Book Review: Rick Johnson's 'Tin Cans, Squeems & Thudpies'

Rock Critic's Written Legacy Preserved in New Book

RICK JOHNSON with BILL KNIGHT (editor)

Rick Johnson Reader: 'Tin Cans, Squeems & Thudpies'

(Mayfly Productions)

Hmmm...where to start, where to start? How do you sum up the tragically short career of a rock critic, that most ephemeral of literary pursuits? After all, only a few bona fide, truly insightful rockcrits have ever made the jump from the fleeting, yellowing page of the periodical to a culturally-significant-and-acceptable placement between the covers of a book. Dave Marsh has always done it well, Greil Marcus, Meltzer, Christgau...heck, the almost-famous Lester Bangs had to wait until he died to earn his own ISBN number. Of the current crop of music writers - most of whom lack the passion and reckless temerity of the aforementioned first-gen giants - only Jim DeRogatis is worth reading. Weaned on ever-evolving musical trends and "bloato hype," today's rockcrits aren't fit to hold Lester's stash, so why should we trust their opinions?

So where do you start when talking about Rick Johnson? Well, he was this guy, you know..."Ranger Reek," a writer and critic...beloved by a smallish legion of fanboys and serious music geeks that troll eBay to this day looking for dog-eared copies of Creem to purchase. Ostensibly a "FOL" (Friend Of Lester) at the same time that Cameron Crowe was ditching his junior prom to write for Rolling Stone, Johnson was my reviews editor at Sunrise, a small mid-70s politics-and-culture publication that today would be called a "zine." Through his friendship with Bangs, "Reek" - as he was known to his readers - made connections at Creem that would later come in handy. In fact, Reek left Illinois in 1980 or so to live in the Detroit area and work at the Creem offices as a writer and editor. In between, he followed friend and editor Bill Knight from Sunrise, after its demise, to write for Prairie Sun, a record store-sponsored tab that carried on the great Midwest rock tradition.