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Mystic!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 1 February 2007 16:14 (nineteen years ago)

"We have to crunch the numbers and determine if any of that rap or foreign stuff can sell the kind of numbers that Neutral Milk Hotel has."

Yeah I understand the rationale and I'm glad the series exists and sells as well as it does. It's just a personal preference.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Thursday, 1 February 2007 16:20 (nineteen years ago)

It is a sad truth that rap writing doesn't sell as well as rock writing.

The worst-selling Spin cover of all time? OutKast.

― Whiney G. Weingarten (whineyg), Thursday, 1 February 2007 16:25 (nineteen years ago)

Jokes aside, I'm trying to grasp the reasons for the fact that the series is so not multicultural. But I guess that will just turn this thread into one of those mocked pazz & jop ones ('why do I have to vote for a more than one rap record to prove I'm not a racist') or Ethan will mock me for including a white rocker in my JnP singles ballot while advocating for more rap and international music. Others will just say put up or shut up and submit some ideas or find another publisher (alas, my work and family schedule does not allow me time for such lengthy efforts) and some will just say, hey, it's just a matter of economics and class social structure regarding which books will sell. Just deal with it.

― curmudgeon (DC Steve), Thursday, 1 February 2007 16:26 (nineteen years ago)

xpost Less than this one?

http://collectorama.murderhorn.com/pictures/promos/13small.jpg

― jaymc (jaymc), Thursday, 1 February 2007 16:27 (nineteen years ago)

x-post

If you market it right, the buyers will come (to paraphrase Field of Dreams), I would like to believe. It might take a little more work though.

― curmudgeon (DC Steve), Thursday, 1 February 2007 16:31 (nineteen years ago)

Did Jeff Chang and Nelson George have trouble with publishers telling them their books would not likely sell?

― curmudgeon (DC Steve), Thursday, 1 February 2007 16:45 (nineteen years ago)

...and Egotrip and David Toop...

Well, the Stevie Wonder book is now out (and it is Black History month, maybe that will help in getting sales)

― curmudgeon (DC Steve), Thursday, 1 February 2007 21:21 (nineteen years ago)

Christopher/Whiney, what do you think of the above questions/comments?

― curmudgeon (DC Steve), Friday, 2 February 2007 05:47 (nineteen years ago)

:::crickets:::

― Welcome to the Pazz and Jop poll. (M Matos), Friday, 2 February 2007 09:01 (nineteen years ago)

As in "Buddy Holly and the..."

― curmudgeon (DC Steve), Friday, 2 February 2007 15:10 (nineteen years ago)

I have no idea what these people's publishers had to say to them!

― Whiney G. Weingarten (whineyg), Friday, 2 February 2007 15:47 (nineteen years ago)

But pointing out a Nelson George book as an example of how hip-hop writing sells is like pointing out a Nelly album as an example of how St. Louis hip-hop is huge right now.

― Whiney G. Weingarten (whineyg), Friday, 2 February 2007 15:51 (nineteen years ago)

Stevie Wonder book sounds awesome.

― Whiney G. Weingarten (whineyg), Friday, 2 February 2007 15:55 (nineteen years ago)

I would kill to know more about Vision Creation Newsun! Has there even been a proper book done?

-- UART variations (jo...), Wednesday 3:17 PM. (ex machina)

you could pay someone $25 to translate that one issue Studio Voice that has the comprehensive Boredoms history. :-D

― Steve Shasta (Steve Shasta), Friday, 2 February 2007 15:57 (nineteen years ago)

my roommate was lazy and would read it and tell me interesting things

― UART variations (ex machina), Friday, 2 February 2007 16:24 (nineteen years ago)

Oh man, the Court and Spark one is so dull. What did GB Shaw once say, "Once you put it down you can't pick it up"?

― douglas eklund (skolle), Sunday, 11 February 2007 02:29 (nineteen years ago)

That's a shame, I was really looking forward to C&S. I guess when they get to second albums from artists, we'll have a second-shot with Blue.

― Mordechai Shinefield (Mordy), Sunday, 11 February 2007 03:08 (nineteen years ago)

the Stevie is the worst in the series by a mile

― Matos W.K. (M Matos), Sunday, 11 February 2007 03:36 (nineteen years ago)

oh no really? but zeth is an awesome guy and i liked his ideas about it! aw man...

― Haikunym (Haikunym), Sunday, 11 February 2007 03:39 (nineteen years ago)

it's like a parody of bad grad-school writing. and anyone who thinks "Sexual Healing" sucks needs to have his ears examined.

― Matos W.K. (M Matos), Sunday, 11 February 2007 03:51 (nineteen years ago)

also, factual errors galore: "Tears of a Clown" was a hit in 1970, not 1967; "Master Blaster (Jammin')" appeared a year before Bob Marley died and is therefore not a posthumous tribute, etc.

― Matos W.K. (M Matos), Sunday, 11 February 2007 03:51 (nineteen years ago)

Mordy: no second albums from artists. One each only.

― Matos W.K. (M Matos), Sunday, 11 February 2007 03:52 (nineteen years ago)

xpost: wow.

― Haikunym (Haikunym), Sunday, 11 February 2007 04:07 (nineteen years ago)

No second albums... ever? DAMN.

― Mordechai Shinefield (Mordy), Sunday, 11 February 2007 04:08 (nineteen years ago)

Proposals on artists already covered in the series (or under contract to be covered) will not be accepted. (Barker from the 33 1/3 blog)

however he is cool with solo albums by diff't acts, e.g. John Lennon solo. I'd guess New Order would be fine despite Joy Division being covered.

― Matos W.K. (M Matos), Sunday, 11 February 2007 04:14 (nineteen years ago)

So the SW is actually worse than Let It Be (the Beatles, not the Replacements)? Because I just read that one and it was unbelievably bad.

― AKA Mr. Jaq (moriarty), Sunday, 11 February 2007 04:45 (nineteen years ago)

That makes me sad knowing there will never be a book on my favoritest album of all time.

: (

― The Reverend (R. J. Greene), Sunday, 11 February 2007 06:47 (nineteen years ago)

Writing about Stevie is admittedly way harder than a lot of other great artists without resorting to simply unpacking his insane but natural-sounding chord changes as in this book, which is really good if you know your way around the mechanics of songwriting.

― Eric H. (Eric H.), Sunday, 11 February 2007 07:01 (nineteen years ago)

and anyone who thinks "Sexual Healing" sucks needs to have his ears examined.

Or simply has listened to I Want You.

― Eric H. (Eric H.), Sunday, 11 February 2007 07:01 (nineteen years ago)

a parody of bad grad-school writing

^^tautology

― m coleman (lovebug starski), Sunday, 11 February 2007 12:14 (nineteen years ago)

That's for sure.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 11 February 2007 14:19 (nineteen years ago)

Rodney it's not like this is the only book publisher in the whole world. My friend A-M was asking me "why are you guys all so obsessed with this series?" and my answers sounded kind of lame.

― Haikunym (Haikunym), Sunday, 11 February 2007 14:46 (nineteen years ago)

i guess rap books don't sell, but somebodys gotta do ready to die

― artdamages (artdamages), Sunday, 11 February 2007 14:55 (nineteen years ago)

and Dare

― artdamages (artdamages), Sunday, 11 February 2007 14:58 (nineteen years ago)

James Brown and MC5 have sold a lot worse than some of their rap books!

― Haikunym (Haikunym), Sunday, 11 February 2007 15:09 (nineteen years ago)

im tempted to write a proposal for a janet jackson album today just cuz i am bored. maybe the first madonna instead.

― artdamages (artdamages), Sunday, 11 February 2007 15:48 (nineteen years ago)

Do it. You have til Wednesday.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 11 February 2007 15:53 (nineteen years ago)

>guess rap books don't sell, but somebodys gotta do ready to die
-- artdamages (tha()[email protected]), February 11th, 2007.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Don't believe the hype. Just because only 3 of the 60 book topics 33 and 1/3 editor Barker selected for this series have been rap does not mean rap books won't sell.

― curmudgeon (DC Steve), Sunday, 11 February 2007 15:58 (nineteen years ago)

ok then someone write it. i just wanna read it. though i do have a good anecdote about getting high in highscool in some kids Audi listening to ready to die and then escaping from cops.

i am off to download Madonna because my tape copy melted over the summer. should be a lark.

― artdamages (artdamages), Sunday, 11 February 2007 16:04 (nineteen years ago)

one month passes...

The latest batch:

Funkadelic: Maggot Brain - by Matt Rogers
Slayer: Reign in Blood - DX Ferris
Tori Amos: Boys for Pele - Elizabeth Merrick
Fleetwood Mac: Tusk - Rob Trucks
Nas: Illmatic - Matthew Gasteier
The Pogues: Rum, Sodomy & the Lash - Jeffery Roesgen
Wire: Pink Flag - Wilson Neate
Big Star: Radio City - Bruce Eaton
Pavement: Wowee Zowee - Bryan Charles
Madness: One Step Beyond - Terry Edwards
Israel Kamakawiwo'ole: Facing Future - Dan Kois
Public Enemy: It Takes a Nation of Millions... - Christopher R. Weingarten
Van Dyke Parks: Song Cycle - Richard Henderson
Weezer: Pinkerton - Jessica Suarez
Black Sabbath: Master of Reality - John Darnielle
Wu-Tang Clan: Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) - S.H. Fernando, Jr.
Afghan Whigs: Gentlemen - Bob Gendron
Flying Burrito Brothers: Gilded Palace of Sin - Bob Proehl
Elliott Smith: XO - Matthew LeMay
Outkast: Aquemini - Nick Weidenfeld and Michael Schmelling
The Flaming Lips: Zaireeka - Mark Richardson

― jaymc, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 21:04 (nineteen years ago)

someone has finally tackled the monster that is zaireeka!

― unfished business, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 21:06 (nineteen years ago)

Pavement: Wowee Zowee - Bryan Charles

ehhh. Brian Charles wrote a novel called Grab On To Me Tightly as if I knew the way, right?

― Mr. Que, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 21:09 (nineteen years ago)

someone has finally tackled the monster that is zaireeka!

please please please let that be a proposal for four books that have to be read simultaneously to make any sense.

― fact checking cuz, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 21:10 (nineteen years ago)

― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 21:25 (nineteen years ago)

Four books must be place in a row and the text read in impossibly long single lines.

― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 21:25 (nineteen years ago)

nah, surely each book has every fourth word?

― unfished business, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 21:27 (nineteen years ago)

Looking forward to Maggot Brain + misc. rap books.

― The Reverend, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 21:46 (nineteen years ago)

Is S.H. Fernando Jr. Skiz Fernando of Wordsound fame?

― Alex in SF, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 21:48 (nineteen years ago)

Yes. According to google and Wordsound's website.

― Alex in SF, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 21:49 (nineteen years ago)

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