More than a rolling stone

What do Bob Dylan, the Sex Pistols and Elvis have in common?

They have been exquisitely captured by rock critic Greil Marcus, who is coming to Cal Poly as the final speaker in the WriterSpeak series.

Marcus is a former writer and editor of Rolling Stone and Creem magazines, and has been a major player in popular culture criticism for more than 30 years. He has written many articles, essays and books that have transformed the way rock music is perceived in society.

“There are two categories of reggae: Bob Marley and everybody else. There are two categories of rock: The Beatles and everybody else. There are two categories of dramatic literature: Shakespeare and everybody else. For rock criticism, there’s Greil Marcus and everybody else,” English professor James Cushing said.

Marcus will speak on Friday at 7 p.m. in the Clyde P. Fisher Science building, room 286. Admission is free and the event is open to the public.

His first book, “Mystery Train,” which was published in 1975, was “the first book-length intellectual document to take rock music seriously,” said Cushing, who has been reading Marcus’ work since the ’60s.

The reviews went beyond if a record was good or not – they delved into the meaning of the music and how it was a reflection of society. You can learn about American values by studying rock, and the enjoyment of the music increases with the reading of the book, Cushing said.

“His writings on popular culture and pop music are as insightful as anybody’s,” Adam Hill, an English professor in charge of Writerspeak said.

Marcus followed “Mystery Train” with “Lipstick Traces,” which Cushing calls the “single best book ever about punk rock,” and “Dead Elvis,” which examines the king’s successful posthumous career. Elvis has made much more money after his death than he did while he was alive.

One may be skeptical of a book written about a single song, but “Like a Rolling Stone: Bob Dylan at the Crossroads” digs into all aspects of Dylan’s world to better understand where the song came from and what it means.

“The Old, Weird America: The World of Bob Dylan’s Basement Tapes” is Cushing’s favorite, which he calls the best book about Bob Dylan of all time.

“He’s a brilliant f-king guy,” Cushing said. “He raises you up so you can be enlightened.”

Marcus is coming off a short guest lecture stint at Princeton University, where he has been discussing his new book, “The Shape of Things to Come: Prophecy and the American Voice.”

As Marcus continues to write, he continues to listen to everything; he’s not committed to one particular era, Hill said.

“He still manages to stay involved, he knows the new bands,” he said.

WriterSpeak has been a program for about 25 years but really took off in the last decade, Hill said . It now brings one writer per quarter.

The program started small, with mostly local people. Since Hill took the helm, there have been more nationally-recognized people.

“I have a pretty good pulse on things,” he said.

The funding for WriterSpeak is mainly provided by Cal Poly Arts, with some grant money coming from the College of Liberal Arts.

The question and answer session of the speech should be really good, since Marcus knows so much, Cushing said.