Greil Marcus came to Buenos Aires to celebrate his 80th birthday and (almost) no one noticed.
On June 19, critic and essayist Greil Marcus turned 80. He may have been gazing at the San Francisco sky, but the truth is, he spent quite a bit of time gazing at the course of the Río de la Plata. The acclaimed author of Traces of Carmine (1987) and a leading figure in music journalism , decided to celebrate his birthday in Buenos Aires, and no one noticed.
Grail Marcus, writer and rock theorist, in 2017. Photo: Martín Bonetto.
On his previous visit in 2017, he had said that he felt the city of Buenos Aires was a mix of Chicago and Barcelona, and that, for that reason, it made him feel rather comfortable. Just recently, he picked up Julio Cortázar's Hopscotch for the fourth time, and while reflecting on the mood of that fictional text , he said he regretted not having read it. Clarín was one of the two media outlets to which Marcus gave the longest article of his three visits to the country. From the blues to hip hop, from the worst racial tragedy in his country to anti-science movements, from the role of specialized journalism to the great social movements of the 21st century.
As Greil Marcus exemplified the role of music criticism in 2025 with a Prince show in Paris (1988), he moved his hands slowly. They were heavy and thick, not at all like those of a writer. He stared at his two interlocutors through the filter of the same small, round glasses he'd worn since the late 1960s, a time when he was already writing for Rolling Stone.
Every question he agreed to answer immediately became an essay. Marcus, moreover, always has an extraordinary example. With Prince to talk about music criticism, he also took the opportunity to criticize the former critics of Inrockuptibles for being snobbish. That publication, which for several decades competed with the major music journalism magazines, didn't make it explicit, but his worn, mischievous demeanor demonstrated it.
One of the few guests invited to this secret meeting was the essayist and historian Sergio Pujol. Due to the immediacy of the event, he was unable to attend, but in contact with Clarín , he acknowledged the critic's importance in the country. Indeed, Pujol is a kind of Greil Marcus for the new generations of music journalism in Argentina. Not only for his expertise in popular music and politics, but also because he is a biographer of great Argentine artists such as Atahualpa Yupanqui, Gato Barbieri, and Oscar Alemán.
Marcus wrote books about Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, Elvis Presley (among others) and always placed them in a political and social context . That's why, when he talks about hip hop, besides not considering himself an expert on the subject, he discusses issues related to national politics in the 21st century in the United States, especially Donald Trump's administration. He says he struggles to accept the millionaire profile of rap's greats (he mentions Kanye West, Jay-Z, Snoop Dogg, and Beyoncé), and then he referred to the right's efforts to militarize individualism. These two keys, when talking about rap culture, are closely related, and Marcus incorporates them into his discourse in a more than conscious way.
Grail Marcus, writer and rock theorist, in 2017. Photo: Martín Bonetto.
When referring to the role of specialized criticism, he took pains to emphasize a fine methodology : “Criticism must have different voices and try to communicate that there are works—or songs—that work and others that don't. Honesty must be detected in art. The task of a critic is to say what one thinks and thereby achieve a certain intellectual honesty.”
Honesty must be found in art. The task of a critic is to express what one thinks and thereby achieve a certain intellectual honesty.
Marcus not only has some fine examples of his own. He also cites, on this topic, a current critic who wrote about Kendrick Lamar. More specifically, he cites an essay about how the most important rapper of the moment says "Alright" and what it means in his symbolic world. "When I read that essay by Hanif Abdurraqib, I understood Lamar's world a little more," Marcus explained as he settled into one of the beautiful armchairs at the Legado Mitico hotel.
The example, based on his own extensive experience, that had the greatest impact on the talk was the one he developed based on " The Tusla Race Massacre" (1921). It turned out that, following an invitation linked to Bob Dylan and his archive, Marcus discovered there was no blues song dedicated to that event . A genre that, basically, reflects on the exploitation of the American working class.
He then recounted how he prepared a blues instrumental to give that talk and conclude his presentation on that massacre . It was quite elusive for the local white population. In other words, he used Dylan, the blues, and his talk as an excuse to make the topic more relevant to his community. A few years later, thanks to that presentation, written and visual material about that momentous event in the United States began to spread among his colleagues. They were even able to record the last two survivors of the event.
That story served as a sort of extended prologue for Marcus to explain why he was in Buenos Aires for his 80th birthday . His daughter, Cecily, continues her academic studies based in Latin America and with a real interest in Argentine archives.
This was also the reason for Greil's two previous visits. The difference in this case was that he himself had been doing research at the CeDInCI, the Center for Research on Left-Wing Culture . Marcus described each instance of the place in awe. He raised his heavy hands and opened his small, glowing eyes a little wider. " Visiting this archive yesterday, and having the director talk to us about it for a couple of hours, was truly moving . Seeing someone who dedicated his life to this, and how meaningful it still seemed to him, seeing how his commitment and enthusiasm never waned—it was fantastic."
In times of hyper-information, it's essential for specialists to filter and recommend . For this to gain support, it's not enough just to communicate it, but to find a unique way to do so. Method and content are oxygen for a distorted and uncontrolled age.
Greil Marcus. Clarín Archive.
“ Over the years, I've discovered, and I've been surprised, that many musicians care about what intelligent people say about them. Not just what everyone else says, but people with a defined point of view who have made the effort to understand it and how to apply it,” said Greil Marcus before leaving for Ezeiza International Airport.
For there to be classics, there must be appreciation. The author of The Dumpster of History (1995) was among us, and you can still read him about Kendrick Lamar and Donald Trump; you just have to know how to direct your attention to the screen.
Clarin
