Music and Writing

Goodreads, a social networking site for book nerds, interviews Dean Wareham about his outstanding indie rock memoir, Black Postcards.

I can’t say enough good things about the book. (Read my review of the book at Largehearted Boy.) Pick it up if you have any interest in the last 20 years of music.

In the interview, Wareham talks about the music that he listened to while writing the book:

I generally wrote in silence, but if I did allow myself to listen to music it was instrumental stuff (so as not to be distracted by lyrics)…Beethoven, Vince Guaraldi, George Delerue, Ennio Morricone…

Ragdoll has been asking her readers for recommendations for music to listen to while writing. What do you listen to that helps your creativity? I’ve been trying to sell Ragdoll on Wareham’s band Luna, so I’ll add this for your listening pleasure:

Luna – 23 Minutes in Brussels

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Tags: black postcards, dean wareham, music

Books | Tim | April 30, 2008 1:12 pm

7 Comments

By flavawheel, April 30, 2008 @ 8:10 pm

Interesting question. Well, as someone who both writes and listens to music fairly often, I’m a huge proponent of dub reggae. Minimal lyrics or completely lyric free, steady cadence, shifting, swirling, hypnotic; I find it generally enhances rather than distracts. The caveat, of course, is you must have at least a minor appreciation for the genre, or it’s not going to work for you.

King Tubby and Scratch Perry are the kings of old school, Scientist was the segue from the old guard to the new, Adrian Sherwood added a white, British punk perspective to great result, and, while I don’t much care for his work, Mad Professor has pretty much defined the sound of contemporary dub.

Here’s a ridiculously long list of favorite dub, version, dancehall, and reggae tracks I compiled for someone a while back:

The Abyssinians: Declaration of Rights
The Aggrovators: Standing Ovation Dub
Althea & Donna: Uptown Top Ranking
Horace Andy: Ain’t No Sunshine
Horace Andy: Collie Weed
Basque Dub Foundation: Tomorrow’s Dub
Big Youth: Mr. Right
Big Youth: Wolf In Sheep’s Clothing
Big Youth and Vivian Jackson: Yabby Youth
The Black Foundation: Jah Jah Dub
The Black Foundation: Patient Dub
Dennis Brown: Emmanuel Version
Charlie Chaplin: Jamaican Collie
Coolnotes: Locks Version
Creation Rebel: Space Rebel Section 6
Desarie: Slew Dem an Done
DJ Shortcut: Dennis Alcapone
Half Pint: Cost of Living
John Holt: Ali Baba
John Holt: Police in Helicopters
Israel Vibration: We a De Rasta
Israel Vibration: Nah Fix It
I-Roy: Swing Easy Riddim
Gregory Isaacs: Special Guest
Jah T: Lick The Pipe, Peter, Part 4
King Tubby: Dark Destroyer Dub
King Tubby: Farmyard Dub
King Tubby: King Tubby’s Badness Dub
King Tubby: Zion Dub
King Tubby and Soul Syndicate: Dub in the Right Way
Kocha: Conquering Dub
Kocha: Trouble Time Dub
Barrington Levy: Mary Long Tongue
Barrington Levy: Miserable Dub
Barrington Levy: Murderer
Mad Professor: Declaration of War Mix 2
Mad Professor: Dub Wish
Niney and Soul Syndicate: Coutchi Dub
Augustus Pablo and Max Romeo: Bedroom Mazurka
Dawn Penn: No, No, No
Lee Perry: Working Girl Dub
Prince Far I: Black Weh
Prince Far I: Shake Up the Nation
Prince Jammy: Opium Dem
The Prophets and Trinity: King Pharaoh’s Plague (Discomix)
Ras Command: Education
Revolutionary Dub Warriors Meet Mad Professor: Amozon Dub
Roots Radics Band: Death of Spock
Roots Radics and Soul Syndicate: Blood of Saints Dub
Roots Underground: Dread Feeling
Ruts DC: Pleasures of the Dance
Scientist: Blood On His Lips
Scientist: Mummy’s Shroud
Scientist: Sunshine Version
Scientist: Time Passage
Scientist vs. Prince Jammy: Dematerialized
Skatalites: Herb Man Dub
Sister Nancy: Bam Bam
Solomon Jabby: Youth Revolution Dub
Sugar Minott: Dancehall Stylee
Linval Thompson: Marijuana in my Soul
Lival Thompson: Back Against the Wall Dub
UB40: Present Arms
Upsetters: Nyambie Dub
Wackie’s: Freedom Dub
Wackie’s: Stay On Dub
Leroy Horsemouth Wallace: Herb Vendor
Yabby You: Warm Them Jah Dub
Yellowman & Fathead: Rub Rub Rub
Tappa Zukie: Rush I Some Dub
Tappa Zukie: Pick Up Some Dub
Trinity meets Dillinger: Jesus Dread
By Tim, April 30, 2008 @ 11:50 pm

Whoa! I wouldn’t know real dub, probably, if it bit me on the keister. Your list reminded me of Ska for the Skeptical. You need to put something like that together.

I’ve been listening to some ambient while in “must not be bothered-mode.” Brian Eno has a cool album called Music For Airports that works wonders.
By flavawheel, May 1, 2008 @ 1:30 am

Yeah, went a bit overboard on the list. You, and pretty much everyone else; it’s really hard to get a real handle on dub reggae. There are so many hurdles — obscure artists, hard-to-find tracks, badly recorded albums, weird licensing where the same album is on five labels with five titles, multiple versions of the same song, awful ’90s synth junk — you have to REALLY want to get hear this stuff to get into it.

Rule of thumb: If it starts with some guy yelling either “Jah Rastafari!” or “Are you feelin’ irie?”, it’s probably crap.
By Tim, May 1, 2008 @ 9:28 am

You know who I miss? That guy that had the reggae (dub?) show in the middle of the night on the NPR station in Miami (WLRN) who could not stop talking over the songs. That guy was awesome. What was that guy’s name? I don’t know if I could write to that radio show, but it sure was entertaining.
By flavawheel, May 1, 2008 @ 2:26 pm

That would be one Clint O’Neil, because if it’s all night, it’s got to be all right.
By Lillian, May 1, 2008 @ 6:42 pm

“The caveat, of course, is you must have at least a minor appreciation for the genre, or it’s not going to work for you.”

Well, I think I just figured out the secret to Eric’s productivity — it is his soundtrack. His wife says that dub reggae is the sound of her brain melting, or something like that. And it makes me want to bash my head into the wall. So, yeah, it’s definitely not for everyone.
By Tim, May 1, 2008 @ 11:44 pm

Flava: Bad news! I was looking to see if I could find a podcast or something for Clint O’Neil and I found out that he has passed away. He worked 6 nights a week on WLRN since 1979. That’s a lot of reggae.

Lillian: Now I definitely need to hunt some down to see which end of the continuum I fall on.