Just Smashing

So Billy Corgan wants his old band back. And he initiated the process of getting it back by taking out a reported $37,000 worth of newspaper ads in the Tribune and Sun Times this week. Billy's been into public displays of affection lately, even keeping an autobiographical blog on My Space. 

You go Billy.

Actually, I have to say I like Billy and lot of his music. Some of it is the fact that he's a tall goofy looking guy from Chicago with a weird voice who somehow became one of the biggest rockstars in the world. Now why would I identify with that?

Additionally, Billy seems to be the type of musician who does whatever he wants artistically and lets the people (and record labels) come to him. That's cool. So I found it amusing on Tuesday night to tune into Sound Opinions, a music talk show on WXRT in Chicago, and hear Greg Kot and Jim Derogatis (or as my friend Ben likes to call them, Greg Cock and Jim Derogatory) fawning over Mr. Corgan like he was the second coming. It was particularly ironic because Jim Dero has had a nearly decade long feud with Billy over a bad review of a concert to the point where Billy actually banned Jimmy from reviewing any SP shows for awhile.

Anyway, one exchange between the two went a long towards confirming a long standing suspicion I've had about today's rock critics. Billy was talking about how he has proven himself musically in the face of doubters, how so many business-types have said "This CD'll never sell" and it went on to sell millions. Mr. Derogatory jumped in and compared Billy's success at overcoming doubt to his own, using a time an editor questioned why he was reviewing a Pearl Jam show and not a Meatloaf show. 

Excuse me?

This screams that Mr. Derogatory wants to see himself as equal to a musician, wants to see what he does as somehow as risky and important as the art he reviews, doesn't it? I've always thought a lot of modern music critics write about music because they can't play it, and often carry that as a chip on their shoulder.

This wasn't (and isn't) always the case... Lester Bangs, Greil Marcus, Nick Tosches... all these guys to me are writers who love(d) music. Writers who happened to write about music. It's less about making subjective judgments about music, and more about providing the reader with background information to help him or her make the judgment... there's less a sense of "My judgment is the best one because I'M a critic."

De gustibus non disputandum est.

jbg