33½ Series

This series of short books providing in-depth analysis of one classic or influential album happens to include quite a few prog/psych/avantgarde records. Right now I'm reading the one on Jethro Tull's Aqualung: While the lyrics analysis isn't that groundbreaking, it's full of interesting commentary on how the rest of the composition and performance ties in with the content. There's quite a few clever details in the songwriting that I have remarked on for many years, but haven't really been able to articulate that clearly and the book is certainly motivating me to dig it out again.

Anyone here read other volumes in the series? Curious to see what they have to say about Piper at the Gates of Dawn. Some of the records on the list I have no idea they can wring that much meaning out of, though...

I'm not sure it makes a very big difference.

With albums this influential, it's difficult (if not impossible) for audiences younger than the original one to listen to said records without evaluating them under influence by the "legend" they have built up in the meantime.


Edited by Toaster Mantis - October 03 2013 at 05:07

Most of the books I've read in this series have been quite fascinating.  Sonic Youth "Daydream Nation" was especially enlightening, if you're interested in that album at all.  On the prog side, David Bowie's "Low" was very enjoyable.  "Piper at the Gates of Dawn" was good but not fantastic.  Looking forward to more.

Finished the one about Aqualung yesterday. Like I said, the analysis of the lyrics themselves aren't particularly groundbreaking for longterm fans... but I did quite appreciate the more theoretical analysis of how the compositional structure reflected the conceptual content in the lyrics. Right down to the specifics of the playing around with conventions from different genres can be seen as illustrating the contrasting themes in the lyrical narratives.

I also liked the information on the different re-issues, and how the album was perceived then vs. now. I'm looking forwards to reading the ones about Piper at the Gates of Dawn, Master of Reality, 22 Jazz Funk Greats and others.

Just got the one about Piper at the Gates of Dawn from my local library. That's an album which means at least as much to me as Aqualung, so I have high expectations to this book. Might also be difficult for them to say much new about it, though, since I can think of few rock groups as over-analyzed as Pink Floyd.

Okay, so the book about Piper at the Gates at Dawn starts with admitting that so much has been written about PF's music from the biographical analytical angle of either Syd Barrett or Roger Waters' life so the author takes a somewhat different route. He focuses instead on the recording process, going into the teamwork between not just the band members but also the businesspeople and recording personnel who made the LP possible. There's also a strong perspective on the sociological context of the cultural milieu surrounding Pink Floyd back then.

You generally get the impression that Piper... is the kind of album that could be only be made by those exact musicians at that exact time. For example it turns out that many of my favourite things about that LP are the result of extremely ambitious but at the time not very technically skilled musicians being given very little time to record with a lot of for the time very advanced recording technology they weren't used to, and all that happening at a time when pop/rock music was suddenly becoming really ambitious in ways that people weren't able to categorize properly yet.

Overall it's very informative, but at first I was somewhat shocked at how completely different it is in analytical method and writing style than the one on Aqualung.