes across uncommonly well-as a stand-up critic who combines the fan's talent for being swept off his feet with the connoisseur's for keeping his head. (New York Times Book Review )
Goldman comes across uncommonly well-as a stand-up critic who combines the fan's talent for being swept off his feet with the connoisseur's for keeping his head. (New York Times Book Review )
About the Author
Albert Goldman (1927-1994) also wrote The Lives of John Lennon, Ladies and Gentlemen—Lenny Bruce, and Elvis: The Last 24 Hours.
Albert Goldman (1927-1994) also wrote The Lives of John Lennon, Ladies and Gentlemen—Lenny Bruce, and Elvis: The Last 24 Hours.
Albert Goldman (1927-1994) also wrote The Lives of John Lennon, Ladies and Gentlemen—Lenny Bruce, and Elvis: The Last 24 Hours.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Alber keeps missing the point...,
By "squishy66" (Los Angeles, california USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Freakshow: Misadventures in the Counterculture, 1959-1971 (Paperback)
The late Goldman was one of those writers from the jazz generation, like Ralph Gleason or Nat Hentoff, who discovered rock and brought his experienced vocabulary to it. But he discovered rock late (1967) and never really got it. His feel for black music--blues, soul--comes through in his James Brown, B.B. King and others in this anthology of his pieces for Life, the New York Times and other mainstream publications circa 1968-70, but his incredibly naive take on the "new rock" makes one wonder why these pieces are being reprinted now, of all times, after his biographies of Elvis and John Lennon have been so thoroughly discredited. (His book on Disco, probably his best, hardly ever gets mentioned...) He wields a lot of classical allusions, but could use a few lessons from Meltzer in how to apply them: do we really need to know that Stevie Winwood "went through metamorphoses not found in Ovid"? With a definite talent for the descriptiive phrase, he paints a true-seeming portrait of Paul Butterfield, then goes on to dismiss his amazing band--not even mentioning Michael Bloomfield! Unnecessary. Compare to Ellen Sander's or Paul Williams' much superior essays of the same period.
0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A decade's worth of Albert Goldman's critical writings,
By
This review is from: Freakshow: Misadventures in the Counterculture, 1959-1971 (Paperback)
This collection includes over a decade's worth of Albert Goldman's critical writings, and reads like a travel guide to a modern Inferno. Albert Goldman was the author of controversial music biographies, and this book includes his essays on Aretha Franklin, Elvis Presley and many more. Albert Goldman is also the author of the 1978 book on disco music.
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