Daydream Nation 33 1/3 Book
 

Lots of threads about when it's being released but now that it finally has, not much seems to have been said about it on here.

Got the book and the deluxe ed. CD on the same day, so great to read and listen at the same time.

Great job on the CD, but enough has been said about that already.

Anyway, found the book almost unreadable. The author keeps banging on about how 'dangerous' the album is: making SY out to be some kind of noise-rock Baader Meinhoff, or something. This quote sums up the tone:

'To listen to [the album's producer] Sansano talk about a recording session with Sonic Youth is like listening to a soldier talk about the experience of frontline warfare.'

The discussions of individual tracks are just as silly. Take for example his account of 'Rain King', in which, 'The lyrics are a volcanic torrent of language meant more as artillery in a battle being waged against an opponent (who is this Rain King?) that can no longer be ignored or tolerated.'

God knows what the band itself must think of it all.

i read through pantophobia's copy a few weeks ago...it's fucking horrid.
it's like the guy put the album on his stereo, fucked a thesaurus, and
ejaculated the book.

kills me that a band so influenced by, and champions of, quality literature
have thus far had only one book ("i dreamed of noise") worthy of them,
and even then that was just a collection of quotes and photos. "sonic
life" is kind of a trifle, and "confusion is next" just kinda dry.

and oh yes...HE GETS LYRICS WRONG. taking umbrage with his style is
one thing, that's a readers opinion, but to actually fuck up some of the
content of this work of art you're purporting to write a definitive word on?
mortifying.

Jenn, you're a national treasure! :)

I liked confusion is next... and I haven't read this (or any other 33 1/3 book). I tend to think analysis of any kind of music is usually going to be kinda awkward, unless the musician himself gave lots of information of what he was trying to convey or what techniques he used in making the music. Music means different things to different people... and certainly, with lyrics like SY has, one can't always be clear of what the message really is; taken literally, there are contradicting statements on some of their songs. So, yeah, any description of the music -- especially things like "the guitars sound like a torrent of rabid wolves that stop to admire themselves in the mirror" or some other purple-prose-type garbage -- is probably going to be disagreeable. That's why I read mark prindle's review; he focuses on facts and he just tells why he likes or dislikes someting, rather than trying to be the be-all end-all source of album analysis (though he does occassionally offer brilliant rock insights; his reviews of "Trout Mask Replica" and "Spiderland" are amazing).

Anyway, "Who is this Rain King anyway?" probably sums up the book enough for me to realize that I don't need to check it out.

I am interested in the Loveless 33 1/3 book, though, only if it offers a lot of insight into the creations of the songs (which it probably doesn't).

One other thing.. and I'm sure this can be fact-checked really quickly, but.. does Daydream Nation HAVE an official lyrics sheet (besides this site's song database)? Because.. I mean, does he get the lyrics REALLY wrong or just misses a few words here are there? I know you're making the point that he is trying to write a detailed analyis of an album he's heard plenty of times and should know the lyrics by heart, but we mishear lyrics sometimes, so... just wondering.

he messes up some on "silver rocket", which admittedly is not thurston at
his enunciative peak..."total trash" as well. what makes the lyrical errors
stick out is that he uses them to further whatever theory he has for that
song. he hears "grease the crack" as "increase the crack", and then
decides the song is a meditation (partially) on drug-ravaged '80s NYC.

per the site songbase, the "confirmed" intro words to "eric's trip" are
"achoo...brancafest." stearns decides it is in fact "i hate the past."
and proceeds to hammer THAT interpretation into the ground.

honestly, i feel even if he had done proper lyric research (like, shit, ask
the lyricists) his writing style is just such it couldn't have salvaged the
book--to me.

couldn't agree with jenn anymore about this book, its only kinda nice to look at on a shelf, and even that its pocket size anyway.

DN was never gonna be an easy album to write about and I admire Stearns for having a go. But he seems too in awe of it to give it a fair account. At times he's like some kid that's convinced his fave album will just be too much for people, that they won't be able to 'take it'. Hey, we're talking about Daydream Nation here, not Metal Machine Music. This is an album that's had tracks performed on Letterman without mass psychosis gripping America.

word.

a horrible book indeed. the author forces all kind of post-structuralist b.s. on the record and doesn't say anything meaningful.

I've read a fair amount of bad reviews for these 33 1/3 books...which are the good ones?

I really wanna check out the Double Nickels book.

I've nothing to add, except my opinion that the book is utter shite. I tried reading it, honest I did, but I couldn't bothered trying to struggle through the mountain of words to find any meaning. I ended up giving it away.

Thank god I did not buy it. Or will now.

I won't get it either. Thanks for the warning boardies.

Don't worry, Jenn, this time next year you won't be able to move for SY books.

The Loveless one is ok, but just ok. At least there are a few interesting interviews with Shields in it, although no particularly startling insights.
The Daydream Nation one really is horrible. Its like a badly contextualised O-Level English Lit paper.

this sounds so bad it might actually be funny.

i do get a strange sort of kick out of the pathetic incompetence of others.

i am placing much faith in david browne's bio, being a fan of the previous
articles and reviews he's written about the band.

That's true, but when I turned it up really loud, it sounded like "I hate the past." Maybe the author is correct on this one, and the posted lyric is a joke?

Yes you did...Thanks again :D

I thought the beginning chapters were quite inspired as they focused on the general tone of the album and his own romantized memories surrounding DDN. However as the book went on I found myself bemused by his analysis of the individual songs. Some of what he wrote particularly towards the end was utter bollocks. Still overall it was an enjoyable read.

Lee quite audibly says 'brancafest'. The guy who wrote the book is a hack.

Ugh... couldn't you people have started this thread 2 weeks ago!?

I've ordered it sometime ago and it will probably come through my mailbox soon. Too bad it's apparently such a piece of crap... maybe I can still cancel my order. :rolleyes:

The Beastie Boys' Paul's Boutique 33 1/3 book is excellent. I'd already read just about everything about that band, and there was tons of new information in it, a lot of interviews.......which is why I got the Daydream Nation book, which was completely horrid. I wanted *information* not his stupid arty pretentious drivel. He clearly did next to no research, and made the book all about him. Complete waste of money.

wow, this thing sounds amazing. i haven't seen it around here yet -- i know the author had asked me if he could quote some of my site almost verbatim, but i think that was just re: the drifter -- is that in there?

i will concede that the 'achoo...brancafest' may not actually be 'confirmed' (though the rest of the song certainly is...lee's lyrics from this record were published in JRNLS80s long before SY.com posted them, and more from this album were featured in that 'sonic life' book). i think i read the quote as 'brancafest' online 10+ years ago and just stuck with it.

the thing is, when the guy was writing the book, the lyrics were up on sonicyouth.com (their own section, in addition to mine -- provided by the band themselves), and he still didn't even..just..look? i know the band commented on this publically after it came out.

god that charlie brown pic/caption is hilarious!

They range widely in quality. They're all written by different authors, whose writing styles and expertise are all over the map. I have several, and I'm sorry to say, Loveless is a huge disappointment. Again, sad to see a great album get such shoddy treatment. In this case, the author talks a great deal about himself, and the rest of the time, mostly quotes other books or articles, whole pages, in fact, of nothing but text pulled from other sources.

On the other hand, I think Exile on Main St. is excellent (the guy from Buffalo Tom wrote that one, interestingly enough), as is Trout Mask Replica. I also have Highway 61 Revisited, which, while a bit dry and too scholarly, is nonetheless pretty fascinating for its thoroughness.

I have Paul's Boutique, which I haven't gotten into yet, but it looks pretty good from just a quick skim through it.

who was recalling the Providence story on that chapter? did i miss something?

the providence part in the 33 1/3 book is fantastic, but the book in all is very uneven. get the trout mask replica book, that one is perfect. very good insightfull analysis about why it's such a turning point in Van Vliet's career. His complex relationship with Zappa is also very well explained (without bashing on him or Van Vliet, which is usually the case with books on Zappa or Van Vliet). I also read the Double Nickles book, but that's an okay track-by-track review, not much more.

I have the book and its good and bad. Good because it talks about the whole problems the band had making the record. Like how the drummer was homeless and got sick and only plays on "only shallow". You learn more about kevin and debs personal lives, what they were going thru. Apparently they broke up during the album. My only bad comment about it is they dont talk much about how the songs were created/inspiration behind them.

It's a shame because there are plenty of good writers that I'm sure would be happy to get some cash for doing one of these.

Jon Savage
Mark Sinker
Bryan Coley

to name but three.

It's a shame that such a great idea has been ruined by bad writers.

One of the things that I can't understand is why both Sonic Youth and The Velvet Undergound have so few decent books written about them. I was going to get this one, but it seems like a waste of time after reading this thread. It's beyond me why such a great band that desrves an intelligent and insightful primer, inspires such second rate writing. Just one GOOD book would do them infinite justice. Fingers crossed.

There has been some good writing about the band:

I actually like Alec Foege's book, but it obviously needs updating.

I also liked the section on SY in Michael Azerrad's Our Band Could be Your Life, if only because it wasn't written from a fan's perspective, and I sort of enjoyed its overtly hostile tone.

What about the alternatives though? Of those that might be feasible:

I'd say Simon Reynolds might've done a good job a few years ago, but now he seems so against everything SY might represent that it'd just turn into some anti-rock manifesto.

Greil Marcus would surely say something interesting, but it would read more as a 'my thoughts on...' kind of thing.

Everett True's book would have been ok, but he's got major self-promotion issues so it would've probably ended up more like an autobiography.

Bryan Coley: too rockist, maybe.

Thinking about it, perhaps there simply isn't a writer CAPABLE of telling the band's entire story. A single album maybe, but not the whole saga.

So would anyone, if all they ever wrote about was themselves.

More seriously though, I agree. He's good.

He's very good at dealing with personalities within bands, and interrelationships between bands. He's not so good when it comes to 'bigger picture' stuff, which is more Greil Marcus or Jon Savage territory.

Thinking about it, I'd love to read Greil Marcus on SY.

I should read his Ramones book (and the Nirvana one that comes out this month). I've only ever read articles by him.

...

Don't mention Everett True when sonicl's around:( .

Me too, defo didnt sound like brancafest to me anyway, but my ears could be failing me due to years of listening to loud music :)

I ordered the book about a year ago & the store had it on back order for months I finally gave up on them & moved. Thanks for the reviews.

there is no better word to describe the man. HACK.
in short, the book is terrible and in my expert opinion we should all just let the album speak for itself. the exile on main st. 33 1/3 is awful too. but i do want to read the loveless one just out of curiosity.

I have to disagree. While I think it's possible he says that, I'm pretty sure it's "I hate the past" too. If not, I'm still hearing four syllables, not three.