In a message dated 1/10/03 8:11:16 AM, Bobsart48 writes: >Fred - I do not often read Rockwell's reviews, and I have great respect >for the opinions you post here on the list (I too have reservations about >T, including those you share here). However, my view of this review is >that he should be fired for it (not because of the bottom line - he thought >T is terrible - but because of the way the review was written). This was >an atrocious piece of writing and review work ... etc.
Hi Bob. Thanks for the kind words about my posts. My defense of Rockwell isn't based on his writing per se but his ideas, with which I don't always agree. However, he's one of the few writers out there who actually offers some ideas worth exploring, and is asking questions worth asking. I've read a book of his, "All American Music," an interesting survey of late 20th-century American musical composition which includes essays on a wide range of artists such as John Cage, Laurie Anderson, Stephen Sondheim, Elliott Carter, Keith Jarrett, Talking Heads, Neil Young, Ornette Coleman, etc. Again, I don't always agree with him but it's provocative stuff (I have a similar relationship to the writing of iconoclast Glenn Gould, whose mind I find terribly fascinating even while vehemently disagreeing). So, points taken regarding questionable writing and/or editing (one never knows which), and I can also understand the anger towards his tone. But to a certain extent I also understand his tone in reaction to Joni's self-indulgence ... I think the Greek chorus interjections may have something to do with it. While I do enjoy some of Travelogue, nothing on it increases my existing enjoyment of the songs, and in some cases detracts from it. Even while I can enjoy the lush beauty of the new Amelia, for instance, there is something so perfect about the relatively austere original that I do wonder why it needed new clothes, especially ones as extravagant as these. But, you know, that's cool ... try something different, maybe it works, maybe it doesn't ... that's the artist's journey. By the way, I wanted to point out an oversight in your dissection of the review. You wrote: >Above, I called her singing inimitable. (Rockwell) > >No, you did not. Patheticcally sloppy. (Bob) But, actually, he *did* in this earlier passage: >On the original studio recording, the accompaniment is electric guitars >and vibraphones, electronically sustaining Ms. Mitchell's own inimitable >vocals, cool and clipped, and almost pushing this sad, intimate, conversational >song along to its conclusion. Best regards, Fred
