MAN OF THE YEAR r. stevie moore

r.stevie moore librarian <<

MAN OF THE YEAR // NJ158, 165, 168 1986 3xC90 / 4CD Boxset (2 double discs)
132 lowest-fi tracks taped at home 429 Valley Road, Montclair NJ on a Panasonic cassette recorder, between Dec 1985 and Apr 1986.
Remastered complete Nov 2003 (3 C90s condensed to 4 CDs)

Volume One (74:03)

01. Blues for Cathy Taylor (3:42)
02. Take Off My Clothes (2:27)
03. Bachelorhood (4:26)
04. So Long, Everybody (2:15)
05. I Want Your Mother (2:29)
06. Don't Think Twice (4:12)
07. Birthday Fight (2:29)
08. I-8 (1:48)
09. Batterys and Thanks (2:42)
10. What Shall I Do? (4:03)
11. Weather or Not (2:48)
12. The Strange (3:47)
13. Challenger 10 (2:30)
14. Kibbles 'n Bits (2:57)
15. E.T. (2:01)
16. Scraps (1:21)
17. A Little Gust O'Wind (3:54)
18. Goodbye Piano (3:22)
19. I-8 (2:56)
20. rsm Blues (:47)
21. Roger, Go With Throttle Up (:50)
22. Slo-Mo (:37)
23. That Means A Lot (2:31)
24. Consider It (1:55)
25. You Gotta Bend (1:53)
26. Adjacent Species (1:34)
27. I Need Servants (2:50)
28. Penalties Of Perjury (:48)
29. Sox (1:05)
30. Messiah [fragment] (:24)
31. Straight A's (:43)
32. Flowersleep into the Night (:58)
33. Staggering (1:02)

AMG REVIEW: The first volume of a series of four CDs (originally released in 1986 as three 90-minute cassettes), Man of the Year Volume 1 is R. Stevie Moore at his most elemental. This is the sort of thing that those uninitiated to the wonders of Moore's musical universe might think of when they hear a phrase like "DIY home recording," not realizing the musical complexity of most of Moore's other records: all 33 of these songs are simply Stevie and his acoustic guitar sitting in front of a cheap home four-track cassette recorder, singing one song after another. The songs are a widely varied lot, from the relatively traditional "Blues For Cathy Taylor" — which in its full-band version on 1987's Teenage Spectacular would become one of Moore's most popular songs — to "E.T.," a half-mumbled early demo of the same tune, to the staticky drone "I Want Your Mother", to a rather fascinating spoken-word piece called "Challenger 10" concerning media overload following that space tragedy, recorded only hours after it occurred.
–Stewart Mason, All Music Guide

MAN OF THE YEAR 2

Volume Two (73:27)

01. Baby's Callin' Me Home (2:44)
02. If You See Kay (2:03)
03. Pledge Your Money (:41)
04. Reefer (4:01)
05. Every Time (:29)
06. No Know (1:43)
07. Grammy Crackers (2:08)
08. Mom and Dad (3:01)
09. There's Nothin' As Sweet As My Baby (2:06)
10. Nose Blows (:28)
11. Back In Time (3:45)
12. BBQ (1:58)
13. For Pete's Sake (2:07)
14. I Smell A Barbecue (2:16)
15. Hours Of Delight (2:08)
16. Get The Job Done (1:56)
17. Oversm (5:03)
18. Piggly Wiggly (1:10)
19. Hey Jude (1:35)
20. I Believe My Time Ain't Long (1:16)
21. Stop Now? (3:29)
22. On The Brag (1:40)
23. Who Killed Davey Moore? (7:03)
24. Peanut Butter and Jelly (1:24)
25. Christa Maas (1:00)
26. I Fantasize About You (3:13)
27. Small Change (1:38)
28. Make It Big (3:16)
29. It Hurts To Walk (1:40)
30. If I Had A Hammer (2:21)
31. Hot Snot (:14)
32. S C N X 13Ľ (1:29)
33. Unchained Melody (2:24)

AMG REVIEW: The second volume in a series of four CDs (originally released in 1986 as a set of three 90-minute cassettes, Man of the Year Volume 2 has an oddly hootenanny-like feel to it. Although all four of these albums were recorded simply with R. Stevie Moore sitting in front of a cheap four-track with a single microphone and acoustic guitar, Man of the Year Volume 2 incorporates a few interesting '60s vintage covers, like a mournful, ghostly version of the Mothers of Invention's "Mom and Dad" and an oddly peppy, cheerful-sounding take on Bob Dylan's anti-boxing protest song "Who Killed Davey Moore?" (Elsewhere, on "Grammy Crackers," Moore rants about the current state of pop music, perhaps explaining the retro vibe.) Elsewhere, Moore revisits a couple of his older songs, notably 1978's great "If You See Kay" and a somewhat ragged version of "Back In Time," and polishes a couple of songs he would perfect on 1987's Teenage Spectacular, "Hours Of Delight" and "No Know."
–Stewart Mason, All Music Guide

3
MAN OF THE YEAR 3

Volume Three (62:30)

01. It Is What It Is (1:39)
02. Not 1971 (1:19)
03. The Cough Song (1:30)
04. Hair Club (:33)
05. Falling In Love With A Black Girl (1:46)
06. The Frog (1:18)
07. Better Kill It (2:22)
08. The Song Remains The Same (3:04)
09. I Love You Too Much To Bother You (3:23)
10. I Will Want To Die (1:10)
11. Oh Linda (2:08)
12. Handful Of Liquid (:50)
13. Overture (3:02)
14. Make A Wish (1:10)
15. Square Good For (1:46)
16. The Brink Of Despair (:37)
17. Just To Make Him Mad (1:35)
18. Previously Unissued (:52)
19. Smokin' (:34)
20. High Setting (1:43)
21. Sidewalk Surfin' Is Back (:49)
22. TV Inserts (2:40)
23. We Are The Hands (2:35)
24. Merry Melodies (2:03)
25. Muss I Denn (:20)
26. Sad Ballad For Brian (1:57)
27. 30 Days (:14)
28. Right Before Bed (2:37)
29. Mayonnaise Sandwich (4:57)
30. Busy Doin' Nothin' (3:49)
31. Always Good to See You (2:47)
32. Poor Jenny (1:03)
33. Mookie D.P./Modern (4:19)

AMG REVIEW: The third volume in a series of four albums (originally released in 1986 as a set of three 90-minute cassettes), Man of the Year Volume 3 is the most low-key and contemplative of the set. Not an ambient album by any stretch, it's still a fairly quiet and unassuming record. It's not until the end of track five, "Falling In Love With A Black Girl," that the first vocals show up, and even then they're just wordless falsettos. Like the rest of the series, Man of the Year Vol. 3 consists simply of R. Stevie Moore, an acoustic guitar and a cheap cassette recorder, playing single takes of brief, simple songs completely live and without overdubbing, and mixed with snippets of found sound recorded off of TV and the radio. This audio verite approach, of course, would be enormously popular a decade or so after these recordings were made, and if Man of the Year Volume 3 had come out then, it would have attracted considerably more attention.
–Stewart Mason, All Music Guide

MAN OF THE YEAR 4

Volume Four (64:03)

01. Whatever Happened To...Sex (1:07)
02. Eat NY? (1:36)
03. When I Grow Up [To Be A Man] (2:47)
04. Surfin' Bird (1:45)
05. No One Happens (3:06)
06. Can't Wait Too Long (2:00)
07. Wilder (:14)
08. Born To Run (4:41)
09. 45 RPM Hole (2:34)
10. Hours Of Delight (:48)
11. Reprise (1:07)
12. I Love Her, Who Is She? (3:58)
13. Tell Me What You See (2:14)
14. Abandoned Vehicle (1:41)
15. Jackie Blue (1:24)
16. One Sight Of Me (2:01)
17. I'll Get You (1:45)
18. Thank You Girl (1:00)
19. Dreaming (1:12)
20. They Own The Building (3:30)
21. Everyone But Everyone (1:44)
22. Pastiche Of Horror (3:13)
23. I Forgot You Were Here (2:43)
24. I Know There's An Answer (2:54)
25. A$$ets (:34)
26. A J Weberman (:42)
27. Since You've Gone (3:33)
28. The Pose (1:27)
29. Man Of Next Year? (:40)
30. Lost A Loved One (1:15)
31. Apolo-G (:43)
32. Don't Let It Bring You Down (2:53)
33. Coconut Innocence (1:16)

with bass

AMG REVIEW: The final volume in a four-item series (originally released in 1986 on 3 90-minute cassettes), R. Stevie Moore's Man of the Year Volume 4 has a definite feeling of leftovers about it. Most of the album consists of covers that peter out after a minute or so, mixed with brief instrumentals and oddball experiments. However, while it's certainly the weakest in the series, it also contains some truly outstanding work. The lo-fi acoustic reworking of "Born To Run" completely transforms the song into something new and fascinating. (In an act of lo-fi defiance, rather than consisting of two takes edited together, the song simply stops dead, the cassette recorder is switched off, then switched on again, then Moore launches back into the song.) Elsewhere, the spoken-word "45 RPM Hole," which takes vinyl fetishism to goofy new levels, and a voice-and-guitar version of the garage classic "Surfin' Bird" turns out to be a better idea than one might expect. Man of the Year Volume 4 departs somewhat from the themes of the rest of the series; Moore adds bass and other subtle instrumentation to several tracks, instead of relying on his live vocals and acoustic guitar; and while it does contain a bit of filler, at its best, it's a solid conclusion to the set.
–Stewart Mason, All Music Guide

Download available at Bandcamp
Also available on 2 2CDRs (4 discs) $40
[BudgetLine]

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