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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
17 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Somewhat schizophrenic!,
By Mystery Biff (Quincy, MA USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Worst Rock-And-Roll Records of All Time: A Fan's Guide to the Stuff You Love to Hate (Paperback)
This book seems torn between being an entertaining list of fascinatingly awful music and mere invective against artists the authors don't like. When the book focuses on curiosities like Elvis' hilariously cringeworthy "Having Fun with Elvis on Stage" and Think's generation-gap stinker "Once You Understand", it is witty and enjoyable. On the other hand, the authors' swipes at so-called "sacred cows" is often mean-spirited and not very fun to read. While I applaud anyone who takes shots at bloated soft-rockers like Billy Joel, I really don't think that U2's "The Unforgettable Fire", whether flawed or not, is worthy of inclusion in a list that contains howlers by Bruce Willis and Richard Simmons. Also, the authors' satisfaction that Elvis Costello and Paul McCartney's songwriting collaboration yielded a bigger hit for Costello doesn't really help to justify Macca's inclusion as one of the worst rock and rollers ever.I fully support iconoclasm in rock journalism, but placing a mediocre Bob Dylan album on a list with William Shatner's insane "The Transformed Man" says more about the authors' tastes than it does about Dylan's lapses in artistic judgment. In short, the book only half-delivers on its subtitle of "the stuff you love to hate". Its occasional wittiness is cheapened by its overwhelmingly smug, bitter tone.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Attack of the talentless,
By
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Worst Rock-And-Roll Records of All Time: A Fan's Guide to the Stuff You Love to Hate (Paperback)
Do not consider this book as a reasonable critique. This is a mess of spite from two people who fit the phrase "Those who cannot, will criticize."
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Hilarious and wise,
By A Customer
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: The Worst Rock n' Roll Records of All Time: A Fan's Guide to the Stuff You Love to Hate (Paperback)
Although I don't agree with every choice the authors make, and think that some of their entries descend into nothing more than pure venting (the latter keeps my rating at 4 stars), this is a very funny, very informative, and very intelligent book. The authors make no bones about being nearly (nearly?) malicious when dealing with such overblown performers as Phil Collins and Billy Joel, and are completely unafraid to sacrifice sacred cows or to speak ill of the dead, such as Jim Morrison. The book came out over a decade ago and still doesn't come across as dated, save for a few minor points -- i.e., one of their Rules includes "Do not die before Albert Goldman," which is moot now that Goldman is dead. But overall, the book does what it sets out to do: shows that rock and rollers are human and can make missteps just like the rest of us, and thankfully pierces the pretensions of overrated (written in a suitably snooty font in the book) artistes. However, where is Volume II, which is hinted at, if jokingly, when they decimate one of Pat Boone's "white bread cover versions"? Surely there are enough ghastly records to fill another volume.
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