- Paperback: 464 pages
- Publisher: Sceptre (11 Jun 2009)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0340934115
- ISBN-13: 978-0340934111
- Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 13 x 2.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
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242,749 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #24 in Books > Computers & Internet > Mac OS > IPod
- #38 in Books > Computers & Internet > New to Computing > Digital Music, Photography & Video > MP3 & Music
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More About the Author
Product Description
Review
'He's got a happy knack of stuffing sentences with facts, colour and incident' (Scotland on Sunday 20080905)
'Pleasingly compelling... Elborough is a charming, funny and frequently fascinating guide' (Daily Telgraph 20080831)
'Reassuring air of cultural authority... impressive depth of perspective... admirably persuasive' (Independent on Sunday 20081128)
'Fascinating... very fresh and clear' ( Guardian 20081210)
'Wonderful book... a great thundering roar of nostalgia for the LP record.' (Spectator )
'Elborough has the passion of a true enthusiast... but he's also an indefatigable researcher, who has somehow seen a clear path through the vast amount of material to write a book that reads easily and well but also wholly coherently. Richly enjoyable.' (Mail on Sunday )
'highly entertaining' (Independent )
'an affectionate adieu to the format' (The Long-Player Goobye )
'Lovingly researched' (TLS )
'pacey narrative' (New Statesman )
'Very good' (Herald )
'a P.G. Wodehouse guide to pop history' (Times Online )
'a timely paean to the sound of the needle hitting the record' (Metro )
'Pleasingly compelling... Elborough is a charming, funny and frequently fascinating guide' (Daily Telgraph 20080831)
'Reassuring air of cultural authority... impressive depth of perspective... admirably persuasive' (Independent on Sunday 20081128)
'Fascinating... very fresh and clear' ( Guardian 20081210)
'Wonderful book... a great thundering roar of nostalgia for the LP record.' (Spectator )
'Elborough has the passion of a true enthusiast... but he's also an indefatigable researcher, who has somehow seen a clear path through the vast amount of material to write a book that reads easily and well but also wholly coherently. Richly enjoyable.' (Mail on Sunday )
'highly entertaining' (Independent )
'an affectionate adieu to the format' (The Long-Player Goobye )
'Lovingly researched' (TLS )
'pacey narrative' (New Statesman )
'Very good' (Herald )
'a P.G. Wodehouse guide to pop history' (Times Online )
'a timely paean to the sound of the needle hitting the record' (Metro )
Product Description
For nearly 60 years, since the arrival of the long-playing record in 1948, the album has provided the soundtrack to our lives. Our record collections, even if they're on CD, or these days, an iPod, are personal treasure, revealing our loves, errors of jugdement and lapses in taste.
Self-confessed music obsessive, Travis Elborough, explores the way in which particular albums are deeply embedded in cultural history, revered as works of art or so ubiqitous as to be almost invisible.
But in the age of the iPod, when we can download an infinite number of single tracks and need never listen to a whole album ever again, does the concept of an album still mean anything?
THE LONG-PLAYER GOODBYE is a brilliant piece of popular history and a celebration of the joy of records. If you've ever had a favourite album, you'll love Travis Elborough's warm and witty take on how vinyl changed our world.
(20080729)
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book purports to be a history of the vinyl LP, its rise, decline and (slight) return, but it is really just another potted history of mainstream popular music from the '60s to the present day. It's a shame, because it starts out so well - the first third of the book tells the story of the development of the vinyl long-player in fascinating and apparently well-researched detail. If the author had kept this up throughout, the book would have been great. Unfortunately, by chapter 6 he seems to have run out of anything to say about the format itself, and reverts instead to a plodding and over-familiar exposition of popular music from the Beatles through psychedelia, prog, punk, post-punk, so on. I'm guessing that the target audience for this book is made up of Mojo-reading anoraks who will know this stuff back to front anyway, so really, what is the point? And the author has a wearying tendency to fall back into glib cliche (for example, "...after the murder of a fan at Altamont in 1969, [the Rolling Stones] retreated into a cocoon of coke and morphine"....Ah, yes, of course. They'd been clean up till that point... ). The story isn't helped by a surprising number of mis-spellings and minor, but annoying, inaccuracies.
Overall, this is a missed opportunity, a good idea poorly executed. So many potentially interesting facets of vinyl culture are not covered at all (as a previous reviewer notes, developments in audio engineering are not even touched on), or mentioned only in passing (the gatefold sleeve, cover art, quadrophonic sound, mysterious pressing plant inscriptions on the runout groove, etc). The eventual decline of the format is given about 2 pages, the recent surge in interest / sales a few sentences. There is a whole book about this fascinating subject still waiting to be written.
Overall, this is a missed opportunity, a good idea poorly executed. So many potentially interesting facets of vinyl culture are not covered at all (as a previous reviewer notes, developments in audio engineering are not even touched on), or mentioned only in passing (the gatefold sleeve, cover art, quadrophonic sound, mysterious pressing plant inscriptions on the runout groove, etc). The eventual decline of the format is given about 2 pages, the recent surge in interest / sales a few sentences. There is a whole book about this fascinating subject still waiting to be written.
7 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I bought this in hardback and enjoyed every fact splattered page, providing as it does not just a history of everybody's favourite teenage obsession - but also a commentary that is pithy, wise and funny. I'm glad its out in paperback now because I have a couple of birthdays coming up and this will be an ideal gift for a few mates who will forever be armchair record producers. If you like to slide those faders up to 11, kick back and feel the noise - then you'll love this.
Format:Paperback
Getting heavily into music this summer, I'd lost interest in the novels I'd bought to read at the start and so picked up the hard copy of Elborough's book instead. I read the first chapter and laughed several times on every page. From his photo Mr Elborough looks like a Dr Who fan familiar only with obscure facts about things most people don't want to know about. However, Mr. Elborough proves annoyingly clever, funny, intelligent etc. who can talk about Sartre as easily as about Lightnin Hopkins. Unlike the average Dr Who fan, Mr Elborough connects easily with common experiences and this is the secret of this book. I am sure many people who grew up with vinyl and have lived through the changes to aural culture described in the book will connect with the words the author finds to refer to key musical moments we all know but have rarely expressed. I shall keep this book.
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