You Could Look It Up

Rating rock: Rolling Stone scores some bull's-eyes from the hip

"So I can't tell you the exact margin," James Thurber wrote in one of his most celebrated diversions. "But . . . you could look it up." Thurber was writing about baseball, specifically, about a game in which a sawed-off number named Pearl du Monville -- all 35 inches of him -- rallies a flagging team and pushes them on toward the pennant. There are many sources to check sports stats, but for the even woollier recreation of rock 'n' roll, the research pickings have been slim. The Rolling Stone Record Guide (Random House/Rolling Stone Press; $19.95 hard cover, $8.95 in paper) is a lively start to ward righting this situation. No more trips to the record store to consult the catalogues. The Guide contains enough spirited information to begin reckoning that exact margin.

Edited by Dave Marsh with John Swenson, the Guide is a survey of nearly 10,000 albums now in print, either rock records or those that are in some way rock related. There are almost three dozen contributors, most of them card-carrying critics who pack strong opinions. The book is organized by artist. Styles are surveyed, ratings apportioned (from "Worthless" to "Indispensable"), careers evaluated and, in a some cases, trashed. There may not be a great many surprises here. The good guys (Springsteen, Dylan, the Who) win; the bad guys (from Black Sabbath and the Tubes to Mac Davis and Kenny Rogers) are pumped full of holes. The contributors may be quick to shoot from the hip, but they score a fair share of bull's-eyes. "Limpid 'adult bubblegum' rockers" seems about right for Crosby, Stills and Nash, while Marsh gives fast, passionate rundowns on Elvis or a great band like Creedence Clearwater Revival.

Intended as a carry-all consumer consultancy, the Guide may find its greatest value by tempting readers into playing something that has not been in the Top 100 for a long time, or that was never there at all, whether it is a collection by Solomon Burke or some blues by Jimmy Reed. The evaluations can be infuriatingly arbitrary: albums by a group of four-chord gobblers like Mahogany Rush are rated as high as some by Van Morrison and Neil Young. The fault, however, is also part of the point. Rock reviewing is high-temperature writing. It has as much in common with the sports page as the book review. The best entries in the Guide mean to pick a fight, to get you to listen close and to give a sense of rock history. There is even a glossary. Maybe you're worried because the kids have started talking about doo-wops, and you think its something they're buying off the homeroom pusher. You could look it up. And relax.

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