8
"The CG has generally required a seven-days-a-week time commitment over the 41 years I've written it, and I'm grateful to MSN for paying me what the work was worth over the three-and-a-half years I published it here. But though I always enjoyed the work, work it was, and I've long been aware there were other things I could be doing with my ears. So while I have every intention of keeping up with popular music as it evolves, being less encyclopedic about it will come as a relief as well as a loss." Robert Christgau's Consumer Guide, in which the critic guided people through the ever-knotty maze of "popular music" on a more or less monthly basis, retires after a 41-year run. (A partial archive is online at his site.)
Rats. I actually just discovered its hiding place at MSN. I can't say I ever bought a record strictly because of Xgau, but he helped unhook me from the genres dictated by when and where I entered youth culture.
Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett, Ed McMahon :: Hitchens, Christgau, Blagg
(Hitchens did "quit" his tour!)
I accept the order of the first clause, anyway.
I knew this was coming sometime, but I'm glad it was you I heard it from, Maura.
I was hoping he'd stick it out long enough to publish his fourth decade-spanning compilation (which might still be forthcoming? Would it make a difference if I offered free copy-editing services?).
But regardless of the timing of the CG's demise, the Dean has earned both his plaudits and his new, lighter work schedule, a hundred times over.
I keep looking for the Aughts book. Hope it's coming.
I love you, Xgau. A.
And you all can love him or hate him for all that imperiousness and crotchetyness and stubborn support of his Pet Sounds over the decades, but you can't deny that, first and foremost, the guy can write.
He taught someone dear to me a little something-something, about pith.
To wit:
http://www.robertchristgau.com/get_artist.php?id=3725&name=Stephen+Sinclair
Oh, man. Salute.
I totally empathize with his comment about the time writing something like that takes. I've been doing 6 50-word reviews a week for the web version of a local art/culture mag for about two months now (for which they pay me a pittance, but hey, I'll take anything right now). It's insane how much time I find myself spending on it. I just realized that they'll want 24 unique reviews for the paper version of their mag that comes out next month and about had a heart attack.