Smartass: The Music Journalism of Joel Selvin: California Rock and Roll (California Rock & Roll)

Brief but always fascinating insights by one of the great rock writers.

Joel Selvin was lucky enough and skilled enough as a journalist to report the San Francisco music scene as it was being born into its electric glory in 1965 through the mid 1970's. This great book is a collection of his articles on the young bands of those days; Grateful Dead, Big Brother, Quicksilver Messenger Service,Moby Grape and Jefferson Airplane among the many who made musical history. He writes in great detail about the court battles over the estate of uber-promoter Bill Graham who founded the Fillmores ,East and West, and promoted thousands of shows in those glory days before the retail music business imploded.I highly recommend this book to all you "musos " out there.

Found many items that I never knew. Going through those times was 'good times'. Between Gleason and a few others wegot to enjoy the special things that happened.

Joel always writes interesting books.

Notice that there are no previews in this book. That is because you will find that Joel Selvin, though a nice guy and a great raconteur, has often been SO VERY WRONG in all his music reviews. I was in the SF Bay Area in the heyday of the 70's - and this was the guy who hated the Eagles, Journey, Foreigner and every successful and melodic band there was. He had a secure job at the Chronicle so he could spew out any crap he wanted. But I'll tell you -the fans hated him. This was best exhibited when he was an award presenter at the BAMMIES in I believe 1982. This was the year Journey won for Band Of The Year (I believe it was '82 but I might be off by a year). Anyway, he was the ONLY a presenter who got serious BOOS from the crowd when he took the stage. And remember, this was a festive awards night full of great Bay Area artists performing - including Journey. Again, the crowd hated his reviews. I can tell you - he was in stark contrast to the tastes of the vast majority of the Bay Area - his reviews were useless. No wonder he didn't include a preview of the book - it would show what a smartass he was - and how wrong he was. I personally remember being infuriated by his attitude -he hated melodic music and only liked edgy stuff - you know the typical critic garbage a la Rolling Stone. He was trying to probably get a gig at Rolling Stone - another rag that always got it wrong. I used to avoid anything that Selvin and Rolling Stone liked - and vice versa - I hated both of those sources of criticism so much.On a positive note, Selvin is a GREAT story teller - if you ever get a chance to see him speak live and make a presentation don't miss it - he is funny and immensely entertaining and is truly a fountain of musical knowledge. I saw him and met him and spoke with him extensively at the Monterey Pop Revisited event in Monterey in 2001 - and thoroughly enjoyed his company. So I think over the years he has come to like bands like the Eagles - I've read positive reviews in recent years - but in the 70's he trashed them and Journey - and many other bands who since have grown to great prominence and have had historical and cultural "significance" if you will. He was the type who liked crap like Patty Smith and The Ramones - you know punky junk with no melody but which had "street cred."

This is a must read for those who love rock and roll music. Joel Selvin is a well respected and honored newspaper writer in the San Francisco Bay Area, and he is also well know as the writer of the best Summer of Love" history Summer of Love: Ths Inside Story of LSD, Rock & Roll, Free Love and High Time in the Wild West , plus bios for Sly Stone (Mojo Magazine Issue 93 - August, 2001,)Ricky Nelson Ricky Nelson: Idol for a Generation , and (soon-to-be) Sammy Hagar. The evidence for his superb reputation lies in the pages of SMART ASS. Reading the assembled writings in this book, which describe musicians, their performances, and their special natures, is like a trip backstage in rock and roll history. The articles are authentic and straight forward. They bring those who "were there" on a trip down memory lane, while those who want to know "what it was like when...." are given a true dose of reality. Agree or disagree with Mr. Selvin's points of view, reading this book is pure enjoyment and entertainment....and who knows, you may learn something that you didn't know before. After all...he is a SMART ASS.

Decent read. However, whoever proofread the manuscript for typos should have been fired - they crop up regularly and distract from the stories.