The Dark Stuff: Selected Writings on Rock Music

Nick Kent is a longtime rock music critic, first at NME in the 1970s and later for The Face and The Guardian. The Dark Stuff collects twenty-two of his previously-published musical profiles of variety of artists, including Neil Young, Brian Wilson, Lou Reed, Jerry Lee Lewis, the Rolling Stones, and Iggy Pop. Kent is an engaging and enthusiastic writer, but his pieces are generally too focused on each musician's personal life and other gossipy details, and not enough on the music itself. His profiles of Morrissey and Miles Davis are excellent, however.