ENTERTAINMENT! Praise for the series: It was only a matter of time before a clever publisher realized that there is an audience for whom Exile on Main Street or Electric Ladyland are as significant and worthy of study as The Catcher in the Rye or Middlemarch … The series … is freewheeling and eclectic, ranging from minute rock-geek analysis to idiosyncratic personal celebration — The New York Times Book Review Ideal for the rock geek who thinks liner notes just aren’t enough — Rolling Stone One of the coolest publishing imprints on the planet — Bookslut These are for the insane collectors out there who appreciate fantastic design, well-executed thinking, and things that make your house look cool. Each volume in this series takes a seminal album and breaks it down in startling minutiae. We love these. We are huge nerds — Vice A brilliant series … each one a work of real love — NME (UK) Passionate, obsessive, and smart — Nylon Religious tracts for the rock ’n’ roll faithful — Boldtype [A] consistently excellent series — Uncut (UK) We … aren’t naive enough to think that we’re your only source for reading about music (but if we had our way … watch out). For those of you who really like to know everything there is to know about an album, you’d do well to check out Continuum’s “33 1/3” series of books — Pitchfork For reviews of individual titles in the series, please visit our blog at 333sound.com and our website at http://www.bloomsbury.com/musicandsoundstudies Follow us on Twitter: @333books Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/33.3books For a complete list of books in this series, see the back of this book Forthcoming in the series: Smile by Luis Sanchez Biophilia by Nicola Dibben Ode to Billie Joe by Tara Murtha The Grey Album by Charles Fairchild Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables by Mike Foley Freedom of Choice by Evie Nagy Live Through This by Anwyn Crawford Donuts by Jordan Ferguson My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy by Kirk Walker Graves Dangerous by Susan Fast Definitely Maybe by Alex Niven Blank Generation by Pete Astor Sigur Ros: ( ) by Ethan Hayden and many more … Entertainment! Kevin J. H. Dettmar Track Listing Side One 1. “Ether”—3:52 2. “Natural’s Not in It”—3:09 3. “Not Great Men”—3:08 4. “Damaged Goods”—3:29 5. “Return the Gift”—3:08 6. “Guns Before Butter”—3:49 Side Two 1. “I Found That Essence Rare”—3:09 2. “Glass”—2:32 3. “Contract”—2:42 4. “At Home He’s a Tourist”—3:33 5. “5.45”—3:48 6. “Anthrax”—4:23 To my gang of four: Emily, Audrey, Esther & Colin Contents Acknowledgments x Introduction 1 Keyword #1: Keywords 23 Keyword #2: Ideology 29 “Ether”/“Guns Before Butter” 34 Keyword #3: Nature 51 “Natural’s Not in It”/“Contract” 55 Keyword #4: Theory 69 “Not Great Men”/“Glass” 74 Keyword #5: Alienation 87 “At Home He’s a Tourist”/“5.45” 90 Keyword #6: Consumer 100 “Return the Gift”/“I Found That Essence Rare” 104 Keyword #7: Sex 117 “Damaged Goods”/“Anthrax” 121 Conclusion: An Apology; an Epiphany 136 • ix • Acknowledgments I’m grateful for the cooperation of the original four band members—Andy Gill, Jon King, Dave Allen, and Hugo Burnham—who each met with me to discuss Entertainment! and answer my questions. I hope that this small book can in some measure repay the great pleasure their music has given me. Thanks are due, as well, to two of my colleagues in the Department of English at Pomona College, Jonathan Lethem and Joe Jeon, who read an early version of the proposal for this book, and helped to make it much stronger. Finally, my thanks to the good people at Bloomsbury—David Barker, who picked me, and Ally Jane Grossan, who helped me across the finish line. • x •