Discomfort Can Be Power, Do You Know That You Can Use It?
The sock hop era was all about hanging with your best friends, learning the latest dance steps, and maybe even falling in love for the first time.
Hello!
It's me, Elizabeth, and you know what that means. It's time for the latest installment of my insouciantly random newsletter Please Take My Advice. We've got a stacked agenda people -- I'm candidly concerned about getting through all of it -- so let's all stand for the pledge and then get through the particulars.
***DISCLAIMER***
Please Take My Advice is not a publicly traded commodity. Those looking to become shareholders and attain dividends will find the enterprise fruitless. Please Take My Advice is not an advice column. Should you find it a pathway to personal enrichment then such the better, but Please Take My Advice bears no liability for future decisions undertaken by its readership. And finally, as ever, Please Take My Advice exists for EXHIBITION PURPOSES ONLY. Any wagering which occurs is the sole and total province of the user and/or users and no cash payments or future credits will be dispersed regardless of prior paperwork.
Okay, excellent. Now that we’ve done our housekeeping we can dive in. Get your trunks on.
Next We’ll Take Manhattan: The Paranoid Style Hits the New Yorker
To celebrate the release of the new Paranoid Style LP For Executive Meeting, I met up with the great Nick Paumgarten from the New Yorker for a ‘Talk Of The Town’ feature. We cover a lot of ground here folks, so you’ll want to train your attention: Warren Zevon, pro golf, Long Island, Amstel Light, reply guys on Twitter, Elvis Costello, Roger McDowell. This stuff is pure nitro. Check it out here while jamming your copy of For Executive Meeting!
The Dean’s Verdict On For Executive Meeting? Mark It A, Dude.
Robert Christgau gave For Executive Meeting a grade of A in his August Consumer Guide.
As is customarily the case with the Dean of American Rock Criticism, he had a handful of other fascinating things to say about a bunch of other new releases well worth your time and energy. If you haven’t subscribed to his substack And It Don’t Stop yet, well, what are you doing folks? We’re all standing on his shoulders and he’s still going strong.
Gotcha. I’ll Subscribe Immediately.
Great, then it's settled.
But Elizabeth, Have You Written Anything About CCR?
Well, that was a weird transition. But yes! I reviewed John Lingan’s fine new CCR overview A Song For Everyone over at the Wall Street Journal. I don’t think I need to tell anyone here about my feelings for the music of Creedence Clearwater Revival. It courses through my veins. Check out the review and buy the book if you know what’s good for ya.
Got it. Read Review, Buy Book. Anything else? Do You Dig Graham Parker?
Again, that was weird. But yes, I dig Graham Parker and wrote a Sunday Review over at Pitchfork covering his 1979 classic Squeezing Out Sparks.
“Fame is a weird destiny and so is obscurity. Both seem to recognize and claim their own. Given its low profile, a final irony of Squeezing Out Sparks is that its bleak landscape of back-stabbing political operators, avaricious grifters, and dead-eyed consumption is a prescient vision of the corporate-tech nightmare of today. Parker always knew the truth.”
Hoping you will click through and learn about one of the great, non-compromising, under-acknowledged artists. CLICK THROUGH!
This is epic. We’re overwhelmed. We’re not even sure when the bold parts became first person. Thank you, Elizabeth. Any closing remarks?
For sure, and thank you. This periodic newsletter Please Take My Advice has the character of coming and going at any time. But collective action never ceases. My fondest hope is that the fight continues. The throughline that connects the working class folks of El Cerrito CA, Long Island NY and Deepcut UK is plain as day. Organize, organize, organize. I’ll hang in if you will.
Love,
Elizabeth