33 1/3 Series of books

"Slacker aesthetic"--huh?

John COUGAR mellencamp

xposts - I've seen a few in stores and again reiterating: not meant as a reflection on anyone's work in particular. just about the idea for the series in general.

I guarantee 100% hyperballed-to-the-wall reading akshun.

for about the fourth time, talking about the general impression of what the idea for the series was. haven't been inspired to read any of 'em yet but i'll be sure to let you guys know.

here you are, a guy who talks about music all day long on the internet, sneering at a series of books that do the same as "dull and unambitious." kinda pot-meets-kettle, isn't it?

no actually spent four years recently working just about every single night while in grad school then working taking care of young child etc. on m.a. thesis on the aesthetics of late '60s psych - about a year and a half of just listening and taking notes, seven months of organizing 400+ pages of notes producing roughly 180 page document actually discussing content of about 400 songs from the period all organized around central theme (psychedelic music as late manifestation of aesthetics associated with surrealism) but whatevs, dude.

this is absurd, too. any criticism or questioning when it's from the other side is obviously sneering isn't it, michaelangelo?

An anthology like Stranded ismore about the writers and their choices where the 33 1/3 series just by looking at the format is nominally about the albums. Maybe the pay is so low for 33 1/3 and you don't get royalities so you basically can write whatever you want ;-) But I like listening to albums way more than reading about em so take this with an extra shaker of salt.

why so strange!? there are so many ways to approach a subject.

I feel bad about saying this ;'-(

I just think there's an inherent trashiness to pop music and it's there regardless of how massive something ends up being. So that's a part of why canonizing in pop music literature (and certainly this book series is hardly the worst offender) feels stodgy to me. Naturally, the conservatism of a lot of canonizing in the literature is the most annoying part.

maybe I'm being too literal-minded here, or just playing armchair editor again. but I sense a big disconnect between the tight editorial focus of the series overall and the apparently discursive and/or digressive approach taken by some writers. and I'm not saying those individual books don't work, hey I haven't read em either, I'm trying to make a bigger point about rock criticism or music writing or whatever you want to call it (saddle up hobby horse). After 25 plus years of reading (and writing) this stuff I've decided the Lester Bangs and Greil Marcus style/tradition of "ambitious" or adventurous music writing is exhausted, a dead end that stops writers from developing and frightens off many smart readers.

maybe this is a product of being a music critic for many years while remaining kinda ignorant about music...not that I ever seriously wanted to be a guitar player more than a good writer...it's more like if I read a book about one of my fave albums I'd want to learn about the songwriting, recording, the musicians' experience etc.

of course Scott's right, there are many ways to address a subject, but I think a lot of pop music writing ignores its subject at times.

can you imagine buying a book about the movie Carrie and then reading not about Brian DePalma but the author's own prom nightmare?

Kinks Village Green - very on-message, a bit of cultural background
Unknown Pleasures - more a potted history of JD than about the album
Murmur - a combination of recording history and interpretation, very highly regarded by some
Marquee Moon - was this ever even published??
Meat is Murder - "fiction", not about the album at all
Aeroplane Over the Sea - focused, apparently inspirational to some!
Velvets and Nico - about the album, writing sometimes clumsy
Let It Be (Beatles) - totally on-message, recording sessions, etc
OK Computer - somewhat dry, musicological, academic, mostly disliked
Forever Changes - perhaps pretentious, mostly lyrical analysis
Piper at the Gates - focused, some interviews, possibly a bit dull
Harvest - a straight telling of the album's creation
Exile on Main St. - good, vivid, a few personal anecdotes from Buffalo Tom singer
Pet Sounds - focused, but a bit too personal/emotion-based for some
Endtroducing - almost all one long interview with Josh Davis
Electric Ladyland - focused, good on guitars, nothing very new
Music from Big Pink - a novella about a drug dealer who hangs out with The Band
Let It Be (Replacements) - a short memoir by the dude from the Decembrists, not about the album at all
Kick Out the Jams - some love this, some find it boring, but it seems like a straight history of the MC5's beginnings
Led Zep IV - pretentious, overanalytical, and awesome!
Low - focused, historical, very strong
Grace - I can't tell! It's either really good or very bad.
Dusty in Memphis - random, tangential, about the South - both loved and hated
Sign Of the Times - partly autobiographical, but mostly about the album itself, and that part of Prince's career
Paul's Boutique - very sharp, very smart, all about the making of the album
Ramones - very good on punk history and the album itself
Doolittle - lots of interviews with Frank Black, journalistic, good on lyrics and surreaslism
Born in the USA - not sure about this one - seems to have been ignored by most people
Armed Forces - an A-Z of entries, very focused but too dry for some
Abba Gold - basically a potted history of Abba themselves - weird
Live at the Apollo - very cool retelling of James Brown's live show, interspersed with some stuff about the Cuban Missle Crisis, etc
Aqualung - written by a British professor; no idea
There's a Riot Goin' On - solid, about the album, and a little creative
The Stone Roses - not sure: pretty straightforward analysis, I think.