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<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> <html> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"> <link rel=stylesheet href="/rxgau.css" type="text/css"> <meta name="robots" content="INDEX,FOLLOW"> <title>Robert Christgau: Grown Up All Wrong</title> </head> <body bgcolor="#e0ffff"> <table width="100%" border=0 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=10> <tr><td colspan=2 bgcolor="#1010e0"> <a class=xlnk href="/"><img class=xlnk src="/rxgau.gif" width=287 height=47 alt="Robert Christgau: Dean of American Rock Critics"></a> </td></tr> <tr><td bgcolor="#1010e0" valign=top> <table cellspacing=0 cellpadding=3 border=1> <tr><td class=xlnk nowrap><a class=xlnk href="/cg.php">Consumer Guide:</a>   <a class="xlnk" href="/xg/web/cgusers.php">User's Guide</a>   <a class="xlnk" href="/xg/bk-cg90/grades-90s.php">Grades 1990-</a>   <a class="xlnk" href="/xg/bk-cg70/grades.php">Grades 1969-89</a>   <a class="xlnk" href="https://robertchristgau.substack.com/">And It Don't Stop</a> <tr><td class=xlnk nowrap><a class=xlnk href="/books.php">Books:</a>   <a class="xlnk" href="/bk-bkreps.php">Book Reports</a>   <a class="xlnk" href="/bk-isitya.php">Is It Still Good to Ya?</a>   <a class="xlnk" href="/bk-goitc.php">Going Into the City</a>   <a class="xlnk" href="/bk-cg90s.php">Consumer Guide: 90s</a>   <a class="xlnk" href="/bk-guaw.php">Grown Up All Wrong</a>   <a class="xlnk" href="/bk-cg80s.php">Consumer Guide: 80s</a>   <a class="xlnk" href="/bk-cg70s.php">Consumer Guide: 70s</a>   <a class="xlnk" href="/bk-aow.php">Any Old Way You Choose It</a>   <a class="xlnk" href="/bk-fest.php">Don't Stop 'til You Get Enough</a> <tr><td class=xlnk nowrap><a class=xlnk href="/xgausez.php">Xgau Sez</a></td></tr> <tr><td class=xlnk nowrap>Writings:   <a class="xlnk" href="/xg/dontstop/index.php">And It Don't Stop</a>   <a class="xlnk" href="/xg/cg/index.php">CG Columns</a>   <a class="xlnk" href="/xg/bn/index.php">Rock&Roll& [new]</a>   <a class="xlnk" href="/xg/rock/index.php">Rock&Roll& [old]</a>   <a class="xlnk" href="/xg/music/index.php">Music Essays</a>   <a class="xlnk" href="/xg/cdrev/index.php">Music Reviews</a>   <a class="xlnk" href="/xg/bkrev/index.php">Book Reviews</a>   <a class="xlnk" href="/xg/najp/index.php">NAJP Blog</a>   <a class="xlnk" href="/xg/play/index.php">Playboy</a>   <a class="xlnk" href="/xg/bl/index.php">Blender</a>   <a class="xlnk" href="/xg/rs/index.php">Rolling Stone</a>   <a class="xlnk" href="/xg/bb/index.php">Billboard</a>   <a class="xlnk" href="/xg/vr/index.php">Video Reviews</a>   <a class="xlnk" href="/xg/pnj/index.php">Pazz & Jop</a>   <a class="xlnk" href="/xg/recyc/index.php">Recyclables</a>   <a class="xlnk" href="/xg/news/index.php">Newsprint</a>   <a class="xlnk" href="/xg/list/index.php">Lists</a>   <a class="xlnk" href="/xg/misc/index.php">Miscellany</a> <tr><td class=xlnk nowrap><a class=xlnk href="/biblio.php">Bibliography</a></td></tr> <tr><td class=xlnk nowrap><a class=xlnk href="/xg/npr/index.php">NPR</a></td></tr> <tr><td class=xlnk nowrap>Web Site:   <a class="xlnk" href="/index.php">Home</a>   <a class="xlnk" href="/map.php">Site Map</a>   <a class="xlnk" href="/contact.php">Contact</a>   <a class="xlnk" href="/newest.php">What's New?</a>   <a class="xlnk" href="/rss.php"><img src="/images/rss-button-12.jpg">  RSS</a> <tr><td class=xlnk nowrap>Social Media:   <a class="xlnk" href="https://substack.com/@robertchristgau?">Substack</a>   <a class="xlnk" href="https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:jw6pxdbvxz2jkjkk5w6bofx5">Bluesky</a>   <a class="xlnk" href="https://x.com/rxgau">[Twitter]</a> <tr><td class=xlnk nowrap>Carola Dibbell:   <a class="xlnk" href="http://caroladibbell.com/">Carola's Website</a>   <a class="xlnk" href="/u/cd/">Archive</a> <tr><td class=xlnk><a class=xlnk href="/get_artist.php">CG Search:</a> <form method=get action="/get_artist.php"> <input type=text name=name size=15> </form></tr> <tr><td class=xlnk><a class="xlnk" href="https://google.com/search">Google Search:</a> <form method="get" action="https://google.com/search" target="_blank"> <input type="hidden" name="sitesearch" value="robertchristgau.com"> <input type="text" name="q" size="15" maxlength="255"> </form></tr> </table> </td><td valign=top width="100%">  Grown Up All Wrong: 75 Great Rock and Pop Artists from Vaudeville to Techno Paperback, 2000, Harvard University Press, 528 pages. Hardcover, 1998, Harvard University Press, 528 pages. <img src="images/guaw.jpg" height=140 width=95 hspace=5 align=left alt="Book Cover">  From publisher's catalog page: A critical compendium of points of interest in American popular music and its far-flung diaspora, this book ranges from the 1950s singer-songwriter tradition through hip-hop, alternative, and beyond. With unfailing style and grace, Christgau negotiates the straits of great music and thorny politics, as in the cases of Public Enemy, blackface artist Emmett Miller, KRS-One, the Beastie Boys, and Lynyrd Skynyrd. He illuminates legends from pop music and the beginnings of rock and roll--George Gershwin, Nat King Cole, B. B. King, Chuck Berry, and Elvis Presley--and looks at the subtle transition to just plain "rock" in the music of Janis Joplin, the Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, Aretha Franklin, James Brown, and others. He praises the endless vitality of Al Green, George Clinton, and Neil Young. And from the Rolling Stones to Sonic Youth to Nirvana, from Bette Midler to Michael Jackson to DJ Shadow, he shows how money calls the tune in careers that aren't necessarily compromised by their intercourse with commerce. <h3>Table of Contents</h3> <table width=100% bgcolor=white border=0 cellpadding=5> <tr><td> <a href="/xg/bk-guaw/ack.php">Acknowledgments</a> Introduction: My Favorite Waste of Time Where "Rock and Roll" Began Across the Great Divide: Nat King Cole Let's Call the Whole Thing Pop: George Gershwin The Complete Work of B. B. King The Blank Slate: George Jones Black Face, Whose Voice? Emmett Miller Brown Eyed Handsome Rock and Roller: Chuck Berry Elvis in Literature: Elvis Presley Where "Rock" Began Spontaneity by the Seat of the Pants: Janis Joplin Our First Bohemians: The Rolling Stones God Grows Up: Eric Clapton Genius Dumb: Led Zeppelin Jimi Plays History: Jimi Hendrix Out of This World: Aretha Franklin Nothing To Say but Everything, or, As Far as He Could Go: John Lennon with John Piccarella Why the Beatles Broke Up James Brown's Great Expectations Snatched from the Maw of Commerce Stevie Wonder Is All Things to All People A Boogie Band that Loves the Governor (Boo Boo Boo): Lynyrd Skynyrd Turn On, Drop In, Find Out: The Grateful Dead Music for Smart People: Randy Newman Time Waits for No One: Richard Thompson Father Alone Farther Along: Loudon Wainwright III Born to Be Mature: Bonnie Raitt Two Rock and Rollers Who Won't Change the World: Pete Fowler & Andy Fairweather Low Smashing the State of the Art Acting Like a King Because: New York Dolls Patti Smith Pisses in a Vanguard The Clash See America Second The Great Punk Dandy at the Peppermint Lounge: Richard Hell Pere Ubu's Right To Choose Forever Rotten: The Sex Pistols Kings of Rhythm Sylvester Is a Star Triumph of the Trifle: Ray Parker Jr. Working the Crowd: Bruce Springsteen & Michael Jackson Give Him Liberty or Give Him Death: Prince Magnificent Seven: Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five The Beastie Boys Go Too Far Looking for the Perfect Public Enemy An Autodidact's History of KRS-One Between Punk and a Pop Place A Voyage to Liliput Simple Because He's Simple: Marshall Crenshaw with Carola Dibbell Aching To Become: The Replacements Living Legends: The B-52's Sonic Youth Sell Out Curse of the Mekons They Are the World West Africa Not Africa, Europe Not the World: Salif Keita & Youssou N'Dour The Black Sea Giant and the Lion Queens: Mahlathini and the Mahotella Queens The Goat-God in History: The Master Musicians of Jajouka A Goat-God in Exile: (Cheb) Khaled The Iron Curtain at Midnight: Pulnoc Culture Hero: Mzwakhe Mbuli Careers in Iconicity Madonnathinking Madonnabout Madonnamusic Garth Brooks, Michael Bolton, Barney, and You: Garth Brooks Bette Midler Sings Everything Lou Reed, Average Guy "What Are Realities of Prince Deal?" Hell, What Is Reality? Making a Spectacle of Herself: Janet Jackson Careers in Semipopularity Selling the Dirt To Pay the Band: Freedy Johnston Are We Not Girls? We Are L7! Lucinda Williams's Reasonable Demands The Ballad of Polly Jean Harvey: PJ Harvey Two Backsliders: Iris DeMent & Sam Phillips On the Real Side: Warren G & Coolio Art-Rock You Can Dance To: DJ Shadow Honk if You Love Honking: James Carter Unlikely Samba: Arto Lindsay Stereolad: Pavement Grrrowing Grrrls: Sleater-Kinney Blown Away: Nirvana Nature's Noblemen The Goduncle: George Clinton Pop Songs to God: Al Green Wasted on the Young: Neil Young </td></tr></table> <h3>Links</h3> Harvard University Press: <ul> <li><a href="http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674003828"> Catalog Page</a>: <ul> <li><a href="http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674003828&content=book">About This Book</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674003828&content=reviews">Reviews</a></li> </ul> </ul> Reviews on Line: <ul> <li><a href="http://www.epinions.com/book-review-1ABE-99A8EDA-39620EF5-prod4"> Bill Altreuter: EPinions</a> <li><a href="http://www.salon.com/1998/12/01/sneaks_5/"> Mark Athitakis: Salon</a>  <li><a href="http://www.memphisflyer.com/backissues/issue538/mfea538.htm"> Chris Herrington: Memphis Flyer</a> <li><a href="http://www.weeklywire.com/ww/12-07-98/austin_books_feature1.html"> Christopher Hess: The Austin Chronicle</a> <li><a href="http://www.avclub.com/articles/robert-christgau-grown-up-all-wrong,6178/"> Joshua Klein: The Onion A.V Club</a> </ul> Sellers: <ul> <li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0674003829/qid=1002743879/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2_2/102-7850796-7384105"> Amazon</a> [<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/stores/detail/-/books/0674003829/customer-reviews/ref=ce_dpr_r_4/102-7850796-7384105#tab-link">reviews</a>]</li> <li><a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/grown-up-all-wrong-robert-christgau/1100716776">Barnes & Noble</a></li> </ul> <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=EdN8VLiEZtcC&pg=PA504&dq=robert+christgau+grown+up+all+wrong&hl=en&sa=X&ei=l66nUaDBB4Lm9ATQp4CQAQ&ved=0CDAQ6AEwAA">Google Books</a> <a href="/images/guaw-b.jpg">Larger Front Cover</a>  </td> </table> </body> </html>