An infinite number of tracks can each be THE greatest record ever made, as long as they take turns. I like that idea so much, I wrote a book about it.
Tuesday night, I completed what I'm calling the final draft of my long-threatened book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1). Mind you, when we're talking about any work that hasn't made it past the galley stage, we should always assume there are quotation marks around the word "final." This potential book isn't even close to that stage of publication. But I now consider it a finished document.
It's been about a year and a half since I completed the book's first draft, so the heaviest lifting was already well past done. Since then, I committed to editing, honing, reducing the word count, and making it better. If memory serves, the first draft was more than 150,000 words; this final draft is 113,449, and it feels right. A few months ago, my friend Mike Browning did a peer review of the text, offering a slew of corrections and suggestions that made it a better book. I accepted more than 95 % of Mike's amendments. With Mike's suggested fixes in place, I read the whole thing over, one more time, making further tweaks as I went.
And now, it's done.
I think it reads well. I may be an eensy bit biased. But it reads like I book I would dig even if someone else had written it. I like the flow, I like the emotion, I like the balance. And, y'know, I like the songs, too.
Now? We look for a path to publication. My first book Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones was published in May, and it is my hope that one book can lead to another. If so, well, I have just the book in mind.
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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