Liner Notes: Search and Destroy

DESTROY: Famously reclusive American author Thomas Pynchon's well- intentioned liner notes to woefully-undeserving-of-such-an-honor NYC band Lotion's NOBODY'S COOL

Destroy: 'Fold Yr Hands Child...', self-indulgent much?

Also Search: 'Manhattan Research, Inc' Raymond Scott [as mentioned on a previous thread about CD Design] The liner notes can practically be used to teach a college course.

I get into the English notes on a lot of bossa nova records as well--- they all seem to have this naivete about non-Western culture that now comes across as amusingly patronizing and often despicable. I burst out laughing last night when I noticed the notes for a Baden Powell record I'd just bought mentioned something about an "all-Negro orchestra."

I'm fond of the liner notes to Mountain Goats albums (written by Mr. Mountain Goat hisself). The Robert Palmer essay in the _Kind of Blue_ CD is good readin', too. The inserts in _There and Back Again Lane_ & the Field Mice retrospective are nice snapshots, too.

I'll take a few paragraphs of (well-written) liner notes over a miasma of ill-conceived band photographs & other arty-farty pretentious shit.

Destroy: Dylan's "Blood on the Tracks" is vile, much of the recent liner notes for jazz reissues suck (let's be kissing our asses a bit more), but then again they always kind of did...Tangerine Dream's remasters on the Virgin label were kind of disappointing in a homogeneous kind of way....

Strange, awkward fact: the notes on the inside of the current Very Best of the Smiths CD (Dud repackage) are not totally terrible, and are just a tad more thoughtful and contentious than you'd expect them to be. (Don't take my word for it - I only read them in the shop.)

Liner notes are a fun addition to almost any album, even--maybe especially--the ones that seem to refute or dispute everything you hear on the record.

"When so much of today's music consists of unashamed covers or samples, it's refreshing to spotlight a man who can justifiably be decribed as unique"

DESTROY! DESTROY!

Search: The Shaggs, "Philosophy Of The World" liner notes. Ha ha ha.
Destroy: AMM - The Nameless Uncarved Block. Ha ha ha (for an entirely different set of reasons).

The first time I remember being really blown away by a piece of music criticism was Greil Marcus's notes for the Gang of Four greatest hits collection that came out like ten years ago. I only read them once (the CD belongs to a friend - I have all the albums and thus no real use for a greatest hits), and I have no idea if they'd still "hold up" or affect me quite as deeply, but it was the first time I read something about music that made me think about and enjoy the music in a new way. Made me realize that there was value in the enterprise (ie writing about music), it wasn't just "dancing about architecture" or whatever the cliche is. I've never been quite as impressed by Marcus in anything else I've read by him... But I am now a converted fan of music criticism, and in fact do not feel like I've allowed myself to become fully immersed in a given piece of music until I've thoroughly exposed myself to to the written element that it inspires...

I just borrowed from the library the original 80s CD release of Peter Gabriel's soundtrack for Birdy, which has some instrumental remixes of his old tunes alongside new instrumental music. The CD sleeve has this note in it: "WARNING: This record contains re-cycled material and no lyrics." I think it's kinda charmingly honest, I guess they didn't want any superficial Gabriel fans to be cheated into buying the album.

The essay by Graham Parker in the reissue of Squeezing Out Sparks is really entertaining. The story of how Jack Nitzsche helped the band pull a classic out of their hats is great and Parker tells it beautifully.

I wish Sloan would bring back Chico T. Sanchez. Brilliant!

Setting the Tempo : 50 Years of Great Jazz Liner Notes

^^^^^ hard to find, but one of the best jazz books i've ever owned

Apparently .06 used on Amazon!