At last, after ten years, nearly 1250 posts, the exhaustion of five laptops and very nearly the author himself, the Alan’s Album Archives website (www.alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com) is now a bona fide book series. The AAA has been reviewing everything by a select list of thirty acts or artists since its inception in 2008 and we mean everything: all the studio albums analysed in mind-numbing detail (we get upset if a review doesn’t make 7000 words!), every live album, every solo spin-off, rarities albums, box sets, all the important compilation albums, A sides, B sides, EP tracks, all the key books and DVDs, a guide to all the surviving TV clips, the best songs that are still unreleased, landmark concerts, important cover songs, ‘extracts from our website’s ‘top ten’ column looking at topics shared amongst our bands and an essay per book getting to the heart of what makes each of our chosen artists tick. Exclusive to these books compared to the website are three new sections: ‘biographies’ of all the key players, ‘thematic threads’ analysing themes that run through the book and three key influences that inspired the chosen acts to make their music. Everything our chosen golden thirty ever did should be in these books somewhere, from teenage doo-wop recordings to albums only released in Germany to obscure spin-off live albums, all in as close to chronological order as is humanly possible. It’s like a big record – both in terms of recording everything a band ever did and in the fact that we’ve presented it like a ‘record’ with an ‘A’ side and a ‘B’ side. Along the way we seek to ask ‘why?’ an album or song turned out the way it did, as well as the usual questions of ‘Who?’ ‘What?’ ‘When?’ and ‘Where?’ These books aren’t meant to be definitive, they’re not meant to be the final word on the music and they’re not meant to replace the official books – that’s why they’re the Alan’s Album Archives Guides, one fan’s attempt to be the big brother with the record collection you always dreamed of whispering in your ear and saying ‘don’t buy that, buy this!’ One book a month in the series is due to be released between June 2018 and December 2020 in a colourful way designed for use in tablet form (though they can be read in monochrome Kindle format if you tweak your colour settings slightly).
Our eleventh book has lift off as we follow the Jefferson family through seven Airplane records, three Paul ‘n’ Grace LPs, eight Starship albums and a Grace solo set all reviewed in our usual 7000-8000 word depth, alongside our usual plethora of mini-reviews of solo (Marty, Jorma, Jack, Joey, Papa John, Craig, Pete and Mickey), live and compilation albums alongside spin-off works by The Great Society, Hot Tuna, Bodacious DF, The KBC Band and plain ol’ Starship. That’s 667 pages (A4 size) of white rabbits, funny cars, surrealistic pillows, wooden ships, fish wearing false teeth and nuclear furniture. There’s also an extra ‘B-Sides’ section that gets knee-deep into the hoopla of key concerts, cover versions, surviving TV clips, books, DVDs, outtakes and radio broadcasts. This book’s essay looks at why the Jeffersons ‘flying in formation’ was such a special sound, while the ‘thematic threads’ section covers such things as drugs, changing perceptions, brotherhood and dragons. The ‘News, Views and Music’ newsletter top tens include such varying entries as German translations, AAA stars in conversations with their maker and bagpipes.
