Henry Rollins: The Column! The Failings of Music Writers

By Henry Rollins Thu., Oct. 11 2012 at 3:30 AM

[Look for your weekly fix from the one and only Henry Rollins right here on West Coast Sound every Thursday, and come back tomorrow for the awesomely annotated playlist for his Saturday KCRW broadcast.]

A few nights ago, we took the tour bus into the massive parking lot of a Walmart in South Dakota to get some provisions. Whenever I go into a Walmart, I always call it "committing Walmart," but it's one place we can fit the bus easily and so, now and then, we run the gauntlet.

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It was around 0230 hrs. and we were at the register. An elderly woman was bagging our goods. She good-naturedly joked with us as she rang us up. I watched her face as she spoke. I saw how tired she was, yet still so polite and friendly. It occurred to me that, after a certain age, the work smock with the name tag is an insult; I wondered if there was a humiliating factor when she put it on at the start of her shift. I also wondered why she was working at her age and at this hour. I hope it's because she wants to and not because she has to.

As I walked out of the place, I thought about how damn tough Americans are. How, no matter what, more often than not, Americans rise to the occasion and hammer away.

Just my opinion, but I don't think a woman her age should have to be that tough. What if the Constitution had an amendment addressing dignity, or perhaps a line inserted into the Preamble after the part about promoting the general welfare, addressing the defense of the elderly -- that might be cool.

It's not as if this woman was being tortured, but if this is the most technologically advanced nation in the world, the country that gave the world jazz, you would hope that we would take good care of those who have been around the track so many times.

It is autumn in America. Things are winding up as they also wind down. Finally, we are seeing some trees showing color, and the air is starting to cool. Halloween candy is on display in stores, and the nights are more crisp.

This is the America that I have to remind myself about amidst the political noise. I think it's important to pay attention on a lot of levels, but it can't be the only thing on my mind.

That being said, the ramp-up to the November election has been extremely enjoyable in all its vitriolic flailing. Well, one side is flailing; the other, in my opinion, is merely stating its case. Personally, I would rather let the music play.

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RRawpower

"Rarely has one who writes about those who make it ever had to try it for themselves."

Rare indeed as Lenny Kaye, f'rinstance, even before Nuggets, nailing the Stones' Exile for better or worse in one of so many memorable Rolling Stone Magazine reviews ("when you've been given the best, it becomes hard to accept anything less"): http://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews/exile-on-main-street-19720706 – and then showing exactly what it takes performing with Patti right on through last night's remarkable set here at the Wiltern: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkwkzzuaJds

As to which band at this point is truly relevant as ever when the Stones just happened to drop "Gloom and Doom" on the very same day? All the difference between commendable comment and complete commitment.

JennieVasquez topcommenter

1 Like

On the subject of Walmart, there are some elderly people who like to work because they were bored at home or they like to socialize by working especially after the loss of a spouse. I know a few of those. The unfortunate cases are those that need to work because of financial situations or in some instances, worse than having to wear the smock and name tag is that nobody else will hire them because of their age. I know many elderly folks or active seniors more like it, that love to work, want to work, would love to have a more demanding job but after retiring and riding off into the sunset, they lost their purpose and just want to something to give them an identity even if it is working at Walmart. Which brings me to another problem I see in our society. That working at Walmart is seen as a humiliating job. I was raised by parents who never made more than minimum wage, to believe that any job you do legally and to the best of your ability, is not a job you should be ashamed of. Unfortunately, I have been in a number of situations with so called higher educated people where conversations lead to making fun of Walmart employees because they have to work at Walmart. It's an honest living with crappy pay but I have way more respect for a Walmart employee than anyone who has time in the day to waste on putting people down because of where they work. It never ceases to amaze me when this occurs that my parents that never went higher than the third grade in Mexico, were more intelligent than people with a pretty piece of paper from a university.

grizzlymomma71

1 Like

It is wonderful to see that people are passionate about what the do. But.... As like restaurant reviews I like to find out about what's new and never go by other opinions. It's much better to experience for yourself. You have just proven Henry's point and have made the simple beauty of listening much more complicated than it needs to be.

fireserphent

As a music journalist, I felt compelled to respond to your statements of "basking under the dim bulb of your self-importance." I agree that music is an idea, but it's also like a science. Some theories work, others don't, for whatever reason and the role of a music journalist is to study these trends objectively, just like a political journalist or any other sort of journalist.

For you to say our opinion doesn't matter is and we should only write "fanatic" positive things stinks of your own "basking under the dim bulb of your self-importance." Maybe it's your opinion that's "wasting everyone's time" Mr. Rollins. But if we really should only write nothing but happy, positive things it takes away from that objective role.

I know that opinion is heavily injected into musical journalism, probably more than any other genre of journalism besides restaurant reviews and therefore, it's very tricky to remain objective. In the five years that I've written album reviews, I have tried my very best to understand the music from a historical, cultural and personal viewpoint (i.e. I didn't review genres of music I ostensibly dislike) and yet I never took myself too seriously. I realize they're just opinions, they probably don't add up to much, but they add up to a little. Having a negative opinion is just as important as having a positive one.

Then again, maybe not. I wrote this comment with an attempt to be diplomatic and it's coming across as self-indulgent and way too serious so I guess I could easily just say "Nah nah, fuck off."

JennieVasquez topcommenter

@fireserphent

Interesting post and one from a completely different perspective than I was thinking from. I read this article and didn't think twice about what the opinion of the music journalist would be of this article. I am not one who puts much weight behind a review of anything from music to movies to food because we all have our own opinions and those of others really don't matter to me. I always assume the reviewer or journalist just likes something or not and they are lucky enough to have a job writing about it. I never realized that some of you put so much thought and different viewpoints into a review. Like any job, some people take their work more serious than others. Nothing wrong with that. Also, like with anything in life, we should not take anything we do too seriously. Thanks for posting your opinion.