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Liner Notes

A weekly column by Tampa Tribune pop music critic Curtis Ross

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By CURTIS ROSS | The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 4, 2008

The title of Dave Thompson's "I Hate New Music: The Classic Rock Manifesto," promised wicked barbs hurled at today's heroes as well as a spirited defense of the music with which I grew up.

Which is what it is, I guess. Only it seemed funnier in the imagining.

Thompson is quite sincere about the title's proclamation. But he seems to have come to it based on precious little investigation, and based it on some questionable logic.

When Thompson suggests we don't need Of Montreal if we've heard The Mamas and the Papas, one has to wonder if he's even heard Of Montreal, or maybe just read that singer Kevin Barnes' wife was once part of the band.

His contention that most (or all) acts since the late '70s are shameless opportunists may be true, but the idea that those before then weren't seems naive. Does anyone really think Mick Jagger would be singing if it hadn't panned out financially?

But it's Thompson's claim that contemporary bands are just rehashing older acts that finally buries him. He's right, of course, but the classic rock acts he so reveres did, too.

Come on. Radiohead may very well be "King Crimson, with a touch of Pink Floyd," but what was King Crimson if not Cream with a touch of Grieg?

Play along, it's fun. The Beatles = Chuck Berry + Everly Brothers. The Who = Tamla Motown + The Manhattan Project. Heck, the King himself could be broken down into equal parts Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup and Thomas Hastings with a hint of Mario Lanza.

There are things to dislike about modern music. The Balkanization for one, the lack of ambition for another and the overall absence of joy most of all. But blaming bands for having influences?

Thompson got pioneering rock critic Richard Meltzer to write the book's forward. I rest my case.

Curtis Ross can be reached at (813) 259-7568 or cross@tampatrib.com.

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