Customer Reviews

Lost in the Grooves: Scram's Capricious Guide to the Music You Missed

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Reading Lost in the Grooves is the most fun and uniquely informative thing I have done in the last few months. Kim Cooper has been a fan of what she calls "unpopular culture" from the time she realized that "good" and "marketable" are often not synonymous. Her magazine, Scram has championed guilty pleasures such as Boyce and Hart records and TV chimp shows for years. David Smay and Kim collaborated to put out Bubblegum Music is the Naked Truth, which explored one of their shared maligned obsessions. They used the same modus operandi of soliciting music lovers to share their thoughts on what turns them on in this latest book venture. They asked a number of people who review records, for a wide variety of music publications, to talk about records they feel deserved more acclaim and acceptance than were initially bestowed upon them. Their picks, naturally, are anything but another "greatest hits" or "best of" list. I have discovered several records I had missed out on until now (Bee Gees - Mr. Natural and Johnny Cash - Bitter Tears) and will be checking out others when time and budget allow. If you're the kind of person who won't listen to anything that wasn't a number one radio hit, this won't interest you. If you are open minded and always looking for hidden treasures, you will find Lost in the Grooves to be a rare delight.

I'm a bit biased, since i was involved, but i really loved reading this book while trying to decide what i would illustrate. I've always considered my record collection to be diverse and obscure, but this book introduced me to a ton of new music (a lot of which is hard to find). It's an encyclopedic-style index of really obscure records with reviews written by all kinds of writers, critics, musicians, etc. The great thing is it's written without all the snobbery of many obsucure record collectors. This book loves the bizarre, ugly and ridiculous forgotten records without irony or shame.

The great late Lester Bangs would have loved, and hated, but above all enjoyed this book immensely. That is, after all, the point - a series of doors to (mostly) forgotten records (then again, it's all in the viewing - Captain Beefheart's "Safe as Milk" is pretty well-known already to anyone who cares). The reader may disagree, or smile with recognition, or realize that a small goldmine has been spotted and may be worth investigating. Much of the writing is informative and/or hilarious, some so-so, some a bit too coy - but, my word, people, It's Only Rock n' Roll (and a few other genres) and I Like It, and so does every writer here. Better, too, that this is a compilation of voices, not Siskel / Ebert (r.i.p.) / Roper with everything (or even Lester, as varied as his approaches could be). And I realize that $14 is a lot of money for a paperback, or it was twenty-five years ago - get real on that count (no one likes inflation, but, but...hope your local library has it, then). It's a great book for any place one expects to sit or lounge for a while, and can be read in no order whatsover. In other words, a "fun read!" Now, don't fret, just enjoy....

A great book for those who experienced the music of the mid-late 60's and early 70's. Some great reading and some surprising info on the groups and music of the Bubblegum era. Also good reading on the group and music beyond. A great book to have around for some light reading when you need it.

As with her magazine, Kim manages to dig up all the buried treasures out there, most of which were dismissed or assumed to be unworthy by the mainstream musical tastes of the day, others that weren't, but are now, etc. Also, like the magazine Scram, the research is exhaustive in most respects (depending on the contributer), and things come to light you didn't know about subjects you, well, thought you knew. The only problem I ever had with Cooper's often brilliant writings, is that in order to sing the praises of the obscure, she is often all too willing to slam the door on more well known artists or movements. She tends to be cynical about things like the Beats, Hippies, and the Beatles, which in this era is the dead horse of all the punk critics of yesteryear, often making rediculous or even outrageously naive comments on time-tested genius. I'm sure she is perfectly sincere in her opinions, but it seems to come across as obligatory, and I have found myself rolling my eyes at it. Lenny Kaye used to do this on the liner notes for Pebbles anthologies, and it was a cute rant, but not all that serious. So if one can try to ignore some of these more annoying traits of putting down one thing to build up another (a precarious thing when trying to convince people of the brilliance of Rod Mcuen)this book and the (I believe) now defunct magazine Scram are well worth your time for investigation into all things "lowbrow" and worthy of another look. It really is a labor of love.

Lost in the Grooves, Scram's Capricious Guide to the Music You Missed from Routledge Press, written by many contributors, is edited by Kim Cooper and David Smay with cover and illustrations by Tom Neely. This could be considered both the anthology and encyclopedia of the not-so-popular music scene. Written in clever, whimsical, tongue in cheek style, the book is a wealth of trivia and facts about hundreds of albums and singles which never made the Top Ten or Hit Parade in the last forty-plus years, some by obscure artists and some non-hits by well-known artists. Because of the alphabetical arrangement of the numerous reviews the juxtaposition of the aritists, styles, and genre of the music is outrageously interesting in itself! For anyone who ever shoved nickles into a Juke Box, any music lover of any kind, and any pop-culture enthusiast, this book Rocks! Tom Neely's delightful cover design, illustrations, and caricatures of some of the artists will delight any reader

This anthology scores the same high-points and suffers the same problems as a good anthology or tribute album. On the up-side, the concept (music folks writing about their favorite unknown, neglected or currently overlooked albums) is a winner. Also in the plus column are many of the recommended albums, and several of the writers (including reruns of vintage 1970s pieces from Creem, Phonograph Record, and Flash).

In the cons column, the writing is inconsistent, including some terrifically overworked copy. The picks often range into albums of incredibly marginal interest or complete inaccessibility. The editors would have done well to drop essays on obscure vinyl-only releases, as most readers are only going to be frustrated by their lack of availability.

The book's theme is often more compelling than the execution. Motivating readers to reappraise Adam & The Ants' "Kings of the Wild Frontier" - absent its original media hype - is a worthy cause, as is the championing of favorites by David Allan Coe or Swamp Dogg; but essaying obscure '70s Yiddish or ukulele albums is more of a hipster parlor trick than a really useful review. The same could be said for Dolly Parton's incredibly rare (and unreissued) first LP or mid-period Frank Sinatra Jr. albums; they appeal more as a tour through the collected authors' record libraries than useful leads.

It would have been helpful if the editors had taken the time to research the current (or recent or historical) CD availability of these selections, and provided that information as margin notes or an appendix. Thanks to Al Gore's Internet, you can track down some of this information yourself (including CDs available on e-tail, via reissue labels, in the secondary auction market, etc.), but knowing what's been reissued in the first place would be a big help. 3-1/2 stars if allowed fractional ratings. [©2005 hyperbolium dot com]

...as these types of books go, but I finished it in about 15 minutes. The premise: get a bunch of aging "music critics" to write a couple of paragraphs about a relatively obscure/totally obscure "lost classic," mainly in the bubblegum/power pop genre.

Warning: the Beach Boys L.A. (LIGHT ALBUM) is considered (by one of the contributors) to be one of these "lost classics." Alrighty then....

Bottom line: The book is OK if you have $14 bucks that you really don't need to spend on something else. If you're like me and don't have that kinda dough tearing a hole in your pocket, visit your local library.

This book might be helpful to those people who appreciate some really far out "music." Unfortunately, my field of pleasure is classical, blues, rhythm & blues, 70s stuff, Broadway music, jazz, oldies - which really covers a lot of ground - some country, pop, spiritual and hip-hop. From the reviews of the people, it seems there's a reason why the music in "lost in the grooves" never made it big time. Over the years, I have heard some albums that I cherished and these never got publicized much, never made it to CD nor were they mentioned in this book. This is the reason for my disappointment. But that's me and why we have "art."

I suppose if you're a typical pop-junkie weened on boy bands and a steady diet of commercial T-40, you may have missed some of the music and musicians in this book. As an avid music fan, I never missed Christina Aguilera (though i wish i had), AC/DC, Tori Amos, Adam & the Ants, America, Paul Anka, the Archies and so many of the other artists mentioned in this book beyond the "A" section of the index. I don't necessarily blame the book, for the average American sheep plumping on a steady major label spoon-feeding of aural air biscuits this is probably much more interesting, and the teen dreamer dying to pick up the "lost" Aguilera material will be elated. For anyone who's looked beyond, followed and taken an interest in music, this will make a good coaster. Again, not the book's fault, mine for not reading more before I made the purchase.