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Tom Hull's Old Rock Critic Writings

One of these days I'll write some sort of memoir of my days as a rock critic. The short version is that those days started around 1974 when, thoroughly burned out on academic marxism, I found myself unable to read anything heavier than Creem or Crawdaddy, which in turn encouraged me to listen deliberately. As I rebounded, I found pleasure in rock and a subject for my critical proclivites. Two key people (as opposed to writers) spurred me to write: Don Malcolm got me interested in the subject, gave me a venue in his Overdose, and collaborated with me on Terminal Zone; and Robert Christgau asked me to write for The Village Voice, welcomed me to New York, and further extended my ears. Yet by 1979 or so my desire to write rock crit was flagging, and everyday life was moving on.

I doubt that these pieces will be very interesting. Many of them I find strange now, some even painful. Putting them together here may in some sense be an effort to reconnect, or maybe just to remember. As I go through them, sometimes I add little notes. Perhaps a step toward that memoir. Perhaps preparation for a fresh start. Maybe just trying to put my house in order.

Samizdat

These pieces were basically self-published, the earliest ones dating to 1974-75, mostly collected in Don Malcolm's one-shot tabloid, Overdose: A Journal of the Beaux Arts.

Village Voice

The following pieces were mostly written for The Village Voice, mostly from 1975-79. They are in order written (as best I can recall). The last few are later, but they roughly fit the series. One piece (at least) is missing, on UFO. Some of what is here escapes my recollection (obviously not what it once was), and a couple were unpublished. I need track down publication dates for most of the Voice reviews.

Letters, Notebooks, Etc.

Some other things from the manuscript pile, of some relevance to this section.