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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Grown Up All Wrong by Robert Christgau


Introduction: My Favorite Waste of Time

Where "Rock and Roll" Began

Across the Great Divide: Nat King Cole

Let's Call the Whole Thing Pop: George Gershwin

The Complete Work of B. B. King

The Blank Slate: George Jones

Black Face, Whose Voice? Emmett Miller

Brown Eyed Handsome Rock and Roller: Chuck Berry

Elvis in Literature: Elvis Presley

Where "Rock" Began

Spontaneity by the Seat of the Pants: Janis Joplin

Our First Bohemians: The Rolling Stones

God Grows Up: Eric Clapton

Genius Dumb: Led Zeppelin

Jimi Plays History: Jimi Hendrix

Out of This World: Aretha Franklin

Nothing To Say but Everything, or, As Far as He Could Go: John Lennon with John Piccarella

Why the Beatles Broke Up

James Brown's Great Expectations

Snatched from the Maw of Commerce

Stevie Wonder Is All Things to All People

A Boogie Band that Loves the Governor (Boo Boo Boo): Lynyrd Skynyrd

Turn On, Drop In, Find Out: The Grateful Dead

Music for Smart People: Randy Newman

Time Waits for No One: Richard Thompson

Father Alone Farther Along: Loudon Wainwright III

Born to Be Mature: Bonnie Raitt

Two Rock and Rollers Who Won't Change the World: Pete Fowler & Andy Fairweather Low

Smashing the State of the Art

Acting Like a King Because: New York Dolls

Patti Smith Pisses in a Vanguard

The Clash See America Second

The Great Punk Dandy at the Peppermint Lounge: Richard Hell

Pere Ubu's Right To Choose

Forever Rotten: The Sex Pistols

Kings of Rhythm

Sylvester Is a Star

Triumph of the Trifle: Ray Parker Jr.

Working the Crowd: Bruce Springsteen & Michael Jackson

Give Him Liberty or Give Him Death: Prince

Magnificent Seven: Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five

The Beastie Boys Go Too Far

Looking for the Perfect Public Enemy

An Autodidact's History of KRS-One

Between Punk and a Pop Place

A Voyage to Liliput

Simple Because He's Simple: Marshall Crenshaw with Carola Dibbell

Aching To Become: The Replacements

Living Legends: The B-52's

Sonic Youth Sell Out

Curse of the Mekons

They Are the World

West Africa Not Africa, Europe Not the World: Salif Keita & Youssou N'Dour

The Black Sea Giant and the Lion Queens: Mahlathini and the Mahotella Queens

The Goat-God in History: The Master Musicians of Jajouka

A Goat-God in Exile: (Cheb) Khaled

The Iron Curtain at Midnight: Pulnoc

Culture Hero: Mzwakhe Mbuli

Careers in Iconicity

Madonnathinking Madonnabout Madonnamusic

Garth Brooks, Michael Bolton, Barney, and You: Garth Brooks

Bette Midler Sings Everything

Lou Reed, Average Guy

"What Are Realities of Prince Deal?" Hell, What Is Reality?

Making a Spectacle of Herself: Janet Jackson

Careers in Semipopularity

Selling the Dirt To Pay the Band: Freedy Johnston

Are We Not Girls? We Are L7!

Lucinda Williams's Reasonable Demands

The Ballad of Polly Jean Harvey: PJ Harvey

Two Backsliders: Iris DeMent & Sam Phillips

On the Real Side: Warren G & Coolio

Art-Rock You Can Dance To: DJ Shadow

Honk if You Love Honking: James Carter

Unlikely Samba: Arto Lindsay

Stereolad: Pavement

Grrrowing Grrrls: Sleater-Kinney

Blown Away: Nirvana

Nature's Noblemen

The Goduncle: George Clinton

Pop Songs to God: Al Green

Wasted on the Young: Neil Young