...I was gonna post a review of Samuel R. Delany's wonderful (& apparently mostly-overlooked) science-fiction short-novel EMPIRE STAR (& I WILL!), + I'm reading Stephen Calt's rather bitter book about Skip James & the history of the Blues, Ntitled I'D RATHER BE THE DEVIL, which was given 2 me by a local reader of this blog, & I'll likely review that.... (Among other tunes, James wrote "I'm So Glad," later covered by Cream.)
...but something else happened that swept everything else aside.
U're going 2 think I'm crazy... but that's OK, cos I AM....
Way back in 1976, when I was just getting started at this album-buying, tracking-down-yr-faverite-music stuff, at the long-vanished Little Professor Book Center in the Hillcrest Plaza mall in Boise, Idaho, I happened 2 stumble-over a thick $1.95 paperback full of early-'7os record reviews: THE ROLLING STONE RECORD REVIEW VOLUME II.
This book Changed My Life. It was full of great stuff. & the WRITING was always Njoyable, even if I didn't agree w/ the critic's views. Hilarious, in4mative, Nlightening, stuffed full of data & fiercely-argued opinions.
Upon reading it, I Bcame a lifelong fan of reviews, always tracking down more, always looking 4 more info. I read & re-read & re-re-read VOLUME II until the spine cracked & the cover fell off & the pages fell out. I taped it back-2gether & kept dipping back in2 it now & then, & it continues 2 sit on my bookshelf & fall apart 35 yrs later.
Awhile back I stumbled over a copy of the original (VOLUME I) ROLLING STONE RECORD REVIEW at an unBlievably low price ($2.99) & I ordered it. It arrived last Sat aft.
Now, understand: I haven't even read 1/2 the book yet. But the day it arrived I sat 4 an hr & 1/2 just paging thru it 2 C what was IN it:
550 pgs of reviews! Lotsa early criticism by Lester Bangs, including his views on Captain Beefheart's TROUT MASK REPLICA. The hilarious John Mendelssohn on the Who, the Kinks, Procol Harum, the Move's SHAZAM, Led Zeppelin & much more. Lotsa work by the superb Greil Marcus. Ed Ward on tons of old singles & how he 1nce wished he could grow up 2 B a radio station(!). More essays on the Middle Period Beach Boys by the Xcellent Arthur Schmidt. Reviews of all the later Beatles albums! Lots on the Stones! Tons on Dylan, Jefferson Airplane, Cream, Hendrix, Clapton, Beck, early Rod Stewart, Traffic, Van Morrison & loads more. A few Xamples of "The Review as Fiction," an approach I've fallen back on a coupla times.... "Guest reviews" by Robert Christgau & Paul Williams. & rather 2 much reviewing by RS founder/publisher Jann Wenner, who I never thot was much of a writer, tho a good interviewer....
I don't care that the book is falling apart, that the cover & the 1st few pages have fallen off. I don't care that the book is water-damaged & that the 1st 200+ pages R all brown & crinkly, tho still readable. These things actually ENHANCE the reading Xperience....
This is absolutely the only thing that has bn able 2 jolt me outta a Dpression I've bn stuck in 4 wks.
Obviously this is a Potentially Life-Changing Xperience that must B handled in its own time, no matter what else I might have going on.
& obviously I could serve as a case-study in neurotic anticipation, or something. But that's why there's bn a Dlay here, as I've slowly Bgun 2 Dvour this huge volume....
Intresting that the goodwill generated in me by the brilliance of VOLUME II led me in2 RS's later heavily-opinionated red-covered RECORD GUIDE (4 awhile 1 of my faverite books ever 4 throwing across the room in anger & frustration), the slightly-later less-opinionated & less-impressive blue-covered REVISED RECORD GUIDE, the weak RS ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ROCK AND ROLL, & the truly thin & useless RS ALBUM GUIDE.
I'll eventually review VOLUME I, but I gotta admit that right now I'm just kinda Njoying it.
...Wonder if they ever did a VOLUME III?
...But while I'm here, I was thinking earlier 2nite at work about All-Time Fave Song Titles. I'm a sucker 4 off-the-wall or long-winded song titles, titles that make U laff, stuff like that. Mosta my faverites come from the Progressive Rock Era, tho Punk Rock & New Wave cer10ly had their share of vivid & hilarious titles....
Probly my all-time fave is "Daddy Was an Asteroid, Mummy Was a Small Non-Stick Kitchen Utensil," which if I remember right was recorded by Roxy Music guitarist Phil Manzanera's side-project Quiet Sun. I bot their MAINSTREAM album back around 1978 or so & traded it away Bcos it was 2 dull or something. I was an idiot....
Hatfield and the North's 2 albums R full of great off-the-wall titles. Probly my fave is "Her Majesty is Like a Cream Donut," part of their magnum-opus medley "Mumps" on their 1975 album THE ROTTERS' CLUB. But the Hatfields had lotsa great silly titles: "Big John Wayne Socks Psychology on the Jaw," "Giant Landcrabs in Earth Takeover Bid," "Lobster in Cleavage Probe," "The Yes No Interlude," "Fitter Stoke Has a Bath," "There's No Place Like Homerton." I wish I could report that these songs R just as charming as their titles, but it just may B my straight-laced taste that's letting me down here....
1 of the things that intrested me about Brian Eno was his funny song titles, like "Burning Airlines Gives You So Much More" & "Baby's On Fire." Figured NEbody who could come up w/ titles like that had SOMETHING goin on....
My heroes Caravan have some fairly out-there titles, tho nothing quite like the above: "All the Way (With John Wayne's Single Handed Liberation of Paris)" ((What IS it w/ Canterbury groups & their obsession w/ John Wayne & Bob Hope?)) & "The Dog, The Dog, He's at it Again."
& I've always bn intrigued by Be-Bop Deluxe's title "Adventures in a Yorkshire Landscape." Just sounds neat. Would work equally well as a movie or book title, 2....
Then there's Brand X's "Why Should I Loan You Mine When You've Broken Yours Off Already?" & its immediate follow-up, "Maybe I'll Lend You Mine After All"....
& yr fave off-the-wall titles R....?
...We could probly also compare fave off-the-wall album titles. Parliament/Funkadelic useta have a ton of them: FREE YOUR MIND AND YOUR ASS WILL FOLLOW, FUNKENTELECHY VS. THE PLACEBO SYNDROME, THE BRIDES OF DR. FUNKENSTEIN, GLORYHALLASTOOPID.... Wish I could say I've actually HEARD summa these....
& 4 some reason I can't 4get the Dead Boys: YOUNG, LOUD AND SNOTTY, & their follow-up WE HAVE COME FOR YOUR CHILDREN....
I'm sure the punk/new-wave & death-metal genres have probly bn home 2 titles I likely don't even wanna think about. But if U've got some that'R funny or shocking or vulgar or at least jarringly inappropriate, bring em on....
...& I'll get back 2 ya soon....
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1 comment:
Always was partial to my New Trouser Press Record Guide.
Don Caballero are the undefeated champions of off the wall/long-winded song titles, even if their music is sometimes loopy and kind of BOE-RING.
Some of their best efforts:
"Rollerblade Success Story"
"Delivering the Groceries at 138 Beats Per Minute"
"You Drink a Lot of Coffee for a Teenager"
"Details on How to Get ICEMAN on Your License Plate"
"A Lot of People Tell Me I Have a Fake British Accent"
"Let's Face It Pal, You Didn't Need That Eye Surgery"
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