33 1/3 Series of books

You make it sound quite good! (I've Not read it)

It's not! (Don't waste your time.)

NB: I've liked or loved or LOOOOVED (the Celine and Darnielle's Sabbath book come to mind) every other 33 1/3 I've read.

Tusk, OK Computer, and Wowee Zowee are all shit for those reasons. the Loveless one is sorta in between but I dug it.

best ones i've read are Song Cycle, 20 Jazz Funk Greats, Master of Reality, and There's a Riot Goin' On.

20 jazz funk greats is definitely my favorite

i picked up franklin bruno's armed forces one recently. that one RULES

I liked Armed Forces except for all the stuff about "He goes from a diminished C to a G7" or whatever was in there. Riot Goin on is v good too! Still have to read 20 Jazz Funk Greats

ah i love whenever the author is a musician/talks about the record in musical terms- though i understand how that could be tedious for people who don't care. that's honestly what I'm looking for in every 33 1/3 book i pick up. the Aja one is great for that reason

ah i love whenever the author is a musician/talks about the record in musical terms

That's fascinating given that you don't understand what a musician or a riff is.

don't start that again

It could've been good if he'd written a book about the Fleetwood Mac album Tusk rather than a travelogue of a journey up his own asshole (with occasional Tusk-related commentary).

― Break the meat into the pineapples and pat them (Old Lunch), Friday, April 7, 2017 2:13 PM (three hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

So it's basically a book about the author and how the album relates to the author, rather than a book exploring the creation of the album? Sounds like a right snooze.

yup, way too many 33 1/3 books are like that. a lot of the early ones are like that, newer ones less so

I feel like that approach can work if the writer's personal experience of discovering the album helps contextualize the setting in which the album was created. Lethem's Fear of Music kind of does this; he was a teenager experiencing the weirdness of NYC in the late 70s listening to an album that was, in large part, about the weirdness of NYC in the late 70s. But I agree--too often it just takes the form of "I was working at a college radio station when this weird looking record cover caught my eye and oh by the way here is what I was studying at the time and here's who I had a crush on and here's what I was eating" etc.

the personal approach is fine, as long as the writer is ... a good writer.

"When we reached for the same album at the music store that day, I knew that our friendship was destined to blossom into something much more profound. The name of that album? Take Off Your Pants and Jacket. And that's...the rest of the story. Good day!"

I would actually read Paul Harvey's Take Off Your Pants and Jacket.

the personal approach is fine, as long as the writer is ... a good writer.

― tylerw, Friday, April 7, 2017 6:17 PM (nine minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Or an interesting person.

or both, preferably!

i just read the new modern lovers 33 1/3, it was good! some interesting interweaving of boston history with the band's story.

the one on Super Mario Bros. soundtrack is really good for a musical term for the layperson approach

i just read the new modern lovers 33 1/3, it was good! some interesting interweaving of boston history with the band's story.

― tylerw, Friday, April 7, 2017 11:33 AM (thirty minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

my friend sean wrote that one! it is indeed good. love how often aerosmith appears

haha yeah, funny to even imagine steven tyler and jonathan richman breathing the same air

AEROSMITH ROCKS NATICK

I recently tried to read Alan Warner's Tago Mago. Warner has a lot of leeway for various reasons but this just a rambling mess, really. Didn't get on with Hugo Wilcken's Low either, despite loving his novel, Colony. Favourite has easily been the Darnielle.

liked Armed Forces except for all the stuff about "He goes from a diminished C to a G7" or whatever was in there.

i'm curious: were you ok with his equally close reading of costello's words and syllables, or did that bother you too?

i loved the book and loved all that stuff. there are so few people writing about pop who can dig under the hood of the music that effectively. alex ross obviously can whenever he approaches pop. i appreciate people who can use actual music to critique music. in the armed forces book, i thought bruno made clear why he was doing it and did a good job of explaining what it meant.

Darnielle, Erik Davis, Matos my big faves

The ATCQ book is from a personal perspective and is well written/enjoyable imho.

The Achtung Baby and OK Computer ones are the worst I've come across.

in the armed forces book, i thought bruno made clear why he was doing it and did a good job of explaining what it meant.

― fact checking cuz, Friday, April 7, 2017 3:55 PM (thirty-two minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I read it a long time ago!

oh! the one on Low by Bowie is fantastic for production/sound nerds

Just read Matos SOTT book and it was marvellous, just a joy (Nick I need to post it back to you!).

The Riot book is good but there's not much in it that's not taken from the In Their Own Words Sly book from the early 90s (which is $$$s and crazy rare now so fair enough)

Anyone read the Bitches Brew one?

I have it here but never finished it. Grella's a good writer, but the territory was too familiar - he wasn't telling me anything I didn't already know from reading a half dozen other books on Miles, album liner notes, etc., etc. If you're not up to your eyeballs in Davisiana, though, it's good.

Honestly, the more interesting Miles 33 1/3 would probably be On the Corner – the impact is just about as significant but the story and how the record was made is a bit less known. But who knows – maybe in a era where we have Phil's book, Tingen's book and the OTC box, even some of that may be well known enough.

I had an idea a gazillion years back to write one on Keith Jarrett's The Sun Bear Concerts—it's just such a 70s era artifact—but realized my submission would likely have a much better chance if I did the better known (and selling) Köln Concert.

anyone get round to the Sound Of Silver book yet? or does anyone have any other faves worth checking out? i couldn't get along with the OK Computer one at all.

OK Computer might be the worst one. Been meaning to read the one for There's a Riot Goin On for ages, been sitting on my desk.

OK Computer and Achtung Baby are the worst one's i've read.

Call me old fashioned, but I've enjoyed most of the ones that stick to the expected formula: a little band history, a little making of the album, and maybe break it down for me track by track. And it really helps if they have access to the band to do interviews.

The book on Portishead's Dummy was my favorite example of this format, and it definitely gave me a deeper appreciation for that album.
(in the same vein: Bowie's Low, Aphex Twin's SAWII, Neutral Milk Hotel's Aeroplane, Pixies' Doolitte, Devo's Freedom of Choice)

And at the risk of immediately contradicting myself, Carl Wilson's book on Celine Dion completely breaks from that classic formula, but it's just a great piece of writing. A sort of treatise on taste, art, credibility, and hipsterdom, with Celine Dion as a framing device. That one could really exist outside of the series, since it's brimming over with big ideas.

ooh

https://media.bloomsbury.com/rep/f/9781501323072.jpg

https://bloomsbury.com/uk/lou-reeds-transformer-9781501323058/

I was really hoping this revive was because they're accepting pitches again :(

(but that said I'm game for this book)

coming soon to spotify

Ooh, I wonder which ones and who will read them

Or would it just be the existing audiobooks that you can find on places like Audible?

I think it’s just the audiobooks.

That would be great, actually.

There are Japanese iterations of these coming out, the Perfume one already is and there are books on Happy End and YMO coming.

https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/series/33-13-japan/

I love when these books walk that fine line between album biography and personal narrative about the significance of such record to the author ("Sign O The Times" by Michaelangelo Matos being the apotheosis).

Holy shit that Japanese series looks awesome!

Psyched for this, if only because it's been delayed on and off for more than a decade.
November 1st, all being well.

https://wordery.com/jackets/c18f055c/m/9781501321313.jpg

https://wordery.com/tori-amoss-boys-for-pele-amy-gentry-9781501321313

Another open call for proposals:

https://333sound.com/how-to-submit/

I just saw that there's a Brazil series of these, including one on Milton Nascimento & Lo Borges's Clube de Esquina. Anyone read these?