Richard Meltzer
Encyclopedia
Richard Meltzer was one of the earliest rock music critics. His first book, The Aesthetics of Rock
, evolved out of his undergraduate studies in philosophy at the State University of New York at Stony Brook
and graduate studies at Yale University
. At school, he developed a reputation as something of a prankster, although his actions were closer to the spirit of performance art happenings promoted by one of his professors, Allan Kaprow
, than to fraternity hijinks. One of his actions involved sending a tape recorder to class with his comments for the day on tape. Fellow student Sandy Pearlman
was responsible for pushing the button. Meltzer also dabbled in art, including "detourned" comic books in the style of the Situationists, which had various objects added to the pages.
Meltzer, along with Sandy Pearlman and several other students, earned money on the side as booking agents for the big musical acts that came to Stony Brook in the 1960s. Following that, the two started writing lyrics and arranging gigs for a musical group they were promoting called Soft White Underbelly, later renamed Blue Öyster Cult
(BÖC). Meltzer wrote the lyrics to many of the band's songs, including the hit Burnin' for You
.
BÖC guitarist and keyboardist Allen Lanier
is often credited with coming up with the umlaut over the 'O', but Meltzer claims to have suggested it to producer and manager Pearlman just after Pearlman came up with the name: "I said, 'How about an umlaut over the O?' Metal had a Wagnerian
aspect anyway."
Meltzer started his career in 1967 writing for Paul Williams
' Crawdaddy!
magazine. That year, he also taught a class in aesthetics
at the Maryland Institute College of Art
.
During the punk rock era, he formed a band called VOM
(short for "Vomit") and released a four-song, 7-inch EP that included "Electrocute Your Cock". Meltzer also produced a movie, directed by Richard Casey, who later directed several Blue Öyster Cult videos. Clips were filmed in Casey's apartment, Malibu, The Pike in Long Beach
, and a beach-side sewage treatment plant in El Segundo
, with future Mau Maus
guitarist Mike R. Livingston pantomiming rhythm guitar along with Gregg Turner and Kevin Saunders (a/k/a bonze blayk), who were at that time organizing the Angry Samoans
with Mike Saunders
, the drummer for VOM. The film for "Electrocute Your Cock" shows "Halifax, NS" t-shirt-clad Meltzer in the shower with jumper cables attached to his crotch, and sparks hand-drawn onto the film cels simulating electrocution. Also included was a beach-side clip for "Punkmobile." The videos are included in The Angry Samoans' 1995 VHS compilation, True Documentary.
In the 1980s, Meltzer dabbled in architectural criticism, writing a series of articles for the L.A. Reader alternative weekly on the ugliest buildings in Los Angeles; these pieces were later published as a book. He moved to Portland, Oregon
in the 1990s, but continued contributing to the San Diego Reader
. He was also a regular columnist for Addicted to Noise
, and by 2004 he was a contributor to a new weekly, Los Angeles CityBeat
.
In 2002 he released the CD Tropic of Nipples along with Smegma
, VOM
, Antler
and Robert Pollard
of Guided by Voices
.
He has also performed and recorded over the past decade with the improvisational music group Smegma
.
He is the uncle of professional wrestling
writer Dave Meltzer
.
The Aesthetics of Rock
The Aesthetics of Rock is a book by Richard Meltzer . Written between 1965 and 1968, it was published in 1970. Da Capo Press in 1987 published an unabridged edition with a new foreword by Meltzer. It is one of the first major works of rock-music criticism and analysis...
, evolved out of his undergraduate studies in philosophy at the State University of New York at Stony Brook
State University of New York at Stony Brook
The State University of New York at Stony Brook, also known as Stony Brook University, is a public research university located in Stony Brook, New York, on the North Shore of Long Island, about east of Manhattan....
and graduate studies at Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
. At school, he developed a reputation as something of a prankster, although his actions were closer to the spirit of performance art happenings promoted by one of his professors, Allan Kaprow
Allan Kaprow
Allan Kaprow was an American painter, assemblagist and a pioneer in establishing the concepts of performance art. He helped to develop the "Environment" and "Happening" in the late 1950s and 1960s, as well as their theory. His Happenings - some 200 of them - evolved over the years...
, than to fraternity hijinks. One of his actions involved sending a tape recorder to class with his comments for the day on tape. Fellow student Sandy Pearlman
Sandy Pearlman
Sandy Pearlman is an American music producer, artist manager, professor, poet, songwriter, and once was a record company executive...
was responsible for pushing the button. Meltzer also dabbled in art, including "detourned" comic books in the style of the Situationists, which had various objects added to the pages.
Meltzer, along with Sandy Pearlman and several other students, earned money on the side as booking agents for the big musical acts that came to Stony Brook in the 1960s. Following that, the two started writing lyrics and arranging gigs for a musical group they were promoting called Soft White Underbelly, later renamed Blue Öyster Cult
Blue Öyster Cult
Blue Öyster Cult, often abbreviated BÖC, is an American rock band, most of whose members first came together in Long Island, NY in 1967 as the band Soft White Underbelly...
(BÖC). Meltzer wrote the lyrics to many of the band's songs, including the hit Burnin' for You
Burnin' for You
"Burnin' for You" is a song by American rock band Blue Öyster Cult from their album Fire of Unknown Origin, released in 1981. It reached number one on the Billboard Top Tracks chart and the single spent three weeks at number 40 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart...
.
BÖC guitarist and keyboardist Allen Lanier
Allen Lanier
Allen Lanier was an original member of Blue Öyster Cult. Lanier played keyboards and rhythm guitar. He currently resides in Manhattan....
is often credited with coming up with the umlaut over the 'O', but Meltzer claims to have suggested it to producer and manager Pearlman just after Pearlman came up with the name: "I said, 'How about an umlaut over the O?' Metal had a Wagnerian
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...
aspect anyway."
Meltzer started his career in 1967 writing for Paul Williams
Paul Williams (Crawdaddy! creator)
Paul Williams is an American music journalist and writer. Williams created the first national US magazine of rock music criticism :Crawdaddy! in January 1966 on the campus of Swarthmore College with the help of some of his fellow science fiction fans...
' Crawdaddy!
Crawdaddy!
Crawdaddy! was the first U.S. magazine of rock and roll music criticism. Created in 1966 by college student Paul Williams in response to the increasing sophistication and cultural influence of popular music, Crawdaddy! was self-described as "the first magazine to take rock and roll...
magazine. That year, he also taught a class in aesthetics
Aesthetics
Aesthetics is a branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of beauty, art, and taste, and with the creation and appreciation of beauty. It is more scientifically defined as the study of sensory or sensori-emotional values, sometimes called judgments of sentiment and taste...
at the Maryland Institute College of Art
Maryland Institute College of Art
Maryland Institute College of Art is an art and design college in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. It was founded in 1826 as the Maryland Institute for the Promotion of the Mechanic Arts, making it one of the first and oldest art colleges in the United States. In 2008, MICA was ranked #2 in the nation...
.
During the punk rock era, he formed a band called VOM
VOM (punk rock band)
VOM was conceived in 1976, a self-described beat combo featuring the renowned writer and critic Richard Meltzer on vocals, with Gregg Turner on 2nd vocals and "Metal" Mike Saunders on drums under the pseudonym "Ted Klusewski". The band also featured Dave Guzman on 'tuneless rhythm guitar', Lisa...
(short for "Vomit") and released a four-song, 7-inch EP that included "Electrocute Your Cock". Meltzer also produced a movie, directed by Richard Casey, who later directed several Blue Öyster Cult videos. Clips were filmed in Casey's apartment, Malibu, The Pike in Long Beach
Long Beach, California
Long Beach is a city situated in Los Angeles County in Southern California, on the Pacific coast of the United States. The city is the 36th-largest city in the nation and the seventh-largest in California. As of 2010, its population was 462,257...
, and a beach-side sewage treatment plant in El Segundo
El Segundo, California
El Segundo is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Located on the Santa Monica Bay, it was incorporated on January 18, 1917, and is one of the Beach Cities of Los Angeles County and part of the South Bay Cities Council of Governments...
, with future Mau Maus
Mau Maus
Mau Maus was the name of a 1950s street gang in New York. The book and the adapted film The Cross and the Switchblade and biography Run Baby Run document the life of its most famous leader, Nicky Cruz. Their name was derived from the Mau Mau Uprising in Kenya.-History:The Mau Maus were a Brooklyn...
guitarist Mike R. Livingston pantomiming rhythm guitar along with Gregg Turner and Kevin Saunders (a/k/a bonze blayk), who were at that time organizing the Angry Samoans
Angry Samoans
The Angry Samoans are an American punk rock band in the first wave of American punk. Formed in August 1978 in Los Angeles, California by early 1970s rock writer "Metal" Mike Saunders and his sibling lead guitarist bonze blayk, along with co-conspirator Gregg Turner and original recruits bassist...
with Mike Saunders
Mike Saunders
Mike Saunders , better known as "Metal Mike" Saunders, is a rock critic and the singer of the Californian punk band Angry Samoans...
, the drummer for VOM. The film for "Electrocute Your Cock" shows "Halifax, NS" t-shirt-clad Meltzer in the shower with jumper cables attached to his crotch, and sparks hand-drawn onto the film cels simulating electrocution. Also included was a beach-side clip for "Punkmobile." The videos are included in The Angry Samoans' 1995 VHS compilation, True Documentary.
In the 1980s, Meltzer dabbled in architectural criticism, writing a series of articles for the L.A. Reader alternative weekly on the ugliest buildings in Los Angeles; these pieces were later published as a book. He moved to Portland, Oregon
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
in the 1990s, but continued contributing to the San Diego Reader
San Diego Reader
The San Diego Reader is the largest alternative press paper in the county of San Diego, distributed free in stands and private businesses throughout the county, funded by advertisements...
. He was also a regular columnist for Addicted to Noise
Addicted to Noise
Addicted to Noise was an online music magazine in the early days of the World Wide Web. Founded by ex-Rolling Stone editor and writer Michael Goldberg and online music pioneer Jon Luini, it published its first issue in January 1995 and was the first online magazine to include audio samples along...
, and by 2004 he was a contributor to a new weekly, Los Angeles CityBeat
Los Angeles CityBeat
Los Angeles CityBeat was an alternative weekly newspaper in Los Angeles, California, debuting June 12, 2003. The publication ceased production with the March 26, 2009 issue. LA CityBeat was available every Thursday at more than 1,500 distribution locations throughout the Los Angeles area, with an...
.
In 2002 he released the CD Tropic of Nipples along with Smegma
Smegma
Smegma is a combination of exfoliated epithelial cells, transudated skin oils, and moisture. It occurs in both female and male mammalian genitalia.-Human smegma:Both females and males produce smegma...
, VOM
VOM
VOM can refer to:*Volt/Ohm Meter, another name for a multimeter.*Voice of the Martyrs – group of Christian organizations devoted to raising awareness of persecutions of Christians around the world*VOM *vom...
, Antler
Antler
Antlers are the usually large, branching bony appendages on the heads of most deer species.-Etymology:Antler originally meant the lowest tine, the "brow tine"...
and Robert Pollard
Robert Pollard
Robert Pollard is an American rock musician and singer-songwriter who is the leader and creative force behind indie rock group Guided by Voices, who disbanded in 2004, only to reform in 2010...
of Guided by Voices
Guided by Voices
Guided by Voices is an American indie rock band originating from Dayton, Ohio. Beginning with the band's formation in 1983, it made frequent personnel changes but always maintained the presence of principal songwriter Robert Pollard...
.
He has also performed and recorded over the past decade with the improvisational music group Smegma
Smegma (band)
Smegma is an American experimental noise group formed in Pasadena, California in 1973 and currently based in Portland, Oregon. Originally part of the Los Angeles Free Music Society movement of the 1970s, Smegma is one of the few music collectives of that era still active today. Author Richard...
.
He is the uncle of professional wrestling
Professional wrestling
Professional wrestling is a mode of spectacle, combining athletics and theatrical performance.Roland Barthes, "The World of Wrestling", Mythologies, 1957 It takes the form of events, held by touring companies, which mimic a title match combat sport...
writer Dave Meltzer
Dave Meltzer
David A. Meltzer is the editor of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter . Sports Illustrated senior writer Frank Deford has praised Meltzer's work, saying that "Meltzer, I believe, is the most accomplished reporter in sports journalism." Meltzer has written for the Oakland Tribune, the Los Angeles...
.
Books
- The Aesthetics of Rock (1970)
- Gulcher: Post-Rock Cultural Pluralism in America (1972)
- 17 Insects Can Die In Your Heart: Good verse and bad from Richard Meltzer's golden decade (1968–83) (1982)
- Frankie, Part 1 (Talltales Series) (1984)
- Post-Natal Trash (Caned Out: The Authorized Autobiography of Richard Meltzer) (1984)
- Prickly Heat and Cold (Caned Out Series) (1984)
- Richard Meltzer's Guide to the Ugliest Buildings of Los Angeles (1984)
- Frankie, Part 2 (Talltales Series) (1987)
- Boat Ride Down the Maguire (Caned Out Series) (1987)
- L.A. Is the Capital of Kansas: Painful Lessons in Post-New York Living (1988)
- Tropic of Nipples (1995) (unpublished)
- The Night Alone: A Novel (1995)
- Holes: A Book Not Entirely About Golf (1999)
- A Whore Just Like the Rest: The Music Writings of Richard Meltzer (2000)
- Autumn Rhythm: Musings on Time, Tide, Aging, Dying, and Such Biz (2003)
External links
- Review of Autumn Rhythm with Richard Meltzer interview (Mike Miliard, The Fall Guy, September 2003)
- Richard Meltzer profile (Alec Hanley Bemis, Is Rock Criticism Dead, June 2002)
- Richard Meltzer interview (Jason Gross, Perfect Sound Forever, August 2000)
- Extensive portal to R. Meltzer content on the internet
- http://www.physicsroom.org.nz/log/archive/11/kaprow101/Meltzer on Allan KaprowAllan KaprowAllan Kaprow was an American painter, assemblagist and a pioneer in establishing the concepts of performance art. He helped to develop the "Environment" and "Happening" in the late 1950s and 1960s, as well as their theory. His Happenings - some 200 of them - evolved over the years...
] - Interview with Meltzer by Scott Woods at rockcritics.com