Bat Chain Puller: Rock and Roll in the Age of Celebrity - Hardcover

Loder, Kurt

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312045883 ISBN 13: 9780312045883

Publisher: St Martins Pr, 1990

Synopsis

This collage of articles, commentary, and interviews with pop culture heroes offers a portrait of a counterculture that has lost its bearings, going from rebellion against the mainstream to an obsession with celebrityhood

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Reviews

In these essays and interviews, most of which were originally published in Rolling Stone, MTV commentator Loder takes a look at popular culture in the 1980s, focusing on the celebrity industry and how various members of the rock culture have dealt with it. His subjects are Mick Jagger, Tina Turner, Iggy Pop, Prince and others, as well as artist Andy Warhol, actor Sean Connery, performance artist Laurie Anderson--even stars of grade Z slasher movies. Loder pays tribute to performers who have not sold out to the lure of big money or let themselves be exploited--Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen, for example--but he emphasizes that he compiled these pieces mainly because he believes that the history of rock culture is worth preserving. The book provides an intimate look at some of the rock generation's most flamboyant personalities. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

To many rock readers, the material herein will seem familiar; virtually all of it is reprinted from Rolling Stone . But though much of the prospective audience has already seen the text, Loder eschewed revision to maintain (he says) "historical authenticity." Well, okay. Loder, who appears on MTV as well as writing for Rolling Stone , writes well, but without the manic genius of Lester Bangs ( Psychotic Reactions & Carborator Dung , LJ 9/1/87) or the cosmic ranginess of Greil Marcus ( Mystery Train , 1975), and his array of subjects is galactic (Iggy Pop to--Don Johnson?!). Some of the article/interviews really hit the mark (e.g., Ronnie Lane, ZZ Top), but others will seem undeveloped to the unitiated; the Iggy piece, for example, deals too much with Iggy's excesses and too little with his brilliance. Loder's title, by the way, comes from a Captain Beefheart LP and has no relation to the text. Buy if you have a large rock readership without access to back issues of Rolling Stone .
- Robert E. Brown, Onondaga Cty. P.L., Syracuse, N.Y.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: St Martins Pr
• Publication date: 1990
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0312045883
• ISBN 13: 9780312045883
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 377