Tag: Music Writing

The 33 1/3 B-sides Week, Day 2: Debbie Gibson and Waking Hours

333admin

Back in 2006, Alex Green wrote his 33 1/3, The Stone Roses’ The Stone Roses, one of our earlier 33 1/3’s that made the series what it is. Today, he writes about his fantasy romance with Debbie Gibson, and how Del Amitri’s Waking Hours pulled him back to reality. I didn’t know that my essay on Del Amitri’s Waking Hours would coincide with the 30th anniversary of the album’s release, but as I started writing and researching for the piece, that round number emerged and the whole affair seemed auspicious…

33 1/3 B-sides Week, Day 1: Welcome to the B-sides!

333admin

This week is publication week for The 33 1/3 B-sides! We’ve been anxiously awaiting this book for a while now, and we cannot wait for everyone to read it. Throughout this week, we will be sharing some blog posts from the contributors of the book (all past 33 1/3 authors) discussing the albums that they still dream about today. Below, D. Gilson and Will Stockton introduce us to The 33 1/3 B-Sides… This is the week we welcome into the world The 33 1/3 B-sides: New Essays by 33 1/3…

33 1/3’s are for students, too!

333admin

A few years ago, we posted some excerpts of undergraduate essays that discuss 33 1/3s. We love seeing our 33 1/3s in classrooms, so we decided to post some more! Below you will find the beginnings of three undergraduate student papers. Samantha Bennett is a senior lecturer in the School of Music at the Australian National University, and author of her very own 33 1/3, Siouxsie and the Banshee’s Peepshow! These excerpts come from Professor Bennett’s “Popular Music: In Culture and in Context” class, and make for very interesting reads. Do…

Remembering Woodstock

333admin

This weekend marks the 50th anniversary of Woodstock! The music lineup for Woodstock was iconic. A myriad of the musicians featured in 33 1/3 frontlined the festival, including Neil Young, Jimi Hendrix, The Band, Sly & the Family Stone, and more. For instance, in The Band’s Music from Big Pink music writer John Niven tells a fictionalized but historically driven account of The Band’s 1968 album that helped to define Woodstock as a hippy mecca. With 50 years of Woodstock behind us, so many of our impressions of the festival…

Woman Crush Wednesday: Tori Amos

333admin

This week’s Woman Crush Wednesday goes to one of our favorite feminist warriors, Tori Amos. The list of reasons why Tori Amos deserves all of our awe and respect is infinitely long, but we will mention a few here. A rock ‘n’ roll legend, Amos has been a musical virtuoso since the age of three, when she taught herself how to play the piano. She was later admitted to the Peabody Institute at Johns Hopkins University at the age of five—the youngest person to ever be admitted. To make her…

It’s Global Beatles Day!

333admin

Steve Matteo, author of The Beatles’ Let It Be, is taking over the blog today to talk about the everlasting influence and wisdom of the band, this album, and the people that he met through writing his 33 1/3… The musical, cultural and historical phenomenon of the Beatles seems to know no bounds. When I began working on my 33 1/3 book on the Let It Be album back in 2002, I didn’t imagine the book would still be so relevant today. The Let It Be album was the last…

Happy Pride Month from 33 1/3 to you!

333admin

Pride Month is here, and we want to highlight some LGBTQIA musicians and authors featured in 33 1/3! dc Talk’s Jesus Freak – Late into Reagen’s presidency, three men formed a band, dc Talk, a group with evangelical roots and a unique appeal to secular audiences. Their fourth album, Jesus Freak, became a landmark of the 1990s alternative rock scene and secured them as the face of contemporary Christian music. Written by two queer scholars from evangelical backgrounds, dc Talk’s Jesus Freak explores the multifaceted ideas about race, sexuality, and…

The 33 1/3 B-sides Sneak Peek!

333admin

Have you ever wondered, if given another chance to write for 33 1/3, which albums past authors would focus on the second time around? This anthology is the answer. Featuring 55 (yes, 55!) compact essays by past 33 1/3 authors, each chapter is about an album they just can’t seem get out of their heads.  The 33 1/3 B-sides is publishing on September 5th, and we’re so excited! Take a sneak peek at the table of contents below, and let us know what you think. Preface Introduction: Superfluous, Redundant, Enduring…

Tom Petty Week: Day 2 – “The Image of Me” and what could have been

333admin

Day 2 of Michael Washburn’s blog takeover! Today, he talks about how the Southern Accents recording sessions “were a bit of a quagmire,” and unravels the riddle of why “The Image of Me” was never included in this album. I mentioned yesterday that Southern Accents is broken backed—it’s almost a couple of different records slammed together. This so puzzling if you look at some of the songs that were cut for the album but then sat aside. For my money many of those songs are better written—and sound better—than many…

Tom Petty Week: Day 1 – Why Southern Accents?

333admin

From today until Friday, Michael Washburn will be taking over our blog. Michael’s new 33 1/3 on Tom Petty’s Southern Accents, will be out on Thursday, April 4th, mark your calendars! In his first blog post of the week, Michael dives into why he chose Southern Accents to write about, and how this bizarre, contentious album came to be such a pivotal turning point in Tom Petty’s musical history. Southern Accents? Really? Not Damn the Torpedoes? Not Wildflowers? That was the typical response when I’d tell people which record I…