One of our great essayists and journalists—the Dean of American Rock Critics, Robert Christgau—takes us on a heady tour through his life and times in this vividly atmospheric and visceral memoir that is both a love letter to a New York long past and a tribute to the transformative power of art.
Lifelong New Yorker Robert Christgau has been writing about pop culture since he was twelve and getting paid for it since he was twenty-two, covering rock for Esquire in its heyday and personifying the music beat at the Village Voice for over three decades. Christgau listened to Alan Freed howl about rock ‘n’ roll before Elvis, settled east of Manhattan’s Avenue B forty years before it was cool, witnessed Monterey and Woodstock and Chicago ’68, and the first abortion speak-out. He’s caught Coltrane in the East Village, Muddy Waters in Chicago, Otis Redding at the Apollo, the Dead in the Haight, Janis Joplin at the Fillmore, the Rolling Stones at the Garden, the Clash in Leeds, Grandmaster Flash in Times Square, and every punk band you can think of at CBGB.
Christgau chronicled many of the key cultural shifts of the last half century and revolutionized the cultural status of the music critic in the process. Going Into the City is a look back at the upbringing that grounded him, the history that transformed him, and the music, books, and films that showed him the way. Like Alfred Kazin’s A Walker in the City, E. B. White’s Here Is New York, Joseph Mitchell’s Up in the Old Hotel, and Patti Smith’s Just Kids, it is a loving portrait of a lost New York. It’s an homage to the city of Christgau’s youth from Queens to the Lower East Side—a city that exists mostly in memory today. And it’s a love story about the Greenwich Village girl who roamed this realm of possibility with him.

Going into the City: Portrait of a Critic as a Young Man

Christgau, Robert

Humor & Entertainment

Dey Street Books

GOING INTO CITY

HarperEnt

Any Old Way You Choose It: Rock and Other Pop Music 1967-1973 by Christgau, Robert. 4 1/4 x 7.

Any Old Way You Choose It: Rock and Other Pop Music 1967-1973

Arts & Photography

Music

Penguin??Books

Robert Christgau on James Brown: "When he modulates to the bridge it's like the Spirit of God moving upon the face of the waters. After that he could describe his cars for three [LP] sides and get away with it." Christgau on Carly Simon: "If a horse could sing in a monotone, the horse would sound like Carly Simon, only a horse wouldn't rhyme 'yacht,' 'apricot,' and 'gavotte.'" Christgau on Van Morrison: "This is a man who gets stoned on a drink of water and urges us to turn our radios all the way into the mystic. Visionary hooks his specialty." Christgau on Lou Reed: "Reed Sounds like he's imitating his worst enemy, himself." (Lou Reed on Robert Christgau: "What a moron! Studying rock and roll. I can't believe it!") An indispensable book, Christgau's Rock Albums the '70s is the definitive guide to nearly 3,000 albums of the decade that brought us progressive rock, country rock, glam rock, funk, disco, punk, heavy metal, and new wave.

Rock Albums Of The 70s: A Critical Guide

Da Capo Press

This text surveys the popular music of the decade that brought us rap, hardcore, MTV, new age, new wave, worldbeat and speed metal - the decade of Prince, King Sunny Ade, Marshall Crenshaw, De-Barge, The Replacements, Black Union, Hukser Du, New Order, Sonic Youth, R.E.M., Madonna and Public Enemy. Robert Christgau, author of "Rock Albums of the '70s" is one of America's leading rock critics. In this book he reviews and letter-grades some 3000 albums, providing a guide to the rock, pop, country, rap, blues, rock-related jazz, reggae, and African records of the 1980s.

Christgau's Record Guide

Rappers, rockers, emo-boys, jazz snobs, and poptimists alike eagerly anticipate each edition of Best Music Writing. Returning Series Editor Daphne Carr is joined by a true pioneer of the form, esteemed critic Robert Christgau. Past editions of Best Music Writing have included:Anne Midgette * David Ritz * Dave Eggers * Sasha Frere-Jones * Michaelangelo Matos * Elizabeth Méndez Berry * Alex Ross * Elizabeth Gilbert * Jay McInerney * Lynn Hirschberg * Chuck Klosterman * Sarah Vowell * Nick Tosches * Rosanne Cash * Greil Marcus * Richard Meltzer * Touré * Susan Orlean * Jonathan Lethem * Kate Sullivan * David Hadju * Gary Giddins * Luc Sante * Monica Kendrick * Kelefa Sanneh * and more...

Best Music Writing 2007 (Da Capo Best Music Writing)

Literature & Fiction

Carr, Daphne

Essays & Correspondence

The Dean of American Rock Critics tackles the decade when music exploded. The '90s saw more albums produced and distributed than any other decade. It was a fertile era for new genres, from alt-rock to Afropop, hip hop to techno. Rock critic Robert Christgau's obsessive ear and authoritative pen have covered it all-over 3,800 albums graded and classified, from A+s to his celebrated turkeys and duds. A rich appendix section ensures that nothing's been left out-from "subjects for further research" to "everything rocks but nothing ever dies." Christgau's Consumer Guide is essential reading and reference for any dedicated listener.

Christgau's Consumer Guide: Albums of the '90s

St. Martin's: Griffin

Grown Up All Wrong: 75 Great Rock and Pop Artists from Vaudeville to Techno

Two generations of American music lovers have grown up listening with Robert Christgau, attuned to his inimitable blend of judgment, acuity, passion, erudition, wit, and caveat emptor. His writings, collected here, constitute a virtual encyclopedia of popular music over the past fifty years. Whether honoring the originators of rock and roll, celebrating established artists, or spreading the word about newer ones, the book is pure enjoyment, a pleasure that takes its cues from the sounds it chronicles.
A critical compendium of points of interest in American popular music and its far-flung diaspora, this book ranges from the 1950s singer-songwriter tradition through hip-hop, alternative, and beyond. With unfailing style and grace, Christgau negotiates the straits of great music and thorny politics, as in the cases of Public Enemy, blackface artist Emmett Miller, KRS-One, the Beastie Boys, and Lynyrd Skynyrd. He illuminates legends from pop music and the beginnings of rock and roll―George Gershwin, Nat King Cole, B. B. King, Chuck Berry, and Elvis Presley―and looks at the subtle transition to just plain “rock” in the music of Janis Joplin, the Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, Aretha Franklin, James Brown, and others. He praises the endless vitality of Al Green, George Clinton, and Neil Young. And from the Rolling Stones to Sonic Youth to Nirvana, from Bette Midler to Michael Jackson to DJ Shadow, he shows how money calls the tune in careers that aren’t necessarily compromised by their intercourse with commerce.
Rock and punk and hip-hop, pop and world beat: this is the music of the second half of the twentieth century, skillfully framed in the work of a writer whose reach, insight, and perfect pitch make him one of the major cultural critics of our time.

Harvard University Press

Two generations of American music lovers have grown up listening with Robert Christgau, attuned to his inimitable blend of judgment, acuity, passion, erudition, wit, and caveat emptor. His writings, collected here, constitute a virtual encyclopedia of popular music over the past fifty years. Whether honoring the originators of rock and roll, celebrating established artists, or spreading the word about newer ones, the book is pure enjoyment, a pleasure that takes its cues from the sounds it chronicles. 
 A critical compendium of points of interest in American popular music and its far-flung diaspora, this book ranges from the 1950s singer-songwriter tradition through hip-hop, alternative, and beyond. With unfailing style and grace, Christgau negotiates the straits of great music and thorny politics, as in the cases of Public Enemy, blackface artist Emmett Miller, KRS-One, the Beastie Boys, and Lynyrd Skynyrd. He illuminates legends from pop music and the beginnings of rock and roll--George Gershwin, Nat King Cole, B. B. King, Chuck Berry, and Elvis Presley--and looks at the subtle transition to just plain "rock" in the music of Janis Joplin, the Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, Aretha Franklin, James Brown, and others. He praises the endless vitality of Al Green, George Clinton, and Neil Young. And from the Rolling Stones to Sonic Youth to Nirvana, from Bette Midler to Michael Jackson to DJ Shadow, he shows how money calls the tune in careers that aren't necessarily compromised by their intercourse with commerce. 
 Rock and punk and hip-hop, pop and world beat: this is the music of the second half of the twentieth century, skillfully framed in the work of a writer whose reach, insight, and perfect pitch make him one of the major cultural critics of our time.

The definitive guide to the rock albums of the '80s by rock critic Robert Christgau. Arranged alphabetically by performer for easy reference, these 2,800 capsule reviews concisely recall the musical highlights--and low points--of the last ten years of rock 'n' roll.

ROBERT CHRISTGAU'S RECORD GUID

Pantheon

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Christgau, Robert. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Christgau, Robert

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Christgau, Robert. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Going into the City: Portrait of a Critic as a Young Man

GOING INTO CITY

Any Old Way You Choose It: Rock and Other Pop Music 1967-1973

Rock Albums Of The 70s: A Critical Guide

Christgau's Record Guide

Best Music Writing 2007 (Da Capo Best Music Writing)

Christgau's Consumer Guide: Albums of the '90s

Grown Up All Wrong: 75 Great Rock and Pop Artists from Vaudeville to Techno

Grown Up All Wrong: 75 Great Rock and Pop Artists from Vaudeville to Techno

ROBERT CHRISTGAU'S RECORD GUID