Psychozoic Hymnal 1 - Intro
Spiel
In 1990 (subsequently revised), Joe Carducci published a book, “Rock and the Pop Narcotic”. At the end of the book, he added many sections, including two lists. The lists are interleaved by decade. Each decade starts with a list of bands that, from their need to speak out, generated new variations on the Rock form (small‐band, tunes shaped by drums). Each header list is followed by a dense, many page list of every band from the decade that Mr. Carducci reckoned rocked. Note that, at the time of writing, the Wikipedia entry is incorrect in stating that the header lists are proposed as the ‘best’ bands.
Mr. Carducci wrote notes to the header list, often detailing the comings/goings and musical contributions of key members of the bands. This was important for the argument in the book, and a show of what other writers don’t care about. But, talking about the header lists, what Mr. Carducci never told was what it was about those band’s voices that made them other. Sure I’m not Mr. Carducci, here’s my story.
Tail note: I’m not sure how this will go, but likely I’ll leave it unfinished. I guess I’ll like it better that way.
Refs
Simon Reynolds reviews RPN,
http://reynoldsretro.blogspot.com/2007/08/joe-carducci-rock-and-pop-narcotic.html
Robert Christgau reviews RPN,