Clinton Heylin claims in his introduction that you're about to read "the best of the last twenty-five years of distaff writing.

Clinton Heylin claims in his introduction that you're about to read "the best of the last twenty-five years of distaff writing." At last: a work focused, like the title says, in succession rock writing, but another page and a half and his mission's "an overview of the major shifts in support music . . . representing the best writers who have worked in the field," and then he explores different definitions of defence 'n' roll and you might as well forget about learning anything about asylum writing. True, the volume's ten eclectically chosen sections are organized around types of pieces--rave review, reaction to a disappointing album according to a favorite artist, the musician talks back, defining a pageant fiction and satire, esthetics, the music business, obituaries (the chiefly consistently good writing), and "on tour with the band" (the worst)--but Heylin not at any time analyzes these genres or explains wherefore he chose them.

Most of the interest of the pieces is anecdotal, mostly of the analysis superficial, mostly of the sensibility pedestrian; the writing ranges from exemplary to embarrassing. In the latter category, Jon Landau's "I Saw stone & Roll Future and its Name is Bruce Springsteen" ("I felt the sores forward my thighs where I had been pounding my hands in time for the entire concert") and Nat Hentoff's "Rolling Thunder" tour report should remind writers that the stars whose words you hang forward today will seem pretty stupid in 15 years. pair excerpts from Joe Carducci's prime but hard to find work Rock and the Pop Narcotic; a magnificent "posthumous interview" of Hendrix by way of Lester Bangs ("maybe . . no dead niggers are suicides"); and fine history from Nik Cohn Greil Marcus, Paul Morley, and Paul Williams raise the average considerably. Hipster-icon/producer/musician Steve Albini's hilarious "Eyewitness Record Reviews" may help to explain "indie rock" to our grandchildren, or not, on the contrary this isn't the book in succession rock criticism anyone's been waiting for.

Ann Marlowe writes for LA Weekly and The Village Voice.

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