Greil Marcus, from The Irish Times

[AllenLowe]

"Right now what I’m listening to the most is a 36-CD history of the blues that’s put together by an American musicologist named Allen Lowe. It starts in the 1890s and goes to the 1950s. There’s about 25 songs on each CD and there are 36 CDs, so that’s hundreds of songs. And there’s so much that I haven’t heard, that I never imagined existed, so many strange voices and unexpected themes and combinations.”

[sjarrell]

[Larry Kart]

Nice

[clifford_thornton]

:tup

[jostber]

Greil Marcus is one who really listens. Great!

[Hot Ptah]

That is a nice comment. How does Greil Marcus have access to all 36 CDs of "Really The Blues?" though? I thought that only the first 9 were available, as Volume 1.

I have been listening to Allen Lowe's "American Pop: From Minstel to Mojo" collection, and Volume 1 of "Really the Blues?" constantly in the past two weeks, and I have found that my mood heightens as I get into these collections. They are so interesting, so varied and so good, I just find myself feeling happier as I listen to them.

Allen's achievements with these sets, and with Devilin' Tune, should not be underestimated. These are amazing sets. He does not take himself very seriously in his posts here, so it is easy to forget the magnitude of what he has produced.

[Tom Storer]

How does Greil Marcus have access to all 36 CDs of "Really The Blues?" though? I thought that only the first 9 were available, as Volume 1.

Yeah, what's up with that?? "Give me a good quote, Greil, and I'll let you have the other volumes early." Shocking corruption.

[AllenLowe]

I made him some CDRs - but he asked nicely.

[Son-of-a-Weizen]

I made him some CDRs - but he asked nicely.

If perchance he drops by this place and attempts to sell multiple copies of the cd-rs, we'll make sure not to delete

the thread.

[AllenLowe]

unless he asks for too much money -

[BruceH]

"It was as if---"

[jeffcrom]

Very cool, Allen.

[AllenLowe]

more Greil Marcus, this time from The Believer magazine: (for the complete article you will have to purchase the mag):

"As a compiler, Allen Lowe is the music historian's equivalent of David Thomson with his ongoing editions of A Biographical Dictionary of Film (the latest will be out this fall). With at least twenty-four numbers to a disc, Reallythe Blues? is a cornucopia; it's a swamp. It's a forest to get lost in, tree by tree or even leaf by leaf. It's a grand and overarching story—though that ? at the end of his title marks Lowe's doubt as to whether with the blues such a story is possible, or even a good idea. It's a flurry of fragments, leaving you grasping for a way to follow the trail.As his free-swinging liner notes make clear, Lowe is a radical pluralist; as a synthesizer he's completely idiosyncratic. He may love disjunction far more than unity— but what others hear as disjunctions may be unities to him.

As a language, it gives whoever can speak it a certain purchase on the world, allowing one to present it or oneself in a light different from the light that falls on you without your will or desire coming into play. That is why it takes so many, even infinite, forms. In the world of the blues as Lowe affirms it,any attempt at summary, let alone a critical assessment of what his crafted world is worth, of whether it's a spinning globe or a pile of feathers, would demand far more time than it takes to listen—and given the shape of his production, constantly calling you back to play a given piece a second or a tenth time, to make it fit, to hear how it doesn't, summary may be beside the point. For that matter, while Lowe covers every conceivable genre, style,form, and fashion, the recordings he chooses are almost never generic, an example of something as opposed to a thing in itself. Within any genre he is drawn to its anomalies,not the master chord but the broken cord. I hope to take up each of his four boxes as they arrive; here are ten echoes from the first."

Edited July 7, 2010 by AllenLowe

[AllenLowe]

http://www.believermag.com/

link to the mag -

[Hot Ptah]

A very nice, and perceptive, write-up, Allen.

[papsrus]

Very nice Allen. The critical reviews of this truly wonderful set seem to be universally warm, and rightfully so.

Well done.

[Big Beat Steve]

I like this:

He may love disjunction far more than unity— but what others hear as disjunctions may be unities to him. Within any genre he is drawn to its anomalies, not the master chord but the broken cord.

I'd call it "proceeding off the trodden paths of the too well-known and predictable".

Commendable IMHO.

When will Vol. 2 be out, incidentally?

[AllenLowe]

I have been told around December -

[danasgoodstuff]

Good for you Allen, but Greil went into his fat Elvis stage a long time ago....

[AllenLowe]

yes, but the Fat Elvis had many moments of glory. Watch those Vegas concerts in the documentary - better than ever.

[cih]

As a language, it gives whoever can speak it a certain purchase on the world, allowing one to present it or oneself in a light different from the light that falls on you without your will or desire coming into play...

That reminds me how much I liked 'Lipstick Traces':

"...The desire begins with the demand to live not as an object but as a subject of history—to live as if something actually depended on one's actions—and that demand opens onto a free street."

Very exciting for a youngster like I was! it's the only book of his I've read but it led to a lot of other stuff...