Now everybody—

May 8, 2020 5:25 AM

The great novelist Thomas Pynchon (born 1937) is also a sometimes thoughtful, sometimes irreverent lyricst. Sprinkled throughout all of his novels are many tunes that surprise the reader. The NYC band Visit recorded fourteen of them and Philadelphia-based composer Peter Price put together some interstitial material. Released on 8 May 2020—the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II but also Pynchon’s 83rd birthday—the album ... adds to the growing list of music inspired by the American writer. “Now everybody—” Visit Interprets Songs by Thomas Pynchon

One difficulty of the present album is balancing textual and historical accuracy with how the lyrics speak to us. Do we really need a Farfisa Mini Compact Organ because Pynchon specifies one? Should we have a bass clarinet in an eighteenth-century setting when Adolphe Sax invented the instrument in the nineteenth? While it is evident that “Middletown New York” should be a country tune—and we really wanted that pedal steel break Pynchon indicated—, it’s not inconceivable that the Dylan-inflected “They’ve Been Sleeping on Your Shoulder” will come as a surprise to many a listener. I’m sure that some of the choices we made will disappoint some readers of Pynchon, and perhaps the Author Himself. However, if it’s a good tune, and if that’s how the text spoke to us, how wrong can it be?

Tracks
Line-up
Liner notes

Related: Celebrations for a Grey Day by Richard & Mimi Farina
Video for the song "V."
Thomas Pynchon’s Liner Notes for Lotion’s “Nobody’s Cool”
The Pynchon Playlist: A Catalog and Its Analysis
Pynchon & Music previously on MetaFilter

posted by chavenet (10 comments total)

Hands up those who think the kazoo player listed on the line-up sheet as "a friend" is Thomas Pynchon hisownself.
posted by dannyboybell at 5:48 AM on May 8, 2020 [7 favorites]

I'm getting ready for work right now but this post is amazing and I look forward to digging into it in-depth this evening when I get back home. Thanks for posting!
posted by hippybear at 6:13 AM on May 8, 2020 [1 favorite]

Little late - but paging the band Lotion to reunite to perform Pynchon lyrics as a payback for his liner notes!
posted by mctsonic at 7:41 AM on May 8, 2020 [2 favorites]

the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II

(in Europe)
posted by tobascodagama at 8:49 AM on May 8, 2020 [2 favorites]

Hands up those who think the kazoo player listed on the line-up sheet as "a friend" is Thomas Pynchon hisownself.
posted by dannyboybell

Could be, but it's also a callback to Gravity's Rainbow — it's Slothrop.

On first listen, somebody's really into Blond on Blond.
posted by tspae at 8:50 AM on May 8, 2020 [3 favorites]

I am going to be refreshing this post all day until Reclusive Novelist Thomas Pynchon shows up.
posted by Silvery Fish at 9:08 AM on May 8, 2020 [18 favorites]

A friend of mine was in a power pop group called the Librarians, which recorded Too Fat To Frug from The Crying of Lot 49.
posted by jonp72 at 2:57 PM on May 8, 2020 [1 favorite]

Pffft.. You're not really a fan unless you've got the Paranoids' first album on vinyl.
posted by Nerd of the North at 3:17 PM on May 8, 2020 [4 favorites]

Came here for The Paranoids. They showed eventually.
posted by ovvl at 2:57 PM on May 10, 2020

there really ought to be some fretless bass on this
posted by thelonius at 6:09 PM on May 10, 2020