nick kent - classic or dud?

However: it occurs to me I'm harsher on him than I wd be on some pop act — I dunno, Bros, let's say — whose chief effect is to let down fans, this let-down translating (for them) into wisdom, revenge energy, better things later. I didn't hate him when I was a teen myself: I found his "style" very mannered, but his moralism certainly appealed (I was a v.grinchy little teen). Clambering out of the wreckage of the latter — rock as puritan war on [?what?] — kinda taught me to think: so as a necessary phase to grow out of, classic.

Moment I think I actually broke faith: when he reviewed a Stones LP with a Warhol cover, and called Warhol a charlatan. I like fakes, generally — I think Kent was a fake in a bad, morbid way: an avatar of bogus rebellion.

Hmmm. This is old old anger speaking, y'know? Even as I'm writing, I'm wondering if I'm being fair. Dark Stuff I found unreadably useless, and I think still would: but I also didn't actually much like Penman's self-collection (difft reasons) and I think he was and is 10 million times the writer/critic Kent is. And I despise JulieB in a billion ways, but I *know* I'm very influenced by her teen-stuff. These two were the anti-Kent back in the day. My guess is, I'm more shaped by him than I'm yet able to face or admit. So: toppled hero (possibly).

xoxo

Interesting to hear about the rewriting. Somehow I'm not surprised.

maybe this another thread. maybe some one could articulate it better than I. what music/music writer/pop phenom edged you towards a certain way of thinking about pop culture, life, yer mum and dad, etc. that you later rejected, but was necessary as part of growing up?

What's with the cult? It was already in place when I started reading NME in 1977: that Kent was the baddest dude, unafraid to savage even the Stones, more rock than rock, "elegantly wasted" (his ambivalent phrase for Keith Richard/s), but also a "scholar", of US rock (west coast and punk) and of Eng.Lit. (unfinished degree at Swansea Univ, or something... recall NME was a crappy trade paper up to 1974: "writers" didn't apply). Rep justified? Well, he's covered his own tracks — you'd have to go back to 1974, say, and see what else was around. He'd written for UNDERGROUND MAGAZINES (Frendz, I think): in the 70s, this was still a major currency of kewl (so had Charles Shaar Murray: in Oz, skoolkids issue, age 16 — that IS kewl). By the 80s, when zines were 10-a- penny, it lost its cachet, and so did he, bigtime. Some of this is the Punk Year Zero effect, abt which I am today v.ambivalent myself, tho once was an Enthusiast

That said, Kent's few recent critical interests - the Smiths, Radiohead - are SO predictable and middle-aged hip that I'm resigned to never reading anything by him again. On the Smiths South Bank Show - ten years ago, at least - Kent already looked like a Keef clone gone to seed, so in a way he's kept up with his heroes - faded, tawdry glam, neurotic skininess, the perpetually slurred speech of the 'reformed' bad boy.

Dud, though, for the phrase "elegantly wasted". It's like "fabulous disaster", yuck. But then I just called John Frusciante the classiest burnout in rock in another thread so fuck me.

I was surprised at how he came off in The Filth and the Fury, an insecure spiteful junkie weasel, kinda pathetic. I thought he would look more pretty and Byronic, maybe it was a bad period for him.

I love it.

Having said all that tho, I can't think of any music writer I'd rather LOOK like. (I love the story of Iggy and Bowie and NK sitting in a restaurant and the waitress asking for Kent's autograph cause he looked more like a rockstar than the others)

Nick Kent is the best music writer I've read. His book "The Dark Stuff" is about a million times better than anything I've read by Greil Marcus or Lester Bangs. I just noticed that he has a new book out, "Apathy for the Devil." Anyone read it?

Apathy for the Devil is an appalling pile of self-serving bollocks. Was talking not so long ago to one who worked with Kent in his heyday. "Nick wrote about the right things at the right time," he said. "And there's a lot to be said for that, especially in music journalism. But he couldn't actually write. That was his problem."

But he couldn't actually write.

He was in the right place at the right times, but I think he's a magnificent writer too. Just read his piece on Brian Wilson, for example. It's insightful, poetic, and has a deep pathos that I've not encountered in many writers.

Just quoting.

But Apathy for the Devil is fucking atrocious. Full of "who could've guessed those four lovable moptops from Liverpool would go on to change the world"isms. Mildly amusing in some of the drugs tales, but it's not like Keef/Iggy etc taking drugs comes as much of a surprise, does it?

That's really hard to believe, given that "the Dark Stuff" is so loaded with cynical "I-can-see-through-the-bullshit"-style x-ray vision.

Read it and weep. Even he admits in Apathy for the Devil that he lost the ability to write because he got more concerned about drugs, and was never the same again. Apathy is also full of I-can-see-through-bullshit but since so much of what he writes is bullshit, it's hard not to conclude that he sees through the bullshit only to be blocked by the next wall of bullshit.

That's interesting. When I read "the Dark Stuff", I got the distinct impression that he was the only sober voice in the whole book. Obviously, it may not have been true, but at least it made for good stories. It's unfortunate that the new book doesn't even have that.

In the interests of context I should add that
a) the writer I was talking to is someone who remains a name writer - and a very good one - but who is often curmudgeonly in his assessments of others.
b) the UK music press in the 70s was clearly a hotbed of resentments and jealousies because it could throw up stars in a way that's impossible today, and Kent was a star
but
c) the material in The Dark Stuff isn't a true reprint of his 70s work. It was written then and edited then - and remember 70s NME eds were a lot better than the recent breed - and then rewritten with the benefit of hindsight and re-edited by a Penguin editor for The Dark Stuff in the early 90s. It's not pure NME Kent.

dark stuff is a pretty entertaining book imo -- kinda feel like a lot of it should be taken with a grain of salt, but it is mostly fun stuff.

I also like "The Dark Stuff" ... that Brian Wilson piece is fantastic even though his biases are sooooo obvious (and it's never been clear to me if he was oblivious to this or not). So yeah, you know you're getting a mix of fiction and non-fiction with Kent, but as long as you're cool with that then it makes for really entertaining writing.

The line that stands out for me from the Brian Wilson piece is one that proves that he's not writing from a factual POV so much as an interpretive, story-telling angle:

"The first time Brian [Wilson] snorted [cocaine], he felt he was kissing God."

Who writes even feature articles like that?

Don't listen to Lazarus Niles-Burnham (res), Apathy is wonderful. Really enjoyed it. And Nick Kent can definitely write.

hey, I'm not the one who said it was bad. I haven't even read it.

Oops I mean Alan Partridge Project, my bad sir.

I just read "Apathy for the Devil" and loved it. Not as good as "The Dark Stuff," but a worthy and interesting follow-up filled with compelling anecdotes, fascinating 70s musical history, and honest self-criticism. Kent doesn't portray himself as an unassailable figure at all, as was suggested above. Anyway, I highly recommend it!

Full of "who could've guessed those four lovable moptops from Liverpool would go on to change the world"isms.

This couldn't be further from the truth. I don't know how you (or your 'source') arrived at this line, but it's totally wrong.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUg4GOJeEPM

this pic of kent and chrissie hynde is great. well, chrissie is great in it, never mind kent!
http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lfuph2jjoD1qaxybpo1_400.jpg

really enjoying this stuff :

http://www.perturbator.com/

oh, and its nicks son !

Still alive, then.

ahh, given events of recent weeks thats a very good point.

sorry.