This infamous book has enjoyed a lively underground reputation since its first publication in 1970. Richard Meltzer (a.k.a. R. Meltzer) took his training as a young philosopher and applied it with unalloyed enthusiasm to the lyrics, sound, and culture of rock and roll. Never before had anyone noticed the relationship between the philosophy of Heidegger and a tune by Little Anthony and the Imperials, heard the cries of agony in the Shangri Las' Remember (Walkin' in the Sand)”, or transcribed every "papa-ooma-mow-mow" in the Trashmen's Surfin' Bird.”From Dionne Warwick to Plato, Jim Morrison to Bert Brecht, Conway Twitty to Miguel de Unamuno, Meltzer subverts high and low culture in his search for meaning, emotion, and codes in popular music. At once an earnest investigation and a crypto put-on, the book can be read for its nuggets of information and insights or for its humor. Here with Greil Marcus's new introduction, yet another generation of readers can be outraged and inspired.

The Aesthetics Of Rock (Da Capo Paperback)

Arts & Photography

Meltzer, Richard

Music

Da Capo Press

He is one of the inventors of rock criticism. His first book, The Aesthetics of Rock (acclaimed by Greil Marcus as "a disemboweling of rock's soft white underbelly"), became an instant cult classic when published in 1970. And for the next thirty years he fearlessly expanded the boundaries of music writing. Now he has collected the best of his prodigious output into a gonzo sampler of the reviews, profiles, interviews, and essays that form the heart of his rockwriter legacy. Traveling from psychedelia to the "dinosaur-rot early '70s" to the redeeming majesty of punk and the constant solace of jazz, this will stand as a remarkable document of an era by a singular voice in music writing.

A Whore Just Like The Rest: The Music Writings Of Richard Meltzer

Literature & Fiction

History & Criticism

As witness to and participant in the graying of the first generation of rock 'n' roll fans, Richard Meltzer is well equipped to confront the reality of our shared mortality. A sublime and moving collection of essays by a master of style, Autumn Rhythm is a clear-eyed gape into the Abyss that is equal parts candor, courage, humor, and desperation.From deconstructing the "geezer wardrobe" to the wacked-out notion of one's legacy to the inevitable loss of pets, parents, and lovers, Autumn Rhythm is an unflinching staring contest with the One Thing We All Have In Common from a writer whose work has always been grounded in the syncopation of sound and sense.

Autumn Rhythm: Musings On Time, Tide, Aging, Dying, And Such Biz

Biographies & Memoirs

A sublime and moving collection of essays by an eloquent master writer, Autumn Rhythm is equal parts candor, courage, humor, and desperation. A true-tongued, almost joyous gallows humor permeates the book, a meditation on what it's like to be on the outer edge of "boomerhood," on the cusp of official seniority; what it's like to have been so long associated with a youth movement-rock music-yet to no longer be young.Autumn Rhythm comes from a man whose work has always been music as much as it's been about it, and who now brings his syncopation of word, sound, and sense to the subject of life itself, as lived and lost: a frank, brilliant, and ultimately poetic contemplation of physical decline, the deaths of friends and family, and the confounding, ever-accelerating changes in our culture."A rant in [Meltzer's] finest and funniest manner, an epic vernacular monologue with stylistic roots in nineteenth-century humorists Bill Nye, Artemus Ward, and Mark Twain."

Parenting & Relationships

In a novel in the Beat tradition of Kerouac and Burroughs, a nationally known rock critic portrays the life of a debauchee who tries to come to terms with his continual drinking, womanizing, and flirtation with death. A first novel.

The Night (Alone : A Novel)

United States

Little,Brown & Co

A writer who formerly lived and worked in New York City lampoons Los Angeles on everything from L.A.'s ugly buildings and losing sports teams to its shallow people and lousy entertainment.

L.A. is the Capital of Kansas: Painful Lessons in Post-New York Living

History

Harmony

Suggests that phenomena such as Japanese monster movies, Mad magazine, television, beer, and football might replace rock music as the symbol of modern culture

Gulcher: Post-Rock Cultural Pluralism in America (1649-1993)

Americas

Citadel Pr

Gulcher: Post-Rock Cultural Pluralism in America (1649-1980)

Straight Arrow Books; distributed by Quick Fox, New York

Post-Natal Trash (Caned Out: The Authorized Autobiography of Richard Meltzer)

Illuminati

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Meltzer, Richard. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Meltzer, Richard

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Meltzer, Richard. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Aesthetics Of Rock (Da Capo Paperback)

A Whore Just Like The Rest: The Music Writings Of Richard Meltzer

Autumn Rhythm: Musings On Time, Tide, Aging, Dying, And Such Biz

Autumn Rhythm: Musings On Time, Tide, Aging, Dying, And Such Biz

The Night (Alone : A Novel)

L.A. is the Capital of Kansas: Painful Lessons in Post-New York Living

Gulcher: Post-Rock Cultural Pluralism in America (1649-1993)

Gulcher: Post-Rock Cultural Pluralism in America (1649-1980)

Post-Natal Trash (Caned Out: The Authorized Autobiography of Richard Meltzer)