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Re: "Stairway to Hell"



> 
> I saw this for the first time in a bookstore earlier this year, and had
> enough time to scour the index and read those three reviews.  The whole thing
> is really odd.  Three Who albums rank highly, but it's true that two of the
> three get some major criticism!  It's almost as if the publisher collected a
> lot of votes with the result that three Who LPs scored high, but then they
> assigned just any old jerk to write half-baked reviews.  As I recall, at
> least one (if not both) of the nasty reviews DID say that the album had some
> awful qualities but this was at least partially offset by a few genuine rock
> classics.

I'll clarify about this further.  The author is Chuck Eddy, who wrote for 
Creem (maybe that's why!), and other rock mags during the 70's/80's.  If 
I remember correctly, Meaty Beaty was in the mid 70's, Who's Next was in 
the 120's and LAL was #404!!! (now THAT I do remember because it's an 
outrage).  

For Who's Next he claims that he couldn't stand to listen to Bargain, 
Love Ain't, and Gettin' in Tune for some stupid reason.  He did say that 
Goin' Mobile was a great song to listen in the car with the top down.  He 
thought of the Song Is Over as sappy and a song where Bono was "obviously 
taking notes".  Of course he praises BR, BBE, and WGFA.  However his 
closing comment is:  "At least Pete's screech at the end of the song 
(WGFA, he doesn't even realize it's Roger) makes him realize that left 
handed bullshit is the same as right handed bullshit".  The opening 
statement is a riot where he said this was the album where Roger's and 
Pete's egos got in the way and showed them off to be two of rock's 
biggest morons.  


To sum up LAL :

1) The Who's Summertime Blues isn't as hard as Blue Cheer's 

2) Roger does Plant orgasms in Shakin' All Over

3) Young Man Blues wonders aimlessly

4) My Generation's jam is a Zep ripoff (in so many words)

5) the only problem he thought of smashing their equipment is that people 
kept giving them new ones.  Forever.

Someone needs to go back and do some research!!!


Of course guess who gets all of their albums listed including the #1 
spot?  Led Zeppelin.  Personally I think the guy wrote this book in his 
mind to go against what the traditional rock critics (and well 
educated rock fans) believe is the best.  Of course the Who, being the 
darlings of the first generation Rolling Stone writers are going to get 
slammed pretty hard, with Led Zeppelin (which gets a FAIR shake from the 
RS writers IMHO, not overrated praise) licking up the mess.  Of course 
how can I take this book seriously when Alice Cooper's GH is listed #5?


To sum it up, this book is for the "yeah man X rulz" fan and not the one 
who isn't afraid of the term "concept".