33 1/3 Series of books

Yes, he cites where he got the idea in the introduction. But regardless of the inspiration, I thought it worked here. I was entertained and I don't know that I've even heard those records played start to finish. Nor do I care to.

oh, it definitely worked; I liked the book a great deal, especially the introduction, where he contrasts the early '90s blockbuster moment with now (the--please forgive me--blogbuster moment?)

I actually disliked the GnR book. A little too smarmy, a little too hard on Izzy, a little too reverential to the Pfork legacy in it's 'so over this' tone.

But I just started the Trout Mask Replica book and love it so far. I'm pretty vanilla when it comes to these, I find - I don't want 'novellas,' or 'stories insired by' the albums or word jumbles, or any other nonsense. I like them to read like liner notes. Like I give a fuck about Colin Meloy's life.

hahaha "reverential to the Pfork legacy"--by a guy who'd been writing a decade before Pitchfork even existed

I'm just saying, it's very 'new journalism,' very self righteous. Maybe I'm just old fashioned.

The Carl Wilson book is the best book on music I've read in many years. So refreshing to read something about pop culture that's all smarts & no snark.

Is the Eno out? Anybody read it?

I'm reading 20 Jazz Funk Greats right now and loving it.

a little too hard on Izzy

I didn't read the GnR book. What's this about? Izzy is my fave member. He's the main diff between bad and good GnR, I think.

from the silence on the publishers blog, i'm guessing that the eno book isn't even written yet?

The books will come out if/when they come out.

This goes for any book, Eno or not.

I thought Geeta said somewhere it was finished or almost finished.

"I'm reading 20 Jazz Funk Greats right now and loving it."

me too. a+

I got my galleys/press copy of my book this week. I have to say, since "writer" was the second thing I ever wanted to be in the world (the first was "conductor" - lotsa of albums with Toscanini or Bernstein on the cover in the living room when I was toddlin'), that seeing a bound copy of something I'd written was a thrill comparable only to the first time I got a test pressing back from a vinyl pressing plant. But better, really.

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Congrats! I cannot wait to read that come April.

nice

awesome, dude.

i totally can't wait to read your book, john -- congrats!

They should release the book with that cover. Metal!

I was thinking the same thing!

Not to derail, but, John, "Lovecraft In Brooklyn" is one of your best songs ever!!

and yes i'm psyched to read this as well...

i'm off to berlin for the first time next month. how is the bowie 'LOW' book?

yes, the Bowie book by Hugo Wilken (sp??) is one of the best I've read in the series - good research, concise, evocative, and smart.

agreed.

I finished reading my copy of the Black Sabbath book last night and it left me emotionally cleaned out. Wow. Don't think I've heard that particular voice articulated so clearly and so movingly before.

Very much looking forward to reading that and Drew D's TG one.

Yeah, I wrote about John's book on my blog yesterday. It's fucking brilliant.

Is it actually officially out now?

I tried to get the Master Of Reality book at Easy Street last night, and they didn't have it, never got it in :(

well Easy Street aside (shame to hear that) yes the book came out yesterday! thank you for your kind words pf & emily, really appreciate it, book was hard to write so if it works for people then it was totally worth it

I can't wait to read this.

Now that this thread's resurfaced, I've gotta drop props for David Smay's Swordfishtrombones. Fun read.

the LOW one is ace agreed.

Totally agree about the Tom Waits book - it's a toss-up between that one and the Zeppelin book for the funniest/wittiest book in the series.

carl wilson's celine book really is as phenomenal as everyone says, great great book.

already posted this to the NB, but hell, while I'm at it . . .

I am having a reading from my 33 1/3 book tonight, and I am DJing a Throbbing Gristle happy hour beforehand around the corner from the bookstore. Please come!
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The Minutemen book isn't much more than extended liner notes for Double Nickels, which I finally realized was just the approach I wanted taken. Lots of inside references explained by Watt, though Hurley didn't participate. Anyway, the author gets huge credit-to-humanity points for bringing MacKaye to his punk rock class for show and tell:
Who Brought the Cool Kid?
Download

I gleaned a lot of fun and useful information from that book--and the interview he published with Watt is priceless. But, man, if you're using that 33 1/3 book as a model, make sure you do a better job of checking all of your facts and figures, including the spelling of songtitles, the lyrics as they appear on the lyric sheet (and as they're actually sung), and the real-world stuff that anyone writing a nonfiction book should know.

Like that "500 thousand" in "Viet Nam" can't correctly refer to "North Vietnamese dead," which was greater than 1 million (maybe D. Boon goofed, but more likely he was referring to the number of U.S. troops deployed, which at one point was around 500,000). And if you're stumped by the meaning of a song, ASK SOMEBODY. Is it really that tough to figure out that "Maybe Partying Will Help" is about decadence?

I heard <I>Metal Machine Music</I> for the first time last night and was totally enraptured and all "OMG 33 1/3 MEGAPITCH IDEA!!!" and then i looked at the blog this morning and discovered that three pitches for that were turned down in the last selection round. now I'm wondering if I should really try to write this thing. seriously, who else publishes this sort of single-album-centric stuff?

p.s. carl wilson's celine book was FANTASTIQUE, and delved way deeper into notions of taste and opinion than i could've hoped for.

The Celine book isn't just the best 33 1/3 I've read, but one of the better books I've read in a while. Maybe just because it's a viewpoint that I'm very sympathetic to.

J0hn D., I'll admit that I was skeptical about reading Master of Reality (I haven't read any of the other fictional entries, mostly because the fictional conceit doesn't seem to jibe with what I'm looking to get out of the series), but I'm really glad that I did because it was excellent. It worked really well as an epistolary novella, but it was also more effective at parsing the album (a process which sometimes benefits from a hyper-subjective, inarticulate-yet-passionate perspective) than some of the more straightforward entries have been.

I still haven't seen J0hn's book anywhere. It's out everywhere now, right? Read the Popmatters interview earlier today.

Deric, what did you like about the Celine book (what viewpoint are you sympathetic to)?

You brought up something in your post that I've been wondering about -- the part about what you're looking to get out of the series. It seems like fans of these books fall into two camps; ppl who want to read opinion or even more personal writing (crit equavalent of "perzine"? haw) and people who want fact-packed, historical accounts of the makings of the records.

I think I've wanted different things from different books, though. I read Matos's book and am interested in Darnielle's because I like their writing (I've never even heard a Black Sabbath album), whereas I read the Aja and Court and Spark books because I like those albums.

Never read Matos's, but it sounds like a nice combo.

Deric, what did you like about the Celine book (what viewpoint are you sympathetic to)?

I'm sympathetic to the idea of taste being subjective and often based largely on negation (i.e. in terms of that which repels us and threatens our self-identity) and how approaching art from that standpoint can be incredibly limiting. Also, on a related note, I'm intrigued with the schism between individual interaction (as experienced by the critic/connoisseur) and social interaction with art (as experienced by the "unwashed masses").

You brought up something in your post that I've been wondering about -- the part about what you're looking to get out of the series. It seems like fans of these books fall into two camps; ppl who want to read opinion or even more personal writing (crit equavalent of "perzine"? haw) and people who want fact-packed, historical accounts of the makings of the records.

I think the best books in the series kinda hit both notes at once. The Guns n' Roses book being a perfect example, wherein Eric Weisbard writes around the album and doesn't even listen to it until before writing the last chapter.

The only entries I've avoided were the fictional ones (which I'm re-thinking now) and anything heavily technical (Murmur kind of turned into an audio engineering guide in places and my interest waned). But that's about it. I'm interested in reading ones about albums I don't even like.

hey everybody I am giving a reading on Saturday at Housing Works so if you are in NY and would like to see me read my stuff please come out! here is where the deal is: http://www.livefromhome.org/events/

Holy shit, thats right around the corner from me. I'll for sure be there. Just bought the book last night, almost done with it. It is really amazing J0hn.

I have trouble articulating how stunned I am by John's book. My wife, who shakes her head and leaves the room when I play Sabbath, was equally moved.

It seems my reaction may not be universal. Some people just don't get it:

PSU Vanguard

That review is stupid. I finished the book last night. Fantastic work!

what's the average word length for these books?