[Jandek] Raining Down Diamonds vocals

[Danen D. Jobe]

> Listening to "what things are", the first song, for example, his 
> voice seems 
> turned a bit younger.

The album DOES seem to be more in line with the "2nd acoustic phase" EXCEPT for the long lengths and bass presence.  Maybe he made this around the time of "the Beginning?" but was more excited about the spoken word albums and has only now gotten around to it?

> 
> 
> So he doesn't release everything chronologically.
> 

The more time I've been spending lately with the early albums and lyrics the more I'm convinced that this is the case.  I think he goes through phases where he releases very new material (probably because he's very excited about it).  My most controverial for instance would be "Ready for the House" through "Later On," which I'm more and more convinced were recorded AFTER the band albums based largely on their content.  The lyrics that say more about his "life" (Point Judith, first you think your fortune's lovely) seem to speak of an ended relationship and a changed lifestyle.  "Later On" addresses Max - a fan made well after "House" is released - yet Jandek tells Chusid about the band albums BEFORE this records release. In fact, I have a theory that "Later On" is addressing people current in his life and that's where all these names are coming from. We don't significantly see the band music until "The Rocks Crumble." My guess? These early band albums were recorded as The Uni
ts and may represent some of the earliest records.  I think bits and pieces of the solo acoustic stuff comes from these early sessions as well, but I think more and more that he mixes a lot of these albums up from different sessions.  Some of them, the more conceptual ones (Blue Corpse, Graven Image/GTGA, White Box REquiem, I Woke Up) seem to come from perhaps a single session and address simliar themes.  I think the different versions of songs are often simply different takes done at a similar time, see all the versions of "European Jewel" for instance. Is "Take My Will" like this? I don't know.  He may have had that bass around awhile before recording it extensively.  The new album may be a variety of sessions - I'm POSITIVE that "Follow Your Footsteps" and "Somebody in the Snow" are from at least 3 different sessions (and I know Seth's posted on that before). 

Anyway, my thought is that he often alternates between releasing sessions.  When he's got a lot of new material he gets it out fairly quickly - that's why I think "Later On" was recorded AFTER the band records and I have good reason to believe that "Chair Beside a Window" may begin a lot of the first real sessions he had. For one, Nancy and Pat are there and they disappear after "Modern Dances." These are records done by the band Jandek references to Chusid in the early 80's BEFORE the release of the 2nd and 3rd albums.  I think the early band albums (I swear I'd call them the Units albums except they'd confuse people with "House")ended up waiting a while for distribution because he had new stuff he wanted to get out first.  I also think the first album is attributed to the Units because at the time he wanted to start putting band albums out next and wanted the same name to all the anonymous records.

These are all just theories (but what isn't with the man) but ones I've thought about for some time. Please comment!

Danen