Word: riffs
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...interlocutors of Vox -- Abby and Jim (the pedestrian names somehow don't do them justice) -- are virtuoso talkers. They are not merely poets of sexuality (an eroticized George and Gracie) but acute lyricists of everyday life. Listen to Abby's riff on pop songs that end with fade-outs ("this attempt to imply that oh yeah, we're a bunch of endlessly creative folks who jam all night"); while Jim explains why he doesn't bother to buy such records ("you really need the feeling of radio luck in listening to pop music...
PROFILE Robin Williams does a riff about growing...
...Black or White track is driven by an infectious riff that sounds like prime Keith Richards. In fact, Slash of Guns N' Roses is the guitar man here. Once again Michael proves to be the grand master at pulling together all sorts of styles -- dance, rock, rap -- into a seamless whole. He may be reluctant to show his face -- only his eyes, a lock of hair and a tiny image of the child star of the Jackson 5 appear in the album art -- but he is fearless about his feelings. Every one of these 14 songs is out front...
Buried somewhere in the left speaker of the Velvet Underground's "The Murder Mystery," Lou Reed speaks "with words nearly singed." In 1969 the phrase flew by, drowned out by the cascade of sounds--another lyric stereo right, the guitar riff, tape hiss...
This long opening riff is fine and engaging, comparable to the best passages -- fictional or otherwise -- that Mailer has ever written. Harry's narrative sails forward on a river of Scotch, melodrama, sex, paranoia and typically Mailerian metaphysics (Harry knows why his waitress-girlfriend was so pleasant to him the first time she worked his table: "She saw money coming in all kinds of emotional flavors. It took happy money to buy a dependable appliance"). At the end of all these pyrotechnical effects, which include a persuasively real ghost in Harry's basement, the hero has achieved some pressing problems...