― Wrinklepossum's Awesome Blossom (Wrinklepaws), Saturday, 16 September 2006 23:57 (seventeen years ago) link
An anthology like Stranded ismore about the writers and their choices where the 33 1/3 series just by looking at the format is nominally about the albums. Maybe the pay is so low for 33 1/3 and you don't get royalities so you basically can write whatever you want ;-) But I like listening to albums way more than reading about em so take this with an extra shaker of salt.
― m coleman (lovebug starski), Sunday, 17 September 2006 01:09 (seventeen years ago) link
why so strange!? there are so many ways to approach a subject.
― scott seward (scott seward), Sunday, 17 September 2006 01:32 (seventeen years ago) link
I feel bad about saying this ;'-(
I just think there's an inherent trashiness to pop music and it's there regardless of how massive something ends up being. So that's a part of why canonizing in pop music literature (and certainly this book series is hardly the worst offender) feels stodgy to me. Naturally, the conservatism of a lot of canonizing in the literature is the most annoying part.
― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Sunday, 17 September 2006 02:21 (seventeen years ago) link
maybe I'm being too literal-minded here, or just playing armchair editor again. but I sense a big disconnect between the tight editorial focus of the series overall and the apparently discursive and/or digressive approach taken by some writers. and I'm not saying those individual books don't work, hey I haven't read em either, I'm trying to make a bigger point about rock criticism or music writing or whatever you want to call it (saddle up hobby horse). After 25 plus years of reading (and writing) this stuff I've decided the Lester Bangs and Greil Marcus style/tradition of "ambitious" or adventurous music writing is exhausted, a dead end that stops writers from developing and frightens off many smart readers.
maybe this is a product of being a music critic for many years while remaining kinda ignorant about music...not that I ever seriously wanted to be a guitar player more than a good writer...it's more like if I read a book about one of my fave albums I'd want to learn about the songwriting, recording, the musicians' experience etc.
of course Scott's right, there are many ways to address a subject, but I think a lot of pop music writing ignores its subject at times.
can you imagine buying a book about the movie Carrie and then reading not about Brian DePalma but the author's own prom nightmare?
― m coleman (lovebug starski), Sunday, 17 September 2006 11:19 (seventeen years ago) link
― Haikunym (Haikunym), Sunday, 17 September 2006 12:32 (seventeen years ago) link
― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Sunday, 17 September 2006 19:22 (seventeen years ago) link
― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Tuesday, 19 September 2006 15:31 (seventeen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 19 September 2006 15:34 (seventeen years ago) link
― Matos-Webster Dictionary (M Matos), Tuesday, 19 September 2006 15:41 (seventeen years ago) link
Kinks Village Green - very on-message, a bit of cultural backgroundUnknown Pleasures - more a potted history of JD than about the albumMurmur - a combination of recording history and interpretation, very highly regarded by someMarquee Moon - was this ever even published??Meat is Murder - "fiction", not about the album at allAeroplane Over the Sea - focused, apparently inspirational to some!Velvets and Nico - about the album, writing sometimes clumsyLet It Be (Beatles) - totally on-message, recording sessions, etcOK Computer - somewhat dry, musicological, academic, mostly dislikedForever Changes - perhaps pretentious, mostly lyrical analysis Piper at the Gates - focused, some interviews, possibly a bit dullHarvest - a straight telling of the album's creationExile on Main St. - good, vivid, a few personal anecdotes from Buffalo Tom singerPet Sounds - focused, but a bit too personal/emotion-based for someEndtroducing - almost all one long interview with Josh DavisElectric Ladyland - focused, good on guitars, nothing very newMusic from Big Pink - a novella about a drug dealer who hangs out with The BandLet It Be (Replacements) - a short memoir by the dude from the Decembrists, not about the album at allKick Out the Jams - some love this, some find it boring, but it seems like a straight history of the MC5's beginningsLed Zep IV - pretentious, overanalytical, and awesome!Low - focused, historical, very strongGrace - I can't tell! It's either really good or very bad.Dusty in Memphis - random, tangential, about the South - both loved and hatedSign Of the Times - partly autobiographical, but mostly about the album itself, and that part of Prince's careerPaul's Boutique - very sharp, very smart, all about the making of the albumRamones - very good on punk history and the album itselfDoolittle - lots of interviews with Frank Black, journalistic, good on lyrics and surreaslismBorn in the USA - not sure about this one - seems to have been ignored by most peopleArmed Forces - an A-Z of entries, very focused but too dry for someAbba Gold - basically a potted history of Abba themselves - weirdLive at the Apollo - very cool retelling of James Brown's live show, interspersed with some stuff about the Cuban Missle Crisis, etcAqualung - written by a British professor; no ideaThere's a Riot Goin' On - solid, about the album, and a little creativeThe Stone Roses - not sure: pretty straightforward analysis, I think.
― meritocracy (spencerman), Tuesday, 19 September 2006 16:45 (seventeen years ago) link
― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Tuesday, 19 September 2006 16:48 (seventeen years ago) link
― gear (gear), Tuesday, 19 September 2006 16:53 (seventeen years ago) link
― don weiner (don weiner), Tuesday, 19 September 2006 17:14 (seventeen years ago) link
― T. Weiss (Timmy), Tuesday, 19 September 2006 17:28 (seventeen years ago) link
― don weiner (don weiner), Monday, 8 January 2007 03:31 (seventeen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 8 January 2007 03:34 (seventeen years ago) link
― showed that a nuts internet was only worth 78,000 hoosteens (Hoosteen), Monday, 8 January 2007 03:39 (seventeen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 8 January 2007 03:40 (seventeen years ago) link
― Hoosteen (Hoosteen), Monday, 8 January 2007 03:49 (seventeen years ago) link
― don weiner (don weiner), Monday, 8 January 2007 03:56 (seventeen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 8 January 2007 03:57 (seventeen years ago) link
― don weiner (don weiner), Monday, 8 January 2007 04:03 (seventeen years ago) link
― Michael J McGonigal (mike mcgonigal), Monday, 8 January 2007 04:04 (seventeen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 8 January 2007 04:05 (seventeen years ago) link
― Haikunym (Haikunym), Monday, 8 January 2007 04:09 (seventeen years ago) link
Unless it was like that dreadful OK Computer book on 33 1/3.
― don weiner (don weiner), Monday, 8 January 2007 04:09 (seventeen years ago) link
― don weiner (don weiner), Monday, 8 January 2007 04:10 (seventeen years ago) link
― less-than three's Christiane F. (drowned in milk), Monday, 8 January 2007 05:23 (seventeen years ago) link
― curmudgeon (DC Steve), Monday, 8 January 2007 06:11 (seventeen years ago) link
― Tripmaker (SDWitzm), Monday, 8 January 2007 15:05 (seventeen years ago) link
Nice work, Mike. You did the album proud. Fantastic, and I look forward to reading Ned's take in "Marooned."
― don weiner (don weiner), Thursday, 18 January 2007 00:58 (seventeen years ago) link
The Alan McGee bit is the greatest moment of unintentional (on his part) comedy I've read in a *long* time.
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 18 January 2007 01:04 (seventeen years ago) link
― don weiner (don weiner), Thursday, 18 January 2007 01:21 (seventeen years ago) link
i've gotten very little feedback just yet so this super means a lot. i was worried that maybe it's to self-indulgent/ referential, or that the delays had messed up the thing's "flow," or... you know, just worried and feeling insecure about it!
anyway, i can't wait to read the one on 'who sell out' as it's totally one of my top five favorite albums ever and i can't say that i know much about it, either.
― Michael J McGonigal (mike mcgonigal), Thursday, 18 January 2007 03:12 (seventeen years ago) link
― A Radio Picture (Rrrickey), Thursday, 18 January 2007 10:27 (seventeen years ago) link
― cw (cww), Thursday, 18 January 2007 11:23 (seventeen years ago) link
― Michael J McGonigal (mike mcgonigal), Thursday, 18 January 2007 11:32 (seventeen years ago) link
Yes, my friend.
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 18 January 2007 13:34 (seventeen years ago) link
Has anyone read the 69 Love Songs one yet? I picked it up but haven't read it but it looks like a compendium more than anything else.
― Viz (Viz), Thursday, 18 January 2007 17:24 (seventeen years ago) link
It also made me want to take a time machine back to the Maxwell's and City Gardens (Trenton, NJ) shows I saw them play. Oh, and one glorious one at The Ritz in NYC where people swarmed out during "You Made Me Realize" . Colm was a wonder to behold during that song. Cheers!
― Jay Vee's Return (Manon_69), Thursday, 25 January 2007 01:11 (seventeen years ago) link
anyway, it's funny but i could stand to wait a few more years to hear it again! hah.
― Michael J McGonigal (mike mcgonigal), Thursday, 25 January 2007 01:29 (seventeen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 25 January 2007 01:37 (seventeen years ago) link
I had already finished Einarson's exhaustive Gene Clark book in the time since I pre-ordered this and I don't imagine it can compare to that. But hey, I loves me some Ric... so I will be devouring this over the next day or two. Will report back or whatev. but I thought some people might want to know that this one is out and this thread was just sitting here all serendipitously and shit so there ya go.
― Saxby D. Elder (Saxby D. Elder), Thursday, 25 January 2007 01:49 (seventeen years ago) link
― jaymc (jaymc), Thursday, 25 January 2007 02:33 (seventeen years ago) link
― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Thursday, 25 January 2007 02:38 (seventeen years ago) link
― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Thursday, 25 January 2007 02:41 (seventeen years ago) link
― Make a Beck Song #1 (M Matos), Thursday, 25 January 2007 02:58 (seventeen years ago) link
I'm getting a promo copy, so it should be out soon.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Thursday, 25 January 2007 03:07 (seventeen years ago) link
― Saxby D. Elder (Saxby D. Elder), Thursday, 25 January 2007 04:03 (seventeen years ago) link