Greil Marcus retiring Real Life Top 10??

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Read at the bottom of his latest Salon column that it's the last installment. Anyone know why?

― Jazzbo (jmcgaw), Monday, 3 February 2003 20:55 (twenty-two years ago)

I'd love to respond to this, but the article is premium-only and I don't subscribe

― M Matos (M Matos), Monday, 3 February 2003 20:58 (twenty-two years ago)

"premium-only"??

(plz keep in mind i havent read salon in like two years.)

― jess (dubplatestyle), Monday, 3 February 2003 20:59 (twenty-two years ago)

I don't subscribe either, but they let you in if you agree to watch a 15-second commercial first. OK, I sold my soul.

― Jazzbo (jmcgaw), Monday, 3 February 2003 20:59 (twenty-two years ago)

I didn't get the option of watching the commercial, just a couple of "subscribe here" boxes. what am I doing wrong?

― M Matos (M Matos), Monday, 3 February 2003 21:00 (twenty-two years ago)

After clicking on the link for the Marcus column, I clicked on the box to the right that says "Three Day Pass Access Sponsored by The Well."

― Jazzbo (jmcgaw), Monday, 3 February 2003 21:04 (twenty-two years ago)

This is where we take a moment to remember all of the great contributions Marcus's Real Life Rock made to all of our lives.

― Amateurist (amateurist), Monday, 3 February 2003 21:05 (twenty-two years ago)

(sounds of crickets chirping)

― Amateurist (amateurist), Monday, 3 February 2003 21:05 (twenty-two years ago)

(a train passes in the distance)

― Amateurist (amateurist), Monday, 3 February 2003 21:06 (twenty-two years ago)

(someone winds their watch)

― Amateurist (amateurist), Monday, 3 February 2003 21:06 (twenty-two years ago)

(someone stifles a cough)

― Amateurist (amateurist), Monday, 3 February 2003 21:06 (twenty-two years ago)

he mentioned mark s once!

― jess (dubplatestyle), Monday, 3 February 2003 21:07 (twenty-two years ago)

um...

― jess (dubplatestyle), Monday, 3 February 2003 21:07 (twenty-two years ago)

he might have written about sleater kinney too

― jess (dubplatestyle), Monday, 3 February 2003 21:08 (twenty-two years ago)

[laughing despite myself]

― M Matos (M Matos), Monday, 3 February 2003 21:08 (twenty-two years ago)

Hey, just curious. I'm not a fan of Mr. Marcus, believe me. In his last column he trashes -- yet again -- Lucinda Williams.

― Jazzbo (jmcgaw), Monday, 3 February 2003 21:10 (twenty-two years ago)

the column: OK, really liked his putdown of The Portable Sixties Reader (which looked fishy to me even before I read GM), the Ann Charters thing was definitely eye-opening, I preferred Lucinda before she began believing her own press myself.

the question at hand here: maybe he's moving the column to another publication?

― M Matos (M Matos), Monday, 3 February 2003 21:17 (twenty-two years ago)

Mentioning "Concrete" was the highlight.

― Cozen (Cozen), Monday, 3 February 2003 21:20 (twenty-two years ago)

Robin Williams?

― slutsky, Monday, 3 February 2003 21:31 (twenty-two years ago)

hah! my guess is that salon ran out of dough to pay well-established writers with and are gonna give the column to joey sween*y

― geeta (geeta), Monday, 3 February 2003 21:36 (twenty-two years ago)

geeta = OTM. yr lucky to get paid at all by salon these days, from what i hear.

― Yanc3y (ystrickler), Monday, 3 February 2003 21:38 (twenty-two years ago)

If hadn't just banged the world's smallest violin against a door, I'd play it right now.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Monday, 3 February 2003 23:47 (twenty-two years ago)

" If hadn't just banged the world's smallest violin against a door, I'd play it right now. "
-- Anthony Miccio

amen.
looks like real life f'sure.

― t\'\'t (t\'\'t), Tuesday, 4 February 2003 00:03 (twenty-two years ago)

well, I AM a fan of Mr Marcus and am kinda let down by this news, but Greil's writing wasn't at its best in the RLT10 format (lately it's been like 3 alt.country discs, 2 shouty girlbands and one stroll through an obscure avant-art museum in Brazil plus the obligatory reference to "I Don't Like Mondays" or "Stones in My Passway" or one of Greil's other neverchanging list of favorites and voila: new column!). His column in Interview is better, but I don't think it's online.

― Justyn Dillingham (Justyn Dillingham), Tuesday, 4 February 2003 00:52 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm popping up here again today.

As far as Salon is concerned, at least he went out with a bang and not a whimper, even though it was a quote. A number of people (I include myself) regard Marcus as more than capable of lively thought streamed through eloquence, so maybe he'll find another venue for that outlet. We all need more good writers on good topics, that serves to make us better, too. Funny, it seems to be mostly the old fogeys speaking the truth to power these days.

― bflaska, Tuesday, 4 February 2003 01:22 (twenty-two years ago)

Greil Marcus has always pissed me off. He's one of the most intolerable hacks in the world and seems to give verbal handjobs out like candy, but come on, how many rock critics are much better? That said the Real Life Top 10 format always pissed me off because it seems like he COULD say something substantiative about what he's writing about... OR he could write a paragraph trying to compare Sleater-Kinney to James Joyce's Ulysses through some incredibly fucked up metaphor. What's a critic to do?

(Plus he endorsed Don DeLillo at one point, and that's just not cool.)

― Stiv, Tuesday, 4 February 2003 02:02 (twenty-two years ago)

I can't imagine Marcus ever comparing Sleater-Kinney to Joyce. He's IRISH, you know.

― B.Rad (Brad), Tuesday, 4 February 2003 02:46 (twenty-two years ago)

His writing often pops up in the Threepenny Review where he is, I believe, a contributing editor. Long pieces are much better suited for his style. The bits of nonsense he occasionally spouts tend to be ironed out with explication. Most music scribes seem to do better when given room (except maybe for Christgau).

― Ryan McKay (Ryan McKay), Tuesday, 4 February 2003 06:56 (twenty-two years ago)

if this the last (more likely just the last for Salon) I will miss it, despite.....

― James Blount (James Blount), Tuesday, 4 February 2003 07:24 (twenty-two years ago)

GM sticks in my craw: he always seems to miss the point, & even if he likes something that IS actually good, you can bet he likes it for the wrong reasons.
He comes across as an uptight US intellectual who chose to concentrate on rock music because all the good literature had been already taken.
Often his subjects just can't take the weight of the significance he imposes on them. All that "I can't hear Elvis Presley without thinking of Herman Melville" bullshit - more fool you, you poor sod.

― bham, Tuesday, 4 February 2003 10:49 (twenty-two years ago)

i like GM, but Real Life Top 10 sucked every time i read it. it looked like a few random ideas he had joined in a few minutes before. i won't miss this column.

― joan vich (joan vich), Tuesday, 4 February 2003 11:16 (twenty-two years ago)

if that's his last column he sure went out with a tired whimper.

In #1 he compares the new White Stripes album to either "Rubber Soul" (an album) or an obscure Pussy Galore *song*. That makes no sense.

Helen Thomas is nowhere near Real or Rock. She's an intellectual lightweight who has inspired sniggering amongst the rest of the reporting pool for almost three decades now. It's fine if Marcus wants to bandy about his leftist views, but it's pretty pathetic when he gives Helen Thomas, out of all the truly credible pacifist voices, recognition. In this one lazy move, Marcus validates shallow opportunism of rock music without even noticing.

On a brighter note, at least if Marcus goes somewhere else, he might actually get read. Salon's readership has been inconsequential for almost two years now.

― don weiner, Tuesday, 4 February 2003 12:34 (twenty-two years ago)

even if he likes something that IS actually good, you can bet he likes it for the wrong reasons.

I've seen the light! I DON'T REALLY LIKE ANYTHING! thanks a lot, now what am I going to do with all these fking albums?

― Justyn Dillingham (Justyn Dillingham), Tuesday, 4 February 2003 13:09 (twenty-two years ago)

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