A blog about Bloomsbury Academic's 33 1/3 series, our other books about music, and the world of sound in general.

Friday, June 01, 2012

The 94

I'm very pleased to announce that the following 94 proposals are still in the running, from the 471 that we received during March and April.

Andrew WK I Get Wet
Rush 2112
The Pharcyde Bizarre Ride II the Pharcyde
J Dilla Donuts
The Modern Lovers The Modern Lovers
Aphex Twin Selected Ambient Works Vol II
Outkast Stankonia
Black Flag Damaged
Sigur Ros ( )
M.I.A. Arular
Wilco Being There
Randy Newman Good Old Boys
Rammstein Sehnsucht
Kanye West My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
Nico Desertshore
Jandek Chair Beside A Window
Parliament Mothership Connection
Kraftwerk Trans-Europe Express
Eminem The Slim Shady LP
Daft Punk Discovery
Richard Hell Destiny Street Repaired
Rush 2112
Frank Zappa Joe's Garage
Oasis Definitely Maybe
The Mekons Rock'n'Roll
The Waterboys Fisherman's Blues
X Wild Gift
Nocturnal Emissions Spiritflesh
Danger Mouse The Grey Album
Phish Billy Breathes
The Go-Go's Beauty and the Beat
Richard Hell and the Voidoids Blank Generation
Jay-Z The Blueprint
Gang of Four Entertainment!
Can Tago Mago
Serge Gainsbourg Histoire de Melody Nelson
Bob Dylan Time Out of Mind
Ashlee Simpson Autobiography
Crass Christ - The Album
Smokey Robinson Going to a Go-Go
Helmet Meantime
The Game The Documentary
Janis Joplin Pearl
Gil Scott-Heron Winter in America
The Godz Godz 2
The Incredible String Band Wee Tam and the Big Huge
Queen News of the World
The Sex Pistols Never Mind the Bollocks…
Half Man Half Biscuit Back in the DHSS
Big Black Songs about Fucking
Black Flag Damaged
The Wrens Meadowlands
ELO Out of the Blue
Caetano Veloso Caetano Veloso
Dead Kennedys Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables
Insane Clown Posse The Great Milenko
The Mountain Goats All Hail West Texas
Drake Thank Me Later
Bobbie Gentry Ode to Billie Joe
Manic Street Preachers The Holy Bible
They Might Be Giants Lincoln
Isaac Hayes Hot Buttered Soul
Lauryn Hill The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill
Frank Sinatra Frank Sinatra Sings for Only the Lonely
Lady Gaga The Fame
Pet Shop Boys Very
Van Halen Van Halen
Motley Crue Too Fast for Love
David Bowie Diamond Dogs
Beat Happening Beat Happening
Woody Guthrie Ballads of Sacco and Vanzetti
Diamanda Galas Malediction and Prayer
The Jesus and Mary Chain Psychocandy
The Mountain Goats All Hail West Texas
The Beach Boys Smile
Michael Jackson Dangerous
Hole Live Through This
John Lennon and Yoko Ono Double Fantasy
The Dismemberment Plan Emergency & I
Robert Johnson King of the Delta Blues Singers
Tubeway Army Replicas
Devo Freedom of Choice
Jay-Z The Blueprint
Meat Loaf Bat Out of Hell
Bjork Biophilia
Van Morrison Astral Weeks
PJ Harvey Let England Shake
Refused The Shape of Punk to Come
Sloan Twice Removed
Tricky Maxinquaye
Husker Du New Day Rising
They Might Be Giants Flood
The Congos Heart of the Congos
Gogol Bordello Gypsy Punks: Underdog World Strike

If I've managed to figure out the technology, everybody who originally sent in a proposal should have just received an email, bearing either good or bad news. If for some reason you haven't received that email from me, and you're finding out via this blog post, I'm sorry - that was not the intention.

I should reiterate here that many, many of the proposals that didn't make the cut were really very strong - it was a real pleasure and an honour to read them all. And I do hope that the authors of those proposals post them online somewhere for others to enjoy.

As for the next stage: we'll do our damnedest to push through to the final decisions in the next 2 months and we'll keep everyone posted. I hope you'll forgive us if it takes a little longer than late July, though - we want to get this as right as we possibly can!

Anyhow: comment away, and feel free to ask questions, as usual...

39 comments:

Mark said...

I'm out, but I really enjoyed putting my proposal together, so thanks. Best of luck to those still in the process!

Anonymous said...

Question:

How diverse are the approaches in this list? Eg. are they mostly more academic ones, ones with artist involvement, are there any ones that are short novels, etc.?

Bob said...

Lot of interesting stuff there. Is Biophilia the youngest album you've had proposed?

BTW you've got Rush's 2112 in the list twice.

Anonymous said...

I presume that is because, like Jay Z Blueprint, two different writers submitted proposals on it and both are still under consideration.

John Mark said...

That is correct.

Anonymous said...

I guessed based on lacuna in the list that this round would come out with much hip hop, prog, and more classic hippie rock of the Dead, Airplane variety. Mostly wrong, though Joplin, yes, Rush, yes. But still.

I write as a three time failure, tho my failure this time was neither hip hop prog nor hippie.

Anonymous said...

Didn't make the short list, but enjoyed the opportunity. Anyone who is interested can read my proposed introductory chapter (on K-tel's Dynamite compiliation! Yes, I'm the guy who wrote that one.) on my blog: http://marimbadog.livejournal.com/323738.html


Rich

Anonymous said...

While I'm disappointed that my book didn't make it to the long list, I'm happy to have had the chance to submit a proposal. I think the editors were looking for different music styles this go around (i.e. not seminal indie rock albums from the '90s loved by angsty teenagers everywhere). I was surprised to see so many albums made post-2000 on the list. Also, it's pretty hip hop heavy. There aren't many obscure artists on the list but at the end of the day, why would Bloomsbury choose to publish a book that doesn't have the potential to sell many copies? Best of luck to those still in the running.

Anonymous said...

Lot of hip-hop! Looks like more than half the hip-hop proposed was taken on so far...

Which is cool, I love hip-hop... though didn't they mention that their hip-hop entries weren't big sellers previously?

Maybe they're hoping really popular stuff like Drake/Kanye/Eminem/Jay-Z will find an audience.

Anonymous said...

Oh, I'd say there's plenty of "obscure" in terms of "core cult audience, but no commerical publisher would likely think of a book on them" in here---Sloane, Refused, Congos, Mountain Goats, Bobbie Gentry, Wrens (not even sure they have CULT audience!), Godz, ISB, Nocturnal Emissions, Ashless Simpson ("well known" in a sense, but....) jandek, harcyde, J Dilla, Andrew WK...

Anonymous said...

Gogol Bordello and even Dismemberment Plan I think would fit that "cult audience at best" thing.

Anonymous said...

I am out. I hope that Helmet Meantime book gets made. Shame Faith No More's Angel Dust didn't make it.

But Ashlee Simpson? Lady Gaga? Insane Clown Posse? Come on.

Steve Marine said...

No Tears For Fears. I'm crushed. :(

larissa said...

I am also out, but at least one of the three of us who proposed the Manics' The Holy Bible is through. Best of luck to her/him.

My proposal is up for anyone interested: http://www.fromahighhorse.com/2012/06/01/preamble-preemption-my-rejected-proposal-for-a-33-13-book-on-the-manic-street-preachers-the-holy-bible/

J.Nvrmind said...

Quite a few I would love to read on this short list.Zappa's Joe's Garage & The Waterboys Fishermans Blues at the top of my can't hardly wait pile.Good luck and thanks for this great series.

Anonymous said...

Oh well, I had a feeling that I wouldn't reach stage 2 - so many, varied entires, and several different bands within the genre I'd chosen; several living to see another day. Good experience though, even though I'm obviously disappointed not to have been able to work it up for print right now.

Roy Christopher said...

Here's mine for GODFLESH's 'Streetcleaner': http://roychristopher.com/godflesh-streetcleaner-33-1-3-book-proposal
Enjoy!

Many thanks for the time and consideration of David Barker, John Mark Boling, Jennifer Tighe, and the whole team at Bloomsbury Academic for the opportunity. And congratulations to the ninety-four on the long list! Power to you!

Bill said...

stop trying to console us by saying how great our rejected proposals were. Seeing that at least 70 of these won't make the final cut, ours must have really sucked balls.

Anonymous said...

Thank you to everyone that has posted their (very sadly) rejected proposals on here. I've enjoyed reading them but am sad that these books won't be coming to fruition!

Alex said...

Thanks Roy for posting the Godflesh chapter. I was really hoping that the New Model Army or Midnight Oil proposals would make it through, but at least I can pin hopes on the Nocturnal Emissions one.

Benjamin J Robertson said...

Here are the chapter summaries for my proposal, on The Kleptone's A Night at the Hip-Hopera: http://eveningredness.net/2012/06/01/my-33-13-proposal-for-the-kleptones-a-night-at-the-hip-hopera/

And here is the intro: http://eveningredness.net/2012/06/01/draft-introduction-for-33-13-proposal-on-the-kleptones-a-night-at-the-hip-hopera/

Best of luck to everyone who is left.

David said...

Anon @ 10:38: good question. I think there's a good range of approaches in these remaining proposals. There's definitely a higher proportion of academic entries than we've had before (but even those vary considerably); there are plenty of very solid, straightforward approaches, and there are one or two wild cards...

Bill @ 5:30 - OK, I'll stop.

Anonymous said...

Disappointing list. Possibly Richard Hell, Smokey, Bobbie Gentry and Isaac Hayes. Everything else - I'll pass.

Peter said...

Thanks David for reading. Here is my intro for X's "Under the Big Black Sun."

http://reluctantlawyer.com/post/24245320228/my-rejected-book-proposal-introduction

Anonymous said...

Wow, a great list.

How odd is it that Mr/Ms 1148pm found only four titles as being of possible interest out of, what, 94 albums?

Some of us sure have exacting music taste! Call me aesthetically loose, but I found dozens there of immediate interest!

Place Logo Here said...

Here is a link to the opening chapter I submitted in my failed proposal for a volume on Urge Overkill's "Saturation": http://placelogohere.livejournal.com/32116.html.

To the person who submitted the proposal for SMiLE: my lowly and only claim to fame is I won the 2004 contest to create a video for "Heroes & Villains" from Brian Wilson's version of the album. Winning the contest motivated me to change my profession to video work, and I was flown out to L.A., where my wife and I had dinner with the man himself. Might be something there to possibly use in your book (if it gets greenlighted). Just a thought.

Anonymous said...

@Place Logo Here

I liked your introduction for the Urge Overkill book! Nice and clear, no waffling, focusing on the actual band/music, but with an interesting angle as well (that they should/could have been huge). There is a great story to be told with that... I hope you have better luck next time round.

Anonymous said...

My opening chapter for the proposed book on Prince's "Dirty Mind" album:http://jasonwebber.blogspot.com/2012/06/my-rejected-book-progposal-for.html

Next time, Gadget. NEXT time. And by the way, Continuum, you better have a Juggalo doing the ICP book.

Harold Balls said...

when is the next call for submissions..

BenT said...

Hello I'm just writing you because I feel as though somehow my proposal (Roxy Music - Avalon) got lost in the shuffle,
It was sent before the deadline, but I did not notice it on the long list posted on May 1st
http://www.33third.blogspot.com/2012/05/listomania.html
and, though you did suggest that the response emails may NOT have gotten to all, I just thought I'd check, and see if there was any chance, initially it was sent from this email: Benjamin Tinker , but since I just graduated from there with my MFA I thought I's send from this address since the Mills one is no longer valid.
Thanks!
Best
Benjamin Ethan Tinker

Anonymous said...

At least seven or eight I'd read right now... and others, depending on the approach / fresh material / etc. Good luck to the ones who get published... Better luck to those not chosen.

I reworked and resubmitted my 2009 proposal on a soundtrack LP to the BFI for their book series on classic films. My approach to the subject may have been too sprawling for a 33.3, is my guess, but the proposal process here was a good experience.
- Dan

David said...

Benjamin - I've checked the Gmail account and we never received your proposal. Sorry about that.

BenT said...

hmm, and this was the email it was to go to?
33proposals@gmail.com
did you receive the follow up i sent a day or so ago?
concerned,
-b

Evan said...

a Caetano Veloso album book would be a dream come true for me.

Assuming it's his first album. He has like, 5 or so self-titled albums.

live sports said...

nice work

Anonymous said...

really? no squarepusher? someone really needs to do some investigation on his studio tech

bubblegutz said...

here's the introductory chapter to my rejected proposal: http://athousandtrivs.com/2012/07/16/ive-been-called-a-sinner-brian-cook-muses-on-time-spent-with-daughters/

Anonymous said...

Very much hoping the Randy Newman - Good old boys gets through, though of all his albums it seems this one has already been investigated the most thoroughly, it would be nice to see some perspective on his later works.

Mike G. said...

I am PSYCHED to see Phish's Billy Breathes on the list. I had actually thought of doing the 33 1/3 on the album after reading a few others, but never thought it would actually have a chance. Keeping my fingers crossed for it!