33 1/3 Series of books

I just finished the GNR book and I'm sorry, I gotta call bullshit. The chapters where Weisbard chronicles his own ascent to Critic Valhalla are boring, and the track-by-track is pretty much just him going "haha I never should have written this book because these records mostly suck." I hear he is a top guy -- and he comes around here sometimes too, so probably just shooting myself in the foot here if I ever thought about presenting at the conference or whatever -- but he had an opportunity to do something cool and I think he mailed it in.

Is this bitterness because the fat dead Hawaiian ukulele dude book was greenlighted but my Cheap Trick proposal never had a chance? OF COURSE. But all the stuff about "oh here's what Jon Pareles said" and "I worked for Bob Guccione Jr. and he was nice to me so Axl is a dickbag"...I ain't buyin' it.

That's a shame to hear, because I could totally see a great book being written about the Use Your Illusions (obviously, since I started this thread, and should probably re-do it as a poll).

I came the conclusion a while back that the best possible 33 1/3 book I could write would probably be about Pearl Jam's Vitalogy, although I don't think I could ever bring myself to pitch it and possibly go through with re-living my grunge adolescence like that and be the guy who wrote a book about Pearl Jam. But it would be awesome.

SOMEONE among our generation needs to do this

the grunge book will be a big success when it finally drops

never forget

Seriously. I just hope that when someone does do a Pearl Jam book, it's about one of crazy pretentious albums like Vitalogy or No Code and not boring old Ten, my whole theory being that a band's weirdest or most indulgent album would make a way better book than their biggest or best. (xpost)

Did Geeta's Eno book come out?

I'm pretty sure Perpetua pitched Vitalogy this go-round.

(And suffice it to say didn't get in.)

so, anybody read aja?

I think next time I'll pitch The Weirdness.

oh wait, they already did a stooges book. fuck!

I thought about pitching August and Everything After.

jess you should pitch flipper.

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I liked the Aja book. It delves very heavily into music theory which I thought was very interesting (how the fuck did they make those crazy chord progressions?) but not enough to turn people off.

My favorite so far is the Low book. Best written also. Stories of Bowie surviving solely on milk, coke and cigarettes == priceless.

haha Perpetua, dammit! actually I'm generally cool with him when he's writing about cheesy 90's alt-rock, so I'd probably read that. same reason I'd probably read a Counting Crows book. in theory, at least, the only 33 1/3 I've actually read so far was SOTT, but I might have to get that Aja one.

im kind of addicted to these things but i'm reaching the diminishing returns point now that i've moved outside of the writers i know already enjoy

ooh when did the AJA book come out? is it available in UK?

wow, I really don't think I can finish the Daydream Nation book.

The guy who is writing the Master of Reality book posts here, and I am really looking forward to that. If he's reading this, could you provide the ETA?

Thanks.

wow, I really don't think I can finish the Daydream Nation book.

It gets a little better after the over-the-top gonzo tongue bath he gives the band/album in the first 30 pages or so, but even then, the most interesting parts come from the interviews he does with Steve and Lee, rather than from his tenuously drawn lyrical exegeses.

I just read Eric's book finally, and I've gotta say he did it about the only way that could interest me at this point. There's been nine million words written about GNR, and few writers are gonna have anything to offer now except rehash. (And honestly, I feel the same way about the Replacements, a band I was a lot deeper into in their moment.) Eric did a great job of bringing new thinking along with the necessary history; also, any ambivalence he has about the music is fully justified. The Illusions were messy, overgrown and sometimes unlistenable from Day One, and those qualities seem amplified a million times given subsequent events.

NB: I haven't read Meloy's book yet, so that above comment is no bust on him.

Also hahaha "events."

Help me then with the "new thinking" part then, please, because I didn't get any of that. Just that the records aren't Appetite for Destruction? I think we all knew that. Is it that he is a well-known music writer? I personally knew that too.

The guy who is writing the Master of Reality book posts here, and I am really looking forward to that. If he's reading this, could you provide the ETA?

I don't know, really! I don't like to talk about work-in-progress, kinda weirdly superstitious about that

I just picked up the Notorious Byrd Bros one and am about a third of the way through. To be honest the writing seems average at best -- and his personal bio bits weren't as engaging as Matos's -- but I am unfamiliar enough with certain parts of the Byrds backstory that it is holding interest. I'm still very much looking forward to the discussion of the record in the next section; i'll withhold judgement til I finish.

shame about the Use Yr Illusions -- I was interested in checking that one as well, although I'm no fan of his writing. I liked that he chose to explore those two albs over Appetite. but if he is less than enthusiastic about them then fuck it.

"I don't like to talk about work-in-progress, kinda weirdly superstitious about that"

Cool, totally understood.

As I posted a few months ago, Eric's book was the most sheerly entertaining of the lot. I'm not a fan of the track-by-track analysis, but how else could you have analyzed those "messy, overgrown and sometimes unlistenable" albums?

Maybe by doing more than just saying "Oh this one sucks, I NEVER would have included it on my personal mixtape of the best songs from these albums"? Maybe? Or by making the album the focus of the book? A little bit?

Wow, maybe my reading comp skills are just bad, or maybe I'm a big jerk, but I failed to be entertained or enlightened by anything in that book. I guess we are now seeing why my music writing "career" has been euthanized.

Haha "maybe"

How was the album NOT the focus? I don't get it. As for the mixtape, he tells you why the songs suck! "Don't Cry" -- More paddlin' Stradlin. That pounding on a cowbell to start a song cliche of theirs makes it sfirst apperance. Piano couplets in just the right Stonesy spot. Exile in GN'Rville? That blurb, incidentally, attacks lots of the orthodoxy I remember from the time: Stradlin being the "good" Rose because he was the Stonesiest.

(It's all good if you didn't like it, btw)

DEAD MILKMEN BIG LIZARD IN MY BACKYARD WOULD SELL 15 COPIES GUARANTEED

One right here please...

The lyrical stuff in the Daydream Nation one is, yeah, pretty problematic -- the worst boner is when he picks up that one verse of a Kim song is "inspired" by Harry Crews, while missing that the other verse is lifted directly from Denis Johnson.

The sadder part is how Lee and especially Steve are being really helpful with their interviews, where Thurston and Kim seem to basically be fucking with the guy over email.

Alf: I returned it to the library, so I can't quote all the early sections that are more about music writing/criticism and its Crucial Importance than about these records. More time is given to "The Spaghetti Incident?" and "Appetite for Destruction" than to either one of these records, which indicates to me that he thought about the pitch more than about the book.

The fact that these blurbs -- and let's face it that's all they are -- are confined to the ass-end of the book told me all I needed to know about how important the actual music is to him, as opposed to positioning records (and himself) in the perceived Canon. I think the book reads like he choked and then decided he didn't want to give back the advance. Witness his statements in that section like "I really shouldn't be writing about these albums."

For what it's worth, I actually agreed with his main premise. I just don't think he backs it up with any evidence, and that he ignores counter-arguments, and that ultimately it isn't a very relevant argument after all.

God what a whiny bitch I have become.

Going back to some of the older books that I've read:

Radiohead: No one ever says anything nice about this one, but I found it a good read, but then I'm a musicology fanboy who knows nothing about musicology. Unfortunately, his entire premise--that OK Computer is the first true CD album--doesn't hold up at all once you start to think about other records that came out before (Afghan Whigs' Gentlemen for one).

MC5: Very good. Not a making of, but a historical analysis of the record's place in time.

Pixies: Good retrospective with participation of the artists (save Kim). Good and readable track by track analysis.

Smiths: The only fiction I've read in years.

James Brown: Awesome.

Others on my shelf I haven't read yet (any suggestions on which to start with???):
Joy Division
Velvet Underground
Ramones

the only ones i really want to read are erik davis's zep book and matos's prince book (i would have read this already but i don't buy books on-line and they don't sell them where i live) and john's sab book when it comes out. i think.

"i think", meaning there may be some i forgot.

is geeta's book still on? there's no mention on the continuum page.

where Thurston and Kim seem to basically be fucking with the guy over email.

Hmmm, I'll have to go back and check, but I don't actually remember any input from them at all.

my fave so far was the abba one.

predicatbly, i'd love to see one of "giant steps" by the boo radleys, but that would never see the light of day.

Please let whoever pitches Madonna be an Erotica fan.