POPTIMIST/SUKRAT book-larnin shout-out

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

which 33/13s are good to fry read? if poss say why

Comments

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

The only one I own and have read is ABBA "Gold". It was a bit disappointing, I think because it spent most of its time selling the idea of ABBA to a presumed sceptical rockwrite audience, work which obviously had already been done in the perspective I was approaching it from. I wanted interesting new perspectives on ABBA, and though nothing in the book was stupid, nothing in it was amazingly clever either. I also wanted - since this was the only book in the whole series about a compilation - some thinking on how compilations work vis a vis 'proper' albums, and/or how this particular comp has been constructed (which in turn cd shed light on how 'canons' are constructed I guess). Instead the book goes through the songs in chronological order, rather than in the order they're presented on "Gold", which seriously weakens the idea of the book as being about an artefact. What you have instead is a perfectly OK "ABBA For Dummies".

[pot80.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think it's a matter of perspective -- I thought it did a good job of defending Abba, but if you're already a fan there's not a lot there. The book is defensive from start to finish, and so it always seems like an apology or something.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Yes, defensive is exactly the word I'm after - which is pointless, as surely the worth of the record should be a given in this series. I think the reason I was so disappointed with the content is that there really ISN'T a lot of critical writing about the band - the longer books they do get are all OMG FRIDA'S DAD WAS AN NAZI.

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

I agree with all of the above.

I also thought the author didn't do a terribly great job of telling the ABBA story through Gold. She half respected the running order of the CD to do this (which is non-chronological, and ends with "Waterloo", as you know), and half invented her own chronology.

I'm not sure how I would have done this either, it is a tough problem, but I don't think the author cracked it.

[pot80.livejournal.com]

I do kinda like the ABBA book in spite of all this. Elisabeth's writing is charming, and she has interesting things to say -- keep in mind I am a very casual ABBA fan.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Yes, it's well written and engaging, and disappointing only because it's the token pop act getting the shaft.

It pretty much put me off pitching anything, which has saved me future disappointments no doubt.