Shock and Awe

August 22, 2016
Rock historian Reynolds (Rip It Up) explores the genre that first shaped his perceptions of pop: glam rock, or, as it’s sometimes known in the U.S., glitter. Reynolds takes a broad view of what glam encompasses, investigating its roots in soul, teeny-bop, and other disparate genres while also charting the careers of icons such as Bowie, T. Rex., and Roxy Music. His investigation, however, is hampered by his apparent hesitance to tackle difficult subjects (such as race) head-on; he veers in for casual mentions of cultural appropriation within glam culture, only to shy away from the intense analysis such a topic deserves. As wide and deep as his net is cast—he touches on Buddhist philosophy and the 1970s gay liberation movement—Reynolds seems at sea when it comes to discussing gender-variant identities, going off on several peculiar tangents. Reynolds is more at home when breaking down the concept of authenticity and defending the “fake” persona as art form, but even that leads to an off-putting set of observations about Dr. Luke’s abuse of Kesha—the last in a series of cringeworthy rhetorical snippets that mar an otherwise intriguing text.

"In the early seventies, decadence was what we'd nowadays call a 'meme.' " The wide-ranging rock journalist probes the highs and lows of glam.What was the first glam rock song ever released? Little Richard may be in the running, but for Reynolds (Retromania: Pop Culture's Addiction to Its Own Past, 2011), the era begins in the later 1960s, when John's Children began to morph into Tyrannosaurus Rex and then T. Rex, even as hippie Marc Bolan became hippie with platform heels. As the author writes, glam rock--the term is slippery, one of those "you know what I mean" things--was a reaction to the "earnestly uncamp" rock of the era, "when things got heavy and bluesy, rootsy and backwoodsy," leaving kids like David Jones, soon to become David Bowie, out in the cold. The case of Bowie is instructive: reacting to a complaint from his father that he wasn't bringing down enough income as a rocker, he divined that he could mix cabaret into his act, even if his first efforts were "deemed too clever for the cabaret circuit." Then there's the sexuality aspect of it: gay kids needed a way to rock, too, and in the face of the "drabness, the visual depletion of Britain in 1972," they found a subculture in shag haircuts, high shoes, and feathers. For Bowie, interested not just in sex, but in its theatrical possibilities, glam was the way forward. With him came lesser bands that sometimes morphed into great ones: Slade, Mott the Hoople, Cockney Rebel, and particularly Roxy Music, whose 1973 album "For Your Pleasure" may be the finest moment in all of glam. Reynolds gets a little gluey when he gets theoretical--"other songs on "Roxy Music" aren't disjointed horizontally (structural extension through time) but vertically (the layering together of jarring textures and incongruent emotions)"--but for the most part, this is straightforward music/cultural history. For neo-glamsters, a blueprint for how to get things done; for oldsters, a nostalgic look into a shining, glittery era. COPYRIGHT(1) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

October 1, 2016

Rather than from outer space, glam rock emerged out of the ashes of the 1960s rock underground. Lost in that scene, performers Marc Bolan and David Bowie each broke away from their 1960s obsessions for authenticity and reinvented themselves as stars. This shift from socially conscious troubadours to self-obsessed artists in makeup and glitter recalled the rock and roll showmanship of the 1950s while having a lasting legacy of its own. Music critic Reynolds (Retromania) examines the genre through the trajectory of its major players: Bowie and Bolan as well as Alice Cooper, Roxy Music, Suzi Quatro, and more. The author deftly examines the musical, social, and sexual underpinnings of glam rock, but the work is most insightful when dissecting glam's greatest contribution to rock music: the larger-than-life image of the rock star. VERDICT Reynolds's erudite yet readable approach will be of interest to glam fans as well readers of popular music histories. Expect interest in Bowie to be high after his death earlier this year.--Amanda Westfall, Emmet O'Neal P.L., Mountain Brook, AL

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