Ellen Willis (1941–2006) was a groundbreaking radical leftist writer and thinker whose true loves were rock music, feminism, pleasure, and freedom. She was the first pop music critic for the New Yorker and an editor and columnist at the Village Voice. She wrote for numerous publications, including Rolling Stone, the New York Times, the Nation, and Dissent. She was the founder of the Cultural Reporting and Criticism Program at New York University, and she published three books of essays, Beginning to See the Light, No More Nice Girls, and Don't Think, Smile!Nona Willis Aronowitz has written about women, sex, music, technology, film, and youth culture for publications such as the Nation, the New York Observer, the Village Voice, and Salon. She is coauthor of Girldrive: Criss-crossing America, Redefining Feminism. Sasha Frere-Jones is a musician and writer from New York. He is a staff writer for the New Yorker and a member of the bands Ui and Calvinist. Daphne Carr lives and writes in New York City. She is editor of the Best Music Writing series. Evie Nagy is an associate editor at Billboard Magazine.

"Here, [Ellen Willis's] witty, cerebral essays finally get the compilation they deserve. She grapples with voices who inspired her . . . and relates feminism to music in revelatory ways. Vinyl Deeps is the testament of a crucial voice. At a time when rock clichÉs were still being invented, Willis was already leaving them behind." -Rob Sheffield, Rolling Stone"Willis's work is crystalline enough that reading each essay takes the reader on a trip back to the era when it originally appeared, but it's a testimony to her intellect and talent that those journeys look completely unlike any hagiography you might stumble across. She cuts through clichÉs nimbly . . . and the essays vibrate off the page." -Village Voice "At a time when music was less understood than it is today, Willis appreciated why musicians combined passion and intellect to not only document their time, but also influence movements." -Publishers Weekly, starred review "Out of the Vinyl Deeps should take its place alongside Marcus’s Mystery Train and Bangs’s Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung as one of the canonical documents of early pop music criticism. Even with her tendency to use big words and big ideas, Willis always knew at heart that music was a gas, gas, gas. She celebrated the seriousness of pleasure and relished the pleasure of thinking seriously. She followed in the footsteps of the New Yorker critics Dorothy Parker and Pauline Kael, and elbowed her way into the men’s club of music criticism. Maybe she didn’t even realize it was a men’s club-Willis seemed fiercely independent that way. Ultimately, Out of the Vinyl Deeps makes you want to do what the best music criticism should: pull out a record and listen to it with new ears." -New York Times "I’d call Ellen Willis the Ida Lupino of music writing, but even that wouldn’t say enough about this book's value. Out of the Vinyl Deeps is a time capsule, the publication of which invigorates and illuminates our grasp of the period it covers-but it is also a timeless compendium of clear thinking and fresh, humane, and persuasive prose."-Jonathan Lethem "Finally, Willis’s game-changing music writing is available in one place. It is like unearthing the holy grail of rock criticism!" -Kathleen Hanna"A pleasure to read and a crucial challenge when truly considered, Willis’s essays on rock, freedom, sex, and dancing in your bedroom continue to teach me every time I return to them." -Ann Powers

• Foreword: Opening the Vault Sasha Frere-JonesIntroduction: Wake-up Call Nona Willis AronowitzBefore the Flood: "Dylan," from Cheetah (1967)1. The World-Class Critic"Two Soul Albums" (November 1968)"The Who Sell" (July 1969)"Songs of Innocence and Experience" (February 1970)"'New Morning': Dylan Revisited" (December 1970)"Breaking the Vinyl Barrier" (July 1971)"Morrison Live" (June 1972)"'Elvis Presley? In Person?'" (July 1972)"Bowie's Limitations" (October 1972)"Frankenstein at the Waldorf" (November 197 ) "The Rolling Stones Now" (December 197 )"The Best of '74" (January 1975) Liner notes from Lou Reed's Rock and Roll Diary, 1967–1980 (1980)"The Velvet Underground," from Greil Marcus's Stranded (1979)"The Decade in Rock Lyrics," from Village Voice (January 1980)"The New Talking World War III Blues," from Salon.com (2001) 2. The Adoring Fan"The Big Ones" (February 1969)"East versus West" (July 1971)"Their Generation" (August 1971)"Yesterday's Papers" (August 1972)"Creedence As Therapy" (September 1972)"Believing Bette Midler, Mostly" (December 197 )"Dylan and Fans: Looking Back, Going On" (February 1974) "The Abyss," from Village Voice (June 1979)3. The Sixties Loyalist"Pop Ecumenicism" (May 1968)"Randy Newman" (August 1971)"George and John" (February 1971)"Consumer Revolt" (September 1971)"My Grand Funk Problem—and Ours" (February 1972)"Into the Seventies, for Real" (December 1972)"Roseland Nation" (October 197 )"Sympathy for the Stones" (July 1975) "Creedence Clearwater Revival," from Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock 'n' Roll (1980)"Janis Joplin," from Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock 'n' Roll (1980)Selections from "Don't Turn Your Back on Love," Liner Notes to Janis, a Janis Joplin Box Set (199 )4. The Feminist"But Now I'm Gonna Move" (October 1971)"Joni Mitchell: Still Traveling" (March 197 )"Women's Music" (June 1974)"After the Flood" (April 1975) "Beginning to See the Light," Village Voice (1977)Preface to Barbara O'Dair's Trouble Girls: The Rolling Stone Book of Women in Rock (1997)5. The Navigator"Newport: You Can't Go Down Home Again" (August 1968)"The Scene, 1968" (November 1968) "Summer of Love in Queens" (July 1969)"Elvis in Las Vegas" (August 1969) "The Cultural Revolution Saved from Drowning" (September 1969)"Stranger in a Strange Land" (December 1969)"The Return of the Dolls" (January 197 )"San Francisco Habitat" (August 197 ) 6. The Sociologist"Pop Blues" (April 1968)"The Ordeal of Moby Grape" (June 1968) "The Star, the Sound, and the Scene" (July 1968)"Roots" (February 1969)"Dylan's Anti-Surprise" (April 1969)"Elliott Murphy's White Middle Class Blues" (February 1974)"Mott the Hoople: Playing the Loser's Game" (May 1974)"Springsteen: The Wild, the Innocent, and the Street Kid Myth" (November 1974)"The Importance of Stevie Wonder" (December 1974) Introduction to Beginning to See the Light: Sex, Hope, and Rock 'n' Roll (1981)Afterword: Raise Your Hand Daphne Carr and Evie Nagy

1. 5/5

   Rockrecencenternas gudmoder

   Ellen Willis är en typ av kritiker som inte längre finns. Intelligent, sätter musiken i ett socialt och politiskt sammanhang och man vill läsa henne av andra skäl än musiktips. Hon slutade skriva om rock i början av 80-talet men innna dess hade vi fått tillräckligt med artiklar för att fylla denna utmärkta antologi.

   Luca N

   20 november 2014

Ellen Willis (1941–2006) was a groundbreaking radical leftist writer and thinker whose true loves were rock music, feminism, pleasure, and freedom. She was the first pop music critic for the New Yorker and an editor and columnist at the Village Voice. She wrote for numerous publications, including Rolling Stone, the New York Times, the Nation, and Dissent. She was the founder of the Cultural Reporting and Criticism Program at New York University, and she published three books of essays, Beginning to See the Light, No More Nice Girls, and Don't Think, Smile!Nona Willis Aronowitz has written about women, sex, music, technology, film, and youth culture for publications such as the Nation, the New York Observer, the Village Voice, and Salon. She is coauthor of Girldrive: Criss-crossing America, Redefining Feminism. Sasha Frere-Jones is a musician and writer from New York. He is a staff writer for the New Yorker and a member of the bands Ui and Calvinist. Daphne Carr lives and writes in New York City. She is editor of the Best Music Writing series. Evie Nagy is an associate editor at Billboard Magazine.

"Here, [Ellen Willis's] witty, cerebral essays finally get the compilation they deserve. She grapples with voices who inspired her . . . and relates feminism to music in revelatory ways. Vinyl Deeps is the testament of a crucial voice. At a time when rock clichÉs were still being invented, Willis was already leaving them behind." -Rob Sheffield, Rolling Stone"Willis's work is crystalline enough that reading each essay takes the reader on a trip back to the era when it originally appeared, but it's a testimony to her intellect and talent that those journeys look completely unlike any hagiography you might stumble across. She cuts through clichÉs nimbly . . . and the essays vibrate off the page." -Village Voice "At a time when music was less understood than it is today, Willis appreciated why musicians combined passion and intellect to not only document their time, but also influence movements." -Publishers Weekly, starred review "Out of the Vinyl Deeps should take its place alongside Marcus’s Mystery Train and Bangs’s Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung as one of the canonical documents of early pop music criticism. Even with her tendency to use big words and big ideas, Willis always knew at heart that music was a gas, gas, gas. She celebrated the seriousness of pleasure and relished the pleasure of thinking seriously. She followed in the footsteps of the New Yorker critics Dorothy Parker and Pauline Kael, and elbowed her way into the men’s club of music criticism. Maybe she didn’t even realize it was a men’s club-Willis seemed fiercely independent that way. Ultimately, Out of the Vinyl Deeps makes you want to do what the best music criticism should: pull out a record and listen to it with new ears." -New York Times "I’d call Ellen Willis the Ida Lupino of music writing, but even that wouldn’t say enough about this book's value. Out of the Vinyl Deeps is a time capsule, the publication of which invigorates and illuminates our grasp of the period it covers-but it is also a timeless compendium of clear thinking and fresh, humane, and persuasive prose."-Jonathan Lethem "Finally, Willis’s game-changing music writing is available in one place. It is like unearthing the holy grail of rock criticism!" -Kathleen Hanna"A pleasure to read and a crucial challenge when truly considered, Willis’s essays on rock, freedom, sex, and dancing in your bedroom continue to teach me every time I return to them." -Ann Powers

• Foreword: Opening the Vault Sasha Frere-JonesIntroduction: Wake-up Call Nona Willis AronowitzBefore the Flood: "Dylan," from Cheetah (1967)1. The World-Class Critic"Two Soul Albums" (November 1968)"The Who Sell" (July 1969)"Songs of Innocence and Experience" (February 1970)"'New Morning': Dylan Revisited" (December 1970)"Breaking the Vinyl Barrier" (July 1971)"Morrison Live" (June 1972)"'Elvis Presley? In Person?'" (July 1972)"Bowie's Limitations" (October 1972)"Frankenstein at the Waldorf" (November 197 ) "The Rolling Stones Now" (December 197 )"The Best of '74" (January 1975) Liner notes from Lou Reed's Rock and Roll Diary, 1967–1980 (1980)"The Velvet Underground," from Greil Marcus's Stranded (1979)"The Decade in Rock Lyrics," from Village Voice (January 1980)"The New Talking World War III Blues," from Salon.com (2001) 2. The Adoring Fan"The Big Ones" (February 1969)"East versus West" (July 1971)"Their Generation" (August 1971)"Yesterday's Papers" (August 1972)"Creedence As Therapy" (September 1972)"Believing Bette Midler, Mostly" (December 197 )"Dylan and Fans: Looking Back, Going On" (February 1974) "The Abyss," from Village Voice (June 1979)3. The Sixties Loyalist"Pop Ecumenicism" (May 1968)"Randy Newman" (August 1971)"George and John" (February 1971)"Consumer Revolt" (September 1971)"My Grand Funk Problem—and Ours" (February 1972)"Into the Seventies, for Real" (December 1972)"Roseland Nation" (October 197 )"Sympathy for the Stones" (July 1975) "Creedence Clearwater Revival," from Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock 'n' Roll (1980)"Janis Joplin," from Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock 'n' Roll (1980)Selections from "Don't Turn Your Back on Love," Liner Notes to Janis, a Janis Joplin Box Set (199 )4. The Feminist"But Now I'm Gonna Move" (October 1971)"Joni Mitchell: Still Traveling" (March 197 )"Women's Music" (June 1974)"After the Flood" (April 1975) "Beginning to See the Light," Village Voice (1977)Preface to Barbara O'Dair's Trouble Girls: The Rolling Stone Book of Women in Rock (1997)5. The Navigator"Newport: You Can't Go Down Home Again" (August 1968)"The Scene, 1968" (November 1968) "Summer of Love in Queens" (July 1969)"Elvis in Las Vegas" (August 1969) "The Cultural Revolution Saved from Drowning" (September 1969)"Stranger in a Strange Land" (December 1969)"The Return of the Dolls" (January 197 )"San Francisco Habitat" (August 197 ) 6. The Sociologist"Pop Blues" (April 1968)"The Ordeal of Moby Grape" (June 1968) "The Star, the Sound, and the Scene" (July 1968)"Roots" (February 1969)"Dylan's Anti-Surprise" (April 1969)"Elliott Murphy's White Middle Class Blues" (February 1974)"Mott the Hoople: Playing the Loser's Game" (May 1974)"Springsteen: The Wild, the Innocent, and the Street Kid Myth" (November 1974)"The Importance of Stevie Wonder" (December 1974) Introduction to Beginning to See the Light: Sex, Hope, and Rock 'n' Roll (1981)Afterword: Raise Your Hand Daphne Carr and Evie Nagy

1. 5/5

   Rockrecencenternas gudmoder

   Ellen Willis är en typ av kritiker som inte längre finns. Intelligent, sätter musiken i ett socialt och politiskt sammanhang och man vill läsa henne av andra skäl än musiktips. Hon slutade skriva om rock i början av 80-talet men innna dess hade vi fått tillräckligt med artiklar för att fylla denna utmärkta antologi.

   Luca N

   20 november 2014