Rating: 
Summary: I got to the middle then I got lost.. your mileage may vary.
Review: Is it just me, or does it just go a bit too far? I admit, I never did get to finish the book, and probably didn't get to see the whole "point" of it all...
Engaging and eclectic, but I kinda lose track when he gets just a bit too far from rock and roll itself. (I don't wanna compare, but "Psychotic Reactions..." by Lester Bangs [w/c marcus edited] is more "unputdownable" and didn't require me to brush up on my 20th century avant-garde theory)
The CD of this book is just as strange. (did they ever release it as CD/book combination?) Check out that sound poetry!! Marie Osmond too! And the last song, "Lipstick Traces" is just WONDERFUL.
Rating:
Summary: From a 1977 Punk: traces my life
Review: It does it! It traces the exact path I took in 1976, when 16, upon going from the Beats (Kero and Burro) into Dada... then on to Kent Ohio where the insane punk scene swept me up, cemented my sensibilities and threw me for a loop. Everything comes together in this book, although Marcus almost ignores what was happening in US at the time, he traces the roots of punk. His thesis is that the Sex Pistols' Anarchy for the UK/etc trace back to earlier ideas such as Dada, the SI, etc. He does a good job in dissecting what punk was without selling it out. Recommended for 30-something former punks AND for anyone currently 13-24. Sean Wolf Hill
Rating: 
Summary: Just read it!
Review: Just read it! If you have any interest in Punk music, the Situationists, art, Chaos, just give it a read! It is the most interesting book that I have ever read!
Rating: 
Summary: A tremendous catalyst for intellectual growth
Review: LIPSTICK TRACES is a tremendous brain expander. We talk sometimes of "expanding one's consciousness," and of no book is that more appropriate than this one. Marcus is not merely brilliant in what he writes; he is brilliant in the artists and writers and works of art he points you towards. You will find yourself scurrying off to buy copies of THE SOCIETY OF THE SPECTACLE, bootleg CDs of the Sex Pistols, and hard-to-find copies of movies like 20 MILLION YEARS TO EARTH, and will find yourself enriched by the process. But the main reason to get this book is that it is a lot of fun. Maybe I am weird, but I had none of the sense that some of the other readers had: that it is hard, that it bogs down, that it is a slow read. Maybe its all the Wittgenstein, Hegel, and Kierkegaard I read in grad school, but I found this book to be an absolute page turner. I give it my highest recommendation.
Rating:
Summary: A tremendous catalyst for intellectual growth
Review: LIPSTICK TRACES is a tremendous brain expander. We talk sometimes of "expanding one's consciousness," and of no book is that more appropriate than this one. Marcus is not merely brilliant in what he writes; he is brilliant in the artists and writers and works of art he points you towards. You will find yourself scurrying off to buy copies of THE SOCIETY OF THE SPECTACLE, bootleg CDs of the Sex Pistols, and hard-to-find copies of movies like 20 MILLION YEARS TO EARTH, and will find yourself enriched by the process. But the main reason to get this book is that it is a lot of fun. Maybe I am weird, but I had none of the sense that some of the other readers had: that it is hard, that it bogs down, that it is a slow read. Maybe its all the Wittgenstein, Hegel, and Kierkegaard I read in grad school, but I found this book to be an absolute page turner. I give it my highest recommendation.
Rating: 
Summary: Lipstick Traces as Seen Through The Eyes of Today?s Punk
Review: Lipstick Traces was a failed attempt to bring the punk scene to life. Greil Marcus' failed in his assumptions about what the Sex Pistols did for punk rock. The Sex Pistols are simply the Marilyn Manson of today, there music did little more than provide "shock" rock to a frustrated youth in Britain. Greil Marcus' also failed to realize that punk rock has evolved from the 1970's. It is no longer solely based upon the ideals of damning Christ and supporting Anarchism. He failed to mention that punk rock has become a voice for social reform and not just a tool for shocking a nation. Punk rock has also changed form the 1970's by moving away from the "passive" speech and has turned into action. Punks of today no longer watch as their government fails. Punks riot and protest for a reason, to bring about change, to take in active role in changing the government for the "better" in there own minds.
Also the Sex Pistols were not as Greil Marcus would have us believe the sole creators of the punk movement. There action simply led to punk being brought to a broder audience. Johnny Rotten was not the Antichrist he was a lap dog. A man scared to move from behind the microphone and actually take action for what he believed in. Johnny Rotten did nothing more than Mayrylin Manson has done for rock today, bring it into the limelite. Johnny Rotten did not change anything, johnny rotten was a failed attempet at something that could have been more true.
The entire first part of Lipstick Traces could have been sumed up by simply stating, "I like the Sex Pistols because they did something different". No more no less.
To be fair the second half of the book after Marcus got over his fetish for the sex pistols did have valid arguments and was a joy to read. He clearly and accuratly expressed the ideas of the situationist. Also to be fair I must concider that book was published in the early 1980's and he wrote what he saw to be the punk movement then. But now it has changed, it has taken a more active role. TO BECOME MORE RADICAL AND START A REVOLUTION IN THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF THE NATION IN ORDER TO BRING ABOUT REFORM IS WHAT PUNK IS NOW ABOUT NOT THE WHAT MARCUS THOUGHT IT WAS.
Rating:
Summary: Lipstick Traces as Seen Through The Eyes of Today¿s Punk
Review: Lipstick Traces was a failed attempt to bring the punk scene to life. Greil Marcus' failed in his assumptions about what the Sex Pistols did for punk rock. The Sex Pistols are simply the Marilyn Manson of today, there music did little more than provide "shock" rock to a frustrated youth in Britain. Greil Marcus' also failed to realize that punk rock has evolved from the 1970's. It is no longer solely based upon the ideals of damning Christ and supporting Anarchism. He failed to mention that punk rock has become a voice for social reform and not just a tool for shocking a nation. Punk rock has also changed form the 1970's by moving away from the "passive" speech and has turned into action. Punks of today no longer watch as their government fails. Punks riot and protest for a reason, to bring about change, to take in active role in changing the government for the "better" in there own minds.
Also the Sex Pistols were not as Greil Marcus would have us believe the sole creators of the punk movement. There action simply led to punk being brought to a broder audience. Johnny Rotten was not the Antichrist he was a lap dog. A man scared to move from behind the microphone and actually take action for what he believed in. Johnny Rotten did nothing more than Mayrylin Manson has done for rock today, bring it into the limelite. Johnny Rotten did not change anything, johnny rotten was a failed attempet at something that could have been more true.
The entire first part of Lipstick Traces could have been sumed up by simply stating, "I like the Sex Pistols because they did something different". No more no less.
To be fair the second half of the book after Marcus got over his fetish for the sex pistols did have valid arguments and was a joy to read. He clearly and accuratly expressed the ideas of the situationist. Also to be fair I must concider that book was published in the early 1980's and he wrote what he saw to be the punk movement then. But now it has changed, it has taken a more active role. TO BECOME MORE RADICAL AND START A REVOLUTION IN THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF THE NATION IN ORDER TO BRING ABOUT REFORM IS WHAT PUNK IS NOW ABOUT NOT THE WHAT MARCUS THOUGHT IT WAS.
Rating:
Summary: Frankly, this book changed the way I look at the world.
Review: Marcus starts with the first time he heard the Sex Pistols' "Anarchy In The U.K.", then delves into the past to dig up all the movements in history that led up to Johnny Rotten getting in front of the mike and saying what he did. He examines Dada, Surrealism, Situationism, the Paris Commune, medieval heresies -- all the movements that made radical demands on reality. Though they never won any victories, they raised the stakes of everyday life a little. LIPSTICK TRACES made me look at the world differently; it too wins no victories, but it's changed -- just a little -- the way a few people walk and talk, and as such it takes its place in the secret history with the rest of those crazy, unrealized dreams.
Rating:
Summary: Frankly, this book changed the way I look at the world.
Review: Marcus starts with the first time he heard the Sex Pistols' "Anarchy In The U.K.", then delves into the past to dig up all the movements in history that led up to Johnny Rotten getting in front of the mike and saying what he did. He examines Dada, Surrealism, Situationism, the Paris Commune, medieval heresies -- all the movements that made radical demands on reality. Though they never won any victories, they raised the stakes of everyday life a little. LIPSTICK TRACES made me look at the world differently; it too wins no victories, but it's changed -- just a little -- the way a few people walk and talk, and as such it takes its place in the secret history with the rest of those crazy, unrealized dreams.
Rating:
Summary: can I make a horrible confession?
Review: Sigh. Okay, okay... I never actually finished reading this one... but I had a lot of fun trying! Pop culture critic Marcus weaves the history of the Sex Pistols -- and their disasterous final tour to America -- in with sideways social analyses and neo-surrealist "Situationism". A heady, stream-of-consciousness, Lester Bangs-ian nouveaux rock book that'll give you plenty to think about. You'll get dizzy being pointed in so many directions at once. A classic.
|
