Monk Liner Notes

[ListeningToPrestige]

There's a Monk album -- i guess it has to be from the late 60s or 70s -- where the writer of the liner notes compares Monk to Tim Hardin. Does anyone know which album, and who wrote the liner notes?

[Teasing the Korean]

Sounds like the Columbia Greatest Hits. 

[JSngry]

Mike Zwerin

It was Zwerin's daughter who made the comparison.

[Teasing the Korean]

[ListeningToPrestige]

Yes! Thanks to both of you. Stupid me -- I went to AI first, and got several different wrong answers  - instead of coming straight here, to real intelligence.

[Teasing the Korean]

4 minutes ago, ListeningToPrestige said:

Yes! Thanks to both of you. Stupid me -- I went to AI first, and got several different wrong answers  - instead of coming straight here, to real intelligence.

Late-'60s liner notes are often ridiculous, and lines from many of them have stuck in my mind over the decades.  

For example, a line from the Love Generation's debut on Imperial, in which they discuss an impromptu party with "7-Up, pressed ham sandwiches, and flowers flowing freely." 

[felser]

45 minutes ago, Teasing the Korean said:

Late-'60s liner notes are often ridiculous, and lines from many of them have stuck in my mind over the decades.  

For example, a line from the Love Generation's debut on Imperial, in which they discuss an impromptu party with "7-Up, pressed ham sandwiches, and flowers flowing freely." 

Beware, parents, your kids could look like this if not guarded from the addictive evils of 7-Up and pressed ham sandwiches!  BTW, fun album, though a little frothy even in terms of flower pop.  Bunch of studio musicians IIRC.

[Teasing the Korean]

31 minutes ago, felser said:

Beware, parents, your kids could look like this if not guarded from the addictive evils of 7-Up and pressed ham sandwiches!  

😆

It's not a very good album, even by sunshine pop standards, but I had to keep it for the liner notes.  Kind of like with the Monk Greatest Hits.

[ListeningToPrestige]

3 hours ago, Teasing the Korean said:

For example, a line from the Love Generation's debut on Imperial, in which they discuss an impromptu party with "7-Up, pressed ham sandwiches, and flowers flowing freely." 

I love it. Someone should do an anthology of these.

[Teasing the Korean]

3 hours ago, ListeningToPrestige said:

I love it. Someone should do an anthology of these.

I would love that.  There must be other jazz albums from that period, like Monk's Greatest Hits, with liner notes that were self-consciously trying to appeal to 60s youth culture.

[Bill Nelson]

Self-indulgent liner notes by Ralph J. Gleason, of which, "there's nothing more pathetic than an aging hipster."   

[mjzee]

The liner notes to this album consist of Eric Miller's brother (Eric being the producer who later worked extensively at Pablo) detailing the fights he and his brother had when they were teenagers.

[medjuck]

1 minute ago, mjzee said:

The liner notes to this album consist of Eric Miller's brother (Eric being the producer who later worked extensively at Pablo) detailing the fights he and his brother had when they were teenagers.

I didn't know about this record.  They did a good one for Reprise that I believe was never released on cd.

[Gheorghe]

I don´t know who is Tim Harden. Monk is one of my idols. So it´s a "sin" to compare him with anyone !!! 
But I remembe for a short time I had a Miles Davis album also called "Greatest Hits" , which had stupid liner notes. Something like a "Warlord of (I don´t know what). I remember this, because I just learned English by reading liner notes and having a dictionary beneath. 
The album was cool since it gave me my first listenig to some 1960´s Miles. But soon I gave it away since I wanted to have the LPs, not a sampler.
So I can deduce that "Greatest Hits" with Monk has also strange liner notes......

I think, also the liner Notes or the cover photo of "Underground" , Monk´s last album for Columbia was stupid.

[JSngry]

War Lord of The Weejuns by George Frazier 

 

[Teasing the Korean]

10 hours ago, Gheorghe said:

I don´t know who is Tim Harden. Monk is one of my idols. So it´s a "sin" to compare him with anyone !!! 

I compare him to Raymond Scott, and I'm willing to bet that "Epistrophy" was inspired by "Powerhouse."

[jlhoots]

15 hours ago, Bill Nelson said:

Self-indulgent liner notes by Ralph J. Gleason, of which, "there's nothing more pathetic than an aging hipster."   

I always liked Ralph J. Gleason.

[JSngry]

H

29 minutes ago, Teasing the Korean said:

I compare him to Raymond Scott, and I'm willing to bet that "Epistrophy" was inspired by "Powerhouse."

How much would the bet be?

[Teasing the Korean]

30 minutes ago, JSngry said:

H

How much would the bet be?

When the economy comes roaring back in a couple of weeks, the sky's the limit!

[Ken Dryden]

The only Tim Hardin I remember was the junkie folk singer who wrote ”Hang On to a Dream” and overdosed young.

[ListeningToPrestige]

That is the Tim Hardin who made his breakthrough to jazz immortality with these liner notes.

[JSngry]

 

[medjuck]

IIRC at the time the mere concept of Monk having a greatest hit's Lp was thought to be pretty funny.

[John L]

Probably the worst liner notes I ever read were from Robert Levin for Shirley Scott's "The Soul is Willing" that features Stanley Turrentine.   The notes begin with the stupid line that "All jazz, directly or indirectly, has come out of Harlem," and go steeply down hill from there.   ..."it must be said that it [the music] has obvious limitations...The limitations of the music result from the limitations of the community from which the music comes.  Harlem is, after all, a ghetto, and many sources are not easily accessible to it.  The art it produces is one where the controlling emotion is frequently anger..."  etc., etc. etc.  

It amazes me that Prestige would have permitted this kind of garbage to be put on one of its records. 

 

[danasgoodstuff]

18 hours ago, mjzee said:

The liner notes to this album consist of Eric Miller's brother (Eric being the producer who later worked extensively at Pablo) detailing the fights he and his brother had when they were teenagers.

Those are genius notes, the Monk/Hardin ones are pretty good too.

 

Lee Morgan, If I Were...

The worst jazz album notes from the '70s are ones on reissues that piss and moan about fusion when it's totally irrelevant to the subject at hand.