If James Joyce played the electric guitar...

"If James Joyce played the electric guitar he would probably have made an album like Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," wrote Wenner in a review pitched to High Fidelity magazine (and rejected as "pretentious guff").
That quote is from Joe Hagan's Sticky Fingers: The Life and Times of Jann Wenner and Rolling Stone Magazine. This controversial profile of print journalism at its peak is a salutary reminder of how in the age of post-print digital plenitude most online music writing no longer even reaches the level of pretentious guff. Take away quotes from Rolling Stone reviews include describing David Cosby's first solo album as "a perfect aural aid to digestion when you're having guests over for dinner", and a piece about a record company convention in Las Vegas titled "The Blind Leading the Deaf Through a Desert". Particularly apposite to the output of today's self-appointed cultural commentators is music mogul David Geffen's riposte to a Rolling Stone review of "I just read your latest bit of bullshit. Congratulations...you finally made the small time". And yes, that really is James Joyce playing the guitar.

No review samples used in this post. Any copyrighted material is included as "fair use" for critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Also on Facebook and Twitter.

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