33 1/3 Series of books

Most of the ones I've read have been good but I'd pick these as my absolute favourites:

10 Sign “☮” the Times - Prince 1987 Michaelangelo Matos
29 In the Aeroplane over the Sea- Neutral Milk Hotel 1998 Kim Cooper
30 Paul's Boutique -Beastie Boys 1989 Dan Le Roy
32 There's a Riot Goin' On -Sly and the Family Stone 1971 Miles Marshall Lewis
36 Loveless -My Bloody Valentine 1991 Mike McGonigal
38 Bee Thousand - Guided by Voices 1994 Marc Woodworth
56 Master of Reality -Black Sabbath 1971 John Darnielle

Anyone read the Beefheart one?

Whoops, meant to include this one too:

71 It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back -Public Enemy 1988 Christopher R. Weingarten

I've ordered Low, Paul's Boutique, and Loveless as a birthday present to myself.

I've read 50 of the books. Some of my favorites have been mentioned already (Master of Reality, Sign O the Times, Low, Live at the Apollo, In the Aeroplane..., 69 Love Songs). Two others that I really enjoyed, that I don't think have been mentioned - Pretty Hate Machine (great focus on fan culture and understanding fandom) and Exile on Main Street (nothing super revelatory in it, but he does a great job describing the music itself, what it sounds like).

I'm not generally a fan of the straight-ahead 'making of the album' ones, or most of the fiction ones (I did kind of like the Rid of Me one). And often the ones I like the least are about the albums I like the most - Bee Thousand and Swordfishtrombones, especially.

I will rep for the Tribe book, re-read it recently after seeing the film documentary and enjoyed it better second time around.

20 Jazz Funk Greats is my favourite book on music after Giles Smith's Lost in Music. Otherwise I've only read the Master of Reality one (superb) and the Abba Gold one (not worth more than the 50p it cost me tbh).

Can someone give me a thumbnail of why Led Zeppelin IV and Use Your Illusion are so good? I'm not much of a Zeppelin fan and I've never even heard the G'n'R record but I'm assuming from all the recommendations that there's something more to these books.

Not sure how familiar you are with Erik Davis' work, but he writes a lot about pop mysticism. His book on Zep IV isn't really about the band at all (thankfully), but about how the album has become a talisman of low-brow occult symbology. It's also howlingly funny.

The book on Piper At The Gates Of Dawn is great because it side-steps the obligatory "Syd was crazy you know" stories for a pretty detailed analysis of how the album was put together.

Least favorite book of all is the Murmur one. Frustratingly so too... Just could not get engaged with the writing at all.

yeah i liked the piper one -- some good interviews w/ people around the periphery of the floyd scene of that time.

The latest list has been narrowed down to 94 potential titles:

http://33third.blogspot.com/2012/06/94.html

Diamanda Galas Malediction and Prayer

haaa, unless they've got a ringer for this one, we've got a new contender for lowest selling 33 1/3.

Either it's a typo, or 2112 simply cannot be contained in a single volume. I'm betting the latter.

Fingers crossed for Replicas, Wee Tam and Beauty & The Beat!

There were multiple proposals for 2112. Maybe they haven't decided which way to go.

Diamanda Galas Malediction and Prayer

haaa, unless they've got a ringer for this one, we've got a new contender for lowest selling 33 1/3.

and this one : Nocturnal Emissions Spiritflesh

i like that nocturnal emissions album. its a good one.

Nocturnal Emissions: Spiritflesh by Stephen King

jesus, arular already?

I looove that Nocturnal Emissions record, one of my favorites of theirs.

Can anyone rep for the Master of Reality tome?

oh, god yes. excellent sort of fiction. one of the best ones in the series, imo

Yeah, don't delay on Master Of Reality. It shreds.

I read the Loveless one this morning. It was pretty good.

mine didn't make the cut. :(

i enjoyed 'master of reality' a lot, but drew daniel's '20 jazz funk greats' is my favorite book from the series that i've read so far. i think someone said this already, but the 'village green' book is like a really good, long article in mojo -- not gonna blow your mind or anything, but strong research and lots of good quotes from most of the band members (except ray, IIRC).

I'd be curious enough to read Bat out of Hell and 2112, stepping stones to the gargantuan Mellon Collie & the Infinite Sadness volume I'm waiting for.

I really hope they do a Fugazi one someday.

There was a whole load of these in a local charity shop... one of those upmarket charity shops which are actually more expensive than most non-charity shops. Bought the "Village Green" one.

Would read the heck out of Donuts, 2112 and Back In The DHSS. Meantime tho? zzzzzzzz

I'd really like to know who wrote the other 2112 proposal. Ultimately seems a good sign that both made it.

Fear of Music reviewed in tomorrow's NYT; the critic incorrectly says Lethem saw Stop Making Sense in 1982.

Finished Fear Of Music a few weeks back. i guess I'm not a Lethem fan because I was annoyed with the writing about halfway through.

Fear of Music reviewed in tomorrow's NYT; the critic incorrectly says Lethem saw Stop Making Sense in 1982.

― go down on you in a thyatrr (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, June 2, 2012 1:04 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark

the writer stopped making sense in 2012 then, har har har

keep looking at the 94 potential titles and trying to find something, anything to get excited about and it's kinda hard. look at how fucking corny the selection of hip hop albums is:

The Pharcyde Bizarre Ride II the Pharcyde
J Dilla Donuts
Outkast Stankonia
Kanye West My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
Eminem The Slim Shady LP
Danger Mouse The Grey Album
Jay-Z The Blueprint
The Game The Documentary
Insane Clown Posse The Great Milenko
Drake Thank Me Later
Lauryn Hill The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill
Jay-Z The Blueprint

Anyone have a shelf of these and want to share a pic? I read ebooks these days but this is one series that I would love to collect paperbacks of.

Well, outside of the Danger Mouse, The Game, Drake, and Kanye selections I would probably read about all the rest of those. I think, a solid author provided, a good story could be pulled from the rest of them - particularly Slim Shady LP, Donuts, and Pharcyde.

yeah there's definitely some good albums in there that could inspire worthwhile books, but the spectrum of that selection is stiflingly "rap that rock critics like"

What rap albums wouldn't be "rap that rock critics like" though? The Great Milenko btw haha.

there's a whole canon of countless albums revered by rap fans that don't have the same kind of cachet with rock critics (often different albums by the same artists)

They also probably don't have the same cachet with readers of 33 1/3 books either.

ehh nevermind, this is the circular conversation that's happened on ILM a thousand times before, "music writers focus on the same tired canon because that's what people who read about music tend to be interested in, the snake eats its tail, nothing every changes" etc.

No no I definitely see your point. Looking over the list it IS very "these were big Pazz N Jop favs". I guess I'm just wondering how obscure you'd have to go to avoid that and whether or not the people who buy these books (or check em out from the library) would even be interested in them.

(xp)
The endless inner groove of a 33 1/3 record.

Hip-hop doesn't really do "reclamation" projects does it? Trying to think if there is something equivalent to Big Star or the Velvet Underground or whatever where it was basically largely ignored upon release and then suddenly everyone goes "ohmigod this was IT, lets reissue, write books, hail the forgotten influence, etc."

hahaha, I think UGK alone could disprove that thesis

Not really sure how. It's not like Ridin Dirty was some completely unheard masterpiece (it sold pretty well on release IIRC). And it was guesting on a Jay-Z track that blew them up not people revisiting their old stuff and suddenly finding time for them.

i would say maybe the majority of rap albums regarded as classics grew into that status gradually, lot of things that seemed to everybody like perfectly good or unremarkable workaday records started to feel significant given how big the artist became or who followed their lead. or popular regional things that only later become universally regarded critical favorites. not a lot of total flops and unheard records that got rediscovered, though.

did anyone read the Fear of Music one yet? i was really disappointed, and the chapter on eno must have fallen out of mine because he hardly mentioned him once...are you kidding? And I'm a fan of his other writing!

Only 253 people heard The Joralemon Street Team's Borough Hall B-Boyz but every one of them became either a DJ, a Rapper, or a Minister of Information.

"i would say maybe the majority of rap albums regarded as classics grew into that status gradually"

I feel like at least for the "rock canon" hip hop records (Paid In Full, It Take A Million, 3 Feet, Illmatic, 36 Chambers, The Chronic, Ready To Die, Supa Dupa Fly or whatnot) were all pretty highly regarded on release. But yeah I do agree that something like Ridin Dirty becomes a lot more like "oh this is the UGK record you must own" or whatever once they blow up.

yeah there's definitely some good albums in there that could inspire worthwhile books, but the spectrum of that selection is stiflingly "rap that rock critics like"

― kel ler/pharmacists (some dude), Saturday, June 2, 2012 3:16 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

to be fair that category probably has 90% overlap with "rap that corny indie fuxors will buy an entire book about"

know your audience i mean

whatever, guys. the point is there's a shit ton of great rap albums that don't already have 33 1/3 books that would sell as well as any other rap-themed entry in the series, and they're considering greenlighting shit about poorly aging mid-'00s heirlooms like The Documentary and The Grey Album.