Media COOL

Media COOL

This month’s Media Cool was written by Bill Holdship and Richard C. Walls.

MICHAEL BLOOMFIELD: THE RISE AND FALL OF AN AMERICAN GUITAR HERO by Ed Ward (Cherry Lane Books):: Ward calls Bloomfield the original “guitar hero”—praised by Muddy Waters and B.B. King, a teacher to Carlos Santana, and an influence cited by Eric Clapton—yet he had a strong fear of success. This book is a moving portrait of his life and career, tracing it from his formative years with some of Chicago’s best blues artists through the sessions with Dylan, the Butterfield Blues Band, the Electric Flag, the A1 Kooper “Super Sessions,” and the pain-filled, heroin-addicted, final years. The book includes none of the extraneous detail that’s marred other recent rock bios, yet it isn’t a “justthe-facts” account either, as Ward successfully recreates the bygone rock era and scene in which Bloomfield thrived. There are great anecdotes (especially about Chicago’s black blues scene), little-known facts (i.e., Mitch Ryder was initially asked to sing for Electric Flag, a jam session with Hendrix), and we even get a picture of a compassionate (for a change) Dylan who visits the guitarist shortly before his death. As someone who sort of “missed” Bloomfield during his prime, I still found this to be as good as any rock biography I’ve ever read. B.H.

BEFORE I GET OLD: THE STORY OF THE WHO by Dave Marsh (St. Martin’s Press):: Marsh once wrote a column for Rolling Stone arguing that the Stones shouldn’t be called “the greatest rock band in the world” because the Who are more deserving of the title, so it’s no secret where his passions lie. At 524 pages, this has everything you’ll probably ever need to know about Townshend and company, and no one really has to ever write another word on the band. It’s a combination of history, biography (he did research on both sides of the Atlantic), and critical commentary. Sometimes it can be a little much—i.e., the amount of detail spent on the group’s financial matters—but more often than not, it’s interesting and informative, using the band’s story as a microcosm of the rock ’n’ roll scene in general. B.H.

SEX TIPS FOR GIRLS by Cynthia Heimel (Simon & Schuster):: The “girls” in the art department at “America’s Only” passed this book on to me, and they were right when they said it’s hilarious. Heimel occasionally writes a column for the Village Voice, and portions of this have appeared there. Sort of a takeoff on those stupid “self-help” sex manuals, the book may be tonguein-cheek, but a lot of it rings true (the experts in art told me so)—which probably has a lot to do with the hilarity of it all. Deals with such important topics as “Zen & The Art Of Diaphragm Insertion,” “The Great Boyfriend Crunch” and “How To Be Good In Bed”—the latter of which details good manners: “It is not polite to laugh and point at the penile member, say that your husband did it exactly the same way, start snoring while one’s partner’s head is between one’s legs (or) ask if it’s in yet.” Seriously, this book had me laughing out loud, and I eagerly await Sex Tips For Boys. B.H.

THROB by Andy Summers (Quill):: OK, maybe Andy Summers is a real nice guy and everything, but that’s still no excuse for this book of a hundred photos which reportedly “chronicle life on the road in a rock ’n’ roll band.” The shots are all artsy fartsy, as are several paragraphs of copy which make no sense and have absolutely nothing to do with the pictures. There’s lots of shots of naked women with their heads chopped off (gee, I wonder what that’s supposed to convey?). Maybe books like this are the reason groups like the Police are putting tight restrictions on photographers? A brief word of warning to Mr. Summers (and his cohorts) — remember what happened to Blondie when they suddenly decided they were no longer pop musicians but “artistes.” B.H.

CULT MOVIES 2 by Danny Peaty (Dell):: A year in the making! The most fun humans can have without getting their knees dirty! See! The amazing replication of last year’s well-received format and addition of 50 movies of Peary’s pantheon of peculiar pix! (See! CREEM Oct. ’82!) Gasp! as the fearless Peary saves from obscurity hapless flicks like Blood Money (“a real curio!”) and the grindhouse revenger Ms. 45 (“in an early scene, Thana starts to unbutton her blouse!”) Groan! as Peary defends the incredible Mamie against the forces of reason (“some critics insist that we are just seeing shoddy production values!”)! Puke! as you contemplate the inner meaning of gore pioneer Herschell Gordon Lewis’s Blood Feast and the fact that audiences “laugh and cheer while Lewis lovingly pans up and down hacked-up, bloody bodies!” Weep! ’Cause you can’t afford these expensive movie books in the first place! Ha.f R.C.W.

KUBRICK by Michel Ciment (Holt, Rinehart, and Winston):: A coffee table book for intelecskules or anyone who’s ever been enthralled by any of film director Stanley Kubrick’s recent grandiose visions— 2001: A Space Odyssey (’68) A Clockwork Orange (’71), Barry Lyndon (’75), The Shining (’80)—or his earlier satires—Lolita (’62), Dr. Strangelove (’64)—or his ironic film noirs—The Killing (’56), Paths Of Glory (’58). The photos in the book are well chosen and impressively displayed but the critical analysis, though occasionally insightful, is mottled with the usual pedantic irrelevancies (e.g. “2001...proceeds by a series of disruptions, symbolized by the way the monolith [a rectangular form] is set in opposition to curved forms or circles, which, as we know, represent eternity...”). This bilge is offset somewhat by interviews with Kubrick and associates, with Stanley eloquently resisting Ciment’s gaseous advances. Detailed filmography included. R.C.W.

THE DARK SIDE OF GENIUS: THE LIFE OF ALFRED HITCHCOCK by Donald Spoto (Little, Brown):: As a biography this is excellent. The early years are covered in detail as are all of Hitch’s 53 movies from inception to execution and reception. But aside from that Spoto’s got an angle—that the psychic implantations of the mighty Hitch’s Victorian origins and Jesuit education were at constant war with his love for suspenseful melodrama creating “the paradox.. .that his delight in his craft could never be liberated from a terrible and terrifying heritage of desire and its concomitant guild.” OK, though the often censorious tone that Spoto adopts when discussing Hitch’s love/hate relationships with his various leading ladies—mostly attitudinal until that sordid Tippi Hedren affair (read the book!) — indicates that while Spoto acknowledges that the director was a child of his place and time he does not forgive him his harbored but largely uncommited sins (though the author forgives himself of a past sin in an amusing confession on Pg. 476, third paragraph). An engrossing and very, very sad book. R.C.W.