[Jandek] Re: Jandek the Concept

[Joe Faust]

> From: Michael Mellor <miquelotjr at yahoo.co.uk>
> * Nancy, Mike, and John seem to have done a good job
> of respecting Sterling's wishes over the years. As
> we know from the telephone interview, SRS "doesn't
> think it would be right" to disclose information
> about them. Without accusing SRS of cynicism, I
> reckon that one (post hoc) reason for keeping us all
> in the dark is that it sells records, and I wouldn't
> be surprised if Nancy, Mike & John know this too.
> Now, I believe the Corwood back catalogue is a
> phenomenal body of work (comparable, sure, to The
> Fall or the Residents), but having known more than a
> few struggling artists I have no problem with SRS
> keeping the mystique going as a major selling point
> (...until we get hooked and decide we have to have
> the lot!!)

I've long had the theory that the rep from Corwood is
reluctant to discuss anything about Nancy, et al,
because they don't know the material has been
released.  Got to admit a lot of it sounds like a
bunch of young folk having a goof in someone's garage
or basement.  If you'd done such messing around years
ago, would you want it out?  How would you feel about
it if someone was releasing it to the public?  I
suspect that the representative has lost touch with
these folks over the years, but like this whole
theory, that's my gut feeling on the subject.


> * here's a tangent, tho, or a new line of
> discussion: if SRS ever intended (even partly) that
> disarticulating his music from the whole rigmarole
> of promotion / interviewing would get his music
> listened to / scrutinized / meditated upon more than
> usual... has it worked, or backfired on him?
> remember, SRS has been rumoured to have had literary
> aspirations. as an avant-garde poetics doctoral
> candidate, i totally endorse the idea of
> "Jandek-as-great-poetry" - any takers? "The Cell"
> certainly reads pretty impressively to me...

Yeah, there's his admission somewhere that he wrote
seven novels, only to have burned them after they were
rejected.  Too bad he didn't hang in there with the
submissions... Dr. Seuss sold his first book after 37
rejections.  Just think what those novels could've
been like.  But then, we might not have had the music.
 It's got to come out one way or another.

b.---Most interesting of all, a guitar store is the only place in the known universe where a guy will allow himself to shop like a woman, spending half an hour, an hour, two hours trying a dozen guitars with only the faintest possibility of actually buying something, playing a few licks, swapping a few lies, while in the background someone plays the opening bars of "Stairway to Heaven."Tim Brookes,Guitar: An American Life---

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