Worst liner notes you've ever read?

[Christiern]

"It was a dark and stormy night when Dudley Fosdick gently rubbed a spot on his mellophone. His thoughts went to ..."

[ep1str0phy]

epistro...aren't those shepp notes you speak of sort of a parody?

i think it is supposed to be a fake french writer (translated into english) who is maybe racist and pretentious without realizing it. i asked about these notes a few months ago...

Totally unaware of this, though (regardless) I'd be surprised if Fuel 2000 put in the effort to play into the irony (it would certainly explain the notes, though)... these are the guys who said the Braxton reissue had 'audiophile remastering.' What discussion was this in?

Edited May 29, 2006 by ep1str0phy

[Simon Weil]

...in general i don't like liner notes that sound like they were writting by a jewish guy on acid. i think i remember feeling this way about those "settin the pace" notes, though again, i might be remembering wrong.

Well, the Settin the Pace notes has the guy (effectively) state he's Jewish at the top - and saying he was drugged out on lack of sleep. So then he's writing his thing as an evocation of a drugged out Jew's experience - i.e. his. What I don't see is why you say "sounds like". I mean, is there something specifically "Jewish" in the way those notes were written.

Is this like the blindfold test where people affirm they could tell the difference between black and white players?

Or perhaps you meant something different.

Simon Weil

(My subject)

Edited May 30, 2006 by Simon Weil

[Guest akanalog]

himmelstein wrote the liner notes for the altschul album i mentioned above too (not the producers notes where chuck is mentioned...).

they are equally "freaky". equally "wack", IMO.

[Guest akanalog]

i just read the notes to altschul's "irina" album and hentoff wrote them and they are pretty half-asses.

half thought and half just reordering basic information available to anyone.

i like harvey pekar's notes generally. i don't like his comics but his jazz liners are good.

he seems like an authentic honest listener giving an honest opinion.

and as much as i dislike john zorn as a human being, his notes to "boogaloo" are also worthwhile.

[GloriousBlues]

The worst liner notes ever are on Fly Away Little Bird by Giuffre/Bley/Swallow. They begin like this.....

Same and other, or, paraphrasing Lampedusa, change everything not that nothing changes (and maybe the reverse, too-up to a dizziness of sets of mirrors). Or : always closer (to the theme sometimes) to go further, or so far (from every premeditated melody) to come near one another in the triangle field...

I've tried to read this garbage several times, but couldn't ever get through the first page.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

The worst liner notes ever are on Fly Away Little Bird by Giuffre/Bley/Swallow. They begin like this.....

Same and other, or, paraphrasing Lampedusa, change everything not that nothing changes (and maybe the reverse, too-up to a dizziness of sets of mirrors). Or : always closer (to the theme sometimes) to go further, or so far (from every premeditated melody) to come near one another in the triangle field...

I've tried to read this garbage several times, but couldn't ever get through the first page.

I suppose you didn't just let your glance flash down to the bottom to see who was responsible for that trot, did you?

MG

[AllenLowe]

"Same and other, or, paraphrasing Lampedusa, change everything not that nothing changes (and maybe the reverse, too-up to a dizziness of sets of mirrors). Or : always closer (to the theme sometimes) to go further, or so far (from every premeditated melody) to come near one another in the triangle field..."

actually, I think it's a palindrome -

[GloriousBlues]

The worst liner notes ever are on Fly Away Little Bird by Giuffre/Bley/Swallow. They begin like this.....

Same and other, or, paraphrasing Lampedusa, change everything not that nothing changes (and maybe the reverse, too-up to a dizziness of sets of mirrors). Or : always closer (to the theme sometimes) to go further, or so far (from every premeditated melody) to come near one another in the triangle field...

I've tried to read this garbage several times, but couldn't ever get through the first page.

I suppose you didn't just let your glance flash down to the bottom to see who was responsible for that trot, did you?

MG

Sorry, I should've given credit to the authors for the very unique assemblage of words. It was written by Philippe Carles (Jazz Magazine), English translation by Gerard Rouy.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

The worst liner notes ever are on Fly Away Little Bird by Giuffre/Bley/Swallow. They begin like this.....

Same and other, or, paraphrasing Lampedusa, change everything not that nothing changes (and maybe the reverse, too-up to a dizziness of sets of mirrors). Or : always closer (to the theme sometimes) to go further, or so far (from every premeditated melody) to come near one another in the triangle field...

I've tried to read this garbage several times, but couldn't ever get through the first page.

I suppose you didn't just let your glance flash down to the bottom to see who was responsible for that trot, did you?

MG

Sorry, I should've given credit to the authors for the very unique assemblage of words. It was written by Philippe Carles (Jazz Magazine), English translation by Gerard Rouy.

Ah, good tactics: if you can't evade responsibility - share it.

MG

[AllenLowe]

it's funny, because as I read this thread I am preparing to write the liner notes to my next CD - I was going to contract out for it but am running out of money - so any suggestions as to text would be welcome (maybe I can quote from Gould/Bresnahan/mrjazzman on my personal shortcomings) -

[Dan Gould]

it's funny, because as I read this thread I am preparing to write the liner notes to my next CD - I was going to contract out for it but am running out of money - so any suggestions as to text would be welcome (maybe I can quote from Gould/Bresnahan/mrjazzman on my personal shortcomings) -

Only if I have the right to revise and extend my remarks.

[Ken Dryden]

Allen:

What do you want to know about other musician's works? What inspired the compositions, choice of material, instrumentation, musicians, etc.?

Making a few technical comments is usually worthwhile, it's a way for non-musicians and critics to learn something.

A sense of humor never hurts.

I hope your CD does well!

[JSngry]

it's funny, because as I read this thread I am preparing to write the liner notes to my next CD - I was going to contract out for it but am running out of money - so any suggestions as to text would be welcome

Just use Himmelstein's Settin' The Pace notes. The classics never go out of style.

[Simon Weil]

it's funny, because as I read this thread I am preparing to write the liner notes to my next CD - I was going to contract out for it but am running out of money - so any suggestions as to text would be welcome (maybe I can quote from Gould/Bresnahan/mrjazzman on my personal shortcomings) -

Well, you could try writing it "in the style of" all the people you wish you could have got to do it (all the time explaining that, in fact, you don't have the money, and as Jim kind of said, keeping your tongue firmly in your cheek) - plus, then, to "balance" you could have all (or let's say, some of) the people you are glad can't.

"I was going to contract out for it but am running out of money" is kind of lopsided-funny.

Simon Weil

Edited June 1, 2006 by Simon Weil

[AllenLowe]

thanks - all good ideas - I've done it before and will probably do a song by song list with commentary - this is one of those crazy complicated projects (2 cds, performers in about 3 cities) - autobiographical, 5 different styles of music - I remember reading something by Donald Barthelme in which he had a quote from some small town newspaper which said of one of his books: "He writes just like Mark Twain only not as good." His publisher wouldn't let him use it as a blurb on the book jacket - but if Gould gives me something like that I'll be happy to use it -

[Nate Dorward]

Yeah I love it when negative criticism is quoted in blurbs! Once I saw an ad for a poetry magazine that quoted my review of a previous issue for a blurb:

"Uneven" --Nate Dorward.

Allen--I think a little commentary on the tracks is always nice to read.

[(BB)]

it's funny, because as I read this thread I am preparing to write the liner notes to my next CD - I was going to contract out for it but am running out of money - so any suggestions as to text would be welcome (maybe I can quote from Gould/Bresnahan/mrjazzman on my personal shortcomings) -

Allen,

I was thinking you could do an exquisite corpse of sorts by having all interested board members provide a random line. You could then construct your notes my simply pasting together the results.

Or then again maybe not.

Bill

[marcello]

it's funny, because as I read this thread I am preparing to write the liner notes to my next CD - I was going to contract out for it but am running out of money - so any suggestions as to text would be welcome (maybe I can quote from Gould/Bresnahan/mrjazzman on my personal shortcomings) -

Allen,

I was thinking you could do an exquisite corpse of sorts by having all interested board members provide a random line. You could then construct your notes my simply pasting together the results.

Or then again maybe not.

Bill

Isn't that the William Burroughs method?

The Cut - Up Technique

It worked for him.

Edited June 2, 2006 by marcello

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

I've just found, on Ray Bryant's "Soul", a really classic piece of offal, by someone called Rick Willard.

"Ray Bryant attacks a piano like a boll weevil attacks cotton, softly with love but firmly with compassion."

It's bloody heartbreaking.

MG

[Lazaro Vega]

"Same and other, or, paraphrasing Lampedusa, change everything not that nothing changes (and maybe the reverse, too-up to a dizziness of sets of mirrors). Or : always closer (to the theme sometimes) to go further, or so far (from every premeditated melody) to come near one another in the triangle field..."

Diagram that clausal beast, read it back in the voice of Jean Arthur, and you've got a play -- "Stutters of Ignoratioelenchi and Inexperience"; or "Ghostly Tail Chasing: The Sacroiliac Dance."

[Ken Dryden]

I can just imagine a set of liner notes by one of these hack writers beginning with "It was a dark and stormy night...."