Is a first edition paperback of the Greil Marcus-edited Stranded book of essays about critic's dester island disks worth anything?
I don't think it has a high resale value, but as a book it's worth a lot. The Nick Tosches piece is really funny and the Marcus discography gave me a good excuse to spend countless hours in used record stores in the 80s and 90s. I love Lester Bangs, and Astral Weeks is among my favorite albums, but I've always been underwhelmed by that essay; that could be unreasonably high expectations on my part, though, as I know some people who love it. The best writing in the book is Ed Ward's piece on the 5 Royales (when Greil Marcus was on Table Talk he seconded that opinion.) Read it even if you loathe fifties R&B and gospel. And if you feel moved to pick up their music I think you'll like it, too. Look for a compilation with "The Slummer The Slum". Lowman Pauling's guitar is just killer, years ahead of its time.
I can't choose a desert-island disc, even if my only choices were allowed to be from the U2 or REM catalogue. I just can't do it.
Joseph Shabalala of Ladysmith Black Mambazo is on the Leonard Lopate show, which reminds me of a Christgau article about him called "Tribulations of St. Joseph". Be prepared for the penultimate paragraph, especially if you're familiar with his music. The disconnect between LBM's ethereal sound and Shabalala's personal tragedies is jarring: think the difference between Jasmine looking like Gina Torres and Jasmine with maggots crawling out her eye sockets. Grace under pressure doesn't even start to describe Shabalala.
New Fiery Furnaces song done acoustic: [link]
I'll pick 10 desert island discs offhand:
- Minutemen, Double Nickels on the Dime
- Love, Forever Changes
- Fiery Furnaces, Blueberry Boat
- Can, Future Days
- Television, Marquee Moon
- Miles Davis, It's About That Time
- Coltrane, A Love Supreme
- Beach Boys, Pet Sounds
- Go-Betweens, Liberty Belle and the Black Diamond Express
- Husker Du, Zen Arcade
edited 'cause I wrote the same thing twice
hayden - how's that beautiful boy doing? sleeping any better?
Television, Marquee Moon
Finally gotten around to picking this up on CD (my vinyl copy is SHOT), and I really need to get around to listening to it. Mebee as crash music tonight.
Hey, msbelle! Yes, indeed, he's sleeping better and generally calming down significantly. Now that I have a computer at home again, I'm going to put pictures of my grinning Li'l Jandek up this weekend.
Frank: did you get the remastered one? 'Cause, DAMN.
Frank: did you get the remastered one? 'Cause, DAMN.
I'm pretty sure it is. That's the one with the bonus tracks, right? Looking forward to it, as the only version of "Little Johnny Jewel" I've heard is the Siouxsie cover.
And my desert island disk is and probably will always be Achtung Baby
The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars. The only detriment to it is that it's fairly short by today's standards, but, truly, it is the perfect album.
