Da Capo Best Music Writing 2002

by Jonathan Lethem, Paul Bresnick

Overview

It's here: the third and latest volume in the series that you have come to rely upon for your music-reading fix. The 2002 volume will celebrate the year's best writing about music and its culture, as selected by Jonathan Lethem, best-selling novelist, music hound, and self-confessed closet rock-writer. With pieces on a dazzling array of topics from more than a hundred sources, the collection brings you remarkable essays by journalists and authors who are as serious about writing as they are about music. It's required reading for anyone who loves either art. Past contributors have included: David Rakoff Mike Doughty Lorraine Ali Greil Marcus Richard Meltzer Robert Gordon Sarah Vowell Nick Tosches Anthony DeCurtis William Gay Whitney Balliett Lester Bangs Rosanne Cash Susan Orlean Eddie Dean Selwyn Seyfu Hinds Alec Wilkinson David Hajdu

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780306811661
Publisher:	Hachette Books
Publication date:	10/03/2002
Edition description:	First Da Capo Press Edition
Pages:	368
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

Jonathan Lethem was born in 1964 in New York City, the same week the Beatles landed at JFK. His novels include Gun, With Occasional Music; Amnesia Moon; Girl in Landscape; and Motherless Brooklyn, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award. He has also written for the New York Times Magazine, Esquire, McSweeney's, and Rolling Stone. He lives in Brooklyn.

Paul Bresnick is a literary agent and editor who has edited many award-winning music books. He lives in New York City and East Hampton.

Hometown:

New York, New York

Place of Birth:

New York, New York

Education:

Left Bennington College after two years

Table of Contents

	Introduction	ix
	A Ramone Leaves Home: Joey 1951-2001 Village Voice	1
	Soljas Granta	5
	J. Lo vs. K. Sul City Pages	25
	"Help Me Make It Through the Night": The Anatomy of a Record The Journal of Country Music	30
	The DJ's New Lexicon Feed	54
	Two from The Onion "God Finally Gives Shout-Out Back to All His Niggaz"	62
	Days of the Nu Salon.com	177
	Only a Northern Song Village Voice	188
	Walking on Thin Ice The Wire	193
	Strokes Thread Ilovemusic.com	210
	Constant Sorrow New Yorker	217
	England's Oldest Hitmakers Village Voice	232
	Seven Years in the Life NY Review of Books	237
	Gimme Shelter Chicago Reader	248
	Days Between Stations: Kelly Hogan Interview	253
	A Long, Strange Trip Texas Monthly	256
	Gettin' Paid New Yorker	275
	The Moon Looks Down and Laughs Flaunt	292
	That Same Lonesome Blood Oxford American	319
	With Joey Gone, I Finally Get the Diana Fetish Toronto Globe and Mail	339
	Other Notable Essays of 2001	343
	List of Contributors	345
	Credits	351

Editorial Reviews

In this collection of 28 excellent essays-penned by some of the usual suspects (Greil Marcus, Simon Reynolds) as well as upstarts (Kate Sullivan, Kelefa Sanneh)-editor Lethem (Motherless Brooklyn) more than achieves his goal of producing "a book of encounters... an invitation to an impossible, gabbling conversation, a party line, where every voice is unforgettable." While the book's subtitle is perhaps misleading and overly ambitious (there are no essays on classical music, blues or reggae, and only a couple on jazz and country), there is barely a weak essay in the collection. David Gates on the improbable 2001 mania for bluegrass legend Ralph Stanley, Lenny Kaye's powerful and maudlin-free obituary/tribute to Joey Ramone and Steve Erickson's idiosyncratic "Top 100" songs related to his beloved Los Angeles are among the stronger entries. This volume also takes a few risks that more than pay off: selecting the Onion's fake news reports titled "God Finally Gives Shout-Out Back to All His Niggaz" and "Marilyn Manson Now Going Door-to-Door Trying To Shock People" not only provides hilarious counterpoint to many of the book's heartfelt essays but also poignantly illuminates just how much musical trends define the general culture at large. (Oct.) Forecast: This will more than meet the expectations of fans of the first two volumes in the series. With a little more publicity and marketing, this series could develop a serious crossover market.

Publishers Weekly