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Rock critic Rick Johnson (in white shirt) mugs for the camera with Joan Jett and the Blackhearts.
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Book Edited by WIU Prof Honors Rock Critic, Former Student

May 23, 2007

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MACOMB, IL -- One of the most astute rock critics and a former Western Illinois University student -- once called "the funniest and most incisive wisecracking bad boy at CREEM magazine" -- lived a quiet existence in Macomb, Illinois, far from the limelight of the musicians he wrote about for internationally-known rock magazines.

Following Rick Johnson's unexpected passing in April 2006, Bill Knight, a WIU journalism professor who attended WIU with Johnson in the early 1970s, received permission from CREEM and other magazines to compile Rick's columns. The result: the "Rick Johnson Reader: Tin Cans, Squeems & Thudpies."

Growing up in the Chicago suburbs, Johnson made his way to Macomb in 1969 to attend Western. It was at WIU where Johnson met Knight working alongside him in a tutoring lab. When Knight began producing an alternative paper, Johnson submitted reviews -- which Knight said were "hilarious and stood out from anything else" -- eventually earning the title of reviews editor. Shortly after, Johnson left the university and followed his calling as a music critic for a variety of magazines. After a few years away from Macomb, Johnson found himself back in the west-central Illinois burg where he continued to write commentary throughout the 1980s for rock magazines and other publications. During his time in Macomb, Johnson was well-known as the manager of Cady's Smokehouse, which he ran until his death at age 55 in 2006.

"Rick's death was unexpected and stunned everyone around him. After he died I felt that compiling a book of his writing needed to be done. There needed to be one central place for his work so people could remember his wit," Knight said. "For years he consistently wrote reviews and pop-culture pieces that were so funny and subtly insightful that readers forgot they were reading about rock and roll or TV re-runs or the Cubs and just laughed out loud. His columns are still hilarious."

With the help of more than 20 friends and colleagues, Knight began compiling Johnson's essays and gaining approval from CREEM and others to reprint them. Once he had the collection intact, Knight and friends began typing the columns.

"What I've found from putting his columns together in a book is a groundswell of Rick's fans. Rick was the common ground for so many of us, and he has brought us back together," Knight said. "I know Rick would have some witty crack about us helping to put his things in books form, but I can't come up with it. I wish he were here to make fun of it."

Jim DeRogatis of the Chicago Sun-Times says "'Tin Cans, Squeems & Thudpies' rounds up some of Johnson's best and most gonzo prose."

Proceeds from "Rick Johnson Reader: Tin Cans, Squeems & Thudpies," which was published by Knight's company, Mayfly Productions, will go to a journalism scholarship in Johnson's name. The book is available at Cady's and Copperfield's in Macomb, as well as online at amazon.com, waldenbooks.com and borders.com.

For more information or to contribute, contact Knight at BK-Knight@wiu.edu or knights@elmnet.net.

Posted By: Darcie Shinberger (U-Communications@wiu.edu)
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