Submitted by Paul Wexler, Oct 10, 2007 08:40

I devoured the Sheed book. At first I had some quibbles (imp of the perverse was Poe's, not emerson's); his slighting of Irving Berlin, (who wrote powerfully emotional songs about many different things such as the jewish diaspora e.g. Russian Lullaby); and Sheed's love of everything about musicals, not just the songs they generated. Still, his book is riveting, until the anti rock/modern pop taunts pile up. Sometime in the 40's, jazz split into Bop and jump Blues. Since R&B started w jump blues and white rock is just a pale imitation of R&B, Sheed's contempt for rock extends to R&B. I think he has an aesthetic prejudice against simple chord structures. No good songs but the standards? robert Johnson no good, Hank williams no good, sam cook no good etc.... I can't go for that. Currenty I am learning Sheed's favorite standards on the trumpet and piano.... I love them, and The House that George Built has pointed me in the right direction of many of them (not as many as my fake book, but that is another matter). But if Sheed doesn't want his precious music to die out, perhaps he should ixnay on the hock ratred. His book is guaranteed to turn off many born after 1950.

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