Today's crossword solution
mckenzie river
GOLF COURSE
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YOLANDA KING Jl,
WED OCT 22i§i!
"While it is imperative to actively challenge
the forces that deny human beings their
rights to a decent life.,.one must also
stimulate and alter the hearts and minds of
both the privileged as well as those who
have been too long denied."
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TUESDAY LIMITED
NOVEMBER 4 .SJfcjp SEATING
. LJJCINDA
^WILLIAMS
Rock writer changes beats
Richard Meltzer discusses
his new book and long-time
efforts of moving away from
writing about rock ‘n’ roll
By Ryan Nyburg
Senior Pulse Reporter
Often considered the first rock crit
ic in America, Richard Meltzer has
been publishing books, articles and
reviews for over thirty years. I lis new
book, "Autumn Rhythm," which was
released this month, is a collection of
essays and poems dealing with aging,
death and mortality. Meltzer will be
signing copies at the University Book
store on Oct. 23.
Emerald: How old are you now?
Richard Meltzer I'm 58.
Emerald: You've been somewhat
typecast as a "rock writer," yet your
new book deals with other subjects.
Is rock writing something you're try
ing to move away from?
RM: I've been trying to move away
from it since 1975. How well have I
done? My last book was a collection
of rock pieces, that kind of took it
back in the casting. But basically I got
sick of writing about rock 'n' roll after
I had written nearly a thousand re
views and pieces. How much more
do you have to say after that? And
that was almost thirty years ago.
Emerald: What kind of music do
you listen to now?
RM: I listen to everything. I don't
listen to very much that's current, be
cause I don't now what's current. I lis
ten to 1960s things, I listen to jazz, I
listen to the blues, but I can only
name you three or four current
bands. I know Guided By Voices be
cause I opened for them a couple
times, doing readings. If not for that, I
probably wouldn't know them.
Emerald: I've heard that you do
other readings and vocal work.
RM: I'm currently the vocalist for a
band called Smegma, which is the
oldest band in Portland. They started
out in Pasadena in 1972, something
like that, and have been here since
1976. They do "improvised noise,"
you know, just free music: start, look
at each other and get somewhere.
About five or six years ago they asked
me if I would like to be the vocalist, by
which they didn't mean they wanted
me to sing, but they want the sound
of the human voice doing whatever I
felt like using it for. So I usually read
or I shout and if I get very drunk I try
to sing. I do it sitting down.
Emerald: You've lived all over the
country, New York City, Los Angeles.
Why did you settle on Portland?
RM: I started out in New York and I
was there 'til I was 30 and then I
made the mistake of moving to LA.
I'd been there a couple times as part
of these rock-writer junkets. And
what you get to see under circum
stances like that is not the real place.
When I felt 1 had to get out of New
York I moved to Los Angeles and
quickly realized it was the cesspool of
the universe. And I had this girlfriend
who was an actress and she wouldn't
leave. So years and years of staying
there for that reason, 1 just came to
hate my life. Los Angeles is not even
a place — not even a bad place. It
doesn't even stick to the planet. And
so I had to move, and someone I
knew told me that Portland and Seat
tle had once been similar places, but
Seattle became something like a cross
between New York and Los Angeles;
it got big and crowded and rich. So he
said, "go to Portland." So sight un
seen I committed to moving here
about nine years ago. I came up here
and the sky was black, it was freezing
and wet and 1 thought "this is for
me." It's the first place I've ever lived
where I feel like a citizen. I mean in
New York I was branded anti-intellec
tual, whatever that means. Then
when I moved to Los Angeles, and
without missing a beat, I was brand
ed an intellectual, which was even
worse. Like being a leper. Here I feel
like just anybody else.
Emerald: What do you feel has im
proved in your writing?
RM: It's like I don't waste time — I
try to cut to the chase. I went through
a period in the 1970s when I liked to
piss off editors. I liked to write inten
tional run-on sentences and bad
grammar and get back at my fourth
grade teacher or something like that. I
used to like to make a mess. I don't
feel like I make such a mess now. It's
gotten that more of the things I write,
even things on assignment, are things
that I want to write. It used to be that
too many of the assignments I accept
ed were reviews of albums I didn't
care about, or profiles of musicians I
didn't care about. Half of what I was
doing was fighting against the gig.
These days, what I write for publica
tions, for the gig itself, is closer to
what I want to be writing.
Emerald: Do you feel it's more diffi
cult to get published now than it was
30 years ago?
RM: As far as I know I'm the only
person who was writing for the under
ground press in the very beginning
who is still writing for the dregs of
what's left. It's completely gone. 1 did
n't count my lucky stars when I start
ed, but it gave me an opportunity to
get my chops. They would publish
anything because they weren't really
paying for it. I learned how to write by
doing it every day of the week for all
these years. But now there are no out
lets at all; it's awful. All the old alterna
tive papers are now just shoppers. Peo
ple pick them up to look at the ads.
Emerald: In your book you have a
whole diatribe against computer tech
nology and the Internet. Do you think
that this is a losing battle or do you
think people will turn away from it?
RM: 1 think it's a losing battle. But
you know, when the 1960s happened
as such, there really was no preview, it
just happened. So wouldn't it be nice
to think that could happen again. You
know, 100,000 kids just stop being
obedient to it. But it's not going to hap
pen; it's just gotten so effective at suck
ing people in. I mean the way that
MTV and everything that followed be
came the means to prevent kids from
turning off their televisions. I think the
computer thing is already effectively
just as addictive.
Emerald: What kind of articles do
you do now?
RNI: 1 had two separate employ
ments doing "rock fictions." They
were concert blurbs for bands I didn't
know. 1 first did it for the San Diego
Reader then for the Seattle Weekly. But
then the music editor got fired a cou
ple of months ago and they dumped
me. I enjoyed doing that for awhile,
but I realized that I didn't even have
fictional ideas about rock anymore. It
was hard to come up with even an
imaginary rock 'n' roll that was any
fun. I would do it again because it
would keep my fiction chops active.
Emerald: You had a piece appear a
few years ago in "The Rolling Stone
Book of the Beats." I low did the beat
movement influence your work?
RM: Well, they were a late influence.
1 never read any of those people until I
was almost 40. I thought there was
some kinship there between my writ
ing and theirs once I finally read them.
I always liked the ideas of the Beats
and their stories. But I would say that
Jack Kerouac and also William Faulkn
er were the last people to have an in
fluence on my writing because it was
pretty formed by the time I was 40.
Emerald: What influences were
there before that?
RM: Well it's interesting, I realized
that the first influence on my writing
was Muhammad Ali, because it was
all exclamation points. I was looking
through a book of writings on Ali
and they had transcripts of interviews
with him. I realized immediately that
that's why I became a writer. Just that
absolute bombast of expression. I
would say that another influence on
me was Jim Morrison. I just wrote a
piece about him because I needed the
money. But I do remember when that
stuff mattered to me. Mainly my ear
liest influences were these philoso
phers who were just unreadable. In
my first book, "The Aesthetics of
Rock," I had no idea what a sentence
was. I didn't really read for pleasure
until I was well into my 30s, so I real
ly didn't know what my options
where. I just kinda winged it.
Contact the senior pulse reporter
at ryannyburg@dailyemerald.com.
UO School of Music World Music Series presents
SS£? North India
Rajeev Taranath, sarod Abhiman Kaushal, tabla
Friday, Oct. 17
8 p.m., BEALL HALL
UO School of Music
$10 General Admission,
$8 students & senior, available
at the door only.
Free lecture-demo
at 3:30 p.m., EMU sc£°°LcOF
Ben Linder Room
Tickets at
Wild Duck
TicketsWest
& Online NOW!
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