Individual spins
33⅓ is, of course, the speed of the LP record, as decreed by CBS Laboratories in 1948. It’s also the name of a series of books written about specific LP records, published by Continuum Books and edited by David Barker.
Except that they’re not really about the records, necessarily. From 33⅓ #1, Dusty in Memphis, by Warren Zanes:
This is not a book about a record. Sorry. I hope no one has been misled. This is something else altogether. As I was writing it, I conceptualized my agenda in this way: as an attempt to understand why a particular long-playing phonograph record, Dusty in Memphis, pulled me into its world and what I did there. Which is to say, this book is about an experience with a record more than it is about a record. It’s both a chronicle and an analysis of what happened when a particular person met up with a particular piece of vinyl at a particular time and the unfolding of that relationship.
This would probably be the sort of thing I ought to be doing, were I capable of turning out 120 pages about forty minutes of music. There are more than sixty titles out now, and more are coming, says Barker:
[A] small group of us will consider these 170 proposals as closely as we can, and maybe 6-8 weeks from now we’ll have reduced this list to a much more manageable size.
What scares me is that there might be something left to say about Lou Reed’s Metal Machine Music that wasn’t already said by the late Lester Bangs.
Jeffro »
21 February 2009 · 8:11 pm
When you talk about music, I learn something new. However, beyond Walk on the Wild Side, I can do without Lou Reed. Reading about Harvest or Aja sounds interesting, and the “short list” has some albums I’d like to learn more about.
Pretty cool, really.
CGHill »
21 February 2009 · 8:58 pm
The one Lou Reed track I always come back to, even before “Walk on the Wild Side,” is the live version of “Sweet Jane” on Rock n Roll Animal, with a guitar-hero intro by Steve Hunter.
Then again, I actually bought Berlin when it came out, which I suppose proves that I had a genuine taste for serious downers (the moods, not the drugs) in those days.
Jeffro »
21 February 2009 · 9:31 pm
Oh, yeah, I remember a live version of “Sweet Jane.” Ok, I guess I like two Lou Reed songs.
I fear my musical tastes are quite a bit more populist. But, that’s the way I like it uh huh uh huh. Yep, had that one on eight track.
CGHill »
21 February 2009 · 9:50 pm
I have more than enough disco around here — yes, even the occasional 12-inch single — to trash any residual reputation I might have as a cultural arbiter.