Christ That's Unclear! / Kettle / RE: (TV) Christgau reviews 'ar ound'

["Casey, Leo J" <Leo.J.Casey@Volpe.dot.gov>]

>Once again I find Christgau's prose just about impossible to READ. Halfway 
>through that first sentence and I've already gone glassy-eyed.

I generally like Christagau's reviews (esp. 1970s & 980s), 
But he can be impenetrable.  I had the exact same reaction as you

"Unreconstructed punkz and hip-hop wannabees may plump for the **former**,

I assume by former he means "overt formalism context" (and not the 
latter by which I assume he's referring to "serious soundtrack jazzbo
chops", but that's to much work to decipher for me. 

>I know, I know: Pot, meet kettle. But still.
Ty you're too modest.

At the risk of sounding like Christgau, I 'd describe your reviews as
pellucid.

>BTW - whats a GeeGaw ?
 
geegaw: a showy trifle : BAUBLE, TRINKET 

Christgau Writing Sample:
RICHARD LLOYD, Field of Fire [Mistiur, 1985]
In crucial ways he predates punk, and formally this is more Warren Zevon or
Tom Petty than Tom Verlaine. What makes it go isn't songwriting--please,
kids, never ever rhyme "fire" and "funeral pyre." It's Lloyd's
concentration, plus of course his guitar, which I'll take over Mike
Campbell's or even Waddy Wachtel's nine tries out of ten. B+

TOM PETTY, You're Gonna Get It! [ABC/Shelter, 1978]
". . . might sound strange/Might seem dumb," Tom warns at the outset, and
unfortunately he only gets it right the second time: despite his Southern
roots and '60s pop-rock proclivities, he comes on like a real made-in-L.A.
jerk. Onstage, he acts like he wants to be Ted Nugent when he grows up,
pulling out the cornball arena-rock moves as if they had something to do
with the kind of music he makes; after all, one thing that made the Byrds
and their contemporaries great was that they just got up there and played.
Thank God you don't have to look at a record, or read its interviews.
Tuneful, straight-ahead rock and roll dominates the disc, and "I Need to
Know," which kicks off side two, is as peachy-tough as power pop gets. There
are even times when Tom's drawl has the impact of a soulful moan rather than
a brainless whine. But you need a lot of hooks to get away with being full
of shit, and Tom doesn't come up with them. B

The Alan Parsons Project, Eve [Arista, 1979] 
Musically, this is a step toward schlock that knows its name--a few smarmy
melodies mixed in with the production values and synthesizer furbelows.
Thematically, it's both sophomoric and disgusting--programmatic misogyny
rooted in sexual rejections that were clearly deserved. Visually, it's
sadistic--the three women on the Hipgnosis cover wear black veils that only
partly conceal their scars, warts and blotches. What is it they stencil on
street corners? Castrate art rockers? D
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