Sixty Nine, Dudes!
This morning in the post a book arrived for me. Part of the 33 1/3 series, it's all about my favourite album ever made- 69 Love Songs, by the Magnetic Fields. I've had a brief flick through already and already had some illusions shattered, but likewise made some notable discovereies that have excited me. Nevertheless I'm starting to wonder if buying this book was actually a good idea. Nevermind, that i paid over the odds for it because it hasn't been published in Britain yet, and let's ignore the largely negative reviews it recieved on Amazon.com (there were some glowing reviews on there too though, so I took my chances), but generally, when it comes to bands, I have long held the belief that knowing less about them is usually more satisfactory. Many a band has fallen by the wayside once I've found out more about them than simply what the album sounds like. Indeed, on occasion the experience of simply seeing a band live has left me completely disillusioned and their CDs have ever-since been neglected. At present I have a 157 page book, including track by track analysis and I have no doubt there will be some crushing details in there somewhere...
In my brief flick through the book however I discovered a comment by an interviewee (known only as Veronica X- the book doesn't shed too much light on why this person has been given an interview) who tells the story of seducing her trans-atlantic lover with a series of e-mails consisting of the titles of the songs from the album. She is particularly fond of Let's Pretend We're Bunny Rabbits as it just so happens she was studying at Essex University when this exchange took place- a place overrun by rabbits. I can only assume I was also at Essex Uni at this point in time, or at the very least still hanging around the campus most nights of the week and it seems so strange (and a little sad) that this mystery other student was obsessing over the same album and we never met...
So there are two things that are good about this discovery: I often think about this town that I know everyone worth knowing, and have discovered all its secrets, but I guess thats probably not the case (let's ignore the fact, I certainly didn't think like that in '99) and this mystery student gives me a kind of hope that there might be more life to wring out of this place yet and more exciting people (or at the very least, people I'd be curious to meet) holed up in computer labs somewhere. And secondly, Let's Pretend We're Bunny Rabbits was never one of my favourite songs on the album, but all of a sudden I can relate to it a lot more. Somehow it now seems linked to late nights wandering through the university grounds and is loaded with rose-tinted nostalgia.
In my brief flick through the book however I discovered a comment by an interviewee (known only as Veronica X- the book doesn't shed too much light on why this person has been given an interview) who tells the story of seducing her trans-atlantic lover with a series of e-mails consisting of the titles of the songs from the album. She is particularly fond of Let's Pretend We're Bunny Rabbits as it just so happens she was studying at Essex University when this exchange took place- a place overrun by rabbits. I can only assume I was also at Essex Uni at this point in time, or at the very least still hanging around the campus most nights of the week and it seems so strange (and a little sad) that this mystery other student was obsessing over the same album and we never met...
So there are two things that are good about this discovery: I often think about this town that I know everyone worth knowing, and have discovered all its secrets, but I guess thats probably not the case (let's ignore the fact, I certainly didn't think like that in '99) and this mystery student gives me a kind of hope that there might be more life to wring out of this place yet and more exciting people (or at the very least, people I'd be curious to meet) holed up in computer labs somewhere. And secondly, Let's Pretend We're Bunny Rabbits was never one of my favourite songs on the album, but all of a sudden I can relate to it a lot more. Somehow it now seems linked to late nights wandering through the university grounds and is loaded with rose-tinted nostalgia.
posted by Sam at 1:47 PM
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