Out of the vinyl deeps: Ellen Willis on rock music

263 Pages·2011·1.615 MB·English

by  Willis, Ellen;Aronowitz, Nona Willis

OU T O F T H E VINYL DEEPS
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H E VIN
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Ellen Willis on Rock Music
Ellen Willis
EDITED BY
Nona Willis Aronowitz
FOREWORD BY
Sasha Frere-Jones
AFTERWORD BY
Daphne Carr AND Evie Nagy
University of Minnesota Press
Minneapolis
London
Unless otherwise noted, these essays were originally published in Ellen Willis’s
Rock,Etc. column in The New Yorker (1968–75).
Copyright 2011 Nona Willis Aronowitz
Foreword and Afterword copyright 2011 by the Regents of the University of Minnesota
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Published by the University of Minnesota Press
111 Third Avenue South, Suite 290
Minneapolis, MN 55401-2520
http://www.upress.umn.edu
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Willis, Ellen.
Out of the vinyl deeps : Ellen Willis on rock music / Ellen Willis ; edited by
Nona Willis Aronowitz ; foreword by Sasha Frere-Jones ; afterword by Daphne Carr
and Evie Nagy.
p. cm.
Essays originally published in The New Yorker magazine, 1968–75.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-0-8166-7282-0 (hc : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-8166-7283-7
(pb : alk. paper)
1. Rock music—1961–70—History and criticism. 2. Rock music—
1971–80—History and criticism. I. Aronowitz, Nona Willis, 1984– II.New
Yorker. III. Title.
ML3534.W612 2011
781.66—dc22
2010050856
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
The University of Minnesota is an equal-opportunity educator and employer.
18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
C O N TENTS
FOREWORD: OPENING THE VAULT
ix
Sasha Frere-Jones
INTRODUCTION: WAKE- UP CALL
xv
Nona Willis Aronowitz
BEFORE THE FLOOD
Dylan FROM CHEETAH, 1967 1
1. THE WORLD- CLASS CRITIC
Two Soul Albums NOVEMBER 1968 21
The Who Sell JULY 1969 23
Songs of Innocence and Experience FEBRUARY 1970 27
New Morning:Dylan Revisited DECEMBER 1970 30
Breaking the Vinyl Barrier JULY 1971 33
Morrison Live JUNE 1972 34
“Elvis Presley? In Person?” JULY 1972 36
Bowie’s Limitations OCTOBER 1972 38
Frankenstein at the Waldorf NOVEMBER 1973 41
The Rolling Stones Now DECEMBER 1973 43
The Best of ’74 JANUARY 1975 45
Liner notes from Lou Reed’s Rock and Roll Diary,
1967–1980 1980 48
The Velvet Underground FROM GREIL MARCUS’S STRANDED, 1979 53
The Decade in Rock Lyrics FROM VILLAGE VOICE, JANUARY 1980 65
The New Talking World War IIIBlues FROM SALON.COM, OCTOBER 2001 73
2. THE ADORING FAN
The Big Ones FEBRUARY 1969 77
East versus West JULY 1971 83
Their Generation AUGUST 1971 85
Yesterday’s Papers AUGUST 1972 87
Creedence as Therapy SEPTEMBER 1972 89
Believing Bette Midler, Mostly DECEMBER 1973 93
Dylan and Fans: Looking Back, Going On FEBRUARY 1974 96
3. THE SIXTIES CHILD
Pop Ecumenicism MAY 1968 101
Randy Newman AUGUST 1971 104
George and John FEBRUARY 1971 107
Consumer Revolt SEPTEMBER 1971 109
My Grand Funk Problem—and Ours FEBRUARY 1972 111
Into the Seventies, for Real DECEMBER 1972 114
Roseland Nation OCTOBER 1973 116
Sympathy for the Stones JULY 1975 119
Creedence Clearwater Revival FROM ROLLING STONE ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF
ROCK ’N’ ROLL, 1980 121
Janis Joplin FROM ROLLING STONE ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF ROCK ’N’ ROLL, 1980 125
Selections from “Don’t Turn Your Back on Love” LINER NOTES TO JANIS,
A JANIS JOPLIN BOX SET, 1993 131
4. THE FEMINIST
But Now I’m Gonna Move OCTOBER 1971 135
Joni Mitchell: Still Traveling MARCH 1973 140
Women’s Music JUNE 1974 142
After the Flood APRIL 1975 145
Beginning to See the Light FROM VILLAGE VOICE, 1977 148
The Abyss FROM VILLAGE VOICE, JUNE 1979 157
Preface to Barbara O’Dair’s Trouble Girls: The Rolling Stone
Book of Women in Rock 1997 160
5. THE NAVIGATOR
Newport: You Can’t Go Down Home Again AUGUST 1968 165
The Scene, 1968 NOVEMBER 1968 172
Summer of Love in Queens JULY 1969 175
Elvis in Las Vegas AUGUST 1969 178
The Cultural Revolution Saved from Drowning SEPTEMBER 1969 181
Stranger in a Strange Land DECEMBER 1969 186
The Return of the Dolls JANUARY 1973 188
San Francisco Habitat AUGUST 1973 190
6. THE SOCIOLOGIST
Pop Blues APRIL 1968 193
The Ordeal of Moby Grape JUNE 1968 196
The Star, the Sound, and the Scene JULY 1968 198
Roots FEBRUARY 1969 202
Dylan’s Anti-Surprise APRIL 1969 205
Elliott Murphy’s White Middle-Class Blues FEBRUARY 1974 207
Mott the Hoople: Playing the Loser’s Game MAY 1974 210
Springsteen: The Wild, the Innocent, and the Street Kid Myth
NOVEMBER 1974 213
The Importance of Stevie Wonder DECEMBER 1974 216
Introduction to Beginning to See the Light: Sex, Hope, and
Rock ’n’ Roll 1981 218
AFTERWORD: RAISE YOUR HAND
225
Daphne Carr and Evie Nagy
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F o reword
N I N G THE V
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Sasha Frere-Jones
In January 2004, I got a phone call from David Remnick, the editor-in-
chief of The New Yorker. “We’re doing a lousy job with pop music,” he
said. “I want to know if you can help. Come by when you have a minute.”
Three months later, I had a job—my first staff position as a writer. I was
on the main stage and contracted to stay there. A blessing for any writer,
but the assignment left me at sea. How was I going to write about pop for a
magazine that usually crossed the street when confronted with the bump-
tious music of the great unwashed? And how could I do it for a readership
that was probably content to leave the job undone?
During my first year at The New Yorker, I heard from many people
who were surprised that an alleged coven of tweedy, high-minded types
would even want a pop critic. (After my first column, a friend said, “You
get to do another one?”) But I wasn’t the first person thrown at the task.
I decided to look into how the job had been handled before my ar-
rival. I went to the magazine’s librarian, Jon Michaud, and asked him who
the first official pop critic of the magazine had been.
“Ellen Willis,” he said. “She was the first.” I assumed her stint had
been as short as Nick Hornby’s, Elizabeth Wurtzel’s, everyone else’s, and
had resulted in maybe five or six pieces.
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