I bought albums 30 years ago, replaced them 20
years ago on compact disc, then replaced them again ten years ago when
digital got to sounding decent. I am the ideal consumer of 331/3—a
walking pop-music encyclopedia, trivia-spouting, non-downloading and still-playing-record-albums-in-their-vinyl-state,
geek. Each book in the series—and so far there are at least 40—is
based on one album in the pop pantheon. The books are small—4½
x 6½ inches—just the size to slip into your disco bag. Some
of the books are track by track run-downs of an album’s recording
process while another might be a riff on the album—a story set to
the time the record came out, or a tale about that loser who stole your
copy of the vinyl, now gone rare and collectible (the vinyl, not the loser).
Simply put, I love the idea of this series of books
published by Continuum, a New York and London publishing house with a
bigger catalog than I first imagined. You can find the entire series shelved
all in a row at good independent record shops. Some of the big bookstore
chains are carrying them, but mashed in alphabetically with all the other
rock tomes in the section of the store no one visits, the small books
look too tiny. On-line retailers like Powells and Amazon carry the books,
and there’s a great blog—33third.blogspot.com—with news
of up-coming releases and the usual geeky-blog links. As if that weren’t
enough, now there’s 331/3 Greatest Hits, edited by David Barker,to
ease your step into the collection. It features excerpts from 21 of the
books in the series.
Like a re-mastered CD with extra tracks and deeper sound, the 331/3 books
I’ve read so far are little gold mines. Kinda like liner notes on
steroids. In Mark Polizzotti’s Highway 61 Revisted, I read that Bob
Dylan’s rival Richard Farina bit it in a motorcycle accident before
Dylan (And who remembers Richard now? Oops, sorry, Mimi Farina, if you’re
reading this.)
Exile on Main Street taught me that Bill Wyman wasn’t always the
bass player of record. Who knew liner notes weren’t the end-all of
history? Bill Janovitz, a member of the 90’s band Buffalo Tom, evokes
his love of music in his telling of Exile on Main Street: “Since
I was a child, my favorite records have always had moments that make me
wish I had been part of the action when the recording went down, like
I missed out on the party.” Janovitz’s book is a trove of reflections
on culture and race as well as on the Stones at a peak in their career.
A recollection that endeared me to Janovitz is one of himself as a kid,
scoring from the neighbor’s trash a “rope” of 45 rpm records—the
large-holed seven-inch discs tied together one atop another with a big
rope. I love that image of a rope of records, conveying the disposable
nature of pop music, but also the convenient portability of the format.
By the time I started buying records in the late-sixties, the long-player
had become paramount (my first purchase being Iron Butterfly’s In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida),
but punk rock and new wave began their infiltration with the seven-inch
as the primary mode of infection.
Speaking of stepping into the collection, when I see 40-plus titles, I
can’t decide whether my first book should be Low or Ramones. Would
The Clash want their brand new Cadillac back if I didn’t score London
Calling before Elvis’ Armed Forces? Would Morrissey be appalled that
I didn’t yet have Dusty in Memphis, the first in the series? Where
to start? I finally decided, since I have bought and sold more record
collections than I care to mention, why not invite people I know to buy
me their fave albums as a book? This way, I can collect the books through
other people’s memories. When I pull Electric Ladyland off the shelf,
it is with the idea that my boss liked it enough to make certain it is
in my collection. Her choices (she got me several!) reveal her rebel rock
roots, and offer a slice of a decade. Makes me wonder whether Matt would
buy me Kick Out the Jams or Paul’s Boutique? I imagine reading Court
and Spark, all the while loving that David loved the album enough to make
sure I read the book inspired by the record. And for my godsons, I am
buying Ramones, hoping as they grow and read and listen, they’ll
know a bit more about me as they hum the song “Fifty-Third and Third.”
Now this has all got me thinking—on which
record am I gonna write a book? The blog says the publisher has received
over 450 proposals for new books. Is one of them Jimmy Somerville’s
Dare to Love, that gay anthem of all gay anthems, every track an out-and-proud
proclamation of the love that ain’t ashamed to shout its name and
stain the sheets? Where is the justice that someone can publish a book
on Stone Roses before anything on Patti Smith? When is anyone gonna write
about Romeo Void? Ah, you got the geek going now. See you at the record
store.
The 33 1/3 growing Catalog
A Tribe Called Quest’s People’s
Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm
The Band’s Music From Big Pink
Beastie Boys’ Paul’s Boutique
Bob Dylan’s Highway 61 Revisited
The Byrds’ The Notorious Byrd Brothers
Captain Beefheart’s Trout Mask Replica
Guided By Voices’ Bee Thousand
Guns N’ Roses’ Use Your Illusion I and II
James Brown’s Live at the Apollo
Jeff Buckley’s Grace
Jethro Tull’s Aqualung
Jimi Hendrix’s Electric Ladyland
Joni Mitchell’s Court and Spark
Joy Division’s Unknown Pleasures
The Kinks’ The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society
Love’s Forever Changes
Magnetic Fields’ 69 Love Songs
MC5’s Kick Out the Jams
The Minutemen’s Double Nickels on the Dime
My Bloody Valentine’s Loveless
Neil Young’s Harvest
Neutral Milk Hotel’s In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
Nirvana’s In Utero
Pink Floyd’s The Piper at the Gates of Dawn
PJ Harvey’s Rid of Me: A Story
Prince’s Sign O’ the Times
R.E.M.’s Murmur
The Replacements’ Let It Be
Sly and the Family Stone’s There’s a Riot Goin’ On
The Smiths’ Meat is Murder
Sonic Youth’s Daydream Nation
Steely Dan’s Aja
Stevie Wonder’s Songs in the Key of Life
The Stone Roses’ The Stone Roses
The Who’s The Who Sell Out
Jack Johnston’s first keystroke in publishing
was a coupla self-generated punk rock fanzines in the 70’s, anti-zine
and 20aMPC. He wrote for WARD Music Monthly through the
mid-80’s, and penned the liner notes for Romeo Void’s warm,
inyourcoat Sony Legacy compilation CD. He leads cooking classes with
Operation Frontline and manages the B.A. Liberal Studies program at Antioch
University Seattle.
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