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May 12, 2005
Meloy and the 'Mats
Over this past weekend, I finally had enough free time (thanks, Amtrak!) to sit back and read Colin Meloy's installment in Continuum's 33 1/3 series, on the classic Replacements album, "Let It Be". Meloy's interpretation is mostly autobiographical, with occasional detours into short, brilliant sections of musical analysis. He begins by detailing his childhood in Montana, how his parents divorced, how he ended up going to a different school than his best friend, and how his college-age uncle was a huge influence on his listening habits. What I was most suprised at was how restrained Meloy's prose is (he acknowledges his struggle with this in the book's introduction)- the man is positively Hemingwayan in his phrasing. My expectations were high coming into this, given Meloy's lyrical work with the Decemberists and the fact that his undergraduate degree is in creative writing, and I was not disappointed by this book. Meloy does an excellent job of evoking the weird and almost ineffable mixture of confusion, ambition, fantasy, and fleeting passion that occupies a middle-school-aged kid's mind, and he is at his best when talking about the sort of wild devotion that one album can elicit (i.e. when was the last time you were able to listen to only one album for 4 or 5 months straight?).
One of the best parts of the whole book though comes at the very end, when Meloy writes an amazing portrait of the Replacements, from the formation of the band in a basement to the moment when the camera snaps the picture that became the cover for "Let It Be" (and this book). It reminded me very much of John Haskell's celebrity sketches in "I Am Not Jackson Pollock", all of which are simple, elegant, and gorgeously wrought. "Let It Be" is a fantastic little book (it's a quick read), and it'll make you want to go out and buy all the albums Meloy mentions (if you don't already own them).
Posted by Kevin at May 12, 2005 12:34 PM
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Comments
joe pernice's 33 1/3 book about "Meat is Murder" is pretty good. Not great, but a pleasent read.
Posted by: dave at May 12, 2005 05:08 PM
That one's actually next on my list! I'm looking forward to it.
Posted by: Kevin at May 12, 2005 05:23 PM
speaking of jp, and this might get the full post treatment later, but 'discover a lovelier you' is available for preorder at pernicebrothers.com
Posted by: matt at May 12, 2005 05:25 PM
Kev, you are the shit. You should read Jean-Claude Van Damme's book. It's about the making of the John Woo masterpiece HARD TARGET. It's really good, he talks about working with Wilford Brimley and how he had to punch a snake in the face, everything you ever wanted to know. The other great thing about it is that it's a pop up so when you open it up you get kicked in the teeth. No I'm just kidding that book doesn't exist.....yet. That Meloy book sounds good though you'll have to let me read it next time you're up here.
Posted by: Steve at May 12, 2005 07:55 PM
Thank you, my brother. I'm actually working on some J-C V.D. fan fiction right now, sort of a Don Quixote-kicking-ass-across-the-countryside-accompanied-not-by-Sancho-Pancho-but-by-you-guessed-it-a-hot-but-demure-girl-with-a-mysterious-past feel to it. Get ready for it.
Posted by: Kevin at May 13, 2005 11:49 AM
I hear you left your cell phone on the train during this Amtrak jorney. Evidently the (shockingly considerate)woman who found it called my parents to ask if the phone belonged to their son. Mom and Dad were a little confused.
Posted by: Sean at May 13, 2005 04:06 PM
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