Rating: 4/5
Review:
Good in parts
I enjoyed quite a lot of Metaphysical Graffiti, but I do
have some reservations. It's a
collection of essays about aspects of rock music which are fairly random,
quirky and personal – something I liked the sound of a lot. They are of rather mixed quality, though; at
their best they are perceptive and entertaining, but I found some to be tedious
and almost toe-curlingly unfunny.
Kaufman knows his stuff.
He's plainly a fan, he has listened widely and deeply and has thought
about what he has heard. This shows in
the essay Beatles Or Stones? in which Kaufman discusses with considerable
insight what factors dictate our answer to this sort of question, or his fine little
appreciation of drummers, or a very nicely done piece on influences – and I'm
always ready to applaud anyone who will acknowledge in public that, great
though some of their music may have been, a lot of the Grateful Dead's output
(especially live) is plain bloody boring.
On the other hand, there are some pretty frightful acts of
whimsy which aren't nearly as funny as they think they are: What Kind Of Air
Guitar Do You Play is not only pretty vacuous and unfunny, it's a load of
absurd, pseudo-psychological tosh, too, and as for Kaufmann's rap rendering of
Waiting For Godot…don't get me started.
He even feels the need to ruin already weak jokes further by explaining
afterward why they are (allegedly) funny.
It's pretty grim stuff in places.
I've given this four stars, perhaps slightly generously,
because Kaufman can write easy, readable prose and the good parts are genuinely
enjoyable and insightful, but I did have to grit my teeth quite hard to get through
other parts of it.
(My thanks to OR books for an ARC via NetGalley.)
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