FolkBlog

We are blessed here at FolkBlog with occasional posts from Australian music journalist Sue Barrett. As always, the content of this article is entirely that of Sue Barrett and she retains all rights and copyrights, etc.

By Sue Barrett

I’m Teacher’s Pet on Ship of Fools
The movies were my special school
I’m The Graduate of Twelve O’Clock High
The movies are great medicine
I thank you Tommy Edison
For giving us the best years of our lives

(Lew DeWitt/The Statler Brothers – ‘The Movies’)

A short time ago, in the mail, came the 1984 vinyl album by Meat Joy (a performance art troupe/punk band from Texas). The album is housed in one of 1,500 unique album covers, hand-decorated, all those years ago, by the members of Meat Joy (including Gretchen Phillips) and other people from the Austin community at a series of decorating parties.

A few days later, also in the mail, came The Heist, the 2012 debut album from Macklemore and Ryan Lewis (rapper and producer, respectively). The deluxe CD version of The Heist, is housed in a ’gator box and accompanied by, behind a piece of gold foil, eighteen individual pieces of art on custom cards (one card for each song):

www.youtube.com/watch?v=htfwq7EK2-A
Another 2012 release is Australian singer-songwriter Catherine Britt’s Always Never Enough, with the limited edition CD digi pack coming signed by Britt and including an acoustic version of her song, ‘Sweet Emmylou’.

On the internet, you can find a series of discussions about interesting, unusual and bizarre album covers, lyric sheets, vinyl pressings and other such objects (some actual, some rumoured) – including The Sweet (Tip Me a Wink), Laura Nyro (Eli and the 13th Confession), Alice Cooper (School’s Out).

Bookcases can also be a source of things interesting, unusual and bizarre. It’s no surprise to find Nick Hornby’s High Fidelity in a bookcase filled with music books. More puzzling, perhaps, is a bookcase of music books that contains Joe Meno’s Hairstyles of the Damned; When Elephants Weep by Jeffrey Masson and Susan McCarthy; and Norman Maclean’s Young Men and Fire. The answers lie in: Meghan Galbraith/8 Inch Betsy; Lori Twersky/Bitch; and James Keelaghan/Cry Cry Cry.

In California, with February partly gone, the Santa Ana winds might also be nearly gone. Next year, it will be thirty years since the release of Steve Goodman’s 1984 album, Santa Ana Winds; it will also be thirty years since his death, aged 36. Goodman’s album takes its title from the song, ‘Santa Ana Winds’ (“written from roasted memory with friends Mary Gaffney and Mike Jordan in Chicago, where wind is understood”). Also on the album is Goodman’s ‘Fourteen Days’ and ‘Face on the Cutting Room Floor’ (written with Jimmy Ibbotsen and Jeff Hanna from the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band). ‘Fourteen Days’ includes vocals from Emmylou Harris. And ‘Face on the Cutting Room Floor’ tells the story of the women, from around the world, who came (and probably still come) to the Los Angeles area to become famous.

Now Australians MARIE WILSON and JEN ANDERSON and American LAURA KARPMAN take us deep into the world of music in film and television.

Continue reading As the Credits Roll