If Dale Peck Dug Into His CD Collection

Ever since my copy showed up last week, I've been dipping into the essays in Kill Your Idols, a collection of critical reevaluations of the "greatest" rock albums of all time. I'd been given a heads-up about the book by Dawn Eden, who contributes one of the better essays I've read so far, deflating the mystique that's built up around Brian Wilson's never-finished Smile. So far I haven't always agreed with the critics--I happen to like Imperial Bedroom--and some of their choices just strike me as odd; does anybody really care enough about Paul & Linda McCartney's Ram that the record needs correcting? But it's certainly entertaining.

Co-editor Jim DeRogatis spoke with Mediabistro about how he and his wife, Carmél Carrillo, came to put this all together:

It took a long time to sell. I sent the proposal out for a while, and I got, invariably, "Nobody wants to read a book all of negative reviews." And I felt that was kind of a crock. Roger Ebert has always been one of my heroes, and one of my favorite books of his is I Hated, Hated, Hated This Movie. It's all of his worst pans, and it's very funny.

Fortunately for DeRogatis, now that his book tour's left the New York metropolitan area, he--unlike Dale Peck--probably won't have to worry about getting punched in the face by Stanley Crouch. Especially since nobody in the anthology disses Branford Marsalis' work on Sting's Dream of the Blue Turtles. (Carrillo hates on "Russians," but doesn't distribute the blame beyond Sting...)