An infinite number of tracks can each be THE greatest record ever made, as long as they take turns. That's the hook for my long-threatened book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1). This project remains in development and is still trying to chart its course forward.
But it ain't dead yet. A publisher has expressed tentative interest in GREM!, so while the proposed book has neither a contract nor a verbal agreement, it still lives.
It's certainly my hope that my current book Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones will generate enough positive buzz to make a GREM! book that much more likely. Can one book lead to another? I guess we'll see about that.
I finished writing the complete first draft of The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) in January of 2022. A few months ago, I polished off an updated edit that satisfies me, and while it's not FINAL!! until it's in the proof stage, it's where I want it to be.
A friend named Mike Browning, who is sufficiently well-versed in both publishing and the history of pop music, volunteered to execute a peer review of the document. Mike is the only person in the world who has ever seen the complete current draft of GREM! Even my prospective publisher hasn't seen it in its streamlined form. I agree with nearly every change the peer review suggested, and I will be making those changes shortly (when I have a breather from hyping Gabba Gabba Hey!). I reserve the right to further amend my song choices, but otherwise? Yeah, this book has been written.
And that's your GREM! update for now. The rest of this post will preserve some boilerplate stuff from previous updates, along with a Table of Contents that was slightly tweaked in wording (but not substance) in the peer review. Can one book lead to another? We're gonna find out.
Our favorite records don't live in a vacuum. Each one has a story to tell.
In 2016, I channeled my embrace of the infinite into a blog series, which commenced with a celebration of "Baby Blue" by Badfinger. I kicked around the notion of turning it into a book, and decided to follow through with that plan in 2018. Work on the book began in earnest in 2019, and hasn't stopped since. Through a series of little advances and larger setbacks (including the loss of my agent and, oh yeah, a worldwide pandemic), I've never stopped pursuing the dream of a GREM! book. It remains a dream at the moment, but the dream has license to continue for now.
THE SHIRELLES: Will You Love Me Tomorrow
FREDA PAYNE: Band Of Gold
You can read the book's foreword, introduction, and first few chapters here. (These are earlier drafts, so some changes have been implemented since these were posted. Still gives you the gist of what I'm doing.)
Here are a few other sample chapters (also in earlier drafts):
Carl's new book Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones is now available, courtesy of the good folks at Rare Bird Books. Gabba Gabba YAY!! https://rarebirdlit.com/gabba-gabba-hey-a-conversation-with-the-ramones-by-carl-cafarelli/
This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl airs Sunday nights from 9 to Midnight Eastern, on the air in Syracuse at SPARK! WSPJ 103.3 and 93.7 FM, and on the web at http://sparksyracuse.org/ You can read about our history here.
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