Robert Christgau: Dean of American Rock Critics

Consumer Guide:
  User's Guide
  Grades 1990-
  Grades 1969-89
  And It Don't Stop
Books:
  Book Reports
  Is It Still Good to Ya?
  Going Into the City
  Consumer Guide: 90s
  Grown Up All Wrong
  Consumer Guide: 80s
  Consumer Guide: 70s
  Any Old Way You Choose It
  Don't Stop 'til You Get Enough
Xgau Sez
Writings:
  And It Don't Stop
  CG Columns
  Rock&Roll& [new]
  Rock&Roll& [old]
  Music Essays
  Music Reviews
  Book Reviews
  NAJP Blog
  Playboy
  Blender
  Rolling Stone
  Billboard
  Video Reviews
  Pazz & Jop
  Recyclables
  Newsprint
  Lists
  Miscellany
Bibliography
NPR
Web Site:
  Home
  Site Map
  Contact
  What's New?
    RSS
Carola Dibbell:
  Carola's Website
  Archive
CG Search:
Google Search:
Twitter:

Johnny Paycheck

  • Greatest Hits [Epic, 1974] C+
  • Take This Job and Shove It [Epic, 1978] B-
  • Greatest Hits Volume II [Epic, 1978] A-

Consumer Guide Reviews:

Greatest Hits [Epic, 1974]
The one-time rockabilly's unassuming Nashville-macho baritone proves a surprisingly ductile medium for Billy Sherrill's basic love-and-marriage exploitation--he defers so meekly to his material that he sounds more domesticated than Tanya, Tammy, or even Charlie Rich. C+

Take This Job and Shove It [Epic, 1978]
If this is proof that country is the real working-class music, then the only oppressor the working man knows is the woman whose pedestal he supports and the only right he demands is the right to cry in his beer. There's enough anomie, male bonding, and random violence on this record to inspire one cover story on whither outlaw and another on whither punk, and although it offers numerous insights, I wish I believed just a few of them were as intentional as the catchiness of the tunes. B-

Greatest Hits Volume II [Epic, 1978]
Outlaws are hardly immune to palaver, of course. But the best-of format eliminates the posturing to which this well-named entertainer resorts when the songs get thin, while his current Waylonism limits him to one pretty good romantic ballad. Almost every other selection talks funny and sings tough--in my favorites, a drunk who picks on a Mexican has his ear surgically removed and John resigns from the I.R.S. A-