Library Rock's Backpages

Perspectives on Ralph J. Gleason

Al Aronowitz, Rolling Stone, 17 July 1975

RALPH GLEASON got hooked on music when he was a high school kid in Chappaqua, New York, back in the early '30s. You gotta dig the kind of tight-ass gentile town Chappaqua was. If you listened to pop music at all, it was the 'Star-Spangled Banner', but Ralph, I suppose, was destined to become a Yankee weirdo who later on in life would wear Sherlock Holmes hats and plain trenchcoats and never even smoke pot. Didn't he end up the Oliver Wendell Holmes of music critics? I mean, the thing I always liked most about Ralph was that he always made sense. You could believe in him.

Total word count of piece: 1268

Subscribe

Becoming a member is easy. Membership gives you access to all the thousands of articles in the library.

Click here to go to Subscribe page.

Click here for academic and other group subscriptions.