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Title: Heartaches by the Number: Country Music's 500 Greatest Singles by David Cantwell, Bill Friskics-Warren ISBN: 0-8265-1424-3 Publisher: Vanderbilt Univ Pr (T) Pub. Date: February, 2003 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $27.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.44 (9 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Comprehensive, but a bit too academic?
Comment: I'm a huge fan of classic country and I purchased this book and read it as soon as it came out. I found both authors to be highly qualified for the daunting task of picking the top 500 country singles of all time. Their comments are insightful and always interesting. My main complaint was that the majority of the singles they chose are from the very early years of country music - 1920 to 1940. I'd never heard any of them (although I had heard of many of them) and so it sort of felt like a museum exercise to read entry after entry about songs I'd never heard. And there are very few songs from the 1991-1996 period, when I feel country music made a huge comeback in terms of quality. It's still an interesting read, but it might have been even more effective if they had been able to include a CD or two of the songs they chose so you could actually hear why some of their early choices are so important.
Rating: 1
Summary: Help Me Make it Through The Book
Comment: I found this a really poorly done vanity project of the authors. They frankly write like a individual fan would, not like historians. I mean really THREE Sammi Smith records in the top 500?? That very talented lady only had THREE top ten hits period!! Some of the selections (MANY of the selections) seem deliberately chosen to provoke rather than being there for being truly outstanding recordings.
The fact that this listing is not a serious attempt to acknowledge ground-breaking or important recordings can be judged by the fact that so many recordings are grouped together in entries with their neighboring song on the list (ie: two Merle Haggard songs ranked side by side or Dolly Parton & Norma Jean's "working girl" songs ranked consecutively). This even goes on into the "alternate 100" list with three completely forgettable different songs called "The Other Woman" ranked side by side. The research here isn't very good either, most country music buffs won't learn a thing here. Sometimes it doesn't even appear the authors even really LISTENED to the record! For example discussing Norma Jean's record HEAVEN HELP THE WORKING GIRL they quote the line "we'd both be sorry if I did go home to your wife and your kids" as if some guy trying to pick Norma Jean up was inviting her home for supper!! Norma Jean actually sings "We'd both be sorry if I did, (pleading) GO home to your wife and your kids" ie: a man has propositioned her and she is pointedly reminding him of his family at home. How could they not understand that?? Similarly, they ludriciously compare Dottie West's A LESSON IN LEAVIN' to Aretha Franklin records, it has about as much in common with a Franklin disc as it does with A Beverly Sills' one.
And the authors make one of the most offensive (if unintentional) slams I've ever read on a country songwriter in their comments on Merle Haggard's recording "I'm A Lonesome Fugitive" (written by Liz Anderson with some assistance from her husband Casey) stating it was a song Haggard himself could have wrote. Well, dear authors, Mr. Haggard DID NOT write it, he had written almost nothing at this early point in his career and in fact his later songwriting was clearly inspired by the bitter and lonesome themes in the Liz Anderson songs he rode to fame with such as "Fugitive" and "Strangers". THAT would have been a more appropiate comment. Country songwriters are usually highly praised within the industry so it's strange to read comments in a book belittling their actual contribution.
I suspect the authors knocked this book out in a couple weeks. At least that's how it looks.
Rating: 5
Summary: 500 Reasons Why Nashville Music Today Is Horrid
Comment: Nashville's schtick is to put some gorgeous babe (male or female) in a hat and boots, have him or her sing some souped-up arrangment, and voila...a "country" hit. Never mind that Nashville's idea of a "country" hit is not far removed from any other top forty hit cluttering up the Clear Channel airwaves. Never mind that in 3 years nobody, except the most hard core trivia hounds, will even remember the tune. Never mind that it just ain't country!
Which is not to say that each and every one of the 500 singles outlined in this book is in fact "country." Many of them aren't (at least not how I'd catalogue 'em). But each and every one of these tunes is in fact "great" and has its place in whatever bin is labeled "country" at the local Wal-Mart.
Any collection like this is going to be highly subjective and is bound to create arguments over inclusions and exclusions. Hell, I think that the Rolling Stones' "Exile On Main Street" is one of the greatest country albums ever reduced to vinyl. I'm sure not everyone is gonna agree with me. the point is that this book is not a compendium of the 500 Best Acts....so whoever it was whining that a single from that hack band Alabama wasn't included, please....re-read the damn thing.
Besides, even if this book was supposed to serve as some country music survey, Alabama would barely rate a footnote.
So, having said that, is this book any good?
Actually, it is very good. There is a lot of very good, insightful writing here. What Cantwell and Friskics have done is essentially survey popular country music, in virtually all of its permutations. In constructing this survey, the authors, under the guise of critiquing each selected tune, present an idisyncratic critical theory of country music which holds up very well to scrutiny. And they've done it without academic jargon.
This book is going to an essential component in any country music fan's library.
Now, can anyone explain to me why there isn't a single version of "Dark As A Dungeon" included here?
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Title: Honky Tonk: Portraits of Country Music 1972-1981 by Henry Horenstein, Eddie Stubbs, Charles F. McGovern ISBN: 0811836274 Publisher: Chronicle Books Pub. Date: October, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Vinyl Hayride: Country Music Album Covers, 1947-1989 by Paul Kingsbury, Country Music Hall of Fame ISBN: 0811835723 Publisher: Chronicle Books Pub. Date: April, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: The Heart of Rock & Soul: The 1001 Greatest Singles Ever Made by Dave Marsh ISBN: 030680901X Publisher: DaCapo Press Pub. Date: April, 1999 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Roadkill on the Three-Chord Highway: Art and Trash in American Poular Music by Colin Escott ISBN: 0415937833 Publisher: Routledge Pub. Date: September, 2002 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Southwest Shuffle: Pioneers of Honky Tonk, Western Swing, and Country Jazz by Richard Kienzle, Rich Kienzle ISBN: 0415941032 Publisher: Routledge Pub. Date: 01 May, 2003 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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