I Found Myself Pretty Sad About Ian MacD's Passing

I was sad, just because he was a human being first, and a writer second, and a music writer third. A fellow-traveller. I don't think I would have agreed with him a lot, but his death seems to have shaken a lot of people (Marcello, Penman, Reynolds, etc) who have written some stunning stuff about it on their respective blogs. Of course it did. He was a thoughtful, if verbally unspectacular, observer of the ebb and flow of pop cultural tides. He was in some ways a British Meltzer without the genius part.

His article on Nick Drake was long and involved, yet reveals some fascinating insights into depression, first and foremost.

One of a series of high profile suicides recently. Coincidence? Who knows?

Matthew - so were many of us over on ILE. See here.

I like your optimistic take on the 'pop isn't as good as it used to be' theory.

I have read his book on The Beatles, "Revolution in the Head", probably more times than I've read any other book I own (bar "R is For Rocket", of course) and I think his writing took a large part in my development of music appreciation. He's kind of full of shit in parts, but the writing is so eloquent and often full of passion. It's just a joy to read. He will be sorely missed in these parts.

...but the 60's was NOT the golden age of music

I do think IMD is mostly right on the decline of the sorta stuff HE valued in pop - i.e. clever guitarband-based pop craftsmanship. I was reading his review of a Kraftwerk collection in an old Uncut the other night and even tho it got four stars you could almost HEAR him clenching his teeth in agony somewhere behind the polite words.