Melody Maker's "Unknown Pleasures"

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

I've seen a few mentions of this book on various threads, the latest being here.

It is indeed a fabulous thing. I can't find an online version, but I have found some of the essays available separately. I'll post links to these, and perhaps we can add the rest when/if they become available.

So far then, we have:

The Soft Boys - Underwater Moonlight

Gene Clark - No Other

Magazine - Shot By Both Sides

The Residents - Eskimo

Todd Rundgren - A Wizard, A True Star

5 down, 15 to go. Hope this is useful.

― noodle vague (noodle vague), Sunday, 9 May 2004 14:45 (twenty years ago) link

Missed one:

Curtis Mayfield - There's No Place Like America Today

― noodle vague (noodle vague), Sunday, 9 May 2004 14:58 (twenty years ago) link

The Specials - More Specials

― Old Fart!!! (oldfart_sd), Sunday, 9 May 2004 21:07 (twenty years ago) link

Thanks Old Fart. I love that Specials piece.

― noodle vague (noodle vague), Sunday, 9 May 2004 21:10 (twenty years ago) link

Yeah, this is a worthy enterprise... does anyone know a web location of the Abba one on "The Visitors"?

― Tom May (Tom May), Sunday, 9 May 2004 21:19 (twenty years ago) link

two weeks pass...

I've been trying to find out what all 20 of the articles were about, can anyone help me with the last 5 (and if i've made any mistakes with the top 15, please do correct...i hope to find this book one of these days...)

1. Gene Clark-No Other
2. Curtis Mayfield-There’s no place like America today
3. The Residents-Eskimo
4. ABC-Lexicon of Love
5. The Soft Boys-Underwater Moonlight
6. The Specials-More Specials
7. Todd Rundgren-A Wizard, A True Star
8. Abba-The Visitors
9. Magazine-Secondhand Daylight
10. Fleetwood Mac-Tusk
11. Dexy’s Midnight Runners-Don’t Stand Me Down
12. Captain Beefheart-Clear Spot
13. Led Zepplin-Presence
14. Orange Juice- You Can’t Hide Your Love Forever
15. Neil Young- On The Beach
16. Chic-
17. The Raincoats
18. Bow Wow Wow-
19. Go Betweens-
20. Microdisney/The Fatima Mansions-

― Phil Dokes (sunny), Wednesday, 26 May 2004 02:06 (twenty years ago) link

I don't have my book with me now ... but it should be Neil Young -- Time Fades Away.
Chic -- Risque
Go Betweens -- Liberty Belle and the Black Diamond Express
Bow Wow Wow -- See Jungle! See Jungle! etc. etc.
I can't remember the others right now, when I get to my book I'll post the rest (if nobody else does).

― Barry Bruner (Barry Bruner), Wednesday, 26 May 2004 03:38 (twenty years ago) link

The book was good except the 'Presence' one sucked. I'll do a better one for $200

― dave q, Wednesday, 26 May 2004 03:39 (twenty years ago) link

I've got a horrible feeling I chucked this out in my last flat move (it survived the more general MM purge of the late 90s). Which Raincoats album could it be? If it was Reynolds I can imagine it being Odyshape though Moving is the one more usually maligned and in need of crit resuscitation.

― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Wednesday, 26 May 2004 08:59 (twenty years ago) link

I think I have this somewhere. I defintely looked through it a few months ago.

The Raincoats - The Raincoats (Ian Gittins or that Hemingway bloke)
Microdisney/Fatima Mansions - 39 Minutes/Lost In The Former West

― Michael B, Wednesday, 26 May 2004 09:07 (twenty years ago) link

I'm surprised - maybe I think of The Raincoats' debut as being fairly well-established in the post-punk canon because this book helped put it there.

― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Wednesday, 26 May 2004 09:15 (twenty years ago) link

http://www.hungoverdrawn.co.uk/dexys/02.html

chris roberts on dexy's.

― piscesboy, Wednesday, 26 May 2004 10:11 (twenty years ago) link

"Eskimo" is about to be reissued. I'm excited. I've never heard it. I want to do what E.True did! Then I want to hear "Diskomo" - is that currently available?

― zebedee (zebedee), Wednesday, 26 May 2004 10:21 (twenty years ago) link

Right!!!! I've got a copy of tha booklet, and I've OCR'ed the first one, which is Neil Young's "Time Fades Away", written by Alan Jones...

― Old Fart!!! (oldfart_sd), Thursday, 27 May 2004 07:48 (twenty years ago) link

Wow! Thanks, Old Fart!!!!

― Broheems (diamond), Thursday, 27 May 2004 15:57 (twenty years ago) link

What was wrong with the Presence one! I remember enjoying it...

― Keith Watson (kmw), Thursday, 27 May 2004 16:06 (twenty years ago) link

one year passes...

Picked this up for 99p in the Oxfam music shop on Byre's Road on Saturday. Really good collection of essays. Not read them all yet, but thought Stubbs on Clear Spot was superb and Reynolds makes me wanna check out Tusk. The Orange Juice essay is let down by a rather hackneyed Scottish stereotypes preamble (He takes it full circle by pointing out Postcard's ironic appropriation of such imagery admittedly), but it's a nice summary all the same.

― Stew (stew s), Monday, 27 June 2005 12:29 (nineteen years ago) link

Does anyone remember a totally massive pull out wall chart that went through every post punk/harcore/post-hardcore/grunge band from Minor Threat onwards to what was then current (in 1992) I found it tremendously handy, the descriptions were generally spot-on, great for sussing out whether to spend your money on a Bitch Magnet CD or a Tar Babies one. I know ET wrote some of it, maybe he did all of it.

― mzui (mzui), Monday, 27 June 2005 14:30 (nineteen years ago) link

three years pass...

anyone got an online copy of the taylor parkes' ABBA piece?

― piscesx, Friday, 16 January 2009 20:34 (fifteen years ago) link

1. Gene Clark-No Other
2. Curtis Mayfield-There’s no place like America today
3. The Residents-Eskimo
4. ABC-Lexicon of Love
5. The Soft Boys-Underwater Moonlight
6. The Specials-More Specials
7. Todd Rundgren-A Wizard, A True Star
10. Fleetwood Mac-Tusk
11. Dexy’s Midnight Runners-Don’t Stand Me Down
12. Captain Beefheart-Clear Spot
13. Led Zepplin-Presence
14. Orange Juice- You Can’t Hide Your Love Forever
15. Neil Young- On The Beach

These are all in the Acclaimed Music list. So apparently not that uknown.

― Geir Hongro, Friday, 16 January 2009 20:37 (fifteen years ago) link

two years pass...

does anyone know if the ABC and Bow Wow Wow pieces from this are anywhere online?

― fit and working again, Wednesday, 9 March 2011 16:10 (thirteen years ago) link

twelve years pass...

Can this book (or working links to its essays) be found anywhere online?

― visiting, Saturday, 5 August 2023 01:48 (one year ago) link

i was able to dig up the reynolds essay on tusk

http://reynoldsretro.blogspot.com/2007/10/fleetwood-mac-tusk-from-unknown.html

― budo jeru, Saturday, 5 August 2023 02:14 (one year ago) link

finding the whole book seems like a tall order, but maybe somebody else can track it down

― budo jeru, Saturday, 5 August 2023 02:15 (one year ago) link

If you’re just looking for a PDF I’m happy to scan my copy and either post it here or email it to whoever wants it.

― henry s, Saturday, 5 August 2023 04:19 (one year ago) link

If it isn't too much trouble that would be awesome!

― visiting, Saturday, 5 August 2023 05:17 (one year ago) link

^^^

― out-of-print LaserDisc edition (sleeve), Saturday, 5 August 2023 06:01 (one year ago) link

^^^^^^^^^ <3

― brimstead, Saturday, 5 August 2023 06:27 (one year ago) link

Alrighty then. Will scan over the weekend.

― henry s, Saturday, 5 August 2023 13:02 (one year ago) link

er, anybody have any recs for where I can best upload such a file so as to share it with the world (i.e. you)?

― henry s, Saturday, 5 August 2023 13:07 (one year ago) link

dropbox?

― Toshirō Nofune (The Seventh ILXorai), Saturday, 5 August 2023 13:42 (one year ago) link

If you have GMail: a file uploaded to your Google Drive can be shared with an anonymous link.

Otherwise there are plenty of websites that will let you share files without signing up for an account but I can't vouch for any of them.

― Kim Kimberly, Saturday, 5 August 2023 13:52 (one year ago) link

Ok, let's see if this works. Uploaded to Dropbox.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/pxg4spo9asiy5gk/Unknown%20Pleasures.pdf?dl=0

― henry s, Saturday, 5 August 2023 16:14 (one year ago) link

so that the words may live another day...

― henry s, Saturday, 5 August 2023 16:16 (one year ago) link

amazing, thank you so much

― out-of-print LaserDisc edition (sleeve), Saturday, 5 August 2023 16:22 (one year ago) link

thanks henry s!

― toenail fungus (Hunt3r), Saturday, 5 August 2023 16:27 (one year ago) link

No sweat! What good is the internet (and time, for that matter) if not for sharing stuff like this?

― henry s, Saturday, 5 August 2023 16:30 (one year ago) link

Thank you so much, Henry!

― brimstead, Saturday, 5 August 2023 16:41 (one year ago) link

thank you!

― Toshirō Nofune (The Seventh ILXorai), Saturday, 5 August 2023 18:29 (one year ago) link

henry thank you so much! i'm glad i asked... this is fantastic.

― visiting, Saturday, 5 August 2023 21:34 (one year ago) link

Thanks for this! I've been on the look for this for quite a long time.

― you can see me from westbury white horse, Monday, 7 August 2023 20:38 (one year ago) link

Ditto!

― eatandoph (Neue Jesse Schule), Monday, 7 August 2023 20:53 (one year ago) link

Wow...beaming! So happy to have gotten this to all of you who have been looking for it!

― henry s, Monday, 7 August 2023 21:20 (one year ago) link

wow, thanks for this, henry s! what a champ

― budo jeru, Monday, 7 August 2023 23:33 (one year ago) link

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.