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33⅓ Main Series #69
69 Love Songs
A fully illustrated oral history of the Magnetic Fields' 1999 triple album, 69 Love Songs - an album that was afforded "classic" status by many almost as soon as it was released. LD Beghtol's book is chatty, incestuous, funny, dark, digressive, sexy, maddening, and delightful in equal measures. It documents a vital and influential scene from the inside, involving ukuleles and tears, citations and footnotes, analogue drum machines, and floods of cognac. Oh, and a crossword puzzle too.
The centre of the book is the secret history of these tuneful, acerbic, and sometimes heartbreaking songs of old love, new love, lost love, punk rock love, gay love, straight love, experimental music love, true love, blue love, and the utter lack of love that fill the album - as told by participants, fans, imitators, naysayers, and others.
Also included are a lexicon of words culled from the album's lyrics, recording details, performance notes from the full album shows in New York, Boston and London, plus rare and unpublished images, personal memorabilia, and much much more.
The centre of the book is the secret history of these tuneful, acerbic, and sometimes heartbreaking songs of old love, new love, lost love, punk rock love, gay love, straight love, experimental music love, true love, blue love, and the utter lack of love that fill the album - as told by participants, fans, imitators, naysayers, and others.
Also included are a lexicon of words culled from the album's lyrics, recording details, performance notes from the full album shows in New York, Boston and London, plus rare and unpublished images, personal memorabilia, and much much more.
157 pages, Paperback
First published November 3, 2006
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October 19, 2012
The book of love is long and boring
No one can lift the damn thing
It's full of charts and facts and figures
And instructions for dancing
But I, I love it when you read to me
And you, you can read me anything - The Magnetic Fields 'The Book of Love'
The Magnetic Fields are one of my favorite bands in the whole world. I haven't heard every band in the whole world. I'll never hear every band in the whole world. I've wished since I was pretty darned young that my favorites would find ME. I had a whole set up of heaven imagined that wasn't more detailed than me and every song that I would ever love being played in my head whenever I wanted. That would be something. If the right song would find me at the right time when I needed it more than anything... Their 1999 album 69 Love Songs is unbelievable melodies, devastating lyrics, pathos, humor, tongue in cheek wishes... Nothing that means anything if you don't listen and hear the same things. All about love. Every line from "Love is like a bottle of gin" ("But a bottle of gin is not like love") says it all ("Grossly advertised"). Or it doesn't and there's another song that says it all. From "Grand Canyon": "If I were the Grand Canyon I'd echo every word you'd say. But I'm just me, I'm only me, and you used to love me that way. So you know how to love me that way". A plea like that one... You know, what you would just KNOW was probably recorded in 1962 and forgotten about in the back of some record shop behind twenty copies of Die Flippers. The song for you. Every genre in one three disc set. I can picture Stephin Merritt with all of these songs that did know exactly where to find him. Their songs, his songs. Just when you need it.
LD Beghtol's contribution to the 33 1/3 series depressed me. It probably isn't a bit rational to be depressed by a book about a favorite album. Ld Beghtol sings one of my favorite songs on the album "All My Little Words". This song kills me. Somehow reading him write about working on the album does not make me see the part where you need something. You can't ask for it because there's no words. It'd mean more if you didn't need to ask. There was no connecting between that voice and a man who professed to love an album that he was involved in. I don't know how to explain it unless you have ever read a review of something you really loved and the reviewer just didn't get it. This past summer a kid wrote a post on tumblr that I loved. It was railing against the pitchfork.com review of Aesop Rock's latest album "Skelethon". I personally took exception with the reviewer advising listeners to attempt to understand the lyrics at their own peril. The kid wanted to know why people couldn't write reviews as if we were all humans and in it together. I love that kid. He wasn't around when this book was written. I had the feeling reading this, like when Beghtol insists that there is no other peer (other than Stephen Sondheim) for Merritt, that there's no reason to pretend it's not like love. You need it. It will only feel like it'll kill you when you don't have it. You dream about getting it. It's all true and not true. It doesn't mean it'll never happen again if it doesn't work out. I love this album, I can't tell you how many times I've played it, and I don't want to pretend about this stuff. Drop the rock journalist shit! You sang "All My Little Words", Beghtol. I know you have it in you. Please, drop the we're in a college class to pretend that all of this stuff means anything other than we just want that RIGHT song to come on. I wasn't impressed with the genre names for all of the songs ("Afropop Worldwide Pastiche" or "Warholian Weepy"). John Lennon wrote "I Am the Walrus" because of this type of thing. I'm going to sound like an idiot now because memorizing trivia about The Beatles has long been one of my personal "staying sane" techniques. It doesn't beat listening to the song to know why he wrote it. Besides that, this book just isn't that good for this stuff. Is it because it's about love that all of the people (mostly connected to the album. My favorite wasn't, actually. Novelist Peter Straub is there because of his daughter) yammered about stories about their love lives? I didn't care about playing songs from the album at Chris Ewen's (from The 6ths) wedding. It is sort of amusing that one guy's boyfriend didn't believe "Come Back from San Francisco" was about him (this isn't in the book but it has long been insisted that the song is really about Daniel Handler aka Lemony Snicket. Handler plays accordion on the record). But not really.
I was depressed because it made me think about the 1990s. I don't have nostalgia for the '90s. This probably means that I shouldn't visit Portland any time soon. See, I am a hypocrite. I'm throwing in pop culture references (tv show Portlandia) there and avoiding why the album was good. I'm not saying that I could have done any better. Maybe that's why I'm bummed out. Some idealistic thing. Okay, writing about something that DID work out isn't idealistic. It still came out like ass-patting in some '90s smug way. That's how I viewed the '90s. Maybe it wasn't like that for other people. I probably sound insane. They probably did have all of these grand gestures to make when making 69 Love Songs. I don't care about the gesture. Did it work?
I do have '90s nostalgia for only one thing and it was this thing that introduced me to the music of The Magnetic Fields and Stephin Merritt in the first place. The kids tv show The Adventures of Pete & Pete. I love that show. It wouldn't surprise me if many of us fans got into them when "Why I Cry" played when the angel of death buries Little Pete's beloved lizard Gary in her pet cemetery. I wish this book was like that tv show! It would be like the music of The Magnetic Fields. Whimsical, heart breaking and the best kind of happy because it isn't the kind that pretends that sad doesn't exist. Not a flip side of each other, but together. I talk a lot about the episode when Little Pete starts a band because he HAS to learn how to play this favorite song he heard by chance played in a neighborhood garage. He's going to forget it forever otherwise. His band gets requests to play everyone else's favorite songs. This was Big Pete's idea. It's no good, though, because Little Pete still doesn't have HIS song. The episode is called "A Hard Day's Pete". You should watch it. It's the most perfect sweet I've ever seen in my life. I I think that's what it is like to have a favorite song that is just your own. It's how Little Pete feels when he happens on that song being played in that garage. He tries to capture it again in his head and the fear of not being able to remember how it goes is so bittersweet. It could almost ruin it, you know? I felt that way listening to The Magnetic Fields (Little Pete's song is by Polaris, though. They do the theme song "Hey Sandy". That song makes me so happy, even now) in the '90s on The Adventures of Pete & Pete. "Who is that band?!!!!"
(I'm a jerk now because I'm going to babble off trivia. The Gothic Archies tunes were credited as Stephin Merritt on the show because they were instrumentals and Handler/Snicket hadn't started writing his book series yet. The Gothic Archies were formed to do the music for The Series of Unfortunate Events audio books. He also did a song for the audio book for Neil Gaiman's Coraline. I don't need to point out that Merritt is one clever bastard. Just look at that name "The Gothic Archies".)
When Stephin Merritt sings "The book of love is long and boring and written very long ago. It's full of flowers and heart-shaped boxes and things we're all too young to know..." Damn. That line "Things we're all too young to know" makes me feel less lonely. If there was a book of love that's all I'd want it to say. It's the almost know and you don't know and you're going to forget it and you HOPE that it is going to work out anyway. He sounds almost cynical. So hopeful. Reading about it isn't the same as listening to it and feeling it. I read books about music and hope to feel like it's a shared feeling, though. This book depressed me.
I saw The Magnetic Fields live only one time, in October 2008. I'm going to digress a moment from what I wanted to say and I hope I don't forget what it was that I had wanted to say before I say it. Stephin Merritt is hard of hearing. He has said many times that it would be his last time touring. He puts his hands over his ears when the audience applauded. I found it sad that the audience didn't notice he was in pain. He's also a very shy man and he relied on his friend since high school and band mate Claudia Gonson to communicate with the audience. I found their connection in this way to be moving. I wish that I had a Claudia Gonson or a Stephin Merritt. Having seen this of them I liked that their parts of the book seemed to be the most true to the spirit of the band. Not the "We're going to do this concept album of 69 love songs all about love! In all music genres!" LD Beghtol was too hyper! He was! I feel weird liking them better for not tooting their own horns. They could toot the whole marching band and it'd sound good. It's not them to do that. They don't write songs from that place.
I've always been madly, passionately in love with the song, and guarded it fiercely, hoping it would be a major alt country hit. It was a moment of real over-self-confidence that I requested to sing it. I think Shirley really would have aced it.
No, Claudia! Sweet-Lovin' Man is one of my favorites. My twin sister doesn't like this song at all. I remember reading on the internet years and years ago that the last line "But keep your paws off mine" ruined the song. Merritt is known for hating his own voice.
I liked a lot how Peter Straub describes it in this book:
Stephin's voice, which I've heard him denigrate, is a wonderful, expressive instrument, though tonally it may not offer much variation. But it is emotionally expressive. It conveys a kind of all-stops-out romanticism that is framed almost ironically, but it is not felt ironically. When I heard him sing this at Lincoln center his voice seem to shatter, as though he were literally breaking something. It seemed to go lower than any human voice I've ever heard- down into the depths where sound couldn't sustain itself.
That was probably my favorite part of the book. I like when Shirley says that she never heard the "Tusk" in "No One Will Ever Love You". Me either! I love that song. I don't love Fleetwood Mac. Forget what they were trying to do! If they were even trying to do that. So what if there's a bass line from Pet Shop Boys on "Long-forgotten Fairy Tale" or T-rex style hand claps elsewhere. Didn't they all want to do something?
The dictionary part was pitiful. "Bear" and "beer"? I feel let down that that was what he had to say when putting together a book about this album. I am aware that I have high standards when it comes to music books these days. Maybe it isn't enough for me anymore to read the happy chit chat. I want the part that is good enough to be a story in one of the songs.
Beghtol compiled then and now best and worst lists.
I'm going to include my own top ten list just because.
My top ten favorite songs from 69 Love Songs (my third favorite of their albums):
Papa was a Rodeo
Grand Canyon
All My Little Words
The Luckiest Guy on the Lower East Side
The Book of Love
You're My Only Home
Asleep and Dreaming
Queen of the Savages
The Death of Ferdinand De Saussure
When My Boy Walks Down the Street
(My favorite live was "Yeah! Oh, Yeah!")
Stephin Merritt (the svengali behind The Magnetic Fields. You couldn't call him a sven jolly. He's adorable and glum) used to write music reviews, actually. He was an editor of some kind for Spin magazine. I never looked at anything he did for them. I do remember his articles for Time Out New York. He once made a best-of list for the 20th century that was pretty great. I know he listens to these songs and feels that way about them the way that I do when he sings "Well you may not be beautiful but it's not for me to judge. I don't know if you're beautiful because I love you too much." I kind of wish that Ld Beghtol had just quoted that line because that's how I feel. I love The Magnetic Fields.
No one can lift the damn thing
It's full of charts and facts and figures
And instructions for dancing
But I, I love it when you read to me
And you, you can read me anything - The Magnetic Fields 'The Book of Love'
The Magnetic Fields are one of my favorite bands in the whole world. I haven't heard every band in the whole world. I'll never hear every band in the whole world. I've wished since I was pretty darned young that my favorites would find ME. I had a whole set up of heaven imagined that wasn't more detailed than me and every song that I would ever love being played in my head whenever I wanted. That would be something. If the right song would find me at the right time when I needed it more than anything... Their 1999 album 69 Love Songs is unbelievable melodies, devastating lyrics, pathos, humor, tongue in cheek wishes... Nothing that means anything if you don't listen and hear the same things. All about love. Every line from "Love is like a bottle of gin" ("But a bottle of gin is not like love") says it all ("Grossly advertised"). Or it doesn't and there's another song that says it all. From "Grand Canyon": "If I were the Grand Canyon I'd echo every word you'd say. But I'm just me, I'm only me, and you used to love me that way. So you know how to love me that way". A plea like that one... You know, what you would just KNOW was probably recorded in 1962 and forgotten about in the back of some record shop behind twenty copies of Die Flippers. The song for you. Every genre in one three disc set. I can picture Stephin Merritt with all of these songs that did know exactly where to find him. Their songs, his songs. Just when you need it.
LD Beghtol's contribution to the 33 1/3 series depressed me. It probably isn't a bit rational to be depressed by a book about a favorite album. Ld Beghtol sings one of my favorite songs on the album "All My Little Words". This song kills me. Somehow reading him write about working on the album does not make me see the part where you need something. You can't ask for it because there's no words. It'd mean more if you didn't need to ask. There was no connecting between that voice and a man who professed to love an album that he was involved in. I don't know how to explain it unless you have ever read a review of something you really loved and the reviewer just didn't get it. This past summer a kid wrote a post on tumblr that I loved. It was railing against the pitchfork.com review of Aesop Rock's latest album "Skelethon". I personally took exception with the reviewer advising listeners to attempt to understand the lyrics at their own peril. The kid wanted to know why people couldn't write reviews as if we were all humans and in it together. I love that kid. He wasn't around when this book was written. I had the feeling reading this, like when Beghtol insists that there is no other peer (other than Stephen Sondheim) for Merritt, that there's no reason to pretend it's not like love. You need it. It will only feel like it'll kill you when you don't have it. You dream about getting it. It's all true and not true. It doesn't mean it'll never happen again if it doesn't work out. I love this album, I can't tell you how many times I've played it, and I don't want to pretend about this stuff. Drop the rock journalist shit! You sang "All My Little Words", Beghtol. I know you have it in you. Please, drop the we're in a college class to pretend that all of this stuff means anything other than we just want that RIGHT song to come on. I wasn't impressed with the genre names for all of the songs ("Afropop Worldwide Pastiche" or "Warholian Weepy"). John Lennon wrote "I Am the Walrus" because of this type of thing. I'm going to sound like an idiot now because memorizing trivia about The Beatles has long been one of my personal "staying sane" techniques. It doesn't beat listening to the song to know why he wrote it. Besides that, this book just isn't that good for this stuff. Is it because it's about love that all of the people (mostly connected to the album. My favorite wasn't, actually. Novelist Peter Straub is there because of his daughter) yammered about stories about their love lives? I didn't care about playing songs from the album at Chris Ewen's (from The 6ths) wedding. It is sort of amusing that one guy's boyfriend didn't believe "Come Back from San Francisco" was about him (this isn't in the book but it has long been insisted that the song is really about Daniel Handler aka Lemony Snicket. Handler plays accordion on the record). But not really.
I was depressed because it made me think about the 1990s. I don't have nostalgia for the '90s. This probably means that I shouldn't visit Portland any time soon. See, I am a hypocrite. I'm throwing in pop culture references (tv show Portlandia) there and avoiding why the album was good. I'm not saying that I could have done any better. Maybe that's why I'm bummed out. Some idealistic thing. Okay, writing about something that DID work out isn't idealistic. It still came out like ass-patting in some '90s smug way. That's how I viewed the '90s. Maybe it wasn't like that for other people. I probably sound insane. They probably did have all of these grand gestures to make when making 69 Love Songs. I don't care about the gesture. Did it work?
I do have '90s nostalgia for only one thing and it was this thing that introduced me to the music of The Magnetic Fields and Stephin Merritt in the first place. The kids tv show The Adventures of Pete & Pete. I love that show. It wouldn't surprise me if many of us fans got into them when "Why I Cry" played when the angel of death buries Little Pete's beloved lizard Gary in her pet cemetery. I wish this book was like that tv show! It would be like the music of The Magnetic Fields. Whimsical, heart breaking and the best kind of happy because it isn't the kind that pretends that sad doesn't exist. Not a flip side of each other, but together. I talk a lot about the episode when Little Pete starts a band because he HAS to learn how to play this favorite song he heard by chance played in a neighborhood garage. He's going to forget it forever otherwise. His band gets requests to play everyone else's favorite songs. This was Big Pete's idea. It's no good, though, because Little Pete still doesn't have HIS song. The episode is called "A Hard Day's Pete". You should watch it. It's the most perfect sweet I've ever seen in my life. I I think that's what it is like to have a favorite song that is just your own. It's how Little Pete feels when he happens on that song being played in that garage. He tries to capture it again in his head and the fear of not being able to remember how it goes is so bittersweet. It could almost ruin it, you know? I felt that way listening to The Magnetic Fields (Little Pete's song is by Polaris, though. They do the theme song "Hey Sandy". That song makes me so happy, even now) in the '90s on The Adventures of Pete & Pete. "Who is that band?!!!!"
(I'm a jerk now because I'm going to babble off trivia. The Gothic Archies tunes were credited as Stephin Merritt on the show because they were instrumentals and Handler/Snicket hadn't started writing his book series yet. The Gothic Archies were formed to do the music for The Series of Unfortunate Events audio books. He also did a song for the audio book for Neil Gaiman's Coraline. I don't need to point out that Merritt is one clever bastard. Just look at that name "The Gothic Archies".)
When Stephin Merritt sings "The book of love is long and boring and written very long ago. It's full of flowers and heart-shaped boxes and things we're all too young to know..." Damn. That line "Things we're all too young to know" makes me feel less lonely. If there was a book of love that's all I'd want it to say. It's the almost know and you don't know and you're going to forget it and you HOPE that it is going to work out anyway. He sounds almost cynical. So hopeful. Reading about it isn't the same as listening to it and feeling it. I read books about music and hope to feel like it's a shared feeling, though. This book depressed me.
I saw The Magnetic Fields live only one time, in October 2008. I'm going to digress a moment from what I wanted to say and I hope I don't forget what it was that I had wanted to say before I say it. Stephin Merritt is hard of hearing. He has said many times that it would be his last time touring. He puts his hands over his ears when the audience applauded. I found it sad that the audience didn't notice he was in pain. He's also a very shy man and he relied on his friend since high school and band mate Claudia Gonson to communicate with the audience. I found their connection in this way to be moving. I wish that I had a Claudia Gonson or a Stephin Merritt. Having seen this of them I liked that their parts of the book seemed to be the most true to the spirit of the band. Not the "We're going to do this concept album of 69 love songs all about love! In all music genres!" LD Beghtol was too hyper! He was! I feel weird liking them better for not tooting their own horns. They could toot the whole marching band and it'd sound good. It's not them to do that. They don't write songs from that place.
I've always been madly, passionately in love with the song, and guarded it fiercely, hoping it would be a major alt country hit. It was a moment of real over-self-confidence that I requested to sing it. I think Shirley really would have aced it.
No, Claudia! Sweet-Lovin' Man is one of my favorites. My twin sister doesn't like this song at all. I remember reading on the internet years and years ago that the last line "But keep your paws off mine" ruined the song. Merritt is known for hating his own voice.
I liked a lot how Peter Straub describes it in this book:
Stephin's voice, which I've heard him denigrate, is a wonderful, expressive instrument, though tonally it may not offer much variation. But it is emotionally expressive. It conveys a kind of all-stops-out romanticism that is framed almost ironically, but it is not felt ironically. When I heard him sing this at Lincoln center his voice seem to shatter, as though he were literally breaking something. It seemed to go lower than any human voice I've ever heard- down into the depths where sound couldn't sustain itself.
That was probably my favorite part of the book. I like when Shirley says that she never heard the "Tusk" in "No One Will Ever Love You". Me either! I love that song. I don't love Fleetwood Mac. Forget what they were trying to do! If they were even trying to do that. So what if there's a bass line from Pet Shop Boys on "Long-forgotten Fairy Tale" or T-rex style hand claps elsewhere. Didn't they all want to do something?
The dictionary part was pitiful. "Bear" and "beer"? I feel let down that that was what he had to say when putting together a book about this album. I am aware that I have high standards when it comes to music books these days. Maybe it isn't enough for me anymore to read the happy chit chat. I want the part that is good enough to be a story in one of the songs.
Beghtol compiled then and now best and worst lists.
I'm going to include my own top ten list just because.
My top ten favorite songs from 69 Love Songs (my third favorite of their albums):
Papa was a Rodeo
Grand Canyon
All My Little Words
The Luckiest Guy on the Lower East Side
The Book of Love
You're My Only Home
Asleep and Dreaming
Queen of the Savages
The Death of Ferdinand De Saussure
When My Boy Walks Down the Street
(My favorite live was "Yeah! Oh, Yeah!")
Stephin Merritt (the svengali behind The Magnetic Fields. You couldn't call him a sven jolly. He's adorable and glum) used to write music reviews, actually. He was an editor of some kind for Spin magazine. I never looked at anything he did for them. I do remember his articles for Time Out New York. He once made a best-of list for the 20th century that was pretty great. I know he listens to these songs and feels that way about them the way that I do when he sings "Well you may not be beautiful but it's not for me to judge. I don't know if you're beautiful because I love you too much." I kind of wish that Ld Beghtol had just quoted that line because that's how I feel. I love The Magnetic Fields.
August 11, 2025
Muy para fans pero es divertidísimo si lo eres y la presencia de LD Beghtol, que canta en varias y diseñó la portada, te hace sentir que estás dentro de esa comunidad creativa en torno a Stephin Merrit y es fabuloso
May 30, 2008
Probably should only be read by people who have listened to this record so much that they know every nuance and lyric by heart. I am one of those people. The intro (encyclopedia of terms used on the record) is funny at first and then becomes really exhausting to read. I love the song-by-song anecdote section of the book, although I hate the author's commentaries most. I feel like everything LD Beghtol has to say about the songs he sings on 69LS is so completely & disgustingly self-congratulatory, like for one of the songs how he talks about how his singing is so moving that he even made Stephin Merritt cry when they were playing a live show once. Oh come on.
Also the author repeatedly mentions his 'graphic design skills' and how he designed the cover for the book and the cover for 69LS, which I found irritating and self-promotional since it's a horrible book cover and a horrible record cover. More actual Magnetic Fields info, less LD Beghtol info please.
Also the author repeatedly mentions his 'graphic design skills' and how he designed the cover for the book and the cover for 69LS, which I found irritating and self-promotional since it's a horrible book cover and a horrible record cover. More actual Magnetic Fields info, less LD Beghtol info please.
June 17, 2025
FR:
Petit guide écrit par LD Beghtol et paru en 2006 portant sur l' album "69 Love Songs", sorti en 1999 par le groupe américain The Magnetic Fields. J'ai acheté cet ouvrage car je suis un fan de cet album hyper ambitieux, mais tellement varié et émouvant.
J'ai assez aimé ce guide. Indéniablement, le fait que l'auteur ait fait parti du projet (LD Beghtol a effectivement chanté à plusieurs reprises dans l'album, et notamment sur la sublime "All My Little Words") apporte une réelle plus value au livre, avec des anecdotes sur chaque chanson de la part des membres permanents, et des informations plus personnelles aussi. On apprend aussi quelles furent les références des membres, et principalement de Stephen Meritt, le frontman, dans la création de l'album.
Cependant, je ne donne que 3/5, car certaines parties n'étaient pas très intéressantes à mon avis, et LD Beghtol aurait pu nous offrir davantage d'aperçus sur l'élaboration de cet incroyable album.
Bref, guide sympathique sur cet album magnifique, ça reste toujours un plaisir de lire un livre parlant de musique, cela permet de lier les deux plus belles inventions de l'homme. 3/5.
EN:
A short guidebook written by LD Beghtol and published in 2006 about the album "69 Love Songs," released in 1999 by the American band The Magnetic Fields. I bought this book because I am a big fan of this crazy, ambitious, diverse, and moving album.
I quite liked this book. Without a doubt, the fact that the author participated in the project (LD Beghtol has indeed sung several times in the album, and notably on the sublime "All My Little Words") brings a real added-value to the book, with anecdotes on every song told by members, and some more personal information. We also learn more on what kind of references the members, and primarily Stephen Meritt, the frontman, have used for the creation of the album.
However, I only give this album a 3/5, because some sections were not really interesting, I believe, and LD Beghtol could have offered us more insights on the elaboration of this amazing album.
To conclude, a pleasant book on a magnificent album, it is always an immense pleasure to read a book dealing with music, it links the two most beautiful human inventions. 3/5.
Petit guide écrit par LD Beghtol et paru en 2006 portant sur l' album "69 Love Songs", sorti en 1999 par le groupe américain The Magnetic Fields. J'ai acheté cet ouvrage car je suis un fan de cet album hyper ambitieux, mais tellement varié et émouvant.
J'ai assez aimé ce guide. Indéniablement, le fait que l'auteur ait fait parti du projet (LD Beghtol a effectivement chanté à plusieurs reprises dans l'album, et notamment sur la sublime "All My Little Words") apporte une réelle plus value au livre, avec des anecdotes sur chaque chanson de la part des membres permanents, et des informations plus personnelles aussi. On apprend aussi quelles furent les références des membres, et principalement de Stephen Meritt, le frontman, dans la création de l'album.
Cependant, je ne donne que 3/5, car certaines parties n'étaient pas très intéressantes à mon avis, et LD Beghtol aurait pu nous offrir davantage d'aperçus sur l'élaboration de cet incroyable album.
Bref, guide sympathique sur cet album magnifique, ça reste toujours un plaisir de lire un livre parlant de musique, cela permet de lier les deux plus belles inventions de l'homme. 3/5.
EN:
A short guidebook written by LD Beghtol and published in 2006 about the album "69 Love Songs," released in 1999 by the American band The Magnetic Fields. I bought this book because I am a big fan of this crazy, ambitious, diverse, and moving album.
I quite liked this book. Without a doubt, the fact that the author participated in the project (LD Beghtol has indeed sung several times in the album, and notably on the sublime "All My Little Words") brings a real added-value to the book, with anecdotes on every song told by members, and some more personal information. We also learn more on what kind of references the members, and primarily Stephen Meritt, the frontman, have used for the creation of the album.
However, I only give this album a 3/5, because some sections were not really interesting, I believe, and LD Beghtol could have offered us more insights on the elaboration of this amazing album.
To conclude, a pleasant book on a magnificent album, it is always an immense pleasure to read a book dealing with music, it links the two most beautiful human inventions. 3/5.
August 15, 2025
Listened to this album a lot last year for boring, obvious reasons, but returning to it more recently when not heartbroken I was glad to find that it still holds up, and actually (surprise surprise) yields a lot more when you aren't coming to it in search of a musical analogue for your own unhappiness. Given the sheer quantity of songs, it's obvious that, however moving it might be, 69 Love Songs has sod all to do with 'authentic' self-expression: Merritt's lyrics are more like exercises in style, as in the time-honoured tradition of sonnet-writing, whereas musically these tracks are essays in what Beghtol here calls 'genre fuck'. Beghtol sang on the album and is clearly in total sympathy with the project, but his attempt to recreate in book form the essential aspects of 69LS - the formal playfulness, the stealthy combination of earnestness and artifice, the way the unabashedly twee elements are tempered by irony or menace - didn't charm me half as much as the album does. The best part is the track-by-track rundown, which is structured like an oral history; the worst is the trivial and overlong A to Z of words that occur in various songs, which I think calls for a more lapidary style than Beghtol manages here (the kind of short-form encyclopedic prose-poetry
perfected by the likes of Ian Nairn and David Thomson, basically, though maybe it's unfair to hold him to that standard). Still worth reading if you like the album and/or the band, but by the end you'll be glad to put the book down and stick a few of your favourite tracks on as a reminder of why anyone would try to write such an odd and excitable book about them in the first place. Which I guess is no bad thing.
perfected by the likes of Ian Nairn and David Thomson, basically, though maybe it's unfair to hold him to that standard). Still worth reading if you like the album and/or the band, but by the end you'll be glad to put the book down and stick a few of your favourite tracks on as a reminder of why anyone would try to write such an odd and excitable book about them in the first place. Which I guess is no bad thing.
February 16, 2024
Big fan i had fun reading this
July 22, 2024
Lovely and just sometimes insufferably twee montage of ideas and references and fond anecdotes: an unusual book in this series in matching the record for strangeness.
July 27, 2023
2.5* - De plaat is (zo gigantisch veel) beter dan het boek.
Sluit je Goodreads, zoek ´69 Love Songs´ van The Magnetic Fields op Spotify en negeer de wereld voor de duur van de plaat. Kom mij nadien maar bedanken!
Sluit je Goodreads, zoek ´69 Love Songs´ van The Magnetic Fields op Spotify en negeer de wereld voor de duur van de plaat. Kom mij nadien maar bedanken!
March 17, 2018
Un libro hecho para los amigos del autor, por ende, no para nosotros. 69LS es un disco universal, y este libro es increíblemente local. Simplemente, no.
December 20, 2022
Piss poor. Most of the book is a pointless dictionary and the rest lacks any real substance at all. Felt like the factoids I was being supplied were forgettable at best. Just a book for losers by losers. Was super disappointed but relished in the fact that I didn’t buy this book and instead stole it. Would never pay 30£ for a book that small anyway.
January 25, 2024
Auteur LD Beghtol, die zelf aan 69LS heeft meegewerkt, schrijft al in zijn voorwoord: als je niet ten minste één exemplaar van 69 Love Songs in huis hebt ga je dit niet lezen. Ik voeg daar aan toe: is dat wel het geval, lees het dan wel, want het is als het toevoegen van water aan whiskey waardoor het smaakpalet nog rijker wordt.
We leren over de toegepaste effecten en waarom The Death of Ferdinand de Saussure geen strict maar een loose loop song is. En dan is er een alfabetische woordenlijst, die veel van de songteksten verheldert. Een voorbeeld: het eerste lemma in de lijst is '7, 8 1/2, 9 and 10' uit Promises of Eternity: 'What if no show / ever happened again / no 7, no 8 1/2, no 9 and no 10'. Ik had zelf nog niet bedacht dat de getallen uit deze reeks natuurlijk allen filmtitels zijn, van resp. Fincher, Fellini, Kopit/Yeston en Edwards. And so on. Ook erg fijn is dat Beghtol zich niet beperkt tot de gebruikte betekenissen van de woorden, maar naar eigen inzicht ook de irrelevante betekenissen opsomt. Een feest om te lezen.
We leren over de toegepaste effecten en waarom The Death of Ferdinand de Saussure geen strict maar een loose loop song is. En dan is er een alfabetische woordenlijst, die veel van de songteksten verheldert. Een voorbeeld: het eerste lemma in de lijst is '7, 8 1/2, 9 and 10' uit Promises of Eternity: 'What if no show / ever happened again / no 7, no 8 1/2, no 9 and no 10'. Ik had zelf nog niet bedacht dat de getallen uit deze reeks natuurlijk allen filmtitels zijn, van resp. Fincher, Fellini, Kopit/Yeston en Edwards. And so on. Ook erg fijn is dat Beghtol zich niet beperkt tot de gebruikte betekenissen van de woorden, maar naar eigen inzicht ook de irrelevante betekenissen opsomt. Een feest om te lezen.
January 1, 2011
Everyone should try listening to The Magnetic Fields, but this book about their 3-CD album is a disappointment.
I first heard them in the mid-90s, they were opening for some growly alternative act that I wasn't really interested in, so I'm not exactly sure why I was even at that show. We left after about three songs from the headliner, but my roommate and I went out and bought a couple of Magnetic Fields CDs the next day. They've been one of my favorite bands ever since.
I was hoping that this little book would be similar to Night of the Living Dead, a quick read that gives a lot of information on the production and social impact of that movie. I got both books together at a museum gift shop, and I'd heard good things about the 33 1/3 series. A book about 69 Love Songs is a great idea, but I'd preferred to have read one by someone who wasn't involved in the album's production.
I loved the idea of the lexicon, which could have been great if it restrained itself to explaining references from the song lyrics. Unfortunately, it was a rambling, tedious mess that jumped around between a bunch of barely related topics, complete with extraneous footnotes. The section of personal reminiscences about each song was better, although there were a lot of eye-roll inducing mentions of the author.
The book reads like it's full of in-jokes, and it brings up drama that it never explains. As someone who doesn't follow much in the way of music news or blogs, I wouldn't have understood one particular thing the author repeatedly references if I hadn't seen the Strange Powers documentary (which I'd recommend to Magnetic Fields/Stephin Merritt fans over this book). I learned few interesting new-to-me tidbits, but I was expecting a lot more.
To include something happy in this review, here are two of my current favorite Magnetic Fields songs:
You Must Be Out of Your Mind from Realism
Strange Powers from 69 Love Songs
I first heard them in the mid-90s, they were opening for some growly alternative act that I wasn't really interested in, so I'm not exactly sure why I was even at that show. We left after about three songs from the headliner, but my roommate and I went out and bought a couple of Magnetic Fields CDs the next day. They've been one of my favorite bands ever since.
I was hoping that this little book would be similar to Night of the Living Dead, a quick read that gives a lot of information on the production and social impact of that movie. I got both books together at a museum gift shop, and I'd heard good things about the 33 1/3 series. A book about 69 Love Songs is a great idea, but I'd preferred to have read one by someone who wasn't involved in the album's production.
I loved the idea of the lexicon, which could have been great if it restrained itself to explaining references from the song lyrics. Unfortunately, it was a rambling, tedious mess that jumped around between a bunch of barely related topics, complete with extraneous footnotes. The section of personal reminiscences about each song was better, although there were a lot of eye-roll inducing mentions of the author.
The book reads like it's full of in-jokes, and it brings up drama that it never explains. As someone who doesn't follow much in the way of music news or blogs, I wouldn't have understood one particular thing the author repeatedly references if I hadn't seen the Strange Powers documentary (which I'd recommend to Magnetic Fields/Stephin Merritt fans over this book). I learned few interesting new-to-me tidbits, but I was expecting a lot more.
To include something happy in this review, here are two of my current favorite Magnetic Fields songs:
You Must Be Out of Your Mind from Realism
Strange Powers from 69 Love Songs
August 16, 2016
Definitely the most playful book in the series. Games, crossword puzzles and tons of trivia about the first ever triple indie pop concept album.
December 17, 2014
Pretencioso, mal hecho y fome. Exactamente lo opuesto de lo que es el disco.
October 26, 2025
I just listened to The Magnetic Fields' "69 Love Songs" for the first time, and the inventiveness, the joy, and the experimental nature of this incredible album completely blew me away. This was an album I thought would be daunting, considering its three discs and almost three hours, and yet, I adored every second I spent with this album. I was so excited after listening to "69 Love Songs" that I couldn't wait to crack into LD Beghtol's book on the album.
If I were rating this book based on uniqueness and ambition, I'd give it 5 stars. But what starts as a clever take on the 33 1/3 format soon becomes an exhausting, often annoying, and trying book from one of the people who actually made this album. I think that closeness to the project is both a gift and a curse. Beghtol can get interviews with the band and dive deeper into these songs, but there's also a passé approach to this album that is quite frequently smug and smarmy, with a familiarity that seems more like a writer bragging than giving important insights that someone might want to read.
For example, the first 80 pages of "69 Love Songs" are a glossary of unique terms used in the album. It's an excuse for Beghtol to go on tangents, show off how "clever" he can be, and all without ever really conveying anything truly important about the album itself. It starts off as a cool idea, but after several pages and you're only up to "F," it becomes a chore.
Faring slightly better is Beghtol's breakdown of the album track-by-track. With 69 songs, this could've easily been the entire book. Some songs get a few pages, others get one quote. The people he pulls quotes from are curious and strange, from authors who seem to just be fans, members of the band, and people that I'm not even sure what they have to do with any of this. Rarely have I read a 33 1/3 where the author has such an ability to talk about this album — hell, Beghtol is the lead singer on several of these songs — but it also sort of wastes the opportunity to dive into that either.
"69 Love Songs' comes so close to being one of the all-time great books in the 33 1/3 series, but it wastes these opportunities in ways that annoy me the more I think about it. I admire the ambition and the few insights from the inside that we do get, but the rest of the book is too much of a challenge to make this successful.
If I were rating this book based on uniqueness and ambition, I'd give it 5 stars. But what starts as a clever take on the 33 1/3 format soon becomes an exhausting, often annoying, and trying book from one of the people who actually made this album. I think that closeness to the project is both a gift and a curse. Beghtol can get interviews with the band and dive deeper into these songs, but there's also a passé approach to this album that is quite frequently smug and smarmy, with a familiarity that seems more like a writer bragging than giving important insights that someone might want to read.
For example, the first 80 pages of "69 Love Songs" are a glossary of unique terms used in the album. It's an excuse for Beghtol to go on tangents, show off how "clever" he can be, and all without ever really conveying anything truly important about the album itself. It starts off as a cool idea, but after several pages and you're only up to "F," it becomes a chore.
Faring slightly better is Beghtol's breakdown of the album track-by-track. With 69 songs, this could've easily been the entire book. Some songs get a few pages, others get one quote. The people he pulls quotes from are curious and strange, from authors who seem to just be fans, members of the band, and people that I'm not even sure what they have to do with any of this. Rarely have I read a 33 1/3 where the author has such an ability to talk about this album — hell, Beghtol is the lead singer on several of these songs — but it also sort of wastes the opportunity to dive into that either.
"69 Love Songs' comes so close to being one of the all-time great books in the 33 1/3 series, but it wastes these opportunities in ways that annoy me the more I think about it. I admire the ambition and the few insights from the inside that we do get, but the rest of the book is too much of a challenge to make this successful.
May 30, 2025
Yuck, what a total disappointment. 69 Love Songs might be my favourite album ever made; I’m even listening to it as a write this. It’s a genre-bending colossus that remains as entertaining as the day I first heard it. I’d been meaning to pick up something in the 33 1/3 series too - deep dives on albums I love, what’s not to like?
Unfortunately, this book is a confused mess. The first half is a bloated slog of loose connections to the album, ranging from pointless to gloating. The author, a notable contributor to the album but not one of the group’s prominent figures, comes across as a pompous brat. It’s a shame, because I enjoy their presence on the record itself!
The second half has a few interesting moments; I liked knowing that Yeah! Oh Yeah! was inspired by The Jesus and Mary Chain’s Sometimes Always, another favourite of mine. I enjoyed hearing the gig stories, and most of the band’s contributions were fun. The best parts come when the author steps aside and lets the rest of the group speak; I wish this happened more often.
The whole thing isn’t worth your time. Skip the first half and skim the rest.
Unfortunately, this book is a confused mess. The first half is a bloated slog of loose connections to the album, ranging from pointless to gloating. The author, a notable contributor to the album but not one of the group’s prominent figures, comes across as a pompous brat. It’s a shame, because I enjoy their presence on the record itself!
The second half has a few interesting moments; I liked knowing that Yeah! Oh Yeah! was inspired by The Jesus and Mary Chain’s Sometimes Always, another favourite of mine. I enjoyed hearing the gig stories, and most of the band’s contributions were fun. The best parts come when the author steps aside and lets the rest of the group speak; I wish this happened more often.
The whole thing isn’t worth your time. Skip the first half and skim the rest.
October 17, 2021
So far one of my favorites in the 33 1/3 series.
L.D. Beghtol was an insider, he sang on several of the 69 songs. I had no idea about the album until it was the next book in the series. In fact, when I started the book (and started listening), I wasn't even sure I understood where the Magnetic Fields and 69 Love Songs would take me. It became clear that only an insider could present "a field-guide" to this expansive work.
As I read and listened, I discovered Begtol passed away in 2020 - sad to hear. I am thankful he put together this intro and field guide.
This volume is the reason I read the series, to discover new music and gain perspectives on the music I already know.
L.D. Beghtol was an insider, he sang on several of the 69 songs. I had no idea about the album until it was the next book in the series. In fact, when I started the book (and started listening), I wasn't even sure I understood where the Magnetic Fields and 69 Love Songs would take me. It became clear that only an insider could present "a field-guide" to this expansive work.
As I read and listened, I discovered Begtol passed away in 2020 - sad to hear. I am thankful he put together this intro and field guide.
This volume is the reason I read the series, to discover new music and gain perspectives on the music I already know.
Read
December 25, 2024this tiny book took me forever to get through. hated the dictionary section. loved reading the anecdotes about each song while listening to the album in order.
my top 10 69LS songs:
1. i think i need a new heart
2. meaningless
3. when my boy walks down the street
4. grand canyon
5. long-forgotten fairytale
6. i'm sorry i love you
7. the one you really love
8. absolutely cuckoo
9. yeah! oh, yeah!
10. punk love
my top 10 69LS songs:
1. i think i need a new heart
2. meaningless
3. when my boy walks down the street
4. grand canyon
5. long-forgotten fairytale
6. i'm sorry i love you
7. the one you really love
8. absolutely cuckoo
9. yeah! oh, yeah!
10. punk love
April 11, 2025
I would have liked this more if the "Lexicon" section wasn't at the beginning. This is LD Beghtol (RIP) waffling about trivia that barely relates to the 69 Love Songs album or The Magnetic Fields at all. I can imagine someone getting quickly tired of this part and bailing on the book.
When it gets to discussing the actual songs and performances, it gets a lot better.
When it gets to discussing the actual songs and performances, it gets a lot better.
June 5, 2023
Ppl seem to have an issue with the formatting, though I think it suits it well… and ppl say it’s a whole lotta same as the booklet from the album, though I don’t have it and can’t budget for it yet… it’s great, though I would like more detail on the actual recording process
September 10, 2024
I've read many entries in this series and I really like the approach taken here. It was refreshing. The author also participated in the recording, so they have pretty impeccable perspective on the songs, recording etc
December 9, 2024
Another 33 1/3 book to resort to a dictionary/encyclopedia entry format. Skipped it after a while. What a lazy way to not finish an outline for a writing project.
The second half with the song by song was okay, I guess. And the question-dodging in the interview section is annoying.
The second half with the song by song was okay, I guess. And the question-dodging in the interview section is annoying.
July 2, 2019
it's no Captain Blood
February 8, 2020
Not a book to read cover to cover, I suspect. To be dipped into and enjoyed along with the album.
May 4, 2020
Only a fool would make a 69-song album taking in every aspect of popular song. A worthy addition to the 33 1/3 series, where it is...number 69!
October 2, 2020
As pithy as the album but with less subtly.
October 12, 2022
Fun little book but ultimately lacks the detail that the super fans will crave. And let’s be real, it’s only the super fans who will read this. Missed opportunity.
September 2, 2024
My favourite of these so far. Does anyone have the crossword solution?
Read
December 5, 2024Love Magnetic Fields
July 15, 2013
This is really a book for 69 Love Songs completists. I fall into this group since I have:
--purchased the box set
--given the box set as a gift (at least once)
--have made the requisite mix-cds & playlists
--gone to multiple TMF concerts, including a 69 Love Songs era show at the Black Cat in DC ("Washington, DC" received the hearty home town reception) and sat in amazing unused press seats for the two-night 69 Love Songs show at Lincoln Center.
Here's the rub: The first half is a dictionary. A humorous concept and in many ways fitting for a review of 69 Love songs, but dictionaries are a writing structure for reference rather than to read straight through. I borrowed this book from the library, so only have 3-weeks to spend with it, so I did skim/read this part. Not a great reading experience.
The rub part 2: The oral history part of the book was much better and it was fun to hear from such a wide range of sources, but then at some point they started referencing the booklet that came with the box set. I pulled this off our shelf and revisited the box set booklet which features a very long interview/conversation with Stephin Merritt by Daniel Handler. Though the oral history has more voices and shares some recording and performance anecdotes, this really covers the same ground as the entertaining conversation of Merritt and Handler.
The bottom line is that I enjoyed revisiting the full album again--too long have I been drawn by the iTunes shuffle--but people would be better served by tracking down the 69 Love Songs box set and spending time with the included booklet. The 69 Love Songs box set already included it's own 33 1/3 style consideration of the making of the album.
--purchased the box set
--given the box set as a gift (at least once)
--have made the requisite mix-cds & playlists
--gone to multiple TMF concerts, including a 69 Love Songs era show at the Black Cat in DC ("Washington, DC" received the hearty home town reception) and sat in amazing unused press seats for the two-night 69 Love Songs show at Lincoln Center.
Here's the rub: The first half is a dictionary. A humorous concept and in many ways fitting for a review of 69 Love songs, but dictionaries are a writing structure for reference rather than to read straight through. I borrowed this book from the library, so only have 3-weeks to spend with it, so I did skim/read this part. Not a great reading experience.
The rub part 2: The oral history part of the book was much better and it was fun to hear from such a wide range of sources, but then at some point they started referencing the booklet that came with the box set. I pulled this off our shelf and revisited the box set booklet which features a very long interview/conversation with Stephin Merritt by Daniel Handler. Though the oral history has more voices and shares some recording and performance anecdotes, this really covers the same ground as the entertaining conversation of Merritt and Handler.
The bottom line is that I enjoyed revisiting the full album again--too long have I been drawn by the iTunes shuffle--but people would be better served by tracking down the 69 Love Songs box set and spending time with the included booklet. The 69 Love Songs box set already included it's own 33 1/3 style consideration of the making of the album.
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