Rock critic returns to Bloomington

Anthony DeCurtis is the most visible face of rock criticism today. As a frequent contributor to VH1 programming, a contributing editor at Rolling Stone and a Grammy award winning writer to boot, he has established himself at the forefront of his field. At 7:30 p.m. tonight at the Buskirk-Chumley Theatre, the Union Board will present "Anthony DeCurtis -- The Beatles: Yesterday and Today," in which DeCurtis will lecture and answer questions from the audience.\nDeCurtis is a native of Greenwich Village in New York City. After completing his undergraduate work at Hunter College, City University of New York, he then attended graduate school at IU. He stayed in Bloomington from 1974 to 1979 and received a Ph.D. in American Literature. He also worked as an associate instructor in the English Department during his time at IU, after which he taught at Emory in Atlanta.\n"I set out to be an English professor," DeCurtis said, "and by that point, which was in the '70s, I was assuming that one way or another I was going to be writing about popular music." \nEven after all of the success he has garnered in his chosen field, DeCurtis can still be found teaching. Currently it is creative writing at the University of Pennsylvania.\nDeCurtis describes his entry into rock criticism as literally falling into it. \n"I got into it kind of by accident in a way," he said. "A friend of mine had been doing it at the newspaper, The Bloomington Herald Telephone it was called then, and it just seemed like fun. I always loved music, and as a graduate student in English, I was preparing to write literary criticism and it wasn't that much of an adjustment."\nIn the early 1980s DeCurtis began writing for Record magazine, a music monthly put out by Rolling Stone. He began writing for Rolling Stone in 1986. He was a regular contributor and editor to Rolling Stone until 1995 and continues to write for the magazine today as well as a handful of other publications including The New York Times and Book Magazine. \nHis literary style and natural grace as a writer has given a certain professional and belletristic atmosphere to current rock criticism. Previously, it had been an infantile arena where writers like "the noise boys" (Nick Tosches, Dick Meltzer and Lester Bangs) attempted to write in the style of rock 'n' roll, so to speak. For all these specific personalities' gifts, a crop of other less talented music writers following the same muse had kept the field in traction for years.\nDespite the high-brow aesthetic one might assume DeCurtis would extol, he has tried to keep his writing simple and accessible. \nChicago Tribune rock critic Greg Kot said, "The guy's (DeCurtis) a genuine music fan. I was in New York and he said, 'Let's go back to my apartment and listen to some music.' So we just went back there and listened to music for a few hours, and the new R.E.M. record was about to come out. We just sat and listened to it from end to end a couple of times and talked about it, how excited we were about it. It was just two music fans talking. That approach carries over to his writing, that enthusiasm."\nHaving DeCurtis here to discuss the Beatles is not only interesting because of his position and talent but because these qualities have allowed him to gain exclusive access into the lives and minds of the band's members. \n"His many interviews with Paul and George point to the trust they had in him, especially George, who essentially granted Anthony his official 'comeback' interview after many reclusive years," said "Music of the Beatles" professor Glenn Gass. "He also assembled the John Lennon CD box, sifting through tapes at the Dakota building with Yoko Ono, again a remarkable display of trust from a notoriously guarded person. Phil Spector granted Anthony his only interview focusing on his work with John and George, and Dhani Harrison with Anthony on the posthumous release of his father's Brainwashed album in 2002."\nAs far as a pop culture critic goes, DeCurtis is at the top of the respected heap. His experience and knowledge of the Beatles' work and beyond should be enlightening at the least, and of course their music and celebrity has virtually saturated the crumbling culture we live in anyway.