5-4-Fri: Great Album Liner Notes

This week it's time for--ta-duh!--five great sets of album liner notes. I am a beeg fan of learning more about how a song got developed or where or whatnot. It gets my goat when you buy an album and you don't even get the lyrics. Props to Michelle Shocked for even listing the key of the songs on her Short, Sharp, Shocked.

So, I asked one of most knowledgable music friends, Steve, to recommend a handful of his fave liner notes:

1. Girlfriend: Deluxe Edition, Matthew Sweet. Athens (GA): Volcano. 2006. Liner notes by Bud Scoppa.
2. Live at Leeds: Deluxe Edition, The Who. Santa Monica (CA): MCA/Geffen. 2001. Liner notes by Mike Shaw, Shel Talmy and Andy Neill.
3. Loaded: Fully Loaded, The Velvet Underground. New York (NY): Atlantic/WEA. 1997. Liner notes by David Fricke.
4. No Direction Home: The Soundtrack, Bob Dylan. New York (NY): Columbia/Legacy. 2005. Liner notes by Andrew Loog Oldham and Al Kooper.
5. First Rays of the New Rising Sun, Jimi Hendrix. Seattle (WA): Experience Hendrix. 1997. Liner notes by John McDermott.

PS - I am not necessarily one of those people who mourns the woeful loss of vinyl and all that space for album art and liner notes. I think CDs have shown some pretty cool visuals and those little insert booklets actually make for even more liner space. Oh, and "Caring is Creepy" by The Shins, made famous by the Garden State soundtrack, is suh-weeet; now playing on iTunes.