Xgau Sez: March, 2026

Growing up pop, band dreams vs. critical practice, The Only Ones on record and in print, Yankee Hotel Mea Culpa, the Tallahatchie Bridge not taken, and sixteen live ones.

The Shirelles by Bob Stanley, 1965

Hello, I’m curious how you got to where you are. What first drew you to music, what continues to draw you to it? What prompted you to pursue this as your career, and did you ever wonder whether you’d made the right choice? I love reading your work, thank you for doing what you do. — Eli Krash, Richmond, Virginia

Although both my parents and for that matter my more dexterous maiden aunt Mildred played piano, I thought lessons were boring when I could have been playing stoopball outside, hence have zero formal knowledge of music. But the big living room radio console my fireman father splurged on was always part of my life, not least because it came with a phonograph he converted 78s to LPs when they became a thing. Plus I loved baseball, particularly the Yankees, which means my brother and I had a radio in the basement, where we slept. What I can no longer remember is whether WINS was the Yankee station back then, because it was the (first) Alan Freed station, and it was Freed who leaned down on the biracial pop music he dubbed rock and roll. Plus there was DJ Peter Tripp on WMGM nearby and at the upper end of the dial WWRL, a black-oriented (and Harlem-based?) station that played only r&b. My parents were also good dancers. And my beloved grandfather Tom Snyder was the first person I knew who owned a 45 RPM record player. So there was always plenty of music, especially pop music, in my life, and by the time I was 10 I was into it. At Dartmouth I hung out with the tiny bohemian clique insofar as they tolerated me, and they hipped me to jazz. By the time I was out of college I played pop radio all the time and also occasionally visited jazz clubs, where Thelonious Monk was my special fave. All of which is to say that not just that for most of my life I was a serious rock and roll fan. Add to that my night-gig boss, the painter Bob Stanley, who was glad to play the radio at F.I. Dupont where we filed margin calls and before too long the pop art movement was under way, which added an extra layer of validation to my attraction to pop music, which Bob liked too—there’s a Shirelles piece of his hanging in my living room and a Ringo in the dining room. Aesthetically, the-“high”-art-to-pop-art switcheroo made it easier to write critically and with aggressive respect about pop music. Hence: rock criticism.

If you could invite yourself to join a band, any band at any time from recorded music’s brief past, which would it be, what instrument are you playing, and why? You can ruthlessly replace any band member of your choosing. — Dean Sterling Jones, Belfast

Answer: none. Although sleeping I’ve had dreams about being in a band a few times, I find I have not the slightest interest in speculating about what band I’d most like to join. Professionally meeting John Lennon in particular was an honor and a treat. But I like being a writer, and I like being a critic. That’s where both my talents and—work though both are—my pleasures reside.

Hey . . . A couple of quick questions. I noticed positive reviews for three Only Ones’ records from ‘79, ‘80 and ‘91 and wonder if you have any thoughts on Peter Perrett’s 2017 solo album, How the West Was Won. It’s one of my favourite 21st century albums. — Tony from Newfoundland, Canada (51st state, my ass)

Because Carola named her novel The Only Ones (check it out!!) we retain a theoretical fondness for the band—when she’s creating playlists for a reading she always sticks in one of their songs. But that Perrett solo album was a B+ by me, and sampling it again on streaming I soon decided that he came across better sonically as a group leader than as a solo artist. So though you might ultimately prove right about how good that solo album is, I’m not sure I’ll dig on a nearly decade-old release to double-check.

Hi! I just wanted to thank you for all you’ve done and continue to do. For all these years you’ve encouraged people to listen harder to music and really think about what they’re hearing and how it makes them feel. Twenty-five years ago I submitted a snotty letter to the editor of the Village Voice after you wrote something dismissive of Wilco’s Pazz and Jop topper Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. I was rude and shitty and I’ve felt ashamed of myself ever since. I apologize. I thought I knew everything and I did not. I still love that album though. — Jake Brown, Michigan

I never liked Wilco as much as I was supposed to. There was and still is something a little too sluggish about them. As for your snotty letter, I’m glad you changed your mind, but as I believe I’ve written somewhere, criticism is not a popularity contest. Which is not to say I don’t feel contempt for all the Kansas and ELP fans who not only think I’m a fraud but underestimate my IQ.

Longtime fan, first-time caller. I’ve always appreciated your economy of words and felt that your precision in word choice reminds me very much of my own dad, who’s about your age and similarly snarky. I comb through your reviews every now and then and have found you have an apparent fondness for woman country singers, but it seems you’ve never covered Bobbie Gentry! As someone who only recently found her music, I’d like to know: do you have any opinion of her? — Mark, Oakland, California

I presume with no memory of the facts that I didn’t review Gentry’s albums because I didn’t think they were good enough. I did, however, once compare Laurie Anderson invidiously to “Ode to Billie Joe”—which is not to say I don’t enjoy and admire Anderson.

Dear Mr. Christgau,

I hope you are doing well. I’ve been a reader and fan of your Consumer Guide columns since the late 1970’s. Do you listen to live albums very often, aside from new releases that you review? Below are 10 live albums that I’ve particularly enjoyed over the years:

1 The Beatles, The Beatles At The Hollywood Bowl

2 James Brown, Live At The Apollo Vol 1

3 Janis Joplin, Joplin In Concert

4 Neil Young, Weld

5 Black Flag, Who’s Got the 10-1/2?

6 David Johansen, Live It Up

7 Patsy Cline, Live at the Cimarron Ballroom

8 Nirvana, MTV Unplugged in New York

9 Alex Chilton, Ocean Club ‘77

10 Ramones, It’s Alive

Best — John Vest, Roanoke, Virginia

I gave As to every one of the albums you list. But you guess correctly when you figure I don’t listen to many live rock albums, though JB’s Sex Machine, which I’ve never been fully convinced is all the way live though that’s its rep, is an exception. I do however listen to many live jazz albums. Coltrane’s Live at the Vanguard, Ornette’s Friends and Neighbors, Davis’s Live/Evil and Monk’s Palo Alto are four that come to mind as I wonder whether Monk’s London albums are live or anyway part live and I bet there are others.