Should rock critics be musicians? Part XXXVII

Still catching up on reading since the madness of SXSW but I was particularly interested in this article, trying to tackle the age-old issue on “should rock critics be musicians?”: AV Club article

Some good arguments there but I wonder about a few points too:

- Greil Marcus, Simon Reynolds and Gary Giddins aren’t musicians but they’re great writers
- What about the reverse?  Was Jimi Hendrix a great essayist and does that detract from his playing?
- Great musicians/writers like Lenny Kaye, Greg Tate and David Toop don’t write articles in a technical/musical way- they approach music on an emotional level