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Rather_Ripped's Rant on the Fine Art of Album SequencingMay 11 '05 Write an essay on this topic.
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The Bottom Line Boycott "Greatest Hits" collections. Stick with the original albums whenever possible. Or buy singles. Your enjoyment will be greater.
Or, Thoughts From a Behind-The-Curve Rock Nerd on the Ulterior Motives of Corporate Media Vs. Artist Intent vis-a-vis Album Sequencing and Hidden Tracks. (Whew!) ***************************************************** For the past several years I have been compiling a list of grievances, stuffing a pillow with the ink-and-tear-stained quills of a frustrated writer’s grudges, if you will, over the issue of artist intent vs. the intent of those whose job is to move units --- and, by hook or by crook or by pouring gasoline down a songwriter’s throat, they will. Whether or not you subscribe to capitalism --- and I see no naked mud-daubed barbarians with spears in Pioneer Square or at the Seattle Center Fountain today, so it looks like most everyone does, however squeamishly --- it is inarguable that should I hand over my work to you and ask you to sell it on my behalf, I have to let go on my end. Picture an artist in a tug of war with a "suit" (although in 2005 the distinction barely holds) with a canvas, a floppy disk, a CD glass master, or a sculpture serving in place as a rope. Assuming that workers control the means of production, if I'm too damn lazy to get on a bicycle with a basket and selling my records myself like they do in Jamaica, then I deserve to be repackaged, to be suffocated in shrink wrap, to have my film butchered by the studio with a happy ending superglued to the end. Okay then, if you're still with me. I'm a lab rat. I’m a couch potato. I want my mint condition Poison Idea 45s delivered to my door with a marinated portobello mushroom pizza, STAT! I want to be able to look up nude photos of Jello Biafra on the Internet without giving a credit card number. I want to turn on the TV --- that's FREE TV, NOT CABLE, NOT SATELLITE, NOT "WEB TV", and certainly not "public" (funded by Mobil) TV --- I want to turn on the TV and see Callista Flockhart beaten to death with a Flux of Pink Indians collectible lunchbox weighted with buffalo nickels. I want John Waters for president. I WANT TO BUY ALBUMS SEQUENCED IN THE ORIGINAL ORDER. I’m sick and tired of retrospectives, greatest hits, tributes, remixes, and most of all, I AM SICK AND OUTRAGED by CD re-releases of albums with the hidden/unlisted tracks removed. I don't care about their excuses. Licensing agreements. Royalties. Publishing contracts. Slug bait! Who do they think they are? Oh --- let's remove all the swear words from this new softcover edition of Tropic of Cancer. Let's remove "24 Hours" from the CD re-issue of STILL by Joy Division..... hey, it's not listed on the original album cover, who'll notice? Just some crackpot rock fan sitting in his living room full of Robyn Hitchcock posters, clutching the latest issue of Mojo in his fist and screaming "WHEN WILL IT END? WHEN WILL IT END??" As you may have already guessed, I was in a band once in the Late Jurassic period, before the Social Security kicked in and I had to be intubated and pee in a bag. Before the ripe and smelly old age of 30, OKAY DAMN IT, 33, long ago in the Dark Ages before CDs were invented, shrouded in the mists of do-we-have-to-hear-about-this-again-grandpa-time, I was in a band, and we "cut" a record --- back when you actually used a sharp object and soft, waxy material on which to inscribe "grooves", and yes, that IS where the term "groove" came from, kid --- and one of the most arduous and painful and rewarding artistic struggles of the entire enterprise was the SEQUENCING. It was PART OF IT. How the HELL do we put the narco-dub/folding chair drum track in between two mutant-pop-aria tracks? And why would we put the church organ and flamethrower instrumental at the END? Or, why not?? Notice how the interminable regurgitations of old material happen either after a band member dies, or a band’s career dies. Hell, even the fave album whose dissection sparked this rant was itself a posthumous singles compilation with previously unreleased live tracks enclosed; it could only have happened after the lead vocalist committed suicide. The fanzines were flooded with vitriolic rage-mail. Sacrilege! cried the fans. And in a way it was. And I still bought the album, mea maxima culpa. Would that that had been the end of it. So when I, in my typical poet's disorganization, am forced to re-purchase CD reissues of my favorite old chestnuts because the even older chestnuts are buried somewhere near Area 51, I do so unsuspecting that the old carcass which I return to the crypt to sniff has ONCE AGAIN been debrided --- the hidden "secret" track not listed on the album cover now REALLY hidden! As in, ERASED. It’s Orwellian, I tell you. I can just see Winston at his desk with the pneumatic tubes and the computer files. "What? Oh, you must be mistaken. No, "24 Hours"never appeared on the original release of STILL --- just read your album cover! Do you see it there? Then it's not missing!" This is why we buy art at all, isn't it? The random numbers? isn't that what art IS? While we're at it, why don't we erase every single recording of Tom Waits after Heart of Saturday Night because after that it was ALL random numbers! No more Jackson Pollock or Rauschenberg! No more Tristan Tzara! Hi, welcome to CD-King, can I take your order? You now can have Alternative Ulster, Locust Abortion Technician and Frankenchrist all on one custom-made CD in alternating sequence, with, let's see, Frank Frazetta cover art -- WITH PICKLES! But, and I'm sorry for asking, my dear "Give-me-convenience-or-give-me-death" friends..... but why? Oops, gotta go --- another pellet coming down the tube.  |
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