Flyboy in the Buttermilk: Essays on Contemporary America

by Greg Tate, Henry Louis Gates Jr. (Contributor)

Essays examining American society discuss such topics as the Central Park rape, the cultural significance of authors Don DeLillo and Amiri Baraka, and the music of Miles Davis, and Wynton Marsalis

Genres: Music, Essays, Nonfiction, Race, Art, Criticism, Film

285 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1992

About the author

Greg Tate is a music and popular culture critic and journalist whose work has appeared in many publications, including the Village Voice, Vibe, Spin, The Wire, and Downbeat. He is the author of Flyboy 2: The Greg Tate Reader, Flyboy in the Buttermilk: Essays on Contemporary America, and Midnight Lightning: Jimi Hendrix and the Black Experience, and the editor of Everything But the Burden: What White People Are Taking from Black Culture. Tate, via guitar and baton, also leads the Conducted Improvisation ensemble Burnt Sugar The Arkestra Chamber who tour internationally.

Reviews

[Kevin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not everything here is perfect and sometime Greg Tate is a smarter rather than clearer writer when unadornment would serve the asubject and the argument better. But reading "Flyboy" you realize you are in the presence of a genius, a voice reaching down from the cosmos unlike any you have ever heard. And so you forgive it when its once-in-a-while too twisted or loud or muffled or sharp. Because when it is quiet, you are better for having heard it, better for your listening and it makes you want to be better too.

[Michael Sedor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Saw him on a Miles documentary and pulled this one off the shelf. Omg I had no ability to appreciate this text as a 20-yo. Just like Miles' 70s albums which the author has me ready to tackle. Eternal

[Grace Burns · Rating 5 out of 5]

« All that can steady you is the spine of cultural confidence and personal integrity. »

« To be a race-identified race-refugee is to tap-dance on a tightrope, making your precarious existence a question of balance and to whom you concede a mortgage in your mind and body and lien on your soul. »

« The idea that the human brain first began functioning in Europe now appears about as bright as Frankenstein’s monster. »

« Negative gesture can be just as important as positive thrust. »

[Ira Madison · Rating 5 out of 5]

They should build more statues of critics. This is criticism as art, as music itself. Wish I’d discovered Tate before I began my career but I can see his influence and permission to be devil may care in every piece I’ve done.

[Jonah Gold · Rating 4 out of 5]

god this was such a good read. tate is a fucking MASTER writer he perfectly weaves his regular normal person (very funny and swaggy) voice combined with his academic voice that i could say only rivals the likes of like nobody i guess. unfortunately i am a little bit too young (or ignorant) because i did not know much of the references: most from the 90s. these essays will introduce you to some very good songs, musical artists, and writers. also besides being a little young, i think i am just a little too stupid for some of this. of the pool of people i know follow my goodreads i think KB and Olivia you two are probs the smartest ppl who could rlly appreciate the entirely of this incredible book. no shade everybody else!

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Re-read various essays in this collection bc FSG (I think?) just brought back into print this title in light of Tate’s 2021 death. At any rate, so goated Greg was. Unmatched ear for the music of a sentence.

I wish we had something like the Village Voice still and yet it seems we’re entirely undeserving. RIP to such pubs.

[Charlie Lincoln · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was out of print for 34 years. I paid way too much for a bootleg copy of it printed from a PDF.
It’s very good.
But Flyboy 2 is even better!

[Charlie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Other than the Central Park 5 essay (which, who could blame Tate at the time, but yEESh), this is so, so good and so full of pitch-perfect cultural criticism that is both jocular and genius, appreciative and critical. Rest in Power!

[Jacques · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good read.. hard to relate to the first half of the book but still an interesting read. Black art will always be the most influential.

[TheCalloftheLibrary · Rating 5 out of 5]

incredible collection that serves as a philosophy of music (and wider art/culture) criticism for any and all restorative, retributive, indignant, enraged projects undertaken by the marginalized. tate's love of blackness, of black art, and black people is the front-and-center aspect of these essays that cannot be ignored, and the expansive nature of that love is so striking in how attentive it is, but within them is a prism of thought and care which begs to be revitalized in defiance of cis-heteropatriarchal and white supremacist notions of our (in this case, an our of complicated inter-relation if we are the ones cosigned as others) intellect, self-making, and community. his final essay here, on the future of black politics and leadership is literally a must-read, a synthesis of and conclusion brought forth from the work tate undertook as someone who took black people and their ideas and ideals seriously and seriously considered what exactly all the struggling has provided for its new generation to work with. basically a guiding light to how i view music now.

tate also is one of the few critics who is both uncompromising and always pivoting- tate's willingness to speak to and with underground language, vocabularies of funk and hip-hop and geography, while still remaining one of the few black male critics i've read from an era of and flowing out a black nationalist milieu who isn't just giving lip-service to black women, but is always thoughtful about black feminism as a twin consideration in black life. after but some of us are brave's charge against tate's contemporary literary intellectuals, this is comparatively refreshing. better yet, tate manages this as a conscious element of analysis, always considered alongside homophobia and other like intolerance and chauvinism speaking to the sexism of public enemy, for instance, is tate's way of showcasing a weakness in their agitprop. and he specifically goes out of his way to include the perspectives of black women, either in their own words as artists, or through the opinions/smacktalk/wisdom of friends and lovers which demand to be included

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

JUNE

by Greg Tate

Finish date: 05 June 2022
Genre: Essays
Rating: B
Review: Flyboy in the Buttermilk (ISBN: 9781501136979)

#20BooksOfSummer22 "Flyboy in the Buttermilk" by Greg Tate an American writer, musician and long-time critic for The Village Voice 40 collected essays 1981-1991

My Thoughts

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

For years a writer friend has proselytized the writings of Village Voice cultural critic Greg Tate. Possibly because Tate was as explosively enthusiastic about a then new group De La Soul as my friend was. Its taken me this many years since to ever lay hands on Tate's writing and the wait was worth it, even as I regret dragging my feet. Tate is a superior writer and critic of art and music who crafts some deliciously funny and rich sentences. Reading this had me search books he'd reviewed, lesser name checked black women filmmakers, and Miles Davis' Agharta album. Sorry to've missed you, brother-- but glad to finally be on board.

[Kurt]

As a collection of what I think Greg Tate does best (usually music and art criticism, with a bit of straight-up theory talk on the side), I think I might actually prefer Flyboy 2. But this is also worth checking out (if you can find it - it's been out of print for a while now unfortunately), especially for "Yo Hermeneutics!", one of his best cultural/philosophical analysis pieces by way of book review. And the music writing is great, as usual. RIP.

[Phil Overeem · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this a loooooong time ago. I wish there were more writers like Tate today: a unique stylist who can stretch across and make sense of purt-near all the arts. But I have to remember: we still have Tate!

[Rafael Suleiman · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good selection of essays on contemporary Black America.

[Craig Lindsey · Rating 5 out of 5]

At first, I thought it might be dated. After I was done, I was a changed gotdamn man.

[Peter G · Rating 5 out of 5]

A stunning collection of essays on race and America. Sad to see how much of this is still relevant and on point 30 years on.

[David Allen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nobody wrote about music and culture like Greg Tate.

[Peter Landau · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maybe the 1980s were more interesting than they appeared during that dreary decade.

[Krishna Thiagarajan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stunning. This review does a better job of describing my thoughts than I could have: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Nitish Pahwa · Rating 5 out of 5]

feel like they could've left that Central Park 5 essay out of the reissue because it really sticks out (derogatory) from this otherwise resplendent, perfect collection

[Elina T.C. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nobody like Mr. Tate!!!

[Richard O. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Greg Tate wrote that the Miles Davis Quintet was practicing particle physics. They operated at a higher order of frequency. There was action painting and automatic writing but their achievement may've been greater. It's close to modern poetry--singular voices, abstractions wondrous and strange, defamiliarizing "the standard." They were the epitome of style. Miles tugged his ear and walked away like so what. Teenager Tony Williams grew a mustache. Herbie Hancock channels the hants of Debussy and Ravel. Shorter came in from Morocco. Tate's essays on "Electric Miles" and George Clinton allowed me to listen through the voodoo polylayers and love the mess.

[Venneh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tate was one of the first Black mainstream critics (based over in the Village Voice in NYC) and was one of the first to legitimize hip hop as being worthy of artistic criticism; in case you weren't aware what a big deal he was, the introductions by Henry Gates and Hanif Abdurraqib will hopefully help put him further in context. Honestly, we get a great selection of his essays and criticism, and you can see why he was so fundamental to so many people. Republishing this summer, and worth a read when it comes out again.

[Rob Harvilla · Rating 5 out of 5]

In New York at the Savoy a white woman asks me don't I think Sunny is just like Bob Marley. I'm feeling Irie so I am cool.

"This is different music from a different world."

"Yes, but don't you think he could get on MTV with this stuff? Do you watch MTV?"

"Try not to."

"Why is that?"

"Why? Because it's racist. There's never any black acts on it. Shit, Michael Jackson can't even get on MTV."

"Yes, but this is so different from mainstream black pop. I think young white suburban kids could really get into it. I mean, don't you think he could be like Marley?"

"I don't think we know yet what Sunny's impact is going to be."

"Oh, but I think I do! I think young white kids are really going to get into this stuff. You know, you should really try to be more visionary in your thinking."

I want to tell her I don't give a fuck if young white kids get into Sunny Adé but she whirls around and is gone. And so there, once again, stands one more black man stewing over what some white person thinks."

[Wes Freeman]

Early 90s anthology of author's articles, columns, etc. So far, seems like man is poised perfectly to tell you about some stuff you don't know regarding African American music in the early '80s. Author drinks free on me for telling it like it was RE: art ghetto-ization of avant-garde jazz (two beers for stumping for Agharta when jazz guys were politely looking the other way when it walked into the room), African Americans' early reactions to contemporary African music, the possibility of mainstream rock music made by black people, and shit-talking with George Clinton. Dude won't shut the hell up about Jimi Hendrix, but maybe dudes needed to be talking about Jimi Hendrix in 1982,'3,'4 & '5. If so, he's got it covered. Behind it all are the nascent rumblings of a hip-hop takeover and I'm doing a pee-pee dance waiting for that shit to break.

[Roger Mckenzie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this was a great read. It achieved that rare feat of not only informing me but it also revealed to me artists, such as Basquiat, who, to my everlasting disgrace, I had only a scant knowledge of. It has also led me in the direction of new reading. Any book that can achieve these feats not only deserves the rarity of 5 stars from me but also warrants investigation by you.

[Vtlozano · Rating 4 out of 5]

Exhilarating, Tate's jazzy/hip hop wordflow essays on the NYC funk/hip hop scene of the late 80s and early 90s is a real time capsule-- an emerging post colonial sensibility wrestling w/ older African Am cultural nationalism and identity. Includes a moving essay on Basquiat.

[Evens Pierrelouis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Flyboy in the Buttermilk by Greg Tate
Flyboy in the Buttermilk: Essays on