Bitching

My good friend the Skeptic doesn't like Bitches Brew. She's annoyed that Amazon calls it an "essential recording."

Fair enough; I've got no dog in this fight. But help is on the way. Remember Underbelly's rule of Amazon reviews: sort from lowest rating first, and read the negatives. "Drivel," says Heitham. "Bad acid trip!" says the Doctor of Rock. "Just Noise, Don't Bother," says Brian.

I would dearly love to claim IP rights in the Underbelly rule, so I could stomp the stuffing out of anyone who might use it without forking over a fat fee. Unfortunately, I cannot. It's an old journalistic technique. James Reston used it (if memory serves me rightly) to win his Pulitzer Prize for covering the Bretton Woods Conference in 1944. "Just find the people who are unhappy," he says (I quote from memory). In Reston's case, I think it was the Chinese nationalists. I don't know what they think of Bitches Brew, but the rule still works.