Shut Up And Listen 258

Despite my love of music, I don't read a whole lot about it. Sure, I read a few magazines, but that's about it. I find most writing about music to be lacking, including my own. Read any of my year-end columns, or the odd one in between, where I discuss music and you'll see that maybe one in ten times I come up with something close to being adequate. Hell, I love writing CD reviews for the paper, but I find them kind of laughable because I never know quite what to write and what I write always seems so incomplete. That said, I really do love Continuum's "33 1/3" book series.

"33 1/3" is a series of books about individual albums. I own seven, have read four and am in the middle of reading the fifth. Each book is in the 120-170 page range and can usually be read in an afternoon. The writers range from musicians to producers to journalists to academics. The approaches also range greatly.

I think the various approaches is what keeps me interested. I like seeing how each author will discuss the album they're writing on. The first one I read, on Neil Young's Harvest by Sam Inglis, took a very straight-forward approach: introduction/overview, biography, the context before the album, recording the album, after the album was released, the tracks of the album, the people involved with the album, and then a chapter about sound quality of various formats. I mean, there's everything you need to know about Harvest in 121 pages, isn't it?

The second one I read, on Led Zeppelin's fourth album by Erik Davis, took an interesting approach by spending the first chunk of the book discussing the album's cover, the four symbols and various other occult-related things. He uses that as a frame within to look at the album, which he does, and then looks specifically at the tracks in sections of two. He also does an interesting thing when looking at the songs: he decides that the album is a narrative and discusses each song in the way it carries the narrative forward. Honestly, the occult stuff gets to be a bit much, but the rest is a way of looking at the album that I hadn't considered before.

The third one I read, on the Velvet Underground's The Velvet Underground & Nico by Joe Harvard, was a lot closer to Inglis' approach: very basic in structure and content. There are four sections: the introduction, the setting, the songs and the aftermath. Basically, everything you need to know about The Velvet Underground & Nico in 152 pages. That may sound boring, but it's rather good.

The fourth one I read, on Radiohead's OK Computer by Dai Griffiths, catered his approach to the specific album, considering it very much a CD. He begins by discussing various forms of recording technology, the pros and cons of CDs and shit like that. After that, he just sticks to what's on the album, often using very technical music language to discuss it. I couldn't always follow what he meant because I don't know the technical aspects of music (this meant being able to skip a seven-page section that divided each song into the various tempos and such it uses). He promises right at the beginning of the book that all you need to really understand it is a copy of OK Computer and he's right. He avoids biography and a lot of the other stuff surrounding the album, sticking just to the music.

I'm currently in the middle of Daphne A. Brooks' book on Grace by Jeff Buckley and, fuck, I just can't get into it. I mean, there were parts of the Led Zeppelin book that dragged, but nothing like this. How can someone writing about such a beautiful and spectacular album do so in such a boring and unspectacular manner? In every book, there's an obvious love for the music by the author, but this is the first book that's read like just a blowjob piece from a fanatic. The other authors all said the goods and the bads, often being very critical, but here, it's just good, good, good and not in an interesting way. Maybe it'll get better as I read on, but I'm rather disappointed.

The other two books I have waiting for me are on the Rolling Stones' Exile on Main St. and the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds by Bill Janovitz and Jim Fusilli, respectively. Hopefully, I'll get to them later this week, since I'm on break.

The key to the books, I think, is to read them in a single sitting with the album on. Just block off an afternoon, stick the CD on and just enjoy. In fact, one of the things I plan to do is every once in a while, go to my local bookstore and buy the book and the album. I pretty much did that for Grace and Pet Sounds. It's a good way to be introduced to a new album that you know is probably quite good. I'm looking forward to getting the one on the Smiths' Meat is Murder because I've always heard the Smiths are good and the author of that book, Joe Pernice, apparently didn't write directly about the album, rather he wrote a novella about high schoolers around the time the album came out. Should prove interesting.

One other thing before I go: I've spent the last while wondering which album I would write on. It would have to be one that deserves being written about, but also one I have a personal connection to of some kind. I don't think there's an album I could really do. Maybe if we jumped ahead ten years, something I know would work. I mean, I'd feel weird writing about something before my time. But, maybe that would give me the perspective to avoid a blowjob piece like Brooks. I suppose maybe Crime of the Century by Supertramp would be a good one to write on.

Actually, I think I would probably want to go the route of Pernice and write something fictional in an effort to evoke the feeling of the album rather than explaining it. In that case, I'd probably want to do lloR N kcoR by Ryan Adams with 14 short stories based on the 14 songs. But, I'm weird like that.

A complete list of the books in the "33 1/3" series can be found here. If there's an album you love in that list, check the book out. And even if there isn't, check the book out, by the album and try something new.