For this episode, Robert Christgau and Joe Levy are joined by RJ Smith—a writer/editor at the Country Music Hall of Fame and the author of the great James Brown biography The One—to talk about his latest book, Chuck Berry: An American Life. They discuss the difficulties of writing the definitive biography of a man who was both one of rock’s most important figures and one of its most reticent, the way coming of age in St. Louis shaped Berry’s world, and Berry’s well documented dehumanizing treatment of women. “This is a rich book, full of tales and details and contradictions and ramifications,” wrote Christgau in a review last November. “Wish I believed it’ll win the Pulitzer it deserves.”

Roll Over Joseph Pulitzer

https://rb.gy/njhu0

RJ Smith on Rock’s Backpages

https://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Writer/rj-smith

Chuck Berry: An American Life

https://bookshop.org/p/books/chuck-berry-an-american-life-rj-smith/18325123?ean=9780306921636

In the first Quarterly Pazz & Jop Report, Robert Christgau and Rob Sheffield talk about some of their favorite records of Q1 of 2023 (or late 2022). Under discussion: Gina Burch, I Play My Bass Loud; boygenius, the record; Iris DeMent, Working on a World; Pictoria Vark, The Parts I Dread; Robert Forster, The Candle and the Flame; Lil Yachty, Let's Start Here; 100 gecs, 10,000 gecs; Softcult, See You in the Dark; Balka Sound, Balka Sound. Executive Producer is Sandy Smallens from Audiation. Mixed by Matt Noble. Thanks as always to Wussy for the Auriculum theme music.

‘I’m a City Girl. I’m a Warrior.’ Punk-Rock Legend Gina Birch Plays Her Rage Out Loud

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/gina-birch-raincoats-solo-album-1234694246/

Pictoria Vark Is Heading Into Parts Unknown, And Finding Herself As She Goes

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/pictoria-vark-parts-i-dread-1234666521/

The Debut Album From Boygenius Is Even Better Than Everyone Had Hoped

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-album-reviews/boygenius-the-record-1234704024/

Read Robert Christgau’s weekly newsletter, And It Don’t Stop, on Substack: 

Sparked by a tweet from Ireland, the And It Don’t Stop triumvirate—Der Dean, his executive editor Joe Levy, and for the first time ever his personal trainer Carola Dibbell—thought it might be a little fun for me and Carola to talk over the big fun, nice work if you can get it, and nagging anxieties that ensued when Rolling Stone asked not just Der Dean but pioneering female rock critic Dibbell to be among the many bizzers, musicians, and journos it harassed, ordered, flattered, and enticed into voting in its third 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list. Fans curious about my working methods or the marital comity with which they have long been intertwined will get some notion of how they play out here without glimpsing the more dogged “work listening” part. Levy, who oversaw the first Rolling Stone 500 back when he was employed by the mag himself, nails crucial specifics, keeps the ball rolling whenever we get tangled up in a scrum, and has done us the tremendous favor of constructing an imaginative Spotify playlist based on the conversation which constitutes the fifth episode of the occasional And It Don’t Stop podcast Auriculum. Thanks as always to Sandy Smallens for the audio and Wussy for the theme music.