Melody Maker's "Unknown Pleasures"

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I've seen a few mentions of this book on various threads, the latest being here.

It is indeed a fabulous thing. I can't find an online version, but I have found some of the essays available separately. I'll post links to these, and perhaps we can add the rest when/if they become available.

So far then, we have:

The Soft Boys - Underwater Moonlight

Gene Clark - No Other

Magazine - Shot By Both Sides

The Residents - Eskimo

Todd Rundgren - A Wizard, A True Star

5 down, 15 to go. Hope this is useful.

― noodle vague (noodle vague), Sunday, 9 May 2004 14:45 (twenty-one years ago)

Missed one:

Curtis Mayfield - There's No Place Like America Today

― noodle vague (noodle vague), Sunday, 9 May 2004 14:58 (twenty-one years ago)

The Specials - More Specials

― Old Fart!!! (oldfart_sd), Sunday, 9 May 2004 21:07 (twenty-one years ago)

Thanks Old Fart. I love that Specials piece.

― noodle vague (noodle vague), Sunday, 9 May 2004 21:10 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah, this is a worthy enterprise... does anyone know a web location of the Abba one on "The Visitors"?

― Tom May (Tom May), Sunday, 9 May 2004 21:19 (twenty-one years ago)

two weeks pass...

I've been trying to find out what all 20 of the articles were about, can anyone help me with the last 5 (and if i've made any mistakes with the top 15, please do correct...i hope to find this book one of these days...)

1. Gene Clark-No Other
2. Curtis Mayfield-There’s no place like America today
3. The Residents-Eskimo
4. ABC-Lexicon of Love
5. The Soft Boys-Underwater Moonlight
6. The Specials-More Specials
7. Todd Rundgren-A Wizard, A True Star
8. Abba-The Visitors
9. Magazine-Secondhand Daylight
10. Fleetwood Mac-Tusk
11. Dexy’s Midnight Runners-Don’t Stand Me Down
12. Captain Beefheart-Clear Spot
13. Led Zepplin-Presence
14. Orange Juice- You Can’t Hide Your Love Forever
15. Neil Young- On The Beach
16. Chic-
17. The Raincoats
18. Bow Wow Wow-
19. Go Betweens-
20. Microdisney/The Fatima Mansions-

― Phil Dokes (sunny), Wednesday, 26 May 2004 02:06 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't have my book with me now ... but it should be Neil Young -- Time Fades Away.
Chic -- Risque
Go Betweens -- Liberty Belle and the Black Diamond Express
Bow Wow Wow -- See Jungle! See Jungle! etc. etc.
I can't remember the others right now, when I get to my book I'll post the rest (if nobody else does).

― Barry Bruner (Barry Bruner), Wednesday, 26 May 2004 03:38 (twenty-one years ago)

The book was good except the 'Presence' one sucked. I'll do a better one for $200

― dave q, Wednesday, 26 May 2004 03:39 (twenty-one years ago)

I've got a horrible feeling I chucked this out in my last flat move (it survived the more general MM purge of the late 90s). Which Raincoats album could it be? If it was Reynolds I can imagine it being Odyshape though Moving is the one more usually maligned and in need of crit resuscitation.

― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Wednesday, 26 May 2004 08:59 (twenty-one years ago)

I think I have this somewhere. I defintely looked through it a few months ago.

The Raincoats - The Raincoats (Ian Gittins or that Hemingway bloke)
Microdisney/Fatima Mansions - 39 Minutes/Lost In The Former West

― Michael B, Wednesday, 26 May 2004 09:07 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm surprised - maybe I think of The Raincoats' debut as being fairly well-established in the post-punk canon because this book helped put it there.

― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Wednesday, 26 May 2004 09:15 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.hungoverdrawn.co.uk/dexys/02.html

chris roberts on dexy's.

― piscesboy, Wednesday, 26 May 2004 10:11 (twenty-one years ago)

"Eskimo" is about to be reissued. I'm excited. I've never heard it. I want to do what E.True did! Then I want to hear "Diskomo" - is that currently available?

― zebedee (zebedee), Wednesday, 26 May 2004 10:21 (twenty-one years ago)

Right!!!! I've got a copy of tha booklet, and I've OCR'ed the first one, which is Neil Young's "Time Fades Away", written by Alan Jones...

― Old Fart!!! (oldfart_sd), Thursday, 27 May 2004 07:48 (twenty-one years ago)

Wow! Thanks, Old Fart!!!!

― Broheems (diamond), Thursday, 27 May 2004 15:57 (twenty-one years ago)

What was wrong with the Presence one! I remember enjoying it...

― Keith Watson (kmw), Thursday, 27 May 2004 16:06 (twenty-one years ago)

one year passes...

Picked this up for 99p in the Oxfam music shop on Byre's Road on Saturday. Really good collection of essays. Not read them all yet, but thought Stubbs on Clear Spot was superb and Reynolds makes me wanna check out Tusk. The Orange Juice essay is let down by a rather hackneyed Scottish stereotypes preamble (He takes it full circle by pointing out Postcard's ironic appropriation of such imagery admittedly), but it's a nice summary all the same.

― Stew (stew s), Monday, 27 June 2005 12:29 (twenty years ago)

Does anyone remember a totally massive pull out wall chart that went through every post punk/harcore/post-hardcore/grunge band from Minor Threat onwards to what was then current (in 1992) I found it tremendously handy, the descriptions were generally spot-on, great for sussing out whether to spend your money on a Bitch Magnet CD or a Tar Babies one. I know ET wrote some of it, maybe he did all of it.

― mzui (mzui), Monday, 27 June 2005 14:30 (twenty years ago)

three years pass...

anyone got an online copy of the taylor parkes' ABBA piece?

― piscesx, Friday, 16 January 2009 20:34 (sixteen years ago)

1. Gene Clark-No Other
2. Curtis Mayfield-There’s no place like America today
3. The Residents-Eskimo
4. ABC-Lexicon of Love
5. The Soft Boys-Underwater Moonlight
6. The Specials-More Specials
7. Todd Rundgren-A Wizard, A True Star
10. Fleetwood Mac-Tusk
11. Dexy’s Midnight Runners-Don’t Stand Me Down
12. Captain Beefheart-Clear Spot
13. Led Zepplin-Presence
14. Orange Juice- You Can’t Hide Your Love Forever
15. Neil Young- On The Beach

These are all in the Acclaimed Music list. So apparently not that uknown.

― Geir Hongro, Friday, 16 January 2009 20:37 (sixteen years ago)

two years pass...

does anyone know if the ABC and Bow Wow Wow pieces from this are anywhere online?

― fit and working again, Wednesday, 9 March 2011 16:10 (fourteen years ago)

twelve years pass...

Can this book (or working links to its essays) be found anywhere online?

― visiting, Saturday, 5 August 2023 01:48 (two years ago)

i was able to dig up the reynolds essay on tusk

http://reynoldsretro.blogspot.com/2007/10/fleetwood-mac-tusk-from-unknown.html

― budo jeru, Saturday, 5 August 2023 02:14 (two years ago)

finding the whole book seems like a tall order, but maybe somebody else can track it down

― budo jeru, Saturday, 5 August 2023 02:15 (two years ago)

If you’re just looking for a PDF I’m happy to scan my copy and either post it here or email it to whoever wants it.

― henry s, Saturday, 5 August 2023 04:19 (two years ago)

If it isn't too much trouble that would be awesome!

― visiting, Saturday, 5 August 2023 05:17 (two years ago)

^^^

― out-of-print LaserDisc edition (sleeve), Saturday, 5 August 2023 06:01 (two years ago)

^^^^^^^^^ <3

― brimstead, Saturday, 5 August 2023 06:27 (two years ago)

Alrighty then. Will scan over the weekend.

― henry s, Saturday, 5 August 2023 13:02 (two years ago)

er, anybody have any recs for where I can best upload such a file so as to share it with the world (i.e. you)?

― henry s, Saturday, 5 August 2023 13:07 (two years ago)

dropbox?

― Toshirō Nofune (The Seventh ILXorai), Saturday, 5 August 2023 13:42 (two years ago)

If you have GMail: a file uploaded to your Google Drive can be shared with an anonymous link.

Otherwise there are plenty of websites that will let you share files without signing up for an account but I can't vouch for any of them.

― Kim Kimberly, Saturday, 5 August 2023 13:52 (two years ago)

Ok, let's see if this works. Uploaded to Dropbox.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/pxg4spo9asiy5gk/Unknown%20Pleasures.pdf?dl=0

― henry s, Saturday, 5 August 2023 16:14 (two years ago)

so that the words may live another day...

― henry s, Saturday, 5 August 2023 16:16 (two years ago)

amazing, thank you so much

― out-of-print LaserDisc edition (sleeve), Saturday, 5 August 2023 16:22 (two years ago)

thanks henry s!

― toenail fungus (Hunt3r), Saturday, 5 August 2023 16:27 (two years ago)

No sweat! What good is the internet (and time, for that matter) if not for sharing stuff like this?

― henry s, Saturday, 5 August 2023 16:30 (two years ago)

Thank you so much, Henry!

― brimstead, Saturday, 5 August 2023 16:41 (two years ago)

thank you!

― Toshirō Nofune (The Seventh ILXorai), Saturday, 5 August 2023 18:29 (two years ago)

henry thank you so much! i'm glad i asked... this is fantastic.

― visiting, Saturday, 5 August 2023 21:34 (two years ago)

Thanks for this! I've been on the look for this for quite a long time.

― you can see me from westbury white horse, Monday, 7 August 2023 20:38 (two years ago)

Ditto!

― eatandoph (Neue Jesse Schule), Monday, 7 August 2023 20:53 (two years ago)

Wow...beaming! So happy to have gotten this to all of you who have been looking for it!

― henry s, Monday, 7 August 2023 21:20 (two years ago)

wow, thanks for this, henry s! what a champ

― budo jeru, Monday, 7 August 2023 23:33 (two years ago)

one year passes...

No sweat! What good is the internet (and time, for that matter) if not for sharing stuff like this?

This is awesome

so that the words may live another day...

and also touching. The link still works. Thank you Henry.

― TheNuNuNu, Monday, 17 March 2025 05:40 (five months ago)

Great little book. Thanks, Henry.

― completely suited to the horny decadence (Capitaine Jay Vee), Monday, 17 March 2025 13:55 (five months ago)

yes thank you, Henry!

― brimstead, Monday, 17 March 2025 14:13 (five months ago)

The pleasure's all mine! May this provide you with as many years of quality bathroom reading as it has for me.

― henry s, Monday, 17 March 2025 14:31 (five months ago)

Reading this book when it was first posted here finally got me to check out Microdisney, so thanks for that too!

― Halfway there but for you, Monday, 17 March 2025 15:08 (five months ago)

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