33 1/3 Call For Proposals Results

The 33 1/3 blog posted up a list of all the submissions they got before the New Year and it's a LONG list. If a portion of these books actually get written it will be a huge year for 33 1/3's. More than likely most of these never get written, or most of the ideas get rejected (I don't think the editors have read the proposals yet), or these authors actually take years to put them together. But here's some of what I think of the list:

Ones I would be crazy siked for and shit myself to get my hands on them their first day out:
Bob Dylan – Time Out of Mind
Erykah Badu – Mama’s Gun
Fairport Convention – Liege and Lief
Joanna Newsom – Ys
Randy Newman – Good Old Boys
Van Morrison – Astral Weeks

Ones I would wait on pins and needles for after I'd gone through the above:
The Blues Project – Projections
Dennis Wilson – Pacific Ocean Blue
Joni Mitchell – Hejira
Lauryn Hill – The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill
Neil Young – Tonight’s the Night
The O’Jays – Back Stabbers
The Stooges – Fun House
Television – Marquee Moon (although I thought somebody had already signed up to do this one)
The Who – Quadrophenia
X – Los Angeles

Ones I would definitely love to check out:
Arcade Fire – Funeral
Black Star – Mos Def and Talib Kweli Are Black Star
Bruce Springsteen – Darkness on the Edge of Town
Carole King – Tapestry
The Cars – The Cars
The Fugees – The Score
Galaxie 500 – Today
Jerry Lee Lewis – Live at the Star Club, Hamburg
Metallica – Master of Puppets
Modern Lovers – Modern Lovers
Paul Simon – Graceland
The Rolling Stones – Let It Bleed
The Velvet Underground – Third Album
X – More Fun in the New World
Yes – Fragile
Yo La Tengo – I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One

Ones that would be of great comfort in the time between the ones I'm really waiting for:
Allman Brothers Band – At Fillmore East
Aretha Franklin – Amazing Grace
Creedence Clearwater Revival – Chronicle Vol 1
D’Angelo – Voodoo
Danzig – Danzig
David Bowie – Let’s Dance
David Bowie – The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars
De La Soul – 3 Feet High and Rising
De La Soul – Buhloone Mindstate
De La Soul – De La Soul Is Dead
Dinosaur Jr. – You’re Living All Over Me
Drive-By Truckers – Southern Rock Opera
Elton John – Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
George Harrison – All Things Must Pass
Iron Maiden – The Number of the Beast
Iron Maiden – Iron Maiden
J Dilla – Donuts
King Crimson – In the Court of the Crimson King
Metallica – Metallica
Michael Jackson –Thriller
Moby Grape – Moby Grape
The Monkees – Pisces Aquarius Capricorn and Jones Ltd
New York Dolls – New York Dolls
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – Tender Prey
Olivia Tremor Control – Music from the Unrealized Film Script, Dusk at Cubist Castle
Pearl Jam – Ten
Pearl Jam – Vitalogy
Pearl Jam - Vs
Richard Hell and the Voidoids – Blank Generation
Sandy Denny – Sandy
Songs Ohia – Magnolia Electric Co
Soundgarden – Badmotorfinger
Soundgarden – Superunknown
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers – Damn the Torpedoes
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers – Greatest Hits
Van Halen – MCMLXXXIV
Various Artists – Pebbles, Vol 1
Various Artists – Pulp Fiction: Music from the Motion Picture
The White Stripes – Elephant
The White Stripes – White Blood Cells
Willie Nelson – Stardust
Woody Guthrie – Dust Bowl Ballads

Now, it's kind of hard to actually criticize people's choice of album. The point of the series is not necessarily to write about the best albums ever (though of course the ones I want to read are the ones based in some way on albums I like) but to use an album as inspiration, and really I guess anybody could use any album for that. I definitely go through the list and see a bunch of albums that I would have to give the benefit of the doubt that they mean something to someone. There are definitely a few I had to completely roll my eyes at though. They are:

The Beach Boys – Smile (Unless you make some good fiction out of this album, is there really anything to say that hasn't been said about it. Come on! I mean, this is some of my favorite music ever, absolutely, but it's some of the most commented on pop music of all-time.)

Britney Spears – Blackout (Britney Spears is an easy target and this is barely worth mentioning, but really, who cares? And more than one person submitted a proposal for this album.)

Franz Ferdinand – Franz Ferdinand

John Lennon – Live in New York City (I didn't like this album even when I cared about John Lennon. To me the choice of this album smacks of trying too hard to make an outside choice. Then again, there can be a story in there, so I can't really criticize.)

John Mayer – Heavier Things

John Mayer – Room for Squares (Geez.)

Lou Reed – Metal Machine Music (Maybe someone can come up with a way to make a story out of this, but I couldn't be less interested.)

Modest Mouse – Good News for People Who Love Bad News

The Mountain Goats – All Hail West Texas
The Mountain Goats – Tallahassee
The Mountain Goats – The Sunset Tree
The Mountain Goats – We Shall All Be Healed (I really have given this band a chance and I just don't get it. Let four different albums inspired proposals in people. Whatever.)

Slint – Spiderland (Apparently seven people submitted proposals on this album. I don't really have a whole lot to say about it, except I fucking hate this album. So fucking much.)

Vampire Weekend – Vampire Weekend (Unless the book violently insults this album and the praise it shouldn't get, the author should shoot his/herself.)

Various Artists – Now That’s What I Call Music Vol 26 (Someone's trying to be funny and they're not. The ironic thing has been done in the Celine Dion book. I'd like to break all of this person's fingers.)

Wilco – Forthcoming 2009 Album (This one just makes me furious for a lot of reasons. This person is trying so hard to pick an album nobody else will that they picked an album that is not only yet to be released but yet to be named, probably also wanting other people to think he's in on something ahead of everybody else. Unless this is a book that gets written and released really fast and is all about how far from special hearing something before it's released has become in the internet age, I declare it a failure, and I hope its author dies hungry and penniless.)

A couple other notes for albums I should probably be more excited about:

Various Artists – American Primitive Vol 1: This one would go on my “crazy siked and shit myself” list as long as it put more stock in the music than in the compiling of the album. As long as it didn't become all about John Fahey. Give him a chapter and be done with him. Don't be lean with the protein. A really good choice if it's done right.

Elvis Presley – Elvis Presley (1956): Seems like this would be a no-brainer for me, but my choice for an Elvis album was better. Once again, what can a person say about this album that hasn't been said a million times over. A painfully obvious choice. I don't think an Elvis fan chooses this album, I think a fan of the time period chooses this album. Unless this book is just a tour de force that violently goes after every person who makes up reasons why Elvis doesn't matter, I'm not that interested.

Randy Newman – Born Again: Love Randy Newman, but there's better albums to be chosen. Then again it's all about what you do with it, so we'll see.

Bob Dylan – Saved
Bob Dylan – Self Portrait: Who am I to judge? Maybe someone can make good books out of these. But once again it seems like choices that scream out, “I sat down and tried to think of the one Dylan album that nobody else is going to do.” Basically feels like making a book out of a prank. Then again, one of the things I love about Dylan is that even when his music is not that fun to listen to, it can still be compelling because you always feel like he knows what he's doing. Like it's no accident that he's being awful, and the proof is that he can turn around completely and his next album will be incredible. There's definitely something to be written about there, but I would foresee more hammering on that point over and over and over again than really discussing the album.

Bob Dylan – Theme Time Radio Hour With Your Host Bob Dylan: I assume this is referring to the compilation that was made out of songs Dylan played on his show. I think this actually has the potential to be interesting, because his choice of songs is all over the place and tying such different songs together could make for decent reading. It makes for a fantastic listen. But if it's made all about Dylan, which I assume they'd try to do considering they list him as the artist instead of calling attention to it as a compilation, I'm less interested. Not because I love Dylan any less, but because he's not a major part of what makes this music great. He only pulled it together, and if you focus on the comp in particular you can barely say that since his input beyond having aired the songs originally on his show seems to be minimal.

That's all I have to say about that. I look forward to seeing what actually gets published. And I should probably read more often.