Just a view from a 66 y.o.
Having lived through what I would describe as the golden age of rock. I was wondering what the chances are of having something other than modern reviews of 60s and 70s albums.
Is there any chance of getting some of the original reviews of albums from the music press at the time of release.
My reasoning is that contemporaneous reviews have more about them than longdistant reviews.
Just a thought.
Cheers
Henry
Somehow, I don’t think this is possible since many of the original reviews are only in print, or in some rare instances online archives of the particular publication.
However, if you select the Wikipedia review, and scroll to the bottom there is a link to the online article. Follow this, and scroll to references, and you may occasionally find links to an original review.
Passion Project Potential!
I do this all the time. I despise most of the TIVO reviews and try not to read them, myself. Unlike Wikipedia, as you say, most of these things are locked behind paywalls in archives. Some highly visible critics from the last fifty years ago have lots of content available for free, though. For example, Lester Bangs. Opinionated classic critics are actually pretty easy to find. Rocksbackpages.com is a place to start.
Robert Christgau also archives most of his reviews online as well. There’s a lot out there, a lot more than you would think. It’s just not as accessible as Wikipedia, so I usually find that is the best place to start searching for historic reviews.
Access to Wikipedia directly within Roon is a great feature. It looks more limited than it is, because you can always click through to a browser window for full access.
It would be fabulous to have that but there would need to be a structured repository. A page of early-nineties HTML like Christgau’s just doesn’t support any kind of automatism.