Wish List Whimper
Nov. 20th, 2003 10:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rushthatspeaksAs I have no doubt mentioned on this journal before, Greil Marcus' book Lipstick Traces was one of the seminal books of my adolescence. My theories on the nature of art, the nature of history, my conceptions of what the individual can be in relation to culture, and, in fact, much of my drive to survive and make something of myself in the world came from my arguments with and my dialogue with this book. I spent years wrestling with it.
The most unfortunate thing about the book, to my mind, as well as one of its greatest strengths, is that it is a book of criticism. Much of it is engaged in a dialogue with other works of art, literature, and music. The paintings and photos it brings up are generally either reproduced in the book or, like Picasso's Guernica, are so easy to find that most people have probably encountered them. The literature can become rather obscure, but I have had several extremely good libraries at my disposal over the years, including BMC's, and have been able to find most of it (and may I just say that Norman Cohn's In Pursuit of the Millennium was one of the most interesting things I have ever come across). I've had an interesting argumentative process with the literature as well, which has changed me for the better, although sometimes not so much because of the content of the literature as because of the context in which I have read it-- reading Georges Bataille under the desk of A. P. English in high school, and being caught by my neo-anarchist professor, remains one of my favorite memories ('I can't ask you to stop without betraying every ideological principle I can think of!' he whimpers)(in my defense, we were reading The Awakening, one of the worst books of all time, which I had already had twice) and trying to read Derrida at sixteen at all was an education unto itself.
However, most of the critical content of Lipstick Traces is centered on pop music. The discography in the back is ninety pages long, but there are twenty or so songs and performances which really make up the core of the argument. Greil Marcus is a professional rock critic and has access to recordings and resources impossible for anyone to have who has not spent thirty years building up a collection. How many of the really important pieces behind the book have I been able to locate and listen to over the last seven years, so that I can decide for myself about the themes, ideologies and interests Mr. Marcus sees in the music?
One. And only one. I think I have a pretty good line on another one, if the Pennsylvania inter-library loan thing works out to absolute perfection and if I can find an LP player and if the disc isn't dead after having been sitting in an archive for fifty years, all of which are pretty big ifs.
Imagine my delight when I discovered this evening on the Internet that they made a soundtrack to Lipstick Traces, with *every single one* of those tracks on it.
It is, of course, out of print.
And so, for the first time in some fourteen years of chasing reference to reference to find new pieces of literature and information, I am asking for help. If any of you can find Lipstick Traces: the CD, Rough Trade Records #R2902, and deliver it to me, I will pay whatever sum of money is required without a qualm, even if I have to sell every single other one of my possessions except my stereo. You will also earn my absolute, undying gratitude. I cannot find it on eBay. I cannot find it in Rough Trade's back catalogue. I cannot find it through Google. Help would be dearly appreciated and is much desired.
There are a couple of other albums by other bands with this title, understandably, as the title of the book is a reference to the very old song Lipstick Traces (on a Cigarette). I don't want any of those, because they tend to be by people like Nancy Sinatra. The correct album will be distinguished by the catalogue number and by the fact that it has tracks on it by bands you have never heard of, such as Kleenex, the Slits, and the Raincoats.
I'll be working on it too, of course, and I'll be posting anything interesting that comes of that. At the moment, the only thing that has is that in a fit of deep nostalgia for childhood I am playing my Sex Pistols bootlegs.
The most unfortunate thing about the book, to my mind, as well as one of its greatest strengths, is that it is a book of criticism. Much of it is engaged in a dialogue with other works of art, literature, and music. The paintings and photos it brings up are generally either reproduced in the book or, like Picasso's Guernica, are so easy to find that most people have probably encountered them. The literature can become rather obscure, but I have had several extremely good libraries at my disposal over the years, including BMC's, and have been able to find most of it (and may I just say that Norman Cohn's In Pursuit of the Millennium was one of the most interesting things I have ever come across). I've had an interesting argumentative process with the literature as well, which has changed me for the better, although sometimes not so much because of the content of the literature as because of the context in which I have read it-- reading Georges Bataille under the desk of A. P. English in high school, and being caught by my neo-anarchist professor, remains one of my favorite memories ('I can't ask you to stop without betraying every ideological principle I can think of!' he whimpers)(in my defense, we were reading The Awakening, one of the worst books of all time, which I had already had twice) and trying to read Derrida at sixteen at all was an education unto itself.
However, most of the critical content of Lipstick Traces is centered on pop music. The discography in the back is ninety pages long, but there are twenty or so songs and performances which really make up the core of the argument. Greil Marcus is a professional rock critic and has access to recordings and resources impossible for anyone to have who has not spent thirty years building up a collection. How many of the really important pieces behind the book have I been able to locate and listen to over the last seven years, so that I can decide for myself about the themes, ideologies and interests Mr. Marcus sees in the music?
One. And only one. I think I have a pretty good line on another one, if the Pennsylvania inter-library loan thing works out to absolute perfection and if I can find an LP player and if the disc isn't dead after having been sitting in an archive for fifty years, all of which are pretty big ifs.
Imagine my delight when I discovered this evening on the Internet that they made a soundtrack to Lipstick Traces, with *every single one* of those tracks on it.
It is, of course, out of print.
And so, for the first time in some fourteen years of chasing reference to reference to find new pieces of literature and information, I am asking for help. If any of you can find Lipstick Traces: the CD, Rough Trade Records #R2902, and deliver it to me, I will pay whatever sum of money is required without a qualm, even if I have to sell every single other one of my possessions except my stereo. You will also earn my absolute, undying gratitude. I cannot find it on eBay. I cannot find it in Rough Trade's back catalogue. I cannot find it through Google. Help would be dearly appreciated and is much desired.
There are a couple of other albums by other bands with this title, understandably, as the title of the book is a reference to the very old song Lipstick Traces (on a Cigarette). I don't want any of those, because they tend to be by people like Nancy Sinatra. The correct album will be distinguished by the catalogue number and by the fact that it has tracks on it by bands you have never heard of, such as Kleenex, the Slits, and the Raincoats.
I'll be working on it too, of course, and I'll be posting anything interesting that comes of that. At the moment, the only thing that has is that in a fit of deep nostalgia for childhood I am playing my Sex Pistols bootlegs.
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no subject
Date: 2003-11-20 07:01 pm (UTC)I know it had a section on music databases. If you have not heard of it, it is a wonderful book on how to find the stuff search engines won't find, with a great list of databases and portals which will help you find hard-to-find stuff. You might want to try looking in there to see if any of the music stuff can be of any help.
In the meantime, I'll keep my eyes peeled.
-Amanda
no subject
Date: 2003-11-20 07:08 pm (UTC)-Amanda
no subject
Date: 2003-11-20 07:15 pm (UTC)another lead might be to ask in the newsgroup rec.music.marketplace.cd
-Amanda
no subject
Date: 2003-11-20 09:39 pm (UTC)Finally, someone else who hated reading that book in class. I'm not sure if the book itself is bad, or if it's just the fact that everyone and their mother tries to pass it off as a feminist text. Just because the main character is a woman, doesn't make it feminist. Also, my entire English class decided that her suicide was a triumph. Except for me, the only one in the class who had ever actually contemplated suicide. But you can't bring that up in an English discussion.
I knew there was a reason I wasn't an English major.
no subject
Date: 2003-11-20 09:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-11-21 12:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-11-21 12:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-11-21 06:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-11-22 10:59 am (UTC)