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Freakshow: Misadventures in the Counterculture, 1959-1971

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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.

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.